Skybone

Just the one at the moment, though I should really trim the guitars down (3 electric, 2 acoustic)... Nah! Do fancy another bass, but haven't seen anything recently that cries out "buy me!!!".

Saw them on the "Hold Your Fire" tour, and although it was a great gig, the songs off HYF/Power Windows/Grace Under Pressure were, let's say, not the highlights of the night. Anyways, been listening to Vapour Trails in the car a lot recently, and the bass lines in Peacable Kingdom & Earthshine really stand out for me. The bass line for the verse of How It Is is great, but the chorus is a wee bit too safe, and instantly forgettable. Kind of like watching "Later..." and seeing one of the "big name", crtiically acclaimed singer/songwriters, who's plugging their brand new, critically acclaimed record, where the music is safely within chordal progressions and is simply there to back up the "heart-felt/tortured soul" lyrics. Meh. Been revisting a lot of my old CD's recently, and updating the missing parts of back catalogue albums from various bands, including Rush. Got to say that I never really rated Moving Pictures before, but listening to it again really puts it up there as one of their great albums. Counterparts for me, although not a bad album, is playing it safe. Test for Echo is a bit better. But for me, Vapour Trails and Snakes & Arrows are both superb albums by a great band. Got hold of the Beyond the Lighted Stage DVD recently too, highly recommended veiwing if you're in anyway interested in Rush.

Rickenbacker: Macca, Geddy, Lemmy, Cliff Burton, Scott Reeder & countless others can't be wrong. Jazz Bass: slim neck & great tone. Precision Bass: tree trunk neck & great tone. Simple but good. Warwick: great for slap style, not much else unless your name is John Entwistle. Overwater: drool-worthy but expensive. Gibson Thunderbird: solid, great tone, neck heavy. Gibson V & Explorer: "Are you ready to rock...?" Aria Pro: Bring back the classic SB's MusicMan StingRay: great looking and playing, but they all sound the same. Alembic: sexy, but expensive. For well off Stanley Clarke/Mark King fans only?

[quote]Am I getting old and cynical or does the Musicground chain of the street seem a bit limited[/quote] No, MusicGround have always been crap at catering for the customer, though they've always been excellent at overcharging for everything, especially in their northern stores. Don't forget that they also own HiWatt AND JMI amps. I know a number of people who've ordered the new JMI ToneBender MkII Fuzz boxes from MusicGround (either eBay or the shop), paid for them, and then had to wait around 2-3 months for them to be delivered. I was incredibly saddened to hear that they'd got such a foothold in Denmark St (ie owning about 80% of the shops - which is why they all had the same kit in stock), and last time I went down there for a nosey, you could tell all the identi-kit MusicGround shops because of their identi-kit stock sold by identi-kit staff. This rant is of course IMO...

I'd personally vote for the Westone Thunder 1/1A, seriously good basses for the money, and yeah, OK, there is a fair bit of dewey eyed nostalgia going on there, cos I had one many moons ago and it was great. The downside with the Westone is that you may well need to get the tools out and give it a damn good set up when it lands, invariably, over the last 20-odd years it'll have been used, abused and generally not looked after that well. You could always look out for an old Aria SB bass as well. Another underrated classic IMO.

Korg DT10 or Korg Pitchblack pedals? Both are chromatic pedal type tuners, and have a good range of functions for other alternate tunings. The DT10's built like the proverbial brick outhouse too.

[quote name='"escholl"']anyone who's in the originals scene just to make money is doing it for all the wrong reasons anyways.[/quote] That is not what I was saying. In an ideal world, we wouldn't need money, music would be free and we'd all get along, no wars, no famine, no poverty. Unfortunately, in this society that we live in, money is king. Look at what's happened in the last 6 to 9 months. I along with many others lost my job, though I'm fortunate enough to have found another one, but my family and I've had to relocate, and I've had to leave my band when we were starting to make a name for ourselves. Who paid for your last bout of GAS? Who put petrol/diesel in the vehicle that you travelled to your last rehearsal/gig? Who paid for your last recording session? Who paid for those CD's you give away? Who did the artwork for those CD's? Who's internet account are you using? Being in a band costs. It costs time and effort, as well as money. Unfortunately, the time and effort that you put into a band cannot be quantified, the only measure you can put on it is what you personally get out of it. I put heart and soul into my last band, and I also funded it. I paid for the recording sessions, I travelled 140 miles round trip to rehearse, I bought a lot of gear, as did the other guys, and I got a lot of satisfaction out of it. We got a lot of positive feedback from gigs and from reviews of the CD's we released. I sold more CD's and t-shirts to mainland Europe and America than to the UK, as well as giving a shed load away for promotion to zines/sites/promoters/etc and didn't make a penny on any of it, everything was ploughed back into the band, but still people expect us to give our music away. It won't stop me from making music in the future, it won't stop me from trying to get my music heard by anyone who wants to listen, it'll make me think twice about trying to make a serious go of things again though.

[quote]I think you also need to take a look at ways of making money out of the massive audience the internet affords.[/quote] Believe me, I've tried all that, and even then, I kept getting asked for free downloads. You try to explain that you're doing this off your own back, at no profit, but the question keeps coming back "why can't I download this for free?". [quote]Don't know if you have any objective proof that this is the reason for this happening? I reckon the independent record shops were more likely put out of business by amazon (and online retailing) than by mp3s and filesharing.[/quote] [quote]Sorry, but none of what you've just said is true. It's the same line the industry has been whining about for years -- the fact is they brought it on themselves by refusing to embrace the new technology, refusing to consider new licensing options, and charging 15.99 for a CD that has maybe a few good tracks on it?[/quote] A good point, online traders and supermarkets are having their hand in helping to kill smaller record shops off too, but the downloaders & file sharer's are effectively helping to bump up the over the counter prices by making the record companies produce stuff in smaller batches, and charging the distributor's more for their product. Those increased margins are helping to push up the costs for the shops, and they're charging us more. Can't find the link to the BBC article, but it was pretty objective. [quote]You want me to see you live? Then make it worth my while, and don't charge some absurd price. Want me to buy the CD? Give me a reason -- because the reason I and many others buy CD's is not for the music, it's the whole package -- music, album art, any extras, etc. Not like most artists make a whole lot from every CD sold anyways, if you really want to support a band, see them live and buy a shirt -- they'll make much more that way.[/quote] Very true, but this is also effecting the underground music scene too, where you can get into a gig for £5.00 and see 3, 4 or more bands. Last show I played, there were 10 bands playing an all dayer, it cost £6.00 on the door. Do the maths, £6.00 to see 10 bands? Sounds like a bargain to me. There were also about 10 or 15 people there who'd travelled over from mainland Europe to see some of the bands, there were at least 20 people who'd travelled up from the south of England to Yorkshire for the show, excluding the bands who'd done the same journey. My point exactly is that you buy an album for the whole package, and most bands will go the extra mile to make that package worthwhile for the people who put their (male chicken) on the block, and get their hands in their pockets to support a band. There's using the internet to establish your band, but at the end of the day, if you can afford to spend time, money and effort to write and record the best songs you can, then great. Unfortunately, most of us out there have to get jobs, so that we can not only support our families, but also to simply carry on doing something that we all love doing, making music.

What's more worrying from my point of view, is the increasing number of people who get their music from free downloads off blogs/wherever. Not only is it killing off the record shops, but it's stopping the smaller, independant labels function, because they can't afford to sign up and release stuff from new bands. Anyone see the report on the BBC where they looked at independant record shops? There was something like 400 shops in the UK that went out of business in a year. The t'interweb can be a great tool for promoting bands, but there's just too many people out there who want something for nothing, and who are helping to kill off the things that are helping to make the artist's lives that bit better. As someone who's been in and out of bands for most of my life, the reality is that doing this costs money. Money to feed your GAS, money to rehearse, money to get to gigs to play, money to record and release. None of us would go through all that if it was something we weren't all very passionate about, and having people recognise that passion and helping to make our financial burden that little bit lighter, certainly helps towards making it worthwhile. Be it getting off their collective backsides and attending gigs, buying a CD or other merchandise or whatever, yet there's a lot of people out there who think that they can simply download thousands of albums for free, that they then download onto their MP3 players, and probably only ever listen to maybe 2 or 3 tracks. It's no longer about quality, searching out elusive albums from obscure bands, getting out to see bands at gigs, etc, it's about how many albums you can download for free... If you are a musician, and you support free downloads, take a long, hard, objective look at what you're doing. Ask yourself if you want to sign that elusive record deal, or play as many gigs as you can, or just simply make a few quid so that you can carry on doing something that you love doing. Home taping didn't kill the music industry, but free downloads of MP3's is certainly sounding the death knell.

Considering it's a bass forum... shouldn't you be Lee Van Cleff? Welcome, beard and all.

I've recently relocated up to the North of Scotland, and I'm trying to get a new band up and running. I'm based around Inverness, but can travel within reason. I play rhythm/lead, and I'm trying to get another 3 piece off the ground, so if you're a Scots bassist into old school metal and fancy playing some down & dirty riffage, get in touch! If you can sing as well, that would be great, but not important. Plus if you know a drummer, that'd be excellent! Influences: St Vitus, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Revelation, The Lamp of Thoth, The Obsessed, Winter, Candlemass, Electric Wizard, etc, etc. You can check out my last band at: [url="http://www.myspace.com/misericordedoom"]Misericorde Myspace Page[/url] for an idea on the sort of thing I'm wanting to do.

[quote name='ARGH' post='460694' date='Apr 12 2009, 06:48 PM']The Destroyer the Tom Angelripper played.[/quote] +1 The bass player from the Bay Area thrashers Possessed used one as well. TBH, I'm an Iceman fan, so an ideal for me would have to be something like the ICB300 or the early 90's ICB500... but only if it's passive. Blame Celtic Frost for the Iceman thing...

A friend of mine has an old EB-2, with the deep switch. It is a pure wall of wool! He told me recently he's in the process of getting a Thunderbird too... jammy so-and-so! Not jealous, nope, not in the slightest...

In a word... yes.

[quote name='umph' post='454728' date='Apr 5 2009, 03:36 PM']matched sets have a similar current draw, thus bias the same since most amps don't have seperate bias pots for each valve. getting unmatched valves can lead to some very nasty crossover distortion and the amp not putting out as much wattage as it could be doing[/quote] +1 If in doubt, talk to any techie type guitarist (if you know of any around your way), but as umph said, the valves need to be matched so that they have the same current draw, getting them installed and the bias checked by a reliable amp tech is also very important. Too much variation could well harm your incredibly important Output Transformer, and replacing that will be very expensive! And don't forget that the voltages and ampages flying around in your amp when it's switched on are more than enough to kill you.

This is where Truss Rod Cover plates come in so useful... Failing that, the scratch plate is another good place... Or, as previously mentioned either your back pocket or "Zippo" pocket in your jeans. If you are priveleged enough to own an exotic wood bass without a scratchplate, and don't fancy the idea of sticking something to it, then maybe you could pay for someone to stand somewhere off stage and be your "Pick Monkey".

If the sale is from a private individual, and not a shop, like you said, you can get them to send it as a gift. If the item is sent as a gift, you should get around the customs charges. There's always getting them to send it as a lower value package (but insure it for what it's worth).

There's always Matamp over in Meltham... purveyors of fine valve amps. They currently have a 200w valve head in production, and are also doing 8x10 and 2x15 cab's to match. [url="http://www.matamp.co.uk/home.htm"]www.matamp.co.uk/home.htm[/url]

Love the HiWatt's & valves in general, but would never give Music Ground any of my money or custom. Just my personal opinion. BTW, they own JMI as well, who make spot on Vox AC15/30 replica amps, and have also built some ToneBender MkI & II clones.

OK, so I'm really kicking myself now... I missed out on one in around '88 from a shop near us, they were asking £350 for it, but it had major buckle rash on the back (ie, most of the back!). Only took me over 20 years before I finally took the plunge and got a newer 4003, and ever since wondering why it took me so flaming long!

Halloo fae up north!

I'm another former SB Special II owner. I mistakenly part-exed my original one in about 1991 for a seriously rubbish Encore Strat, a trade that I immediately regretted, and regretted for a long time afterwards. I managed to find another one on eBay a few years back, but again, ended up part-exing that for an SB1000 that was in a local music shop (which was subsequently chopped in for a StingRay - another mistake!). The Special II had passive twin 'buckers, concentric vol/tone pots, a 3 way selector switch and two coil split toggle switches. The neck felt fantastic, very much like a Jazz, and the body was very much like an update of the Jazz too. The SB1000 was nice, but didn't have the versatility I was after. Saying all that, the only other bass to compare to my old SB Special was my old Westone Thunder 1a. Though they're both eclipsed by a Ric.

I've owned a couple of StingRay's in the past, an '89 blonde/maple board 2EQ & a later 90's black & rosewood 2EQ, with a truly gorgeous birdseye maple neck. Both basses were amazing to play, and felt good sat down or on a strap, but they were both somewhat lacklustre in the tone dept. I could not find that sweet spot no matter how hard I tried. I'd been a big fan of actives since I had a Westone Thunder 1a in the early 90's, that I really do regret selling, and I've been through quite a few other actives, but it wasn't until I picked up a Mex Jazz and compared it to the StingRay, that I realised that the Mex Jazz was a tone monster compared to the StingRay. There was more "zing" and life in the tone of the passive bass, compared to the one with the active circuit. There never seems to be much variation in the tone of active basses too, whereas you know when you hear a passive bass. I feel the same about active EMG pickups in guitars too, their tone is pretty much dull & lifeless compared to a good PAF style humbucker. All IMO o'course...

Try contacting Matamp in Yorkshire. [url="http://www.matamp.co.uk/home.htm"]www.matamp.co.uk/home.htm[/url]