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maxrossell
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Everything posted by maxrossell
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Not so long ago, my drummer amd I made the decision to stop playing sh*t gigs. Our definition of a sh*t gig: - You're playing second of four bands but you have to supply all the backline because the other bands only have 20w practice amps and toy drums - There's barely enough PA for the vocals let alone the guitars or drums so you can't hear a damn thing you're playing - You can soundcheck in ten minutes flat but the other bands take forty-five minutes each because they don't know how to use your gear - You're playing to an empty room, because even the other bands didn't bother to watch your set (and their crowd leaves when you start playing), or worse, - You're playing to the same ten people you always play to because you only ever gig in one pub - You're not getting a fee or a cut of the door or even a free drink, and the manager [i]still[/i] complains that you didn't bring enough people - You get your gear home to discover that roughly £100 of pedals, cables and accessories has gone walkies from your kit bag When you're an originals band, a lot of gigs involve some or all of the above. Eventually you get sick of being treated like sh*t and still being expected to behave like you're being done a massive favour. I do this because I like playing music, not because I enjoy moving amplifiers around. There are other forms of sh*t gig as well. The other day we got offered a support slot for Pulled Apart By Horses. Pulled Apart By Horses are a sh*t band, the essence of NME flavour-of-the-millisecond hype, their music is trendy haircut rubbish and they're incompetent. We were told we could support them if we managed to get 30 people to pay £7 each for a ticket, of which we'd get a quid back. I don't know about you, but personally I think that expecting a local unsigned support band to do over £200 worth of ticket sales for a band with national distribution in exchange for £30 and a twenty-minute slot is f*cking pathetic.
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[quote name='phil.mcglassup' post='967195' date='Sep 24 2010, 10:18 PM']Hi All, Even though I am not musically technically minded I have always considered myself to be a fairly competent bass player. However, the songs that the band I have just joined cover songs which require me to sing backing vocals. The lead singer is female and the remainder of the band are tone deaf males so that just leaves me to do it. It is about twenty years since I last played bass and sang BV's fairly successfully. I would like to know:- 1) Because my voice is fairly weak -it's like comparing a single note to a chord- is there an effects 'pedal' available to add character to my voice, say like a chorus effect. Adjusting the EQ on the mixing desk does not help. 2) When looking at copying the harmonies sung by females who support a female lead vocal (quite high)-where does a guy start? As I said, I'm not technically minded so I hope this post is understandable!! As usual, any help appreciated.[/quote] 1) I'm afraid not. A bit of comp and verb will help your voice sound more natural in the mix, but the only way to get a weak voice to sound like a strong voice is to train it. 2) Either the octave below, or falsetto. For male falsetto to work well you need a strong voice, though, so I'd go for the lower pitch to start with. With singing, the only thing to do is practice practice practice. I've been a singer for twenty years and I still have to practice for hours every week to keep my voice strong and reliable.
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Holy sh*t, that's revolting.
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Also, FWIW, there is a world of difference between the SE PRSs and the full-fat ones. Athough the SEs are really well-made and offer very decent value for money, in terms of sound and feel they're only vaguely similar to their big brothers. Since as far as I know PRS don't do SE basses, I wouldn't think that playing an SE guitar would provide much help in terms of determining how much you'd like a PRS bass. That said, and beyond all my slagging off up there, PRS guitars offer really spectacular and remarkably consistent build quality, so if you do go for a PRS bass I don't think you'd have to worry about picking up a dud.
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[quote name='Doddy' post='966463' date='Sep 24 2010, 10:20 AM']Oh?! I know a load of guitar players who love PRS and regularly take them out of the house. Funny that.[/quote] They probably don't play the vermin-infested toilets I play shows in. A lot of the people I know have expensive guitars for home and rehearsal and cheap pieces of sh*t for when they play shows. The only guy I know who takes his PRS to gigs, it's one of the cheaper bolt-on models. That's not including PRS SEs, obv.
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[quote name='Oggy' post='966432' date='Sep 24 2010, 09:52 AM']Why is this? Oggy [/quote] You pay a mortgage amount of money for a fancy-looking US-made instrument with a 10 top and inlays and 5,000 switching options and a month later you realise you'd have done fine with a £500 Ibanez. I'm primarily a guitar player, and the reason us guitards don't like PRS is that they're "bank manager" guitars. You pay three grand for it because you've been lusting after it since you were thirteen, but you never take it out of your house because it's too valuable and everyone says stuff like "more money than talent" behind your back when you get it out, so you end up playing all your shows with your £300 strat. Then eventually you do the sensible thing and sell it and buy a cheap Gibson Les Paul, and you wonder why you didn't do that in the first place. The reason I personally don't like them is that they've been so overdesigned they have no character. If I'm putting down four figures on an instrument, a bit of character is the least I expect.
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Selling cos I have an identical one. This is a Mexican Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster It's a reissue of a 50's style Fender Telecaster, except with a few improvements designed by the Fender custom shop: - The neckplate bears the "Fender Custom Shop Designed" legend - The neck has a chunky "soft V" profile, just about the most comfortable neck I've ever played - The pickups are wired with the "S-1" switching circuit, which as well as the usual bridge only and neck only positions, give you access to four types of middle position: series, parallel, phase inverted series and phase inverted parallel. It gives you access to a whole new tonal palette. As you can see from the image, this is the trans butterscotch blonde tele with the single-ply black pickguard. The serial number is an MZ9, which means it was made either in 2009 or 2010. New they retail between £450 and £500. This one is frankly in near-mint condition. I take excellent care of all of my guitars, and this guitar has barely been out of my house. I'm looking for £370 delivered, or £350 if you pick it up from me (Preston Lancs.) Not interested in negotiating the price cos I'm in no hurry to sell it. I would also be interested in a trade. I'd like a Les Paul Jr. (I'd be prepared to add cash for the right one), also a nice Epi Casino, or whatever else you got you might want to trade for this. Guitars, basses (fretless?), valve amps etc. Thanks for looking. -
Hey guys! I posted some tunes a while ago on here, and a couple of you seemed to be into them, so I figured I'd post up on here that my band has released a 12-track EP. You can listen to it for free (and even buy it if you want) by clicky the piccy. Thanks guys! [url="http://march.bandcamp.com/album/start-a-fire"][/url]
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This is a truly special find: Made in February of 1992, in the USA (unlike all of the modern reissues, which are made in Mexico), this is a Fender 4x10 1959 Bassman combo. It runs at 60w. Here's the really special bit. The previous owner had his tech strip out the nasty modern PCB circuit and replace it with an original 1959 spec wiring kit by Doug Hoffman. So this amp, like the original models, is fully point-to-point handwired. It is also true all-valve technology, unlike the modern reissues which are solid-state rectified. It has 3 12AX7s, 2 NOS Harma 6L6s and a NOS National Electric 5u4gb rectifier valve. It's a single-channel amp, but incredibly versatile. If you run it clean with a strat or similar you're into legendary warm, glassy Fender tone territory to rival the best Twins. But if you plug in a good Les Paul, jump the channels and crank the volume you're into the amazing full-blown bluesy overdrive, even classic rock crunch that made this amp so highly-prized with the first rock guitarists.This amp LOVES pedals, I've been running it with clean boosts and Tubescreamers and it's just perfect. It's also worth noting that these are the early 90s Fender speakers, which have a far more authentic sound than the cheap Jensens they currently use, and of course they've been "broken in" over almost two decades so they sound warm, full and present. This is THE ORIGINAL rock guitar amp. It was made as a bass amp, but guitarists adopted it in the 50s because it sounded so great. There's a good reason people still cherish them to this day. I have to emphasise again, in terms of build and sound, this amp is in a whole different league from the newer '59 Bassman reissues. This even has the leather handle, not the crappy plastic one you get on the modern ones. The closest you'll get to it is to buy an original for many thousands. Bear in mind that even the inferior modern Mexican reissues go for over £1,000 new. When's the next time you'll get a shot at a handwired MIA '59 Fender Bassman? Now the downside: It needs a power revalve as one of the 6L6s has started to pop (you can get away with just replacing that one, but for the best sound I recommend a matched pair, you can get balanced pairs of Harma 6L6s for less than £20). There is a bias pot in the circuit, so not a hard job. Please bear this in mind when bidding. The amp fully works, it still sounds INCREDIBLE, but there is a small intermittent popping noise that will only be cured by replacing one or both of the power valves. I would have this done myself but I don't have the time. Apart from some superficial cosmetic wear & tear, that's the only issue. I am happy for you to arrange your own courier, and I will fully cooperate with you to schedule it, but it will be at the buyer's risk and I would ideally prefer pickup due to the value of the item. This amp also comes with a nice brown Fender amp cover (which is also a bit worn but still very serviceable). £650 (Listed on Fleabay at £699.) -
[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='700278' date='Jan 4 2010, 10:33 AM']Cheers for the responses guy TBH I wouldn't know what to charge? I know it wouldn't be to the same standard as a custom shop :S I enjoy doing it but it is quite time consuming so I don't think I'd donate that much time for free but I wouldn't want to charge a huge amount.[/quote] If you're not sure that you'd be able to get custom shop results, if I were you I'd wait to have a bit more experience because custom shop results is what people will want if they're paying someone else to do it. As for what you'd charge, basically put a markup of between fifteen and thirty per cent on the cost of that materials, then decide what you want to be paid per hour and multiply that buy the time it'll take you to do the job. Say thirty quid on materials, so you charge forty quid for that. Then if you want to be paid twenty quid an hour and it'll take you eight hours, that works out at £200 total. That's probably what I'd expect to pay - but I would want a really excellent result for that.
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[quote name='basshead56' post='701677' date='Jan 5 2010, 03:01 PM']That really annoys me! If something is RARE, fair enough, but using it for everything is just ignorant! [/quote] Amen. I wish there was some sort of system on eBay where you're not allowed to use "rare" to describe an item unless it's some sort of limited edition or over thirty years old.
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I dunno. They're cheaper new. He's another of those idiots who thinks that slapping "RARE!!!!!!!" on something makes it worth more.
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Have a bump. I used to own one of these and modded it to f*ck and it was great. -
Pretty cool, but there aren't a lot of bands out there where it would fit in.
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[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ESP-351-EXPLOROR-GUITAR-RARE_W0QQitemZ120512946679QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item1c0f21a1f7"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ESP-351-EXPLOROR-GUI...=item1c0f21a1f7[/url] I'm just sick to the tits of seeing sh*t like this. It's one of the things that makes me not be able to take eBay seriously. The guitar that this guy claims to be an "ESP 351" is in fact an LTD EX-351. It is not, as he claims, a "Jame Heitfield" model (or for that matter an "Exploror"). Above all, it's not even vaguely rare. Apart from the fact that the model was mass-produced in 03-04, there is a model of LTD EX currently available with the exact same specs. In case you're wondering, I'm not an LTD expert, I just found this out doing two minutes of research, which is the STRICT MINIMUM I would expect to do when selling something. Graaaarrrrrr!!!!
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You can also alter the tone of your bass by just changing stuff like the angle of your fingers on the string and how hard you pluck them.
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Most dudes I know make their own out of sheets of acetate and a craft knife.
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[quote name='flyfisher' post='700177' date='Jan 4 2010, 12:47 AM']Having said that, it doesn't seem fair to call it lame since there is clearly a lot of skill and technique involved. I just don't like the result of all that skill and technique. I don't like opera or rap either, but I wouldn't call them lame.[/quote] "Lame" wasn't a specific comment about the skill or technique. I just think it's firstly a bad version of the song and secondly a dull-as-ditchwater performance. I don't have a problem with blues, or with people who play bass while they sing, I just think that particular video is rubbish. I don't see why people are getting so bloody uppity about it. It's just my opinion.
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[quote name='XB26354' post='700151' date='Jan 3 2010, 11:59 PM']It's your opinion. Here's mine. It may not be to your taste but it is not lame. If you believe that you don't know what you're talking about. I've never met a truly good musician (or person) for that matter that doesn't keep an open mind. Criticise the style or the choice of material but not the ability or the execution. It's not particularly to my taste either but saying it is lame is a lazy cheap shot. I'd also add that you seem to attract replies that seem to end up getting personal. Go back and read some of your comments on this thread. Maybe what was said in response to your initial post above was uncalled for, but some of what you've put is condescending and arrogant. I really don't care whether the mods here approve or not but it has to be said, in my very humble opinion. Nothing [i]personal[/i].[/quote] We could take about the semantics of the word "lame" for hours, but as you so succinctly put it, it's my opinion. And you may interpret what I said about some video of a guy who'll never read this as condescending and arrogant, but frankly I intepret what you're writing about me as condescending and arrogant. I just think the video's sh*t, and said as much. Feel free to disagree with me. But if you think your admonishments about the way I express myself are going to have any kind of effect, save it. People get personal because they can't handle it and get all p*ssy whenever anyone expresses a strong opinion they disagree with. That's not my problem.
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[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='700059' date='Jan 3 2010, 10:32 PM']2. We see a lot of these threads on BC where people automatically decry anything technically interesting, or more to the point, automatically lambaste what they jealously realise they cannot emulate or hope to achieve themselves. My point? [i][b]Don't you dare[/b][/i] decry any professional musician until you've put thirty years' worth of hard practise into your own playing.[/quote] It's not a particularly technically interesting video and to be frank I reckon there's a good few dozen people on this forum who could do the same thing without any trouble (if they chose to, which they probably woudn't). And why do we have to have three decades of experience before we can criticise anything? I've only got two decades, does that count, or will I only develop the ability to judge things in the next ten years? Does it matter that the guy in the video didn't himself have thirty years of experience when he played it?
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[quote name='Musky' post='700339' date='Jan 4 2010, 11:59 AM']He's got a few natural tele bodies for sale. I don't recognise the wood, but it's definitely not basswood. Anyone recognise it? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-HI-QUALITY-TELECASTER-TELE-NATURAL-GUITAR-BODY-F12_W0QQitemZ180355763926"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-HI-QUALITY-TELEC...emZ180355763926[/url][/quote] Probably some form of light-coloured cherrywood.
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[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='700137' date='Jan 3 2010, 11:40 PM']So I have painted 6-7 basses now and I have a bit of a knack for it. Would it be worth doing for people at a lower price than a custom shop or would it be more hassle than it's worth?[/quote] I'd say that there's no problem with it if you just want to do is as a bit on the side with a set of stock solid finishes, but the unfortunate thing is you'll get people coming to you with a load of stuff you can't handle. I did a few guitars and basses of my own a while back, wasn't even thinking of doing them for other people, and just from having mentioned it to a couple of people I got a bunch of guys asking if I'd do theirs, including one guy who wanted me to refinish his whole drumkit in trans blue, and another guy who wanted me to replace his fretboard. I wouldn't have even known where to start.
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[quote name='Doddy' post='699972' date='Jan 3 2010, 08:58 PM']Bitter much? [/quote] Nah, I don't pay attention to the charts and never have. I'm just saying that the "songwriter" being the key to world-beating tracks is a bit of a myth. In commercial pop music songwriters are people who maybe don't have enough charisma or a good (bland?) enough singing voice to be saleable so they write for other people. In the kind of music I listen to it doesn't matter if you're fat and ugly and hairy and have a bit of a weird voice as long as the music is interesting.
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[quote name='chris_b' post='699802' date='Jan 3 2010, 06:41 PM']I don't mind as long as someone doesn't put a jazz pickup on it and paint it green!![/quote] TBH if it's gonna be bought by some guy who's gonna stick it in a safe, I'd sooner it was modded and painted green. At least it would be by someone who intends to make music with it.
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[quote name='umph' post='699783' date='Jan 3 2010, 06:24 PM']they're collectors pieces now not instruments ;o[/quote] They're still instruments. "Collector's item" just makes a statement of monetary value. It's a shame.
