Oomo

Think I can make it for once... I'm a lefty and travelling by train so probably won't lug any basses over, will chuck some pedals in a bag once I see what I've got nearer the time...

Any idea what happened to Punch after the documentary? I'm curious what happened next... (probably not a lot given how little I've been able to find through searching...)

At Jazz Re:Fest up in London today, and think this is the first time I've seen a band with 3 bassist and no guitars. Not sure I recognise what they were playing (all 5 strings though). Great band, though not convinced three were needed...

I'm vaguely in the same boat (played a bunch in my 20s, had a 10 year break, picked up again early 40s). Finding people to play with is definitely tricky, and committing to a gigging band is tricky with family and inconsistent work hours (e.g. occasional travelling for work, early/late starts/finished, etc.) is tough. Finding a more casual band to play with seems to be the hard bit, there seem to be plenty of adverts for super serious people expecting to be the next big thing and want to practice/gig 3 nights a week, wanting to be "festival ready" for summer, want you to be heavily involved in social media marketing, etc. I'd rather just find some nice likeminded people to jam with, see how writing material goes, and take it from there.

Yup, alternative chords as others have mentioned. In irealpro (which is what it looks like the chart is from) I've noticed that a bunch of pieces use this to show common versions of a tune on a single sheet for convenience (e.g. the original version, then maybe alternate chords from a popular Miles/Coltrane recording).

Sadly this is actually a thing in human psychology (but I forget the proper term). Often is something is priced low, people get suspicious or think something hidden is wrong with it. Too high, and people can think the opposite (i.e. there's something awesome about it they've overlooked). A friend of mine's a furniture maker, and he said the best advice he got when he was younger was to double his prices. People thought his work *must* be good since he was charging more than expected, and he got a ton more work after that.

For the UK at least, citizens advice has some useful info: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-something-you-ordered-hasnt-been-delivered/

Knower / discovered via random youtube browsing

I've never even been close to being a goth, but ended up playing in a band that opened the Whitby Goth Weekend one year (I think Alien Sex Fiend were the headliners). Was pretty good fun seeing an entire seaside town taken over by goths. Though I remember it being a fairly messy weekend, so my memories of it are a bit hazy...

I don't really think skill level of the player has anything to do with it. If you like something and it makes you happy, then I don't think there's any harm in doing whatever you like as long as you can afford it. Though I do think there's a difference between getting caught up in having to have all the latest gear that's pushed on you by advertising (same as people do with new phones etc.) vs. buying something that you really wanted. I'm also in favour of supporting independent builders (so that we don't end up with nothing but mass produced factory made instruments in the world) - not because I think they'll make some magic bass that makes me a better player, but instead they'll make me something unique/interesting that makes me happy (and happens to be a bass ). It's similar for me with computers for work/home. My work computer is a piece of junk, but I don't care, it gets the job done and gets me paid. My home computer on the other hand is something I use for fun (games, music production, coding etc.), so I spent time getting a nice monitor and keyboard, spent time tweaking things to my liking, upgrade memory, etc. None of those things let me do things I couldn't before, but just made for a nicer experience.

Would love to see some pics of the bass, it sounds great to me. Another thing you could do is put some very thick foam under the G string, then you can leave it on and not worry about having to mute it or accidentally sounding it.

I'm far from an expert, but I'd look at it in a different way. You can play anything over anything (even a chromatic scale), it just depends what effect you want to achieve, e.g. something harmonious or dissonant, something bluesy/jazzy/funky, etc. Whatever you play over any particular chord in a key will sound different depending on the notes in that chord. E.g. if you play an A major scale (A B C# D E F# G#) over an A major chord (A C# E), some of those scale notes are going to sound pleasing, others might sound more tense and feel like they want to resolve to a chord tone. The notes of B dorian are exactly the same as those in A ionian (i.e. A major scale), so the same applies. However, ignoring the chords you're playing over, each mode has quite a distinctive sound, so if you play a melody that starts on B and plays up/down B dorian a bunch, it'll have a very dorian sound, quite different from than if you'd started on A and played A ionian up/down.

Bit about crystals reminded me... A while back I went to a rock and gem show with my wife. There was a crystal seller there surrounded by crystals for good luck, money, health, angel summoning, lemurian contact, etc. etc. He looked totally miserable and got really upset when I asked him why he was still coming to these shows when he should have been rich and immortal from all the rocks.

Next time I upset someone, instead of apologising I'm going to blast them with an air horn tuned to 639Hz, wish I'd known it was so easy.

I've been through similar cycles sometimes, but don't really see it as a negative thing, as long as I've learnt something along the way. Thanks to messing about with various pedals, I've learnt: how to recreate many sounds I've heard on recordings a lot about EQ a lot about noise and how to avoid/minimise it sounds I like/dislike (e.g. if I want an octave sound, I know a bunch of ways to get a sound I like, which pedals I like, etc.) how to combine things to get a certain sound sounds that work well/badly on bass how to play to help tracking for synth/octave type pedals how to order pedals/effects difference in sound between some analog/digital versions of effects and a bunch of other things I've probably forgotten. So regardless of whether I actually use a lot of the effects I've tried out over the years, I still feel I've learnt a lot from using them, and most I can sell without taking too much of a loss (and can probably make a big profit in a couple of cases). Like @stewblack though, I have more trouble with complex pedals and multi-effects just because there's so much stuff to mess around with, and I can waste a lot of time menu diving and tweaking without achieving much. Would much rather have a pedal with a lot of limitations than something that can do everything.

I've wondered that about Dingwalls, I've never tried one but heard nothing but praise for them. From what I understand, they're made in China, then shipped back over to Canada for quality control / setup, then on to wherever. Not sure if that counts as mass produced, but they seem to sell for around £2400 which seems huge for a non custom instrument.

They missed a trick. Just advertise it as having a custom relic finish, and add £500 to the price instead.

For me it's mostly a case of considering: a) am I still encouraging/funding the artist to do more bad things There are plenty of dead people who had views I strongly disagree with, but nothing I can do can benefit them in any way...they're dead. On the other hand if by me watching their stuff on youtube it ups their view count and exposes more people to them, that's another story. b) if I stop supporting them, is there anyone else I'd be hurting E.g. if a film's actor does something terrible and everyone boycotts the movie, I always feel bad for everyone else that was involved, the writers, producers, supporting actors, musicians, set designers, etc. Ideally I'd support them while still condemning the actor, rather than blacklisting something that was really created by many. c) does the thing they've created exist independently of them? If someone awful made a lovely chair, then to be it's still a functional chair, it doesn't stop being something that stops me falling on the floor, and I wouldn't destroy it. They don't benefit from me sitting on it or not. Of course I'd stop buying anything new from them, and discourage others from buying their products.

Not sure whether I'd say any were hugely original, but I've loved the pedals I've tried from these less mainstream builders: Broughton Audio - not the most exciting maybe, but found that the HPF + LPF pedal so useful. Sushi Box FX - really nice compact tube pedals. I've got the More pedal, which is a really nice clean boost, which just makes everything that goes through it sound better. Jad Freer Audio - I've only tried their Capo preamp, but that was fantastic - solidly built with so many different sounds (demo)

Bought a couple of pedals from Dan, he packaged them up nicely and I got them the next day! Great communication and even offered to meet me nearby to pick up the pedals. All good here!

From what I remember reading a while back (no idea if true or not of course...) the main purpose was to try and get people involved in bidding in the hope of getting a bargain ("it's worth £1000, but the bidding starts at £10, maybe the reserve is £100, so I'll bid anyway in case I get a bargain"), then hope that once people have placed a bid, they'll get invested/competitive and bid more than originally wanted to. It also means that the item will appear more often if people sort listings by price, or filter on price etc. (even though the true price is really higher). The other angle I've heard is that a reserve puts off experienced buyers, which means the seller is more likely to have to re-list, which means more fees for ebay.

South of London unfortunately...but I'm also a lefty which makes things trickier!

Yeah, so not something to buy blind lightly! Has pretty much everything I was after in a jazz bass. If not that, I'll probably go with a Sandberg, which is a bit more of a known quantity (but less interesting to me).