The Funk

The 12-steps look interesting. How easy is it to play a riff on them?

I think you're all missing the point. Is the PC/backing vocalist hot?

Oh man! Sounds bad!

What do you want the equipment to do and what isn't it doing?

[i]The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face[/i] by Roberta Flack was my wedding song, performed superbly by Will from [i]The Inbetweeners 2[/i] below.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/5vclYA0zDog[/youtube]

Very nice looking instrument indeed!

I'm running a Roland PK7A (bass pedal keys) through a Novation Bass Station rack unit too as my poor man's Taurus as well. So far I can't coordinate more than either pumping 1/4 notes or holding one note down for a whole bar.

I do find I have to be very careful positioning the instrument to find a comfortable playing position up and down both necks.

Some of those look great. Even if they're terrible and need work, I'm sure they could be a cheap way to try it out.

The twin neck I have has a very nice body but the necks aren't great. The best guess is it's a 30 year old homemade instrument but with a few high quality parts. It was cheap enough at under £400 for me to have a go and get some work done on it.

The trickiest part - as you might expect - has been switching between the necks cleanly.

If you don't mind my asking, how much was it going for?

Hi there. Have any of you ever played, owned, encountered or coveted a twin neck guitar/bass?

I've been after one for about 20 years during which time I had ideas about adapting some of the Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer material for twin neck guitar and bass.

A couple of months ago, I managed to get a no-name twin neck cheap on eBay, with the bass on top and the guitar lower down. It turns out it's not as simple as I thought!

I'm sticking with it though and trying to write some material for it. I even had an attempt at playing [i]Taxman[/i] on it. I'll post some pics and clips once I have something to show you.

So, let me know about your experiences / thoughts about twin necks. Just copy and paste for "pretentious, pointless, self-indulgent '70s/'80s prog / fusion distraction".

As with a lot of people on here, I don't have a practice amp really. I do have a mini rig of my Eden WTX-260 head (about 290W) and an Acme B1 cab. Sounds great and is as small as most practice amps - but I can still pick it up and do small gigs with it.

New Orleans!

Where are you based, Barry?

Turn off his amp whenever you want to talk. I'm not kidding.

Ray Brown

If I had the money. Good luck with the sale.

Fascinating instrument, particularly the unexpected MIDI output!

I was going to say Hofner Shorty too.

I have a PK7A. It's huge but I love it. I plug mine into a Novation Bass Station rack. Not familiar with the McMillan so I can't help.

Looks great! Congratulations!

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1437730256' post='2828526']
While "complex" is probably overstating it, I have noticed that there's something of a tendency for songs to have a not-quite-repeating structure - so in the old days you'd learn intro, verse, chorus, clever bit, and outro, and mix and match the verse, chorus, and clever bit as required, but songs like "Riverboat Song" or "Last Nite" have a not-quite-repeating structure that means you have to learn the whole song in a linear fashion.
[/quote]

I noticed that when trying to learn Screaming Jay Hawkins' [i]I Put A Spell On You[/i] - doesn't seem to bloody repeat!

I've watched every episode. I thought the idea and name were embarrassing before watching it. Then I just enjoyed watching all these different guitar players doing their thing and showing people what they're about musically.

I didn't think Alfie Glass should have gotten through the first round as he hardly played anything. But in the masterclass with Tony Iommi he was ok and he was the only performer on the stage. He was the least virtuosic player but he had the best tone and was the bluesiest. I thought he handled himself well in the studio - his riff was wicked.

My favourite player was the Travis picker but I didn't hear much improvisation or deviation from the source material.

The jazz player has chops for days but is the least natural performer of the 4 and would flop at the festival. I'd go to see him play though.

The classical kid is stupendous. I'd go and see him play too.

The percussive acoustic thing bores me but the guy in the semi-finals is quite a fun player. I wouldn't go to see him live though. Just not my thing.

I loved all the little masterclasses. All of the guests - even the most technically gifted - have talked about the importance of performance / feeling / passion, whatever you want to call it. If there's no reason for your playing, there's no reason to listen to it and certainly not watch it.

double post

I agree with Word Up. Also Faith No More's cover of Easy. The Who used to do a cover of Heatwave in their early days.

Any rhythm and blues song can be done as a rock song as they're basically the same thing.

I have one of these - and the 4 too. The 4 is a stupendously good bass, the 5 for some reason sounds very different but it still a good bass.

The 4 is now my main bass. It sounds more or less the same through any amp, mixer or DI.

Love these guys. Such a phenomenal rhythm section.

What you need to do is sell everything you have and start again from scratch and keep doing that for years.

Nah, just set all the EQ controls flat, turn off any compressors/limiters, turn your bass's volume and tone controls to full, and slowly bring up the volume on the preamp (it might be called Gain, Volume) just to the point that the amp starts distorting, then back off it until it's loud but not distorting, then control the overall volume with the power amp section (might be called Master, Volume, Output). Then have a think about whether it's sounding too harsh (back off the treble/tone on your bass) or too muffled (roll up the tone/treble on your bass).

That should do it.