Big_Stu

[quote name='heminder' timestamp='1361411011' post='1985694']The same is true for visual artists: they don't have people pay them to build their portfolio of drawings so they can find work, and then get royalties every time someone glances at their work. They all get paid on commission per drawing.[/quote] Some get the former; it does happen if the person is so impressed as to "invest" - and also wants a cut, same as a band manager/agent would. I have some pieces which I get a royalty on, but in the main it's the latter. Just like music nothing is either/or or cut/dried.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1361405013' post='1985647']I do many things which are considered illegal where I live, .................I have to justify my beliefs to no-one.[/quote] Not striiiiictly true though is it, only until you get caught, then there's .............

This is really my rock bottom price, absolutely no lowballers, I'd sooner keep it for another two years than let it go for less. BUMP [s]£500[/s] £450 BUMP [s]£450[/s] £400 BUMP [s]£400[/s] £350 BUMP [s]£350[/s] £300 BUMP [s]£300[/s] £250 BUMP [s]£250[/s] £200

[quote name='ThomBassmonkey' timestamp='1361402705' post='1985609']I imagine 99% of people (including myself and the majority on this forum) have had a pirated copy of something at some point, even just copying someone else's CD onto your MP3 player for example, but that doesn't make it right, no matter how much you think you can justify it. I'm not saying I'm perfect or that anyone that does own copied music is the devil incarnate, I just don't understand how people think it's justifiable.[/quote] Now that you mention it; I was at a record fair in Edinburgh, early 90's. I was there with a bootleg CD looking for the guy who sold it to me to try to get another copy. As I spoke to the guy he said to me "If you want to keep it put it away NOW!". I looked around & the place was being raided by the PRS and a large police escort. Out pf a decent sized hall with around a dozen+stalls within an hour there was one single table with 2 shoeboxes of CDs on it - all of the rest was lifted. The guy saw it as a hazard of his game & explained to me that owning a bootleg isn't illegal - copying & selling them is. What is interesting is that it appears to be some of the ones agreeing with piracy in this thread who also OK'd "flipping" gear in the sales section on BC too. Caveat Emptor indeed.

[quote name='thumbo' timestamp='1361401492' post='1985584'] Pics? [/quote]

Universal reckon 4 years tops for CD & DVDs. By then there'll be more big BB style laws & tracing capabilities in place to nail illegal downloading to a door, like they're doing now with limited success, hence the huge penalties when they do - trying to scare folk off like the prison sentences after the riots. Of course the trend won't stop there, & some will romanticise it - like the gangster bootleggers on 30's USA - and there'll be small fry copiers, who will get nailed - and the bigger ones who won't, just like income tax now. And so it'll go round and round and round - a lot like this thread ............ or a record, remember them? Now that this thread is in it's twilight aren't we about due another one about vinyl & CDs quality comparisons?

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1361386996' post='1985202']Steve vai ; can't listen to his stuff, but saw him a few times..............[/quote] I saw Vai just the once, entirely on the strength of enjoying the "duel" on "Crossroads", at the Academy in Glasgow. I remember getting bored rather quuickly & it was a very uncomfortable gig as I'd ended up wearing the undies of the woman I was there with.

Is that as in "Applause" Ovations or not the most expensive of actual Ovations? The action on mine is fine, it's just "not got much about it" acoustically.

When you can pass through the pages of Basschat's "Flipping Basses" thread ..................... and leave no trace; it will be................ "... time for you to leave".

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1361294157' post='1984093']And how difficult is it to remember a few eq settings anyway?[/quote] "Some bloke" had a way around that issue; though I never saw him doing an amp share anyway.........

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1361291625' post='1984042']Are we really comparing music to the flip of a light switch?[/quote] Hopefully only with the same credibility as the 4 minutes of total silence as an audio track received in a critique; and wasn't someone sued not so long ago for plagiarising or sampling it?

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1361279546' post='1983753']Don't think this really sheds any more light on the issue but looks like same bass again?[/quote] Possibly, the shadows on the pickups suggest John Birch, a "Superflux" as he called them in the mid-70s & a pickup he often put into basses.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1361278610' post='1983733'] I'm with you about Maconie. I rather like some of the music he plays on Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music. The down side is that you have to put up with him. Like most of these presenters they all seem to have the "let's talk about me" syndrome. Don't get me started on Colin Murray who is probably the finest exponent of the craft. [/quote] I'd listen to hours of Maconie before I could stick half an hour of Radcliffe, the stuttering bumbling buffoon. That's not having a go at those with speech impediment stutters. He's fine reading off a script, but anything that's just running & he just too dozy & slow to be able to keep it rolling. Rather like the intro to Chicory Tips "Good Grief Christina".

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1361273451' post='1983575'] Yeah I found it odd that he ended up with such a massively complicated bass rig and the more complicated it got the worse he sounded. I suppose there are a lot of players who are always chasing something with gear and he was no different. [/quote] I wondered if it was technique. It was fairly unique as far as I know, he called it the "typewriter", but with so little contact surely there's little chance of depth or sustain?

From talking to a few land-lords, the ones that are tied to a brewery are hammered with drink costs, the profit margin is minimal so to get a return they go for cheapest option with entertainment. Locally to me that's either discos or tribute acts to a backing tape. The smoking ban has had little effect compared to the prices of beer they're obliged to buy. I've lost count of the number of recent times I've seen "live music" advertised & it's more or less kareoke, but with one singer doing their favourite songs to a tape. The ones that are free-houses are mostly real-ale places, which don't have the clientele for most live bands, one near me does have a folk night most Fridays - I now have a stock of cable-knit cardigans, the beard's coming along nicely too. The only pub near me that regularly did live bands has just closed, & is being taken over by a gastro-pub chain.

The electrics are perfect, he took out the ones that JB had started to install - and put in WD ones IIRC. He also put in a flip-lid battery compartment instead of the screw on one that JB had, sooner or later the screw holes would have worn out. Since JayDee worked for JB I thought it was as close as it could get after JB died. It wasn't until after JB died that I found out that JD built Jimmy Lea's bass - but while he worked for John Birch. I'd spoken with JD about the build, so I asked him why he didn't tell me up front that he was the man I should have gone to. (JD gave me the bridge that he'd had lying around for years). His reply was that by that point I'd become JB's customer so it would have been unethical. That gave me the respect for JayDee that I have to this day. The bass is awesome, only had to be set up once it's so stable. The neck was made for my hands, big but with a palm that's longer than my fingers, so it's a flat D in profile.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1361226078' post='1983256'] I won't hear a word said against that grandmother who dresses up as a young schoolboy and pretends her husband is his father. Good, wholesome entertainment and not weird or creepy in the slightest. [/quote] Weren't they in the papers last year cos it turned out they're into wife-swapping? Didn't work that well; his best offer was a pile of old Beano's, a pea-shooter and a bag of marbles.

It's certainly the shape of a JB headstock. Tony Iommi financed Birch into going into guitar building as opposed to the repairs, electrics & the occasional build he'd done until then after he asked John to make him a two octave neck on an SG and make a fingerboard that his damaged fingers could use without the painful fret edges. He'd asked the major names but they'd refused. The early ones didn't have effects or options built in and weren't the standard body shapes that he later made. John told me himself that the J1 came about when he got fed-up of seeing so many folk using what he thought was an inferior guitar, the Les Paul. So he got a Les paul, cut out a matching horn to the top edge & believing he'd improved it started making them. So the above may well be another brand that John had "improved". I too would like to see better pics of the OP one before saying it's definitely a JB.

[quote name='Schnozzalee' timestamp='1361217341' post='1983048'] Big_Stu!! That's the BC'ers name, I knew it'd come to me, I think he owns Jim Lea of Slade's SG. 12stringbassist owns a Green 4001 on here too I think (i'm not too sure about the name, ) [/quote] It was supposed to be a copy of Jimmy Lea's, but it's wrong in a few ways. Scale length & no two octave neck being two. By the time I found out that John Birch had very little to do with Jim's bass he was dead. But in a way it's typical Birch, he sailed rather close to the wind in his business dealings shall we say? Good luck will be needed at finding any John Birch SG be it guitar or bass, there's a US collector who has a thing about them & IIRC he has around 30+ of them. His search brings him over once a year, he's due round about now. If you want an authentic John Birch SG bass speak to JayDee, he built many of them. Last I heard you're talking around £1400 & an 18 month waiting list. But that also gets you hand made copies of the original soapbar Birch pickups - and an option on on-board effects. This bass is the last one that John Birch personally had any involvement in building. He phoned me one Sunday afternoon to tell me it was nearly finished & was found dead in his kitchen two days later. JayDee finished it for me. [quote name='Schnozzalee' timestamp='1361216932' post='1983035']I would not recommend them as the pickups are so high output, and crackle to the touch.[/quote] Sounds like a bad earth connection. God knows why but a sign of a JB is the all over scratchplate on the back of the body. If it's not earthed properly static builds up very quickly while playing so it has to be earthed. I had the exact same problem & it was an easy fix.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1361211153' post='1982884'] Busted! [/quote] Is that a subtle comparison of Matt Willis with Macca? [quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1361211261' post='1982888'] What about "When I'm 64"? Because this is going to run for years. [/quote] How about "Taxman" because it's been very taxing?

Even as I type he's being i'viewed on R2 by Simon Mayo, just gave a demo of his one-off Gibson custom bass. Well worth catching on iPlayer if you miss it.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1361210532' post='1982860'] Or 'The Long and Winding Road'. [/quote] ........ we had that back on post #391 ........... it's more of a voyage of discovery now.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1361208040' post='1982809']And I think Entwistle's bass often sounded awful, and he often sounded bored.[/quote] Saw a docu with him once where he complained endlessly about modern sound having no bass; the prog was a kind of oddysey that he was on to perfect his bass tone. You couldn't help but admire his love & obsession with what he did, but his end product didn't seem to show any signs of it. Right or wrong I put it down to his loss of hearing. With all of his massive backline he said the reason Townsend almost always faced him on stage was because if he (JAE) couldn't see Towensends hands on his fingerboard he was lost & had to wing it until he could again.

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1361171057' post='1982067'] I don't think the world is waiting for bassists to play bass basslines and turn them into celerbrities. [/quote] Exactly, they get known among folk that start to follow the band they're in, get seen to do a solid job - and assuming the band stays the course get known to do a good job as bassist. It's when they become innovative (or are seen to be publicly - as in the Mark King thread for eg.) or they do something newsworthy that they become a "celeb" in many, though not all cases. I'm thinking along the lines of Bill Wyman, good regular bassist, not known for being unorthodox, believed himself to be taken for granted, gained notoriety for wooing an underage girl & then marrying her. Jack Bruce, gained a rep in jazz circles for being a good player, peaked at forming a supergroup, but was known to be hot-headed in that group. But in general, among the public, non musician circles it's rare for a bassist to reach the dizzy heights of say Clapton, so far as I've noticed.