Chris2112

Iran's claims are utter nonsense.

If someone wanted to pay me £300m for a load of old crap I'd take their arm off.

Nice, I didn't even realise they had made that model.

Oddly enough, I own a Pedulla Pentabuzz that used to be belong to Marcin, as seen in the video below.

I definitely think that Spector should release an Alexis Sklarevski model, for all he has done for their brand. His old slap bass video/programme remains extremely detailed and comprehensive and really pushes the technique in some interesting ways. In the 80's, when it was released, most slap instruction was very basic - you had guys like Louis Johnson and Larry Graham basically slapping the root and popping the octave on the beat and that was it. Regardless of whether or not you think there is any merit slap bass instruction, the course was a decent effort. I always remembered that lovely Spector that Alexis played, it just looked and sounded great. It's a shame that you can't get the '77 models in an oil finish with a singlecoil at the bridge.

That worked, I must have changed the password at some point without remembering.

It's probably me having cocked something up. I'll try resetting my password. You're right though, Guitarchat should be massive. Basschat took a while to build up though, so give it time.

I thought maybe I had changed my password so tried a couple of others. Still no use and my account is now locked again.

Maybe I've just got sausage fingers... EDIT: Tried again and just locked my account for 15 minutes! 😅😅😅

Hello, Are the accounts shared between Basschat and Guitarchat? I was sure that they were, and yet I don't seem to be able to log in there.

Further to my earlier post, I had wanted to write futher but ran out of time! I think a lot of modern day DT's problems can be traced back to the very reason that Portnoy was forced out - DT is now industrialised and they can't stop the production process! Part of the reasoning given to Portnoy by the band was that, if he were to take even a year out for his own projects, the DT show would stop and that would mean all their staff would be without pay. They are undoubtedly a huge band and probably have a huge road crew who depend on them for work, along with all the other auxiliary staff for media, marketing etc etc. The flipside of that is that, it seems clear to me, DT have locked themselves into a pattern that they feel unable to break - album/tour/album/tour ad infinitum. I don't doubt that even most fans would not deny that the quality of their releases had tailed off years ago (even before Portnoy left). That is the inevitable result of a band that feels compelled to keep releasing albums to a schedule rather than when their creative whims take them. They have consistently released albums every two or three years for 30 years now, with the massive tours that go with that. Portnoy and Petrucci managed to cram in a couple of side projects and tours here and there too! It is telling to me that John Petrucci's new solo album is the best thing he has played on in years and he sounds really fresh and revitalised there. Maybe part of it is playing with Portnoy again, having a world-class bassist like Dave LaRue to play alongside or just being set free from the standardised DT format, but the resulting album speaks for itself, it is pretty damn good!

You're echoing much of the criticism I've read of DT in the last decade (or longer). Myung is an excellent player when it comes to just doubling passages with Petrucci or thumping on the root. I sadly feel as though the last times his lines were really creative were on 'Awake', though even there he could have flexed a bit more and taken an equal share of the sonic space. Portnoy is an amazing drummer and although the circumstances of him leaving DT are a shame, he has certainly made the most of his time away and has played in a load of settings that he never would have done if he'd stayed on the DT train. Sheehan and Portnoy are an amazing team, and Billy can be relied up to produce absolutely incredible tone and great basslines. There is a cover of 'La Villa Strangiato' that he did with Portnoy on Spotify, it is amazing. Mangini is a good drummer but lacks something that Portnoy has. Rudess has been an absolute curse for the band as far as I'm concerned. His technical facility is not in question but he brought keys right to the fore in a really awkward way. I hate his tones and his need to constantly overplay. Sherinian and Moore both did a better job with far less prominence, IMO. LaBrie is just so far over the hill it's not funny. His voice has never been great but it really tailed off after the turn of the millenium. Some critics suggest her lost his touch even earlier, following him getting food poisoning in 1994. Modern day DT is just painful to watch mainly because of LaBrie, who frequently seems to stagger round the stage like a drunk. His vocals are awful; he just shouts and pushes where previously the notes came easily to him and his timing is off, as if he is struggling to hear the band or find his cue. It must be hard to be a vocalist in a band that is all about technical musicianship because your gift will fade faster than those of the instrumentalists, but he should have stepped aside IMO.

Who is she? Forgive me if I'm being rude, reverse searching the image on Google doesn't bring up a match.

Yes, when Gibson brought them back they re-released them with really cool looking green backlit LEDs. They looked really good but the quality issues quickly made themselves known and the whole thing was a flop. I used to have a Trace Elliot 4x10" with a GP7SM head. It had a great tone and was incredibly loud. It weighed an absolute tonne. However, I put tone before weight and I'm still sceptical of these mini amps.

Best is definitely 1990 Manne Custom 6. Worst is some Elite Stadium strings - they were really tinny and bright sounding with no mids or bottom, and felt cheap! A shame as I had previously used them years ago and found them to be pretty good, but I won't bother with them again. Here is the Manne anyway, with my Pedulla Pentabuzz. I have really fallen in love with fretless again this year. I was nearly stupid enough to sell my Pedulla last Christmas, what was I thinking?

Whilst I don't want to be drawn into speculation over a matter such as the negotiations that may take place over this if the bass is located, given the exceptional circumstances I would be inclined to believe that the poor bloke's widow won't be looking to scalp the current owner. Furthermore, Alan may be minded to provide a gentle discount in this case that may soften the cost of the new bass. With all that being said, the discussions that may yet take place will be a private matter. Personally, I wouldn't feel bad about turning down a lowball offer but I may well sell for what I had paid, given the circumstances. If I could break even and bring a little comfort to a grieving family at this time, I would.

It's probably a stock issue. I guess they looked at the order and realised they'd still be in profit even with the costs of shipping the second package, so decided not to cancel the order.

I find the BBC as a whole to be a national disgrace, though I am an ardent R4 listener and have been for years, even though I disagree with a lot of the stuff they broadcast there, I find it to be like reading the newspaper you least agree with - good for perspective! They're always in trouble over the licence fee and questions around value for money, which is particularly pertinent given the absolutely ludicrous salaries paid to idiots like Lineker. The argument for the licence fee to be abolished is stronger than ever but if they did turn to commercial funding the sparse quantity of decent programming that they do would nosedive. One only has to look at the utter garbage on ITV and Channel 4 to see that the pursuit of advertising and commercial interest is damaging to broadcasting. The BBC are already utterly riddled with left-leaning political bias, imagine heaping commercial bias on top of that mess! On the subject of this particularly story, it is indeed a shabby affair but one must consider that this behaviour has taken place inside a small corner of the BBC. As mentioned previously, different shows are put together by different teams with their own individual budget and in that budget, they look to squeeze and scrimp where they can. The tactic of stiffing musicians is an obvious one to go with as they're so easily replaced. If the band complains about being asked to play for free, they can just be replaced with some piped-in stock music! Even the essential staff get squeezed, and I've heard it all before from a friend of mine who was a freelance cameraman for the BBC and ITV in the 80's and 90's. He eventually left the join the police, probably because the working environment was more pleasant! Whilst we would undoubtedly consider tactics like asking the band to play for free (or asking them to sell tickets to a certain point to release their fee) are sleazy, the musicians are partly to blame for this. Not all musicians work to the same standard. I used to work in the conference and banqueting section of a hotel and some of the bands we had in were utterly dreadful and hardly deserving of payment. For every decent band of highly skilled musicians who warm up with jazz fusion standards, there will be another twenty or thirty bad wedding bands and pub-bangers who have songs like 'Mustang Sally' and rubbish by the likes of Bruno Mars on their setlist. When the person footing the bill has to pay out for a bad performance, they are less inclined to do so again in future. Were the musicians asking for payment all uniformly excellent, they would be in a much stronger position. On that note, has anyone here ever been asked to sell tickets for their own gig to ensure that they could meet what the venue-owner would consider to be an acceptable take?

Well, the post indicates that the bloke's widow intends to buy it back, or at least make an offer. If the offer is not to your liking, you could always decline to sell it. If I were the owner and the offer was fair, I would take the cash and maybe get on the phone to ACG to commission a replacement.

They do have cool lights on the front.

I will say that after listening to some 'Talking Bass' today, I think Mark Smith gets a good tone out of his, though I preferred the sound of his Ibanez SR with the P/J pickups. He is a fantastic player, his videos are great.

And on that note, they aren't true carbon fibre necks either, they're actually mahogany with layers of carbon fibre 'skin' vacuum formed on with phenolic drawn through under pressure to bond the layers together. I think they look amazing and I'd love to try one out as I'm a real enthusiast for all things graphite, though I do wonder if they would be different with a fully carbon fibre neck fitted. I'd be interested in hearing from the guys at SIMS if they had considered going fully CF or not.

I haven't watched this yet but I will check it out at some point. I do feel like now though, everyone and his dog has been on the bandwagon for making their own bass discussion show for youtube. I don't know if I can fit another one into my schedule!

Yep, those strings are awesome too. Must have been a good batch of wood, and certainly a high point for them.