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Might as well sell crumhornchat.co.uk then ffs

What I do is come up with a spurious reason why the song should be dropped.

About 22 years ago, at the age of 41, I was walking my beat in Plymouth along College Avenue, past Manson’s Music and I peered into the window. That re-triggered my desire to learn to play a musical instrument. I’d been keen at school, but my parents decided that as they weren’t musical neither was I and that the fiver deposit on the school trombone wasn’t going to happen despite the music teacher pushing for it. I’d been a marching band snare drummer and I’d had a bit of bandsman trombone practice time in my previous 20 odd years in the RN but that was it. Why bass? To be honest it was because I thought it would be easier, oh and different. I bought a headless Hohner Jack from Manson’s and my bass journey commenced. Bands, who’d have them eh? I got involved with some work colleagues and friends in Plymouth and we struck up a regular practice in Saltash Rugby Club. It was pretty dire, I was pretty dire too to be honest and we sort of collapsed after a while. I learnt a lot though and the taste for gigging was firmly instilled in my brain. I also started listening to bass and becoming sort of ‘bass centric’ in my interests and music tastes. In 2004 I moved North to Kendal for a change of career. I had by now acquired a superior case of GAS that would see over 100 basses pass through my hands to date. I think that’s quite an achievement although I’m not sure if it’s one to be proud of. I actually had 27 at one point (yes I was single at the time). I saw an ad in Mad Monks in Kendal for a bassist and headed North to Penrith for an audition. My first ‘proper’ band? Well sort of. Regular practice with 3 local guys who were all older than myself and generally a well-heeled bunch. The band’s music was supposedly a democratic choice but the singer/lead guitarist had a habit of going down the pub, referring to us as ‘his band’ and stating that he wasn’t going to play any of that crap that the bassist suggested. The Rolling Stones were the best band in the world and ‘Dead Flowers’ was their best number….. So, the writing was always on the wall really. The other guys were great, and we actually gigged three times. We opened at a local ‘mini-festival’, did one gig in the local for our supper and one charity gig. I loved it and put up with a lot of aggro in the hope of becoming a regular gigging band, but it wasn’t to be. A shame really. It got bitter and twisted at the end, mainly between the said lead guitard and the rest of us. I then had the experience of getting into a punk band that folded and then re-formed with a new bassist. The lengths some people will go to to avoid telling someone that they have another bassist who’s their mate etc. and fits the band image better. Finally, a really long stretch with a group of guys in Kendal who were actually good, particularly the lead guitarist, but we never made a gig. At the best we sounded really good. All classic rock which became very tiring after a while. I think that some of the guys didn’t really want to or have the bottle to gig but wouldn’t admit it. This all went on with the odd change of personnel for years. Recently I thought, enough is enough. I was completely dis-heartened. I sold my rig, sold some basses and thought I’d retire to a bit of noodling in the bass cupboard. It hasn’t really happened. The basses and practice combo have just sat there gathering dust. And then I bought my wife a ukulele. That’s it, I’m a bit smitten! I’ve succumbed to the Uke syndrome. All that life of bass, buying, selling and swapping at clandestine meeting in motorway services has stopped. A whole era seems to be winding down and coming to an end. I still have 5 basses and my TC 250 Combo. I’ve 2 custom ACGs that I don’t intend parting with, a full Uber top spec bubinga and wenge Finn 5 and my special holly topped headless Salace. I also have Rita, a Musicman Sterling with a Nordstrand that used to be well known in these parts. I’ve owned her twice and she stays. That leaves my pearlescent white Nanyo Bass Collection 5 that I’ve just bought from Mick and fettled with a Glockenkland pre. Finally I’m a umming and ahhing about whether to keep my soft aged Fiesta Red Sandberg 5 string P bass. It’s beautiful. I was never one for relic finished instruments but this just works. It sounds wonderful and weighs 7.5 lbs. But however much I love it I’m not playing it so what’s the point? Hmmm… So a long journey and life always changes. I've met some great people and made life long friends. I just thought I’d share. If anyone is local to me I have a load of bass books and odds and ends sat around. I don’t really want to advertise and post etc. So, statistically not good. 22 years, more than 100 basses and 3 gigs! Well life isn't always as you'd want it to be and if you don't have the right ingredients around you you'll never bake a cake I'm, off to play my Uke Peter

If Spotify IS worth anything close to this figure, it really needs to be challenged on the royalties it gives artists. It borders on theft.

Blonde bursts do look good but very tricky to do well, I had one done by Bow Finishing it was lovely but it wasn't cheap.

Do you have a source for that? It is my understanding that Spotify has still to turn a profit and is only kept going by investment hoping that one day it might actually be worth something close to that figure. Personally ATM I can't see how that is possible. The infrastructure and bandwidth costs alone to support Spotify's user base must be huge, and I suspect that the vast majority of them are using the free service. The ads on the free service are poorly targeted, most of the ones I get are from Spotify trying to persuade me to upgrade to their paid service and all of the others are for music I have absolutely no interest in; and since I'm mostly using Spotify's own genre playlists, you would think that ads for music would reflect the genre being streamed? I see little point in paying for Spotify when their catalogue is so incomplete. Roughly one third of the tracks I have on CD or records are unavailable on Spotify and while I'm not exactly mainstream, my tastes aren't THAT obscure. AFAIK none of the streaming services actually make any money. Soundcloud was just about viable until they were told that they would have to pay royalties to the owners of their content. Since then they've stubbled from one financial crisis to another. Even YouTube only survives because it is being propped up by Google's more lucrative services. No one but Spotify's management and their anxious investors can believe that Spotify is worth anything close to the figure being quoted. Maybe if someone actually works out how to make music streaming services turn a profit then perhaps one of them could be worth that much. But until then dream on.

A couple of years late on the thread but hey ho! in regards to the original post..the zender signature bass is awesome. SZ was my favourite bass player as a wee lad and i am lucky enough to know him quite well. I was honoured to take possession of one of his basses for my birthday. Probably the best gift ever 💜

May I present the future of guitar music, my niece's band Honeyblood. The new head of Fender, Andy Mooney, is convinced that the saviours of the electric guitar will be young women. According to him, these days, 50% of new guitar buyers are women. Which is lucky for my niece, because Fender have been showering her with free guitars and amps, in the hope I assume, that when she becomes a household name she'll be playing a Fender (most of them go to her dad, who plays in a blues band and is the proud owner of a rapidly growing guitar and amp collection).

That's why they are for novices, lol

Yes totally. I think it's ok to demonstrate instruments to beginners but it'd be more sensible to show them something dead simple, and better still, teach them to do it, instead of their first impression of a bass in the flesh being.."I'll never be able to do that".

My new toy... With this I'll never need to buy a big amp ever again. Unless it gets confiscated as a weapon of mass destruction or a nuclear threat of course...

silly idea - it'll never get off the ground.

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testing the prototype now - i need to give it some usual gig abuse to be certain it's OK but i'm pretty confident it'll be fine. It'll probably be a week or so before i can make some more (as my printer is fully booked) and then i'll cost it up (it'll only be a few quid or a bit more with the REAN connector pre-installed. Will let you know.

I don't do anything I can't do on a four string with flats. That's it.

Sometimes more like this: I might not be much help on this one: I've done white and I've done bursts ....but I've never done a white burst! And I'm not entirely sure how I would go about it. And generally I don't spray. And I generally don't grain fill in the conventional manner. Basically - my approach tends towards the unconventional in a number of aspects and so I would probably start from a completely different place. There are some pointers I've gleaned from the various trials and tribulations I've had that might help, though. But I emphasise these are just what I've experienced...other people may have had more success than I did: I think linseed oil is a bit of a problem. Tru-oil - which many guitar makers use - is a polymerised linseed based product. Basically, it sets hard over time. I'm not sure that linseed oil by itself does. As such, there may be problems trying to overcoat linseed oil with many things - although perhaps OK with Tru-oil Personally, I steer clear of nitro-cellulose. You HAVE to wear a properly spec'd respirator - it is pretty evil stuff - but more than that, it is very, very particular to what it is sprayed on or what is sprayed on it. And it blooms in damp weather...and and and Yes - the spray cans from halfords, etc, will work fine and give you a huge choice of colours and a decent clear coat. Always start with a primer, though, if you are using solid colours. If you are spraying onto bare wood, use a clear sanding sealer. You still need to wear a respirator when you are spraying and follow all of the other precautions stated on the tins but functionally will work and, in my experience are less sensitive to humiditiy, etc.. They can nevertheless be still reactive with previous coats and other products. The folks above who say 'always test on some scrap' speak wise words You can produce very good results for many effects without having to spray... The good thing, though, is that generally at worst, you can fairly easily sand back to the wood and start again. Sorry I've not been more help on this one Andy

for anyone wanting to easily mount their Smoothound transmitter on a strap, I've got a new design for a simple 3D printed clip assembly that holds the REAN connector to your strap and can be left attached to it. The transmitter & extension cable fit into the connector as normal. I'll also do a more universal one that mounts with a velcro strap as this one only fits length-ways on a leather strap into the length adjustment slots. just testing the first prototype. the parts are printed in a modified ABS polymer and are more than strong enough - see what you think (pics attached)

Superb, cheers for that. £100 less than the session series, passive and great rep online as far as I can see. Will have to start calling this thread 'the gasworks'.

I know those guys!!! (and her, although I have not talked to her much) We used to play at many of the same festivals... last year the sound guy at one of those events near Newcastle thought for a minute that I was substituting Mandy: I was the bass player for two bands that played back to back, and Bombskare was next... and I was wearing a Bombskare T-shirt... I think the guy just thought I was part of the amplifier and was there to stay for the duration

I kind of feel that the reason big companies don't do so well is because of several reasons. Note this is just my opinion. Firstly there are far more luthierers and manufacterers that make superior instruments to there likes of Fender and Gibson etc. Just look at Sandberg for instance, for the price of an American Fender you get a much better and more consistent instrument in terms of quality. Also if your after a high end custom guitar, then there is a large choice of luthiers available that can offer a far more personalised experience than the giants. Also why buy new when for the same price you can buy a better used instrument. I haven't bought a brand new bass for a while and I kind of think, why should I? I've had many p basses over the last 15 years, some new and some used, and hands down the best one I've had and still own is an '82 JV Squier. I just don't think the large companies will be out there for much longer, Fender has huge debt like Gibson and it'll only be a matter of time before they can't pay anything off too. As far as guitar music not being popular, I feel this isn't a huge factor into the decline of sales. Music education in a lot of school around me is healthier now then it was when I was in school. We were only encouraged to play the recorder, where as now they plays ukes which will gateway into guitar lessons etc. Theres still a loads of new bands promoting guitar music which are getting recognition. It just so happens that genres like Grime currently have the edge, and are getting more air play to the middle class masses who buy anything just because its "in" and compliant. Anyway, thats just my opinion.

The big companies need to re-assess their position in the market. I think Fender are trying hard by promoting new bands and doing online lessons, and the mex / squire stuff is better than ever. The others are struggling because their prices are prohibitive. Only doctors, dentists and lawyers from the boomer generation can afford the top of the line stuff (i.e. custom shop instruments), and their numbers are dwindling. The other issue is that the world is changing, and we value all kinds of stupid boll*cks over creativity. In a world where creativity is not as valued and rewarded as it once was, the tools of creativity are going to suffer too. Musicians are broke, they're not going to buy custom shop Les Pauls. And there's only so many 67 year old ex-rockers left, and most of them already have more than enough nice instruments. And then there's electronic music which is much more fun to get high to and easier to produce than anything involving guitars. And then you have the whole thing of music becoming a less important cultural contributor because young people have so many other ways to entertain themselves - games, netflix, instagram etc, fidget spinners (?) - the role of music, just like the role of cinema, has diminished quite a bit.

I think they`ll re-emerge. Music is currently a factory of nice pop songs, made by identically looking and sounding teenagers. Sooner or later there will be a rebellion against this and guitars will be back in. It goes round in circles, we just have to endure the non-guitar years much like bears go without grub during hibernation.

5 strings and 35” you say? get yourself a Lakland Skyline. You can thank me later.

(walks into sports shop run by former music shop staff) "I'd like to try those boots, please" (Assistant gets a pair from the storeroom, puts them on, performs 'street skillz' juggles with the ball for 2 minutes, then takes them off and hands them to me) "And that relates to a match situation how exactly...?"

Do people reckon using an Xotic Voltage Doubler (which does 15v) on a daisy chain would work on the i90 Chorus? I like the sound but having one pedal on the board which needs its own power is proving a bit of a ball-ache

OK, let's see if i got this right... The facs: - Ashdown originally released the 400W Mibass combo with a single (presumably 400w) 4 ohm driver and no extention out. - After some time they decided to add the ext. out and swap the driver for a 250W 8 ohm driver. - Aparently your combo got caught in a transition period where they fitted a 250W 4 ohm driver in your V2 combo with ext. out capability. The questions raised: - Were did that 250W 4 ohm driver came from? Logic says it was from one of the old V1 combos but why is it only 250w? Could it be that they sold the first V1 batch to the public with a driver not suited for the amp? - In the e-mail replys they admited that your combo was a product of their manufacture error. Aren't they liable for it, there must be laws the make them repair the error at their own expense, even after waranty has expired (in reality you couldn't know the driver was 4 ohms without taking it from the box, thus voiding waranty)? Asdown is at fault here, a big fault. You could have blown your combo simply by pushing the volume or adding a ext cab just by having faith in the product you bought. You're lucky to still have a working combo. I think they got caught with their pants down and are trying to avoid the shame of admiting that they put a underpowered driver in that combo, i now also believe that every V1 combos out there are fitted with the same 250w driver, until Ashdown comes to prove it isn't true and that particular driver came from somewere else. Use every weapon at your disposal, demand for the correct speaker to be installed in your combo at their expense, don't pay them a cent, threaten them with exposure of this situation all over the biggest bass players forums/pages/sites/magazines/etc. They owe you a fully working product. IMO Good luck

I think we might have played in the same band

Ticket received - Thanks very much to Alex !!

Fun - that what too many of us forget, and is utterly infectious.

They're only playing Italian opera in Hell last time I checked.

Then I'd suggest trying a test on a separate bit of similar timber. See if you can apply Linseed Oil as a first coat then use the grain filler followed by a top coat of Linseed Oil buffed back to a dry finish. It's not something I'd recommend. I do like the smell of Linseed Oil though so good luck.

Or "that's the key Paul asks us to play it in on tour".

To be fair, the original article didn't have the update saying that a software update would fix it. I did read it. But you're right, it's a non-issue now apart from the enduring ironic hope of wanting to turn the guitarist down without their knowledge/assent!

Is part of the problem the improvement in manufacturing techniques? With computerised machines that will exactly reproduce the same thing every time and lasers et al it has made the “cheap” guitars so much better and increased the amount that can be produced so the market becomes over saturated. To a large extent Fender and Gibson have brought this on themselves by promoting the Squiers and a Epiphone versions of their classics, many of which play as well as their US counterparts. I think car manufacturers realised a few years ago that just because you can produce product 24/7 it isn’t necessarily a good idea when they end up languishing in a field somewhere because not enough people want a new car, this spawned the 3/4 year personal lease system to encourage people to get a new car and change it regularly. Maybe guitar manufacturers need to look at new ways of “selling” guaranteed buy backs for upgrades and the like, although that might make musicians look after instruments better and kill off the road worn market!

It's also because you can make grime using almost any free music app. And then you can pop down the park and chat over your homemade beats with your mates, film it, upload to instagram, and you've made and released some music in about an hour using nothing but free stuff on a phone. It's cheap and home-made, and requires no training, just a bit of attitude. In some ways grime is very close to the DIY approach of punk, even if the aesthetic is totally different.

W0W!

How odd. I stumbled upon that video the other day. He's a monster player without a doubt, but I've never been fond of his tone. Sounds like Kermit on a trampoline.

I definitely won't ever buy a new US built fender again. My current P bass is a sandberg california and jazz bass is a mayones jabba. Both cheaper than US fender counterparts and imo superior.

Excellent, MiniMert (and you poor sods!) will have to put up with me making bad noises through it for a bit

Can the vulnerability be used to turn the guitarist down mid-gig? If so, that's useful!

I'd have to say a 5-String USA Musicman SUB, if you can find one. You'll even have a couple of hundred quid left over. One of these: When I played 5-stringers, I had one and it had probably the best Low B I've ever heard.

Just go back to a four. Miles cheaper.

Simply Sandberg P4 (before California VS4 designation) 2010. Nicely worn in