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Geldof Caves In: Payday for Fingers Johnny Fingers and Bob Gobshïte in happier days The world reeled on Friday as the longstanding cash-driven feud between Britain's Favourite IrishmanTM Bob Geldof and formerly pyjama-clad pianist Johnny Fingers (real name John Moylett) came to an end in a welter of grudging agreement. Fingers has long claimed that elements of the Boomtown Rats' hit record 'I Don't Like Mondays' were of his composition, unsurprising since the song is more or less an extended piano solo with occasional instrumental stabs. By contrast, the world's whiffiest pop star has resisted requests to share in the deriving financial bounty, having insisted that the excessively pessimistic ballad formed entirely within his own head. The mordant yet ultimately meaningless lyrics certainly carry the authentic Sir Bob Geldof stamp of saying nothing very much in a loud, hectoring voice. Mr Fingers - long since accustomed to wearing normal daywear - has lived in Japan for some time and it was from the land of the rising sun that the spurned ivory tinkler launched his High Court bid to wrest sole composing credit from Mr Geldof. Eventually the matter was settled out of court and Mr Finger's name will be added to the copyright. Some might assert that authorship of the drab, overblown ditty which did as much as anything else to drive a stake through Punk's heart is nothing to be proud of; they would miss the point. It's all about the money.

i have one

I spotted this on Gumtree for a stupidly cheap price. I don't have any sort of Stingray or anything USA built in my herd so I thought it would be rude not to! It's got a couple of dings on the body, the headstock looks like it's been around a drumkit and some wear to the neck which I can only assume has been caused by a wedding ring. I'm not a massive fan of the pickplate but otherwise it's great. Happy days!

Because they'd re-recorded the drum and bass. stinky poos trick if there ever was one. Ozzy was never more than the people behind him. Whether it's Geezer Butlers lyrics or Randy Rhodes relaunching his career. If it wasn't for them, he'd just be sitting in a Wetherspoons.

It's got to Hawaii in one piece....and he loves it! Very pleased and very relieved in equal measure

I guess the gist of the thread is that everybody thought there should be more in each programme about the particular items they are interested in. If the programme makers are watching this, they must be thinking there's a few series worth of material to cover!

I'm not sure I'd agree that this was the case. The drums programme was just as much about rhythm in modern music, and made no mention of the 'iconic' stuff, such as the Oyster pearl 'Ringo' kit, or Bonham's double bass drums. Percussion was covered, as was electronica. The guitar programme mentioned 'The Log', it's true, but dealt more with the evolving sounds of the guitar than their actual manufacture. I thought that the three balanced each other very well. Just my tuppence-worth.

Try listening to the pulp in the charts, even more challenging 😂

He might.... I must admit that in part the ridiculous fued between Ahmet/Diva and Dweezil/Moon may be colouring my judgement (I even bought Dweezil’s No Fake Frank t-shirt ;)...). The family has resolved their differences but this is very much a Diva/Ahmet event (Gail’s preferred kids). I am of the opinion the 2 have squandered a lot of their Dad’s legacy for cold hard cash. I am a sensitive soul when it comes to Zappa 🙄 It will be a great show though, Scott Tunes is a joy to watch I am sure, all 6’5” of glorious bassist.

Bizarrely for a newbie I think this sort of thing would be better. For someone who knows the basics then I agree with you, but first bass and a ME60b gives a whole range of ways to mess your tone and gain staging up without knowing why or how

If you are ok with just PC messages (no tuner access just preset change) this is what I am using. For £54 its a bargain. https://www.scan.co.uk/products/one-control-gecko-mkii-midi-switcher-20-presets-ideal-for-live-use I only tune once every set anyway so I am ok with bending down to press the page button for tuning.

Annual fundraiser for the Courtyard Theatre in Hereford.

Well... what can I say, adding to @Al Krow‘s comments above we spent a few hours A/b big some gear and playing some basses, I echoe the words above as I love my RH750. I’ve used the rh450 upgraded to the 750 for best part of 10 years. I preferred the RH over the DG, having never heard a DG I really wasn’t blown away. My preferences are for the presets and compressor built in to the RH. I’d never use the DGs built in effects pedals. All horses for courses I guess. We then tried his Mesa M6 Carbine. Wow. What different beast it was. Head and shoulders better, tonally than the 2 class Ds. To be fair you would expect that as the new value on it was double both the other 2. I liked it so much that I was fortunate enough to acquire @thodrik‘s M6 this week. It was put through it’s paces this evening at a gig and it certainly didn’t disappoint in anyway. Fat warm sound but clear and crisp highs when needed, really cut through the mix. It punches hard and purrs like a kitten if you lay back a bit. I couldn’t be happier with the set up (running with a Bergantino cn212)... The rest of the band loved it to, instantly picking up on the sound being warmer, more rounded...this could possibly be my favorite amp to date. 👍🏻

Britain's favourite Irishman my bottom!

Keep on staring at these...434 in teal.

Al knows the weight of his two Yammys: 2017 BB1025 9.7lbs 2016 BBNE2 White (with gold bling) 10.4lbs I'll be asking for a refund regarding the gold bling 'cos it's clearly not 24 carat, hypercarrots, or any form of carrots...

here are my yamahas weights 1978 BB1200 10lb .5oz 1979 BB1200 9lb 14oz 1979 BB1200 9lb 10.5oz 1982 BB1200S 11lb 1.125oz 1984 BB1200S 9lb 9.625oz 1985 BB300 9lb 9oz 1984 BB300 9lb 6.625oz 1984 BB300 9lb 1.25oz 1986 BB450 8lb 11.5oz 1980 BBVI 9lb 6.75oz 1974 SA70 7lb 13.375oz 2017 BB734a 9lb 2oz 2017 BB734a 9lb 3oz

I'd check what other bands they are playing with. Nothing worse than having a great drummer in the band who can never commit to gigs because they're too busy with other outfits. Let the other guys down easy, because you may need their services in the future.

My general advice for this (and job interviews) - don't employ an a***hole. A decent person will put in the effort and learn as required. I've auditioned plenty of people who have been great players but, let's say, lack a certain humility...

The racing stripe is very cool design feature.. Something Yamaha should also use on their basses I think I'm getting a Revstar as well

Overnight Sensation is the killer. I must have had that for over 35 years in one form or another. It was my first intro to the world of FZ Then there's Hot Rats, Zoot Allures, Sheik Yerbouti, Live at the Filmore, Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar ... etc etc Wild stuff

Coming clean, at 44 I am alas too young to have been able to see the great man live. My intro was through my brother in law (13 years my sr) when at 14 he decided I should listen to Bongo Fury. I had just graduated from “now this is what I call music” into Beatles and Hendrix and he felt I might appreciate it. The Muffin Man blew my teenybopper mind and it changed my life, literally. It was the moment I realised that music can touch you in the most deep/viceral way and it made me decide to pick up guitar, then bass. I have branched out into all types of music, from Grunge to Metal to Jazz, my record collection can most def be labelled eclectic. But it has one constant, one thin red line connecting it all ....... Zappa. A fan boy anecdote: When he died in ‘93 I was at uni, but worked in a pub part-time and was working an 8 hour shift “the day after”. Much to the dismay of most customers I played only Zappa that day, but I didn’t care. Zappa, THE Zappa was no more and he deserved a tribute. 😁

I have one of them Rickentractor basses and, much as i love it, I've always been frustrated by the lack of anywhere to anchor a thumb while playing the E string (I use the floating thumb technique but do like a good solid place to rest the thumb while I'm on the E). On my Fender Jazz, there's a nice chunky pickup to rest on, ditto my Sandberg. But the accepted place to rest a thumb on a Ric is the top of the pickguard which, for me, is too far away. I saw the Zero Mod which is available from the US but it's £20-odd quid plus postage and it just runs along the top of the PG so doesn't, in my opinion, solve the problem. So I got some modelling putty and made my own as a prototype - once I'd got a shape and position that worked i passed it on to a mate who has a few 3D printers and the appropriate CAD software and received back this. I'm well chuffed with the result - OK, the shape could follow the PG slightly more closely and I'm a bit annoyed that I managed to scratch it when i was drilling it but i reckon it's pretty good for a first attempt, especially as I'm a cack-handed plonker who generally breaks anything I touch. Prototype And the printed article:

Yeah, but we'd then have had Ed Sheeran doing guitar, the drums by Luke Goss and Dizzee Rascal on bass.

Just watched the guitar episode. So there's this guy I've never heard of from that band with the excruciating singer... WOW, WOW, WOW! Great show, great presenter, great contributors, great content. The electric guitar has been in the general public's consciousness virtually forever and is an instrument even a layperson knows something about or can relate to. Therein lies one of the problems with the show about the one with the long neck and the chunky strings. The guitar's always been about a 6(12) stringed instrument played with two hands. Ways of producing bass in music are very diverse. I think the production team dithered about the content and dissatisfied most viewers. But, the guitar show was great. ps. Nice to see George Benson get and few seconds and where the F's Uli Roth been all my life?

Genius idea for a tv show! Some may notice a difference in quality and performance... most would still be p155ed by the end of the evening demanding sweet Caroline or mr bright side 😂

6'6" here This guy's got to be taller than me unless he's just a pure lanky F'er 😂

We had two great gigs this weekend, including one of my favourite venues - Buxton Opera House. Great audience and staff there, we had a blast.

Pictures of the Mark II version - very pleased with this one. All I have to do now is finish soldering the ground connections and screening the electrics as I managed to introduce a loverly hum when i took the pickguard off....

I currently gig a variety of basses the cheapest of which was £150 and two others that each cost 10 times as much. While the more expensive ones have noticeably more attention to detail in their construction, the cheap and cheerful one (which has had a pickup upgrade and a new bridge but is otherwise stock) still holds its own. And I'm less precious over it on the odd rowdy gig. As @dmccombe7 has already said, there are some seriously good cheap basses available these days. I have also played some expensive basses that were simply terrible, e.g. I once tried a Fender custom should jazz that was up for £2800. The neck pocket had a noticeable gap of 2 to 3 mm and the logo on the head stock was wonky. For me, I'll judge an instruments suitability on how it plays, feels and sounds and not by its price. In my experience there's good and bad gear available at a variety of price points.

I think you've slightly missed the point, mikel.

Wrap your emails in some tasty rum truffle choccies

The new owner said much the same thing . He thought I should submit it - but I think it's too much like @Len_derby 's and I think the No Treble Bass of the Week is all about different designs. Besides, they must be getting a bit fed up of me swamping their email inboxes with 'Please, please, please, please, please...' mails from me

To be fair, @Osiris makes solid points here!

According to my battered old Oxford English dictionary the literal definition of Multi is more than one. While it is often understood to mean loads in terms of multi-fx units that offer dozens or even hundreds of effects, it is still a perfectly apt and reasonable description to this single pedal that offers 3 different effects. Yes, pre-amp would probably have been a term that would have sat well with more us than multi effects, but it is still literally and grammatically correct. The argument about cheaper multi-fx doing way more for much less money also applies to things like your beloved future impact too. Just sayin'

20 years of regular roughhouse gigs should do it... Funny - I'm absolutely fine with used basses that have signs of a well-gigged life, in fact I think it does give "character" (or summat) and I quite like it on an old instrument. However if I buy a new instrument, I hate it to get damaged or worn-looking in any way. It's like I don't mind someone else having kicked the crap out of a bass, but I'd feel like a monster to treat it that way myself.

I thought Dizzee Rascal made some good points about bass in his sections, points that we've probably trying to make people see for years. He said "it's like a conversation with no conclusion, yeah you've got some melody and some drums but what's your point?", and "it's like the glue that holds music together". He also emphasised the problems of listening to music on phones or laptop speakers when he nearly didn't record his hit 'Bonkers' with it's huge bass riff because he just didn't hear it on the little speakers, and that his audiences go mad in the bass drop in that song. I may be a miserable old fart but I can see D.R. is popular with youngsters and if someone on their radar can inform them in this way then he fully deserved to be featured. Now back to playing some big dirty stinkin' bass 😁

I loves this: "Captain Kirk" is "Captain Kirk" in German. Not a lot of people know that.👍

What @chris_b says...only I went back to what I was most comfortable on...a 4 string.

Hiho,you,ve got a cracking bass there,I,ve had mine since 2003 and it,s great. I have replaced the scratchplate with a carbon fibre one and fitted a hipshot d-tuner.I A/B my SUB with a Classic through my rig and they play,feel and sound the same without the hefty price tag.I,m starting to wear through the paint on the back of the neck but hey ho after 16 years that's mojo.All I can say is fabulous gigging bass and I like the look of it. I,ve never needed to adjust since I set it up when I got it,what more can you say.If you got it for a good price-happy days.Enjoy many happy years of playing like I have. There is a lot of love for these we just try to keep it quiet.There is a story that Musicman lost money on these and there is a USA SUB club on another site. Again well done on getting one of these fabulous basses and remember the EQ can be savage if overboosted but that,s another story.Oh a quickie seemingly the EQ is the original 2 band circuit which may be used on the classic.I might be right but if somebody can correct my recolections that would be good.

Yup. That’s him. ”RBTX, RTX...” ”and this bb has a six bolt neck which sounds like a neck through but still like a bolt on”

Thank you man ☺️

What a super post... a similar tale applied to Cardiff boy Shaking Stevens and his band. Court and all that, but allegedly Shakey had spent all the money.

Regarding the electric, I've always thought that if I ever got a professional gig like working with a theatre I'd keep well away from boutique and just go Boss. I've always found that Boss pedals are built like tanks, reliable and easy to operate (with the large footswitch). Kind of everything you'd want in that kind of setting. They are relatively inexpensive and easy to get hold of (should you need a last minute replacement). So I'd go: TU-3 Tuner CEB-3 Bass Chorus OC-3 Super Octave

A Frippertronics exercise using only natural harmonics and an EHX Pitch Fork along with all the usual suspects helping out.

The South West Bass Bashes organized by @scrumpymike have been roaring successes so far (next year will be #3, I believe..?), thanks mainly to his superb organisation and the simply a-m-a-z-I-n-g spread of grub put on by Mrs Scrumpymike and her band of elves. I couldn't make it this year, but wild horses will not keep me from the 2019 one.