WalMan

And he's a top bloke. Saw him at a Peavey demo evening in Portsmouth a few years back and had a most enjoyable evening. Chat, anecdotes and cracking playing as well as being happy to stand around afterwards & chat.

I had the index finger of my right hand replaced a couple of years back due to its disintegrating with arthritis. I was in a half cast for about six weeks but it was moving and a damn sight less painless almost immediately after I came round from the op. I have a feeling the same hands pinkie will need doing soon and possibly the wrist as well - and while he's about it the specialist might be able to get the two intermediate fingers straightened up too. So far as I am concerned the replacement (and shoulder replacement a couple of years previously) were godsends that have allowed me to get back to pain free playing. I use a pick, did for a lot of years, and have had to go back to one now, BUT that is because the middle two fingers are twisted with the arthritis and get in each others way, as well as the fact that I prefer the sound and attack of a pick for the classic rock covers we do. Good luck and I am sure you will be glad you went ahead afterwards.

I believe they took a price hike last year which doesn't help, but that said I love my CMD121H combo. Run pretty much flat with a hint of the filters and in & out around 9 o'clock it sounds great with my G&L. Just picked up an Epifani 112 from here - tomorrow night will be its first outing - but I may well keep that in reserve for the few gigs we have where it is a house PA & I am not going through it.

[quote name='bassbloke' post='385436' date='Jan 19 2009, 09:33 PM']www.emusic.com rules[/quote] Don't it just most months

+1 to most of the above I only really do backing vocals (sometimes get caught doubling the vocalist ) but when we start on a new song I [u][i]HAVE[/i][/u] to get the bassline sorted so that it just flows before bothering thinking about the b/vox

Unitopia - The Garden Floydy in places, but for a first listen sounding good to me.

[quote name='Mickeyboro' post='384938' date='Jan 19 2009, 01:33 PM']I will get along as it's my local gig. We're due to play there four times this year![/quote]That'll be good. We used to do it loads - happy memories of packing up & getting to the curry house in Petersfield before closing (even got a Christmas card from them one year). Got a few coming (I hope) but the more the merrier [quote name='Mickeyboro' post='384938' date='Jan 19 2009, 01:33 PM']Beware of pi**ed teenagers yelling for 'Love SHack', however [/quote] Oh joy, something for our drummer to get in a strop about Well they won't get it

Back to [url="http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=480463&y=133780&z=0&ar=Y"]The Royal Oak, Whitehill[/url] this Saturday. Used to be a regular gig for us a few years back, and for more years than I like to think about, then it shut and I thought it had been razed to the ground, but no, it seems to have risen phoenix like & to be booking bands again. First outing for the Epifani cab with the MB combo as The Fountain last week was too small.

As mentioned elsewhere Saturday we were rock gods [url="http://planetsmilies.net"][/url] and today I am back at work The gig at The Fountain in Chichester is always great with a crowd that is up for it from the start and Saturday was no exception. Crowd line kept edging forwards until at the end they were right on top of us with one of the bouncers running cover & catching one particularly pished lass. Why the hell can all gigs not have a crowd like that (up for it, dancing & singing, not pished that is)!? Slung in some reworkings of songs that we used to do with the keyboard player that four of us ran through at r/h on Monday and Max taught Mike in a lenghty phone call r/h of the guitar parts later in the week and they sounded really good & fresh . Gun - Steal Your Fire & Aerosmith - Rag Doll in particular raaaaawked! The band as a whole was nicely tight with that certain looseness from the first one after a month lay off. A few minor fluffs, but we played through them , laughed them off amongst ourselves and I don't suppose anyone in the crowd really noticed. And so to next week and back to The Royal Oak at Whitehill, a gig we have not played for a few years (I thought it had been pulled down) but have in one form or another played at for over 20 years. I can only hope that goes as well.

[quote name='bumnote' post='383135' date='Jan 17 2009, 12:23 PM']I intended to pay a visit but ended up ferrying my kids around Will try to get to the next one[/quote] Shame, 'cos for a first gig back for the new year it was awesome. Band felt really tight. The new (resurrected) stuff sounded great with 2 guitars and as ever the crowd at the Fountain were brilliant, singing & dancing from the start. I wish they were all like that! It must be something in the water in Chichester. Long night too. First set was an hour and the second getting on for two Finally finished at around 12:15. I mentioned to the sound guy about getting the ADAT running & he declined on the basis it would jinx it and was the first one back. Wouldn't be swayed by "well don't tell anyone and the first one after a layoff is normally fresh for the layoff" Ah well, next time perhaps.

Well there you go. My first one for the New Year. New leads, new cab (though that may have to stay at home for space), new songs (ok some resurrected ones). Hoping for a good one that might be recorded. If you're about say hi

And a rather different one from the metal thing posted earlier this evening. A sort of jazzy shuffle in E with Steve Gadd on drums (courtesy of DrumCore ) and me on guit through a PodFarm. Got a bit ahead of Steve at one point - sorry Like the title says 115BPM, in E and about 33 secs long. [attachment=18524:JazzyThing.mp3]

Found some loops and was messing with Ableton (having actually bothered to follow a couple of the lessons and understood what goes ) [attachment=18523:Metal_Thing.mp3]

I shall add my thanks to Gareth for relieving me of some cash for the Epifani cab at our mini Wal bash this afternoon I fear the rest of my band may not be so considerate when I fire up the new improved & extended rig Top chap, particularly for not laughing out load at my tuneless attempts on his beautiful Wal 5 fretless

I came to bass 30+ years ago having taught myself guitar and spent my first 15 years on bass always using a pick because it sounded right for the punky / rocky stuff we were doing, and because I never spent enough time or had the inclination to work on using fingers. Then the band changed and we started doing a more bluesy set. Fingerstyle felt & and sounded better for that. I dug in, got a lot better using 3 or four fingers and stuck exclusively to that style until we changed the set to do more rock covers. I have now switched back virtually exclusively to a pick (3mm big Dunlop Stubby if you care) because again it just sounds so much better for the stuff we are doing, and also because my picking hand is twisting with arthritis so middle, ring & pinky get tied up quite easily. I may occasionally switch to fingers and/or thumb for a slow song for the tone, but not often. It's easy to throw out Steve Harris or Billy Sheehan as examples of players who do rock fingerstyle, but at the end of the day, as others have said, it is what feels and sounds best in the context of the material [u][i]you[/i][/u] are doing. Getting snooty about using a pick is just b0110x.

Funny how pretty much everyone runs the EQ flat, as do I on my CMD121H generally only rolling the EQ off when everyone's complaining I'm too loud and there's nowhere to go on the vols. MB seem to have got something right ion that basis

[quote name='johnnylager' post='362501' date='Dec 24 2008, 07:52 AM']I cannot recommend Peter Hall in Brighton.[/quote] No? He did a good job resurrecting my Superbass 100 and the price seemed fair for a major overhaul and complete revalve. Hope yours gets sorted soon and without too much additional cost Chris.

G&L L2500? You might be lucky and find a US for that or alternatively a Tribute should come in within budget easily. Obviously try first and possibly the neck might be a bit wide, but my hands & wrists hold up OK despite arthritis. EDIT - actually looking at respective specs perhaps not as the L2500 neck width at the nut is 44.5mm compared to 45mm for the Thumb

Moody, another thing I have only just realised when going through the Line6 setup/ optimisation notes while trying to cure blasts of white noise while recording is that the latencey setting in Tracktion and Line6 should be the same. Tracktion seems to default to a latency setting of 4096 samples. Changing it to 512 in my setup fixed the problem and I don't have to mute the track when recording now. DOH!!!

Well I'm seeing it in with the band, but sadly not gigging as our vocalist is away as always. Happy new year all. Have a good one if you're gigging (make that hope you had a good one as I expect most will be on the road for set up by now)

So Vintage Guitar Price Guide, [i][u]not[/u][/i] Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide? 'Cos I have hundreds of the damn things and I feel bad about sticking them in the recycling.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='365171' date='Dec 28 2008, 09:49 PM']Wal basses...[/quote] Have you found a secret stash then Nik!?

I presume you are talking of the Bass version? Can't help you with either at the mo as the BOD xt Pro is staying in my arsenal for the time being - though I might have the guitard kidney bean version for sale soon if I go for the UX2. If you weren't after it for serious use then you might look at the Behringer copies, which you can pick up cheaply now

[quote name='rasher80' post='361943' date='Dec 23 2008, 01:21 PM']Anybody ever bought anything from Anderton's? they're supposed to have some decent prices[/quote] Yes, but not online. They are just up the road from my office. Prices can be reasonable, but generally on a par with GAK who are fairly close to home one way & Nevada the other, though the "normal" stock differs so it give me a chance to compare stuff. I have used DV24 for more techy / recording stuff. Not had bad experiences with any to date, though I tend to gravitate towards the GAK shop most times

Sadly I don't think we has Arts in our sub. I shall have to look tonight. Great band and saw them a few times in Brighton and on the last ever tour in Portsmouth One of the Brighton gigs we were in backstage after and somehow I was at the front the queue and missed my chance when someone said to me "OK you can let them in now" Last gig at Portsmouth I stayed 'til the very last encore while my mates went to get the last train. Ended up sleeping in a train (it would have been the platform but a porter took pity on a few of us & let us onto a train witing to go in the morning) and catching the first one home in the morning. Happy days