Deep Thought

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='241074' date='Jul 16 2008, 05:01 PM']Sorry Deep, you look far too friendly to be JJ. Try scowling more and beating the **** out of a journalist or two. He was a black belt y'know.... Or so they said.[/quote] It's true enough-he's now a Sixth Dan black belt. He's the reason I took up bass in the first place, way back in the mists of time-always wanted a black precision with a maple neck like his, finally got one last year. No point me trying to impersonate JJ though, even if I wanted to-he's got way more hair than me for a start! (he's also way better than me!)

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='240479' date='Jul 15 2008, 11:28 PM']Oh, and nice Precision, Deep Thought...very Lynott.[/quote] Thanks! It's intended to be more JJ Burnel though.

I play blues and R'n'B through a Trace 7215 SMC 300watt combo, with a Precision. No effects. Does the job for me very well, there's usually several for sale around the £150-200 mark, and they seem to be generally well regarded as giving plenty of bang for the buck. I use a Hartke 4X10 extension cab for a bit more punch, but the Trace is fine on its own for most applications. I was pleasantly surprised at its weight and compactness, but opinions can differ on that score, and what is lightweight to me could be a ton to somebody else. I think there was one on the sales page not long ago, I bet there's a few on the Bay.

Charity gig at Gwithian near Hayle, organised by a chap from work and not terribly well publicised-venue is an established originals place usually frequented by DJ's and surfy, acoustic acts (Jack Johnson was to play a secret gig there a couple of weeks ago when he was down for a festival in Newquay, but pulled out due to bad weather.) Excellent sound system and a proper front of house sound man, a real luxury for us. We were support for a band which consists entirely of doctors from our local A&E ( my band are all ambulance staff). This is our second gig with the new band, the Steely-Eyed Missile Men, the female lead singer having now officially departed, quite amicably, which allows us to get on with playing the blues and R'n'B we really like, with your humble servant now promoted to lead vocals as well as bass. Long drawn-out soundcheck due to limited stage space (I was clearly heard to offer to share amps, but my offer was declined). We were confidently expecting to play to an empty venue, a situation we are well accustomed to, but the punters started pouring in, admittedly I think most were there to see the other band, but that didn't matter to us. Also being a restaurant as well, the owner wanted to wait 'til everyone had finished eating before we went on, which also gave the place more time to fill up, again grist to our mill. Anyway one of our best gigs so far, a big improvement on our 3-piece debut, only one major cock-up by yours truly in the final song, which we fairly successfully recovered from. Very well received all round-free drinks for the rest of the night, cries of 'awesome!' and 'you played a f***ing blinder mate!', and promises that we will definitely be booked for a second similar and better publicised event in the future. A bonus was that we got a decent, usable recording from it which we can use as a demo. The main band were very good indeed, very popular and rightly so-a different sort of act to us altogether, aimed at a different sort of crowd, so we were quite satisfied on the whole with the way the evening turned out. Felt most unwell next day-at least I didn't have to be at work by 10AM like my mate the drummer did!

'It should have been me' probably isn't going to work too well.

[quote name='bnt' post='233599' date='Jul 6 2008, 02:37 PM']I expect that the stainless steel bars are not solid, but are hollow tubes.[/quote] Certainly looks that way from the way the strings disappear after the 'bridge' saddles. What are you supposed to play it through underwater then? Who makes submersible amps? I'd have thought underwater bass players was something of a niche market. I see potential for all sorts of sub-aquatic witticisms here.

I'd say the black, but the red one would look lousy with a red painted headstock IMO. Colour of the fingerboard makes a diiference too-I think rosewood boards look better with painted headstocks, whereas maple ones look better unpainted.

Well, according to most people here they seem to work pretty well. As I've said elsewhere, our drummer broke his left arm pretty badly earlier this year, and I told him to get one for rehab. He was delighted with it, and showed it to his physiotherapist, who was blown away and basically said 'we've got to get some of these!' They're just good fun anyway, quite addictive when you start trying to beat your own record. Get one with a rev counter.

I owned one for about a fortnight. Fell in love with it in the shop, tried it and loved the look of it so much I ignored the terrible fret buzz on the E string. Got it home and couldn't get rid of the buzz no matter how high I raised the action. Sound wise it was OK but I found I wasn't interested in playing it-I just wanted to play my Precision. Back to the shop it went, swapped for a 4X10 cab. Didn't suit me, might suit somebody else.

Fender US Precision, black/black with maple neck. Wanted one for twenty years and finally got one last year. Never seen another bass which I wanted as much, does everything I need it to do. A classic.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='225871' date='Jun 24 2008, 01:46 PM']I actually like that Mott The Hoople track,[/quote] So do I, right up until that bloody awful middle 8. This was a song I'd really liked for years, (you know the kind of thing, you think you've heard it but you haven't really-I'd only heard only bits of it on the radio ever since I was a kid-I know what I mean anyway! ). I was aghast when I finally heard the entire thing on TOTP2 a few years ago-I find it hard to believe that the band originally intended that bit to be there-I suspect record company involvement. I keep intending to do a bit of creative editing on Audacity or something so I can listen to it and actually enjoy it.

I have to say I would never buy anything from an Ebay listing like this. A generic pic of any old amp, not actual pictures of the item you're buying, and a description lifted from Markbass themselves or an online retailer, not an actual, detailed description of the item for sale. With this listing you've only got their word for it that it's immaculate. I'd say it was a dodgy listing from the word go. I know this isn't much help in the current situation, but for future reference it's unwise to part with that much cash on the strength of a listing like this IMHO. He sounds like a git, and for that reason alone I hope it works out for you.

Whack it with the family Bible used to be the conventional wisdom (not that I'm recommending that!)

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you exhibit A-Mott the Hoople's 'Roll Away the Stone'. A damn fine song ruined, (adopts Foghorn leghorn/Fred Eliot voice) I say [i]ruined[/i] by a ridiculous middle 8 ('There's a rockabilly party' etc. etc.) Know you of any similar examples of good songs murdered by ill-considered sections? (I'm actually hard pushed to think of any more).

Westone Concord I which I still have and play regularly. Think it cost me £125 from Modern Music in Truro in about 1983.

The ol' Powerball is supposed to be good for CTS. I talked our drummer into getting one after he buggered his arm falling off his motorbike-he showed it to his physio who was blown away, and said that they would have to get some! [url="http://www.nsdpowerballs.com/"]http://www.nsdpowerballs.com/[/url]

I'm not skilled enough to be a craftsman-I must be an artist!

Black Betty-Ram Jam.

I bloody hate the colour. Shallow, but there you have it.

Try not to stare fixedly at the fretboard-look at the audience whenever possible if you're able to.

John Paul Jones for me.

Well we achieved an ambition on Saturday night-the gig we formed the band to play! There's a little-known, word-of-mouth charity mini-festival deep in the woods which has been going on for over 20 years now. A mate got me and the drummer into it, the first time we went we were so impressed we said 'We've gotta form a band and play this!' A couple of years went by, we went again, and we said again 'we've GOT to form a band and play this!' Well we formed the band, did some gigs, but when we looked into this festival it was all booked up. A couple of weeks ago my mate the drummer rang up the organiser for tickets, got talking and mentioned the story of how we formed the band, and he offered us the gig! Much delight and frantic activity ensued, as our guitarist was working that night, so we had to pull a hell of a lot of strings to get him the night off, but we managed it. This festival is in the middle of a 100-acre wood, and the only means of getting your gear down to where the stage is is on the back of a 1961 Mercedes Unimog, down a track which is a swamp most of the time. You can walk, but it's a long hike through the woods. The Unimog is the main way to and from the car park and camp site to the gig, it drives a circular route most of the night. It's not a gig for the faint hearted, or those a bit precious about their gear! Anyway we played it, certainly not my best gig, as I was forced to sing stuff I don't normally sing (our female singer couldn't do it so it was our first as a 3-piece), some of which I struggled with to be honest, but the good stuff was good and the feedback afterwards was good too. One chap was most upset that we weren't doing a second set, as he said we were loads better than the headline band! It was a bit of a struggle afterwards as it started to rain just as the night was ending, which turned the track into a mud bath, and it rained all night, plus we were woken up by inconsiderate arseholes shouting and playing music at 6AM. I had a mad rush to get my kit loaded and home in time to get to work for 1 o'clock, but I made it, and it was all worth it. We're hoping we get asked to do it again, but if not, we achieved our ambition! I was hoping for some decent pics of us onstage, but my photographer (the wife) got too pissed!

I had a Japanese 60's reissue P-bass which I sold about 15 years ago when my old band bit the dust. Wish I'd hung on to it as it would make a really good second bass now.

I nipped into a shop last week in search of a microphone, and came out with a Shure PG58-according to the chap in the shop not a great deal different to an SM58, not as much longevity but about half the price, so I thought I'd give it a go. I'll report when I get a chance to use it.

Wot no Manson's? As usual the South West doesn't exist apparently. (OK just seen the second link, tried to add Manson's and a couple of others and given up for now)