darkandrew

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1456515828' post='2989997'] Does a car drive better after 50,000 miles? [/quote] No but it does take a little while to "run in". Only a couple of thousand miles though, not the 25 years of a classic instrument. I think this is probably also true of basses and guitars - a factory fresh bass probably does have a settling in period which I guess is why they need a second set-up in the store (having been given a little while to settle in) or when you bring it home (and also why you have to re-tighten the screws on flat-pack furniture after a month or so).

The reference to weekly rehearsals in Ashford makes me think of Ashford in Kent, if I didn't know there was also an Ashford in Essex (and until 5 minutes ago, I didn't) then I would think that was an awful long way to go for a rehearsal each week.

I fully acknowledge and respect the artisic and cultural contribution of David Bowie, and do not wish to play that down in any way, but did I miss the Lemmy tribute? Perhaps a little sequence at some other point of the show dedicated to those in music that we have lost over the past year (I recall the BBC doing something similar last year during their music awards ceremony)?

[quote name='keefbaker' timestamp='1456400744' post='2988543'] True [/quote] No, that was Spandau Ballet and Martin Kemp didn't actually play any bass on that, it was all synth bass.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1441979384' post='2863496'] When I started playing synths in the early 80s, the most basic entry level instrument cost at least £250 and that was for a monophonic single oscillator and single envelope generator synth. If you prepared to forego a proper keyboard you could get The Wasp with 2 oscillators and 2 basic envelope generators but a proprietary digital interface so you couldn't hook it up to any of you CV and Gate analogue gear - that is if you could afford more than one synth! If you wanted polyphony, patch memories and a decent sounding synth you were looking at something that cost the same as a small terraced house! [/quote] I know a lot of people talk badly of digital synths but at least they made synthesis available to the masses at reasonable prices. I remember my first "real" synth, it was a Yamaha DX100 and this and the similarly spec'd Casio CZ101 were absolute bargains at the time.

Has anyone got the Tessa Niles autobiography (I think it's called "Backtrack") and if so, is it any good?

[quote name='kendall' timestamp='1455023165' post='2975082'] [i]The Nefilim - Zoon[/i] [/quote] A very underrated and often overlooked album. One of the very few albums that I have to play from beginning to end without skipping any tracks. It's a real emotional roller coaster; starting with beauty and sensitivity (Shine), through anger and devastation (Venus decomposing) and ending with the conflicting emotions felt by a betrayed father in Zoon (Wakeworld). I suppose it had two big problems; firstly it was impossible to pigeon hole - was it goth, death metal, or something else completely? And secondly it was certainly not Elizium part 2. Whatever label you want to put on it, it's a great album and, getting back to the "concept album" topic of the thread, a great piece of story telling.

Growing up in the 80s I still have a fondness for a lot of the music associated with that decade, and as such I recently bought the twin Visage CDs Demons to Diamonds / Darkness to Diamond that the band were working on at the time of Steve Strange's death. On the whole it's a pretty good album with an interesting cast of contributors including Mick MacNeil (from Simple Minds) on keyboards and Robin Simon (from pre-Midge Ure Ultravox) on guitar. On bass is a guy called Steve Barnacle whose playing I remember seeing credited on quite a few records in the 80s but I've never seen him mentioned on here before. Here's some links to a couple of things he's done: [url="https://soundcloud.com/the-real-visage/aday025-03-visage-your-skin-is-my-sin-antidote-version-lc"]https://soundcloud.c...dote-version-lc[/url] and [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyv7kvd3wGQ"]https://www.youtube....h?v=oyv7kvd3wGQ[/url] The first one is a track off the Darkness to Diamond album featuring some rather funky bass work and the second track appears to be a solo piece of his composed for the bass guitar.

Or you could always find a school that has a suitable hall and stage, some even have fairly sophisticated computer controlled lighting rigs already installed. Most schools are strapped for cash these days and will welcome the chance to let the hall out to you.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1453840896' post='2963382'] Thanks for that, I'll check it out. [/quote] It's available as part of last year's box set or on its own as blu-ray audio. I got the blu-ray audio and it also came with a code for a high resolution FLAC download.

All of those that have voted for Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair might want to check out Steven Wilson's remix of the album. It's been completely rebuilt from the original analogue master tapes, all the 80s reverb fog removed and replaced with a more subtle use of modern reverb, and all the mastering compression removed and replaced by a flat transfer. It sounds amazing and you can actually hear all the different parts; Mothers Talk is an absolute revelation.

I was going to question the authenticity of this track but listening to the rest of the mix (which you can hear in the background) it appears to be genuine, possibly a recording of a studio mix -featuring a count in and a proper ending (ie no fade out). Very interesting. I've got the "Classic Albums" DVD of Rio and if you're interested in that sort of thing, it's well worth a watch. I also read an interview with Ian Little, producer of Duran Duran's single "Is there something I should know" where he admits to messing up the recording of Roger Taylor's drum tracks and having to get his engineer, Phil Thornallie (who just happened to also be the Cure's bass player at the time) to rebuild the tracks from samples. Whenever these rumours of JT not playing on DD recordings surface, I wonder if this is the cause of that rumour (ie. This story being inaccurately re-told plus people getting their Taylors mixed up).

Deleted (duplicate post)

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1448445676' post='2915417'] The SB1000 reissues have generic hardware that's quite different to that used the Matsumoku originals - I wouldn't be surprised if they had more conventional string spacing. [/quote] I had a JT signature re-issue and can confirm that the re-issues do have wider spacing at the bridge.

So it was you that won that Ebay auction, I'd put a bid on it but went on holiday a day before the auction ended and was outbid! Anyway, it's some consolation that someone from here got it and I'm glad you're enjoying it. By the way, have you stripped off the blue paint to reveal the original finish?

I agree on the horns but I suppose it would be rude to invite UB40's horn section and not let them play.

It's strange, I'd never thought of Mick Karn as a "standards" player. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, quite the opposite in fact, I'd just always thought his playing was too stylised and too individual to fit into a "house band". A man of great talent.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nXzpC5cYXbI Found this on YouTube last night, never seen it before. As well as Midge Ure on guitar, Mark Brzezicki and Phill Collins on drums, I thought you might recognise the guy playing the Wal bass. Quite a house band.

Pretty much the same that has been said already - moderate volume through sans-amp and hifi before 9pm, headphones thereafter. If I want to "stretch my legs" a little or play through a bass rig I use one of the sound-proofed practice rooms at work.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1436910580' post='2822061'] I`ve flitted continually over the years, but always end up back with Rotosound Steel Rounds. Just got a new Precision, factory fitted Fender nickel-plated steel roundwounds sound amazing at home, and at practice when playing on my own, feel great too, but once the band starts, well for what I do they are far too warm and nice sounding. Roto Rounds just have that aggression to them - even when they`re old they still work for me better than any others. [/quote] But keep an eye on your frets though.

We always used to have a drums, bass and vocal only song that we'd drop into the set when the guitarist broke a string.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1435021207' post='2804781'] Work out if the bass has a passive mode and what controls will work if active mode goes west for any reason. [/quote] Unless you have active pickups, in which case nothing will work. Good tip about the screwdriver, it's easy to forget about that - I think I'll go and put one in with my Spector. By the way, which bass did you get?

Active pickups, active EQ or both? My first "Active" was sold to me as having active pickups but I later discovered that the EMG Hz pickups that it had were actually passive and the "active" part of the bass was the EQ circuit. Not that it was anything to get too upset about, passive / active hybrids often combine the best of both worlds (MusicMan Stingray, Aria SB1000, etc).

Cash ... always useful (and often forgotten! ).

I've never had a "Cort" but I have a couple of MIK Fenders that were manufactured by them (the pots even have Cort written on them) and while one is OK the other is absolutely brilliant, punching well above its weight in terms of both sound and playability.