darkandrew

Yes, I think that was the one. I never actually got around to doing it though, so cannot comment on whether it's any good or not.

I've forgotten the exact name of it but isn't there a polish for wooden gunstocks that you can apply over an oiled surface that will harden and protect it? It was recommended to me for applying to an Ernie Ball MM bass neck (although I've never done it myself).

I didn't find it that controversial to be honest. I understand what he's saying about needing different techniques for different situations and agree 100% with his sentiments regarding the fact that live your tone is either made or lost by the person on the mixing desk.

Absolutely - the bass playing all over the album is spot-on, whether it's experimental (such as on the title track) or more straight forward (such as on Angel Eyes) it is has both creativity and "groove". The album as a whole has also aged very well - I suppose being too late for a "70's" album and too early for an "80's" album meant that it escaped the worst excesses of both decades.

I've just been listening to Roxy Music's "Manifesto" in my car and am reminded what a great album it is. One track that stood out for me in terms of its bass playing was "Stronger Through The Years" - some great bass playing that goes off in all sorts of directions, so much so that I couldn't believe just how much freedom the bass player appears to have been given considering that they were a session musician (although I believe Gary Tibbs had played with them for a while), which brings me to my question: The album credits both Gary Tibbs and Alan Spenner with playing bass but doesn't say who played on which track - does anyone know who played on this track?

Hasn't Derek Forbes made some instruction videos?

Is this Mr Wimbish I've spotted playing with this (relatively) obscure German band? By the way - If you are into obscure German dance music (or even if you're not), check out Schiller's version of Ultravox's Vienna that they performed as an encore at their Symphonia concert with a full orchestra and a Scottish bloke that used to have a dodgy moustache and even dodgier sideburns.

+1 on the Meguires Ultimate Compound - a great product which gets used in our house for everything from removing wax crayons off doors, shoe marks off hard floors, polishing my guitars / basses, and polishing hand bag scrapes, bush scrapes and pretty much any other light "brush" type scrape off of my car.

I've always liked Paradise Lost and have bought all albums from Draconian Times onwards. When I first bought "Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us" I thought it was OK, put a few of the songs on my Best Of Paradise Lost playlist and then pretty much forgot about the album as a whole. Anyway, this week I put the whole Faith Divides Us album on play on a long car journey and was completely blown away by it. A great combination of light and dark, heavy and soft, melodic and brutal. Their most recent album "Medusa" might be a bit too dark and gloomy for some tastes, similarly the recently re-released "Host" and "One Second" might be too poppy for others, however "Faith Divides Us" is a great example of how all the elements that Paradise Lost have become known for over the years can come together to make a great album.

I was just wondering what the margin would be on a new bass or guitar? Ie. Would the shop make more out of a commission sale or selling their own stock?

I got my Euro 5LX in near-mint condition for £750 and it was worth every single penny - great quality and great tone at a very reasonable price.

I found the original article that it references a very interesting read. Obviously QJ has very definite opinions on a lot of things but he has also earned the right to those opinions. I also there's a lot of humour and banter in what he says that could be taken the wrong way.

I get what you're saying but designing and making a really nice bass and then putting cheap knobs on it, or not even giving them a thought and just using whatever generic knobs are laying around is like Porsche or Ferrari sending their cars out of the factory with whatever were the cheapest "ditch-finder" tyres they could get hold of at the time. One of the worst offenders that I have is a £1500 ESP guitar that just has the most boring, generic knobs that they probably paid no more than a few pence for, however I've tried countless other designs on it and not really managed to find anything that I really like on it.

Oooh, they look good and would definitely not look out of place on my aforementioned Spector Euro - I might have to try to get hold of a set.

That's also around the same time that McDonalds opened their first restaurant but I wouldn't stick a burger on the front of my bass.

And while I'm ranting away to my myself: stacked knobs - whoever thought that making us gorilla fingered bass players fumble around with the bottom ring of a stacked knob mid gig would be a good idea?!

Following on from another thread about headstock shapes, and not at all being childish and just writing "knobs" for comic effect, I would like to discuss the said appendages. Some knobs, such as those found on Warwick basses seem to have a good, satisfying feel to them and fit in well with the overall design of the bass while others (yes you, Spector) are plasticy and feel cheap on an otherwise quality instrument, and as for the Epiphone Jack Casady bass - is that a bakerlite knob from a1950's radio set? Anway, let's share our thoughts and experiences on probably the least expensive component on our basses.

A couple of things that maybe will help - one I tell my kids at school and one I use myself: Firstly, don't learn mistakes. If you make a mistake and repeat it, you will learn the mistake and it is surprisingly hard to unlearn something. So slow it right down to begin with, learn it right and then pick up the tempo. Secondly, if it sounds right then it IS right. Many recordings will include multi-tracked bass parts or parts that have various passages punched in. To recreate these parts to technical perfection may not be possible; so have a good listen to it, pick out the main parts that either carry the groove or melody and focus on getting that sounding right. If you can put together a bass line that sounds right and compliments the rest of the arrangement then you've done your job. There's a hotly debated thread on here about Jerry Barnes, the current bass player in Chic. The debate almost entirely centres around the fact that Jerry plays his own take on what works with the songs and doesn't recreate Edwards' bass lines note for note - people on here are pretty split over whether this is a good thing or not, but if I went to Chic gig and everything sounded right together (as it invariably does) then I'd leave as a happy punter regardless of whether the bass lines had been played exactly as they were recorded - like I said at the start, if it sounds right then it IS right.

I always regret never seeing The Cure. My favourite period of theirs was around the release of Disintegration and Wish, and it was just around then that they did a gig at Crystal Palace Bowl in South-East London which was just down the road from me at the time; to this day, I've got no idea why I didn't go and see them and regret not doing so. I know they still do the occasional festival here and there but I've got the feeling that if I see them now, I'm going to leave disappointed.

Also worth checking out are mid 1980's Westone basses; these were made by the same team, Matsumoku, that were behind the early 80's Arias.

And why not? And what a lovely one you have sir!

I've had a couple Arias over the years - an SB1000 (shown in the pictures above) and an Integra. The quality of the SB1000 was as good as (probably better than) any other bass I've owned including a USA Music Man and German Warwick Custom Shop basses but I wouldn't put the Integra, as good as it is, in the same league; it sounds good enough, really good actually - it was my default "rock" bass until I got the EBMM Sterling, but the fit-and-finish is a bit hap-hazard. It's fine for a mid-priced bass (cost me about £500 I think) but just could not compete with the SB1000.

I could take Frank Blank's lead but use a water pistol instead - having said that, taking a gun full of an unidentified liquid into a gig is probably frowned upon these days too.

Regardless of whether the band (or other artist) mind or not, standing at the front of an audience with your iPhone or iPad switched on and held in the way of everybody else's view is an incredibly selfish thing to do.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42851434 Absolutely agree with this; I've had more than enough of going to gigs and other events, and facing a sea of other peoples' mobile phone screens in front of me.