paul_5

Not here - OC2 still rocks my world - "were it not against God's holy law, I'd make ye my wife!!!"

I HAVE to make a bottle bass - brilliant!

I know it's problematic trying to use language to describe sound, but for me a P bass has a 'fruity' richness to it, and a J has an edgy rasp. Hope this helps.. probably doesn't though. Ah semantics, you don't half muck things about.

Learn to say 'No' occasionally; don't get burnt our playing for every Tom, Dick and Harry that needs a bass player just so that you feel busy. Save some time to be with yourself and your family. Oh, and the first 5 frets pay the bills.

I bought one, put it down my pants and now I have a 'third leg' - snake oil indeed!

Just seen this - everyone has an 'off day' - good job there was a camera there to capture this, as Geddy doesn't have that many. The first time I saw Rush (Sheffield on the Roll the Bones tour) Neil missed part of the drum intro to 'Force Ten' - opening number too... still a great live band, but then they should be for £70!

"Why not make ten louder, and let ten be the loudest?" "This one goes to eleven"

[quote name='thunderbird13' post='1087269' date='Jan 12 2011, 09:30 PM']Funnily enough I just did - or rather tired to , my call was rejected. [/quote] Forget them, they're obviously playing silly buggers. I wouldn't sweat it though. Sounds like you did well at the audition, so it's their loss. There aren't that many solid bass players with good gear, a professional attitude and their own transport out there ('cos we're all on here!); the law of averages says that eventually all the planets will come into alignment and everything will just click. The bad bit is the waiting, can be a bit frustrating. Sounds like you had a lucky escape with these jokers - if they can't even work a phone then how the hell can they operate PA etc... probably something else you'd get roped into (IME it's only bass players who do this). Don't take it personally and don't let the negativity of this experience dull your passion for playing.

This (ladies and gentlemen) is, in my humble opinion, the best pop record ever made; ever. It's quite simply perfect. Cheers for this.

I think to get an accurate response you'd first have t define the term 'art'. The idea of simply 'provoking an emotional response' isn't enough (as we have already seen), so should that definition be stretched a little to include whether or not it 'says something about the human condition', or challenges its consumer to reevaluate their sense of place in the world or personal value system? Are there links between art and something which is considered culturally worthwhile?. Hmm, I'm really tired so I'm going to bed shortly. Just a little food for thought.

[quote name='Chris2112' post='1084624' date='Jan 10 2011, 06:50 PM']...is now like a bass hermit, pedalling the same tired crap and failing to do anything inventive in over a decade. He's a relic of the 90's, how strange that he doesn't just retire![/quote] Probably because he's still making new albums full of interesting, creative music?

TOMH: Tom Sawyer - Rush Gloria ( I think part 3, but I'll check) - Antonio Vivaldi Hysteria - Muse (can't resist this one) Army of me - Bjork ( I now it's sequenced, but it's still a killer line). IIBS - Charles Mingus - that motif just kicks ass. loads of other stuff, impossible to fit into 5 slots.

For the most part I like the Rotosound swingbass strings. Once you get over the first raspy, abrasive week then you're good to go. I also like Elixirs and DRs, but it depends on how busy I am as player - if I don't have a lot of gigs booked then I'll go for the cheapest option just to keep my hand in.

Hucking Fell!!!! I just choked on some peanuts (must read food packaging more carefully), that's just ridiculous. I'm a twin (not a fender though), I reckon by this sort of market value I could sell myself for £5,000 easily (i've only got a couple of scuffs too). I must confess that neither I or my twin brother is 'very very load' (sic), nor are we 'fully loaded with valves', but we must be worth a few quid. Has the world gone mad?

Duly noted.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='1082718' date='Jan 8 2011, 11:08 PM']Why have the male members of the band got her name on their t shirts, yet the female backing singers haven't?[/quote] Hur hur hur, you said 'male members'! Seriously though, this girl's got some skills, definitely on the 'watch' list.

If you want to concentrate on note pitches (which dot/line) and don't necessarily want to focus on the rhythms or note lengths, then why not try "JS Bach for Bass" from the same guy?. These are (not surprisingly) Bach cello / organ pieces arranged for bass. The reason I suggest this is that the pitch changes happen very slowly (pitches only really change at the start of every bar), and the majority of the book is based on arpeggios - always useful. To sum up you're learning pitch recognition at a gentle pace, chord and arpeggio shapes (and also training your ear to recognise major/minor types and inversions), and thridly you'll have a couple of party pieces in the bag. Also, if Bach stuff was good enough for Cliff Burton to study, then I'm prepared to give it a go. *Edit* The book comes with a CD that is fairly shocking - you have been warned*

"Pocket Rock-it", plugs directly into the bass, comes with headphones and a minijack input for iPods / metronomes etc... Two built in amp types (can also be used as a recording preamp, but not tried that). Nice. I bought mine for exactly the same reason as you. Now, Kids happy, Wife happy ergo, I'm happy. [url="http://www.pocketrockit.com/Page.php?id=0022s1b"]Pocket Rock-it[/url] you can probably find the cheaper elsewhere on the net.

Venus in Furs by the Velvet Underground. Mmmmmmmm. The world needs more songs about sexual deviance and heroin.

Hmm, not the ugliest bass I've seen, not the purtiest either... I'd probably play it, not sure I'd buy it though.

I think unless you're in an 80's cover band and have to double synth basslines then you should just have fun. The vast majority of my gigs have been pubs/functions/original stuff, so I've always felt free to embellish a little (alright, sometimes a lot) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Obviously there are certain figures and licks that you'll HAVE to play (Good Times being one), but I wouldn't sweat it. That said, I've also done 'pit' shows and recitals where it's an MD/Conductor gig, and in this situation THERE SHALL BE NO DEVIATION FROM THE SCORE!!! Your mate is simply a guitard, and doesn't know any better, if he wants to stress over the 1/4 tone bend during a specific chromatic quintuplet phrase in an AC/DC song then fine, it could also be that Angus just slid his hand down the neck and slipped a bit in the middle... I still reckon punters at gigs would rather see a band enjoying themselves than grimacing their way through 2 45s.

I noticed that recently on BC certain music shops have had a bit of a flaming, and thought to myself that one day, if I ever had a really positive experience of a retailer then I would share it to redress the balance. It happened today. I spent 20 minutes on the phone to Watford Valves and spoke to a guy called Derek. I called about retubing my Ampeg SVP PRO, and he asked a lot of pertinent questions (what sort of sound do you want? etc... ) and eventually we settled on a set of valves. Even once he'd made the sale he continued to answer all of my questions regarding other makes of valves and transformer issues etc... A thoroughly nice (and very knowledgeable) chap. I can't recommend these guys enough. Good to see staff in music retail who actually give a sh*t about their customers. That is all.

If you're not having an FX loop (as has been suggested) then I'd plump for a built-in optical compressor. I agree with the pre/post switchabe DI, but also put a 'ground lift' on there too, just in case. Also I prefer to steer clear of graphs (in 15 years I've never used the 9 band on my Ampeg), favouring semi-parametric stuff instead. Not sure about the dual concentric pots, if you take out the graph then arguably you've got more room for a knob for everything. This isn't a deal-breaker though, as I've used this setup on a lot of desks and it's really user-friendly, so I could go either way on this. Would be a shame to cramp everything up to one end of the casing. Big Knobs are a must.

I've been getting BGM since May when my wife bought me a subscription for my birthday (which was nice). I look forward to it arriving, but it's more of a 'distraction' than anything else. I was particularly keen to read the Scott Thunes interview, as I'm quite a big Zappa fan - mine hasn't arrived yet. Bummer - the one article that they print that actually has me counting down the days...