tauzero

I did write a song which was loosely based on that - it was actually an anti-racism song based on the premise of him being human and her being humanoid but green and with four arms. And there were three moons, none of which exploded.

Don't forget the William Shatner tribute.

My tinnitus has been pretty constant over the last 20 years or so, ever since I first realised I had it (I put some earplugs in for the first time ever and realised that the whistle I thought was coming from the telly was inside my head). Since then, I've worn earplugs every time I've ridden the bike, but not for rehearsals or gigs with any bands. I only notice it when someone mentions tinnitus, in fact. Bah.

I think you'll find that Toronto is a city and England is a country. Canada probably has 40 people per square km. That aside, are there simply different cultures in terms of youth and music? My own schooldays are long-gone, but there were maybe 10-15% of us that played instruments of a rock persuasion (this was in a school which was very classically-orientated), and I think there's still a pretty strong cadre of young rock musicians coming on, if my nephews are anything to go by. When you were at school, did you have many other budding musicians there with you, or were you a tiny minority? If there weren't many of you then, there's going to be even fewer of you now - as your own Mr Adams said, Jimmy quit and Jody got married, whereas Tarquin and Jemima saw the money-earning potential of Henna Skin Painting.

The batteries will never run down.

Indeed. When I'm feeling a bit like taking a risk, I just do a mental checklist (this may sometimes result in minor things like PA speaker stands being omitted). When I really, really want to get things right, I use an app called ColorNote on my phone which allows me to create a checklist which I can reuse to my heart's content. Oh, and when I have more than one silver case and I want one and not the other, I open it up to check I've got the right one.

You should try a Hohner/Steinberger/Westone cricket bat out. Lightweight and should fit nicely under the frontal area under discussion. Is it possible that Tal's, er, deployment is actually intentional? I suppose that's the sort of question that is never asked at an interview (and I'm not sure that it ever should be). After all, as you say, it isn't as if she couldn't afford a bass that would be more female-friendly.

Able to listen to the drummer to lock in. Able to listen to the guitar/keys if playing anything other than root notes, so the fills/grace notes don't sound out of tune. Able to listen to the song to get dynamics and the right level of complexity. Able to get the products of that listening back out from your head and into your fingers without exceeding your skill level. This may mean working on your skill level, of course.

Kala have stopped making the cheap U-SUB, it's Californication or nothing now. I feel that buying one of the last remaining ones at Thomann is simply helping Thomann to clear space in their warehouse for more items for other buyers, and therefore allowing a wider range of items for my fellow bassists.

Yes, we've now got plenty of women playing blues and crappy old 'Dad rock'. I'm a bit surprised at the numbers - female guitarists, bassists, and drummers aren't exactly a novelty but don't seem to be 50% of band membership. Maybe they're hitting a glass rehearsal room door.

I don't have to bother buying combs any more. There was (and maybe still is) a website on which you could listen to a bit of music played on a P, a J, and a Stingray (might have been something else too) and try and identify which bass was which. I could, but only because I could make the comparison. Perhaps I'm cloth-eared. I know that the sound I get from my Warwicks (now disinterred and pressed back into action) is a complex one, but I can only hear that when I'm listening to the bass absolutely on its own with as little as possible extraneous noise. Indeed, any twin pickup bass (with both pickups going) is going to give a more complex sound than a single pickup, simply by the physics of the whole thing, but you'll never be able to hear the subtle nuances once the drummer piles in. I'm with those who have responded and said that it's not so much the tone that's in your fingers, it's your style. Two players playing an assortment of different basses will sound the same relative to each other on each bass, though each player won't sound the same in absolute terms on every bass.

The video is almost as bad as the song. Maybe that's intentional. Let's not forget, other Lennon songs got covered too...

Capacitors of whatever value present a higher impedance to lower frequencies than higher frequencies - the impedance doubles when the frequency halves. To give you some idea of values, at 100Hz (somewhere round E, 2nd fret of D string, with apologies for any inaccuracy) 10nF would be an impedance of 160k, and 100nF would be a tenth of that. So imagine a resistor of 320k replacing the 10nF capacitor when you're playing bottom E, 160k when you're playing an octave up, and 80k another octave up, and you'll see how the circuit behaves.

Things to do before joining a tribute band number 1: check what the bassist wears on stage. Or possibly select the band you'd like to be in a tribute to based on what the bassist wears on stage.

I thought it was FRFR speakers and IEMs that killed rock and roll. Although in the words of St Ian of Hunter, "The golden age of rock and roll will never die as long as kids still feel the need to laugh and cry", although social media may be replacing that.

I'm struggling to remember the last piece of bass gear I bought (although if I bought it any time before yesterday, that's not easy) - probably the BF BB2. My hoarding tendencies were rewarded, though, because I've been using 5-strings for several years now and kept my Warwick 4s for old times' sake, and now I've just been recruited to a Marillion tribute band so they've come out of retirement.

'og', surely? There's no L.

I like the original but SAHB's cover delights me.

How did we agree this one was going to end? (approximately 25 times per gig) Is Mrs Zero going to drive me home so I can have another pint? How mnya pnints is thatso faar?

I think it's stupid anointing people with titles like this. It's somewhat self-aggrandising of whoever does the anointing. Who appointed Pervis Spann (who?) as the arbiter of who was or wasn't soul royalty? Personally, I think she had a jolly good voice. I think it would be idiotic to have a title that was bestowed on her by some long-forgotten DJ get in the way of that.

Have you any datums to support that assertion? Coitum volantum non dono.

I feel sad for you, not being able to get any sort of thrill from playing covers. Originals and covers are rewarding in different ways. The originals band I'm in plays a few covers as well as originals (not that 99% of people would have heard of the bands we play covers of). The covers band I was in played several original numbers (until guitarist left and was replaced by another guitarist who was better but didn't want to play originals). I'm perfectly happy with a foot in both camps and can't see any point in slagging off either camp.

Somewhere less than 20 and more than 15. Three Seis, five Antoniotsais, two Warwicks, an Esh, a Peavey, a Dean, a Hohner, two Ashborys, an NS WAV-4, and a brace of acoustic basses. Half a dozen guitars - two Variaxes, a Squier, an Eko, a Tanglewood, and a Yamaha 12-string. Not quite sure where the Megatar goes (Chapman Stick derivative).

If only it was right-handed and a five-string... There's a similar one I've seen (Polish luthier IIRC) which solved the bottom contour problem by having a length of brass bar bent into a curve where the upper bout would be. Damned if I can find a picture though.

My Thumb wouldn't be anywhere near the tent pegs though, it's used solely for musical purposes.