tauzero

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1369050348' post='2084198'] Well unfortunately I'm getting married in two months [/quote] You could probably have phrased that better...

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1369040890' post='2084081'] Steve is hoping to do another one in a couple of months, so I'll be trying to drum up some support for that. [/quote] I'd be interested in the next one.

Songs used to be pretty easy to learn - to quote Jonathan King, they were verse, chorus, verse, chorus, clever bit, verse, chorus. That's pretty easy to cope with, you just learn the bassline to each bit by repetition, putting in whatever fancy bits seem to work, and then stick them all together, coping with the odd little thing like a double length verse. Nowadays it seems more common for songs to have a constantly-varying structure so you have to learn a more complex structure assembled from smaller building blocks. I find that playing along with something a few times is generally enough but I've got rather slack in knowing what chords I'm playing to so I've got rather too pattern-based for my own liking.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1368488089' post='2077768'] [size=4]Raygun Relics at it again! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400485813700&ssPageName=ADME:B:FSEL:GB:1123"]http://cgi.ebay.co.u...:B:FSEL:GB:1123[/url][/size] [/quote] Not sure about the term "refurbished". Wouldn't "defurbished" be more accurate?

You can get long reach hangers. I have one of these [url="http://www.herculesstands.com/guitars/GSP40WB.html"]http://www.herculesstands.com/guitars/GSP40WB.html[/url] holding an Ashbory in between two short-arm hangers holding more conventional basses to save a bit of room. Here we go:

A company that Mrs Zero used to work for pulled the same stunt (some time after making her redundant). However HMRC were waiting for them at the other end of the tunnel and, because the previous company had folded owing £100k or so of VAT, ordered the new company to pre-pay £60k VAT as a surety. The new company didn't and as a result got fined and had to pay £60k compensation. So it's not all bad news. [url="http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/northamptonshire-businessman-forced-to-pay-back-60-000-to-inland-revenue-1-3493985"]http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/northamptonshire-businessman-forced-to-pay-back-60-000-to-inland-revenue-1-3493985[/url]

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1368449641' post='2077142'] You mean that you don't have the power to say whatever you want? I certainly do. [/quote] If that were true then Peter Carter-Ruck would have to make his living in more socially acceptable ways, such as clubbing baby seals or selling crack to schoolchildren.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1368446788' post='2077093']Matter is also a general term for the substance that makes up all observable physical objects. [/quote] Don't forget the 90% of the matter in the universe that is currently unobservable - dark matter. I think it's actually Marmite.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1367937218' post='2071216'] Basswood is a relative of pine? How? [/quote] They both come from trees. He doesn't say it's a close relative.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1367791234' post='2069548'] [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hand-Finished-Unique-Precision-51-Bass-Guitar-Body-Jooky-Strappado-Project-Rust-/171033364263?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item27d2620727"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item27d2620727[/url] Am I missing some vital information? Unique? Thank god!!! [/quote] I think that the middle area looks rather nice but around the edges it looks like someone's taken a blowtorch to it.

A friend of mine put up this non-bass auction: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111061250684"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111061250684[/url] Someone asked him what was the least he would take. The consequences may be seen in the Q&A part.

[quote name='leonshelley01' timestamp='1367687113' post='2068452'] Nope, it's going to have to go. Been playing it all afternoon and after all those years of playing skinny necked jazz basses this feels as uncomfortably big as my Precision's neck (which I don't play either!). Shame because it sound's great. [/quote] Get the neck reprofiled. It cost me £220 to have a Thumb defretted and the neck reprofiled so it's not ridiculously expensive.

[quote name='iceonaboy' timestamp='1367757752' post='2069089'] I always thought in big venues, you could never hear yourself properly anyway. At least in my experience. Ive always found big stages to be a nightmare, there is always something you are not hearing properly [/quote] There had been some problem on the stage, so we were restricted to playing on the bit in front of the curtain. A wide and very shallow stage isn't conducive to good foldback anyway.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1367441536' post='2065811'] Seems an odd thing to say, what's that all about? [/quote] They came to the conclusion that I was homophobic because I support gay marriage but I don't think it's wrong for people to be opposed to it. This is a view I share with that well-known homophobe Peter Tatchell. That's why I stay out of Off Topic these days.

I think I'm now calm enough to relate the story of last Saturday. This gig is one we've done before - it's the ceilidh band without Mrs Zero, our regular caller, and with another caller. The organisation is the Pink Sou'Westers, a Birmingham-based GLBT group, who I enjoy playing for despite what the Basschat Thought Police think about me. Got there first, unloaded (I was also doing the PA), set up, soundchecked. Couldn't get the melodeon as loud as I'd have liked through the foldback as it was feeding back (it's got two small external mics on goosenecks fastened to it). Mrs Zero checked the FOH balance which was fine. Played the first set. Melodeon player said in the interval that she couldn't hear things very well. Tried to get a bit more melodeon in the foldback mix through the second set (not helped by her forgetting to turn the sodding thing on for the first dance). We got to the end of the second set, everyone had danced, most of them were dancing the whole evening. Then the melodeon player came over to me and absolutely laid into me. "I couldn't hear the f***ing foldback, I might as well not have f***ing been hear, it was f***ing crap". So I told her that she could supply the PA for the next gig (her and the dulcimer player, husband and wife, have a PA but she wanted me to bring mine). Soon afterwards, Mrs Zero (unaware of the tongue-lashing I'd just had and the criticism of the foldback) told her that the sound was great out front, only to have exactly the same directed at her. They'd also relayed the news a bit earlier that we've been asked not to go back to a pub that we've rehearsed in for some years. I suspect it's because the last couple of times we've played there on a Sunday whereas we used to rehearse there on a Wednesday, but the melodeon player thought that it was because we were crap. She also had a go at Mrs Zero about my bass playing (as apparently that was what was crap about the rehearsals). Quite frankly, the woman is an obnoxious cow. Mrs Zero and I will be playing our last gig with them next month and then quitting.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1367365525' post='2064860'] In what way is it an upright bass? [/quote] The same way as a Dean Pace is. Bass onna stick, innit. Except that it hasn't even got the stick.

One of them skinny six-string things. I wonder if the maker will turn his hand to basses. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230973044411"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230973044411[/url]

I had one of these - great instrument but I found five strings on an upright a bit too much (I have no problems with 5-string basses) and went back to my WAV-4. And I use a Sportube case (ski or snowboard, can't remember which) when I want to put an EUB into a hard case.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1367223453' post='2062624'] Or the Beeb stops reporting on daft subjects? [/quote] Who will be the arbiter of daftness? Can't see the problem. The BBC has reported that a number for a certain arbitrary event which is recorded in a book has been surpassed by another number for that same event. I suspect you won't find details of the 5000m world record holder's inside leg in the Guinness Book of Records, though it might well have some influence on said world record.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1364938135' post='2033144'] Just wish that the power supply lead was longer, and a bit sturdier. [/quote] I have an extension lead for the PSU on my B3, and one for the wireless receiver too, and they're both attached with cable ties to the jack-jack cable running from the amp to the B3 output. And I never wrap the PSU cable round the wall-wart, I always coil it separately, which I think gives the cable an easier life where it goes into the wall-wart body.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1366993928' post='2060112'] It really depends on the venues you tend to play at. We play a lot of hotels that insist on PLI - we keep a laminated copy of ours in the lead box. [/quote] We played at one hotel that insisted on it (fair enough) but it was £10M, not the usual £1M or £2M. Fortunately the bride and groom paid for it.

After a few minutes trying to get this working and finally managing it, I think another thing that you have to watch for is that it must be http:// and not https:// (which I suspect is what you get if you're logged in to Google).

[quote name='jsixties' timestamp='1366910136' post='2058980'] Take a look at the matched set of tubes that he have for sale: [url="http://www.ebay.com/itm/7355-tubes-Matched-pair-/321113126140?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4ac3d574fc"]http://www.ebay.com/...=item4ac3d574fc[/url] Yeah, looks like they are "good" as stated. :-) [/quote] How many tubes in a pair?

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200917092544"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200917092544[/url] Doesn't look entirely 6-string to me and no sign of the triple tuning fork. If only it hadn't got a head...