tauzero

[quote name='ped' post='692713' date='Dec 24 2009, 12:16 AM']I was just billed by the HMRC - £1,800 by jan 31st! Terrific![/quote] Blimey, you don't earn much.

[quote name='uzzell' post='678034' date='Dec 8 2009, 03:21 PM']I played a gig the other night and the bass player from the other 'team' nudged me on the elbow and whispered 'wanna see me bass?' I replied with a reluctant yes at which point he did a drum roll with his mouth followed by the Carmina Burana vocal chant whipped it out out its case and said 'there [b]she[/b] is, isnt [b]she[/b] the most beautiful [b]girl[/b] you've ever seen?' The whole experience sent shivers down my spine and the funny thing was his bass was an Epi Thunderbird!!![/quote] I'd have thought "Quasimodo" would be an appropriate name for that. Or "Quasimodette" if he insists it's a girl.

[quote name='Eight' post='678556' date='Dec 8 2009, 10:18 PM']On the other hand, I used to spend a lot of time setting up servers which need network names and always found it so boring to use a naming scheme like apps002... so coming up with cool names was always the highlight of my job.[/quote] Only as long as you don't think character names from LotR or, even worse, Harry Potter, are "cool".

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='677205' date='Dec 7 2009, 09:08 PM']I'm just wondering because the more i think about the guitar player in our band, the more i don't really like him. Obviously, we have to work with poeple you don't like, so do you think this applies to being in a band as well? The problem is that we live in the middle of nowhere and we're having enough trouble finding anyone as it is, so we can't really afford to ditch him so i dunno i just have to work with what the hell i got i suppose.[/quote] Don't like on a personal basis, don't like on a musical basis, or don't like on what I suppose you could call a professional basis? I've never been in a band with someone I disliked personally, though in a couple of bands I never really got to know much of the other members anyway. I haven't had much problem in the way of musical dislikes, though I admit to loathing the UB40 songs the old covers band did, while the guitarist loved them. The biggest problem I've had is the professional aspect - most recently the vocalist of the former covers band, who used to drink far too much. It looked bad and it made him sound bad. However, because we did all like each other personally and the drummer, the guitarist and I all lacked the killer instinct, we never managed to get round to sacking him. He finally left, which eased the situation.

A valid reason for me to say that Jaco is overrated: a little while back in the alt.guitar.bass newsgroup, someone said that Jaco had influenced every fretless bassist on the planet. As I'd been playing fretless for years before I'd even heard of him, and since then have only heard two or three of his tracks, then that statement was very definitely overrating him.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='660167' date='Nov 20 2009, 02:20 PM']Sure. But you gotta admit even the thinnest 5s have a substantial neck when compared to even the fattest 4s. I own a pretty slim-necked 5 myself and it's still quite a bit bigger than the biggest 4-string Precision I've ever played, especially when you go up the neck.[/quote] I have several 5-strings with less substantial necks than some 4-strings, and a 7-string with a less bulky neck than a typical Warwick 5-string. I also have one bass which is a 5-string conversion from a 4-string using a Wilkinson 4+1 bridge, hence it has an identical neck to a 4-string...

Ashdown Superflies and lager shandy don't mix. Put drink on shelf behind amp, about the same level as the top of the speaker cab, then a couple of songs after doing that, everything went quiet behind me. Glass had slid to edge of shelf and tipped up, top inch or so had gone onto side, back, and a little onto the top of the amp. All front panel lights (and there's a lot of them on a Superfly) still flashing, power section dysfunctional. Plugged into PA to finish the gig. Gig went well, audience liked us, although there's a couple of songs we made huge cockups on that we really shouldn't. We're back there on 2nd January so we'll try and get everything sorted out for then. Post-mortem: took amp home, took off top and side panels, washed out shandy residue with clean water, put on radiator to dry out. Tested it twelve hours later (ie. half an hour ago) and it's in full voice once more.

[quote name='OldGit' post='673797' date='Dec 4 2009, 12:11 AM']Corporate Ceilidh gig? Make absolutely sure the organiser is making a big deal about it to the punters attending - and calling it a Barn Dance - you need them in checked shirts and pink cowgirl hats rather than suites and tight little skirts ie set the expectation and don't spring it on them. Unless you like seeing your caller suffer [/quote] Yes, in the grand tradition of ceilidhs, they don't realise it's a British Isles thing so it's Western dress and a casino at one end of the room. And two bars. And it's a barn dance, not a ceilidh. As the caller is Mrs Zero, and if she suffers, so do I, I have a vested interest in minimising her suffering. But she's also the one doing the organising from our end and speaking to the corporate organiser so her suffering is in her own hands. It would be nice to get a bit of repeat business out of this one...

[quote name='jakesbass' post='667164' date='Nov 27 2009, 10:55 AM']2. place enough generic material in the set that you please enough of the people enough of the time (most function bands fit this category)[/quote] IRTA "genetic material" and I wondered just what percentage of the female members of the audience were usually up for it, seeing as we (the ceilidh band) are just about to do our first corporate gig. I suspect Mrs Zero, who is our caller, would look somewhat askance at me distributing my seed.

If it's a faithful copy, it'll be truly horrible to play.

Bassists. They're just failed guitarists with poor personal hygiene and charisma bypasses, after all.

Not many people there - knew most of the audience by name... However, it was a chance to have a little live trot-out for the ad-hoc blues band (minus our gobiron player, who's recovering from pneumonia). And the interval band was me and Mrs Zero - we haven't done any gigs since August or so, so half an hour or so was a good opportunity to play out and for Mrs Zero to regain her confidence.

I prefer unlined on the basis of ( a ) it looks kewl and ( b ) there's a chance that the dots will be where the notes are rather than in between. As my Thumb fretless is a defret, it fails on both those counts (although the lines are pretty well invisible now).

[quote name='sk8' post='649406' date='Nov 9 2009, 09:22 AM']Once the 9.0's hit Bass Direct i'm off to try the Classic and 9.0 to see which to get...............[/quote] And then a week later you'll get the other one. Will I have time to save up before you sell?

[quote name='chris_b' post='645612' date='Nov 4 2009, 07:34 PM']You can get feet for cabs from Maplins for about £3 for the set.[/quote] Rather delightfully, in a catalogue a few years ago, Maplin described them as "sick on feet".

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='648521' date='Nov 8 2009, 03:32 AM']At the height of his powers, Mark had 90 basses.[/quote] Blimey, how many fences did he own?

[quote name='budget bassist' post='648387' date='Nov 7 2009, 09:44 PM']how good do you expect it to sound if you actually put it IN the amp? [/quote] Pete Townshend did that on a regular basis.

For cheap ones that you can buy two or three of and leave in bass cases, the old Tanglewood ones are good (not sure about the current ones, I haven't tried one), and the Korg CA-30.

That's not a conversion. Look at the back of the paddle, there's no holes in it. Let me explain it all. The dummy headstock is because it uses conventional strings, which don't have very short overwindings like the untuner end of double ball strings. If you look at the strings as they come from the headstock, if they were anchored at the neck end instead of a little way away from it, there would be overwinding on the string between the nut and the first fret. The wooden bit on the end allows a Fender-type bent tin string retainer rather than some immensely solid metal extension. The plate on the back with the four holes is a more difficult one to explain, but looking at how narrow those bridge elements are, I think that the holes are for getting through to height adjusters. Et viola, not a conversion but an innovative piece of construction, only let down by the fact that it's hideous.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='639538' date='Oct 28 2009, 10:35 PM']I really will never, ever get my head around relic'ing.[/quote] "Beautifully restored". That explains why so many old Fenders look like sh*t, they looked like that when they came out of the factory. Why oh why don't people just buy proper basses that the paint doesn't fall off, or, ideally, that don't have paint on them in the first place?