KingBollock

I love my five string. I am thinking about putting the bottom four strings, from a five string set, in my beloved four string, just so I will start playing it again.

I wish I had the guts to have a go at it.

My Warlock is pretty black. The frets are steel and it has a white headstock logo and little white logos on the pick up covers, but other than that it is black. I have considered, and not given up on the idea of, changing the pick ups to DiMarzio DP127bk black bladed pick ups. I like the idea of black coated strings but I can't imagine they'd work well with a pick.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1428056200' post='2737503'] EDIT: Oooh - it's possible to buy gold bass guitar strings. Anyone else think that the jazz bass up there would look even better with gold strings rather than steel coloured ones? EDIT: Holy ... something! The following strings are gold coloured because they are actual gold plated! http://www.optima-strings.com/gold-strings-electric-bass.php#p2 [/quote] When I was a kid I bought a set of those for my guitarist bother, for his birthday. Thomson do a five string set that I might be very tempted to try at some point, they'd look gorgeous on my Cort (which isn't a particularly black bass so probably shouldn't mention it in this thread...).

Not really my kind of thing, but it can't be as embarrassing as the time I was bouncing around the room playing guitar along to Shania Twain and my wife and best mate walked in...

[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1427908375' post='2735785'] I've been playing a few years, Twincam. Maybe longer than you have if you're a 'relative novice'! Never enough practice in that time though, obviously. [/quote] Do you play with a pick at all?

[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1427843161' post='2735078'] Yes - in fact I have already done that (as well as put it into drop D instead of drop C as per the singer's request)! [/quote] This is where I like to use Guitar Pro to pick songs apart. You can alter the tuning of the tracks and isolate tracks. You can also slow it down without altering pitch and loop isolated sections easily, which is immensely helpful, I find. All while following the tab or score. The iPad app isn't as versatile as the PC program.

As I no longer play in bands I don't need to warm up for performances, so I don't do any specific warm up exercises. I like to practice/play for a couple of hours every day and don't find I have to warm up if I have played the previous day. However, if I have been unable to play for a couple of days, for whatever reason, it can take about ten minutes to warm up.

When anyone ever talks about warming up it always reminds me of reversing in the winter at the Jam Pot in Arley. Because everyone used to help with everyone's loading in and out and setting up, it meant, rather than two journeys to get my own gear in, it would be several, and by the time we'd done, my fingers, rather than warmed up, would be stiff and turning blue and I'd barely be able to hold my bass for ten minutes, never mind play the damned thing. As for trying basses shops, the last bass I bought from a shop I was barely able to play while trying it out. It was a five string with a much wider string spacing than the one I already owned. But, oddly, I knew that it felt good, so I bought it. Once I got it home it took me four hours to get used to it. After that, though, I was fine with it and was able to switch between that and my four strings and the other five string easily.

I spent years thinking that I would like to try some kind of dirt for bass but struggled to find something I liked. I avoided fuzzes because of the name... It conjured a sound in my imagination that was unpleasant. Then, last year, I saw a YouTube video that compared various dirt boxes and one of them was a Big Muff, and I fell in love with the sound. So I built one. I have modded it a bit and will be adding more mods, but I am keeping the basic sound as an option, too. I also built a Musket, which is another modded Big Muff, which I haven't modded any further, yet, but will be doing at some point. I have them in the same box with an order switcher and a blend, I've named it Dank & Fetid. Love it.

I am actually currently building a rack mount DC power supply. It has four transformers in it, three of which have dual secondaries at 12v which will be regulated to 9v, and a separate 12v transformer for lighting. The output is a 25 way D-Sub socket that goes through a 5m cable to supply the regulator and filter section of my pedalboard PSU. This is so that there is no AC near the pedalboard. Anyhoo, as I don't yet have a proper power strip in my rack to run the actual rack, I have a normal extension power strip cable tied to the brackets on the back of the rack, so that it doesn't move around.

I finally found a music shop near by (as near by as anywhere is in this country...) that has the replacement reeds for the metal kazoos you find on shop counters. I wanted to buy a couple but, for various reasons I'm still not sure about, they wouldn't sell me any but gave me one for free... Anyway, they said that they get given them by the company that supplies the kazoos. So, if you find somewhere that sells those ones, they should also have the replacements.

[quote name='hairychris' timestamp='1427285312' post='2728219'] The UK doom scene is absolutely insane right now. Soooo many good bands. As for Serpent Venom... Yeah, all are good blokes. Nick has just ordered a Barefaced Vintage 6x10 (for those gear geeks amongst us) and is a silly bugger of the highest order. [/quote] Last time I spoke to him he was buying his third 8x10. It was a long time ago.

[quote name='Thump' timestamp='1427066371' post='2725490'] Don't forget "ad hominem" at every possible opportunity [/quote] That did give me the rather horrid feeling that it was going to turn into one of those "arguments" where no one actually makes any points, they just quote the names of arguments at each other. "That's a logical fallacy!" "Well... That's a straw man argument!" "How dare you?! That's an ad hominem!!" And so on...

Well, that's me off the hook. I don't have any testosterone and I'm not wearing any underwear.

I find the best way to not miss people who have left, and to be able to get into lively debates with the same people over and over again without it turning into a feud, is to have a really bad memory for people's names...

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1427054875' post='2725221'] This sort of post really wind me up....I have had enough and am now leaving. Don't even think about trying to stop me. I mean it. Don't try it. I mean it. [/quote] Don't try to stop me! I mean it, don't try to stop me! Don't try to stop me! Stop me! Stop me! Edit: I'm going to add the whole exchange because it's brilliant... [i]Captain James Hook: [holding a pistol to his head] No stopping me this time, Smee. This is it. Don't make a move Smee, not a step. My finger's on the trigger. Don't try to stop me, Smee. Smee: Oh, not again. Captain James Hook: This is it. Don't try to stop me this time, Smee. Don't try to stop me this time, Smee. Don't you dare try to stop me this time, Smee, try to stop me. Smee, you'd better get up off your ass. Get over here, Smee! Smee: I'm coming. I'm coming. Captain James Hook: Stop me! This is not a joke! I'm committing suicide! [Smee triggers the gun away from Hook's head, sinking the model ship in the pool] Captain James Hook: Don't ever frighten me like that again. Smee: I'm sorry. Captain James Hook: What are you, some kind of a sadist? Smee: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. How do you feel now? Captain James Hook: [sighs] I want to die. Smee: Oh, now, now.[/i] And entirely relevant.

Great, now I've got You're The One That I Want going around in my head.

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1426976228' post='2724436'] Your mad!! Think of the children!! [/quote] I do, as I rifle their prams and pushchairs looking for Rusks. Those things are too good for kids, but, well, I can't go and buy them for myself, can I...?

[quote name='Norm' timestamp='1426851507' post='2722666'] +1 38 years ago for me though. No regrets though, like playing drums & guitar but love playing bass! [/quote] I had the opposite problem, my dad [i]wanted[/i] to buy me a drum kit. Fortunately, after I explained that I knew people who played drums (and guitar) and it made more sense for me to play bass, he bought me a bass. Probably the best thing he ever did for me. Though I would still like the radio controlled monster truck that I really, desperately wanted at the time, and I keep dropping hints to my wife that I would like an electric drum kit.

On the Doomy side there's Serpent Venom. Their bass player is a proper lovely bloke. http://serpentvenom.bandcamp.com/album/of-things-seen-unseen Then, for something a bit harsher, there's Piss Viper. My wife works with the drummer and went to their first ever gig a couple of weeks ago. http://pissviper.bandcamp.com/releases And the wonderfully noisy Oaf. The bass player is Dom Lawson, the music journalist, and another top bloke. http://oafmusic.bandcamp.com I'll mention Beholder, too, the band that Piss Viper were supporting. They're from my old town and I played with their old guitarist, who now produces their albums instead, in my first ever proper band. https://beholderuk.wordpress.com

I have a notepad file (labelled: All Torque, No Trousers) full of phrases that have popped into my head. Most of them don't go anywhere, some end up as poems, and some turn into songs (some even end up as ideas for the names of effects pedals I plan on building). I remember being told that lyrics are just poems put to music, but I don't think that is right. I find poetry far easier to write than lyrics, and trying to use them as lyrics has proven difficult. Some of my favourite bands have specific lyrical themes, such as war, horror and Norse mythology, some tell ancient stories and some make up new ones. One day I might get around to writing the concept album I have in my head based on Richard K Morgan's A Land Fit For Heroes trilogy of novels.

Yeah, I have to admit that steel isn't ideal. I'd have gone for aluminium if it was magnetic. The little magnets that my wife uses have little steel discs that come with them. I might well use something less prone to corrosion and drill out holes to mount the steel discs into on the back of the cover.

I absolutely adore that body shape and would love to own a Cort Curbow. You've got the finish looking really, really good. I think I may well copy it when I refinish my Cort Flying V. Similar to alittlebitrobot's idea, I have recently decided to replace the cavity and truss rod covers on my Warlock, which has an ebony fretboard. I am going to try to find some 1mm ebony veneer and some 1mm steel sheet, glue them together and cut them to shape. The steel will act as part of the shielding, and I will embed some magnets (my wife has these tiny neodymium magnets, for her floristry, that are really strong) into the bass to hold the covers in place. If I can't find ebony veneer I might try to find something else with a nice grain and dye it.

I hadn't heard of them, but having now watched some videos on YouTube, I really like them. They remind me of a cross between Subhumans and Oaf.