KingBollock

Floor Jansen. There’s even a term for peoples’ reaction to her… The Floorgasm. Sharon den Adel Dani Filth

If sticking to the rules, I have two options: Cort Action for £189: https://www.james-music.co.uk/products/cort-action-pj-bass-in-open-pore-walnut Or a Squier Affinity for £239: https://www.james-music.co.uk/products/affinity-series-precision-bass-pj As much as I like my Corts, I think the PJ Squier versatility trumps the, rather boring looking Cort, on this occasion. I might, in the future, even end up changing the neck to one with a maple fretboard, and try to make it look(ish) like Steve Harris’ 80s blue Precision.

I only had the head, not the combo. The worst amp I ever owned. I absolutely hated it.

My first thought was Cort. This is rather nice for £269: https://www.johndouglasmusic.com/store/product/3_guitars/7_bass-guitars/2736_cort-action-deluxe-plus-bass/

Bombtrack; Killing in the name; Bullet in the head - Rage Against The Machine He who paints the black of night - The Vision Bleak In pursuit of Vikings - Amon Amarth Peace Sells - Megadeth The killchain - Bolt Thrower Seasons in the abyss; Black Magic - Slayer Liar - Motörhead Dance commander - Electric 6 Steady as she goes - The Raconteurs I’m going to stop there.

Before discovering BassChat I went on TalkBass. As people on here might be aware, I like to rant… I had bought a 15” bass speaker, but was having problems with distortion when playing anything below the G on the E string. I went on TalkBass and had a moan. A couple of people told me (not suggested) that I had put it in the wrong size cab. I said that I didn’t think I had. I didn’t go back for a couple of days, but when I did there was about four pages of people angrily telling me that I had put it in the wrong sized cab! So, I told them the measurements of the cab, which were pretty much bang on what they should have been for that speaker. And no one said a word. It turned out that a preamp in my signal chain was clipping… I had a similar experience on an angling forum. I had caught a lovely, good sized Crucian Carp and posted a photo of it. Cue several pages of people insisting that it was a Carp/Brown Goldfish hybrid… I knew that the venue didn’t have Goldfish and that they had a good stock of proper Crucians. The thing was, the only way to tell was by the fin shape, which wasn’t visible in the photo! They even admitted that couldn’t know because there was no way to tell by what they could see, but still, it was definitely a hybrid! I didn’t hang around after that.

There are some amazingly supportive people on BassChat, whether it’s to do with bass, music in general or just life with all it’s ups and downs. There is just one other forum I follow. I check it every morning just before coming here, but I only really look at two or three threads, and I very, very rarely interact with them. Then I come here and spend most of the day checking for new posts. Joining in when I can and trying to help if I can, to try to give back some of what I get out of the forum. I feel happy and included here, and I have never actually met a BassChatter in person. As such I don’t think I can say I have friends from here, I am too shy and reserved when in private conversations (I think) to make such a close connection; but there are some members that hold a special place for me for the caring and support I have got from them. So, for me, this place is a community first (day to day or even week to week, other than my wife, this is the only place where I interact with anyone) and an amazing information resource second.

13, in 1988, at the Christadelphinan hall in Nuneaton. It was a thing for pensioners. The school choir was playing, but I was playing in a small band (bass, drums, piano and two singers. The entirety of my music class). We were only supposed to do three songs, but they enjoyed us so much that they wanted us to carry on. So we played the same three songs, again. Proper band gig would have been 14. It was in the youth club building on the George Eliot school grounds, but had nothing to do with the school (I was the only band member still of school age).

What realm are you on? I used to be on Darkmoon Faire. It’s a RP realm, but I never actually did any RP, though I always meant to try it. I had a proper character with a proper back story. When I moved to Wales, I didn’t get the internet for seven bloomin’ weeks. By the time I got back to WoW, my guild was gone and the server was dead. I’d often go on and be the only Horde (For The Horde!!), on there. In the end I moved my main character to Draenor. I had a Gnome, too. He was an engineer (most of my characters are engineers) called Boltthrower. I think I only got him as far as level 12, or something.

I wish I had! We had nine of them come at the same time. They all needed a little daughter board replacing. So that’s what I did. When testing, afterwards, none of them worked properly. The boss got really angry! I told him that it was the battery he was using to test them (the only one we had). So he measured it. It came out at 7.3v. He said that that was plenty… and got even angrier! So I attached a 9v battery clip to a power supply set to 9v, and every pedal worked perfectly. He didn’t like that. So he got rid of me, despite me being the only other person working there. A funny thing is, though, I also worked on his mobile disco. Setting up and taking down, but I also ran the lights (it was huge, the biggest lighting rig I have ever seen on a mobile disco. I have been to music venues with fewer lights). The bosses wife and daughter really liked me, knew that I was a hard worker and that the disco would be worse off without me. It took another six months for him to trick me into getting myself sacked. He told me that we had no discos booked for the weekend (which was a first), and he encouraged me to “go out and have some fun”…So, for the first time in about a year, I went and visited a friend. Then the boss called wanting to know where I was, but I was out (no mobile phones back then). So now he had his excuse. He was a tosser, but I loved the work.

Thank you! I’m not sure how much I can meddle with the midi settings for this keyboard (this thing cost me £60 or £70, nearly 20 years ago), but I shall look into it and see. At least I know it’s something to look for, so yes, thank you. Even longer ago, my wife once surprised me with one of those electronic drum pad thingies, where all the pads are one, small unit, the pads being between about 4 and 6 inches. It was rubbish, so it went back, even though it only cost £40. But it was midi and would have worked a treat for what I am trying to do now. But I can’t seem to find the “toy grade” versions anymore, they’re all £400+. Which is a shame.

Ah well. Thanks guys. You’ve confirmed what I thought anyway, but I figured it was worth asking someone more knowledgable than me (but then, I could have done that by just standing at the garden gate and shouting my questions at random people passing by…). I have remembered that I do actually own a keyboard that will do the job… But it’s an old, cheapo Yamaha, with small, non-velocity sensitive, non-weighted keys. I just wish the damned thing didn’t take up so much space! It’s actually hiding behind my amps because it was standing where the drum kit is now, and getting in the way… But it’s got the midi sockets that’ll allow me to use it to do what I need, and I always think it’s a shame when an instrument (such as it is) is hidden and not used. I will also be using the kit through my PC. It’s just that I am only just starting to learn, and I don’t want to have to bugger about with the computer everytime I want a quick bash. As I understand, it is better to have more frequent but shorter practice sessions, which suits me, medically, too. I know I don’t really need to keep the keyboard or pad thing discrete from the PC for such sessions, but I thought it’d be fun, which is why I didn’t want to go to any expense to do it.

Wow! I’ve got a Flying V that I am hoping to fix up this year, that pick-up would be great in it…

I have recently acquired an electric drum kit, an Alesis Nitro Mesh kit. The module has MIDI connections, as well as a USB b. I have a Native Instruments A25 keyboard and an Akai MPD218. Unfortunately, both only have USB b outputs. If I could connect one of them to the drum module, I can use it to trigger its sounds, keeping it all discrete, not having to go through my PC, which is too far away from the kit for me to see what’s going on. Keeping it discrete is important for other reasons, too. I have seen MIDI host boxes that cost over £70, but I really, really don’t want to have to spend that much. Does anyone know of a cheaper (much cheaper) way of going about it?

I agree with those suggesting a serrated washer and, if there’s room, a second nut. However, if you choose to go down the thread-locker route, instead or as well, this is the stuff I use: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/zap-technology-z-42-thread-locker-14329 It takes a tiny blob of it to do the job.

Including what we wore, and the reception, our wedding probably cost less than a grand in total. We had our reception on a canal boat, so we were limited in how many people we could invite (and have to pay for…). The canal boat trip made the event memorable, and the people that came still talk about it fondly 25 years later.

It depends which ligament you’ve torn. I once tore my MCL and found a metal hinged knee brace to be very helpful.

Some bits to go with my new electric drum kit. Such as the extension tom and cymbal pads. A cable so that I can plug it into my PC, and a nice drum vst. A Tamiya Sand Viper (RC buggy), with a nice ESC and motor combo. And a crawler for my wife. I am going to be building desks (PC gaming and recording desk, and a modelling and painting desk) and storage furniture for my Lair, which is going to take quite a bit of wood. Once all that’s done, I’d go to town on the lighting. Lots of black light and other mood lighting. All voice controlled.

There’s an oft sited story that pops up whenever anyone claims that multiple people seeing ghosts in the same place, is proof of ghosts… I’m not going to get all the details right… There was a factory (I think) that had many people claiming that it was haunted, they were all seeing ghosts and stuff they couldn’t explain. In the end, it turned out to be a dodgy cooling fan (or something), that was vibrating at the same frequency that causes eyes to vibrate. Once they fixed the fan, the ghosts all left. Perhaps it was too cold for them…

When out at the pub, I always used to have Britvic 55, but nowhere seems to have it anymore, it’s all J2O.

I used to love doner kebabs. It’s surprising the variety you get from each kebab shop. There was always a kebab I would have a fancy for, from one shop or another. The nicest kebab I have ever had was from a place in Rugby. It was so greasy and delicious! I once had two of them for Sunday dinner (I was living with a biker gang at the time, and they were all having a roast chicken dinner. I don’t like chicken.), much to everyone’s amusement. I tried going vegetarian once, for health reasons. I don’t normally over eat, but I eat crap. For instance, I don’t like meat if it tastes like meat, but I can eat beef and onion pies (I don’t like onion, either), pork sausages, turkey burgers and such, the crap stuff. The only thing that kept tempting me was doner kebabs. The fact that, because of my restrictive diet (I just don’t like many foods), I only had potatoes, bread and cheese left to me, didn’t help. I kept it up for the year that I told myself I would do, but caved to a kebab in the end. And then I went right off them, I can’t stand them now. Although, after my brain op, I completely lost my sense of taste for three months, and I ate a lot of kebabs in those three months. Mainly because of the really hot chilli sauce that the local kebab shop used. All I had to me was heat (spicy heat) and texture. It is a most disconcerting feeling.

Now that I would win! I must sit on the damned things at least twice a day! And when my sciatica is playing up and they’re already sore… it brings tears to the eyes…

WoW wouldn’t let me have KingBollock. So my main is called Slugsalter. But I do have several alts with names like Bollok, Bolloq and Bolloque. Which I didn’t think of until much later. I ain’t paying for a name change! There’s another gaming chap online that has tried to usurp the KingBollock name. He goes by that name on YouTube, but I have the KingBollock channel. He did get the name on Steam, however, so I went with KingBollockTheOriginal. Wish I’d just gone with KingBollockOG… I once asked him about it in the comments on one of his YouTube videos, and he told me that it was a nickname given to him by his mates… Yeah, right. Not that I’m bitter at all… After years of going by KingBollock on Epic Games, a couple of weeks ago they decided that I could no longer use the name. I changed it to KingBolloq. Not happy!

Once, in about 2000, I organised a forum meet-up in Stratford-upon-Avon. We arranged to meet at the train station. We were in our old, red, L300, so stood out. As we were driving around the car park, we suddenly hear, as loud as you like “The Royal Bollocks, I presume?!” echoing right across the whole car park! And how’s this for a claim to fame (it’s not, that’s how it is…)… The bloke that shouted that, was a fairly high ranking copper, who later got in the news after he mentioned, online somewhere, weeing on Margret Thatcher’s grave, just after she had died. He was promptly sacked.

In 1997 I used to spend a lot of time on a chat program called Palace, where you had an avatar and could move around in a room, talking with other people using speech bubbles. One day I changed my avatar to a picture of a prawn, in a welly, lying in a little bed, and changed my name (which you could do at any time) to KingPrawn. Then I changed my avatar again and changed my name to what it is now. I figured it would suit me, me being big, round and hairy… I once did a vanity search and found a site that had collected names from various places around the internet and ranked them, and I came third! Though, first and second place went to the people that made the list… I even once got a mention in PC Gamer magazine for something I had said on their original forum. I am known by this name wherever I am online. I even have friends, that I know in real life (after initially meeting online), that know me as this, though they tend to shorten it to KB. I have had some very interesting reactions from parcel delivery people…