spinynorman

I was sure there'd be apps using the camera to check string height, neck relief, etc, but haven't found one so far.

I have a couple of Planet Waves guitar leads that are marked at one end so you connect them the right way round. I do plug the marked end into the amp as a sort of superstition, and I have seen a technical explanation of why it is necessary, but I still don't believe it makes any difference.

[quote name='MrFingers' timestamp='1340292175' post='1702418'] I mailed Tony from Pickguardian if he could help he. He said he could, but he didn't have an actual template for an (early) Ripper, but he gave it a shot, and it turned out it was 100% accurate and a perfect fit (there is NO gap between the guard en the pickups. In fact, the guard is so snug, that the pickups stay in place without screwing them into the body). This is a very early Ripper, and those early ones had a celluloid tortoise pickguard. Instead of the 4 layers that Fender used, Gibson used a single slab of tortoise, quite thick (5mm), but tortoise shrinks and warps over time, and those singleply guard are all severely damaged or cracked beyond repair, like the one [url="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/180/405130705_89e6fb1741_z.jpg?zz=1"]Nick Movshon[/url] has. This one came to Belgium with a shoddy painted piece of plexiglass as pickguard, made into shape with an axe and blowtorch). He could have made one in real celluloid, but this one is a plastic variant, which is identical in looks & swirls (even has the small rimples in the surface, like celluloid has), but without the chemical instability. Here are some pictures I took today, with the cover in place. It looks kinda reddish, but it depends on the lighting, from reddish to virtually black. [/quote] Lovely bass, sounds great too, and they did a good job with the pickguard. I got a 3-ply tort guard from the States, which fits well, but the knobs are positioned wrong. Might give pickguardian a try. Does my birthday cake count as bass porn?

I watched the film with my kids (both in their late 20s), who were also surprised at the intensity of the audience. I tried to explain it as Bowie being primarily a pop star, who was able to hold his audience with charisma and performance, while still challenging them with unconventional music. This seems to be the trick that's been lost, with most acts able to do one or the other, and in some cases neither, but not both.

We played in the street on the Monday of the Jubilee. We'd been pretty much laid off since February, due to illnesses and other problems and had only managed one rehearsal. I started enjoying the atmosphere and the large crowd, and stopped concentrating at all on what I was supposed to be doing. By the second song, mistakes were coming thick and fast, and there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it. At the end of our set I was looking for a hole to crawl into when the singer bounds up grinning from ear to ear because of all the people that had been telling her how great we were. And a couple of days later we had an email from a festival organiser miles away, offering us a slot because she'd heard how good we were at the street party. What can you do? Unfortunately my daughter videoed some of the set, which just confirms I was as bad as I thought I was, but it doesn't seem to matter.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1340460332' post='1704750'] Over at - say - Gibson there's probably some old boy named Morty, with a comb-over and a shirt pocket with biros in it. Fourpence to spend on ads, has a nap in the afternoon, that sort of thing. [color=#ffffff].[/color] [/quote] That is exactly how I've always imagined Gibson's marketing department. However, I suspect "Morty" is an alter ego of Henry himself. http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/gibson-provides-a-stage-for-rising-guitar-stars/4002184.article

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1340184198' post='1700432'] My Android doesn't work, so I can't check right now, but if Google Play has one of the following, I think you're in for a lot of fun. Sorry if they're not available there. I thought it better to tell anyway. - PocketGK, a Gallien-Krueger bass amp - GarageBand. Of all the stuff in this large app, to date I use the simulations of different amps and effects. [/quote] Think these are iphone/ipad only. There's at least one Android app thread in Off Topic. I downloaded the gstrings tuner, but have never used it. There's various apps for tab, including one for Guitar Pro, which might be useful I suppose. Other than that and obvious things like Youtube, ebay, music and video players, I haven't found anything remotely bass related and useful.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1340382954' post='1703882'] Before everyone gets excited suggesting 100w PA is not big enough shouldn't we find out what size audience the OP is expecting? Whether people are expecting to dance. Whether this is just a few songs to demonstrate that the kids can play as a band. [/quote] That was my first thought, and also that at a primary school fete loud may not be appreciated.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1339850435' post='1695370'] If a drunk falls into something it must surely be the drunk's fault, so I'd be looking to sue him. If someone crashes into your car they don't claim on your insurance do they? [/quote] You'd think so. But presumably there would be some arguments about whether the rig was set up properly and whether it should have fallen over, or been put somewhere a drunk could trip over it. And lawyers are expensive.

That was something else I wondered about. The drummer and I have PLI on our instrument insurance, I don't think the guitarist has insurance at all and I'm sure the singer doesn't. So if someone collapses a lighting or speaker stand, all of which the band owns co-operatively and several people have hand in setting up, whose insurance pays?

[quote name='billyapple' timestamp='1339663670' post='1692064'] Well, I'm not so sure.. Only the one keyboard, but prog, surely? And the best way to finish a number, courtesy of Mr Scabies.. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9bkiCKiwZA[/media] [/quote] I don't think one keyboard and doing the Chico Marx thing with his index finger counts as prog. He's not even wearing a cloak. An there's nothing in the lyrics about a starship wizard with a tomato in his wardrobe. There is a bass solo at the end, so maybe it's jazz?

Just wondering if anyone here has ever had to claim on public liability insurance in a band/music context. The renewal's come round again and I sometimes wonder what I'm paying for.

Ebay's management see their competition as Amazon and would really like to get rid of the auction side altogether. What they've actually become is a global web commerce cross between PoundStretcher, Maplin and Crack Converters.

In defence of this thread, it's restored my faith in punk rock.

"Smart" phone predictive text has taken the noble art of spell checking to a whole new level.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1339622627' post='1691780'] You were wrong in posting this as a punk song. At a length of 3:25, this clearly is a prog suite, and the solo just confirms that. I wish people were more knowledgeable, and a lot better at putting all music in tiny little genre boxes. [/quote] Prog suite might be pushing it a bit, doesn't that require at least one member of the band to play eight keyboards at once?

There's a load of Gibsons I haven't played that I'd like to try: vintage EB1,2 & 3, G3, Grabber, Victory. I'd like to play a 70s Ripper with stock electrics, both of mine had been interfered with at some point and I'd like to see how close I've got to putting them right. 60s Fender Precision. Something Lakland. Top end Spector. And I hope I wouldn't want to own any of them as a result.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1339539353' post='1690385'] Re Sid Vicious - watch the clip below of No Feelings, from The Great Rock `n` Roll Swindle, and it`s evident he could play a bit - probably only the Pistols own material, but then, he was never hired for his musicianship. The clip shows him always in the right place on the fret-board. Plus, with the state he got into with drugs, it`s not surprising that whatever abilities he had on the instrument deserted him. [/quote] This has been a source of some confusion for me. When punk first hit I totally bought the media/pr story that it was all about bands that couldn't play their instruments, and didn't bother with it. Much later I got R&R Swindle out of the library and was surprised to find that, even on Johnny B Good, the playing's not bad (and I'm assuming it was Sid playing that). It's not a ground-breaking bass line, but I wouldn't be ashamed of it. And the more Pistols tracks I've heard, the less sure I've been that they couldn't play.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1339534806' post='1690249'] If I am to offer a suggestion of a bass player whose style and tone I can't abide (and leaving aside Clutterbuckery as its just showing off at music shows) it would have to be Fieldy of Korn. I genuinely enjoy all sorts of bass playing from straight-ahead pumping 16th note punk (like DeeDee Ramone), to rock, to Motown, to walking jazz lines to Bernard Edwards-style funkiness but that awful cacophony of detuned slapping funk-rock is unlistenable to me [/quote] I'm with you there. My wife, daughter and daughter's boyfriend were huge Korn fans and persuaded me to drive them from south of Birmingham to Manchester for a concert. It was the single most tedious night I have spent in a theatre since our amateur drama group did "A Month in the Country" by Ivan Turgenev. And when it finally fizzled to an end, there was a 2 hour drive home in the rain to look forward to.

[quote name='clauster' timestamp='1339438863' post='1688527'] Now, having sold a few pedals, about 100 CDs and a few books I've got enough cash for my latest object of desire - the Epiphone Thunderbird Pro IV. But I'm struggling to choose between transparent black or vintage sunburst. So, in short, which Android Tablet should I buy instead? [/quote] Get an Android tablet, any one will do. Then you'll spend so much time trying to get it to work, you won't notice you don't have the Thunderbird.

If I get compliments at all it'll be for "solid" bass playing, and of course there's a voice in the back of my head going "They mean DULL, you moron". Even so, I usually manage "thank you, glad you enjoyed it, it helps to have a great audience" etc. Then I go home and beat myself with birch twigs.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1339531199' post='1690133'] I'm not actually saying any of them are rubbish, just more of they play what is needed in the song & very little else. [/quote] I really don't understand this. What more should you be playing than what is needed in the song?

I did have a mad fantasy about starting a Fairport Convention tribute. Don't think I could match Ashley Hutchings though.

You have to hand it to Tim Rose, he's still spinning the traditional folk song story in 1997. But there's not a lot of hard evidence for the other claims either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHm_8EZ1rJE&feature=related I'd like to believe him, he did way the best version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czovj5bCHt0