spinynorman

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1414139583' post='2586232'] Developing a terrible cramp in my right arm once, I had to finish Ravel's piano concerto in D without using it. I'm not even sure anybody noticed. [/quote]

Very sad. He'll be remembered as a great musician and a highly talented song writer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YguY_jUDXRs

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1413725879' post='2581230'] Being concerned about [i]not[/i] looking like a 'hipster' or being trendy is just as bad as following a trend - you're letting what you think other people will think about you dictate what you wear. Wear what you like...it's just a hat, unless [i]you[/i] invest it with more meaning... [/quote] Actually, the problem is the meaning my wife invests it with,

[quote name='tonybassplayer' timestamp='1413739943' post='2581425'] All Volkswagen Golfs are made in Germany ?? No, think again !! [/quote] Yes, they make Golfs in various places around the world, but I don't think they're marketing a Golf made in Germany as a superior product to one made in Slovakia, or Mexico.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1413736443' post='2581369'] Very good point. Different pricing based on different quality components is one thing, but different build quality is ludicrous really. Imagine buying a car and being told by the dealership that you could have one built properly for one price or built a bit shoddily for a bit less. Quite an odd marketing model when you think about it. [/quote] I'm waiting for the even-more-expensive iPad made in the US. Perhaps a Bono signature limited edition would be popular.

I've never understood marketing based on where the product is made. The only sensible business strategy is to make it in the location that gives you the biggest profit. The myth that the US produces the best quality musical instruments was exploded in the 1970s by the Japanese, and the only way the myth can be maintained at all is by deliberately reducing the quality in non-US factories by using lower spec components and dropping quality control. And all that does is screw your brand. It might pander to xenophobia in certain parts of the US music fraternity, but I can't see why anyone in Europe would give a damn where their guitar is made.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1413408624' post='2578087'] 'Let no one say I am irrelevant!' Mr Bono thundered, his eyeballs pressing dangerously against the inner surface of his trademark wraparound shades. [/quote] Seriously, we need a [b]like[/b] button.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1412639422' post='2570739'] Seems a shame that the collected brains of Basschat see fit to slag this off without anyone (apparently) having actually tried it!! ..... Mind you: 74 Euros ! [/quote] How is "I don't know, I haven't tried it" going to drive a lively discussion? Much more fun to slag it off and see if anyone disagrees.

Last week I parted company with the band I've been playing with for 15 years. It was all very civilised, we met for a curry. The hardest thing was explaining to them, and myself, why I don't have the slightest motivation to play bass in a band any more. My plan, such as it is, is to see how I feel in the new year and maybe look for people to jam with or a good open mic night.

Last time I saw Walter Trout, he decided to go off the set list and play anything he felt like. It was ok until he got to "Sitting on Top of the World", and the bass player had no idea how to play it. I felt sorry for the guy, it was just pointlessly embarrassing. It happens in classical too. There was a proms concert where Simon Rattle stopped the Berlin Philharmonic 4 bars into "The Rite of Spring" and made them start it again.

There was a band we used to encounter on our local circuit that had a guitarist that played absolutely everything in the style of Hank Marvin. Which was interesting on things like "Sharp Dressed Man". They were very popular.

Just finished reading the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. You iStuff users should think yourselves very, very lucky it's only one U2 album and not the entire Bob Dylan back catalogue, including bootlegs, that appeared on your devices over night.

I only started playing bass when I was 47, so it must have been some weird mid-life crisis. I'm now 62, rest of the band is late 50s. We used to have a singer who was late 20s, but she was the one always getting ill, so we parted company end of last year. It's been a real struggle getting the new band going after a string of cancellations with the previous singer. Even my lightest bass seems to be getting heavier and I'm finding it harder and harder to learn new songs that need even slightly complex basslines. On the other hand, if I gave it up I don't know what else I'd do. A few years ago at a charity gig there were two vintage guys playing with a much younger drummer. The bass player said they'd groomed him on the Internet. It was sort of funny once, but he kept on saying it. Definitely not a good idea in the current climate.

This feels like a thread from a byegone era. All my albums are ripped as mp3s. Why would I get rid of any of them?

5/10. I did better in [url="http://www.theguardian.com/books/shortcuts/quiz/2014/jul/11/poet-pamela-anderson-sylvia-plath-quiz"]Who's the poet[/url]: Pamela Anderson or Sylvia Plath?

It could be pixies. I sometimes leave the window open. At some point during its period of rest I remember I mucked about with the pickup heights. I've tried that several times before and it didn't help, but maybe this time I found that magic spot. So that's another bass where I can't adjust or change anything, including the strings, in case it all goes to ratshit again. Fortunately string height and intonation doesn't bother me that much.

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1401654756' post='2465620'] Would somebody be kind enought to talk me through how to sort a google calender for the band ? I already use it for myself and it's great and syncs with my phone. I've set another calender up and used the bands name, added the members of the band so they can use it. When I go into my settings I can see both calenders, mine and the bands, but can only get to mine. I'm not usually computer thick but I'm obviousley missing a trick here. Thanks Les [/quote] Did you set up the band calendar up on your account, or create a separate Google account for the band, with a new email address? If it's a shared calendar on your account, there's suggestions on the [url="https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/calendar/can$27t$20see$20shared$20calendar|sort:relevance/calendar/_UNLTDInXr0"]Google help forum[/url], which might help.

A few years ago I bought a 1978 Gibson Ripper. Though I liked it to play - the neck is perfect for me - I couldn't get a sound I liked out of it. Then I discovered the bridge pickup had only one coil wired in and the polarity was reversed. So I fixed that, tried different strings, eq, effects, but still couldn't get a sound I liked. So it's been hanging on the wall for a couple of years looking mean and resentful. A few weeks ago I thought I'd give it another chance, and to my surprise, it sounds fantastic. I've gigged it and recorded with it, and it's been brilliant. So I'm very happy, but I have no idea how that could happen.

Google calendar worked pretty well for us until we replaced our singer and changed the band name. So then I set up a new google account and new calendar, and nobody uses it. Apparently logging in to a different account is too hard. Having said it worked well, we were pretty good at filling in unavailable dates, but gigs and practice still got organised by email and text, just in case.

We're using an Alto TS112A as a vocal monitor. It replaced an SRM350 and it's definitely a step up from that, but I don't know how it would compare to an SRM450. We played last night using another band's PA, which used SRM450s. We only put vocals through them, sounded good to me, but someone else said it was a bit muddy at the back. The other band were running vocals, drums, keyboard and guitar through them, not sure about bass because I left before they played. They didn't have subs and the bass player had a big trace elliot combo, so I guess he was just using that.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1400949019' post='2458485'] True that the big ones have varied programmes. But there are plenty of performing ensembles that specialise in different periods or genres - Early Music, Baroque, Choral, etc. It is the same when one drills down to specific composers. For example, The London Mozart Players have been around since the fifties. And certain performers become known for their affinity for certain tunesmiths. While known for his interpretations of many different composers, Alfred Brendel has recorded the complete Beethoven Piano sonatas no less than three times in his career. The thing about interpreting classical composers (particularly the better-known and more popular) is that the performer is expected to bring a highly personal component to the exercise of reading off a pad. Their success - or otherwise - is judged upon their 'faithful' rendition of the piece in an [i]individualistic[/i] way. This was brought home to me the other night when on Classic FM I heard an orchestra (I forget which) deliver the overture to Figaro as if they had been liberally dosed with amphetamines. Jesus, I thought, they're fairly rattling through that. [/quote] I've got the recording Pierre Boulez made of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which I've since discovered was slated by critics for being too slow, and Boulez himself later disowned it. For me, it's the best version I've ever heard, and any other version sounds light and flipant by comparison. But, certainly in classical, it's dangerous to be too individualistic.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1400706608' post='2456360'] I was never a great fan of Queen so that sounds rather good to me. Are they still going as i wouldn't mind seeing them. [/quote] I can't remember the name, (un)fortunately. The idea of going to see a bad tribute to a band you don't like is way beyond my comprehension. [quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1400710130' post='2456402'] We shared the bill with one , went into their dressing room to say hi to find the singer on his knees in front of a Freddie poster. Drummer told us to bugger off while he 'invoked Freddie's spirit'. What can you do ? ! [/quote] [quote name='lonestar' timestamp='1400754114' post='2456608'] I stopped reading at singer on his knees and had to go back and read the rest of the post after id finished my sandwich [/quote] Yes, I did wonder what was coming.

The worst tribute I've seen was one for Queen. They were all quite unconvincing, but "Freddie" looked like Bruce Forsyth in a vest. The performance was sanitised, aimed at people who quite like hearing Bohemian Rhapsody on the wireless, but would find perspiration on a performer unacceptable. From conversations I overheard at the interval, it was going down well in Malvern.

For some reason I keep hearing Desmond Dekker singing "Israelites".