peteb

I don't suppose that you have a list of the stock you have left?

I ordered something from Thomann on the 10th Dec and received it five days later, which I was quite impressed with. I've since bought a bass hardcase and a few odds and sods, but to be fair I'm not expecting miracles given what has happened since I ordered it. It will get here when it gets here - it's not as if I need it for any gigs in the next few weeks.

Now that obbm has retired, you can get perfectly good Speakon cables from Bass Direct (pro series are great). https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Speaker_Leads.html

Depends on the gig. . Personally, I much prefer playing 4 string basses. But I was up for a gig where it became apparent that much of the guy’s recorded material needed a 5 string. So, I went and got a decent 5 string. There is another project that I’m involved with that will require a 5 string tuned down a whole step for live gigs (if that ever happens), so now I have two 5 strings, one with a 35” scale. But for most gigs, I will take a 4 string.

Personally, I wouldn’t expect you to do a big production and for you to actually transcribe the parts, at least not unless someone is paying you! I would be happy if you could just play through a verse / chorus a couple of times and then just show some of the variations and licks that you might throw in when you’re playing that song and then perhaps share how you came up with the part, along with a few reminiscences of recording the song or that time in general. I certainly wouldn’t expect you to play a note perfect rendition of something you played forty years ago – part of the magic of those performances is that they were slightly different every night. The thing with the videos like these from Guy Pratt and Lee Sklar (as with guys like guitarist Tom Bukovac) is that they are all shot with an iPhone in a nice light room. Not everyone can be a raconteur like Guy Pratt, but the thing that they all do is to just talk to the viewer like they are talking to them face-to-face, maybe like you would a student or someone who you might chat with after a gig. It would be great if you do decide to do it and I think that there would be a fair demand. Obviously, there are quite a lot of guys like me (on BC and beyond) who started playing bass just as you were getting well known and for whom you were a big influence. But there would also be younger players who are fans of Whitesnake (and others on your CV) and would be interested in how one of the more notable players among a cast of thousands came up with the parts that helped define the early version of the band.

Yes, I've have seen that before. However, I would love to hear exactly what Neil plays, especially on the live versions. I have played Ain't No Love a few times live, depping for a band led by a singer called Ben Mellor, who does a lot of Whitesnake stuff. I have just found a version of the original Snakebite EP track, where the bass is quite high in the mix. I'm going to have to give it a bit of a listen and relearn the bass part.

Actually, I have to disagree. Not the most technically difficult music to play ever, but there are a few nuances in AC/DC stuff that many pub bands just don't get. More difficult to get right than you might think.

For all this talk of FFYL, I would love to here an isolated track of Neil's bassline on 'Ain't No Love in The Heart of the City' (either studio or a live version with Mr Murray).

A LM3 will work in pretty much any situation - very clean sounding, transparent & plenty of power (I own one). Sounds better in the mix than listening to it on its own, if that makes any sense! No idea about the Ashdown...

Certainly having two cabs with the same speakers eliminates phase issues as all the speakers are doing the same thing at the same time. A few years ago I had a set of SWR cabs with a 4x10 and a 1x18. I replaced the 1x18 with an identical 4x10 and the difference was very noticeable.

Do you mean the ones with the cream covers?? If I remember correctly, we were all putting EMGs in our Fenders at the time. I recall that the Bass Centre in Wapping used to keep a P bass in the shop that had been stripped / refinished to natural, with an EMG pickup and a badass bridge to show people how you could mod your bass. I got the Schaller as Badass bridges were not readily available in the north of England at the time. Of course, a few years later you could order one from your local music shop and I got a black one to put on the other P bass I had by then (originally as a spare). That’s the same bridge I have just put on this bass, after it appearing on a number of different basses over the years.

I've just bought a couple of bits from Thomann (replacement part of a strap, TC clip-on tuner). They had what I wanted in stock and the price was very reasonable, so great service as usual and no problems at all. Let's see how it all works from January onwards...

I've got the bass back from Jon Shuker yesterday. He's cleaned it up (a lot, it was in a bit of a state), sorted the scratchy pot, installed the badass and the bart p/up. Jon reckons that it might need a re-fret at some point, but that can wait for a while. It looks the part now, pretty unique and sounds great. Plays nicely too...

Personally I would recommend a 4x10 for the type of music the OP wants to use it for, but I would agree that a 1x15 is going to struggle

I would keep an eye on the Amps & Cabs For Sale section and look for a 410 cab and a hybrid amp (at least 400-500W). There's an old SWR SM900 on sale here for £325 (brilliant amp) and a couple of MB LM3s for £250 / £300. I'm not a bit fan of Ashdown, but you can't go far wrong with an ABM1000 and matching 410 cab for £500. If you can stretch your budget a bit, there is a Mesa Boogie Big Block for £500 and you could probably pick up a decent 410 for £300. If you're not too bothered about really lightweight gear, there is plenty of choice of great amps around for not a lot of money.

Can I ask a genuine question? This is a part I know and the song is obviously in G minor but you have transcribed it with one sharp, which I assume is G major. Is this a protocol, or is it just the way your transcribing programme (if you use one) works? I am speaking as someone who can't read beyond a very basic level and I'm just curious.

Absolutely..! I am always amazed that people are prepared to buy in into this anti-BBC agenda that is being promoted by certain parts of the right to make way for some Fox like news channel with a far-right slant to operate without any real competition. No one seems to be able to entertain the possibility that this is a band that simply got cut from the programme (as the BBC have said) and have decided to exploit the situation for publicity.

Strangely enough, I've just been contacted about this. A German specialist label is interested in licensing the finished album and want band photos and a promo video. There is some money involved, but not enough to make anyone rich! I've been asked to be in the video / pics. Surely rock stardom awaits, all be it thirty years too late...!!

it’s the other way round for me. Some guys that I play with have recorded an album that I haven’t played on at all due to lockdown, but when they have put a few tracks upon the internet the video montage featured plenty on shots of me. They are aiming to release the album – I don’t know if they will credit me or the guitar player / songwriter whose guide bass parts they have kept. I was nearly credited on an album that was released last year that the keys player and guitarist were involved with that not only didn’t I play on, but I have never heard and can’t even remember the name of the band. They wanted to credit someone who was known as a bass player and my name apparently was put forward (dunno who they credited in the end)!

I'm not quite sure how to comment on your reaction to brown 70s Fenders! As far as the bridge goes, that's the reason I immediately knew that it was my old bass! It's a Scahller (the one with the roller saddles so you can adjust string spacing) that I put on the bass in the early 80s. It's not the standard bridge replacement for a Fender, so that together with the year and unusual finish make it quite unique. The old BBOT ended up on another P bass I had when I converted it back to the original spec before selling it. The BBOT from that bass was eventually sold to a guy I know who was putting together a bitsa for someone using old Fender parts. The bass is going down to Jon Shuker tomorrow to be cleaned, set-up and to swap out the bridge for an old badass I have in my spares box. I'm also going to swap the pickup for a Bart that I had on another P bass (I'm going to switch between that and the original pickup to see which I prefer). All in the spirit of what we used to do in the 80s, getting 70s Fenders and modding them! I shall post another picture when I get it back from Jon.

But the thing is that the world has changed since Winston’s time and is changing even more rapidly these days. Capitalism has survived because it managed to evolve and change whenever it has come under threat. Hence, in the period after a major war that started partly because of a mass economic depression, a time when communism was a major threat, capitalism started to take on some of the more palatable features of socialism. America pumped billions of dollars in to the war-ravaged countries of western Europe to stop them from turning to communism. The USA pretty much underwrote the defence of Europe from the threat of Russia and nationalised health services (a socialist concept if ever there was one) were fine, as long as it didn’t catch on stateside. European nations traded together and created an organisation that bound them together, making another war among the European powers unthinkable. As people tired of wars, economic depression and a continuing ‘Game of Thrones’ among the European aristocracy they demanded higher wages and better / more liberated lifestyles and capitalism adapted to allow this to happen. However, capitalism is now facing an altogether different threat. The death of communism / socialism following the fall of the Soviet Union has coincided with the growth of China and the economies of the far-east, centuries of domination by Europeans (and Americans of European descent) is coming to an end. Don’t get me wrong, America is still the most powerful nation and the EU is still the dominant economic entity, but this will change at some point in the next twenty to thirty years. Nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines and even Bangladesh will overtake the major European states (including Germany, yet alone what’s left of the UK). This is going to happen, unless there is a major war (unlikely) or natural disaster in the far east (possible, given the regions susceptibility to climate change. Of course, the issue is how capitalism will adapt to this (if it can). The problem for those of us in the west is that these emerging powers have a much more authoritarian (or even theocratic) models of government. Whereas capitalism adapted to the challenges of the past by becoming more liberal and benign, there is a danger that it will go in the opposite direction as the more authoritarian east comes to the fore.

But Communism is dead and has been for 30 plus years - you need to find something else to blame for the shortcomings of the current system