MiltyG565

[quote name='BobVbass' timestamp='1388747926' post='2325469'] Sigh just use a wireless [/quote] Yeah, but then I would lose that analogue sound and my nuances

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1388609880' post='2324060'] The killer thing though was that the fret markers ran 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13. . . [/quote] Haha! I would have laughed all day at that! A lot of folks get their bearings from the 12th fret - imagine them playing that!

As if the bass wasn't bad enough on it's own, but that video! Wow! I thought mine were bad!

[quote name='spinynorman' timestamp='1388677633' post='2324703'] I saw something on TV about nanotubes, and how they think those could be used to create a space elevator - basically a long cable from earth up to a space station. So if the nanotube cable incorporated some wire, you could presumably plug into an amplifier on the ground and play from space. Though the latency would be awful, like playing through ASIO4ALL on a Windows 7 laptop. [/quote] Yup, if you follow James May's channel on Youtube (HeadSqueeze) he did a video on it once. Apparently any material that we would normally use for something like a lift would just snap under it's own weight beyond a certain distance, so it's actually a very difficult thing to achieve. I imagine that the lead of a guitar or bass would be much the same - if you were able to make on long enough, it would probably just snap in 2 at some point between space and earth. I wonder how long you can make a fibre optic lead?

Maybe the wood on the neck is still a little green? Or, maybe the neck is actually bowed (take the strings off, loosen the truss rod - is it still bowed?). There's a guy on Youtube who fixed a neck like that by setting a block at either end of the neck, and placing the neck on the blocks (fretboard side down) and clamping the middle of the neck down towards the bench with quite a bit of force. Maybe that's something to consider?

[quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1388601808' post='2323915'] Rickenbacker 4001/3 = Lada Riva [/quote] Antiquated communist technology?

Ibanez GSR series - Entry level Japanese sports car (like an MX5). Compact, easy to handle, has the looks and the general feel of a sports car, but for decent money. You could use one as your daily driver, if you really wanted to

Musicman Stingray - American muscle car. Big, chunky, solid. Sounds good and nice to look at.

[quote name='Hutton' timestamp='1388489465' post='2322511'] The point I was making was with reference to an earlier post where the shop assistant didn't know the price of an amp which was out on the shop floor. He then promised to email the customer with the price and didn't. The customer went back to the shop to further enquire and the shop assistant was still none the wiser because he hadn't bothered his arse to find out. The price should have either been on the amp or available at the time of enquiry. There is no excuse for this sort of shoddy retailing. [/quote] Oh right - I absolutely agree. That's why I said if it's not on the amp, the shop assistant should be finding out immediately.

[quote name='Hutton' timestamp='1388488214' post='2322493'] No sorry. I used to work in sports retail which also had hundreds of lines of stock. No goods went out on the floor unless they had a price on them. [/quote] But you were talking about shop workers knowing the price, weren't you? Most of our stock has a price tag on it, I just don't know the price off-hand. I can usually give a pretty good ball park figure though.

[quote name='Hutton' timestamp='1388487217' post='2322472'] I find it incredible that an amp or whatever can be out on the shop floor and no-one knows the price of it. Don't put it out unless you know the price. Find out the price. Take a note of the price. If you don't want potential buyers to see the price on the goods then surely you should know. For goodness sake we're talking about shops here. To sell things you need to know the price. If you don't know the price then you can't sell so you grind to a halt. It is perhaps not just the recession that has been the cause of the demise of many music shops in our towns and cities. [/quote] Most shops have hundreds of lines of stock. You can't expect somebody to know the price of everything off hand, especially slow moving items. If somebody came in to the show when I'm working and asked the price of rosin - I wouldn't know, because it sells so slowly. If they asked the price of a set of Ernie Balls, I would know, because they sell quite well. The difference would be if the person in the shop said "I don't know the price" and didn't make any attempt to find out.

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1388403482' post='2321504'] I'm speaking as a relative newbie to playing live here. A friends band recently lost their bass player for a couple of weeks due to illness. To cover existing gigs, me and another guy are stepping in to help out as we know most of the set between us. We played on Saturday night and it went quite well as we'd never played together before. However, after one of my spots, this 'expert' player decided to give me a lecture about economy of motion and correct fingering, citing the E string run-up in Tush. This wasn't a couple of comments, this was a university thesis standard verbal essay. He went on and on almost pushing me to a 'swift and to the point verbal retort'. Is it really that important to use the correct fingering? My left pinky isn't that useful anyway due to a mis-spent youth, and how would you deal with this sort of character? [/quote] If it was that a big a deal, why wasn't he playing the gig instead of you? Some people put a lot of focus on technique, and others don't, but that's all below the real issue - did it sound good? If it did, and you aren't in any physical pain from playing, then your technique is probably fine. Hope you enjoyed your gig, and that it's the first of many

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1388438451' post='2322080'] Actually if you go in their showroom and ask one of the staff for something, they look it up on the website! [/quote] We did this all the time when I worked in a warehouse. Sometimes it was the quickest and easiest way to find something out.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1388437436' post='2322057'] Gear4Music are just up the road from me, so I've nipped in there before when I need something quickly, but I've never ordered from them online. What put me off was seeing the way some of their instruments in the showroom are set up. The double basses are all unplayable, and I assume that's how they ship. [/quote] I assume they have a music shop? I really don't understand how a shop puts a product out for display that's not up to standard. That's baffling.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1388430070' post='2321927'] I don't think you could amplify a sound in space because sound can't exist in a vacuum and you can't amplify nothing. But you could certainly amplify a bass guitar and feed the resulting signal into a big cab and make the speakers move about. [/quote] I know you would still hear nothing, but apart from that minor issue, would it work?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1388427550' post='2321885'] Good evening Milty... Could you please check that you're not mixed up with your pills again..? The blue ones..? ...and if you're still eating those dried mushrooms, I'd stop now. ... [/quote] Hello purple hippopotamus. The dandelions are indeed grazing the ocean with the intention of growing eyes. Yours; Robotic tongue.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1388409453' post='2321635'] The thing with couriers, like the Royal mail, they handle tens of thousands of items each day, some are gonna get lost or damaged. For every one that is lost or damaged, there are a thousand more that aren't, but you only get to hear about the ones that are damaged or mis-delivered. [/quote] Absolutely. For the most part, I've had no trouble with Royal mail. It just happens that the couple of times that we know of where our post was lost, it happened to be very important things (hospital appointments and bank statements). If it had have been something not as important, I wouldn't care too much.

[quote name='Johnm93' timestamp='1388423877' post='2321837'] The last time I played in space, the acoustic did not work at all due to the lack of a gas medium to transmit the string vibrations through. I plugged in the electric and it worked fine as the strings moved normally through the magnetic field around the coils. Had more sustain due to the lack of friction against the strings, as I recall... [/quote] That's a good point actually. Is it possible to amplify a sound in space? Of course, you still wouldn't hear it, but in theory, would it work? Would everything work the same except not being able to hear it? Could I play in space and throw a lead down to earth and play with a band (very badly out of time) that's on earth?

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1388387660' post='2321359'] G4M are OK the thing I do not like is the way they package stuff it is shocking no wonder you see so much damaged G4M stock on ebay I received a bass from them they had taken the neck off and just put the bass in a crappy cardboard box there was a bit of damage but I sorted it myself as did not want the hassle of returning it etc I think next time I need gear I will get it from Thomann always been pleased with there service but you need to spend over £160 for free delivery so it is not worth buying small items unless you do a bulk order [/quote] Though Thomann is only £10 shipped from Germany, which I think is amazing value, considering it would cost me £10 to ship anything to anywhere in the UK.

[quote name='spongebob' timestamp='1388330074' post='2320798'] I always ask which courier a firm uses before buying. If it's City Link or Yodel, I walk. [/quote] I've had loads of deliveries from City Link when I order stuff from the likes of Mark's and Spencer's. There was one occasion where the product didn't arrive on the day I had selected, but that wasn't actually their fault, because they only received the product in the next morning's delivery. I've never really had any trouble with any couriers, truth be told. I've actually had far more trouble with Royal Mail and postal services than couriers. Maybe I've been lucky? Who knows? It seems to me that bad experiences are always the ones that surface on a topic like this. I'm not promoting any of these companies, just want to redress the balance.

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1388268866' post='2320321'] The Precision is the Ford Transit van. [/quote] Damn! Beaten to it!

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1388233940' post='2319719'] Well you can simulate the effect of zero G by playing with the neck pointing vertically up (or down) as that would all but remove any gravitational influence on the string vibration. [/quote] I don't think that's true.

I've just had a thought, after seeing that clip of Chris Hadfield in space with his guitar - would a guitar play differently in a zero-gravity environment? Would notes sustain far longer? would the soundboard of an acoustic bass or guitar have a different resonance? Obviously we can only speculate here, but I would be very interested to know.

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1387782378' post='2315477'] I do like to support my local music shop he is a fantastic guy and really knows his stuff and does magical set ups the only down side is he does not really sell much bass gear normally about 4 or 5 Fenders in the shop and a few packs of strings and a few odds and sods I don't really mind this as he is only a small shop and he cant afford to keep a big stock of bass gear as he makes most of his money on 6 stringers and repairs now here is where I start moaning there are basically 2 other shops near me that sell a bit more gear and 1 of them wont stock any thing bass related as he says there is no interest in it so fair enough I don't go to that shop and the other shop in the nearest town to me is a chain store now they have lots of bass gear in stock but the negative is they just seem like they don't care its kind of like comparing your local friendly newsagent with Tesco if you get my drift? and another downside is they seem to employ "kids" who no disrespect to them but they have very little knowledge and just go through the motions to sell gear and get there bonuses.So I tend to do most of my buying on here or on line for stuff I do pop in to my local shop now and again for some strings or set up work even though the strings and bits and bobs are cheaper on the net as I like to support his shop. But it just seems so sad that there are not really any proper music shops around is it the same for you guys in other areas of the country? I know that the day will come where the internet and chain stores will kill off the little shops which is a shame as there would be such a lot of knowledge and skill lost and where would we go for set ups and repairs? I know I certainly wont be trusting my basses to the larger chain store type places [/quote] I've recently started working in my mate's music shop. Since he opened, I've been bugging him to get a bass in, and he finally got a couple - and SX P bass, and a Woodstock acoustic. Both reasonable basses at a reasonable price. The thing is - we don't have a huge market, being in a moderately sized town, nowhere close to any big towns or cities. The good thing is that the local music scene is thriving. However, what you tend to get are parents coming in and saying "I'm looking a guitar for my son/daughter etc etc", so you have to show them guitars - that's what they are interested in. We don't get sales bonuses or anything like that (small shop etc), so it doesn't really matter what somebody buys. Another thing - You mentioned that your local stocks Fender basses. I can understand why they wouldn't stock too many. They don't sell very fast, and with Fender (and Gibson) you have to order a minimum of £10K of stock per year - if the shop buys in loads of basses, and can't shift them, they'll stop stocking Fender altogether, and who knows where that would leave them? It's a shame, yes. Frankly, I'd love somebody to come in and say "My child wants to play bass", but that hasn't happened yet. I think the way things will go is that all music shops will do a portion of their trade online, and you'll buy on reputation and service rather than price. I think it's important to remember that all these little items that a music shop stocks - the 50p/£1 items - they hardly make anything on those, but a good shop will stock them just to please their customers. Getting some inside knowledge makes you really appreciate (some) local music shops.

I got nothing music related, although I was given money to put towards buying my own (and first) drum kit! Everything else was just sweets and a jumper. Classic christmas gifts, eh? Merry christmas, folks