EliasMooseblaster

I see Ashdown have started a new line of headphone amps: https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/accessories/products/tone-pocket-headphone-pre-amp Can't deny I'm intrigued! What do we know about them so far? Has anyone within this parish had the pleasure of test-driving one?

I'll second this - I've been using RS66s (Stainless Steel and Nickel varieties) for years and they remain my go-to. The nickels are slightly less punishing on the fingers and sound subtly warmer, but you'd struggle to hear the difference in a band mix. Tried a few other makes in a similar price bracket (D'Addario, Ernies, SiT, and Dunlop spring to mind) and I just find I like the tone of Rotos best. The closest competitors I've found have been Elixir (much more expensive) and Warwick Reds (a fair bit cheaper, interestingly).

Scott Walker - "The Day the Conducator Died (An Xmas Song)" I know the title suggest it's "An Xmas Song," but despite the sleigh bells that appear in it, I suspect Mr Walker is being a little less than sincere in his categorisation.

This has been my experience of owning a combination of Fender-style and Gibson-style basses. I think it's something about the way they sit on the strap, but with my various Precision-type basses, I've got used to the 12th fret being quite close to my torso; with my (long-scale) SG and Thunderbird, the 12th fret seems to be three feet away, and the headstock is at risk of knocking people's drinks off the venue bar! It takes a little getting used to, but I've never found it too disconcerting, and if you're going from Gibson to Fender then you'll probably find it easier to deal with (I went the other way). Glad to hear you're happy with the new arrival, in any case!

Those first three albums are absolutely excellent...but I personally think they hit their peak with the fourth one, Caravanserai. Granted, some people view it as a descent into navel-gazing, prog-rock-style conceptualism, but then I'm someone who probably owns too many Camel albums for their own good...

I couldn't agree more - there were a few decent songs from the Kenney Jones era, and Endless Wire was considerably less terrible than a comeback album should traditionally be, but there was nothing to touch the original lineup, if you ask me. But - with apologies for nitpicking over the original question - weren't they already pretty "big" by that point?

Funny you mention Pink Floyd - a few years ago, when I was more regular on a similar bass players' forum (which shall remain anonymous) a similar question came up. I forget whether it was about Floyd specifically, or more in the vein of this thread, but - my god - what I'll never forget is how heated it quickly became. A few of us - myself included if memory serves - tried to throw in a few humorous asides to distract the main protagonists, but to no avail, for the same four or five people insisted on digging two opposing trenches, proudly flying the banners of "You Just Don't Understand Syd Barrett's Genius" versus "Syd Barrett Was An Idiot." Part of me regrets not upping the ante further, by mischievously asking the warring factions whether Roger Waters was right to transition to Fender basses over Rickenbackers...but then, life's too short.

Now there's a point...if you're looking for a flatwound fretless sound, then a Franklin might be overkill. The original design was for a fretless bass that would cope well with rounds, hence the nice, tough ebony fingerboard! And if you're not after the Jaco sound, how important is the bridge pickup? If you can get a good price on the neck (and I'd recommend perusing the marketplace on here for parts), then modding your Precision might not be a bad idea.

True, that is quite a bold assumption!

Let me join the chorus of replies telling you that the Tony Franklin fretless is an absolute masterpiece. I was also surprised not to have a blend control or separate volumes, but the tones are wonderful in all three selector positions. The Jazz bridge pickup might also be the nicest example of its kind that I've played. Also worth noting that if you switch to the P pickup and open up the tone control, you can get some bright, clanking tones that almost make it sound like a fretted bass in the Entwistle/Foxton school of playing, which is ideal for confusing the hell out of your bandmates.

'...following a series of technical problems with the studio's sound system, most of the show was blighted by the celebrity guests' microphones cutting out. Many viewers reported that they could nevertheless discern a sound, which one described as being "similar to that of a pallet knife against the inside of a wooden barrel".'

I'm going to side very much with Graham's take on this. Groups such as The Who started incorporating synths into their albums around the early '70s, but it didn't make sense to have a couple of extra synth players drafted in to play a few tracks off Who's Next and then shuffle off the stage for the rest of their (by that point quite extensive) live set, so they had those parts on tapes triggered from the desk by Bobby Pridden. (It might also have been for the safety of any prospective synth players, given how adept those four men were at using all the available space on a big stage.) I didn't realise Kiss had resorted to lip-syncing. I've never been able to stomach their music, but I'll freely admit they were great showmen - this seems somehow disappointing, even for a band I didn't like in the first place.

If it's easily modded then it should work alright - I could be mistaken, but I think the key thing with guitar vs bass wah pedals is just the frequency band they work across. That said, you could always get a pedal that does both. I don't know how well it sits with your budget, but I'd recommend having a gander at the Ibanez Weeping Daemon - among other bells and whistles, it has a control which moves this frequency band so you make it more "guitar-friendly" or "bass-friendly" as you see fit.

I have never looked up the lyric to the Kaiser Chiefs' I Predict A Riot, but I can only assume that this is what they were singing about.

Bugger me, that's an uncanny resemblance. Has it finally come full circle: that Fender have started copying other people's copies of their original instruments?

Was anyone else at Koko in Camden last night? Took Mrs Mooseblaster along to see Charlotte Gainsbourg, who I thought was excellent. Really nice stage design, as well: squares of flourescent tubes and lots of flashing white lights; combined with the musicians all wearing white, it made it look like some of Kraftwerk-esque electronics lab. A little peeved by a handful of people in front of us in the crowd who insisted on holding up their phones to get another photo every 30 seconds (I'm sure one guy must have taken nigh on 100 pictures over the course of that set...). But other than that nuisance I shouldn't grumble - even the sound was pretty good, at least from where I was standing.

...and Sabbath were partly just in lower tunings to make the string tension easier on Tony Iommi's mutilated fingers!

If You Like A Lot of Chocolate on Your Biscuit, Join Our (Monday) Club...?

Beers on Monday? The Monday Night Crew*? *or "Crúé" depending on your leanings toward glam-metal...

Thanks - I suspected it might have been a mad dash to see what parts a local guitar shop might have had knocking around to get the guitar into working order in time for that evening's gig! Now you mention it, I do know a guitarist who has an alarmingly intimate level of knowledge about SRV's gear and setup, so perhaps I should pick his brains next time I see him.

Ludicrously optimistic prices aside, anyone know what the story is behind the left-handed trem? Did SRV prefer to have it dangling from the top of the bridge, or was it just a frantic bodged repair while on tour that he just got used to?

It's good to know I won't be the only person on this forum harping on about how damn good they are!

I've definitely seen Pride marketed as a pale, got a feeling Doom Bar might be as well if you look closely at the back of the bottle...perhaps this is a good reason for me to buy another bottle! But yes, I agree wholeheartedly re the balance of beers across the bar. The insidious effect even seems to be creeping into our christmas and winter beers, which I normally look forward to for their ominous blackness - but no, yesterday I tried Wychwood's Brewdolph, a "golden christmas ale." It was nice enough, and I tip my hat to their terrible pun, but since when has christmas been a time for golden ales?

I've been worried about this myself. Whilst I'm obviously grateful that the "craft beer" movement has presented a more acceptable (even fashionable) face of "proper" beer than CAMRA types like myself could present, I do worry that their hop fetish risks driving out some of the more reliable styles. Everything's IPA, Pale Ale, American Pale, or some other variation on pale*, it seems; where you do find a black beer, it's ridiculously strong, or often a "black IPA"** . But no, none of these newer "craft" breweries seem to make a bitter. There are some more traditional new contenders in my neck of the woods, though - Sambrook's and Twickenham spring to mind - who make some very dependable bitters and more traditional pale ales (even if they don't always name them as such!) * notice how even London Pride and Sharp's Doom Bar are now being marketed as pale ales ** a bit like bass distortion: often difficult to get right, and admittedly very nice when it's done well, but with the potential to be quite horrible

If I could have the equivalent for dark milds, stouts and porters, that would be grand.