EliasMooseblaster

No, I shall also stand behind you on this one. I find Prince quite a frustrating case, because he was clearly such adept and gifted musician, but what I've heard of his songwriting leaves me utterly cold.

Does Rob DeLeo warrant one? I barely know Stone Temple Pilots' back catalogue; to be honest when I bought my Schecter Model T, I had no idea that it was effectively* DeLeo's signature bass, let alone that he'd led the work on building the prototype. I'd say it's sufficiently different from most mass-produced P/Js to say that he's done something different with the design, and it's a damn good instrument, so it checks those two boxes. *I say "effectively" as his name and signature don't appear anywhere on the instrument

Sounds like switching to the 'bird may be the answer! I'd echo all the previous comments to make sure you're as happy as possible with the minimal setup. There are already enough choices of strings, bass, amp and cab to keep you wondering (and chopping and changing) for years! If you're not happy with the bass, you can end up spending a fortune on different pedals to make it sound like another bass...or you could just buy another bass. At least if you're happy with the basics then any pedals are just decoration on an already satisfactory cake, as opposed to trying to cover an unappetising lump of charcoal with pretty icing!

I had a similar problem with a Warwick-Rockbass Corvette when I first started playing fretless. Lovely bass, great starter for going fretless, but one day a photo turned up on the Facetube of me playing it onstage. They're not even short-scale strictly (32"), but the tiny body made it look a bit silly on me, and I've since moved on to fretless Fenders. My 8-string is short scale, but I think it looks longer than it is due to the massive headstock the eight tuners require; it definitely feels smaller when I switch mid-set, but I manage to avoid looking daft... ...but on the other hand, if a Daisy Rock Butterfly Bass ever came up on the listings, I would be tempted. Just to prove a point, really.

Elias Mooseblaster.

Fixed...

+1 my Schecter shipped with Elixirs, and they were almost as bright as a fresh set of Rotosound Swing Bass when I bought it. Said brightness definitely lasted - I only took them off so I had a fresh set of strings to record an album, but I regret not hanging onto them.

I've never actually tried one of Vintage's bases, though I've owned one of their guitars for years and always thought it was a great instrument for the money. If that specimen was built after a certain date then it will have Wilkinson pickups and hardware in it, which are not to be sniffed at around this price point!

Yep, another one for The Who here as well! The Doors get an honourable mention as well, as I learnt keys before bass, and found Ray Manzarek's playing as inspiring as I would go on to find John Entwistle's. But in terms of feeling like a group is "mine," I feel like there are a few groups who I've discovered along the way that my friends will always think of as "that group Elias got me into." For that, "my" bands are Camel, Quintessence, Ozric Tentacles, Hooverphonic, and Emily Loizeau. Now it's come full circle and one of those friends is sending me albums by All Them Witches, Om, Unida - it's nice to think I'm getting something back from sharing/forcing all my musical explorations with/on people previously!

I was alerted to a *really* tenuous one yesterday evening: Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola have muscled in on the forthcoming release of the new Star Wars film with a branding tie-in. Basically, if you buy a bottle of coke in the next couple of months, it is likely to have a mugshot of one of the actors printed on the bottle. The guy they commissioned to do the graphic design for these labels is also a singer-songwriter in his spare time. A few years ago, his PA called me out of the blue because he had an upcoming gig that his regular bassist couldn't make, so I filled in for that one. So in short: I once played bass for the guy who went on to design the labels for the upcoming Coca-Cola branding tie-in to the new Star Wars flick.

I think describing it as "Faulty" in the headline might be in the running for Understatement of the Year...

I actually preferred Abandon to Perpendicular...at least, I always used to. Haven't put either of them on for years, now I think about it. Perhaps I should go back and re-assess!

I think Gillan's loss of upper register was quite evident as early as 1998, when they put a new recording of Bloodsucker on the end of Abandon - the screechy bits so beloved of the original seemed to have been replaced with a relatively gentle falsetto! Not sure why they didn't just leave it off what was otherwise a surprisingly good album...

I broke a string towards the end of a jazz gig. Not even one of the peripheral ones, but the D. I had no backup (in fact, I was an undergraduate at the time, so I couldn't even afford to buy a new set of strings for a couple of weeks) and had to finish the gig with three strings and a big gap. Shifting hand positions for a bossa was straightforward enough, but trying to play a walking bass line under Autumn Leaves on two strings is not an experience I'm in a hurry to repeat.

Why do they always wait until you're trying to leave to pick a fight? One of the most miserable gigs I played was a local boozer out in somewhere near Northolt, where the punters clearly weren't interested. We were basically ignored for two hours, and it was only as we were about to carry the gear back out to the car that a fight broke out by the front door - couldn't they have waited until we'd gone? Thankfully the bar staff unlocked the side door for us, so we never saw how that one panned out!

Ah. I stand corrected regarding Mr Gadd's output. I didn't really think there was much to like about it in the first place; there's even less now.

Just in case we're running out of worms, here's a fresh can: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct-allegations-comedian-actor To summarise, the author argues that if you laugh at Louis CK's work, you're complicit in what he's done. I don't take this as a generalisation to apply to all creative wrong'uns, as the author explains that a lot of CK's work (particularly in stand-up) played up to the character of an awkward sex-pest, and so it could be argued that the material itself is tainted by his behaviour - now it turns out he was basically hiding in plain sight. In the case of musicians, I don't think there's anything in Gary Glitter or Ian Watkins' lyrics that allude to the horrible things they were doing behind the scenes. Can you make a stronger case for the art being kept separate if it doesn't reference the artist's crimes?

I think he's popped up on another thread under the name "Bluewine." Not sure what's prompted him to set up a new account, but he still signs off as "Blue" on his posts, so we know it's him!

Unless it's followed by "Reason for selling: I can't stop it playing itself. I've barely slept in the last fortnight, and the neighbours are complaining about the noise."

I've found myself on both sides of this awkward fence - on one side as a fan of The Who, around the time the police were investigating Pete Townshend's approach to "research"; and on the other side when Chris Brown released an album not long after his abusive relationship with Rihanna came to light. Back then, I decided to climb back up to my reserved seat on the fence, and I can't see myself coming down any time soon. As Jus Lukin rightly points out, it's never going to be black and white. Some people who made great, challenging art were/are pretty horrible, and it's hard to judge how horrible they have to be before it taints what they created. To take a more trivial example, we repeatedly tell our kids not to take drugs, but then we play them classic albums made by people who were buying cocaine by the shoebox while recording them. Even one of the most extreme cases - the guy from Lostprophets - is more complex than at first glance. Of course the guy in question is the very definition of a monster, but if his bandmates honestly didn't know what he was up to then is it fair to tar them with the same brush? I knew a couple of people who were really into their music back in the day - I'd be interested to see whether they can still listen to any of it now. PS A more recent example: I've got Parks and Recreation on DVD. At some point I'll feel like watching those again. Trouble is, knowing what I now know about Louis CK, do I now skip the series that he appeared in? I don't think it's going to make for comfortable viewing.

I generally think of Deep Purple as prog rock, but then I guess it depends which albums you focus on. They were definitely moving towards a mainstream sound on Machine Head, but the five albums before that are a lot more experimental. Ditto Rainbow, I suppose. Since You've Been Gone is like a blueprint for classic rock cheese, but then Stargazer must surely count as a prog-rock epic!

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1510341327' post='3405843'] Most often when listening to Schubert, for instance, but also with many disks which have a particular resonance with me (Nostalgia..? A theme..?) Examples would be [b]'The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus' (Spirit...),[/b] 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' (Bowie...), 'Surrealistic Pillow' and 'Bless Its Pointed Little Head' (Jefferson Airplane...); very recently I came across 'Bee Gees' 1st' which I'd not listened to for fifty years. Some albums are only complete if listened to in their entirety, and with attention. [/quote] Good to know I'm not the only Spirit fan on this forum!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1510340673' post='3405839'] Would you call The Rolling Stones a Rock Band? I think there's another debate here. I'm in the fence with The Stones, originally a blues cover band. Blue [/quote] Just to throw another spanner in the works, I did have a similar conversation with a chap who insisted that The Stones were the greatest Rock 'n' Roll band, partly because, strictly speaking, he considered The Who to be a Rhythm & Blues band (as they were originally marketed)!

[quote name='No. 8 Wire' timestamp='1510324844' post='3405629'] Fleetwood Mac - which was greater, Peter Green era or Rumours era? [/quote] Much as I love Rumours and Tusk, my vote goes to the Peter Green era every time - plus that way they'd qualify as a fully British band, I believe!

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1510313102' post='3405488'] It should have said this: [/quote] Ha! Many a true word in jest, and all that - I just popped "british rock bands" into Google, and pretty much got Mr Fletcher's top 10: https://www.google.co.uk/search?source=hp&ei=0o0FWuSRJpD2kwXJkICICA&q=british+rock+bands&oq=british+rock+bands&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l10.2289.4980.0.5137.18.14.0.0.0.0.270.1681.1j7j3.11.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..7.11.1677...0i131k1.0.Dt9gDsFYFh4