EliasMooseblaster

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

[quote name='No. 8 Wire' timestamp='1510309876' post='3405452'] Its done the trick though, generated loads of hits from people who wouldn't normally hit evening standard clickbait. Got to pay Osbornes fat cat salary somehow... [/quote] Years ago, back on another forum, a lot of people used to know of a proxy server which allowed them to link indirectly to Daily Mail articles in such a way that we could all have a good chuckle at the rubbish they were printing without them getting the ad revenue...I wonder if anything similar exists for the Evening Blandard?

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1510168990' post='3404475'] Yeah, I liked these basses, can't believe they weren't more successful. As ever, not an overnight success and people were getting used to them when Gibson (marketing genius' obvs) put an Inlay on every model rather than just making a commemorative model and sales for the year dropped off a cliff face (not just the EB). So they scrapped it and brought out the ESP beginner bass lookalike version out. I love their instruments, but my god they're morons. [/quote] ^ +1! I really feel like they missed a trick by not making more of these. We opened for a band in Derby a whose bassist had one; sounded superb and looked the business.

The Who all the way down at number 15? Utter tosh, I tell thee! But then I wouldn't have had Zeppelin in the top 20. Or T.Rex...or the Stone Roses...christ, Oasis? Don't get me started on bloody Oasis...

Interesting question! I've certainly found myself playing in bands where I didn't like the music - needless to say, I didn't stick around for long. But with Cherry White, it's a lot more nuanced. There's certainly no disconnect, but maybe a bit of a gap. Our guitarist has historically written most of the songs, though as I've contributed more, I feel I've had more of a steer over things. So there's quite a lot of overlap between what our guitarist likes - and therefore models his own writing on - and what I enjoy. I suppose this is going to be true for a lot of people, because a lot of us listen to a far wider range of genres than one band is ever going to play. I'm fortunate in that the band doesn't just play "rock," but happily takes in elements of blues and prog-rock, which help to keep things fresh and interesting. They're never going to play jazz, but they've also not put an embargo on me bringing songs with "jazz chords" in them (i.e., anything more complicated than a dominant 7th). Of course, if it were entirely up to me, I'd have dragged us down a bluesy prog-rock rabbit hole that would probably have driven the others to resign in frustration, so it's probably for the best that I've not become the main writer. I can keep all that for my solo side project and then everyone's happy.

I think, looking back on my years of scepticism, that part of the problem is the cheap/half-arsed nature of a lot of the compressors built into bass amps. The ones in my old solid state combos, and the ones I've more recently tried using in practice rooms, always made everything sound a bit brittle, and gave me very little control over the compression. This is almost certainly why I stopped using them. Now that I've moved over to valve amps, the gentle compression that they apply naturally seems to be enough for my needs. If I hadn't made this transition, I think I'd now be happy for somebody who understood them to pop a decent compressor pedal into my signal chain and show me how to get the best out of it.

I bought a Precision kit from Brandoni about sixteen years ago and it's been a reliable part of my setup ever since. For about seven or eight years it was my main gigging bass, and there was a brief window of a few months in which it was (gasp!) my only bass. Obviously they won't rival a custom build from a good luthier, but you can get a lot of bass for your buck.

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1509701824' post='3400927'] + 1 for The Hamsters here too. Way back in the mists of time when I lived in London I saw them quite a few times at venues like the Half Moon in Putney . Excellent band . An excellent guitar player as I recall who also had a nice line in witty patter [/quote] + 1 here too! Back when I was still a student they were playing the Half Moon on a monthly basis and it became a bit of a ritual with some of my friends. They did a pretty good line in ZZ Top covers too, and their own material was always entertaining.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1510049330' post='3403441'] Depends on the type of rotary switch. Some (especially the plastic-bodied type that you would get from electronics hobby shops) have a collar the sets how many positions the it will click through (up to 12 IIRC). If there is one it will be accessible when you unbolt the switch. You will need a multimeter to determine what all the currently un-used contacts do. [/quote] That's good to know - I'm just contemplating the balance of sound options vs my wiring skills, as if nothing else it seems a shame not to make the coil tap available. Then of course I've got series/parallel options plus the stock bridge pickup to think about, though at least that's fewer options still than... [quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1510050307' post='3403458'] Having once built a guitar that had 125 sound options, I'm one to talk - BUT, if you are still going to rig up a varitone circuit, I would personally just go for standard series humbucking mode for the DiMarzio. You can always change it later if it really isn't giving you what you want. [/quote] ...this! (125? I presume this must have required a few microchips somewhere along the way?) I'm actually moving away from the varitone idea, having looked at the DiMarzio manual and seen how many different things I can do with just four wires. I have a push/pull pot of the right impedance going spare, and obviously I might be able to free up positions on the rotary switch, so I'm mostly thinking about what I might be able to switch in or out without cutting any extra holes in the guitar!

Thought I might reheat this thread as I have an update and a question! Update: I've bought the DiMarzio. Hoping to get that wired up tonight in the most basic manner to test it out. Question: there are approximately ten million different ways I can wire it, for series/parallel, coil tap, and permutations of those. Unfortunately all the wiring diagrams in the manual assume I'm wiring to a three-way toggle switch. My options for switching are: swapping out the volume pot for a push-pull to enable a coil tap; or fiddling around with the rotary pickup switch to see if I can get more settings out of it. It currently clicks through three different positions, but I see it has a lot more terminals - is it possible to 'unlock' more positions and make use of these?

[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1509791972' post='3401651'] Ah, I think that might be "Westside" or something similar, a couple of shops along from Wunjo. They're the only shop on Denmark Street who stock pedaltrain and MXR as well I believe. [/quote] [quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1509957351' post='3402783'] I had a Schecter Model T a while back. I believe it was a continuation of the Rob Deleo signature. Came standard with Seymour Duncan pickups and pretty decent hardware. It was quite a nice bass. Nothing amazing, but did most things well. [/quote] I still have a Model T - and, as coincidence would have it, I bought it from Westside. At the time, I was considering pulling the trigger on a Fender but wasn't sure I could spare the readies for a US Std P. The Model T knocked the Fender Mex Std into a cocked hat, and didn't set me back very much more. If you can get on with the idea of a P-J bass with a Jazz-like neck then I'd heartily recommend trying one. (Sounds great through an Ashdown valve amp!)