EliasMooseblaster

[quote name='ZilchWoolham' timestamp='1505325220' post='3371094'] Personally, I think Brian May is a terrific guitar player, but Queen never manages to move me. His tone is great, and his solos are exciting and ear-catching, but the songs they're trapped in always leave me cold. It's almost a bit frustrating! [/quote] I have heard that back in the early days, when Queen were still playing the same circuit as Sparks, the Mael brothers did approach the then still Mr May and asked if he fancied joining their band - "Queen aren't really going anywhere," they supposedly told him.

Just remembered that I very briefly shared an office with the former bass player from Kenickie. (Anyone else remember them?) I think she was leaving her position just as I was starting in mine, so I think we overlapped by literally days. By the time somebody else pointed out who she was, she'd sadly cleared off before I got a chance to have a chat about anything bass-related with her!

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1503661821' post='3360061'] Fender made a five WAAAAY before that. Also a six. Both in the 60s. [/quote] Wasn't their fiver equipped with a high C, though? Not to split hairs, but I think BRX was referring to the first basses with a low B!

[quote name='Trueno' timestamp='1503608235' post='3359711'] Just remembered... once worked with a dep drummer who played with Smokey. [/quote] Your neighbour at the time wasn't called Alice, by any chance?

Guy Pratt has played my Epi EB3. I've not washed it since. (Not that I made a habit of washing my basses before the event...)

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1503517513' post='3358919'] Those moustaches were fine 'til he f***ed those up, too! Forget the swastika, let's all reclaim those as next summer's must have facial hair. [/quote] Even Ron Mael struggled with that particular battle at times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_kQHxJtj8

They should familiarise themselves with: Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass Puretone - Addicted to Bass Theme from "Seinfeld" Because when they tell people they are a bass player, the first question nearly every faft ducker will ask is, "ooh, are you [i]all about that bass[/i]?" A smaller subset of people may instead ask, "so are you [i]addicted to bass[/i], wha-oh-wha-oooh?" In either case, they will probably grin inanely in the assumption that they are the first person to have ever asked a bass player that question. And when people see them carrying their bass guitar, a large number of them, having got past the two obvious questions above, will then ask, "ooh, can you play the thing from 'Seinfeld'?" Possibly while doing air-slap-bass in a manner not unlike Alan Partridge.

[quote name='Yank' timestamp='1503479408' post='3358497'] Maybe I'll just fly the Jolly Roger...... oh, wait, are we allowed to say Roger or to be jolly about it? [/quote] As long as all involved parties consent to the Roger then please go at it with as much Jollity as you wish!

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1503346081' post='3357507'] Aw,that's such a shame. Can't we tempt you with just a £5 tiff..? The £15 barney is on special offer, too, and offers really good value. I can see that the full-out £50 row could be beyond many BCer's pocket, but a little effort now and again would so help site funds. [/quote] I expect he's a little more than fifteen pounds... [attachment=251847:barney.jpeg]

Very much bass -> amp for my "core" sound. I have complicated things a bit by adding an overdrive and a fuzz, but they're only used on a few songs, and after a hiccup in packing up the van I reassured myself that I could still do a whole set without either!

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1503316694' post='3357084'] Wanting to keep it because you think it looks cool is frankly a bit naive. Given the febrile atmosphere over the pond in relation to this issue, how long do you think it will take for people to start taking sides over here? Hard not to see it as a headache you don't need TBH. [/quote] I'm with lefty on this one. It's interesting how the potency of certain symbols can change, sometimes very rapidly. A few years ago, I saw Skynyrd at the Hammersmith Apollo, replete with Confederacy flag tied to the mic stand. I scoffed to my friend about it seeming rather crass, but I didn't recoil in horror at the time. Of course, the surrounding context was all very different: Barack Obama was still in the White House, many of us probably felt (very naively) that racism and white supremacy were on the way out, and perhaps there was a tenuous argument that the flag could be "reclaimed" as a symbol, as Billy Apple suggests, of Southern Rock'n'Roll. In the meantime, I know white supremacist/neo-Nazi groups were always active, and a lot of the them always rallied around the Confederates' flag, but in the last year or so it's been alarming how quickly they've publicly reclaimed said flag. The news coverage of recent marches and rallies draws a very clear dividing line - flying one of those flags runs too much risk of looking like an endorsement of Southern states neo-Nazi groups.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1502102244' post='3349277'] Stage was about ten foot square, about a foot high. There was a fecking great aircon unit on the low ceiling over the stage ('Over six feet tall? Mind your head then.'). Vocalist insisted on standing on the stage, knocking into everyone, terrible sound, just terrible. [/quote] Oh, St Moritz. Strange little place. Never played there myself, but I've been a few times as I have a couple of friends whose band play there every so often. Quite baffling, as said friends are about 6'3 and 6'6, and the bassist isn't exactly short either...I can only presume that it's the smaller singer/rhythm guitarist who's dealing with their bookings, as I found it more than a touch claustrophobic*! * as well as, not particularly well suited for amplified music, given its echoing, cavelike nature...

Wikipedia is infuriatingly evasive on the matter. First run of active electronics? 1980-84 Precision pickup plus a bridge position humbucker? 1995-2009 First Precision with a Jazz pickup by the bridge? Diddly squat. They even acknowledge its existence but refuse to quote a year!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've enjoyed going back to a few acoustic/folk/blues albums from decades past - a bit of Davey Graham, John Fahey, Ralph McTell, etc. All those nifty fingerpickers who could make a single acoustic guitar sound like two or three instruments at once. It reminded me of a few threads on here lately, where one of the criticisms levelled at Ed Sheeran was that although he's reasonably* handy with a loop pedal, the guitar parts he plays are pretty unremarkable. Which, conversely, made me wonder: where are all the genuinely impressive acoustic twiddlers these days? (Closest I could find was Martin Simpson, and he's not exactly new to the scene...) *[size=3]well, he's no Steve Lawson[/size]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1502878824' post='3354093'] If you're trying to get a band off the ground, car crashes are something you want to avoid. [/quote] ^ this! If the new guitarist knows less than half the set, I'm amazed your drummer/singer is so keen to book another gig at three weeks' notice. Not to say that he couldn't learn the rest in time, but that doesn't leave you many more rehearsals to make sure the set's up to scratch. You've got a prior engagement, and you likely don't know when that band is likely to be in town again. The gig your drummer's booked is probably a lot more replaceable than the tickets you've already paid for. As per the general consensus above: knowing a reliable dep will help with this kind of thing in future, but also it wouldn't hurt to get your drummer used to the idea that cancelling or moving a gig to a more opportune time is really not the end of the world!

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1502709963' post='3352968'] Has anyone with a Thunderbird played one of these? I love the thunderbird sound but the possibility of a lightweight package appeals. [/quote] Must admit I've always been pleasantly surprised by how lightweight the average Thunderbird is! Can't say I've tried an EB for comparison...though I guess the 'bird is only light until you have to pop it in that 5ft coffin case to carry it around.

You should be able to download Audacity for free - that should be able to cope with such a huge .wav file, and it will show you the waveform so you can see where the songs begin and end. http://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1502188584' post='3349818'] The (relatively humble) C harmonic minor key, has a B natural together with Eb and Ab. ETA: with 3 flats, are you sure the key isn't C minor instead of Eb major? [/quote] I think the Eb and C the relative major/minor of each other, aren't they? So they'd have the same key signatures...though the fact that the piece leads in on the 7th degree of the C harmonic minor makes me think you are indeed correct and it's C minor!

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1502118798' post='3349408'] For a one off job and assuming that the nut is not brass and that you don't need to remove much material, then I would probably use an old string of the right diameter as a file. Jewellers files work well enough, or even the cheapo welding tip cleaners, available on Ebay for a couple of quid. [/quote] Cheers, that's a really good idea - I didn't think a string would be abrasive enough but then the nut's only plastic, and I've seen what they do to my fingertips! Hoping if I can get a bit more give out of the neck pocket, I won't need to file down more than a mm or two.

I know a couple of guitarists who swear by their valve amps - I guess Black Sabbath remained loyal for so long for a reason! It's only in the last few years that I moved away from Laney bass amps myself, and that was because Ashdown seemed like a better route into valve heads. Surprised Laney haven't attempted a smaller valve head themselves, as the Nexus Tube seems to receive generally positive reviews from what I've seen.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1502117894' post='3349398'] I've even been in a band where the guy doing the writing wasn't even in the band! [/quote] Now that sounds like an interesting one* - do tell? [size=3]*unless the punchline is, "it was a tribute band"![/size]

My 8-string only gets used for a few songs in a typical set, and so it's only recently started to bother me that you could drive a small car through the gap between the strings and the fingerboard. I've finally resolved to try and set it up, and one of the obvious places to start, of course, is to lower the nut a bit. So: I have nut-slotting files for the bass strings, but not the octave strings. I could invest in a new set to also do my guitars, but (i) I'm quite happy with their setup, and (ii) the octave strings are a tiny bit thinner than the nearest matches on my preferred guitar string gauge. Is there an easy/cheaper alternative to investing in decent-quality tools for the job? Bonus question: anybody ever rewired a Hagstrom HB-8 before? I like the 6-way pickup selector, but I'd prefer to have control over the individual pickup volumes, instead of one master volume. Your thoughts, please, on whether it would be easier to gut it and replace the controls with: VVT, including push/pull coil tap in the tone pot, or Replace the master volume with a concentric stacked one, leaving the rest as it is? Ta!

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1502030664' post='3348837'] Well I enjoyed that. Shame Pride had taken its toll on a potential audience, and was a bit strange the way the pub wanted you finished and out so early, but the band sounded great, tasty bass playing and a huge tome from that Thunderbird. Let me know if you are down this way again. Cheers, Mike [/quote] Thanks for coming along, Mike - great to meet you and Si. Still quite mystified by their decision to bring the DJ on so early; can only presume they were hoping to draw in a few revellers on their way back up the hill from the main Pride celebration. Still, hopefully they'll have us back in the near future and we can play until a more sensible hour! Cheers, Ralph

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1502095642' post='3349201'] *where Led Zeppelin originally claimed they were originals [/quote] You could say that about a lot of Zeppelin's back catalogue - the number of copyright claims over the years is quite staggering!

I'm very pleased to report that I haven't encountered any issues! Worked straight out of the box, and the improvement in sound quality is absolutely wonderful. Only thing I have found is a bit of a clash if there's more than one USB audio device attached to the computer - but that's just down to my very limited competence with JACK!