EliasMooseblaster

Bravo, chaps. A difficult choice, as usual, and quite the eclectic mix. It is after no small amount of deliberation on my part to give my vote to stu_g. (A very close 2nd and 3rd...possibly even joint 2nd...to Ou7shined and Dad.)

[quote name='SlapbassSteve' timestamp='1393432099' post='2380256'] Interestingly I started off playing jazz piano before switching over to bass... I half wonder if I'll go back one day? [/quote] Me too! Well, I had piano lessons for a few years with a guy who introduced me to jazz...saying I could actually play jazz piano might be overselling myself! I do still play, though I haven't practised regularly for a long time, and I'm limited to a keyboard in my pokey London flat. It probably gave me a bit of a head-start when I first took up the bass. I'd already been taught a few scales and some basic theory, so once I got hold of a bass guitar scales book it made it much easier to find my way around the neck. That, and a collection of Doors songs transcribed for piano. Couldn't play most of them for the life of me, but it was a good source of inspiration - ol' Ray (RIP) did play some really nice bass parts with his left hand!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1393422330' post='2380018'] Yes, of course, but whether it is or is not a nice tune is subjective and therefore the OP wnats to understand what influences that subjectivity. Otherwsie, we are just passive consumers and will take whatever old s***e is thrown at us. [/quote] [quote name='martthebass' timestamp='1393423432' post='2380042'] Oh Bilbo, so young yet so cynical ;-) [/quote] He's got a point - I once shared a flat with a guy who had virtually no interest in exploring new music. In his own words, he just listened "whatever's popular." So quite literally, as Bilbo puts it, "whatever old s***e is thrown at us." This was, to be fair, the same man that saw me re-stringing my basses before a recording session and asked me, in all seriousness, why I changed my strings. I don't think we ever really saw eye-to-eye...

[quote name='Jonnyboy Rotten' timestamp='1393241212' post='2377602'] Is it anything to do with the white and black notes on a piano. For example - if you tune a string to C then the marked frets would be all black notes and the unmarked be all white notes? *Edit I can't work it out but I think I am wrong anyway but I can't think of any other pattern or reason. [/quote] Hmm, not quite...your 3rd fret would indeed mark Eb, but then your 5, 7 and 9 would indicate F, G and A-natural. Though on that note*, it does make it very easy to track a minor pentatonic up a single string! (*No pun intended, I swear....)

To be fair, my embarrassment stems chiefly from the fact I can't stand Nickelback! The aim was to keep the new singer's identity a secret, and hopefully get people talking about it a bit, so the idea behind the video was to get people guessing as to which of the featured people was the one who got the job. (Clue: it's not the guy with the huge 'tache at 0:32!) Then of course, once the Thunderclap goes off and the song comes out, we'll be showcasing the new member as far and wide as possible, but hopefully with a slightly larger base level of interest than if we'd just told our existing followers, "hey, look, we have a new singer." Don't know how well this experiment will work, but I thought it was worth a try! (And thank you once again for supporting it!)

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1392402539' post='2368368'] Lol really? I thought everyone would hjave seen it. But the good news is i liked your song. [/quote] Oh christ, and it's THAT song as well! Yeah, I'd heard the song (unfortunately) but never seen the video. Might have gone with a different idea if I'd known... [quote name='madshadows' timestamp='1392407357' post='2368483'] Great song and video, like the singers voice a lot [/quote] ...but thank you both, I'm really glad you like the song!

Oh crap, did Nickelback use that idea for a video as well? I half-inched the idea from Hooverphonic, who did exactly the same thing (but more professionally) when they introduced their new singer. And apparently Michael Jackson did something similar back in the '90s. I didn't realise Chad Kroeger and his ilk had done this as well. Bugger...

Just a little update on this one: we made a video. http://youtu.be/v8N8nPhu6XI Hope you like the song. Amazing what you can do with a budget of £0.00 and some very generous, if slightly eccentric, friends!

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1392391109' post='2368115'] Regarding the the Tony Iommi/John Birch "misunderstanding" , as I remember it , the problem arose out of the fact that someone of the same name as that esteemed guitar builder had committed and been found guilty of a heinous crime in Birmingham around the same time that John stopped making guitars , and Tony had seen the story on the local news and for several years after that presumed it was the same guy. [/quote] This seems to be a running theme for Sabbath...didn't they end up hiring Vinnie Appice to play on [i]Mob Rules[/i] by accident? The story I've heard is that they were trying to get hold of Carmine Appice, but their manager ended up phoning the wrong Appice!

Can anyone confirm or refute the rumours I've heard that he was experimenting with 8-string basses circa [i]Sabotage[/i]?

And for bonus points: what's the best pedal tuner for metal? (Joking aside, need to look into getting one myself. Guitarist has been using a Korg for a few years - seems to be fairly rugged and easy to read on a dark stage!)

Yeah, that's a slightly scary statistic! Though I guess some people will pay a lot of money for some of those CS Fenders, which must help bring up their standing if you're measuring it by the amount of money these companies turn over. Does the original post give any indication as to who's in 3rd, 4th and 5th place? I'd be interested to see who's following directly behind Fender and Gibson (RIC? Yamaha?) - or who the Custom Shop could potentially bump off the 6th spot!

That certainly makes for interesting reading! One could argue that, comparing Roland and Yamaha, there's even more money to be made by dabbling in everything - I know Yamaha also make saxophones and pianos and so probably have a more varied catalogue even than Roland. But then another consideration is whether the figures in the table are just for sales of music and audio, or the company as a whole - e.g., Yamaha motorbikes...and do Roland still do anything computing-related these days?

[quote name='squire5' timestamp='1392117212' post='2364781'] In N.Ireland there are many folk duos about who insist in giving each song,or tune,the full works IE who wrote it,why they wrote it,what they were thinking about after they wrote it and tend to go a bit far. [/quote] This seems to be a commonly committed sin at open mic nights throughout London. Not everyone, but every so often - usually once a night - you'll get some lad with his acoustic guitar, dressed like every other bloody hipster in the place, prattling on about how this song is "really important" to him because he wrote it at some particular time in his life about which we have absolutely no knowledge, in a desperate attempt to appear "sensitive." And the song that follows is usually sh*te.

I rather hope that this will lead to somebody re-mastering Joanne Shaw Taylor's last studio album - and no doubt many others, but that's one example that sticks in my mind. It really grates when you have an album of great songs that is hard to appreciate because the guy right at the end of the chain decided to take the "EVERYTHING LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE" approach on a blues-rock album.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1391686628' post='2360109'] ah I see sorry didn't realise a blues pentatonic was minor... would that be I,II,bIII,V,bVI then? whats with the bV? surlely that clashes pretty badly with the chords underneath? I've only every played with modes, never bothered to use any pentatonics. [/quote] There seem to be two widely accepted "minor pentatonics." I think I, bIII, VI, V, bVII seems to be the most widely used - I only came across the I,II,bIII,V,bVI form recently. A popular "blues scale" is like the first example, but with the extra bV between the VI and V. (Yes, prepare to draw in breath sharply!) It fits surprisingly well if you're playing blues, but then in most blues the major/minor tonality is quite ambiguous as it is!

Both are correct - timmo's referring to the "minor pentatonic + added b5" (aka "the blues scale"), CamdenRob, your example is what's normally referred to as the "major pentatonic." Edit: just seen Timmo's follow up. The original "minor pentatonic" is just A, C, D, E, G, A - all of which are notes taken from the (natural) minor scale of A. The D# / Eb has simply worked its way in over the years as a popular "blue note," which is why the scale you cite in your OP is often referred to as the "blues scale." There may be a longer story behind its origins, but as far as I can gather it's just an extra note that jazz and blues players began to use to add colour to what they were playing. I'm sure it upsets no end of classically-trained theorists!

(NB I'm kidding myself that this is musically relevant enough to warrant posting in GD; Mods, if you beg to differ then I won't object to you moving it as you see fit!) Anyway, I have a little favour to ask you lot... As some of you know, Cherry White (aka That Band What I Play With) have appointed a new singer. We're trying to build up a bit of a buzz around said singer's identity via this medium: [url="https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/8526-who-is-cherry-white-s-singer"]https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/8526-who-is-cherry-white-s-singer[/url] What happens is, if you connect your FB/Twitter/Tumblr to this campaign, it allows us to post a single, short message to your feed/blog on the 1st March. You may get a couple of email updates from us, but otherwise there's no spam, no cost and no strange requests to sign up to other weird stuff. If any of you kind souls you could help us get to our goal of 100 supporters, that would be fantastic. (Because the message won't go out otherwise!) Thank you all most kindly in advance.

[quote name='DaytonaRik' timestamp='1391608948' post='2359136'] Managed to get this 2010 example for £750 inc. shipping [/quote] A bargain price to boot! I hope the two of you will be very happy together.

Yeah, me too. The Ox was, without a doubt, my favourite player, but I don't know how much I like the look of some of his more...erm, "exotic" instruments!

Peter Hook sig, perhaps? The actual choice of bass isn't as important as having a strap that hangs down to your ankles and gives you back problems within ten years of buying it.

This may answer your question! http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass7174.html Just underneath the Thunderbird entry: [i]"Designed by Peter Cook* from a Gibson Thunderbird-style neck, with body in the form of a pole-axe, black and cream stringing, two Thunderbird pickups, two volume and one tone control, 34″ scale."[/i] *Presumably not [i]that[/i] Peter Cook...

[quote name='Samashton12' timestamp='1391093174' post='2353175'] Seen this before, doesn't seem very accurate to me [/quote] That was my first thought when I saw your OP...but I think that tab is also for the Leeds recording, and the Isolated Bass video is the IoW performance, if I'm not mistaken?

[quote name='DaytonaRik' timestamp='1391085717' post='2353038'] Well, patience and persistence paid off and yesterday I was rewarded with a near mint 2010 GibsonThunderbird IV for the princely sum of £750! Exited much! NBD is next Wed/Thu depending on delivery. This is worse than waiting for Christmas!!! [/quote] My hearty congratulations, and I hope the two of you will be very happy together! I got my 2011 'bird through the marketplace on here and I can honestly say it's the nicest bass I've ever owned - I seem to have been cured of any and all gas since last October!

BUT IS IT FLAT OR ROUND?