chriswareham

Couple of great punk or post punk bass guitar lines on there - Babylon's Burning by The Ruts and Into The Valley by The Skids. Tabbed out Babylon's Burning yesterday morning as all the ones on the web are hilariously wrong, but can't get the first two bars of the chorus to sound right. Anyone got a tab for that bit? It's rooted on // D / F-E //

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1388862066' post='2327086'] Hehe she's a softie really. Best way to defuse a Staffie - put a jumper on it [/quote] Don't try that with a cat - a daft cat sitter did that to the wife's Persian moggie and ended up in casualty.

I wish Washburn would do a Peter Steele signature of the very rare M series bass that he used towards the end of his life. Cool looking bass, probably customised with a prototype Fernandez sustainer (why oh why did that not go into production?).

[quote name='jensenmann' timestamp='1388267478' post='2320306'] Heck, that´s some great synth gear. Congrats to that collection! [/quote] Thanks! It's the result of twenty years of acquiring and discarding bits of equipment. These are the ones that I've never got bored with, and use at least every other day. Only thing I really regret selling is my Korg KPR-77, the first drum machine I ever owned and for me the best sounding programmable analogue one. The TR-77 is great though, very much like the later CR-78 but with a snare that's more like the later TR-606 or TR-808! With the exception of the indestructible Jupiter 4, the synth stuff does need a lot of maintenance though, particularly since some of it even gets used live.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1388664306' post='2324457'] Betafunk's right - these little comedy Rick copies (Rickenjokers?) weren't Teisco/Kawai products, and to be honest I've not yet encountered any confirmed Japanese-made Kays. Kay was originally a fairly respected US-made budget brand, but around 1970-ish ceased manufacture & farmed out production to the cheapest sources. The early 70s ones like this K20B were Taiwanese and the later, better-built ones were from Cort in Korea, including the sexy through-neck doublecuts that every Ebay seller insists are Matsumokus. I have seen East German-made Kay acoustics so presumably production went anywhere cheap! Decent enough budget instruments, though - never had a K20B so I can't vouch for their quality but the old Taiwanese P copies were rock-solid, sound good and can play OK after a proper setup, and the Corts - if you get a good one - are pretty close to late 70s Japanese quality. [/quote] Seems the (very little) info I could find on the web about Far Eastern made Kay guitars was wrong then! Regarding the quality of the K-20B, it looks pretty crude but a straightforward setup made my one as playable as the brand new Gretsch Electromatic short scale I had until last Summer. I wonder if the differences in humidity and so forth would account for why so many of these Far Eastern budget instruments have a reputation for being in an unplayable state even from new. I know that's why Hammond teamed up with a Japanese consortium to make organs in the Far East, as their US made instruments suffered a similar problem - they would be fine in the typical temperate climates of the US and Europe, but would suffer badly from the humidity in places like Japan.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388603492' post='2323952'] You'll appreciate this then chriswareham if you are an owner of one of these. My one is exactly the same as the one in the video and has a sticker which says 'Model: K-20B Made in Taiwan' and as you say they are not bad playable basses. I've kept the flatwounds on that i bought it with. I think that they are as old as the bass!. I do love the way that they wax lyrically about it though! [/quote] Hmm, mine doesn't have a sticker saying made in Taiwan, but it would make sense. By the early 1970s Japanese companies had started to farm out construction to factories in Taiwan and elsewhere as labour costs were increasing in Japan. The founder of Ace Tone and Roland went into some detail about this in his autobiography (not a great book - I was hoping for more insights into design of Roland classics like the Jupiter synths, but it's more of a business manual).

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388601958' post='2323918'] It wasn't just guitars and basses that were poorly made. The same can be said for nearly all household electrical goods. [/quote] Yup, television sets being just about the worst - they had an appalling reputation for exploding, sometimes when they were just connected to the mains rather than actually switched on ...

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388521584' post='2323136'] I'm hoping that the same will happen to this. In fact it's the only reason i watch Jools nowadays in the hope that my car boot Kay (complete with flats) like the one in the video that i splashed out £35 will become the stuff of legends backstage at Later with Jools after it's been played by some trendy indie types. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZkyw-r34HA [/quote] I've got one of those! As someone points out in the You Tube comments, it's not US made as the guy in the video claims, as the Kay brand name was used in the 1970s for Japanese made basses from Kawai/Teisco. The model he's playing is a K-20B, which is obviously a bit of a Rickenfaker. It's not exactly the finest made bass guitar in the world, but with a decent setup and a set of roundwounds it makes a servicable short scale bass.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1388515198' post='2322988'] I came across this on youtube and now I appreciate how lucky I really am. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDn5DXX_1Tg[/media] [/quote] Be very, very wary of anything that was made behind the Iron Curtain. I saw a Russian punk band many years ago in St Petersburg, and had a go on their bass guitar. It was absolutely awful, and I was told it was representative of the terrible instruments that were available under Communism. Amusingly, Soviet synthesisers are now considered desirable, but just like Soviet guitars they are poorly designed instruments with appalling build quality. The exceptions are some of the Vermona stuff from East Germany, which while primitive often has redeeming qualities, and Jolana from Czechoslovakia who managed to build quality instruments.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1388250524' post='2320007'] ok ok so technically she's not wearing black [/quote] The guitarist forgot her knickers? And her skirt?

"Never underestimate the power of standing on stage, dressed in black and holding a guitar." - Attribution unknown

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1387929619' post='2317408'] Cool story, Chris, and I'm now slightly less frustrated I never bought any of their albums. What a dunce. [/quote] I still love the Catastrophe Ballet and Atrocities albums - US Gothic rock at it's best. The first album with the original singer and guitarist is also well worth checking out, a punky take on early Black Sabbath that pretty much defined what the Americans call "death rock". I guess it's a case of not meeting people whose music you admire, if they turn out to be a bit of a dick as it may colour your perception of their music from then on.

Gretsch Electromatic Jet ticks all your boxes. It's short scale, in your price range, very light and no neck dive. Looks great, and quite flexible sound wise thanks to two pickups. They're made in China, as Fender now use the brand name for a budget range as well as reproductions of the old high end US made models. Build quality on mine was flawless, I guess they can produce them at this price point by using cheaper and lighter woods.

Google Jack's Instrument Services. He's based in Manchester, and has a very quick turnaround for scratch plates and truss rod covers. He made a replacement TRC for my Rockinbetter bass, and is currently making a TRC and new scratch plate for my Jolana bass to be fitted after some other work on it.

Wonder if the seller will experience a flood that destroys the item before the buyer can collect it, then relist an identical item a week later. That's what happened to me when I won an auction for a mixer recently. Sorely tempted to drive to Brighton and see the "destroyed" mixer alongside the other one that had the same distinctive scratch on thee fascia.

For keyboards, check out the first Talk Talk album (from before they went all pseudo jazz and tedious). Great bass parts as well, plus the classic pounding Simmons drum sound.

I play a short scale semi-acoustic bass and have gigged with it on rare occasions. The only reason I don't gig it more is that it's very fragile and I can't find a case to fit it properly. I used to own a Gretsch Electromatic, which is a beautiful short scale bass for not a lot of money. It had a great "boingy" tone, and I still regret selling it. So in summary, I'd thoroughly recommend you enjoy being a little bit different, and if a six foot four bloke who looks like Lurch from the Munsters can get appreciative comments for how he looks with a short scale then I'm damn sure you can!

Still don't know what Santa has brought me, but the wife and I had an agreement that we'd not buy presents worth more than £20 for each other. Did buy myself a Kay Rickenfaker bass though ...

At the tail end of the 1990's I played in a band supporting Christian Death, who had a big underground following back in the 1980's. During our soundcheck I was absent mindedly playing the bassline to This Is Heresy, their highest charting song (banned by the BBC for blasphemous content no less). The singer came up to the front of the stage and in an incredibly whiny voice told me I shouldn't play his song. Later in the evening I inadvertently urinated in his make up box (honestly, it was an accident) and our chance of a full supporting tour completely disappeared when almost all the audience left after we'd played since they were there to us rather than Christian Death ...

Can't see the linked video on this device, but if it's key changes you're after rather than key(board)s then check out The Cardiacs. They invented what has been termed "prog-punk" or "pronk", amazingly fun music with a degree of complexity that's astounding but secondary to how good it sounds. Sadly their front man Tim Smith has been in ill health, and it's possible that he won't be able to play guitar again.

I guess that my home town was quite lucky, since we had a decent selection of bass guitars in nearby Kingfisher Music. Not sure if they've downsized lately, as they moved premises a while ago. The problem was the staff though - the older guys tend to be utterly miserable and the younger ones think they're better than you just because they work in a music shop. As an example, I asked about Speakon cables and the spotty assistant sneeringly told me that they were a waste of time as he didn't use them with his GK rig. I told him I didn't give a rats toss what he used or what he thought and that he'd lost a sale as I had intended to buy a practice amp and Alesis drum machine as well as the cables.

[quote name='Guinness21' timestamp='1387123964' post='2308408'] The b3k and lomenzo are on my gas list! What are they like in comparison? [/quote] Not sure about the Lomenzo, but I tried a lot of overdrive and distortion pedals before settling on the Darkglass. It's quite fliexible, but excels at the harsher end of distortion sounds. What I particularly like about it is that it doesn't have much sustain, which is what I need for the fast and riffy detuned metal that I use it on. I'd go as far as saying that is sounds "gated", and it doesn't blur the attack of each note.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1387141583' post='2308705'] I had the Micro Rack Reverb. It was pretty poor. [/quote] I love mine. I use it across the mix when I'm writing stuff, and also use it for things like gated reverbs on individual instruments when recording demos. Certainly not professional quality, but far more flexible than the awful preset Alesis stuff that was around at the same time.

[quote name='steviedee' timestamp='1387103475' post='2308157'] A lot of original house innovators quite liked prog rock and kraut rock as well [/quote] Many were former punks, applying the same ethos to synthesisers and drum machines. For example my all time favourite house track, Jesus Loves The Acid, was by a former punk musician. Some of the proggie folk seem to have been quite influential in what became the trance music scene though, which if you think about it makes a lot more sense!

Circle K strings (http://www.circlekstrings.com/) are probably your best bet to get that low. I play a four string in drop A♯, for which I use the heaviest four strings from a five string set. That works OK, but I could do with a bit more tension in the detuned B string, which is exactly what the Circle K strings are intended for as they provide an even tension across all the strings.