chrisba

don't forget you'll probably have to transpose everything. Most brass instruments are Bb or Eb. I don't know about Sousaphones though.

I use Elixirs on my MIJ Precision. They sound like not-quite-new conventional strings, which I prefer to the zingy brand-new sound, but keep that quality for ages ( I replace them once a year rather than once every 3 months for Fender nickels that I used to use )

Just the one for me. Our guitarist has a very similar P, so I could always borrow that in emergencies. I do have three bikes though, and I've got my eyes on a fourth.

[quote]I was in the first edition of Keraang[/quote] Bizarrely, my 14 y.o. daughter is in this month's. In one of the little vox-pop reviews "Izzy from Reading" says how much she thinks Twin Atlantic ( who? ) have matured in their latest album

My son is on that course in Guildford, in his final year. He is very enthusiastic about the course and the quality of teaching. He says the Maths/Physics/Music A-level requirement is representative of the course content, and you would struggle without A's in all 3. I think you can drop most of the performance stuff after the first year, so don't worry if you can only just scrape the Grade 7. It used to be a fast-track into the BBC, but they have cut right back on recruitment recently. They still have some involvement in the department though. p.s. Spelling is "Tonmeister"

Anderton's in Guildford sell a "Build your own P-bass" kit that has all the bits. Pretty cheap, so presumably not particularly good, but might make a good starting point. ( Their website is a bit broken at the mo, otherwise I would have posted a link )

I used to watch a few friends play at an acoustic jam session in a local pub. I fancied joining in, but didn't play anything. Thought bass looked easier to play than guitar, so bought one and taught myself. Now play with them in their 'proper' band too, as their bass player left.

U2 - With or Without You. 4 notes repeated over and over with no variation. I sometimes try and change the fingering half way through to relieve the boredom, but always end up fluffing it. Fortunately seems to have quietly disappeared from the set.

[quote]Yes. The only harmonic that's genuinely "in tune" (in terms of equal temperament) with the open string is the octave (12th fret). Everything else just gently drifts off from there.[/quote] I would argue it's the other way around, the harmonics are always, by definition, "in tune", but won't agree with the fretted notes ( except 12th ) which are always a compromise to some degree. The whole subject of temperament came as a complete surprise to me. Quick summary, an octave is double the frequency of the root note, and the fifth is 3 times ( or 1.5 if you prefer it in the same octave as the root). If you do the maths on the [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths"]circle of fifths[/url], from A ( 440hz ) multiplying by 3 each time, and dividing by 2 as required to keep it sensible, you get back to A = 446hz, which is slightly sharp. The different versions of temperament ( [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament"]equal temperament is the one commonly used[/url] ) tweak all the intermediate notes slightly so that you get back to 440hz instead. Hence harmonics won't quite match the fretted notes. I have heard a theory that the reason why choral harmony sounds so "pure", is that they don't have problems with the slightly out of tune notes, as voices would naturally adjust slightly so they sound in tune with the other notes in the chord.

I learned bass in order to play in a band with a group of friends, so I have performed with them most of my playing life ( 4 years ) Last night I played with somebody else for the first time, standing in for a colleague in a rock covers band. Interesting experience, hard work learning a bunch of new songs but good fun. Also played with a pick for the first time in public. They play a couple of punk numbers and in rehearsal I gave it a go and it just felt right. Nice to have the tonal variety it gives.

We do an event on the village green every year, and the first time we managed to put one of the marquee pins right through the underground mains cable to the pavilion we were getting our power supply from. Southern Electricity were wonderful, and fixed it in time for the event, but we always use generators now, as our power demands have grown considerably.

Somebody once called my playing "Simple and understated". As it was my first gig, I was pretty chuffed.

£99 + VAT IN Costco, saw one there this evening. Might have been my imagination, but it looked like it wasn't full length scale.

The chink of ice cubes in an early evening Gin & Tonic

[quote]+1 on liking Judy Tzuke. I am the Phoenix is a superb album.[/quote] + another one, both for Judie and I am the Phoenix. I used to listen to her a lot at Uni, and saw her play live there too, back in the very early '80's. Loved the music and fancied her wildly too. I only have her vinyl though, and no way of playing it, must buy some digital versions. I always adored the put-down at the end of "Sportscar", spoken rather than sung, "I don't care who you are, you're not putting your car in my garage". Another favourite song of hers was called Liggers at your Funeral, not sure which album it was off.

[quote name='Conan' post='978363' date='Oct 5 2010, 02:13 PM']Totally agree! You can hardly tell that it's the same track! Horrible self-indulgent semi-soloing from Wetton that ruins the delicate ambience of one of my favourite Genesis tracks. Yuck! I was expecting him to start slapping! I don't like it. [/quote] +1. Spot on about ruining the ambience. Nice bass playing, but wrong song to do it in. I liked "...and then there were three" too, great song writing, but was very disappointed by Duke and its successors.

[quote name='Conan' post='974151' date='Oct 1 2010, 03:14 PM'][i]Several[/i]? [/quote] I once designed a computer system that stored peoples details, and had a binary field for storing their sex, 0=male, 1=female. We sold the system to a local authority in London, and they had at least 5 different values they wanted to put in that field, including "hermaphrodite","born male, now female", "born female, now male" and I'm sure there were some others. I'm not sure if there are any hermaphrodites or trans-sexuals here, but I was just covering myself :-)

One of the main things I like about this forum is the diversity of those on it. There are all ages from teens to retirees, several different sexes, many musical tastes: jazz, punk, metal, indie, classical, gospel and many others. We have people who never play outside their bedroom, and those who play to large, packed houses, and everything in between. And we have those who play in tribute bands, covers bands, those who play mostly originals, those who play solo, and those who play in orchestras. Those who make a living from it, and those who would happily play for nothing. Lets celebrate the diversity of this happy crowd rather than trying to criticise or question peoples choices.

On most ( but not all ) PC's you can record what's coming out of the speakers. If you have a Soundblaster card, there is an audio input channel called "What-u-hear", just record this while YouTube is playing, even better record it using Audacity ( don't forget the free MP3 plug-in mentioned above if you want to save it as MP3 ). Other sound cards have one called "Stereo Mix" or something similar. I'm told that you can plug speakers out into line-in, and record that, never tried it myself though.

Normally, Come Up and See Me by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. Our singer always starts with the same joke, "Here's a little Cock <pause for effect> ...ney rebel"

[quote]You get paid, and people come and see you. And not just musos staring at your fingers and calling your gear sh*t, women, women who dance, and wear skimpy clothes. smile.gif[/quote] Spot on. The guy that runs our band says "We are entertainers. People come to the pubs we play in or pay us to play at their parties because they want to be entertained. If we could write songs that are more entertaining to our audience than the covers we play, then we would, but we aren't clever enough to do so." I would rather play covers to 200 drunken students than original music to 20 introvert musicians. Loads more fun.

[quote name='4StringFortress' post='972518' date='Sep 30 2010, 11:40 AM']Yeh i love the look of the BB basses So whats the different between the 414 and the 424? i know the 424 has a 5 piece neck but what else is different?[/quote] I don't think the 424 has the matching headstock, which is sad. I tried a BB614 in Sunburst, it was a thing of great beauty, lovely to play, but I wasn't over impressed by the sound. Too "active" , if you know what I mean.

I don't think there is any bit of music that screams "1960's" as much as Herb A.

Come up and see me by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel About 2 years ago, aged 48, in a pub in Andover.

I asked Ashdown the same question regarding my Electric Blue combo. They replied that it could damage the amp, so don't do it. This is not true of their more expensive amps. My sound man gave me a little box ( home-made, I think ) that kills phantom power ( he called it a Ghostbuster )