tegs07

Sweet baby James - James Taylor

I believe this is a drunk and uninvited Jim Morrison “contributing” to Jimi Hendrix

This is true but most of the real anoraks I have met that had the means and obsession to get serious about this rarely listen to anyone who isn’t already dead! They are generally fans of Jazz and Classical music and in my experience tend to obsess about particular periods of these genre’s.

Just easier to sell on based on personal experience. People have heard of the brand that’s all. No dig at HB just get what TheGreek was saying. And yes it would be a CV or VM if not an Indonesian MM SUB.

It’s a little more complex than that. I worked for several years in digital broadcast and also had the privilege of working with some excellent old school broadcast engineers. There are pros and cons of analog vs digital that could span pages and bore the pants off even the most committed. My take on the matter is digital has made broadcast cheaper, more efficient and the quality of audio is so good that for most people and most purposes it’s usage is a no-brainier. That said if I was a serious Classical or Jazz buff with more money than sense I would be after Vinyl and the mother of all Hi-Fi systems.

I think you guys are getting too wrapped up in semantics. People are welcome to buy a new HB but if I was asked for advice by a parent of prospective beginner I’d recommend a secondhand SUB or Squire. It’s just a personal view based on selling basses I have owned and tinkered with.

Your correct people would be far more interested in a ten page essay on Quantization and Timing Jitter.

I think it’s perfectly good enough for a beginner. If they change their mind you will lose a few quid whereas with the second hand SUB you won’t. The MusicMan brand on the headstock will also make it easier and quicker to sell. I don’t think there is any need to defend the HB it’s a decent bass. The cheaper price is down to hardware and lack of brand identity.

I guess I understand the advice in a different way. I suspect most people looking at a HB Stingray are beginners, parents of beginners or people looking for a budget backup bass. I’d be happy to buy a HB, spend a few months trawling for bargains and tinkering and end up with a pretty solid instrument for £200. I wouldn’t recommend this for most beginners or parents though. I’d go for TheGreeks suggestion as if they give up it’s an easy sell with no loss.

I’m not sure why everyone is so dismissive of this statement. It’s a valid point. With CNC technology and the longevity of factories like Cort Indonesia is knocking out consistently good instruments. Everything that can be done to reduce price has been done so all that is left is materials. Cheaper wood, cheaper hardware, cheaper electrics and pickups. All the really cheap instruments I have had in the last few years I have been pleased with but tended to upgrade machine heads, bridges, pots, wiring, pickups etc. The experience for me of trawling eBay etc and watching You Tube and the like was fun but not for everyone. Plenty might find @TheGreeksuggestion to be useful.

Down in New Orleans- Dr John

Stupid Questions - NMA

The Lunatics - The Specials

I watched the documentary and the one thing that stood out is the timing. The sexist, conformist, aspirational 80’s scene was dull. Some had found an outlet in the rave scene others found Nirvana. For anyone in their late teens both scenes would have been a massive improvement on the mainstream fodder. Edit: I was in my early 20’s by the time Nirvana were breaking through and had watched the Pixies, Cramps, Faith No More, Bad Seeds, Mudhoney and Loop at Reading the year before their first Reading outing. I wouldn’t say I was jaded just not the right generation to really get them.

It just occurred to me that Nirvana are like Harry Potter. If you find them in your formative years they are ground breaking and open the doors to a world of possibilities. Everyone else doesn’t really get it as they have already been through Lord of the Rings and Star Wars etc.

It’s strange how some bands just don’t get much recognition in terms of bookings and press. I saw Jesus Jones live about 10 times in the late ‘80s despite never once setting off to see them. They were support acts on loads of big tours and got a lot of press. I bought all of That Petrol Emotions albums and saw them live several times but could never understand how they were largely unrecognised and still playing pretty small venues. I would guess that this wasn’t solely down to booking agent etc, but them not fitting the look or sound of the time.

A rainy night in soho - The Pogues

Yep I have to agree with what has been said already that is just gorgeous. There is some real talent on here.

It’s also light and compact. I inherited a NAD system years ago. It was amazing but weighed a ton and took up a lot of room. Then add in all the vinyl and an entire room is taken up. Not many people have that luxury and sadly I didn’t a bit later on so it all had to go including much of the vinyl but it sounded incredible and I would have loved to be able to hang onto it.

Watching the Small Axe series on iPlayer. Shocking content, great tunes. Currently learning Everyone was King-Fu fighting. Simple but effective.

I just accept being crudely misinformed on a whole range subjects. Brighter sparks than me can fully comprehend the internal combustion engine, nuclear physics etc. Even in my own career there are areas where I just know the bare essentials. There is just too much information to learn and too many rabbit holes to go down. Even in the digital example you then need to look at compression, 64 vs 32 bit, codecs, bus technology, RAM, cache, buffering and on and on. No one person can really understand every detail of that stuff.

Yep it’s a bodge but better than a 50 page thesis that no one will ever read. I once worked with some old school broadcast engineers that really knew their stuff. They could get pretty tedious about it though. The main reason that I don’t use my vinyl much is I’ve just got lazy. I always wanted a juke box. Apple did this cheaply and in miniature. Spotify completed the job. I now have everything but don’t really appreciate any of it!

Sketches of Spain - The Pogues

Mr.Jones - Counting Crows