NickD

Thunder Road by Springsteen always lets me down. Beautiful, touching and evocative... Then completely goes to rat5hit at the end, as if they couldn't be bothered to think of an ending.

Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber at 229 The Venue last night... Came away with a strangely disappointed feeling. Stern's tone, feel and endless capacity for improvisation were everything they should be, and Lorber's keys were great. I'd been so looking forward to Dennis Chambers and Jimmy Haslip, but it just didn't gel for me. I'd expected Chambers to blow me away, but it could have been anyone up there, it felt sloppy to me, often out of time, and just not great. Haslip was pretty much holding it all together, but he needed a more authoritative tone to fill that role. His playing was great, but the bass sound was just 'there'.

Yes Please Bare wood - Black hardware - Maple fretboards - Extended range. No Thanks Paint (painted body with unpainted headstock is even worse) - Gold or Chrome hardware - Position Markers on the fretboard - Jazz types with bell plate but no scratchplate - Fivers with 2 over 3 heastocks (3 over 2 is fine)

What about the NS Design WAV5 Radius? http://www.basscentre.com/ns-design-radius-bass-guitar/ns-design-wav5-radius-bass-metallic-crimson.html

Sad to hear! Of all the folk on here, you've always belonged to the small group who seem musically and personally in synch with their band. Ultimately though, nothing is worth wrecking yourself over. Retreat, regroup, recover and see where it takes you. Best of luck.

It's always Norm. It's not the Blockheads without him.

Thanks! Oddly, I've just been looking at feet on amazon.

Damn! Thanks folks... back to the drawing board then.😖

Yeah, I know it's a long shot... But here goes. Is anyone using, or has anyone used, a Pedaltrain Metro 16 with a T Rex Classic power supply? The board looks ideal for my purposes, if there's enough space to fit the T Rex underneath. Cheers in advance! 🙃

Jaco wasn't in 'em!🤣

I did the same with the Mooer Tender Octaver, after I'd hacked in the Sub & Up for that... It was a long road.🤣

The Valeton OC-10. I went through a bunch of octaves, up and down, looking for the right sound for our current project, that would also play nicely with the other pedals I need and be small enough to fit on the board. I knew within a couple of minutes it was the one.

Ditto for London!☺️

It is, and it's pretty intelligent too. Work out how far you're happy for it to go and set that as your max limit.

And regarding that Nikon, turn the Active D-Lighting thing off (or it's lowest setting at least - I forget). You don't really want to recover detail from the shadow, it will be noisy and distracting anyway. Embrace the contrast. Look at the best concert pics, and they're often a kind of chiaroscuro style.

Had the D7000 way back, the 50mm 1.8D works beautifully on it, really snappy focus, but you would need to be close. I was never hugely impressed with its high ISO performance though, so I'd be looking to keep it as low as possible. Obviously you can clean images up later if you're shooting RAW

I don't often go full manual for gigs. I tend to go for shutter priority. Given the lack of light and keeping my ISO low, the aperture is always forced wide, so I can judge what's needed just based on movement. Always spot metering too. If I'm after full stage shots I'll go manual, and matrix metering but generally I'm after portraits. How far away will you be, what kit etc?

I learned everything I know by reading musician autobiographies. I took a great deal of information from George, the bass player from the Artful Badgers. 😂

Unless something comes up between now and then it's Mike Stern at the Venue in November. Jimmy Haslip on bass, happy days!

I skipped the Bass Show this year, but caught Eric Gales' trio with Cody and Nick Hayes at Nells in Kensington a couple of years ago. Honestly the best 3 piece you could imagine. I was gutted when he came back this year with a different line-up, they were a phenomenal blend

True!

Never someone I would deliberately set out to see, I caught him twice accidentally at festivals two weeks apart a couple of years ago and he was blinding. Dumb trivia - How long must be one of the very few songs written about a bass player!

They do say that getting a record banned is very lucrative.... I look forward to releasing our new single 'Doing the Queen up the 'arris, while the ghost of Princess Di tickles my plums with a phantom feather' next week.

Mike Read mostly. Which considering he wrote and released (to limited success, obviously) the 'UKIP Calypso', is a bit of a cheek!

Sid Vicious couldn't play bass for stinky poo... That could have been me. ... Except I was about 7. 🤣