Happy Jack

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1460704290' post='3027923'] Many of the iconic basslines we all love, if isolated, have so much gain/clankiness on them it`s amazing. [/quote] Yes, but they were recorded by mere youngsters, not by experienced guys like what we are ...

I'm no Internet guru, but those traffic figures look a mite disappointing ...

What, ALL of us?

Only if you live in Doncaster. Looks well fishy to me Mick.

Can't you get a book on how to tune a bass, maybe with an accompanying CD or even a DVD?

Last time I left a band, I did it so quietly and with such subtlety that I later discovered the other two didn't realise I'd left. Sad to relate, this is not an attempt at humour. We're playing a gig on Saturday. sh*t!

[quote name='SICbass' timestamp='1460387152' post='3025239'] (Geordie accent) You wouldn't let it lie, would'ya? [/quote] Incidentally, and for what it's worth, I was more interested in her playing and singing than in wondering about her underwear. Or lack of.

In other news: http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_double_bass_balalaika_m1083.htm http://youtu.be/HV66fWWzs2c

http://youtu.be/ynDxWshzVX0

Yes, but what about the handles? And the feet?

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1460358243' post='3024838'] I'm not trying to be argumentative but I have never had a strap detach itself from a bass and so have never used straplocks. This could be because I don't go in for onstage gymnastics, spinning my bass round my head etc.; rather I jiggle in place at the most. Are straplock users more acrobatic? [/quote] I've had loads come adrift and my own Mum wouldn't accuse me of being acrobatic. There is such a wide variety of strap-button shapes and sizes, of locations to put them, of guitar strap materials and flexibility, of hole-sizes in said guitar straps, that sooner or later you will walk on stage slinging your bass over ... only to have it keep [i][b]slinging [/b][/i]until it hits the ground. On t'other hand, I've read loads of posts about people breaking strings on their basses. Short of using a titanium pick with a serrated edge, I simply cannot imagine what you would have to do to break a bass string. Certainly I've never managed it and I have anything but a light touch. So I guess we're even then ...

Since when was your opinion HUMBLE?

Blues jams are really great fun, Lardy. My advice would be to forget tabs and charts ... just play along to a bunch of 12-bar stuff until it becomes second nature. I'm not talking months and months of work here, weeks would be nearer the mark. Crossroads is pretty simple even as played by Jack Bruce, especially the Live! version.If you learn to play it with the octave bounce in the main riff, then you can always drop that bounce to simplify it when playing live if it gets a bit too much.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-musicians-wanted/bassist-bass-player-wanted-any-age-or-ability/1163703676

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1460190492' post='3023345'] Yeh, but imagine a book by a celebrity chauffeur who drives movie stars, politicuans etc that centred on the cars, druving etc? [/quote] OK, imagine that book by that driver, only it doesn't actually centre on the cars and the driving ... it centres on the car he learned to drive in, and the driving instructor, and the different types of cars that existed when he was a teenager, and the amount he was drinking while driving celebrities around. The only reason that you know he was actually the actual guy who drove Les Dawson to his epochal meeting with Ronald Reagan is because you read about it somewhere else ...

I tried buying my overload drummer some lighter-weight sticks. We still laugh about it. Occasionally.

I made my peace with Jerry a long time ago. He's a genuinely lovely guy, and we had a few very constructive email exchanges about my comments, then Silvie (bluejay) and I went up and met him a couple of times when he was playing the rock'n'roll Mecca that is ... erm ... Stourbridge. In fairness, my problem was always with the description of the book on the cover, which implied that the book was going to be about playing bass with Elvis, The Doors and Bob Dylan. It wasn't. I still reckon Jerry has another book inside him.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1460108477' post='3022595'] I complained to the manager on the way out, but he said 'that's how they like it'. [/quote] Are you sure he didn't say, "that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, they like it, uh-huh uh-huh"?

I'm here to help, sir.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1460101725' post='3022507'] The PA cabs we had were heavy and big. Something like 1m X 0.5m on the front and just as deep, made from pretty heavy chipboard or 3/4" ply. That was for 50w a side, but they were fairly loud. [/quote] But on t'other hand, all this were fields back then ...

Apropos of nothing at all, one of my favourite reads is Mo Foster's book "17 Watts?". If you've not read it, just go find a copy. Superb. The title comes from the moment when his first band upgraded their one, shared combo to a WEM Dominator, rated at 17 watts. They weren't sure what they were going to do with all that power ...

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1460066413' post='3022380'] Will persevere with the technique. [/quote] And there's the core (pun intended) of it. As I say in one of those presentations, if you do these exercises once then it's just "meh ... so what?". Do them routinely and regularly and the effect is cumulative. The absolutely key thing, though, which is an instant win, is A-framing. Works immediately and works every time.

Thanks for the kind words guys. Bob, I'll see if I can sort something out tomorrow!

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1459957567' post='3021277'] if i want to play "teenage kicks" on a £40,000 diamond encrusted bass made of compressed unicorn hair I will [/quote] Well it's not very 'punk' is it? Couldn't your diamond-encrusted bass be made instead out of compressed gob?

It's OK, no one is going to steal it.