Happy Jack

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1422630675' post='2674886'] The only thing I don't like about it is that I would have expected the wires to be built into the frame & it takes longer to set up than it should . [/quote] Understood, but having them externally means that repairs & upgrades are far easier. I also notice that some of the drummers who use my Roland prefer to have different pads in different places, and at least one of them likes to remove two of the pads! Where the kit is used repeatedly by Paul (i.e. no one else fiddles with it) we usually move it around fully-plugged (except the two pedals of course) so there's very little actual setting up involved.

Come on over Nige ... it's right here!

A few years back I was kitting out my new rehearsal space, and volume was going to be an issue. So I bought a really nice set of Roland V-Drums from Nige (xlddx) in a trade involving my Status Vintage GP Artist Please note - I do NOT play drums. At all. My plan was only for them to be used at rehearsals, a drummer with a volume knob, and I was aware that the kit I'd bought was a bit OTT for that. Paul the Drums (in the Junkyard Dogs) saw them as a bit of a novelty item, quite fun to play in the studio but obviously you'd never gig with them. Drummers in other bands I played with were impressed with the quality, but nit-picked about the 'bounce' of the sticks and the fact that you couldn't, e.g. use brushes with them. Fast forward to now. The Dogs now play about as many live gigs using the leccy kit as using the live drums. We have seven gigs between now and the end of March. Four of them will be with the leccy kit, and in at least one of those four we only got the gig precisely because we DO have a leccy kit. That was also certainly the case with our high-paying NYE gig last month. [i][If you want to hear the kit in action, click on the Junkyard Dogs link in my sig, and come along to any of the Halfway House, the George Inn, or the Chiswick Club Society.][/i] Leccy kit gigs take up less space when playing, and MUCH less space while setting up and breaking down. The load-in & load-out are far easier too. Venues with a sound limiter are a doddle, and we can get (and keep) a better balance across the band at any gig. Paul the Drums no longer complains at all; he sees it as just another string to his bow. Other drummers are far more enthusiastic. We used the leccy kit at maybe 15 gigs in 2014. We had not one negative comment from a landlord, punter, or fellow muso in the audience. I'm no fan of axing live drum kits, and I enjoy playing alongside them as much as anyone. But similarly I'm no fan of axing proper double basses, yet I play at least half my DB gigs on a Baby Bass. You do what the gig needs, and increasingly these days the gig needs a band with a volume control ... especially one for the drummer. Edited for correct bass trade!

Genuinely astonished at the amount of negativity towards leccy drums. A good quality kit is indistinguishable (to the audience) from a live kit, and the pub rock scene continues to move steadily towards bands with a volume knob - especially for the drummer. Paul the Drums in the Junkyard Dogs was slow to warm to them but wouldn't now be without them for small venues. The drummers in two other bands I play with have also abandoned their opposition. Getting back on topic, glad you came through the audition process unscathed, and I hate pointy Ibanez guitars too.

On most Precisions, the first thing to go when you start to roll off the volume is a bit of top end. So yes, you can alter the tone with just the volume knob.

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1422544617' post='2673938'] I never played bass or guitar again until about six years ago, I am now aged 63, and been in some decent bands for the last five years, and I now realize that I can actually play quite well, so I'm now trying to make up for all that lost time! [/quote] That really is a recurrent thread around here, isn't it? Include me in ...

Viewed purely as a retail experience (which is a pretty reasonable point of view) the negative comments about much of Denmark Street don't strike me as particularly unfair. Working a few minutes from there for nearly 20 years means that I've had the opportunity to spend more time there than most Basschatters, and I've seen plenty that's good and plenty that's bad. But the reason for much of the [i]angst [/i]about Denmark Street's imminent demise is that it's NOT just a retail experience. It is genuinely part of Britain's musical history (not just punk, not just the Stones, it goes back much further than that), it is genuinely a tourist attraction, it is genuinely a nexus (sorry about the pretentious word) where different aspects of the current music scene can rub up against each other. Should that stand in the way of progress (assuming that you view this as progress)? Dunno. I really can see both sides of the story here. But I'm glad that the Street's not just disappearing in a foam of complete apathy. At least we'll be able to look back later once it's gone and think that we at least [i][b]considered [/b][/i]trying to keep it. Personally I'd feel happier about it if I knew that "the scene" was going to re-locate elsewhere. In practice, there's a real risk that "the scene" may now become almost completely virtual. Places like Basschat, in fact.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1422550815' post='2674021'] [size=4][color=#333333][font=Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif]'....the Corkscrew Saloon on the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley National Park...'[/font][/color] [color=#333333][font=Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif]It's a rock 'n roll setting, better than Weatherspoons' in Walsall [/font][/color][/size] [/quote] I had exactly the same thought.

I'm guessing that Detective John Maclaine falls into the category of "other conditions".

The real mystery is why characters played by Bruce Willis (I'm looking at you, Maclaine) can't afford to buy biological detergents.

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1422537748' post='2673812'] Aye, just the top of the head is it? [/quote] No, of course not! I also do a nice line in soiled, once-white T-shirts ...

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1422534828' post='2673765'] Also, a well-known US actor was seen in there last week dropping £10k on a vintage P ... [/quote] Nah! That was me, body-doubling for Bruce Willis.

My very first bass was actually the one I bought for my daughter, and absolutely not what I would have chosen. This what I replaced it with: [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Hofner%20vintage%20instruments/Hofner%20500%201%20RI63%202006%20SOLD/2009BassPhotos093.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Hofner%20vintage%20instruments/Hofner%20500%201%20RI63%202006%20SOLD/2009BassPhotos093.jpg[/IMG][/URL] A new 1963 RI from Macari's. It took me a VERY long time to realise that I am fundamentally a Precision guy.

There's a guy in Scotland now making a much cheaper alternative. Not so many 'sounds' IIRC, but the truth is that a lot of the sounds from the Stellartone are of course quite similar. Might be worth a quick Google. Got it: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-position-VARITONE-switch-for-guitar-and-bass-/251778084429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3a9f24ae4d

I'm pretty sure that Philippe Dombreuil will be less than happy to be associated with this POS.

I too have been beating off men with sticks. I call them "drummers". I'm running almost exactly five years ahead of you, Shell. Only there wasn't an ex involved ... it was actually my daughter (then aged 14).

[quote name='Mr Arkadin' timestamp='1422441777' post='2672592'] Well it seems I'm out of touch with modern thinking and all these venues deserve to be knocked down to become garish office blocks, Tesco Metros, Starbucks and flats for Chinese businessmen. I guess we'll get the London we deserve. [/quote] Good grief, man, did you actually know the area before they built the "garish monstrosity" you seem to be obsessed with? I did. I've worked around there for 20 years, and just like Molan my office window directly overlooked the site throughout the demolition and building (I was at the back of Castlewood House, which fronts onto New Oxford Street). The building that the Renzo Piano design replaced was possibly the ugliest 60s office block in the entire West End, a title for which there is a fair amount of competition. Originally the main MI6 building in London (no, really it was) it then stood idle and increasingly derelict after MI6 moved into the ridiculous pile on the South Bank that features in all recent James Bond movies. The demolition of that heap of crap was welcomed by pretty much everyone in the area, the "garish monstrosity" actually livens up the place no end and introduces a small but much-needed public space where there was none before. Exactly what do you feel has been lost through this re-development?

But who knows in what way the wife is deceiving you? [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/2398340057_2470917cf1_zps57056e16.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/2398340057_2470917cf1_zps57056e16.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1422441045' post='2672576'] The handles look the same as the ones on the '69er. I can't say I ever noticed the 'upside down handle' issue. Then again, I never felt the need to ask for help when lifting it :-) [/quote] So you could lift that cab standing on your head then ...

I find it easier to buy industry standard in bulk and just slice off a bit when I need it. [URL=http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/media/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/IndustryStandard_zps6c42caae.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/h4ppyjack/Just%20Stuff/Sundry/IndustryStandard_zps6c42caae.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I've seen some seriously messed-up tripe through following this topic, but that gets very near to being the worst yet.

[quote name='jezzaboy' timestamp='1422309448' post='2671113'] They seem a bit cliquey to me. [/quote] Unfortunately, this is often the case. To a large extent, it goes with the territory. Many of these sessions keep going on the basis of a core group of regulars, who can be relied upon to turn up every week. If you're not part of that core group, and don't show much signs of wanting to be part of it, then inevitably you'll stay on the fringes and have restricted opportunities to play. If the core group is itself large enough, then cliques will tend to form within it. A & B like playing with C but can't stand D. D is prepared to play with E but last time he played with F something bad happened, etc.

Inaugural gig at the Fiddlers Elbow, chiefly to see whether the band has a future. We split vocal duties between the three of us, so here's one that I sang: http://youtu.be/eWvqCD13SMY