NancyJohnson

I've got a list of what I own on a spreadsheet. Serial numbers/anticipated values etc. Said spreadsheet also includes contact details for @cetera.

I've been to a handful of open nights and on one occasion was unfortunately asked up to play bass on a couple of songs that I didn't actually know. "Is Paul out there? Where is he? Oh, there he is. Come on up!" ['Oh, sh*t, oh, sh*t, oh, sh*t.'] "Nope, you're OK." Wife interjects, "Go on, it'll be fun." Sigh. Well, it wasn't fun. The evening was full of these dead behind the eyes bedroom-warriors; blokes who'd taken up guitar because they had a bit of money pre-retirement. All the gear. Gibson and Fender. Guys with an arthritic claw like grip on their necks, struggling to extend beyond three chords whilst reading off music stands. One of the blokes had the fecking audacity to later stroll up to the bar and tell me I wasn't following the right bassline despite never having heard Wonderful Tonight or whatever wretched Clapton/Eagles thing it was that they were playing; this despite him being one of the most inept guitarists I've ever witnessed. Sure, each to their own but, with all respect to the OP, I'd sooner cut my arm off than play the selection of songs listed there.

Christ on a bike, yes. It doesn't matter how great the bass looks, if the headstock doesn't work from a design perspective it's a non-starter. The five string looks way better.

Aah, the Blue Lagoon, Iceland. Years ago my mother stoically gave me several bits of sage advice. 'Don't smoke, stay out of the sun where possible, drink in moderation and find yourself a decent moisturiser.' My dad had skin that resembled dry leather; much as I loved him I didn't want that, so I've followed all three for 40+ years. Here's a recent one.

Isn't this the same with every copy bass? Lost count of the posts I've read here and elsewhere (for instance) extolling how a £125 Harley Benton Stingray clone growls as much as the real thing or how Rockingbetter clones clank like the real thing etc. I think usage of 'special sauce' wins Basschat for today. "Oh, your Epiphone is fundamentally all round better than the '60s Thunderbird it's copied from, y'say? Does it have the special sauce?"

Whether this is right or wrong, I don't know, but years ago one of the guys doing our live sound said if you want to use mids do it from the bass as you simply 'can't produce modulation for a frequency that doesn't exist'. This stayed with me since; if you squirt your desired tone to an amp from say a Jazz bass, your tone control is simply open (pickups open, unaffected) or the high frequency is being cut (thus rolling off the highs). In theory any mids produced away from the source are simply emulations as they don't exist in the original signal source. I guess this leads on to the active circuit argument; there's John East units installed on several of my basses, all have a midsweep frequency/boost control. Used sparingly, this'll allow your tone to cut through the mix. It works significantly better than any outboard tweaking.

Personally, the better perspective would be to have a mid/mid frequency-sweep stack on the bass; this way you're in control over what hits your amp/board.

Sometimes you just have to take a direct route and be the voice of reason; the thread has been viewed 350 times, I'm sure there's many who probably went, 'Really?' when they read it. Perhaps it's just the way I'm wired, but there's little point in skirting around things, always be as direct as possible.

I honestly don't get these type of what's-your-favourite-colour? type threads. OP has used a pick previously, but is asking for plectrum recommendations and how to use them. What follows will inevitably be dozens on well-intended posts suggesting plectrums of various makes/thicknesses etc. Come on! The OP purports to have been born in 1972. They're 52-ish. It's like riding a bike or tying your shoelaces. If you've used one previously, you know what you've used, whether you were happy with it and you simply don't forget. Please.

It wasn't huge by any stretch; dedicated Gibson/Fender/Rickenbacker, plus the usual areas. There were a few regulars; the guy that came up with the Badbird bridge for old Thunderbirds, a German guy that had a phenomenal amount of Gibson basses

There's probably a handful of members here dip into The Last Bass Outpost once in a while. Seems like the site is in trouble or it's the end. Database errors for the last few days. Anyone know what's happening?

I'll admit that lack of appropriate band drew me along the same lines; it gets about a half hour use a week I reckon - I'll just fire it up when dinner is on the make or when someone says, 'Ooh, what the hell is that?'

Interestingly(?), for the last three hours or so, we've been listening to a combination of the deluxe version and the 30th Anniversary editions of Definitely, Maybe. All in all, about 70 tracks. This is the first listen in 20/25 years, but obviously some of the material is burnt into my psyche. It's odd, there's posts just about everywhere effectively deriding the band as talentless oiks with a whining vocalist; that's as maybe, but honestly the album (and bonus stuff) is pretty rocking...ok sure, inevitably there's tracks that don't work for me, but it's much better than I remember it at the time. There's so many hooks going on.

Dependent on the number of holes in the body, John East kit is by far the most flexible.

I know businesses are in business to make £££, but the handling fee element is bonkers. Handling fees, facilities fees, booking fees etc. When all this was fields, I remember my dad driving me up to Hammersmith Odeon to get Rush tickets for their first tour here. From memory, centre stalls, ten rows back, £3.50 or something. You just paid the face value to the lady behind the window. Didn't it used to be that when a band planned a tour, they set the ticket price based on venue hire/size, transport, crew wages, hire etc.? Now there's just a whole other element where jackals like Ticketmaster/etc are just creaming off even more from ticket buyers; for what? There's very little human interaction involved. The sad thing is that buyers just suck it up and you know it's going to get worse. It's not exclusively Oasis, every band (even my band were subject to this on advance sales).

I used to have a bit of a reputation in my immediate group of mates as being the go-to guy for, 'Have you heard anything new recently?' Like millions of other people I'd trawl Napster/Easynews trying to find stuff. Gigs, little record shops, obscure snippets in Alternative Press etc. You might find an album on Dischord with two decent tracks on it, but the hunt was half the fun. Even now, I favour US indie station W-EQX as my preferred listening; as recently as two days ago heard two great bands (Wishy and Bella's Bartock).

Just reading some of the comments here about dynamic ticket prices and people having hotel bookings cancelled (only for the same bookings to reappear at three times the original price), is pretty abhorrent. While I love tech and the general ease of purchasing pretty much anything online now, I do pine for the old days where you could just rock up to the Odeon or Rainbow and choose your seat the day the tickets went on sale. Worst case, buy from a tout for a few quid more on the night. It just all seems so quaint. Christ, I lost count if the gigs I attended where we got front two rows because we made some effort. I just don't get how Ticketmaster seems to have the monopoly on tickets and even then their online service in unable to cope, even at three times the price. Bands like Pearl Jam went up against them and now they're cozy bedfellows. Much as people abhor Amazon, they seem to have their 💩 together, so maybe they should get into the ticket racket.

After a couple more abortive attempts, you'll be pleased to know that I've passed everything over to Julian Mullen in Reading. I've given up on installing the bloody thing.

Said mate from earlier gets his live Smiths fix via The Smyths. If Morrissey came a knocking for a backing band, what would y'do?

As musicians and music fans, we just want to cling onto and experience something akin to how we felt back then, be this watching Japan at Dingwalls in 1978/79 or The Heartbreakers at the Roxy. Love or hate Oasis, you know that if they can keep it together it's going to be off the scale and good luck to them. I'm not a big fan per se (admittedly they do have a decent back catalogue), but I'm quite interested in how it's going to pan out. I'd rather this reunion than the unending stuff like Kiss, Motley Crue etc. These bands are well past their sell by date.

I don't follow Morrissey in any respect so I haven't got clue what's been said historically. Certainly from my mate, old Stephen is a bit acerbic, but by and large, if there's a photo of him and narrative I generally scroll past it...beyond the legal/royalty case everything related to The Smiths is somewhat of a grey area for me. Even from what I do know, I'd concur working with him would be difficult at best.

A bit of a curio...perhaps something a builder could utilise. The Charlie Hunter instrument is stunning. https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/original-novax-8-string-neck-un-used-un-fretted-3-bass-and-5-guitar-charlie-hunter/1210287594?&utm_source=Chrome&utm_campaign=socialbuttons&utm_content=app_android&utm_medium=Social

Never a Smiths/Morrissey fan, so much so that if I was on Pointless I'd only be able to name one song (Panic) from the entire output. I've got a mate though, big fan; literally lives and breathes them. When people say they know every word of every song, this is the guy. (Believe me, we tested it over dinner one night.). He knows of Morrissey's alleged political alignment(s) but the overriding thing is the music, that trumps everything and is more disappointed that they just don't lick their wounds and do it for their fanbase. While there may be bad blood between them, because someone is the polar opposite of your political ideology doesn't necessarily make them a bad person, does it?

Inevitably it's happening and honestly, good luck to them. The thing is, knowing when to stop. Keep it civil, do the tour, put out a live album/DVD and quit again before it gets too old. Closure.