NancyJohnson

A while back (quite a while back) Eastwood Custom were open to suggestions as to which guitars they should do next, so I proffered an homage to the Charlie Lobue bass that Gene Simmons used to use in the early Kiss days (detailed below). Always thought it was a great looking thing, really nice wide cutaways and easy access up the dusty end. Eastwood actually replied, which was nice. The guy said he also had fond memories of that bass and he'd add it to the list. Beyond that, nothing, sadly. I'd buy one and I'm pretty certain there's enough Kiss fans out there that would do so as well. 100%. I'm wondering now. Could we try and get Eastwood to do a Basschat model? The Lakland owners group were able to do it. There's more of us here. I suppose it would just need to be something a little different (viz. You can buy Fender clones from just about everywhere.).

It's a weird one. With Eastwood guitars, I'm initially drawn to the shape and in my head I kind of know that with a) my heavy handed approach to playing and b) my heavy handed approach to playing, sticking any of those Eastwoods (or any guitar really) through a decentish amp would sound OK. (Have I ever told my Van Halen story here? Maybe that's for another time.) Bear in mind too that these are not Gibsons, Fenders or whatever, they're Eastwoods, they're copies, homages, nothing more. We are just too hung up on things being Gibson or Fender or Warwick or Spector or whatever. You only have to look (in the nicest possible way) at how precious members of this very forum are about gear. There's this thing here where people seem to think that just because they have a Chickenbacker or a Tokai/Epiphone Thunderbird that they're going to sound just like a 4003 or an IV. Not going to happen. Man alive, all my Thunderbirds sounded a bit different from each other nd they were all Gibsons, similar, but different. That said, we have to remember that tone is subjective. Honestly, I really don't give a toot about whether a volume/tone potentiometers or the wiring is from 1965 or last week. The main thing is whether they make the bass quieter or sound woolly when used. Same goes capacitors. It's a nonsense. Once you're playing in a band environment, all those nuances are lost and you generally only hear the whump (and let's face it, it's a vanity thing, no one in the listening audience is really interested in how the bass sounds).

Does it really matter?

I like dipping into the Eastwood Custom site every so often. It just throws light on how a manufacturer can actually work with the buyer from a pledging perspective and in part resurrect old designs. Credit to them for making some nice looking tenor electrics. The microtonal model they're listing as a current model looks nice too.

Before I started playing properly, there was a guy locally who let me borrow his Jedson. For me it was just the coolest thing ever. My first proper bass was an Arbiter, just like the one below. I had it for a while, sold it for £30 and then bought a Columbus Jazz Bass copy (£65).

...and whaddyaknow!

There's a very long thread elsewhere as to me leaving the band I'd formed seven years ago. People are just asshats really. Stupidly, it took a while to get over it; so much time invested and work to keep it together. I went out for an Indian last night with some friends and they asked whether I miss it. I just answered no and then showed them a photo (below) of the old band, headlining a gig in Reading last weekend playing to six people. It was precisely this, the unconditional acceptance of every gig offered and playing to next to no one (it happened) that led to the cracks. I mean credit to them for continuing to grind through gigs like this, but frankly it's just not worth the effort.

I'd love this, but I'd prefer a first run Hamer Cruise Bass more. Sod's Law...I'd probably swing for this and a Cruise would come up in a few days.

Look, I know it's not eBay, but these are pretty rare basses (under 50 made) and there's a bit of love here. I found a Gibson 20/20 online, Premier Guitars, Sydney. It's currently on sale for 1,200 AUD, which in Sterling is around £690, so for one of these basses it's a steal. I contacted the seller, sadly the insured shipping comes out at 424 AUD (£240) and you'd need to factor in import duties (<5%) and VAT on the bass and shipping (another £190). They said they can reduce the shipping if they discarded the hard case (non original), assuring me it could be 'packed it well in bubblewrap). At around £1,200, I just found the whole cost somewhat prohibitive and dropped out. It looks as though it may have been signed by Ned Steinberger too - if you right-click the image below and view the image in full-res, you'll see a signature. If you have deep pockets, check here: http://www.premierguitars.com.au/product/gibson-steinberger-2020-bass-usa-1987/ The contact at Premier is John Spence.

I really don't like Foo Fighters. Can't really put my finger on why. A bit like Weezer. They have all the constituent parts that mean I should adore them, but I find them a bit meh.

Look, I don't profess to being a Nirvana, Foo Fighters, QoTSA, The Crooked Vultures or Probot fan, but I do find Dave Grohl somewhat endearing. This has just dropped on YT. The first eight minutes is documentarist, the final 23 minutes is an instrumental track wholly recorded by Dave Grohl. It's pretty intense. It's also pretty good.

Just following on, XLR cable arrived and all connected up. Definite difference from the treble perspective. Whereas via the 1/4" jack output I rolled the treble back to the 10 o'clock position, with the XLR, the same treble response is closer to the 3 o'clock position. Much better.

The tough thing is that it's not a PD nor is it trying to be. A few years ago I bought a racked VT Bass, fully expectant that I would easily be able to dial in the same tone as my trusty BDDI and expand on it. I did one gig with it and sold it on. Couldn't have been any more wrong.

Just say no, kids.

Hi, thanks for coming back. All my basses are passive. I haven't actually gone the XLR route yet and to be honest hadn't given it any consideration. Just ordered an XLR cable (which Amazon tells me will be here tomorrow) to I'll give that a punt. Thanks for the input!

Just to follow on from this, I asked on said forum whether Richard Barbieri had any formal keyboard training pre-Japan. Now what follows is quite brilliant. Rob Dean (Guitar/Japan) confirmed Mr Barbieri was working in a bank when he joined Japan. Interestingly, Richard Barbieri also chipped in - and he's in hospital today having his gall bladder removed - and remarked that he 'was just getting the hang of it when [we] split up'. What a bloke.

I concur that RB wasn't the most competent of players when Japan started out, but he's progressed way outside of that box. Rhodes hasn't. The rest of Japan were incredibly adept.

Blimey. How did you get them to last so long?

What do I value? Yikes. Nothing. My local/nearest shop, and I'll name and shame here, is Amen Corner Music in Bracknell and it's a filthy, ramshackle, woeful dump of a place. Tired old stock, dire stock selection, ancient string and spares selection, the place stinks of dog and general unpleasantness. The owner said once that he didn't know whether he would have what qualified as a goid year until he knew how many violin kits he'd sell at the start of each school year. It is honestly little wonder it survives and while it's always worth the trek to Andertons in Guildford if I want to peruse gear. Otherwise, I'll buy online.

In order(!), yep it was literally this: ...I just found it remarkable that for someone who up to that point had been the keyboard player in one of the most successful bands in the world needed chord-structure prompts in a live environment. I think you only need to watch one of his more recent fawning promo videos for Roland to see how inept he is at actually playing and how adept he is at making synthesizers go wooooo and brrrump. Get a decent player on (say, Jordan Rudess in showboating mode) and you'll easily see how useless Nick Rhodes actually is. It saddens me what Duranduran turned into really. The original Taylor trio were all decent players and more than able. You can't begrudge them their success, but sadly 40% of the line up were just talentless posterboys.

I remember seeing some live footage of Nick Rhodes where he was required to play chords, yes, actual chords. He had a Mac/PC near his keyboard with the finger positions displayed on screen. Never thought of the guy as being musical...always thought of him as being the guy who made all the clicks and whirrs.

Back of a Matrix GT1000 poweramp into a Barefaced Big One (15/6) enclosure. Now don't get me wrong, I adore the unit...I didn't actually think anything would supersede the RBI and the n you bought out the GED and then you trumped that with the dUg.

Question 1) Yes (the unit isn't faulty). Question 2) Yes, I know, otherwise they'd only make one unit, wouldn't they? When referring to the GED or BDDI (or the VT Bass or the VT Bass DI or the GT2 or the RBI or the Landmark 300), I really couldn't be any more specific. All these units will give a robust tone with very little in the way of swings in the tone knob positions; I've tended to find that with Tech21 gear (in general) is neither whumpy or toppy and there isn't much of a requirement to have great swings in the tone knobs position(s) for cut or boost. Small adjustments have always been the name of the game and it doesn't really matter which bass I'm using either. The dUg just seems to buck that trend; it's just bright. If I set the unit to his personal setting from the manual, I still feel the need to roll back the treble from that position. It's really not a problem. It's just an opinion.

Preamp, so in truth it should be fairly transparent; I've not utilised any amplifier's pre-stage for over a decade - I've always used either the effects return or like now, straight into a power amp. I love what it does, although it has to be said it's a little unusual to have to roll off the top. I've used a bunch of TEch21 gear and still run a GED and a BDDI and bothe these are fine/normal. The dUg is simply over-bright.

I do find it quite bright through my set up, irrespective of the bass I'm using.