NancyJohnson

It never went away...

I have a mate (drummer) with a similar thing. Before I made his acquaintance, he had (very) limited success with a generic hair-metal band in the late 80s and every time we hooked up you could put money on him saying, 'Well, when I was in <band name here>...' We'd jam and record every so often, but you knew it was a waste of time as there was little chance of ever playing live as he wanted to be solely studio based. The sadness was that he's never really held down any long-term position in a band; I mean that while he's a lovely guy, technically adept (think Mike Portnoy-lite) and a wonderful player who also records, produces and teaches, his drums never leave the house or his home studio. He always seemed to be held back by what could have been 30 years ago and was of the belief that one day the phone would go and it would be someone from the 80s unit saying, 'Get your leopard skin print budgie-smugglers dry-cleaned mate, we're going to get the old band back together.' Well anyway, cut to the chase, one day the phone did ring. Someone had uncovered a box of old master tapes and somehow or another these got put in front of someone with influence and they released an album that had been recorded 30 years previously. The guy telephoned me about a year ago to give me the cough, good, cough, news and said he had some signed copies at his house if I was interested (I said yes purely out of politeness), but when he told me the signed ones were £5.00 more than the unsigned copies, I kind of shook my head and thought he could just swivel on it. I still don't own a copy. Doubt if I will. He went on to regale me with yarns of what they were doing, how album number two was going to be recorded, there would be tours, TV and radio promos. I congratulated him on his good fortune and wished him well. Fast forward a few months and I did bother to do a quick search on Spotify to see if the album was up there. Yes it was. In fact, I'm listening to it now and it's awful, truly awful. The second album? Nope. Tour? Nope. Drummer is working as an electrician in a technical college locally, living off memories and ten songs on digital media. I feel sorry for him really. He held out for decades waiting for the call and when it arrived it pretty much amounted to zero. He could have just dispensed with the waiting and frankly been a spectacular musician elsewhere.

Time moves on. Certainly, I'd never buy Laney gear again as my long journey to tone heaven is now complete. However, Laney was part of that trip; maybe I just got a good one.

Can I make a weenie request, if anyone has one (or a pair) of Barefaced BB2s or TKS 1126s, could you squeeze them in please. I really need to do a side by side test. Thanks muchly.

Yeah, I've known Jay for over ten years, but our paths don't cross that much now. He's moved back up to Wolverhampton and I haven't needed to use his studios for a while (he obviously comes down this way as he blocks out days at the facility periodically). I think I've seen that video before, but to be honest, I have no memory of it. I'll forward it on to our guitarist as he's the guy driving this; we're recording again next week. Ultimately, it's down to discipline and the band being on point; using the stuff AW is going through shouldn't be an issue, but you clearly have no place to hide if you screw up and I really fear screw-uppage!

Thank you, that's very kind. If you want more, you sound be able to navigate through to the other material we've uploaded to Soundcloud. You can like us on Facebook (search 'Lutz Official') too (hint hint). Cheers!

Harsh.

1) Cetera - Spector NS2 & Legend 4X, Dingwall NG2, Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbird, Yamaha BB3000, GK800RB head, Genz Benz Neox212 cab, Tech-21 Dug DP3X preamp/pedal 2) Ezbass - Maruszczyk Elwood L 4 string fretted (J pickups), Maruszczyk Elwood L 4 string fretless (MM pickup), Rickenbacker 4003s, Rob Allen MB2 fretless, Phil Jones Flightcase + PB300 3) Happy Jack - AliKat DB #004, Mike Lull 54P, all I need to play a doubling gig (that evening) on those two instruments 4) BlueJay - Eminence Upright (left-handed), loads of camera equipment 5) obbm - TBA 6) Nancy Johnson (Paul) - The Big One, rack (GED/poweramp), possibly the dUg DP3x. A bass.

Never had an issue with the old ones although I always felt that (as a Dunlop Straplok user) the design was less sleek than the Dunlops. That they're standard on Ricks was a bit of a curveball; you shell out for a bass then discover that you have to go with a different locking mechanism is a pain. P

We've tried a couple of drummers who immediately said they were going to struggle. We have another guy (who maintains a click isn't an issue), but logistically it's problematic.

I think live we'd be well drilled, but there'd be an expectation for the shambolic. I do like the idea of getting in a non-muso just to handle the quirky stuff. Good thread.

Unsure whether this is the right forum area, but here goes. With the new band, we're up to around 20 songs tracked, about half mixed. All good. What has grown out of a couple of initial ideas is now this proggypunky monster of a thing; at present this is a studio based project, but we want to take it out live, but there's a ton of stuff going on besides vocals/guitar/bass/drums. Lots of loops, samples etc. How would be the best way of doing things live? We're considering two things. First off is taking the recorded tracks and stripping out the instrumentation and just playing with the backing recordings either with a drummer or without. The next idea was to get someone in who could trigger the non-instrumentation elements in a live context; this doesn't have to be a keyboard player or a musician, moreover someone who has a grasp of the technology side of things and could just push pads on a midi controller to fire off the at the appropriate times. I think it would need to be an extra person as there's simply going to be too much going on to be able to stop playing guitar/bass and start hitting buttons. I can't really put it any more succinctly really. Any help appreciated. If you want an idea of what's going on here:

If I can add a comment or two to this thread... Sound/Tone. So many players who own these copies are under this misapprehension that what's coming out of the speakers is a close proximity to how the original sounds. It isn't. I'm not being elitist here or anything, but just because you have something that looks similar, does not mean that it will sound like the original. Look, I know tone is subjective, one man's poison etc. but so many bass players (and I've played with a lot of other bands) seem to be under this allusion that just because they have an Epiphone Thunderbird or a Chickenbacker (shudder) that it's identical to the real thing, then you pull out your Gibson or Rickenbacker then plug in and they're literally jizzing themselves over what's coming out of my rig. They are effectively more in love with the shape than how it sounds. Sure, I'll let guys have a noodle on my stuff, but I've actually had bassists come up to and ask if they can use my basses for their slot (politely as possible, 'No, GFY.'). Irrespective of what love they may have for their copies, when they come up against the real thing, it's a lightbulb moment. You can see it in their face. It's hilarious.

I think you're taking me out of context here. The video I linked off You Tube was really given as fair warning and buyer beware to anyone should they be considering a ticket purchase in the misapprehension that it'll be just like old times. That said, I don't believe that the guy, irrespective of the chameleonesque label he was wearing at the time (pop, rock, blue-eyed soul, soul, jazz), EVER had what would pass as a decent voice and some 30-odd years later, I'm still flummoxed as to how he got as far as he did with so little. A bit like Adam Clayton.

I love mine. To re-use a quote I've used elsewhere, it's like the GED2112 on steroids. Or more like the GED2112's angry big brother.

This is probably more about the inconveniences pertaining to selling and taking a hit against what the guitar owes you. In answer to your question, yes. Several.

Loads around south and west of London. Small sweaty places that don't reek of cheese. Phoenix, High Wycombe. Star, Guildford. Readipop, Reading. Dublin Castle, Camden. Half Moon, Putney.

The handful that were there, yep...

Our rehearsal space at our guitarist's house was affectionately known as Tracey Island; it was this huge place that looked very similar to the family home from Thunderbirds...the guy ran the family business and was pretty monied at 20, so he threw a load of money into getting the lower rooms knocked into one, soundproofed and filled with boy's toys, video and pinball machines, a pool table and a full wet bar. It was a little insane. The room was maybe 50'x20' and I was up against a very loud drummer and the guitarist who was running a very large rack of gear into a couple of 4x12s. I'd say unequivocally that the Laney held its own in that environment. We gigged a handful of times and it was more a case of rolling back the volume in that context; I have no memory of whether the guy handling front of house put a mic in front of the cabs or there was a DI option.

I never actually saw the talent or the appeal; I had mate who just loved him. For me, it just seemed to me that you'd turn on the TV, there he was wheezing his way through Come Back and Stay or Love of the Common People. On the strength of this thread, I decided to look him up on You Tube. The footage below isn't that pretty and it's something he should be able to sing while gargling TCP and it's only from a few months back, so if anyone is buying tickets, caveat emptor.

But it will require an upfront rewire of sorts. It's perfectly feasible to have each speaker wired independently, but then you'd need to utilise a jumper to wire them in series/parallel.