NancyJohnson

If I was playing there, I'd use my most obscure bass and get a t-shirt done.

We're old enough to just do it in our pants now. It's expected.

I haven't a clue who is playing (and deep in my heart, I really don't care), but decided to have a look at the bill. Christ on a bike. There appears to be hundreds, nay thousands, of artists playing. How on earth does one sort the wheat from the chaff? How does everyone get paid? I recognised maybe ten bands and gave up scrolling. My idea of Hell to be honest.

Given Warwick copied/used a NS/Spector design, you could probably consider this a Poor Man's Spector.

Given Epiphone are now hawking Les Pauls/Explorers (etc.) with a Gibsonesque style logo in the correct placement, I'm not unsurprised that for the bass they've dispensed with that and stuck the headstock logo in that position/orientation. All that's gonna happen here is buyers are going to break out their sanders, buy a replacement Gibson waterslide decal and thincoat over the top of it. Just like Squiers.

The G&L is a munter. 100%. The early headstocks were nice, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Fender complain the original design was too similar to theirs?

Has anyone thrown original Rickenbacker 4001/4003 pickups/loom into another bass (all the while retaining the general pickup distances along the scale length)? If yes, does the new bass display similar tonal characteristics to a Rick?

*Sadowsky.

208 'Your Cheerful Earful!' Ooh, loon pants!

'One Hand Clapping' by Wings. Enjoying this immensely (second run through already today). Wings are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I remember my mum buying me Wings Over America one Christmas on the recommendation of the owner of the record shop where I'd get all my records from. Those three or four albums from the run that led up to this live album (Band On The Run, Venus And Mars, Wings At The Speed of Sound) are regular go-to listening. The recent Band On The Run (Underdubbed Mixes) was a freaking 10/10 joy.

This just popped up on my Facebook feed. It's a guys website (https://luthierylabs.com) - he's made a couple of Rickenbacker copies based off the 325 guitar body shape. Ignore the Home Depot and Fender logos on the headstocks! Despite my disliking of sunburst finishes, the bottom image is probably the nicer of the two, especially with the 3001 style headstock; I'd like to see one with a four-knob/black plate on that one. The bodyshape really works in my opinion.

Being of a certain age, Japan were my main band 1978/80...I can take joy from the spartanly attended gigs I schlepped up to London for; Dingwalls, The Venue, Music Machine, Lyceum, Royal Opera House. Me and a mate saw them at The Rock Garden and then got into The Greyhound a couple of days later. Mick Karn was always the primary focal point. Nobody/fans gave a rats bumhole about them early days. It was like they were our little secret. The Lyceum shows were interesting; the first was about a 1/4 full, the next was absolutely rammed. Quiet Life changed everything really. Gone was all the psuedo-aggressive punk/funk and the audience was just full of peacocks that were more interested in the clothes and aura behind the band rather than the music. Diminishing returns too. My last gig was one of the later Hammersmith shows and it was terrible, Rob Dean long gone, almost erasing memories of just a couple of years previously. Moving back to Mick Karn, yep, genius. Groundbreaking. Inspiring. Brilliant. I honestly don't believe we, as bassplayers, knew just how great he actually was until he was gone.

I suspect that once we get off BT Internet and sign up to 900mbps Zen Internet, I'll just migrate things over to Tidal.

I realise that this might counter a couple of posts above, but - assuming you want to retain a similar body shape - why not just source a Sterling/Sub and get a carpenter to hull out the body? You could feasibly sell on the neck/hardware for a few ££.

There was a lengthy thread here a few years back, honestly it should have gone to a vote...people paying stupid money for shims or just sticking a bit of cardboard/creditcard under the neck heel. It was amazing how people would advocate using StewMac shims ("Noticable sustain," or something) when a playing card would have exactly the same result.

Just off the back of the two posts from ped and Warren above, we're probably of (or approaching and age) where historically we actively went out to try and find music we were interested in; we read music weeklies, we went to gigs, we appreciated word-of-mouth referrals, we listened to radio content/shows that appealed to our tastes, we may also have been lucky enough to have a record store nearby where Sounds journalists would drop off their review copies and owners who allowed us to listen to music on headphones (all hail, Record Scene, Staines (RIP)). Now - with all these platforms - we are spoonfed/dribbled content to the apps. I get what Warren is saying about the Spotify UI. If I look at Spotify on my phone, all I really want is a big old button that points to my search options and the playlists I've set up. I know what I want to listen to, I have a vast musical library on Spotify (and on a NAS, which because of the failure of the Sonos app I'm unable to access across my network at the moment). I've got panels for 'Recently Announced', 'Picked for you', 'New releases for you', 'Recently Played', 'Fresh New Music', 'Recommended for Today', 'Your Favourite Artists', 'Huge Playlists', 'Audiobooks For You', 'Jump Back In', 'Episodes For You', something called 'Our Generation', 'Alternative 70s', 'Alternate 60s', 'The Indie List', 'misfits 2.0', 'Made In Scotland', 'Massive Dance Hits', 'Made In Liverpool', 'Altar', Rap UK#, 'Powerpop'...there's about 20 more. I don't need any of this at all. I am no more going to click on some acne-faced indie group from Liverpool any more than I've going to go out and find something praising he merits of Allah. Let me do my own diligence rather than forcing all this poop on me (which is likely sponsored by labels anyhow). Most of the good stuff I've 'discovered' recently has come via a US indie station called W-EQX, which is based in Manchester, Vermont.

I've stuck with Spotify, but was thinking about going to Tidal (did a free trial), simply as they have 5.1/Atmos/Lossless content. Insofar as non-streaming content goes, I would generally use the (currently broken) Sonos app to squirt this content around the house. Had a trial with Apple a while back, but didn't go any further as the UI was bloated/unnecessarily complicated. Reckon I'll migrate to Tidal at some point, but it'll be a trawl to get everything/playlists from Spotify.

If you want to give it a day or two, I'll pull my Hamer out and let you know. He did one without the power switch for me.

I saw Gary doing his shizz with Dressed To Kill a looong time ago at a club owned by a mate of mine in Wokingham, Berkshire. Frankly, it was one of the greatest evenings I've ever had seeing a band, originals or otherwise.

Royalties pre-date Spotify.

Business model applies globally. Doesn't matter if you're digging coal or working on a shop-floor, the guys who own the business will always be the ones that reap the greater reward. The guy who set up Spotify (Daniel Ek) is still CEO at the business; I say well done to him for creating his niche and good luck to him and the people he has working for him. Same goes Deezer/Tidal etc. This might sound a bit naive, but the whole royalty thing is a bit odd to me and I find it difficult to actually put down in words as to why. As I said earlier, personally I don't expect to be getting a reward for work I did 30 years ago, so why shouldn't the same apply to music/film/books/media creators? They've done the job of creation, so why is there this expectation of a continuing royalty/percentile?

On the question of exploitation, would you expect to be recieving a royalty for work you did 30 years ago? The royalty model is truly broken, the big money is off touring and merchandising. I've haemorrhaged thousands on music where 80% of the tracks are just filler and would wager I'm not alone.

I mean, each to their own - and don't quantify your answer here on the basis of format wars - but the question for me is how do you go about discovering anything new or do you just rest on your laurels and feel warm and fuzzy about the music you may already own?

Sorry, it's already gone. I didn't see a message until a few minutes ago. Nephew was rooting around on my PC, suspect they read it and I didn't see the flag.