NancyJohnson

I always seem to break a little smile when I see posts showing 'my gig rig tonight', where there's a little class-D head stop of a tiny Barefaced Compact (or similar). I suppose after years of doing this, I just feel more comfortable with something big behind me. All you guys who just use tiny cabinets (1x10 or 1x12), yes, you know who you are, how the hell do you manage? OK, I know I play in a loud/noisy post-punk band, but I simply couldn't play through a single 10" or 12" speaker. Home playing at a low level, fine. Jams/live, hmm. I understand going the DI route for gigs, but surely these little cabs have very little throw and sound quality has to suffer when you're up against a busy drummer.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1492784978' post='3283232'] I hope you truely want an Epiphone Thunderbird and not a Gibson Thunderbird. IMO these are two very different bass guitars. I've owned both. Many make the mistake of thinking the Epiphone Thunderbird is an affordable less expensive Gibson Thunderbird. It's not, it"s an Epiphone Thunderbird. Blue [/quote] I've got three Gibsons...the one on my radar is the 60s reissue model. Two part bridge, chrome, not one of the current ones.

2016 was a bit of a wilderness in the purchase department, I suppose I was happy for the first time ever although my work situation (redundandancy in September) had a detrimental effect on things. Early two month back, I landed a great job (with a decent package) and I'm excitedly compiling a short list of things to watch out for. While the Tech21 Geddy Lee Sansamp tops that list, I'm also really interested in the Epiphone Classic Thunderbird (blaaaack!), am making some enquires about another Lull and, once I can get my Hartke stuff sold, I'll get another Barefaced. I'm also looking to get LEDs installed on my current Lull. 2017, I think, will prove a bit cathartic, once new gear starts dropping it'll be some gear out, some new gear in. I've got a ton of stuff I rarely touch now. [Edit: for the record, the Epiphone is one of these, not any of the current models.]

As a band, we've recorded just the four tracks and they're on Bandcamp and we have CDs (we 'press' in batches of 100 and are going to bundle in some very good live recordings of new material imminently). We sell a few when we gig, but by and large I never really see bands doing a roaring trade in tangibles at the places we place. Have I bought? Yes. Going back a bit, I used to love CD Baby, Not Lame and MP3.com. Done downloads and bought CDs, found some truly wonderful bands via these sites. I'd actively be searching for new stuff too, I was on the Usenet boards for music that was pertinent to what I was interested in and used to subscribe to a couple of US publications (primarily Alternative Press) and source out material from there. Nowadays, I just don't have the time or realistically want to take the effort to find new stuff online; while I'd say my band (Who Killed Nancy Johnson?) deliver on many levels, I'm just tired of listening to bands who make little effort to do things properly or can't even write something interesting. FFS, if your material sounds worse than mine, I just don't want to bother with a repeat listening. Get into a studio and have your material properly produced, rather than passing off recordings that sound like they were done in a freaking toilet.

Just a quick heads up. Soldier branded strings by Mugig. They're £6.00 a set at the moment. Mental. Needed some cheapies for a project, they're amazingly good. They're still sounding like new after one four hour session.

The long road out of Hell. Bring it to the Bash, eh?

How do I clean my strings? I don't. Life is too short, my friend.

If you want to go a bit old school, try Shudder To Think. They released a load of stuff, but hit their stride with Get Your Goat and Pony Express Record. Both of these are on Spotify. Get Your Goat is barely 30 minutes. Joy.

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1492330971' post='3279395'] The problem is that I don't think Joolz cares what the expert muso audience thinks, because he is aiming the show at what he feels is 'educating' the TOTPs crowd [/quote] You calling me an expert muso? In all the episodes I've seen, I can only remember three or four where things stood out. Jellyfish. The Darkness. Pearl Jam. Buena Vista Social Club.

It's funny how things evolve. Years ago, I'd be hassling anyone in earshot to save me the little plastic things that they used to put on bread packaging or the rubber washers from bottles of Grolsch.

My old Rickenbacker had Schaller compatible straplocks fitted as standard and while they worked fine, I'd never retrofit Schallers to any of my guitars. Dunlop all the way here.

Haven't watched it for a while and feel the primary reason behind this being that the bill is just too diverse and lumpy for it to be an enjoyable hour long watch.

Whenever we gig, the promoter always does a belts and braces email a week before to all the contacts setting out gearshare, load in, soundcheck times, and so on. Headliners generally provide the drum shells/stands; the breakables (stool/snare/bass drum pedal/cymbals and hats) should be brought along by each support band. The only thing that really gets on my tit is when another band ignore the mail and turn up in expectation of a borrow.

... edited out. God knows what happened there.

It might also be worth changing the tone control's capacitor. It's not something I know too much about but it can affect the overall tone. You could also put a cap on an individual volume control to roll off more treble the more open the control is.

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1489158630' post='3254837'] Yes this would have been great if it happened... but its been clarified Geddy and Alex are just inducting them. [/quote] Wrong! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjm10iXTon4

[quote name='fftc' timestamp='1491422896' post='3272981'] Enjoyed that. Nice wee tune. Got anything live on youtube or the like? Edit to add: D'oh, found it and it wasn't difficult. [/quote] Most of that You Tube stuff will be coming down imminently...some of it is horrific. Nasty. There's an EP up on Bandcamp. www.wknj.co.uk. It'll redirect.

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1491407853' post='3272814'] That in Rhoom? We practice there too! [/quote] Yup. Tuesday nights #2!

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1491389113' post='3272592'] They are at it again. [url="http://wogew.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/sgt-pepper-anniversary-edition-revealed.html"]http://wogew.blogspo...n-revealed.html[/url] [/quote] I saw this earlier today on the Super-Deluxe Edition website as well ([url="http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-super-deluxe-edition/"]http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-super-deluxe-edition/[/url]). I never quite understood the desire/excitement for monaural delivery...when I was a kid, my amp had a mono button on it and it just made everything sound bland (except for the first Van Halen album, which sounded great in either stereo or mono). While I'm never going to buy it, I was a little shocked (and don't blame Brexit) that Amazon Italy have it listed for under £85 notes, but in the UK it's £141.00. UK screwed over (yet) again. We just seem to accept that every time we bend over someone is going to shove something up there.

So a couple of weeks ago, we shot a video. It's all a bit done on the cheap (£0.00)...we did it right at the end of a regular rehearsal session and mimed to a track we recorded in December. A couple of Go-Pro cameras, my Sony A5100 (which shoots 1080p) and an old low res video camera. Three takes total with cameras in different positions and a couple with one of us hand holding my Sony. Our guitarist did some rudimentary editing. He professed he got bored towards the end. Here you go. Turned out OK for a bunch of old blokes. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCrQ5T-iMJg[/media]

In my experience, CDs are upfront or at the time of order. We've always gone with reputable businesses with a proven track record (no pun intended). While I've never gone the vinyl route (or ever will as we're not hipsters), I would agree there needs to be something upfront to cover costs for mastering, cutting, acetates etc. All this costs and its effectively WIP before a single record is pressed. Full payment, though? Well we are poor, unreliable musicians so I suppose they're covering themselves. Are you able to contact the business and ask for references/bands who've used them previously?

What to do when you're old? I've kind of slipped into semi-retirement. Heh. Job is low-stress analytical work and I still have a full mop of hair, so I'm good to go. I'll give it five years and try and convince my missus that it's time for me to start reading the pile of books I seem to be accumulating, get away on holiday a bit more, complain about my aching back and knee. I think with the accelerating issues with my thumbs, a fire sale might be happening around the same time, but I'll keep limping along for as long as I can. My old pop carked it less than two years after he retired; I guess after an uber-active job his body was just worn out, so I plan on enjoying the time off until they screw the lid on.

I know I'm stating the obvious, but back in 1986 (or whenever), these probably weren't looked upon as being vintage in any respect and the market was somewhat different; Fender (at the time) wasn't particularly a vogue brand to be playing (I just seem to remember every shop I visited just seemed to carry limited stocks of Musicman, Jackson and Charvel).