NancyJohnson

I have a tendency to rotate basses...I haven't gigged for a couple of years, but in that time have done more than enough noodling/ponking at home and in various studios. I suppose I have my favourite/#1 bass, but it's more a case of which one do I want out this week and whatever takes my fancy at the time for non-home work. They're all set up more or less the same.

Just going off on a small tangent, the Aria Pro II SB1000. While having played a SB1000 and a SB900 briefly a long time ago (I didn't own either), I always felt the SB900 was a country mile better (subjective) than the '1000. No idea what the construction was (they were both laminated body/neck-through; end of the day they were both high-gloss natural finishes, so it mattered little what was under the finish), I think the SB1000 had active circuitry whereas the SB900 was passive with dual pickups and some additional switching. The SB900 just edged it for me personally...I always prefer a two pickup bass; more tonal variety at the front end rather than making the active circuit do all the work by trying to boost resonant frequencies that may not be there.

(Matte) black is always the preferred option.

In a continuing series, I'm listening to the new T. Rex collection '1972'. Being brutally honest, Electric Warrior aside, I find the band's output fairly inconsistent and I'm drawn more to the singles rather than the albums. I'm listening to '1972' which is essentially The Slider album, the previously released matinee show from Wembley, the Born To Boogie soundtrack in full and about 40 radio shows, demos and outtakes. It rocks along nicely, however the Wembley show is a new mix and Mickey Finn's bongos are quite prominent in the left channel. You honestly have to question why Bolan didn't just dump him - there's no value added from his contribution; it honestly sounds like a monkey sporadically hitting some coconuts - laughably poor, out of tune, out of time. Proof enough that unless you're 100% on your game, you're adding nothing. Pity the bongos aren't lower in the mix. Otherwise, hugely enjoyable.

Just on the subject of EoN, if you're unfamiliar with them, check out Curve (start with 1992's 'Doppelganger'). Whether it's intentional or not (probably the latter), EoN as a unit sound incredibly similar to them.

Seriously, what's not to like?

Marina (and The Diamonds). Again. God, it's so good.

You need to rip the 5.1, I still need to do that Ronson one for you.

Rush are a weird one for me, I started with All The World's A Stage and went backwards from there, so broadly there was about a year between this and A Farewell To Kings, at which point I was probably more into punk than anything else, although it had to be said that my formulative bass-learning years were in my bedroom playing along with the ATWAS. With every album from Moving Pictures, I lost a little more interest; as I mentioned earlier, I like maybe 60% of Moving Pictures and by the time we hit Signals there were just a couple of tracks (Subdivisions/Countdown), Grace Under Pressure (nothing really of note), Power Windows was just The Big Money and Hold Your Fire was Time Stand Still. I've not listened to a Rush studio album beyond that. All said and done, I do enjoy the live stuff and find all three bandmembers quite engaging/entertaining. The recent documentary was wonderful viewing.

Caress of Steel too? Are you bonkers?

I remember getting Exit...Stage Left for Christmas and dropping the needle on the vinyl and thinking, 'What the hell is this?' It was muddy sounding, just awful.

Haha. In The Camera Eye, don't you hear the similarity in the repeated sequence from about 2"40' to Freewill? As soon as I heard it all those years ago it was, 'Oh, that sounds familiar.'

I listened to this (off Spotify) yesterday and it's on now. Of the studio content, I'll be honest and say that I'm very familiar with the first four tracks and the final one (Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight and Vital Signs), less so The Camera Eye or Witch Hunt, which I always skipped over. Have to say I haven't listened to this album in over 20 years and the five tracks I mentioned still sound great, my opinion of the other two hasn't changed. With The Camera Eye I always felt a bit short-changed that they'd lifted whole sequences from Permanent Waves' 'Freewill'. Moving along, as this is an expanded release, the live in Toronto 1981 content (Camera Eye aside!) is blindingly good. I'd forgotten how decent they were live in the early 80s. The live production is pretty lively, way better than Exit...Stage Left; interestingly, sides 2-4 of E...SL was recorded in Montreal on 27/3/81, just two days after the new content on the Moving Pictures live content was recorded.

My dad used to go fishing on Sundays. Different rods, different reels, different lines, different bait. All that really mattered was the little hook at the end of the line with the maggot on it. He could have used a bit of copper pipe or an extending umbrella, garden string or a bit of cheese. . What is Fenderish tone? Geddy? Lynott? Harris? Kaye? Deacon? Flea? Hoppus? JPJ? JM-J? Wire, Simonon, Sting, Jameson, Jacko or Duff?

There does seem to be this obsession with sustain. Aside from tuning, ask yourself this question, what is the longest you'd let a note ring out for in any of the songs you're playing? I'd say the longest for me is probably an open A for a couple of bars in a 140bpm song. Seconds, if that. This whole sustain argument is a nonsense.

Just being subjective here, this is simply a query about a Hipshot bridge over the stock Fender BBOT; it shouldn't really matter what it's installed on. Overall, the bridge contributes a small percentage to how you sound; two guys playing the same bass can make it sound totally different. Yes, I've got a Kickass installed on one of my basses; as the BBOT was incomplete when I bought the bass replacement was necessary and I chose the Kickass. Would I say it altered my tone? I'd answer that by stating not discernibly (or if it did, the change was so tiny it didn't make a difference). I'd say categorically that the Kickass is better by design, looks nicer than the BBOT, feels more comfortable when palm-muting, feels generally more solid (and reliable?) than the BBOT (although in truth any bass I've had with a Fender-style bridge rarely needed adjusting). It certainly doesn't make me a better player or revolutionise anything. Conclusion? It looks nicer than a BBOT. That's it. Shiny.

Saw these yesterday. Hideous. Look like toys.

I don't mind those...although yes, the HB is clearly a copy of the Aria, it's nice to see something that isn't a clone of a Precision/Jazz/Stingray with a different headstock. Maybe Thomann/HB just feel they're at the point where they feel they can start introducing different models - perhaps original designs - rather than leaning heavily on the saturated copy market; a business model that Ibanez adopted to their advantage following the *cough* lawsuit *cough* issues back in the 1970s. Generally, before we've even heard a single note, we're all drawn to the actual shape of instruments initially, this being before we see it in our chosen colour/specifications.

Being a child of the 60s, I used to get Sounds and NME weekly. Sounds became my go-to weekly and you kind of knew that if Geoff Barton wrote that it was decent, that was kind of OK with me. That matter that most of the actual (demo/promo) copies he listened to or reviewed, ended up in a little bargain box at Record Scene in Staines, was neither here nor there. You could say with pretty much 100% certainty that if it was in Sounds by the next week it would be in the bargain bin. I never really felt that radio delivered enough of what I liked. It was different times back then, probably more exciting to be honest (this isn't an old man shouts at cloud thing), the not knowing thing was 99% of the fun, rather than having everything delivered to you on a plate as it is now. I would latch on to the smallest bits of editorial and that would be enough to ignite the spark. Whereas in the mid-late 70s it was all about UK punk and what passed for north-American metal (Kiss/ Rush/Starz/Styx/Angel/Cheap Trick), just seeing a little paragraph about Jane's Addiction was enough for me to schlep up to London and get the Triple-X live album, same goes NIN, Living Colour etc.. I used to go to a great record shop about 100m from Hammersmith Odeon (Broadway Records?) that used to do loads of Japanese and US imports...you'd just go up there and browse.

For me, The Alarm will forever be Peters, McDonald, Sharp and Twist. Just find it odd that it was Mike Peters who called time on The Alarm at Brixton Academy (trust me here, it wasn't staged, the other three knew nothing of what was going on) and while a less than dynamic solo career followed, he's the one who keeps The Alarm just limping along, constantly rerecording and unnecessarily tweaking stuff. So he didn't want it and now he really needs it. I mean, he's a nice guy, I've met him a lot of times and also had a very long chat with him on a flight from New York a couple of years ago (he recognised me, which was nice), but I fear this career path is a little misguided. I've witnessed him playing with backing tracks and it wasn't pretty, so I have no doubt he'd be happy to go out sans bassist.

Well, not me. I've already taken one for the team with the book.

I had a Gretsch Electromatic baritone. Odd thing. Drawn to it out of a 50/50 mix of curiousity and a desire of ownership. Found it to be neither guitar or bass, on the one side I suppose I wanted to do some odd/dirty drop-B stuff without going the 7-string route, or some kind of twangy Glen Campbell stuff. Not succeeding with either, I went the bass-six route and that didn't really pan out either, so I sold it on. Sometimes, it's not the having it's the getting that drives these purchases. Desire satiated, experiment was over.

What happened to the old thread?

That's my photo! 🤣

Like this? It's made by a company called RTX, I got mine from Amazon, but it's available elsewhere (https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/amp-stand/rtx-trt-smx-monitor-guitar-amp-stand?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhumU_Kil9wIVzdvVCh1Y2QofEAQYAyABEgJEDfD_BwE)