NancyJohnson

Rambling post. In my youth, I seem to remember Schecter being a cheapish go-to kit guitar brand business (like Allparts or Warmoth) before going into a fully fledged guitar brand. Cursory interest back then, but didn't really care. Just took a look at their website; honestly didn't realise they did so many bass models. Aside from a couple of more traditional offerings that I'd never consider purchasing (the J-4 or the Model-T things), there's no appeal whatsoever. The designs look quite meh, there's not much in the way of finish options. Some horrific headstock designs. Looking at the recent Signature model basses...the Sixx, dUg, Gallop, Michael Anthony; we all know which basses these guys are famous for but their signature lines fail miserably.

This is me. Two different bands. Co-wrote Let's Go with the guitarist and I wrote the music for Human Resources. I'm not looking to change the world or, for god's sake, 'make it'...that ship sailed many moons ago; realistically it's just to have a creative outlet writing/playing three minute songs and have hassle free fun doing it. Like I say, it shouldn't be this difficult.

Despite WvH's upbringing and exposure (and having lost my dad when I about his age), I really feel empathy with the guy. He comes across as a fairly nice, humble bloke that's experienced more exposure to the rock lifestyle that we'll ever see. Despite having released two very decent albums, where he's played everything, he has to find it somewhat exasperating having to live in his father's shadow with so many hardened Van Halen fans/whackos feeling it's necessary for [him] to somehow continue his father's legacy by going out and playing his dad's material or giving them a tribute show as some kind of closure. Nobody pressed Sean Lennon to do this. We live in odd times.

A few of you may have seen the Billy Corgan interviews that are dropping onto You Tube, have watched a couple (Gene Simmons/Wolfgang Van Halen), both thoroughly enjoyable. Where Billy Corgan wins is that he's got shared experiences and is a fanboy/man of the people he's interviewing, even by association. While he says he's never met Wolfie, he knew Eddie and loved Van Halen. Recommended!

Since the original post, I've had four contacts through Bandlink/JMB and all are of a similar ilk. Yesterday I spoke to a bloke in his 50s who seemed proud that he was predominantly a drummer and decided to switch to guitar about a year ago because he was a Foo Fighters fan. This alone just sounded the alarm for me. Explaining he had 'lots of songs', I was given a link to a Google Drive location. Again, disappointment. The material was absolute drivel. Awful everything. Sigh.

Counting Crows. Face The Promised Land.

It's inevitable. The Gibson bass choice is limited to three or four models and a limited colour choice. You'll probably find a larger breakfast cereal aisle in you local Lidl.

Gibson are as guilty as Fender. They bought out the Theodore, which is allegedly based around some unproduced designs from the 1950s (I bought one of the original run, it's lovely), but I'd struggle to name anything new beyond that.

Take Fender. Their instruments, be it bass or guitar, are all fundamentally based on body designs and innards that are over 60 years old; end of the day, if you want a Fender bass it's going to be a Jazz, Precision or maybe a Jaguar. The whole reinvention element of their business model is to offer different colours, different woods, vintage-styled pickups, mixing up the guts of the basses (offering P/J pickups, active EQ) and so on, in the belief that it's something new, when it isn't. I'm sure many people are of the belief that buying into Fender is like buying into Jaguar or Ferrari; this belief that the mass produced CNC'd instruments produced in Mexico or the far-east somehow share the lineage, legacy and pride of those built in the 50s and early 60s, but they aren't those instruments. Don't get me wrong here, I don't detest Fender, I've owned several of their basses, but I would never buy another one, new or used. There's way more gear out there that's better, more versatile than anything they make.

Fender and Gibson. The masters of reinvention. New year, same old shit.

I'd concur on the QC; I had two different 10" speakers (from Hydrive cabinets) that just start rattling, but Korg replaced them without question. Beyond this, the cabs were faultless. Larry is just a lovely bloke. Does what he does best; front of house, working the customer base, getting his product out there.

The Hartke one is 100%. Barry said they were just trying to entertain themselves at NAMM years ago. Even as an (ex) Hartke endorsee, I could see the humour in this!

We talked about trying to get Tech21 to drop Rocky Road, go with us and go the direct sale route. Remember that?

In answer to your first paragraph I'm of the belief that RSD just brings out several groups of people; 1. Those that have little desire to buy/consume music the rest of the year but see RSD as a reason for going to a record shop, 2. Those that see RSD as a means to turning a quick profit, 3. Genuine fans whose purchases are usurped by #1 & #2 above. While I have little (cough, zero) interest in vinyl, I don't mind looking around record shops should the occasion arise, although I find the whole experience (to use a '90s metaphor), like going to Gap. It's the same stuff everywhere. I just find the RSD fever all a bit exasperating.

I only bothered once, about five or six years back for a Tears For Fears at Massey Hall live CD. We had a little record shop in a craft centre about a mile from me so I thought I'd give it a punt, so I rocked up 8.30am, stupidly of the allusion I'd be home by 9.00am. On previous visits the shop it had been empty, in fact, I'd never seen anyone in there, but on RSD, nooo. I reckon there were 200 middle-aged men queueing all clutching pieces of paper with lists of albums; the shop owner was giving everyone raffle tickets and letting a couple of people in at a time, each of those people were coming out with carrier bags of vinyl. It was a shambles. It was just a classic case of Dad's Army-esque organisational incompetence. I went home clutching said raffle ticket and returned a few hours later and was still some way off entry. There was no whiteboard showing what was left (thus, no indication of whether it was still worth queueing) and when I finally got in, the proprietor advised me they didn't actually get any copies of the album I was after. I got home, fired up the inter web and ordered it from Sister Ray on condition it was still in stock on Sunday night, it would be mine. It arrived midweek. Waste of time.

I know there's some love for these here. Welwyn Garden City. Looks clean! Nice paddle headstock version. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326420402512?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=NCWIl1-VSH2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=DxWFUN6rTdK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I've never seen that clip...to be honest, Fashion were never that high on my You Tube search list. This is pretty good!

Singer at the time was Dee Harriss who was also guitarist. I don't think Martin Recchhi (bass) ever did lead vocals...they went through a few line up changes, would be interested to see this!

Just had a perusal of the list, despite the fact I'm definitely not going to be dipping my toe back into record buying as that ship sailed decades ago. It's a shame not more of the list is being released on CD. Just by way of observation, once again I feel there's too much of an incursion onto the list by artistes that don't need to (or shouldn't) be on the list. Queen. Prince. Motley Crue. The Rolling Stones. The Cure. Fleetwood Mac. The fecking Eurythmics. RSD started off as this well intended programme to get people into record shops; now it's just a big-corp money for old rope production, ultimately lining Brian May's already brimming over pockets with more ££ from the first vinyl release of five demos recorded half a century ago (which have been in circulation for years). Surely it's time for some new RSD rules? Make it a bit more exciting. Only release new material. If you play sold out stadium gigs, RSD is not for you. If you were signed to a big label and made a career out of music 30-years ago, RSD is not for you. If you played Live Aid, RSD is not for you. Limit in store purchases to two records per person (check eBay RSD afternoon to witness what RSD means to a lot of punters).

Attended a couple of open-mic things donkey's years ago, not playing, mind. Not much talent on show, quite painful, much heckling and people running to the bar. Credit to the performers and while you have to applaud their tenacity, most of it was just balls. Never been to an open jam session in my life; part of me thinks there'd be this opportunity to unearth some like-minded musicians and find a musical soul mate, but conversely there's the nightmare scenario of being stuck in a pub with a load of old hairy-biker types that took up the guitar when they retired and just want to play Wonderful Tonight. [Rapid edit] Went to a barbeque once while we were staying with some friends in Devon. Word got out that I played bass and would I like to sit in when the guitars came out. (Not really.) There really is nothing worse than being berated by some three-chord Johnny (especially when one's technical ability exceeds theirs by several country miles) for playing the wrong notes in a song that you've never heard before? "It's a standard, mate," he said. "Call yourself a bassist, everyone knows <whatever Eric Clapton song it was>." No mate. No. They don't.

As a grown up big boy, I'm beyond the whole my little secret/guilty pleasure thing. If The Carpenters make me feel warm and fuzzy, why keep it to myself? What next for Basschat? What's your favourite colour?

I suppose the one prominent voice here over the last week or two is/was Bjork, claiming Spotify was the worst thing etc. It's worth bearing in mind that irrespective of the royal rate per play, she could potentially net $3-5k per million plays, she has one track that's off her first or second album that's on 79 million plays, so potentially $300k for one song, recorded and released 30-odd years ago. There's others over 50m plays. I've no idea what her deal with Elektra/One Little Indian is/was, so any revenue from sales is open to supposition, but let's say she's made a comfortable income from this platform and she's on Apple/Deezer/Tidal. If she hates Spotify so much, come off the platform. Don't bite the hand that feeds.

There's a red Scarab for sale in Brighton. Gumtree (mucho £££, lots of wear).

We've gone the Sonos route throughout the house; stereo pairs around the house and our main listening room (lounge) has a stereo pair and a mini-sub. I'd say without hesitation that tonally the lounge set up is easily on par with what it replaced (Arcam/B&W), irrespective of the source.

I'd concur about the discovery factor. Streaming platforms are a bit divisive on several levels; people taking this stance about royalties and audio quality. On the first point of royalties, I often wonder why people feel so hard done by for artistes; I worked on projects decades ago and I know some of my work is still being used today in old employers systems. Why should I expect ongoing royalties, whereas musicians/bands still expect a cheque once in a while. Don't get it. Audio quality. Argument is subjective and let's face it, I doubt 99.9% of Spotify users would be able to tell the difference between a FLAC/MP3/whatever file format.