NancyJohnson

Steven Wilson today. Can't really say that I'm a fan generally and I look on his output as being akin to early TVRs; just because you have great gear/production/musicians etc. this does not necessarily make for great music. It's a bit like Weezer, they're everything I should like in a band, but I find them really hard to listen to. I read someone saying Steven Wilson is akin to the UK's Trent Reznor. Err, no. That said, I love what he achieved with the Tears For Fears and XTC 5.1/surround releases. Maybe I'm just getting a bit too long in the teeth to be able to listen, absorb, rememember all the notes. Anyhow, blame my wife. She watched the £10,000 album unboxing, then I caught her listening to the Albert Hall gig off Spotify. I got a 5.1 copy of The Future Bites and it's kind of splendid event listening, but nothing really sank in. Anyhow, here we go...

I'd like to hear what these sound like through a Sansamp BDDI or a dUg.

I'd concur with this. God I remember what it was like in the area in the last 70s/early 80s. Rhodes Music, Andy's, Rose Morris, FD&H plus a dozen or so other places I can't even recall the names of. We hardly ever stepped foot in Macari's.

Right now, and erring on the side of caution, I'd say it's a no from me. Even eight or nine months down the line, I'm still going to be harbouring a worry that one of my bass bretheren has it. Just an idea here, what about doing the odd Zoom thing? One person hosts, shows off and demonstrates their gear to whomever has an interest, virtual tea and cake?

As a kid, I used to go up to London a two or three times a month, gigs/music/books; it was always the same thing, train to Waterloo, tube to Tottenham Court Road, visit Virgin, then Denmark Street (when Forbidden Planet was still there), walk up the Leicester Square to Tower, then get a cab down to the Hard Rock, then find a tube station and home. Later we'd just drive up, stick the car on a meter in Bruton Street until midday (it was free parking after that) and then do the same thing. It used to be bliss. There's no point in going now at all.

Anyone remember the BBC footage of Macari's getting looted by thieves during the Poll Tax demonstrations? To this day I can remember seeing footage of looters pulling up the shutters and a young kid running off with a saxophone. Roll on to about the six minute mark here for Macari's.

So. I've ordered another Spector case (I had one but sold it along with the eight-string I just moved), so I know it fits. While I love ownership, it's really a case (no pun intended) here that I don't play all the time and I just don't like having all these basses out all over the house (there's acoustic and electric guitars all over the place too). In truth, I'm only really using one of the Lulls for recording and I'm still tweaking the Hamer (only had it a couple of weeks), so for now the new case is away with the Precision in it (cause I don't want to get that dinged, eh? lol) and I'll pop the Spector away next week for a while.

The Tourtech case arrived...first impressions are that it'll do the job. Looks nice, handle comfortable, it's light, locks look ok. The inside is fluffy and the foam under this is reasonably firm. Tried it with the stuff I don't have cases for...see below. Main observation is this is clearly a one size fits all case; it's fine for the Precision and the neck is supported its entire length. The Hamer headstock is angled back a bit and the neck sits lower in the body, so as a consequence the neck isn't fully supported (it rides from the nut to about the 10th fret. That said, the headstock is free of any obstruction, so it's fine. It's a good fit. Onto the Spector. A big no, I'm afraid. As the bass is so small and curved, it moves back and forth around quite a bit, and just rides on the extremities. I'll hold out for another case...the Spector ABS case can't be had for love nor money, so I may just pull the trigger on a Spector hard case. Hope this helps.

Bass aside (which looks stunning), I'm a huge fan of a handful of You Tube channels featuring woodworkers using resin/wood combinations.

I have a fairly big Spotify playlist of cherrypicked tracks that I take immense pleasure from playing on shuffle. In the last twenty minutes it's swung from Ace Frehley, All Saints, Fighting With Wire, The Buble, Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox.

Amazon have just advised me that the Gator case is going to be weeks away, so I went with a Tourtech ABS case from Andertons. Reviews look generally good, it was £30 cheaper than the Gator and will be here tomorrow. Reckon it's worth a punt. It's never going to get a ton of use. If it's any good (and the Spector and Hamer both fit), I'll get another one next month.

In answer to the OP, nope, my playing hasn't improved one jot, if anything, probably got worse. I do very litle playing/practising. On the upside, I've dedicated a bunch of time migrating my DAW from a decade-old version of Audition to Cakewalk (all hail), so from the perspective of what the listener hears, I've been able to spend a ton more time recording properly and capturing best performance rather than simply just making do. The fruits of my labour are on the Recording area on this very forum.

Our old network bubble was all hardwired...it was driven by the necessity of trying to shoot SkyTV HD (via HD over CAT5) all over the house along with the ability to change channels. When we updated things (smart TV/no Sky/all wireless), I pulled out all the gubbins relating to the TV and they filled three carrier bags. Wireless for the whole house is fine, although my work laptop is patchy, so that's wired.

I think that was a given irrespective of whether it fitted the neck pocket or not. In basic terms, if you'd put the Bronco neck on, you'd be losing 4" on the scale length, so you'd be looking at either some serious woodwork in the neck pocket and/or moving the bridge forward to make up the scale difference.

He obviously listened to you. Honestly don't understand why people want to pay more for the same product; Amazon all the way here.

If you have a Sky package, wouldn't it just be on a catch up service? Does anyone really wait for televisual repeats nowadays?

While The Munsters leant on a bit of Richard Dale, The Jetsons swang too, likewise Top/Boss Cat:

Just before Christmas one of my projects (Lutz) did a collaboration with another band (Dronningen) that I'd gigged with in another band. Lutz supplied the music, and Dronningen supplied the vocals and the trippy guitar in the middle. Here's the end result:

Blimey, old thread resurrection. Bewitched I Dream Of Jeannie The Jetsons The Munsters The Rockford Files

I'm still waiting for the Gator case from Amazon. It's in stock elsewhere, but more expensive and I'd need to cover shipping too (I'm an Amazon Prime customer, so that solves the £££ carriage charge). No rush!

I tried some Fender flats on my P - I had a nothing type of gig with a band I depped for in 2019, so figured it might be a nice enough opportunity to experiment. I was running through my Tech21 dUg...happy to report they were OK, suprisingly less ponky than I thought they'd be. That said, I went back to rounds as soon as the dep was over.

I've used picks since pretty much day one...more attack, speed etc. Currently using Dunlop Max-Grip 1.14, grippy. I can play with my fingers (and can see the virues/benefits of doing so) and can easy do so for slower stuff, but I've never been able to been able to use them for speed/control.

I need cases for my Spector and my Hamer. I know that Spector now have a badged hard case which (barring the interior padding) is clearly identical to the the Gator I have on order. I don't tend to have have all my basses out at the same time, so I like them in a case.

An hour?

I think she does already. She has a spreadsheet...I've already told her to speak to Gary in case I cark it at short notice.