Dan Dare

I had a Frontman guitar combo that I bought for virtually nowt for messing around with at home. Did the job. Frontmans were practice/starter amps. Replaced by the Champion range I think. If you can get it cheaply, should be OK. Don't pay much for it, though.

Pretty hip, though

Guess so.

Nope

I have BT wireless, too. Try using the ethernet connection for a wired connection (which is what I'm doing) . You may find it even better.

Perhaps I shouldn't allow my eyes to influence my opinion of a piece of music, but I find the video of a snarling thug looking like an enraged MMA fighter a turn off. It says much about the artist that he chooses to portray himself in that way. That ain't what music is about for me. "Passion" doesn't automatically equal good. Have a look at film of speeches given by a chap in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. They're full of "passion".

Good point. It isn't lamination that's critical. It's how it's done, materials used, etc. If, for example, glues or resins that move/soften with variations in temperature or humidity are employed, a laminate can be less stable than a single piece of timber. Lamination can be a way of enabling less expensive timbers to be used, too. Of course, manufacturers will try to sell it to us as a benefit...

I wondered that. I thought perhaps Mr Gormley is doing a John Shuttleworth

Word on the street at the time suggests it was muffled and crap.

Perhaps there's room for a chemical loo in case you're caught short.

The problem with wearing coverings on your fingers is you will lose sensitivity to touch and feel. Much of bass playing with your fingers relies on being able to feel how the strings respond and adjust what you do accordingly. Playing with nails will likely result in a thin, spiky sound. If you need to keep your nails long for the guitar, might be best to play bass with a pick. It will also save wearing out your nails (which will happen pretty fast if you play on roundwounds at reasonable tension). Sacrilege, I know, but there it is.

I have to say, whilst BH does little apart from blow over repeated 8 and 16 bar phrases, he is astonishingly accomplished. He's also very well read musically, particularly regarding 20th century classical composers. His playing is crammed with quotes and references. It's just a shame he does so little with his formidable abilities.

Astonishingly, it seems this is not a one off. They have a body of work. There are also commentators on YouTube earnestly deconstructing what they do and asserting that it's art and difficult to play, which it is, because random sh1te/chaos is by its nature impossible to replicate accurately. I was once hired to perform at a concert of music by George Crumb (look his stuff up if you fancy a laugh). The "music" consisted of a lot of random noises (all scored for full orchestra, mind, plus additional instruments - mandolin, musical saw and so on) with a soprano warbling some ancient Mayan text (or something similar) tunelessly over the top of it all. She was required to shout into the grand piano and do all sorts of undignified things. I had to play the mandolin with a bottleneck. The part was insanely complicated and utter garbage. This all happened in a London West End venue - tickets were not cheap and the place was full. At the end, there was rapturous applause. It was hard for many of the musicians to keep a straight face. Having a drink in the bar after the ordeal, we were surrounded by tone deaf poseurs with naice accents pontificating about how "original, brave", etc, etc the 'music' was. It seems many people who are not musical are terrified that they might be missing something, so they feign appreciation of such nonsense in case someone laughs at them for being stupid.

Why thank you, good sir. I'm hoping he's a spoof. The photo of him suggests he might be. If he means it, Gawd help him.

Overall, no. I've spent a lot of time doing technique exercises and trying to keep the fingers in trim, so that part hasn't deteriorated. However, having just done a couple of online Jamulus sessions with band members, I find my ensemble playing has suffered because I haven't played with others for so long. It isn't the same playing along with recordings, jam tracks and teaching/practice vid's and it doesn't provide the same motivation. You don't spark off others when playing in solitary splendour.

That's pretty grim. I take it the album is called Speech Ferapy...

Beware El Cheapo wall warts and PSUs. I've tried several and they all produce a horrible audible spike. The voltages claimed and printed on them bear little resemblance to reality if you measure them. There's a reason PSUs from Voodoo, Strymon et al don't cost £9.99.

26hz? Even if it will go that low (and produce usable volume at that frequency), it's meaningless. Start producing subsonic/infra bass frequencies and you run into all sorts of issues - tons of mud, gobbling up amp headroom, ultra low frequencies migrating into drums and other resonant or acoustic instruments, up mic stands into the PA, etc, etc, to say nothing of the problems involved in transporting it. If you really want enormous frequency range, it would be far more practical to run multiple cabs and horns, with proper active crossovers and dedicated power amplification. One of those "Look how clever we are" products that has little application in the real world.

It can happen that a battery will 'wake up' somewhat after being drained as long as it hasn't been completely exhausted. I'd suggest checking it with a meter immediately after the bass dies and then again the following day. If it does recover somewhat, that could explain why the bass works for another 10 mins or so. A dry joint won't usually cause a fade. It will either work or not and if it does cut out, it's likely to be sudden.

I have a mint set of MIM Fender tuners I took off my P/J (I replaced them with vintage style Gotohs soon after I bought the instrument because I wanted the old style smaller elephants' ears). They've been sitting in a cupboard ever since. Turn nice and freely and clean/unmarked. Shoot me a PM if they'd be of interest.

A keyboard playing pal found my old Jazz in a hock shop in the 1980s. Used it for a couple of jobs and then sold it to me for what he paid for it - £250.

True. I'd love to find the 5 string equivalent of my old 72 J bass, which I've had for 30 years. I've never liked any 5 string J I've tried, sadly, even expensive ones. A Lakland I tried came closest, but was too spendy for a first 5..

With us all being prisoners in our homes, my bands are keeping our fingers in trim via get togethers on Jamulus. You need a hard-wired internet connection to get the bandwidth and speed required. As I can't be bothered to keep switching the wi-fi on and off, I've been using the wired connection generally and Blimey. The difference is enormous. The sound quality on music videos, etc is in another league. I shan't be using wireless again unless there's really no alternative.

To which the answer is "Why?". We don't replicate vocal, keyboard, guitar or brass parts (apart from occasional and usually brief unison phrases). It's impressive, but musically pointless.

My wife told me "It's those instruments or me". I'm gonna miss her 😉