Cato

That brings back some memories, or fragments anyway. Never really got around to listening to any albums (maybe I shohld rectify that) but an absolute must see at any festival in the 90s

I went to Snoop Dogg gig in Nottingham just before the smoking ban. That was like stepping inside a bong. No way did anyone leave that venue unaffected by at least passive intake.

Surely it's only a matter of time before Gibson start giving their bass back catalogue the same Custom Shop/Murphy Labs treatment that they seem to be focusing on with their guitar range. Of course if it does happen it won't be cheap.

I saw the Eagles in , I think, 2001 at the NIA in Birmingham when presumably they were sober and it was one of the most disapointing/boring big name gigs I've ever bean to. They weren't playing badly by any means, they just gave impression of being bored and just going through the motions. I diid find out later in one of those bbc4 documentaries that some members of the band were barely speaking to each other during that that European tour so possibly that was the problem rather than the sobreity.

I'd be fairly suprised if they didn't do a fretless. Sire seem to do a fretless model of just about everything in their range. For me it's one of the things that sets them apart from other makers of 'copy' basses and indeed many of the manufacturers that they're copying.

A lot of buskers these days seem to be using rechargeable powered speakers for everything from instruments to vocals. These are a couple of examples but there's a fair bit of choice at various price points. Googling 'busking PA' will bring up more options. https://share.google/kqa0QjH8gdsh9qpG9 https://share.google/kqa0QjH8gdsh9qpG9

Personally and with some personal experience I'd say the link between creativity and drugs is mostly nonsense. People with the creative spark have it whether they are taking substances or not. Just because in previous decades a lot of successful and creative bands were known to take drugs it does not mean that that the drugs made them succesful and creative, it's just a classic example of correlation does not equal causation. Although the myth that drugs were responsible for the creativity probably encouraged more musicians to experiment to see if they could unlock some sort of hidden potential. In fact generally when you look more closely at the history of a lot of these bands the excessive lifestyles were far more disruptive than they were positives for the careers concerned and in many cases were directly responsible for bands either breaking up or members being sacked or, in the worst cases, band members not living to make more music.

That F10DC is a huge aesthetic imorovement on their previous Fodera type single cut. Looks nicer than an actual Fodera.

Probably my favourite guitar shape of all time.

I like Davey and Charles in smallish doses. Davey seems to try to give off the impression that he has almost mystical abilities that make everything he does effortless, although it's clear to anyone familiar with the instrument that there's thousands of hours of practice behind his skills. Charles makes no secret of his extensive musical education and I'm happy for him that he's found a way to make a living from it. Sapko is a different beast, whilst he's clearly a very good player, his social media stuff has more of a stand up comedy vibe,he's trying to provoke a reaction with what he says rather than impress people with his playing. I've warmed to himin the last few months, but it's no suprise that he winds some people up.

Can't fault his playing or arrangement but there's something about his tone there that I actually find quite unpleasant. Might be a product of listening through phone speakers but the treble frequencies are really quite harsh to my ears.

Another vote for DR. I went on a similar quest a few years ago, trying a different brand of round wounds every month. The brightest, zingiest strings I found were DR Hi Beams. The most disapointing were Dunlop Super Brights, they were medium bright at best . By the way, it pays to shop around for DRs there can be a £20+ difference in price between different outlets for the same strings.

I can't imagine Paul McCartney would want to be spending his time & money trying to save a failing business at this point in his life.

Worth remembering that there's another side to Hofner's business making classical stringed instruments that I imagine most of us here know very little about. Who knows which part or parts ofthe business are actually failing?

I wonder if the McCartney association is as much of a curse as a blessing for the violin bass. In the same way that some people are put off by signature models because they don't want people to think that they are trying to emulate that player. And the association between McCartney and violin basses is very strong indeed, to the point where it's one of the few models where non playing audience members might actually recognise it and think of it as the 'Beatles Bass'. Obviously McCartney is a great player, but not everyone wants their playing to be associated with or compared to someone else.

Just seen a clip of British Lion and it looks like 'arry's got either a new bass or a new refin, (or at least one I've not seen him with before) but it's not the 50th Anniversary job.

I can't remember the exact story but I'm pretty sure Mohini Dey's dad was a pro musician and she started learning music and theory very young. There's no doubt she's a top tier player, one of those you could drop in any situation from a pub level covers band to an all star jazz ensemble and she'd be completely comfortable. She does have a tendency to post short clips of very fast highly technical solos up on her social media which can sound pretty unmusical to the casual listener (and I count myself in that group) especially out of context of the rest of the song, which I guess makes her an easy target for 'She's talented but would you want to listen to it' type criticism.

Best of luck with it, great to see a new venue opening.

The intro argument is just for the video, the streaming versions go straight into the song.

I'm neved sure how real any of these influencer on influencer spats are. Reminds me of the Twitter 'beefs' of around a decade ago where celebs would insult each other on social media with the result of all parties getting some free publicity from the inevitable ensuing media attention. I'm not suggesting it's that cynical in this case but I doubt either Mohini Dey or Danny Sapko is too devasted at the thought of all the potential new content they might generate from their 'conflict'.

I had a girlfriend who had one of the Vester Warwicks in a transluscent green colour, must have been around 2000. I was really taken with it with it, probably one of the first really impressive budget instruments I ever played, before that kind of quality became the norm for cheaper basses.

Went for $40k, according to this slightly click baity article from No Treble. https://share.google/qK6FugI3ZeKrNJ9PZ

He just turned up on my Instagram feed doing this. Colour me impressed.

Andertons have the Dave Murray Custom Shop 50th anniversary sig for around £10k, makes the MiM look like a snip.. I did wonder if there might be an eqivalent Steve Harris model, but no sign of it yet.

I know Steve's had a few resprays over the years, maybe his No 1 will be black by the time the next leg of the Maiden tour kicks off? Personally I always think of him with the blue/gold version but I guess that reflects the era I got into Maiden, for older fans it will be the checkerboard finish and for the newer ones the West Ham edition.