Cato

Wouldn't a keytar have the significant advantage of keeping the keys player's left hand away from the bass notes, compared to a regular keyboard?

Ring the guy up and ask him when the jobs will be done. If you're not happy with his answer go pick up your stuff up and refuse to give him any payment. If he goes over his deadline go and pick your stuff up and refuse to give him any payment.

The whole original ethos behind all Leo Fenders guitar and basses was good quality but relatively affordable mass produced factory built instruments. No matter how much Fender claim that the Custom Shop signature range are 'authentic reproductions ' they're actually a long way from what Leo originally had in mind for the brand.

None of the HMV stores round these parts survived the first round of administration. They all went 'full Woolworths ' even selling off the shelves and racks as well as the CDs and DVDs.

I'm leaning towards the HX at the moment because I don't think I need the amp/cab sims, but I won't be buying before the middle of January.

Zoom B1on + headphones = happy neighbours. Comes with with preset drum patterns, it won't give you as many options as a full on drum machine, but it does the job. The effects patches can be a lot of fun too.

Just off to do some trawling. Not that I can afford to spend anymore money on gear right now, well not if I get the Helix I've been gassing for...

I really want this guitar. Not one that looks a bit like it. This exact guitar.

i'm with the others, my money's on the trem. The standard Fender Strat style trem is an intrinsically flawed design. It might be worth adding an extra spring or two to see if that stabilizes things before resorting to blocking it off completely. Outside bet on knackered strings.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the guys who played on the original records were busking it to some extent. Maybe not the main body of the bassline but a lot of the fills and flourishes were probably improvised. Obviously people expect the lines to be close to the originals but unless they're all fanatical purists I reckon there's room for a bit of flexibility and improvisation as well.

Do these vibration devices not drastically increase the chances of inadvertently discovering the legendary Brown Note?

A few years ago I was at a stag do at a beer festival in darkest Herefordshire. One of the bands did a 2 pint version of Red House. Everybody in the group finished their current pints, queued for the bar and came back to drink most of their next beer before the song ended. It must have been well over 30 minutes long.

For years I assumed that Kylie couldn't really sing, based on the fact that her vocal tracks always sound quite heavily processed. Then a few years back I heard her do a stripped back 'unplugged' performance (might have been on Radio 1's live lounge) and it actually turns out she has a pretty decent natural voice and can carry a tune, well her tunes anyway.

Frank Bello and Dave Ellefson were big influences on me when I first started playing. My music tastes have changed a lot in the intervening years but I'm tempted to check this project out. I'm also quite impressed by Frank's vocals.

The guys got monstrous skills but I can't see why anyone would think that bassline would be 'impossible'. There's clearly a lot to remember and a couple of very fast sections, but I didn't see anything that technically difficult in there. I don't see why the 'start as slow as you need then gradually increase the BPM on the metronome/drum machine' technique wouldn't work here.

I reckon as long as you put the looper through the effects loop (assuming the amp has one) rather than in front of the input then it should reproduce the tone/colour of the amp more or less perfectly rather than adding any colour of it's own.

I used to be a huge Maiden fan but I have to concede that 'dum diddle um diddle um' is a pretty accurate description of a lot of their material. It's practically their signature sound.

I think both can work. If your researching a particular product it's definitely more constructive to watch several shortish reviews and demos than a couple of long ones. At the other scale there's the hugely popular Andertons TV reviews which can often be 40 minutes +, although I tend to think of Andertons as the 'Top Gear' of guitars in that I watch it more for general entertainment than because I'm actually interested in whatever products they are showcasing.

The usual really. World peace. The end of poverty and inequality. For all humanity to be immune to every disease. Just kidding, I want a p bass with flats.

I did think I was sorted for bass stuff for the immediate future, but I've recently experienced an almost undeniable impulse to get a P bass just so I can have one bass permanently fitted with flats. Seems like a perfectly sensible and rational idea when I read that back.

A skype lessson with Carol Kaye (assuming they are taken by the lady herself) would be something a bit special. https://shop.carolkaye.com/product/skype-guitar-or-bass-private-lesson/

I saw an electric piano/drum duo at the Jam House in Birmingham a few months back where I think the pianist had assigned a bass guitar patch to the lower keys. I hate to admit it, but it sounded pretty damned good.

The surprise fuzz bass elevates an otherwise pretty generic ,forgettable tune. As mentioned above there have got to be possibilities for sampling that bass and using it for purposes which could never have been foreseen back in 1961.

Sounds like you've got it covered. You can never go wrong by trying out as much gear as possible.

Have you tried many basses yet? The average Jazz neck is still a fair bit chunkier than any guitar neck I've ever played. It might also be worth looking at PJ basses, you get at least as much versatility as the Jazz configuration and it would broaden the number potential candidates a fair bit. I don't really have much experience with dual humbuckers but I imagine they also give a lot of options. Finally, if it's versatility and flexibility you're after then you might want to consider instruments with an active preamp, especially those with an option to switch the bass to passive.