Cato

I'm also finding it difficult to answer this. I learnt by playing along to Ramones albums. I used to be able to play every song on every album up to and including Brain Drain and although I haven't tried it for 20 years I suspect I still can. That's close to 100 songs not counting all the other stuff I've learnt. None of which makes me a particularly outstanding player. I haven't cast a vote because I really don't know.

If you took a straw poll of people in the average UK street I'd bet the mortgage that very few will have heard of Rush. Yes would be recognised by a few more but using either band as a yardstick to measure global success is probably pushing it. If you were to ask people about the Beatles or Justin Bieber on the other hand...

I normally go for steel rounds but I was quite impressed with the stock Fender nickel plated rounds that came on a new p bass last year. I got about 6 months out of those and I like my strings zingy. Other than that I generally go for Hi Beams on everything except the fretless. Again I reckon they're good for 6 months or more before they lose their exceptional brightness. Someone who likes a less zingy sound would probably be good with them for a lot longer than that. I suppose an additional question would be 'At what point do you consider that your strings need changing?' There are people on here who play the flats they inherited from their great grandad.

Have you had a look at Dingwall or other multiscale basses?

They've overdone it in on the cheap prices. Just about everything is half the usual retail or far less. That immediately triggers the 'if something seems to good to be true...' alarm bells.

That has been 'reliced' via a couple of minor crashes.

Everyone loves a bit of ABBA.

Brilliant cheers. I never thought I'd end today gassing for two thirds of a Stratocaster.

I actually really like that. Is that photoshopped or is it something that someone has actually made? I'm rubbish at spotting the difference.

You lucky git.

I don't know what it is, but I want to stamp on it.

Satellites would have have been a good album from anyone who's previous effort hadn't been so exceptional, as it was I felt incredibly disappointed the first time I heard it. I tried to let it grow on me, but despite a couple of brilliant moments it never did. I will check out Wonderland on your recommendation though.

Absolutely.

I've always thought of 'August' as one of those rare perfect albums. There's not a weak song on it. It was impossible to follow up of course and in my opinion none of Counting Crow's subsequent recordings came close.

That sounds like something worth hearing at least once. To be fair it's a role I know nothing about but I'm guessing that all orchestral triangle players are skilled in other percussion type instruments which they use in that orchestra?

Did he drop it down a flight of concrete steps?

Yep 70s aesthetics combined with top end electrics and build quality. If I was speccing a custom bass it would be just about identical to one of these.

I was browsing Bass Direct earlier and came across this. http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Atelier_Z.html If I had a spare £2000 my order would already be in.

Above and beyond the call of duty. Every string I've ever broken has been entirely down to my own ham fistedness. Apart from that one time the the E broke whilst the bass was leaning against the wall. I think it had probably just had enough of my abuse and decided it wanted out.

He's a better player than I'll ever be, but I'll never like his ripped speaker tone.

From a bass playing perspective that's the easiest bit. Although in my first band when I was about 16 that's exactly what we did. Our lead guitarist could barely handle the intro, he couldn't get close to the main solo.

The intro bit sounds great but isn't that difficult, it's probably the only slightly fiddly bit that you need to master for the song to sound right. There's a lot of variation in the fills on the verses and choruses, if I had to learn it in a hurry I think those are the bits I'd simplify. Once the song key changes for the main guitar solo and end bit it's really just root notes. There are a lot of tutorials on Youtube, the frilly bits sound great but there's nothing that technically difficult in there, you may well find that you can actually master the whole song as played on the original recording in a couple of hours.

I really like the looks and spec of these Atelier Jazzes.

Isn't the SCR6 Ibanez's take on a Fender bass vi style guitar? I think you'll struggle to find a commercially produced 4 string with string spacing that narrow, taking 2 strings off might be your only option without commissioning a custom build.

If I was there (which I definitely won't be) I'd also be going to see The Wombats, a trio of cheeky Liverpudlians who have enthusiastically joined the UK 80s Indie/New Romantic revival.