skankdelvar

[quote name='flyfisher' post='1070674' date='Dec 28 2010, 12:09 AM']Besides, what IS the justification for needing a licence to have a radio in the office or factory when the broadcasters are, presumably, already paying the thick end of a very large wedge already? This seems like the usual music industry trick of getting the mug-punters to pay more than once for their music.[/quote] When I worked in radio I had plenty of opportunities to observe the PRS at work. Their monitoring procedures were scrupulous to the point of microscopicity. Which should please musos everywhere. And their demeanour was entirely cordial and helpful. PRS levies are not particularly exorbitant compared to the other overheads necessary to run a broadcasting operation. They are regarded by most broadcasters as being quite reasonable. And, as I'm sure you know, UK terrestrial radio is free-to-air. It costs the mug-punters [i]nothing[/i] beyond the initial cost of their radio and their TV license - the funds from which support the BBC. It is probable that shopkeepers include their PRS license in their overhead budget. Much as they do the cost of heating, light etc. Research has proven that in-store music "enhances the retail experience". Anyone who plays music in their premises - be they the mighty Tesco or old Mr Bun the baker - flogs more product. Why should they evade remunerating the musicians who have contributed to their incrementally greater success? In the (very) old days, musicians objected to the fact that they were effectively being ripped off. The PRS was the answer to that and its objectives are wholly laudable. It seems to be the view of a minority that - based on a few bizarre niggles out of countless transactions - the PRS is a bad thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the musician's friend. Some may disagree. I challenge them to present a viable alternative. [quote name='Johnston' post='1070766' date='Dec 28 2010, 09:41 AM']If it wasn't for the [b]illegal [/b]actions of the pirate radio stations we likely wouldn't have had the British music boom of the 60's and the industry in the UK could have turned out much different. And now 50 years on how often do you hear anyone complain about them??[/quote] Being an awful pedant, I must point out that between March 1964 when Caroline went on-air and August 1967, the pirates weren't actually illegal. They exploited an 'International Waters' loophole that was closed by the 'Marine & Etc. Broadcasting Offences Act' of 1967. At which point they became illegal. Who was the jack-booted authoritarian who introduced the Act? Step forward cuddly old freedom fighter Tony Benn. I've known a few of the guys who - as they put it - "Worked on the boats". Gentleman drinkers and dreadful old roues to a man.

[quote name='agoulding' post='1069720' date='Dec 26 2010, 06:10 PM']That was until greg james passed me a bottle of glenlivet backstage...[/quote] Living the Rock & Roll dream, Alex! Glad it's all going so well for yer sis

Hook yourself a s/h Jazz out the BassChat 'Basses for sale' section. Have a mess around with different blends of pick-up volume / tone roll-off. You should find a nice workable tone. If you don't get a result, you can move the bass on for pretty much what you paid for it.

Entirely feasible to use drum machines / software drums / pre-recorded audio, though some purists have been known to turn their noses up at the practice. If you've already got a lappy, then there's any number of packages out there - just google "software drums". Obviously one limits one's ability to extemporise within the song. On the few occasions I've gone this route I dumped the software drums output to an mp3 and took a little player to the pub. Less to go wrong or get nicked.

Interesting wiki-bit here: [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_pitch"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_pitch[/url] Love the bit where Johann Christian Bach (son of the more celebrated JS Bach) who, on being questioned by the Crown Prince of Saxony about which pitch he favours, replies "Do what you ****ing like, see if I care, I've had it with all this b******s".

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1068024' date='Dec 23 2010, 05:54 PM']And when complicated chords "****ed up a whole generation"m do you means 'taught them to play jazz' or 'forced them to play punk'?[/quote] I mean 20,000,000 beginner guitarists trying to play the Day Tripper riff in a closed position starting somewhere horrible. They all gave up and binned their guitars, causing a shortage which led indirectly to the whole vintage market thing. Jazz was just an unfortunate side-effect. If anyone wants an example of 'good' downtuning, whack an acoustic 12-string down to C>C. Chimy, woody Doom.

Assuming everyone's tuned down half a step, it's likely they're fingering exactly the same chord shapes as before. So, knowing guitarists, they'll say the song's in G because that's the "shape" they're playing. Even though it's actually in F#. Easier to do than to explain, TBH. Basically, tune down one and pretend it's still EADG. [quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1067925' date='Dec 23 2010, 04:41 PM']Guitarists do this because they heard SRV and Hendrix did it.[/quote] As did the Beatles. In those days, the sheet music publishers would send a vinyl record over to some old Bob who'd fire up his Dansette, listen along, light a fag and hammer it out on a piano tuned to concert. All the keys would thus be transcribed as flats or sharps, hence the 'spaghetti fingers' chord boxes in the early Beatles 'Easy Guitar' transcriptions. Which ****ed up a whole generation.

And a very Merry Christmas back at you

[quote name='Bass_Guardian' post='1066367' date='Dec 22 2010, 02:15 AM']One other thing is that I pretty much don't know any other musicians my age.[/quote] Not a problem. Age ranges can vary in bands - some are all within a year or two of each other. Others have 25 year spreads. And don't expect to find everyone all at the same time. Getting people together is always an incremental process. First you find - say - a guitarist, who knows a singer. Coupla months later you trip over a keys player and so on. Often it's good to work with a cut-down / incomplete band - gives you a chance to hear what's going on and spread your wings a bit. [quote name='Bass_Guardian' post='1066367' date='Dec 22 2010, 02:15 AM']I never did music at school[/quote] Don't worry - neither did most of us. In my case, they wouldn't even let me play the triangle. [quote name='Bass_Guardian' post='1066367' date='Dec 22 2010, 02:15 AM']plus I'm shy when put on the spot like if I had to do an audition.[/quote] Yep, audition nerves. It's part of the process and we all get a bit nervous, though some hide it better than others. Ther's been a few threads on this, IIRC. Just ease into the whole band thing. Set yourself some small, achievable goals - "I'll sit down with someone else and we'll just bash around some chord changes for a couple of hours." Don't aim to have 3 x 45 min sets sorted within a month. That way lies madness. [quote name='Bass_Guardian' post='1066367' date='Dec 22 2010, 02:15 AM']Also Irvine ( where I stay ) doesn't do jam nights as far as I know.[/quote] Can't help you there. Check out the muso websites, stick some ads of your own up and keep plugging yourself. Sooner or later, something will turn up. And if it's not right for you, chalk it up to experience and try again. It's pretty much the same for all of us, so share your questions / experiences with your fellow BC-er's. We're here to help. Remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question.

Couple of ways of looking at this: * Yes - there are people out there who enjoy getting together on a regular basis with no intention of gigging and no, it's not a daft idea. Give it a go. * If you're jamming one night a week, after a while you might discover you've got enough songs to do 30-45 mins. So you maybe do a quiet little one-off gig for some friends on the same night of the week you normally rehearse, but only if you feel like doing it. * Lots of people only want to devote an evening a week / fortnight to a band - whether it's jamming or gigging. You're in good company. And, in truth, lots of bands never get out of the rehearsal studio anyway, no matter how much they want to gig

In one covers band, The Frontman regularly used to introduce me and the drummer as "Our rhythm section 'The Symbolics'. That one's Sym and the other one's Bolics." Well, he did until I punched him in the back of the neck. Put me down for "I Play Bass".

At this point, may I congratulate everyone for avoiding the use of the phrase "dial in".

[quote name='ped' post='1060780' date='Dec 16 2010, 05:25 PM']NO HIPPIES ON BASSCHAT[/quote] Too late. We're everywhere.

There's a mob called Anniversary (dreadful name) who chop out quite a nice-looking little Faker. [url="http://www.expressmusicstore.co.uk/products.asp?code=80606"]http://www.expressmusicstore.co.uk/products.asp?code=80606[/url] Bloke in Leicester's unloading one for £200 s'hand [url="http://buy.vivastreet.co.uk/instruments+barwell-le9/anniversary-bass-with-gps-case----anbacker-style/30258988"]http://buy.vivastreet.co.uk/instruments+ba...-style/30258988[/url] for more pix. Bridge p'up assembly looks a bit squint, though it could be my eyes...

I like [i]everything [/i]about this video. Mr Rigoni (a brother BassChatter) is much to be congratulated.

Priceless.

Joan Osborne - What if God was one of us Divinyls - I touch myself (Ooo-er)

Me? Two basses. One transmitter clipped to belt. Unplug transmitter, swap basses, plug transmitter back in. But I take your point. IMO, strap locks would probably slow you down, particularly with sweaty fingers. Maybe just use normal strap buttons and avoid any jiggy-jiggy butt sashaying.

YMMV, but here's what I do: * Heaviest, largest pick possible. The old Gibson heavy triangular with curved edges. Thinner picks seem to add too much 'click' for me. And they break quicker. * Pick held between thumb and first two fingers, with embossed logo facing the thumb for a bit of adhesion. Or I rough up one face with a bit of sandpaper. * Grip varies. Loose for softer or faster passages, tight for harder / driving. * Force of attack varied to suit quieter, louder, etc. Dynamics come from the wrist. Or the elbow if you're Dee Dee Ramone. * Action high enough to hit the strings hard without buzz. * Tone: As one would expect, I pick nearer the bridge for punch / clank, nearer the neck for 'round' * 'Edge of the palm' muting puts my right hand over the saddles, so I use a fair bit of left hand muting if I'm picking up near the neck * If required, I switch from pick to fingers in the same song by palming the pick and using my first two fingers. Worth practicing this one.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1052329' date='Dec 9 2010, 02:13 AM'][size=1]Got a review "I know what you're thinking - that bloke in the picture doesn't look much like either of The Plan's vocalists, Tom Crabb or Andrew Keech. That's because neither of them were actually present, for some reason or another. So rather than bail altogether, bassist Wayne Tully and drummer Ben Gower hastily recruited Captain Bastard and the Scallywags' resident mandolin player Jordan Harris (pictured) as makeshift frontman, renamed themselves Mexican Wave (6.5/10), and proceeded to belt out a set of various Nirvana and Green Day covers with varying degrees of success. Of course, mistakes and technical sloppiness in these circumstances are about as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning and politicians lying to save face, so we wound up hearing the same verse to 'Longview' repeated 3 times (in fact, most bands have a problem with that song - Dr Goon brutally buttf***ed it, and even The Submission struggled with the lyrics), and 'When I Come Around' clunked badly at times, but all things considered, the group actually did pretty well. [size=5]Wayne's slick bass playing [/size]and Ben's driving beats formed a strong backbone when they fire together, just as they do on a regular basis with The Plan, while Harris brought an energetic delivery and barked vocals to the party. The Nirvana covers in particular went down very well, and as they ended on another Green Day cover, the criminally underrated 'Burnout', there was a sense that the trio might have stumbled on a combination that has potential to work if it's actually formed into a proper band. It'll be interesting to see if they decide to progress with the idea."[/size][/quote] Edited for skim readers. Nice work, Sir.

[quote name='thunderbird13' post='1052531' date='Dec 9 2010, 10:55 AM']Ok its a fair cop. I'll confess its a Jethro Tull tribute band [/quote] Now [i]that [/i]would be cool. "The Minstrel INNN the gall-er-eeeeeeee" I suppose it all comes down to what they mean by 'Jam'. If they mean it in the old-fashioned "Let's go round G, D and Am for 20 mins", you're laughing. If they mean "Let's run through 30 intricately arranged pop classics complete with dead stops and trick endings, all played in non-original flat / sharp keys to suit the singer", it's going to be a long old night. Perhaps they might care to clarify. Either way, have a lovely time.

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='1051771' date='Dec 8 2010, 03:14 PM']I await your comments with interests.[/quote] Your ad is spot on and well-crafted. In terms of howlers, I was thinking more of this sort of guff: "WHY CANT I FIND ANY SICKASS m*****f***erS 2 PLAY MY SONGS ARE YOU ALL f***ing LOSERS? I AM PLYAING 10 YEARS AND WTF? EVERY BAND i IN BREAK UP. WHAT'S THERE f***ing PROBLEM? TOTALLY ORIGNAL SNGS SOUND LIKE FOO FITERS, LADY GAGA, MTALICCA, C LOW GREENE. WORLD TOUR PLANNED MNAGEMNT READY. NEED DRUMS, BASE, 1ST GUTIAR, 2ND GUTIAR, PIANNO. NO f***ing TIMEWASTERS - R U REDY 2 ROCK?"

Frankly, they're all a bit hit and miss when it comes to generating a response to a specific proposition. On the whole they're most useful for howler "How not to do it" ads. And Musofinder seems to keep posts up for years - very little turnover afaics. If I'm on the hunt for personnel, I stick ads everywhere - online, guitar shops, rehearsal complexes, etc.

Bruce Thomas with Costello. Fluent, driving, clever. Best pop / rock bassline ever.

The general varispeeded out-of-tuneness of JJF is further compounded by: * Some of the guitars being slightly out of tune with each other anyway * One of them being open tuned where all the strings are either B or F#. This causes some interesting clashes on certain chords. That said, it's a gorgeous chimy slab of murk and I wouldn't have it any other way