skankdelvar

Hi Max - welcome to the Forum Hope you enjoy it here - just don't let your sister see any of the drummer 'jokes'

Hi FlatEric - welcome Sounds like you've got a interesting stash of gear - post some pics sometime in Gear Porn? Good to have another grizzled veteran ([i]if I may be so bold[/i]) with us. [quote]I look forward to learning more about this site[/quote] All you need to know is that 'Off Topic' is where the really naughty boys hang out All power to your low end thump Skank

Hi entropicp - welcome - and hope you enjoy BC

Hi Charles, hope you enjoy it here

Hi V4lve - welcome to the Forum. In describing yourself, you've listed a number of characteristics - which in one way or another are shared by a large number of people here - except maybe the Klezma - that's a bit more unusual! Hope you enjoy yourself here. Skank

Welcome to the forum, ebbingtide Hope you find what you're looking for!

[quote name='Starless' post='568490' date='Aug 13 2009, 10:49 PM']And what is it with these people (eech..sounding like a stand-up comedian now) who fit brass nuts (no monkey jokes now) to their basses? "Oooh... listen... great sustain...", these poor sods play nothing but open strings all night?[/quote] When people first started fitting them in the 70's-80's, the original rationale was sustain + "gives you a similar tone to when you fret against a metal fret, thus 'balancing' your sound" - presumably as opposed to the tonally "dampening" characteristics of a bone or plastic nut. My P came to me with a brass nut and, being a lazy-a**e b*st**d, I've never bothered to take it off. In A/B testing with other, conventionally 'nutted' P's, it seems to make little or no difference. More Voodoo from guitar parts suppliers, I reckon. Though YMMV, of course.

[quote name='Rich' post='569177' date='Aug 14 2009, 04:06 PM']What, as in "Can I have more clarity/upper mids/2k on the baritone in the monitors please?"..? [/quote] "Is that Italian Tony? Can I have 2k on The Baritone in the 2:30 at Haydock Park?"

Or you could do it yourself for about £40-50 odd, primer, colour + clear finish. This guy sells the right lacquer: [url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/lacquer.html"]http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/lacquer.html[/url] made by these guys: [url="http://www.reranch.com/"]http://www.reranch.com/[/url] Lots of hints and tips.

Actually, the real genius is the 60,000+ year old hunter who invented the bow, then realised it made a nice sound if you plucked it. Then the b*stard invented Jazz and spoiled it all for the rest of us.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='566559' date='Aug 12 2009, 10:09 AM']I see my response as balance for the over-glorification of Leo Fender. His bass was an adequate starting point for the music of its time. What depresses me is that over 50 years later on people are still putting up with and copying what should be long out-moded designs. To use your car analogy, it's as if most people were still driving Model-Ts today.[/quote] This is an issue worthy of its own thread. There's a general, possibly faulty, assumption that time [i]should[/i] bring significant, beneficial changes. It's also often assumed that, by virtue of its antiquity, whatever went before must be outmoded. In this instance, the products seem [i]not [/i]to be outmoded, as evidenced by the current, market-leading positions of Leo's designs. Markets are driven by demand, and if the bass guitar is stuck in a time-warp, we have only ourselves to blame. That said, I agree that one might reasonably expect greater changes than have occurred. That they haven't suggests that - for this particular approach to delivering low-frequency notes - Leo got it more or less right first time. Also, given that he got out of the mainstream in 1965, I think we'd agree that he can't be blamed for the failure of others to carry forward the torch of innovation on a mass basis. Or for the bass-playing community's general failure to embrace innovative approaches. Thinking more broadly, I suppose one could draw an analogy with the hammer. Subject to variations for specialist use, the basic form of the hammer hasn't changed much in the last few hundred years, because it does the job more or less right. Where innovations have occurred, they've rendered the classic form of the hammer obsolete for particular tasks - e.g. the nail-gun. Perhaps the plucked string approach is obsolete. Maybe we need to rethink the means by which we deliver low frequency notes - such as sensor pads woven into our clothing or embedded in the palms of our hands. Or neurally-wired.

[quote name='bythesea' post='566050' date='Aug 11 2009, 05:03 PM']This wouldn't be connected to "London Pro Audio Centre" would it? Website suggests you contact the store owner for info - andy@Lo...[/quote] Nah - t'was 'Andy's Guitars'. Dunno about this other lot... As regards Denmark St in general, it's fun for a browse, but Caveat Emptor on the 'Vintage' stuff. The only vaguely honest trader I encountered was one of the blokes at Angel, who was usually prepared to highlight any issues with an instrument. But, of course, YMMV.

[quote name='Protium' post='566164' date='Aug 11 2009, 07:34 PM']True, who knows what we might be playing now if his ideas had taken off [/quote] Tutmarks. As in :"B*gger, I've got Tutmarks all over my new underpants".

[quote name='Clarky' post='565465' date='Aug 10 2009, 10:04 PM']...I learned that the dep from the Birmingham gig hadn't learned our songs and missed most of his cues so that it was genuinely a mess. The other two complimented me on my playing tonight [/quote] The deep, chocolate-y taste of satisfaction.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='565596' date='Aug 11 2009, 12:43 AM']It's not called Andy's anymore. Andrew John Preston went bankrupt owing lots of people money - including me for an amp he sold and never gave me the money for. He managed to keep his vintage Rolls Royce though [/quote] Pulled a similar flanker on a mate of mine with a Guild. Months of "Oh, it's not sold yet". So one day, my mate phones them from round the corner. Same answer as usual. So he walks straight in and asks for it back. No guitar, it was clearly sold months before. Big stink. He never actually ripped me off, but I found him to be a patronising little weasel. Now we know where he is, let's hire a minibus, go round and beat his arse like a gong.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='565673' date='Aug 11 2009, 09:34 AM']If he had learnt how to play maybe he'd have created a better instrument, or at least understood how it need to develop as the music that it was being used for developed and progressed. I'm thankful that nowadays there are an abundance of bass guitar manufacturers and luthiers who have developed the instrument so those of us who require something more now have access to suitable instruments.[/quote] Over 25 years or so, Leo was responsible for the development of the fretted electric bass, the 5-string bass, the 6-string bass / baritone, the idea of dedicated bass amplifiers, individual bass, mid and treble EQ for amps, the 'presence' control, the 'amp stack', individually intonate-able bridge saddles, the popularisation of active electronics, the in-line headstock, the 3 over 1 headstock, and custom colours. He also established a scale length from which few have deviated. It was his ultimate decision to tune his electric bass EADG. Much of this was achieved when Fender was a small, 'family' business, rather than the behemoth we know today. Finally, he designed all the plant machinery that enabled him to mass-produce the instruments and amps. A good example is the multi-bladed machine that cuts all the fret slots in one pass. I'm genuinely a bit stuck to think of anything more significant that modern mfrs and luthiers have brought to the table, other than possibly debatable design enhancements (such as the hi-mass bridge) and cosmetic embellishments. Happy to be corrected As for Leo being a 'control freak' - everything I've read suggests the opposite. If anything, he was a disorganised, mad inventor, never happier than when tinkering with his products and coming up with new - saleable - ideas. He was logistically unstructured. Leo recognised his limitations and surrounded himself with a team of complementary individuals such as Doc Kaufman, Freddie Tavares, George Fullerton, Forrest White and Don Randall, all of whom acknowledged that he gave them full credit for their efforts. It was successful teamwork, and Leo led the team. As the company got bigger and more succesfull, Leo became progressively less happy. After a health scare, he sold out to CBS. Though he could simply have retired on a sizeable stash, he left Fender and went diligently to work at his bench, first at Musicman, then at G&L, until the week before he died. He was, by all accounts, a modest, quiet likeable man. He was in it for the manufacturing and selling of ideas, and it's for that we're saluting him. Sadly, the date seems to have passed Fender by. Couldn't find a mention on their web site

Until you're established, very few promoters will ever call you back. Once they've got your details, they'll mostly just sit on them. Unfortunately, the only way to kick them over the edge is to keep chiselling away at them. If you've got a phone number, you just have to keep calling. If the only means of contact is a myspace page or a mail address, things become a bit more difficult, but not totally impossible. Repeated contact is the only way you're going to break through and register on their radar.

RIP Clarence Leonidas Fender. Now building amps for God.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='564776' date='Aug 10 2009, 10:59 AM']...we're stricly only doing gigs where we know for a fact we will play to more than 20 odd people, where we know we'll get paid (even just for petrol) and where we know we can have a good night (IE stay over or leave the gear over night or basically not have to drive)[/quote] Crikey! We could all do with some of those. Any chance of a list?

Welcome Matt - hope you enjoy the forum BTW - Don't worry - Speling erros and pore gramma are very commun on this froum.

This needs merging with the other Bass Cellar thread - or putting out of its misery

[quote name='Gust0o' post='564887' date='Aug 10 2009, 12:55 PM']Which is why this is so disappointing. I would be inclined to aim Bass Cellar at this thread. Someone there needs to see it.[/quote] By strange coincidence, I think they did, recently... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=25829&view=findpost&p=563866"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&sho...st&p=563866[/url]

+1 on the course. A dodgy guitar won't kill you, but a dodgy amp might

Brilliant! Glad you had such a good time. Norwegian, eh? We've got one of those in our village. BTW, in the pix, you look the [i]absolute epitome [/i]of the grizzled, road-warrior bass player - "Well, it's like Gene Vincent said to me one time..." Clearly, you were born to gig.