skankdelvar

John Aubrey It's funny that you should mention the celebrated 17th century antiquarian and folklorist John Aubrey, a former resident of Broad Chalke (the next village along the valley from mine). Only the other day I was in the village shop buying some Mr Kipling Bakewell tarts (at a scandalous price but that's how village shops are, I suppose) and the old chap behind the counter was relating a local, oral legend about how Aubrey would alarm local damozels by springing out from behind a tree and waggling his diminutive todger at them while singing the ancient local folk song 'Hey Down, Derry Down, My Manhood's On The Rise'.

Thinking about this I realised that - with at least three members aged 22 - they're possibly older than the Zeppelin were when the latter first formed in July 1968 Page was 24, Jones was 22, Bonham was 20 and Plant was just 19. Quite amazing, really.

Like this: Dunno, still prefer the agricultural angle-iron approach involved in fitting a B70. On an Explorer? Perhaps the neatest wang-bar for a V is the short Maestro / Vibrola: On an Explorer not so nice:

The V2 was the companion model to the E2 I used to own - Gibson released them as a matching set and I suppose someone must have bought a pair of them to throw on a bonfire put in a bank vault. I thought the v-shaped pick-ups were remarkably ugly. Funny thing: my E2 was like a boat anchor. Tried a V2 one time and it was feather-light by comparison. Anyhow: Bigsbys on Vees à la Lonnie Mack. I like them in part because most people think it's an abominable notion. Gibson put out a sig Lonnie Mack model in 1994. Yum:

Of course, the other option is to burn the studio down and everything in it. Perfect excuse that covers all eventualities.

Though it would be understandably satisfying to point at these guys and make a loud raspberry noise it might be more diplomatic explain that you'd be very happy to lend them the gear but unfortunately the amp's been playing up so it's going down the mender's and you'll be needing the bass as a shovel in case it snows.

I kinda meant there's not much new Classic Rock around atm (though Greta Van Fleet are making waves, I s'pose). Certainly not as much as in the golden age 60's-80's Sure, there's a thriving metal thing out there but I don't think it really fits with the Planet Rock 'familiar classic rock' format afaics, except perhaps as something they'd maybe drop in occasionally.

Song repetition is an issue faced by all radio stations but particularly by era-based genre stations like Planet Rock (and Classic FM, for another) who face a bit of a problem when it comes to new material. There's not much of it being made anymore, hence there's a smaller pool of new material to fish in. This forces the station back on to older material which is prioritised according to familiarity, historic sales, etc. On normal radio stations like Capital the new music would be played more often than the old stuff. On genre stations like Planet Rock the reverse is the case. If you've got a limited amount of new material it becomes more difficult to ensure a reasonable degree of separation between plays of the older tracks. Assuming that you've got 45 minutes of music in the hour, that's 2520 plays over a week. If you've got a library of about 600 songs that would be approximately 4 plays a week on average. But you don't rotate everything evenly; some songs might only be played once a week, whereas others might be played twice a day. Ideally the music scheduling software should rotate these more heavily-played songs around the clock to avoid repetition to audiences who listen at particular times. Unfortunately, it seems that no one has yet solved the problem whereby the rotation algorithms, if let un-managed, seem to end up clumping songs into repetitive patterns. For some weeks last year Classic FM played the New World Symphony nearly every night between 22:00 and 23:00. No one on the station seemed to notice. Likewise, it sounded like they started the weekday 22:00 hour with the Rodrigo five times in a month. So, less new music, a smaller music base and a lax approach to managing the rotations means we end up with threads like this.

The so-called 'Lawn Dart' (real lawn darts now banned in USA; should have applied to this guitar. You see, that's just silly. Back in the 80's I used to own an E2 Explorer like the one below. A sandwich of different 'exotic' woods, neck as wide as the M4 and someone had stuck an SD Jeff Beck in the bridge position. Totally woofy sound and weighed a ton. Flogged it on.

The law's been pretty clear about two tone sunbursts for the last 9 years or so. Here's a breakdown of what's legal and what isn't: The sentencing tariffs vary from community service (for a RW board P-Lyte) to a minimum 5 years custodial (for an unbound Ric 4000).

That ^ sparked a memory. One time this middle-aged drunk came up to me after a gig: "Yer a brilliant band, mate, play me birfday party, mate, give yer a grand for it, mate, but yer'll have to get shot of your singer first, mate, birfday party, give yer a grand, mate, I'll be the singer, mate". Just pitiful.

Frankly, there's some punters who should be required to take out public liability insurance. The most obnoxious drunk I encountered didn't need to drive because he lived about 200 yds from a working mens' club we used to play. He'd storm around in front of the stage apron (about chest height), screaming and shouting. Then he'd try to climb on stage, get halfway up, fall off and land on a table. This being a regular occurrence, we'd advise audience members to move their drinks as soon as he appeared. The great thing was, he'd manage to fall off the stage all on his own. I never once had to stand on his fingers.

The 2008 'Reverse Explorer' managed to combine a bastardised version of the Moderne headstock with a disastrous re-imagining of the body. You can just imagine someone at Gibson whose first name starts with the letter H thinking 'Oh, that looks really nice. We'll sell bucketloads.'

I think the slimmer waist and the sharper angle on the vestigial top cutaway makes for a more purposeful beast than the Explorer. Also, the whole thing looks more 1950's. As for an awkward headstock the mythical Moderne takes the biscuit, IMO. Look at those string paths...

Well, the good news is that you don't hate Tobacco Sunburst. You hate Three Tone Sunburst.

That Futura is as beautiful as a very beautiful thing* IMO, particularly when compared to its great-grand-nephew the 2014 Les Paul Futura. It's so bland it's bland. * apart from the obvious Y-headstock tuning issues

Various manufacturers offer 'silk and steel' strings including D'Addario and GHS. La Bella offer them in two gauges - medium and light Bloke here writes about silk and steel.

Never Miss Another Gig! Oh no! The car won't start! And there you were, just about to set off for a prestigious unpaid 'exposure' gig. What a disaster! Not if you're the proud owner of the Del Var Industries Emergency Bass Bike Kit! Simply attach the quality engineered front and rear wheel assemblies to your bass* with the bolts provided and you'll be pedaling off to fame and fortune! Impress your friends and baffle your enemies with the Del Var Industries Emergency Bass Bike Kit. Only £199.99 (exc VAT and Shipping) allow 28 months for delivery * May involve drilling and / or modification. Not recommended for use with vintage basses. Goldbrick Ltd (trading as Del Var Industries) accepts no liability for any injuries sustained during the use of this product or any loss consequent upon failing to acquire a record deal. E&OE.

To connect the UCA202 use the USB connector lead supplied with the device. The little end plugs into the UCA 202 and the larger, conventional USB connector plugs into a USB port on your PC. Here's what it looks like: Power up the UCA202, stick the little jack in the device and then the big connector into your PC's USB port. Hopefully your PC will recognise the device and install it. If a message comes up which says it can't find the driver you can either ask the PC to search online at Microsoft or (probably quicker) go to the Behringer website and see if there's a driver you can download. This may be in the 'support' section (if there is one). If you're out of luck there, try searching google for 'UCA202 driver'. This may produce a result. Once you've got the driver follow any installation instructions. Then reconnect the UCA202 and try again. The above may work or may - instead - cause you to hurl your PC out the window and retire to the library with a bottle of scotch and a revolver. Installing drivers is a bastard. If you haven't got the connector to hand, try contacting Behringer and see if they can supply you with a replacement.

You're in the middle of a gig, the crowd are roaring for more and your bass goes out of tune. You kick in your pedal tuner and ... nothing! It's borked. What to do? Simply ask the venue owner if you can use his landline phone. Pick the receiver up, crook it to your ear and tune to the dial tone - a combination of 440hz (A) and 350hz (near as dammit F). Because it's an interval either (or both) notes will do. And because you haven't dialled anyone this hack is totally free! Hey! Presto! You're back onstage and ripping the place up with your blazing licks.

A speaker cab laid on its back makes an attractive coffee table.

Well, up to a point (wobbles off on Zimmer frame to buy more incontinence pads).

I too have recently become aware of Greta Van Fleet. Yes, the singer's a bit Planty and the songs / arrangements are very Zep-esque. On the other hand, they're all about 22 years old and worryingly talented. Give them a year or two to further develop their sound and to write some more material, and they could be very big.

Once one gets past the spangly, hard core of Glam (Sweet, Slade, T.Rex, Suzi Quatro, Glitter etc) there's a handy pool of other acts which were around at the same time and which dipped into the make-up box. There's Slik, Kenny, David Essex, Cockney Rebel, The Rubettes, Roxy Music, Mott, Be Bop Deluxe, even.

A line of cocaine with a large Jack Daniel's chaser every 15 minutes between now and the gig. The cold will be the least of your worries