Doctor J

This is a nice clip too - from about 38 minutes in if the link doesn't work properly

His niceness was inverse to the effect of his alcoholism, which he did overcome. Not just in the tributes since yesterday, but there are lots of accounts of him being a very nice fella.

I liked Van Halen a lot. Hendrix had been and gone before I was born, Eddie is the guy who had moved the instrument on in a dramatic way during my lifetime. If you were into rock or metal in the 80's, Eddie was the big dog when it came to guitarists. The first bands I played in were filled with guys copying him directly, or copying the guys who were copying him. In that sense, it's someone who played a role in my lifetime who has died and, even though I didn't know him and never saw VH live, there is still a sense of loss.

They usually come across as a by-the-way-look-at-me thing, making it about the poster rather than the deceased. Whether the poster is bright or aware enough to realise that is an entirely different matter. It's all quite self-centred and tasteless, as seems to be the fashion of the times we live in, sadly.

As far as I'm aware, Elixirs are still the only string where the string is coated as a string, rather than the outer winding being coated and wrapped onto a string as all the others do. Elixir own the patent to coat the string. That makes Elixir the only coated string worth a damn. The rest are just marketing but don't offer the advantage of an actual coated string, which is to stop your bio-goo getting into the windings of the string which is what makes it sound dead, but you're paying more for it regardless.

He had part of his tongue removed due to cancer many years ago, but didn't stop smoking.

Brutal. What a gifted player.

You could use a slap-back echo. Pan the guitar one side, the echo to the other. Listen to Live at Leeds for a great example. Van Halen used to just pan Eddie to the left and let reverb fill the space. Edit -> As BigRedX says, keep the bass in the middle, along with the kick drum, snare and lead vocals.

That all sounds very promising, nice one.

If you're asking about Fender then generally yes. It's cheaper to CNC one shape and the cases for Jazz basses are universal, they fit both 4s and 5s the same.

Many decapited-then-repaired Gibsons would suggest so.

The Kubicki neck had lots of laminates, too

Just bought a preamp from Martyn, a flawless transaction as always. I'm a repeat customer and he's a great man to deal with.

I never really appreciated Lizzy until I subbed for a while in a mate's band who covered several of their songs. Then it all clicked. Yeah, the Black Rose album is something special, but the title track is utterly sublime, on a different level.

I have never had a bass which didn't sustain long enough for my needs, regardless of bridge or other unquantifiable magic items.

Have a look at some old Fenders for shonky neck pockets, yet nobody blinks an eye over paying ludicrous sums for them, regardless.

It's an Orion with the crown headstock and oval fretboard inlays.

Thanks Andy, I much prefer it, too. It's such as nice player, they really make very nice instruments.

I thought I had posted in this thread but it looks like I didn't. Here goes, then.

Orange body, maple fretboard, black hardware. Delicious.

What are you saying? Is there a better way?

So the neck stopped going... down, down? i'm so sorry.

They used to be a foooking machine, not the shambolic, disinterested, out-of-touch bunch of goons portrayed in that documentary. It's compulsive viewing. How did a band so, so good become so very, very bad? It beggars belief. I was a fan of theirs in the 80's when everything they did was immense and drifted away from them as the 90's dragged on. Even the band in the "Year and a half... documentaries are a unit. What they dissolve into over the following years is just staggering.

Gatalliga?

All downstrokes. Nice 😎