Doctor J

Indeed 😂 Please excuse me, I'm off to let everyone know where Chelsea United went wrong on Saturday in the FA World Championship Final

It's gas to see so many who dismiss it as a joke, avoid it, don't like it and haven't listened to the music, still weighing in with their insightful interpretation of the event they didn't watch, simmering with outrage at how unfair it all is 😂 The voting, Ukraine aside, was, if anything, less geographically motivated than usual and certainly anything but political. The UK won the jury voting, Ukraine came fourth, behind Spain and Sweden. The juries consist of music industry types and musicians. If there was a grand political vote at play, surely it would be seen in the public voting? However, the UK came 5th in the public vote, even behind Serbia, whose stance on the Ukraine invasion is, at best, lamentable. Boris and Truss have made a lot of noise recent weeks but the UK's reluctance to take in refugees has not been forgotten. Still, surely the UK would at least be ahead of Serbia in public opinion if there was a political slant to the public voting? What has Spain done, politically, to get public votes other than send an attractive, scantily clad lady with a very well choreographed and performed song (whether it is to your tastes or not, it's the kind of thing the young people seem to like) for three minutes of well executed light entertainment? Moldova's bar-room punk polka didn't go anywhere with the juries but the crowd on both Tuesday and Saturday absolutley loved it, so it's no surprise the public voted for it. Serbia's quirky effort was very memorable and well done, for what it was. It's worth mentioning that, even if you didn't like Ukraine's song (if you even heard it), the mixing of traditional and modern music styles, including hip-hop and electronic music, is quite popular in the East. Quite a few former Soviet states are reasserting their cultural history, after years of oppression, and mixing it with modern music. It's a big thing, just listen to Shum by Go_A from last year. Ukraine's song was not without merit. This year, the UK sent a very likeable guy with a great voice and a massive social media following, along with a song which people seemed to enjoy listening to. I mean, it's possible people voted for him because Boris visited Kyiv long after the Premiers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had done the same thing but, let's be honest, it's very, very unlikely. It's a Saturday night light-entertainment show. Occasionally, one must trust Occam's Razor. This is one of them 😉

Got to have some Jim Glennie from James 🙂

Don't worry, young people, there'll be a thread for bands "featuring..." coming along any day now.

Speaking of political voting, I thought it was great to see Spain's post-Franco progression into a vibrant democracy finally being recognised by the teenagers of Europe.

Has Brexit been cancelled?

Therefore applying blanket statements to the tonal properties of different species of wood is, at best, misleading? Aaahhhhhh! How did we get back here again?!?!?!?

"My tech had a look at the crack and says it's not serious"

Let is bow our heads in admiration of the sanctity and holiness of the "DAN SMITH ERA!!!" which, yea, must be shouted verily in ads for all manner of decent to utterly dire output. This most sacred phrase which, lest we forget, covers the time he arrived when, as he said himself, there was practically no quality control in place, up to the time they shut down the factory so they could move and start all over again is surely all the histrionics one needs to make a blind purchase in confidence, no?

Was it a tonewood piano?

I always keep an eye out for the three key words of those who are trying it on, a game of ad bingo, if you will. Original Vintage Rare If you get all three in the same ad, frequently for some old POC you couldn't give away in the 80's, you win!

Try one that starts with an O, first, in keeping with the gist of the thread 😉

Their other efforts together (e.g. A Mighty Wind, Best In Show, etc) have been very funny. They have actually gigged a lot in the last 40 years, even at Wembley Stadium, so they should have a wealth of personal experience to draw on now, as well as anecdotal. Smalls's's' solo album was entertaining, too. Fran Drescher is still doing it for me, too. I'm lukewarm optimistic.

Juliette and the Licks

Nice one, I hope you enjoy the experience.

At least you're working off current and informed information, regardless of whether you enjoyed it or not 😉

One might think it might invite comments which refer to what's happening in Eurovision 2022 then, positive and negative, rather than how they don't like it and haven't watched it since 1974, no? 😂

Ugh. This has devolved into one of those vegan threads where the meat fetishists feel the need to pile in so they can tell you how much they dislike veganism and can't live without bacon sandwiches. Great, lads, you don't like Eurovision. All of the European mainland express their dislike of jellied eels and milky tea by not voting for Britain. We get it. You told us last year and the year before that and the year before that... 😉 Meanwhile, for a light-entertainment show based on three minutes of pop fluff, there were some decent songs last night with not much Europop. I think posting a link to the Latvian song about eating organic vegetables might be a crossing the streams moment and break the forum 😂 but it was a funky effort, didn't make the final, though Ukraine are strong favourites to win The guy who should have represented Italy in 2020 got to perform to the large crowd too, which was a nice touch and a good song too. If you've seen him sing this song, which has a line about unnatural silences repeated in the chorus, in the empty Verona arena while Italy was really suffering with covid, this was quite powerful. We'll see what tomorrow's second semi-final will bring. I know there are a couple of stinkers on the way for sure 😂

The first semi-final is on at the moment and has been pleasantly light on Europop so far. My money would be on Moldova if the situation in Ukraine wasn't what it is.

Mexijazz

I wired mine up the "normal" way. It annoyed me on the Metro I had, especially as I have other basses with pan knobs and one working the opposite of the others would be a head-wreck, but I understand the logic of why Sadowsky do it that way. Either way, it's a two-minute soldering job to set it up whichever way you like. Anyway, I just remembered I used the Sadowsky'd Blade on one of the Monthly Challenges a while back. Better to hear it than look at pictures and guess. As I recall, this is both pickups full, in active mode with a small bass boost and some treble rolled off via the VTC, all played quite hard with a plec. I was never able to get anything like this with the original preamp. https://m.soundcloud.com/doctor_j_bass/im-not-so-big

Why choose? Use a push/pull pot and switch between both.

I learned by ear, initially. I had been playing for over 15 years before I even bought my first tuner pedal. Tablature was only something I'd used once when I was given a book of AJFA tab as a present. How they knew is anyone's guess, too 😂 As a result, I'm handy at picking up songs by ear and even working out songs I have heard a few times, even if I have not tried to work them out to play. While subbing for a mate's cover band, we played The Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy and on stage was my first ever go at playing it 😂 It was grand. My oul one was a Lizzy fan so I knew the song well and could accurately guess where to go once I knew what key they were going to play it in. Same for Don't Believe A Word. Learning a song as a piece of music works for me, it's a fairly quick process. Learning what fret to hit followed by which fret when sounds like a torture, to be honest, and a much harder way of going about things.

And the Oscar for best editing goes to... ...not whoever hacked this mess together.

Trans-white (Mary Kaye) on ash.