Doctor J

I think it's usually used as a means to say "I'm not confined to specific genres". Should someone really have to append "...but only the good stuff"? Listening to a broad range of musical styles does not indicate the inability to discern quality, just that there is a lot out there to be enjoyed and they have the mindset to be open enough to enjoy it. Is music the only artform where people get so caught up in such narrow pigeonholing? "Do you like art?" "Yeah, I love art but only Impressionism and Art Deco. People who like too many art movements have no taste!"

That is so annoying alright. Play from the wrist, you clown, not the elbow!

I'd say quite varied, for sure. I primarily listen to electric guitar-based music but it can be metal, rock, blues, indie, alternative, etc. Even as a teen who listened primarily to metal (and was a devotee of thrash and death as they came along) I still listened to the likes of Chic at the time, getting into hip-hop at the tail end of the 80's. From there, I got into fusion and then more regular jazz and have a soft spot for a good trio. I quite liked a lot of the big-beat electronic music of the 90's and dig a bit of techno every now and then. A bit of folk and Americana is no harm either. You can't go wrong with old Motown and Stax, particularly the raw early stages of funk. I got into classical over the last decade and my good lady is quite partial to opera so I'm giving that a go, though it can be hard going at times. I've reached the age where a lot of modern pop music sounds like utter shite to me and I've never had time for that soulless, corporate pop particularly prevalent through the last 20 years.

I don't get the snarkiness towards them, the hipster jibes. Dart is an exceptional bassist and they're a band who have found success on what appears to be their own terms, without any support from The Biz. It's natural the music is not to everyone's taste and I can understand not being a fan of how they promote themselves but one must surely doff a cap in their direction for showing it's possible for a skilled and creative independent band to make a successful dent in an industry absolutely weighted against them? The guy now has two signature basses with a company who traditionally have not exactly previously warmed to the idea of signature basses. They should not be anywhere as big as they are, by any logic, but here we are. There is a lot more substance to them than being something for hipsters to stroke their beards to before heading to the pop-up gin bar. I think it's gas. Fair play to them.

Time has shown Lars to be the sound one of the group. Amazing 😂 On topic... Kreator - Renewal Mindfunk - Dropped Living Colour - Stain Motley Crue - s/t Prong - Prove You Wrong

I love that. I think it's brilliant. It's Spinal Tap in the real world. How a band who were so, so good could become so utterly inept, it's fascinating.

Middle age millionaires, completely disassociated from that which made them great in the first place, struggle and fail to capture anything of merit while unable to relate to each other or their music, incapable of critiquing or being critiqued, then subtly blame the whole mess on Bob Rock who, wisely or unwisely and under great pressure from management, went shoulder deep to extract turgid offerings from far, far up their rectal passages and piece it all together in some sort of cohesive and musical way. What more is there to understand? It was embraced all the way to the charity shops. The documentary is wonderful, as is Berlinger's book about the experience, but the soundtrack should be buried under lava 😁

I don't think they had an anti-bass agenda, as such, and given the developed the Bongo and Big Al it's not like they were against trying new things in bass world. It's an interesting one, alright. If anyone is brave enough it would be worth seeing if Sterling would open up about it on their forum 🙂

Of course, I forgot the EVH guitars which came out in 90 or 91 - now called the Axis after his defection to Peavey, I believe.

They've had Steve Lukather and Steve Morse models since the mid-90's at least, definitely before 95, and the Albert Lee model even pre-dates those, I think. As I recall, I read Flea wanted the Stingray renamed after him and got the PFO. At least, I read that somewhere shortly after he started his relationship with Modulus. Only recently have they adopted the more scattergun signature model approach though, to be fair, their signature models usually are something quite different from standard stock. Certainly, they tend to go further than stock-with-a-particular-colour-of-paint you see elsewhere offered as "signature" models.

Geezer says "yes"

The Bob Geldof interview was fantastic. I listened to it a couple of times. It's a great podcast.

Use a DeLorean somewhere in your imagery and you can make out you travelled through time to get a sprinkling of hits from the future - once they're performed in the 80's style, of course.

After many years of trying all kinds of different strap lengths, the bottom of the bass on my belt line is what suits my left hand best.

Ibanez SR are narrow, some are as little as 16.5mm spacing at the bridge, other models like the BTB keep a traditional wider spacing.

Steve, something worth considering might be a longer scale 4 string. The likes of the older Japanese Yamaha TRB are 35" scale and can be picked up for very reasonable money. The build quality is superb and, tonally, they're very flexible. There is enough fun in the preamp to get a modern metal tone your bandmates seem to be pushing you towards. You'll get a very solid low A and consistent tone across the neck no problem (speakng from first-hand experience with this one 😉). Unless you prefer the feel of a five string bass and will be using that high G enough to make it worthwhile, I'd be sticking to a four string.

Sometimes the truth hurts 🙂

Yes

There's an old Levinson Blade for sale in the ad section here. A wonderful, very high quality Jazz bass for well under a grand.

It has ripped any fun out of the classifieds here. Annoyingly, both Reverb and ebay still include UK sales in 'European Union' based searches. The prospect of buying used gear from UK sellers is a big fat zero now.

Oh yeah, definitely, they were a gateway band for me in the mid 80's. They were always a bit heavier than a lot of their peers which worked for me. I was one of the few who loved, and still loves, the Corabi album 😁 Poison just weren't acceptable to me on any level back then but, now, I can see there was a little bit more behind the make-up than I gave them credit for. Not much more, but still more 😂 If I'm feeling brave, I might pick up some Ratt soon.

The big one for me was probably Steely Dan a few years ago. I went from complete novice to near obsessive in a very short space of time. At the moment, I'm going through an 80's hard/glam rock appreciation phase - I believe the young people call it "hair metal" these days - and most recently took delivery of 'Look What the Cat Dragged In' and 'Open Up and Say... Ahh!' on CD. The band is called Poison, to the uninitiated. The kind of thing my teenage self would have scoffed at back then as I was a devotee of thrash at the time. They're actually ok, it turns out 😂

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/online-music-marketplace-suffers/

That looks fantastic, very nice indeed.