Dankology

I'd hope they were filled with lovely clear fluid rather than pus.

Weirdly, something similar happened to me this week - I assumed mine were caused by using a non-bass guitar for the first time in a while. As a doctor I would say leave them be and let them mend themselves. As a bassist I'd be rather more cavalier if they were getting in my way...

Thanks for the advice. Nearly fell into regretable payday temptation there... Apologies if I missed the previous discussion.

I've been looking for one for a while and these two are around the right price... I quite like the black hardware added to the Mexican one but I really like my Japanese Aerodyne so the other one really appeals too - but I don't know enough to know if this is a wrong un or not. Neither are near enough to have a look at in person - anyone care to offer some thoughts? Currently my brain is saying that the Mex is one of the earlier ones that people say sometimes have QC issues, the Jap may be a cobbled togeher bitsa and maybe I'd be better off overall with a Sire... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Fretless-Jazz-Bass-Sunburst-2001-with-Upgrades-UK-Buyers-only/164351349318 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Fretless-Jazz-Bass-sunburst-good-condition/184374194763

What a great story - and fabulous photo to top it 😀

I know this is 4 years old but this is a band I filmed who I thought played great straightforward rock. They died a bit of death despite a good local following... If you look, there's good stuff out there 🐵

I honestly think that we're in a potentially golden age for music now... When I look back to my really quite recent youth (I'm 41 now), it was *really* hard to hear new "good" music. On the radio you had Peel (but often spent a good deal of each show completely befuddled), the Evening Session (and put up with Jo Wiley's unbearable presenting persona plus some really pedestrian music) and Marc & Lard - where in truth I inherited much of my tastes. Later on Iearned that there were good new music shows on local radio but I had no way of knowing about them at the time. In terms of TV there was TOTP where you'd occasionally someone new and good but I do remember Channel 4's White Room as something of an epiphany - although almost every act on there was already relatively well-established. The Word was good for new bands if you could put up with the gross-out nature of much of the rest of the show . Jools's Later started duing this time and I remember seeing some fantastic new-to-me stuff: Mazzy Star, Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker as well as a load f stuff that bored me to tears. And that was it. I checked out books from the library and read the Melody Maker & NME religously but most of the time hearing new music involved risking meagre pocket money on something unfamiliar. But now... endless digital and internet stations, a dedicated national "alternative" music station, Soundcloud, Spotify playlists, even Youtube. Glossy magazines frequently have a covermounted CD of brand new tracks and then there are all the specialist blogs... I was flicking through Amazon Prime's "included" music films the other day and saw documentaries on the Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders, Nick Drake and Capt Beefheart amongst many others: the remnants of my inner 15 year old was agog. The problem now is surely one of being spoilt for choice - I'm willing to bet that whatever subgenre of music you are into, there's likely someone, somewhere, right now doing it really really well - and you can likely listen to them for free. Granted, the best stuff is not being curated and delivered through a very small number of radio stations etc but the extra effort of sifting through the chaff will pay off. And it cuts both ways: a conversation that often comes up in my band concerns just how many people we need to reach in order to be financially self-sustaining - and the answer is "not many". And if there are only 2000 people in the entire world who might be into our stuff, nowdays we potentially have the means to reach (and sell to!) every single one with no distribution, management or other overheads. All that said, I do understand that someone might feel quite differently if they had been, say, a teenager in 1966 and experienced the newly-minted cornerstones of rock music beamed into their home every time they tuned into national radio.

I'm always slightly amazed by the "who??" type comments in threads like this. This, I believe, is a musicians' forum. I can't imagine another line of work where affecting never to have heard of someone with an international reputation would be seen as a boast. That said, I do think Phoebe Bridgers is an objectionable gobsh!te albeit spot on regarding EC in this instance.

I'm not sure what point you think you're making here. The actual point is to prevent unnecessary spread in order to protect people for whom contracting the virus could be catastrophic. Not to prevent anyone at all from contracting it. That being the case your "man up" comments are at best a reflection of your ignorance or, at worst, a demonstration of your disregard for others' welfare. But you might regard that sort of thing as being a bit too PC for someone such as yourself. Or was that all "just banter"? I really can't tell - and I'm not sure that you've decided yet either.

"Live in fear"...🤪 Same attitude to seat belts, hygiene measures in restaurants etc etc? I thought not.

What an idiotic thing to say. Perhaps you should be the one weighing up the rewards and risks. The statistics and science speak for themselves. And one thing you might also want to be mindful of is that the ongoing impact of this virus on people's health is very uncertain: there seems to be an increased clotting risk associated with it and I'm not sure yet how relevant this is to the increased number of sudden cardiac (and otherwise unexplained) deaths that I've been aware of. But why not disregard all that, formulate your own risk assessment and tell anyone who disagrees to "man up"? I despair, I honestly do.

I played one briefly while sounding out fretless options a couple of years ago. It made me look (even more) like a midget. It did not sound significantly nicer than the Crafter that I ultimately picked up - for a similar price secondhand to what the FEB was new.

We're now onto Volume 9 of these weekly compilations of live and otherwise exclusive tracks in support of independent Manchester music venues. I'm particularly thrilled with this one as it features a live track from the Meat Puppets, one of my favourite bands of all time. All the previous volumes remain available on Bandcamp, where you can stream all 90 tracks collected thus far before considering dropping some money into the pot... https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-9 We've put some of the more, er, difficult to categorise music on this one so might not be to all tastes. If that's the case, jump to Volume 7 where we put some of our favourite singer songwriters 🐵

I was a bit dubious about that Stooges box when it first came out (15 years ago?) but eventually picked one up - and it is phenomenal. I'm not sure every band or album would stand up to the scrutiny but hearing the Stooges drill those songs over and over, honing them into the familiar versions is thrilling, intoxicating stuff. I have a fair few boxsets, most compiled along much more sensible lines but there aren't many I listen to more often than the Funhouse one. Bit surprised to see the lack of enthusiasm for demos and outtakes here - the musician in me loves the insight into others bands' processes.

Dunno if it helps but I sold a guitar a couple of years ago to a vague friend - it was my first new guitar, had it since I was 19 etc etc but just never really used it. And after 20 years it was essentially taking room up that could be taken over by a bass... It now gets gigged regularly and every so often I see it on stage, either in real life or on Facebook photos. It's a nice feeling knowing it's finally doing the job it was meant to do

I dunno. If this was someone saying "I really fancy getting into vinyl" for the first time, I'd be advocating either going in large so that you actually get the benefit of the format or just going for streaming so that you get better value for money (and likely better quality playback too.) For the OP, it sounds like there is already a record collection waiting to be played and which may well be in decent nick, in which case I reckon a mid-table solution is called for: enough to make all the faffing around of vinyl worthwhile without making it sound crap and/or knackering the records. £500 is more than enough to do this if you're willing to go second hand - my ultra stingy setup worked out something like £300: Project Debut 3 £150 s/h, Teac amp £60 s/h and recently replaced speakers from Mission £90 new. If space consideratons or aesthetics call for an all-in-one then it might be worth bearing in mind that many of these (including, the Teac, I believe) come from exactly the same manufacturer with the only variation being minor cosmetics and the price if you go for one with a more recognizable badge. I think the benefit of revisiting an old collection is that you occasionally pull out the forgotten gem that you wouldn't have downloaded or streamed otherwise, plus you may also be lucky enough to have realtives' collections bestowed upon you as it becomes known that you're into records. My collection has now absobed that of my parents, my partner's parents and her uncle - inherited some amazing stuff and some fairly awful ones too. It's all good...

I'd just be a bit wary of two things: one would be getting the vinyl bug and then soon wanting to upgrade from something that would have very little re-sale value; the other is the risk of wrecking a nice record collection with a cheap tonearm/stylus set up. Although that would be faithful to the old Dansette tradition 🐵 Have been looking at this quite recently for my brother, who sounds to be in a very similar situation. He seems to be edging towards the Audio Technica turntable which connects via bluetooth to wireless (powered) speakers. Although I believe these just send the summed mono signal to both speakers rather than true stereo.

Project Debut 3 for me - picked mine up second hand years ago and it's been great - simple, sounds good and looks good.

I haven't but I'll try and get a message to them- thank you very much!

Excellent outcome - well played: conflict resolved, moral high ground maintained, pride maintained by forcing a compromise... 20 quid very well spent, I'd say.

Volume 3 is out today and features exclusive live tracks from: Emmas (previously Bird) Black Honey LIINES The Red Stains The Seamonsters Hamell On Trial Peter Perrett (the Only Ones) The Distractions Thugs On Wolves Joan the Wad -the last of these is my own band £5 gains you access to all of this fine music as well as the sense of wellbeing that only comes from supporting some of the country's most fertile small venues. https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-3

My father in law had something similar happen with a model train he sold: a high value item that was working perfectly prior to sale (he actually filmed it steaming - just to keep the memory of it, train-fiend that he is). Shortly after the sale he got a message asking for a partial refund as the steam action was not working. After careful consideration we decided to ask for the item to be returned - this would have cost us the return postage as well as a full refund and risked the customer sending back a different item. Predictably enough, it was suddently found to be working properly and the request dropped. I've used Ebay for 20 years with almost no issues whatsoever but there is clearly a growing trend for buyer's remorse leading to a request for a parital refund on spurious grounds. Ebay and PayPal are not your friends in this and will inevitably decide against you. I would advise the course of action we took - effectively a calling of the bluff but, as I say, it's not without its own risks. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

That's the one - a very fine venue...

Volume 2 came out today and features live and/or exclusive tracks from: Stefan Melbourne (We Were Strangers) Piney Gir Damon & Naomi (Galaxie 500) Charlotte Carpenter Blue Rose Code Chloe Èleanor Jones Angel Snow Amy Studt Lyla Foy Audrey's Dance Please have a look, consider spending the £5 minimum donation and sharing the link with anyone that loves grassroots live music. https://lockdownlive.bandcamp.com/album/lockdown-live-volume-2