Dankology

Yep - am probably a borderline hoarder... Not that there is any system - just piles of posters, flyers, unsold tickets, setlists etc in various drawers or shoved onto shelves. Digital preservation is also becoming an issue - we try and film as much as we can and frequently record our rehearsal to multitrack (XR18 making this pretty straightforward) - it's amazing how quickly the gigabytes accumulate. No doubt my kids will unceremoniously bin the lot once I've popped my clogs.

A couple of nice bass artifacts in here alongside the current Scots-themed temporary exhibition. Basses belonging to Matlock, Mani and Redding should appear below. Hooky's Shergold was meant to be there but was mysteriously absent from the cabinet, presumed auctioned. Apologies for slightly underwhelming photos - if I'd been thinking, I'd have made sure I had the polarising filter with me. Tickets are valid for 12 months though - no doubt I'll get another chance. Got some great shots from the nearby Dr Who exhibition too 😀

Looking great in black and white!

Last Friday, actually - not that anyone cares, I'm sure. This was the third gig in an uncharacteristically busy six weeks for our originals trio. We'd had to miss our last rehearsal due to the drummer/singer being poorly and so I'd not been able to check out my lovely new (to me) 4003s ahead of the gig. I still took it but the strings it came with looked like they'd been used to scour pans so I restrung with the only set I had to hand (Warwick Reds bought on a punt). I hate new strings and would never replace a set within a month of a gig if possible, so you can imagine how horrible the originals were. This was also our first gig using Ableton to trigger some samples and between-song FX. We've strarted using a couple of projectors to project black and white footage behind/on/around us but the venue was mainly black so we decided to hang up some band t-shirts as a partial backdrop. Half of which got left at my house but were rescued by my brother on his way down. The venue is one of our local favourites and the soundman was a friend with great gear who had all our presets saved from last time 😃 Improbably, it all seemed to work out ok. As ever, I made some new and entirely unexpected errors on the bass while gliding through the bits that should have tripped me up. It was boiling hot and the Ric wouldn't stay in tune so I'm sure I annoyed all present by having to sdjust after virtually every song. The samples worked ok apart from me managing to trigger one on a loop during one song and not being able to stop it. The t-shirt backdrop thing worked as well as could we expected - we'll probably get some cheaply printed with our logo and sell them for a couple of quid at the end from now on. The only downside was about half the audience walking downstairs to the bar about halfway through and not coming back as they found they could go out the front door hear everything through the open windows while staying cool and enjoying their inhaled substances of choice. Thoroughly enjoyed it, got a decent recording, some nice photos and £200 in the kitty. Would fully recomend the venue (Whip & Kitten, Rawtenstall) to any nearby original bands...

Really very happy so far with this 4003s in walnut after picking it up yesterday evening. I'll have to make a decision regarding the pick up cover - I quite like the way it looks but it seems to be just where my hand wants to be for both picking and fingers. There seems to be a significant discrepancy in volume between the two pick ups when at full whack but they are at wildly different heights. The fretboard is in dire need of a good clean. I don't think I've owned a guitar with a maple fretboard since a Squire Telecaster I had as a teenager - is there anything I need to be wary of? Next gig is in six days - hoping to put it through its paces then 😀

It really was a great way to spend the afternoon and proved that Basschat is not just an effective means of emptying your bank account. Many thanks to @AndyTravis for sorting the gig and backline and @mr zed for the PA and expertise in running it. I absolutely love the idea of being able to go to a pub out in the sticks and hear three bands playing original music - and three very decent bands at that. Video evidence will follow! Still grinning about the whole thing and hoping for some further gigs together.

On iplayer now and sounding very nice.

I saw the Weather Station at Gorilla in Manchester a few months back - was gutted as it had been "upgraded" from a smaller venue and the last time I'd been to Gorilla the sound had been underwhelming. But it was absolutely spectacular. I was making a sneaky audience recording and even that sounds pretty magnificent. I caught the soundman at the end as I had to ask if he was the band's own engineer - nope, just a chap who knew his craft and knew his venue. He looked genuinely touched when I said how good it sounded. There are still some very talented people out there. That said, I rarely go anywhere that holds more than a couple of hundred people so my perspective might be skewed.

I have to say there are some great photos popping up on here.

That would be fantastic if it isn't any trouble - definitely don't want to impose on you. I will, of course, be paying very close attention to your height:bass ratio on stage now that I know we are essentially the same height.

So you're saying I should lie down near the side of the stage?

See, that looks fine to me... (@BigRedX) I have this horror of looking like John B Sparks in the Milk & Alcohol video. I'm probably overthinking things.

At probably not quite 5'7" I'm occasionally a little conscious of my height. Especially as basses tend to accentuate human shortness... I've recently developed an unexpected hankering for a Ric but have always assumed that they were slightly longer scale than my usual Fenders and might look a little ungainly. I now realize that they are actually of a touch shorter scale - so am getting round to the idea of splurging for one. But am I alone in this awareness of my short-arsedness? I'd also really like a semi-acoustic but whenever I look at a Jack Casady I suspect I'm going to look like a child who's stolen an adult's instrument. It probably doesn't help that many of the bassists I saw when first going to gigs were disproprtionately lanky (Manics, Suede, Pulp) - although at least I could see them from the stalls...

Very much looking forward to this... Our links are: https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/deadtenant https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY7V9JqYMH-J96j-zBGwdyg [The grammar pedant in me feels I should point out that the title of this thread would more properly be "Basschatters' upcoming gigs"]

Only our third gig but we've got a load of new stuff to debut - please pop down to the Horse and Bamboo in Waterfoot if you happen to be local. Previous free live EP here: https://deadtenantmusic.bandcamp.com/releases Rehearsal recording of one of the new songs (apologies for massive inbedded video):

If you have osteoarthritis in your joints this is due to wear and tear on the articular surfaces - ie the lovely smooth padding is wearing away. There is very little you can do about this - what's worn is worn, what's gone is gone. The pain of arthritis is made worse by the inflammation that results from it and the odd patterns of use in the affected joints and nearby joints that the pain causes. The key to reducing or slowing progression is controlling the pain so that you can continue using the joints as normally as possible. There will be times when you need to up the dose when things flare - possibly for a few weeks at a time. Ibuprofen is a good starting point here (but no more than the absolute maximum of 600mg three times per day!) but it is not ideal for long term use for a number of reasons. You could try some Codeine (available over the counter as a weak does of 8mg in combination with Paracetamol) but it isn't amazing for this sort of pain, causes most people constipation and the body also soon builds a tolerance to its pain relieving powers. Without wanting to second guess a fellow GP's thinking process, I think I'd want to be sure this was actually osteoarthritis: you are young for this and I am always slightly suspicious of small joints being the first issue (rather than hips and knees, say). A couple of simple blood tests will give the pointer here - if there are signs of inflammatory disease you will do well to seek the opinion of a rheumatologist; if the bloods are essentially normal, I would want you seen at a musculoskeletal service so that the physios can pin down the affected joints and contributing factors and start you on some physical therapy to reduce progression and maintain function. [The photo posted above is very much in keeping with osteoarthritis btw: the swellings at the knuckles look to be Heberden's nodes which are a classic feature of wear and tear arthritis. Keith Richards has had some phenomenal ones for at least a couple of decades - doesn't seem to stop him...] Hope that helps a little. As a 43 year old with a strong family history of OA and the increasing rumblings of it myself, I'm fairly certain my musical endeavors are helping keep it at bay.

Team Rossendale checking availability...

I may be wrong but I think Fun Loving Criminals started as the sort of B team band in a bar they all worked in.

Completely irrelevant to your issue but I wanted to say that the Japanese 72 thinline is one of my permanent Ebay searches... Do you happen to have any thoughts on it versus the more common Mex versions?

What an odd point of view. I wouldn't presume for one moment to tell the members of the Who what they should and should not do in terms of respect for each other - I think all four members individually spoke of how terrible were as human beings and the record would suggest none of them enjoyed each other's company very much. But from an audience member's point of view, pretending that a unique musician and presence can just be depped in order to keep the promoters and insurers happy is distasteful. The fact that many ticketholders didn't care (or possibly even notice) is no doubt the reason this sort of thing can happen and could probably account for any number of other issues in modern rock commerce. And that does not speak of a "thirst to be opinionated": it is a (fairly nuanced) expression of an opinion - something that a discussion board such as this requires, the alternative presumably being limiting members to the posting of lists of incontrovertible facts.

I think if I'd paid whatever ridiculous ticket price was and then was given the option of seeing the band without an absolutely crucial element or just taking the hit, I'd be mightily annoyed. I think I'd agree with Rich that much of what is wrong with modern rock commerce is encapsulated here: a whole machine whirling around a "unique" artistic endeavour (ie compare the venue sizes the Who members play/played as solo acts) but the momentum of the machine means that the artists themselves have to be instantly replaceable. The idea of Who fan for whom Entwistle or Moon are replaceable utterly baffles me but there must be enough of them around. So the money men are correct. Without being right.

I'm currently trying a similar experiment and picked up a selection pack of felt, leather and possibly lino plectrums on Ebay for about £5. I can't say that I've really got on with any of them yet in terms if feel although they have tamed some of the sharp attack. Create a lit of dust/fibres too.

I seem to have the same attitude to humour in music as I do in life: I much prefer listening to someone whose wit and intelligence shines through rather than someone reciting jokes, desperate to amuse. Stuff like Tom Waits, the Fall, Leonard Cohen, the Hold Steady and Arctic Monkeys could never be mistaken for comedy acts but I reckon the humour bleeds into a lot of what they do. Having said that, a lot of my favourite stuff can be entirely humourless (Joy Division, Van Morrison)... I'm just trying to visualize the Venn diagram of people who I find funny, smart and have similar taste in music to me - it looks more like a series of tightly concentric circles 🙃

The Revelation was the first thing I Googled when I started losing the will to live several hours into messing with the Squier. They seem to be out of stock in most places but I'm thinking it could provide a model for a possible custom build. Triple P90s do look a bit crammed though. But I too seem to favour the middle position on the Squire (sometimes with the neck switched in too) so I've got a bit of thinking and mocking up to do here. Rehearsed with the Squire VI last night and things went reasonably well but definitely had some slightly grizzly notes on the low E.