Bassfinger

My signed copy of The Red Planet arrived today. I'm given to understand that Rick Wakeman personally put it in the post to me. First impressions are...as a concept it's fantastic. Close your eyes and relax and you can imagine the subject matter, much like the earlier Mike Ildfield albums. Some decent tunes, very tight musicianship. Im looking forward to getting to know it a bit better.

You'll like Cornwall if you're a Bee Gees fan. Apparently you can still see Morris dancing there.

Pah, that's a mere bedroom practice amp for a Lemmy fan.

Ive never had anything but positive experiences with them myself.

I only have an opinion as to who were not.

The Ramones themselves were relative bit players in the play that was punk. They weren't the first, they weren't the finest, the weren't the most popular, they weren't the most innovative, they weren't the longest lived, they weren't the best selling. By any definable metric they were unremarkable Music is a personal thing, and some people love and adore their work, and there is nothing whatsoever wrong with that. I don't actually dislike them, I simply can see very little evidence that they had any profound effect on the musical landscape.

Was listening to Temples of Syrinx this afternoon. Peart's drumming is just at its peak, rising and falling in perfect tempo like a high performance V8 being revved along with the lyrics. Just brilliant.

Love their music or not, Bomber Harris is a damn nifty player.

I dont think anyone hates him. He was simply playing a bit part in new musical genre, so the majority of even us musical observers don't think its historical significance is that great. Considering that isn't even his real name, I'd suggest that claim that he is better known than most of the bass musicians discussed on these hallowed pages is somewhat fatuous. "Douglas" is hardly the name one would expect of a hardcore punk rebel, more the name of a carpet slipper salesman. This adds a vener of cynicism to the historical perspective of the whole punk thing - don't have any anti establishment kudos of your own? Easy, just make some up to sell some records!

The great man himself, Lemmy, was once playing a gig in the same town I was in, so my Jazz bass was within 2 or 3 miles of him. You can't buy provenance like that, eh?

Yes indeed, we all know its history. The electric bass is a very young instrument, a piffling 85, so thanks for agreeing with me on that point. A fraction of the age of most other stringed instruments, and a positive amoeba compared to some of the really ancient percussion and wind instruments, some of which can trace their ancestry back to prehistory. One day in 1935 the electric bass didn't exist, then the next it it did, and along with its invention there was not suddenly also invented a set of "correct" rules and methods for its use.

I'm normally a pick player, but every practice session I do 5 or 10 mins with my fingers and do use my ring finger. Considering the bass is a relatively young instrument, brand new at inception, theres no one who can say what is "right". What works you you as a player is what is right. I have the opposite problem to Nate Watts, in that I cant feel my pinkie or ring finger, and this affects how my middle finger feels and behaves, hence be being more comfortable with a pick.

My Hohner Arbor Series Les Paul. 38 1/2 years and counting.

I left negative feedback the other day. I had to tick lots of "are you really sure?" type boxes, but on it went.

An average instrument previously owned by a below average musician.

And the electric piano solo from the original Zombies conversion of She's Not There. Fits the song beautifully.

I love the keyboard solo in this at 1:50.

I'm partial to a bit of Beatles. Will watch this with an open mind.

Here's mine. I tried to make it appear that it had been played a helluva lot, not simply sanded a helluva lot. Not sure I succeeded, but hey ho. Rubbed down a bit on certain contours, a bunch of keys repeatedly dropped on the body, the chrome very laboriously rubbed with 2000 grit wet and dry until it had rubbed through in places, coffee rubbed into the white paint on the controls, the screws rubbed with 2000 grit and doused with salty water, scratchp,ate strategically scratched as it with a pick while playing and brown boot polish rubbed in.

Just bought one of these in surf green for my 9 year old daughter... https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/J-D-Bass-guitar-JB-Mini-SBL-Sonic-Blue/art-BAS0007170-000?campaign=GShopping/UK&ProgramUUID=HADAqJarPzAAAAFlea9yjI.G&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz4z3BRCgARIsAES_OVcLXBGdI7WzfADzqGitLg6F3kn8ToPQPLw38JBh61z-KVEqe5wHCqYaAnXtEALw_wcB I'm genuinely astonished at how beautifully finished it is and the decent materials used, including a solid alder body. It's a steal at the price.

I do a bit of tapping for practice purposes, but other than that I neither play or nor listen to it. Sheer technical brilliance rarely makes brilliant music - ask Nuno Bettencourt.

So a magazine with a readership of four, one of who is a small dachshund named Colin, vote and that somehow supposed to be world changing news?

It is possible. But I prefer having 5.

Here's mine; That's where I'll probably be going, so may as well 'fess up and be honest about it.