Beedster

Most pros throughout the last 60 or so years have probably earned the majority of their income playing basses of similar quality to the HB

Depends what you mean, some players like a bass set up in a way that would not work for other players..... I guess that a criteria for a 'pro bass' is that it can be set up to suit the player. Budget basses in the 70's and 80's often couldn't, but even the cheapest basses today generally can. I'll go back to the violin bow I mentioned above; it was like having a wand in my hand, it almost had a life of its own, having played violin for almost 40 years, that was quite a shock. I've played basses that retail at several thousand pounds and have simply never experienced that degree of price/performance sympatico. I honestly believe - based on a LOT of experience - that much above £1000, and by comparison with other instruments, there are very few improvements that can be made to an electric bass that make it a better instrument, in most cases just a more expensive one. Certainly certain woods building processes (hand versus CNC might) warrant the price tag, but when I think of my Wals for example, whilst they were glorious pieces of design and technology, as instruments they simply were not significantly better than similar instruments using cheaper components and less traditional build techniques costing significantly less. Pros, and non-pros alike, play expensive basses for the same reason that people in all walks of life have a price point that seems appropriate to them for whatever it is they are buying. Stella Artois nailed it.....

Yep, basses are basses, two bits of wood that anyone with some decent tools could build and some bits of metal that are likewise not hard to engineer. A £300 bass in the hands of a pro will sound great, and not hugely different to a £30k bass. Contrast with the difference between a £300 and £30k acoustic instrument such as violin, double bass or mandolin and there’s no contest. I’m a half decent violinist, and recently played my usual instrument, a 100 year old German blonde, with a very high end bow. I could play lines at twice the speed I can with my usual bow. Give me a Squier or a Fodera, I’ll be able to play pretty much the same stuff at the same speed and it’ll sound pretty much the same

Given his current persona, the title of his first hit is, well, ironic

Saw him described - by a vegetarian - as the type of vegetarian who makes you want to go to McDonald’s just to fosters him off

I think that's the crux. I'm not especially worried about the woodiness of a bass's tone, I think it goes back to my childhood of playing woody sounding instruments (fiddle, acoustic guitar), and longing for that glorious distorted loud and visceral tone that only the electric instrument can give you. But having said this, I've owned three or four Precisions that were decidedly woody, and the woodiness was 100% in the wood (seems obvious but I think that some of the suggestions about suggest you can get it otherwise), almost as if the instrument were semi-acoustic. The one that I remember as being most woody was a '73, ash but very lightweight, and stripped. This is N=1 of course, but I always felt the woodiness was the result of the weight, the lack of varnish BUT ALSO something about the wood itself, because I've owned other lightweight stripped instruments that didn't sound woody at all. Unlike WoT I don't use my ears, i use my chin. I plant it hard on the upper horn, and know within seconds whether I'm going to like a bass's tone. That particular bass almost had my fillings out! But importantly, in all the tinkering I've done with Fender and Fender style basses in the last 15 years, I've never come across a bass that started out not sounding woody but that became so as the result of changing any of the metal components. A change of neck can shift the core tone a bit, but everything else just brings out different aspects of the core tone itself, and if that core tone isn't woody.......

For me Morrissey lost any right to an audience when he equated the Norway massacre to McDonalds, not so much because there wasn't at some level a degree of logic in his argument - life is life and is precious whatever form it takes - but that he chose to express it when and how he did, with no apparent understanding of the potential sensitivities of people in his audience or their right to not have to be subjected to his rants. I generally have broad tolerance of people's rights within the law to their own views, political, religious and cultural, but not of people who take inappropriate advantage of social status to advance them out of context.

Well that's pretty much 100% exactly what I was going to say also Al Kelpie just delivered a stunning old Fender to Beedster Towers, and in doing so narrowly avoided being run over by Mrs Beedster and subsequently attacked by Buddy, our poorly behaved Labrador. Lovely lovely guy, and an absolute pleasure to deal with. Kelpie, hope the band gets going again soon. Al, I'll see you at Kelpie's first gig back Cheers Chris

Agree with all of that, one of the most dangerous things that happens when you achieve a certain level of either fame or wealth is that you get to surround yourself with like-minded people. The best friends a person can have are those that aren't afraid to tell them when they're wrong and that disagree about even small things when necessary and thereby don't allow pathological attitudes to develop. Not sure he's got those sort of friends? It's human nature to seek out like minded people of course - something that perhaps Morrissey was alluding in the comment in question (i.e., this is one basis of racism), but those who adopt it on that basis are also working on the assumption that human nature is de facto a good thing, which in the most part it is, bit only the most part, not all.

From a psychoanalytical perspective he is his audience, and he puts a lot of effort into keeping his audience happy

If he had any clue about this stuff he should have said "Everyone ultimately believes that what they think, what the people they choose to socialise with think, and what the authors of websites that Google algorithms send them to think, is what everyone thinks. And if that network leads those people to discriminate on the basis of race, then those people are by definition racist" I suspect in saying what he said he was alluding crudely to the generally accepted idea in neuroscience/psychology that the human brain has a hard-wired tendency to seek familiarity and to fear novelty. But he has extrapolated a tendency that can be overridden by learning/environment/culture (and of course one that can also be reinforced by these same factors as is his case) way past the point that it's supported by the data in question. The main problem with Morrissey is that he likes the sound of his own voice and has an increasingly small audience, so his views become more polarised and at the same time he appears to hit the off switch a few minutes too late pretty much every time he speaks to a journalist. I imagine he's going to find some success as a politician

Always happy to help out a fellow bassist

Absolutely, forgot to say that. I had one a few years ago. Amazing tone and surprisingly able to fill a moderate size stage/room.

I would take advice from here first, tubed going pop is not unusual, and not especially problematic on that amp. I see you live in Essex. Another option you have is to give up on tube amps altogether and allow me to help you out, drive up and take it off your hands, thereby stopping any future costs associated with such a dated amp

Folks, lockdown has meant that my business has gone largely digital and I'm doing more and more work into a mic, either in the studio recording podcasts and online content, and during Zoom meetings and sessions. My voice has always had good days and bad days and I've yet to really track the variables the predict this other than I can generate a gloriously Richard Burtonesque delivery when I have a hangover, the downside being that whilst my voice is great my ability to remember my lines (or sometimes even who I am) is significantly impaired. I had voice coaching a few years back and it was really helpful, but I've forgotten much of it and also suspect that the content is sufficiently different now. I'm keen to find a decent online resource, and possible an online coach if necessary for two reasons; firstly, when my voice has a good day the response from the audience to my recorded material is infinitely better (I had an especially good day two weeks back and a client said "It's not the sort of stuff i'd normally choose to listen to but your voice drew me in", which really is exactly what I'm trying to do), but secondly, I'm aware that the bad days are getting worse, and I want to protect what is perhaps going to be my most important income generator (that and my skill at editing that can also make me sound quite intelligent) for as long as possible (re voice deterioration for example I sent a file to colleagues last week and it's the first time they've suggested a re-record on the basis of voice quality alone). Any suggestions/experience most welcome. Chris

Damn, I was after a 60's

Sorry to hear that mate, hope he gets back to playing. I've only ever had that thing with one drummer, and I listen to the recordings occasionally and they're the ones on which my bass playing - and arguably the whole band - sounds best. It can be make or break for a band