Beedster

Anyway, back to Morrissey

I don't have sympathy, they're a public broadcaster, perhaps one of the most prestigious in the World, they have a responsibility to defend their core principles, as do other news agencies worldwide on a daily basis, and against far stronger forces that Boris and his gang. It's either weak leadership or strategic, slowly moving towards being just another form of meta social media. If it was another broadcaster it would be much less of a problem, the issue for me is that for many in the UK and elsewhere, the idea that 'If the BBC says it, it must be true' still holds, so when I see them allowing air time to fringe views on news programmes as if those fringe views are a form of news, not simply a reaction to the news, it worries me. Too many of the people on the BBC News are representatives of interest groups who can never be expected to speak in unbiased terms, but are often presented as if they are. I get the 'two sides to every story' thing, but that's where good journalism comes in, weigh the evidence and report the consensus, don't just simply present both sides and let the already biased views of most of the audience become more entrenched as the result. We need a return to the idea of trusted journalists and strong and transparent editorial policy, not simply "Hey, this'll get some clicks, even more if we get this person in as well"

Wasn't this one was it...?

No such thing as BBC News any more - certainly on TV/web - it's BBC Entertainment/BBC Opinion/BBC Clickbait, shocking what they have become, especially their habit of reporting what people have said on social media as news. The pursuit of 'balanced arguments' often gives the impression that both sides of a debate carry equal weight/credibility, which is so often not the case (one of the worst examples being the mobile phone/'brain cancer' story a few years back that appeared to be a single scientist against the rest of the scientific community, but that single scientist was getting equal air time and therefore altering public opinion without any basis in science), but is something that proponents of various fake news/conspiracy theories etc jump on to advance their agendas, and there are plenty of third sectors who get in on the BBC Opinion game as well. The BBC appear scared of having a position on so many issues, which suggests very poor editorial leadership; the idea that 'we have to present both sides of an argument', whilst appearing good editorial policy, to my mind represents the failure of editors and journalists to identify which side of the argument is more valid and therefore represents 'news' per se.

Going through the back catalogue, this one was VERY nice

The three I just sold

Likewise Greg, and I genuinely believe that some of the best instruments I've owned came out of this. My current main bass below is a case in point, it's tall all intents a worn Tony Franklin, but wow, what a lovely bass to play, lovely pair of PUPs by Jason Lollar, circuit by Kiogon, body by Fender, neck by Warmoth at significantly around 25% what the Tony Franklin would cost new Think I'm going to be posting a lot of pictures in this thread

I know, you've got to laugh though, I auditioned for a band who said exactly that. Talk about 'All the gear no idea'. There must have been £20k worth of amps, guitars and drums in the studio, they looked rather disparagingly as I wheeled in my rather old and beaten up Mesa Road Ready cab and 400+ head, and looked positively ill when I pulled out a very ordinary looking Precision. We started with Come Together and it became immediately obvious that to them 'Pro' was short for "Demonstrating commitment to the band by spending lots of cash' as opposed to some perhaps more relevant things such as, I don't know, practicing, understanding EQ and volume (oh, and reverb), learning lyrics etc. I didn't stay long

It's a little recognised fact by the like of Morrissey that in producing a decent album the talent outside of the tracking room significantly outweighs that in it; engineers, producer, sleeve designers, even dare I say label execs/PR/marketing, without any of whom his work would never have seen the light of day. The only trait that tends to be seen at a much higher level in the tracking room is ego

Off the back of this thread...... And also a PM conversation that got me thinking, a snippet of which is below....... Those three I just sold are better than nearly all Fenders I've played, including Custom Shop, they just didn' t happen to be made in Corona! I'll make a suggestion mate, give it a go, you can make great basses from cheap parts picked up on this forum or on ebay, and if they don't work out, just move it on and try again. I keep saying I'll stop but I never do, in part because it's therapeutic, and in part because my main bass, a 1970's Fender body and Warmoth fretless neck, was the result of years of trial and error. Best way of getting a custom bass is to build your own I thought this, especially the last sentence about best way to get a custom bass, would be a good conversation to take to the broader community, also in the context of this thread about 'Pro' basses and 'Pro price tags i reckon that given a few weeks looking on eBay/BC/Reverb, I can put together a pro quality bass for usually around £300-£500 depending to a degree on luck. Just amazes me that more people don't

But why should 'Pro' mean top end. Many pros in many field use equipment that gets the job done at a price point that reflects the cost benefit ratio in that context. What's the most expensive mic you can buy? It'll be bloody expensive. Is it the mic most pros would use? Mo, you're going to find far more pros use SM58s than using Neumans and the like. Even the relatively humble - by Neuman standards - SM7B has been used on some of the most famous rock and pop tracks out there, as well as in broadcasting applications worldwide and can still be picked up new for little more than £300. The term 'Pro' should not equate to best, most expensive or most desirable, just what equipment pros go to. Let's be honest, the definition of a 'pro' bass in historical terms, and in many respects contemporary as well, is the standard Fender Precision. There, I said it

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