EssentialTension

Also Hagstrom Viking bass case ... and Gretsch do one ... Thomann have several, but they are not cheap.

Epiphone. Jack Casady case 34" scale Guild Starfire bass comes with a hard case 30" scale

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1446838059' post='2902849'] Slagging off McCartney. 'Forgive them father, for they know not what they do.' [/quote] Slag off McCartney to yur heart's content, I can think of many criticisms myself, but let's have a reasoned account and not just emotional nonsense that everything he did was banal and cliched.

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1446827761' post='2902744'] ... If one deems it pointless, then why not leave it alone so that those who are enjoying it can do so without the criticism? [/quote] It's somewhat ironic to start a thread that asks people to criticise and then complain when those people are themselves criticised.

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1446821052' post='2902654'] Very true! I don't agree with much of what Mr Bruce said, but I have to say I always regarded Mr McCartney as being of very modest gifts... [/quote] As for Jack Bruce ... [quote]Ask him who he regards as the best bass players in pop and rock history and he answers at once: "If you're talking electric bass, it's very, very simple: James Jamerson, Paul McCartney, Jaco Pastorius, me." [url="http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/slowhand/2008/013063.html"]http://six.pairlist....008/013063.html[/url] [i]Jim Clash: I know you were inspired by jazz and classical bass, but who are some rock bassists you admire?[/i] Jack Bruce: Well, James Jamerson, if you can call him a rock player. I would call him a rock player, definitely. McCartney did great things. Rain is an example of his simple, lovely bass playing. [url="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2015/07/02/jack-bruce-lost-cream-tapes-v-we-looked-down-on-jagger-richards-zeppelin/"]http://www.forbes.co...hards-zeppelin/[/url] [/quote] But, as I said, if you don't like it or him, then so be it.

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1446811535' post='2902511'] McCartney doesn't count. Even if he died today, everything he's ever done has "trite" and "banal" and "cliche-ridden" stamped all over it in 20-foot letters. Iconic? Never was, never will be IMHO [/quote] You are at liberty to hold said opinion and to express it, as you have done, but to say "everything he's ever done has "trite" and "banal" and "cliche-ridden" stamped all over it in 20-foot letters". Really? [quote name='neilp' timestamp='1446817438' post='2902606'] With respect, what's bizzarre about it? Frogs Chorus? Mull of Kintyre? Band on the Run? All the most insipid Beatles output? Please.... A competent bass player, just about Look up Jack Bruce's views on McCartney. [/quote] Well, one bizarre thing, IMHO, is citing [i]The Frog Chorus[/i], a popular song specially written for a children's film, as an example of the "banality" of "everything he's ever done etc...". The same goes for citing [i]Mull of Kintyre[/i], an extremely popular love song to his home in Scotland. I realise it may be an unpopular view with some but I really don't at all see what's wrong with a musician-songwriter writing popular songs. As for calling [i]Band on the Run[/i] insipid. Again, really? And there is a long list of not "trite, banal, cliche-ridden". But if you don't like it then so be it.

The Resonators ... [media]http://youtu.be/-jvreHgnx1o[/media]

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1446816275' post='2902592'] ...and I was only observing how the quality of his work dropped off after he died... [/quote] You shouldn't have winked ... it only confuses people.

A twist on this ... the vocalist in one of my bands has brilliant intonation. I've never once heard him hit a wrong note, falter over a note, or have to search for the note. He just sings with perfect intonation; he can't help it. However, the piano player and I do, occasionally, have to put him right on his phrasing which can sometimes leave something to be desired.

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1446811535' post='2902511'] McCartney doesn't count. Even if he died today, everything he's ever done has "trite" and "banal" and "cliche-ridden" stamped all over it in 20-foot letters. Iconic? Never was, never will be IMHO [/quote] [quote name='silverfoxnik' timestamp='1446814250' post='2902550'] With respect, I can't think of a comment on Basschat in recent years that I fundamentally disagree with as much as this one.. [/quote] Well, there are all the other times someone has expressed a similarly bizarre viewpoint about McCartney ... like every time he or The Beatles are mentioned.

I am similar. I can, on odd occasions, get away with a shouty kind of backing vocal but I have even got worse at that as I get older. Many years of abusing the ear, nose, and throat areas can't have helped. But I've played fretless and upright and never had serious complaints about my intonation and I always know when I or someone else is flat or off key in some other way. My son is vocally somewhat better than me but he has limitations too. Nonetheless, he improved his singing radically by having a few singing lessons. He has since developed a kind of cross between Tom Waits, the bloke from The Streets, and Rex Harrison in [i]My Fair Lady[/i] doing dub toasting.

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1446751438' post='2902115'] Guess I'm the only one that thinks those clip on tuners just look wrong! ... [/quote] I only use it on the bridge of upright to tune up when practising unamplified. Thats it.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1446804727' post='2902436'] Off course you do have to trust your tuner and hope that it hasn't been moved from the reference point your band use (generally A=440). A previous Terrortone guitarist managed to accidentally alter theirs about a quarter-tone flat and played a whole gig that way. The sound on stage was terrible which meant the out-of-tuneness between the guitar and bass was only audible in a few locations and so I'd put it down to some freak of the acoustics. Our drummer who could hear the problem perfectly from is position on stage kept shouting at us to check our tuning, which we dutifully did, both being perfectly in tune with ourselves but horribly out of tune with each other. It wasn't until the next rehearsal that we discovered exactly what the problem had been. However the audience didn't appear to notice anything wrong and we picked up a really good gig review from that night! [/quote] I had a similar experience but fortunately only at a rehearsal. Using a clipon tuner on the bridge of my upright bass I had inadvertently tuned two semitones flat. Embarrassingly, and for a moment, I was accusing everyone else of being being in the wrong key. I did apologise.

[media]http://youtu.be/6gwLQAuHJv8[/media]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1446737751' post='2901903'] ... Boss TU12 (bought in 1983 and still going strong) ... [/quote] I have a TU12 bought second hand in 1990 (£6) ... and still going strong. Before 1990 I was using either a tuning fork or a harmonica. Plus ... Boss TU2 Mooer Baby Meisel clip Takamine B10 has built in tuner. TC BG250 has built in..

Smokey Robinson in the background conducting.

The OMD bassist Andy McClusky learned on a lefty Watkins Rapier bass and that's why he plays right handed upside down - or so i have read - there's a thread about it somewhere here.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1446479556' post='2899667'] ... Give me Pinky & Perky any day ... [/quote] Pink and Perky were a mere tribute band?

Is anyone else old enough to remember this one with fondness? [media]http://youtu.be/06hB4oep4XY[/media]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1446305501' post='2898500'] ... Concertgebouworkest tribute band Berliner Philharmoniker ... [/quote] Going to hear them in Berlin over Christmas/New Year.

Even 1mm is not heavy, maybe 3mm is heavyish.

I really don't care a jot whether a band/musician/show is tribute/cover/original (although there's very little that actually qualifies as original and when it does it's usually not that great). I'm only interested in (1) 'is it any good?' and (2) 'do I like it?' and (3) 'am I entertained by it?'

Good luck to the kid but I was bored as soon as I saw the drumkit.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1446146939' post='2897365'] I know some of you guys play in tribute bands, but I wondered how many of you have seen a band called the Dutch Eagles. I've never seen any other tribute band come as close as they do to recreating the sound of the original band. Not only do they have the music and the voices down pat, but they have the accents down too, which is rather an impressive feat as they are singing in a foreign language. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d1SbC0Jly4"]http://www.youtube....h?v=6d1SbC0Jly4[/url] 'Fraid I can't get it to embed...... [/quote] I actually didn't mind them despite my comment above. Same for The Eagles themselves [media]http://youtu.be/6d1SbC0Jly4[/media]

So here's an Eagles song with the life not sucked out ... [media]http://youtu.be/DVa4oOX4xWE[/media]