ivansc

I played along withg obne of these buggers a while back - chap claimed to be scots living abroad and buyin got for his nephew. Went through the whole Western Union or PayPal... shipping agents fees bit and was obviously fully prepared with a fairly credible back story. If you reckon they catch one seller in ten, or even one in twenty, not a bad way to make a living, especially if Some Fool ships the instrument too!

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1470748950' post='3108128'] Mr Tauzero, thanks for the namecheck! Don't forget to put your hand up and tell teacher they've forgotten to give us homework as well. Aah, Mr Clayton. My nemesis. As I've posted before, I don't think it's quite hate because that's something I would apply to root vegetables, moreover I simply don't like the guy and like his playing even less. You know, for the record, I met him just the once and he was thoroughly unpleasant, smug and arrogant. He just had this air of incredulity about him, akin to that of someone who had reached the giddy echelons of a given field without having a credible bone in their body to support where they'd got to. On the shoulders of giants. Which I suppose is where I came in. We do live in a world where we have a degree of freewill and comes with that the ability to like and dislike things, people, places. We also seem to live in a world where it seems it's OK to heap praise on things but it's bad to castigate, unless it's Nigel Farage I suppose. [/quote] The classic line here is, of course, what exactly have YOU done that makes you feel entitled to not just say you don`t like his playing, but refer to him as talentless? I have a confession to make - I have never EVER sat down and listened to a U2 song all the way through, so I am not making a case either for or against A.C.s talent or lack thereof, but for someone who is supposedly talentless, he seems like he is doing alright, doesnt he? So - you met him and you thought he was smug and rude. Did that automatically make his bass playing chops crap as well? I am now curious as to what he actually plays for U2 that is so naff. I may even be forced to listen to them! At least he hopefully doesnt rely on a multi tap echo pedal like the guitar player.....

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1470656854' post='3107344'] You should [b]never[/b] put yourself down along the lines of being limited and/or playing such a thing or assuming that playing any instrument is above you. Tut tut. Here's a name; Adam Clayton. You might have heard of him. Never has a bass player gotten so far, with so much gear, with so little talent. [/quote] Wow! And he speaks so highly of you!

I have a 600 watt dynacoerd system powering a pair of Celestion SR2 Mk2s. Fine for solo gigs in pubs etc. When I play bigger places I hook in eiother one or both of my 600 watt powered subs. Biggest gig I ever played was a bolws club dance - they opened up the whole arena, ALL lanes - and laid af loor. With my system AND the singers 2kw system we still struggled a biut. Mind you the place was packed ( over 1000 people) and the acoutstics were dreadful. Great night though. So really the answer to the poll is "as much as you can bring in, depending on the gig".

I sprayed my 1962 Precision TCSB white... in 1963, though. The only photos I have are so bad you can barely tell that it is a guitar of any sort, or for that matter that a human being is playing it. Shame. I would have loved before and after pix as a memento of the stupidest thing I ever did. Selling it!

OOH! Just found tal Winkenfield playing a Harmony semi acoustic bass!!!! Bass porn....

Either your singing or bass playing has to go on autopilot whilsdt you concentrate on the other. Only you can dfecide which is going to be the easiest thing to get "auto" on. For me it usually winds up being a mix of both, depending on which bit is the hardest at a particular point in the song, but I have been simultaneously singing and playing for a very long time.

[quote name='Trueno' timestamp='1470293677' post='3104752'] My comment wasn't meant SERIOUSLY!!!! [/quote] Neither was mine - Was maybe a bit too subtle - I immediately jumped to a mental pictuer of the male voice choir onstage with the Feelgoods!

How long are your arms?

Funny - I finally bowed to peer pressure in 1983 and started using my fingers instead of a pick. Happily, I can still use a pick pretty well although not in the same league as Mr V. And as always so much of the technique revolves around two handed muting.

[quote name='Trueno' timestamp='1470242954' post='3104444'] Luckily I also saw Dr Feelgood around the same time... none of that sort of nonsense with them. [/quote] Now I like the Feelgoods, but.... SERIOUSLY???? guitar thrashers versus kitchen sink.

aging vocal cords will do that to you. I ended up changing a lot of keys as my pipes wore out. Easier than detuning. House of the rising sun is if anything easier iN E than A! (not that I play it any more....)

[quote name='Raymondo' timestamp='1470219858' post='3104136'] Worth a look.... [url="http://fxtop.com/en/historical-exchange-rates.php?A=1&C1=GBP&C2=EUR&YA=1&DD1=03&MM1=08&YYYY1=2006&B=1&P=&I=1&DD2=03&MM2=08&YYYY2=2016&btnOK=Go%21"]http://fxtop.com/en/...016&btnOK=Go%21[/url] Not sure if this will work but, if you take the average exchange rates of the £/euro for the last ten years, this years average is higher than any year since 2007 apart from 2015. [/quote] Now do the numbers up to say Oct 2015 & then compare that with from Nov 2015 to now. In case I hadnt made it clear earlier, my whole life is bound up in the exchange rate between Euro, USD and GBP. I get daily updates on the going rates and can obviously see exactly where the three currencies stand in relation to each other and why. And remember that in the last ten years we have had TWO major dips and peaks. Just because it all evens out eventually doesnt mean there isnt a world of pain in store in the meantime. Just when we thought we had survived the financial collapse in 2006/7....

Per at Sampletekk is selling a Kontakt version of the 10cc INIL choir - with their blessing. I bought it, just to be able to sit and play with it! Wonderful

Way back when, I got leads mostly from the management company that looked after my band - that band died and at the same time several other bands they looked after were also looking for a good tight rhythm section. Drummer and I ooked up with a new paying gig pretty quickly, so I suspect Blue is right - if there is a serious opportunity, it will get offered around the guys in the local "pro" clique for that genre.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1470213516' post='3104064'] Brexit - the excuse for everything. The pound is down a bit against the dollar and euro - it recovered after an initial drop. As it's somewhere round 10% down, that is not the sole reason for a 30% price rise. So it's simply money-grabbing greed while there's a good excuse to be had. [/quote] Not hardly. Pound is still way down on where it was at the end of 2015, before Brexit paranoia really set in. I get a pension from the USA in dollars and am renovating a house in Brittany. Believe me I am glad I moved pounds into euros when I did. When I see the pound back at around 1.40 on the euro, I will agree it is just a "seasonal bliip". Todays Forex rates are 1.19 on the euro and 1.33 on the US dollar. Ouch. Even now it is still a drop of some 18-20% and the greenback is worse.

For me, it has always been about the neck and playability, sound coming after thsat and THEN a long way back the looks. Mind you I have opwned some "interesting" looking basses. Many years ago a Well KNown American Manufacturer gave me a prototype of an Explorer shaped bass with a bolt on neck and a Precision style pickup. HUGE brass bridge, awkwardly placed strap buttins, but the neck was killer. Still have it. I have worn holes clean through the finish and into the wood with my thumb placement & that wonderful neck is losing its skunk stripe, but..... And ugly? Even its own mother couldnt love it. I would post a photo but it would crack the lens on my camera.

Teachest or a plastic garbage can? (Although I think both have been done before )

And of course it IS worth mentioning that just because you played on a session, invoced and goty paid, doesnt mean you ever made the cut. I have tried not to let my own feelings on this interfere with the thread, but I am of the opinion that CK is dissing James` legacy just because she thought there was nobody around who would remember/care/argue about it. As soon as someone shows up with possibly convincing evidence that refutes her claims, all goes quiet again.

3 basses. Electric upright, P and a weird thing that Gibson gave me that was my main working bass for years. Couldn`t sell any of them, as I use all three. Now guitars is a different matter. I currently need to sell about four or five of the buggers! I swear they bewwd when kept in dark corners.... Also a few remaining bits of hardware studio gear, but that will have to keep till September. Hard to sell stuff iN France when you dont really know how it all works. Ebay does nothing here and havent found the equivalent of Gumtree.

Sounds like business as usual sewer ler continong. Guitarist in my current band lived and worked in the Blearics for 20 odd years and had no less than THREE sets of gear for the same reason. You rush about a bit, but if the moneys OK......

Cant stand VM but Moondance is really just a rawk bassist faffing about pretending to be a jazzer, innit? I just play a walking bass line round the chords and leave it at that apart, from the little bits of "subtle" syncopation.... I always thought the record sounded like the band were warming up before recording proper started and Van started scatting over the top. Lyrics are decidedly naff and his vocal phrasing gets really painful in places, but the punters usually like it.

Back in the days of the 24 hour club, I was in a human pyramid at the Nashville Rooms with D.E., Nick Lowe and several others.... I think! . Er Morgan Fisher might have been there too. All very silly. Not sure who the band was but Archie Leggett was on bass & Zoot money wore a gorilla suit for a lot of the time.

What? Eh? (70dB loss in one ear & 45dB in the other, but I AM 72 and started playing in the fifties)

Played one of the very first buzz basses back in the eighties and the clarity an punch from a fretless just blew me away. Never have played a fretted Pedulla but the fretless versions I have played were anything but dark. Even though I have little or no real escuse for buying a fretless nowadays, if an old Pedulla Buzz showed up at a price I could afford without guilt.....