flyfisher

[quote name='daz' timestamp='1354125374' post='1882446'] Not really. Its a STAR caster ie: a word that looks enough like [i]Strato [/i]caster that it might fool a few unwary buyers like mums n dads shopping for little johnny for an Xmas present. "Little Johnny insisted on it being a Fender stratocaster, and here is one much cheaper than the rest. Oh how pleased little johnny will be on Xmas morn, and how clever we are saving many hundreds of pounds" Imagine the the jolly scene. 6AM Xmas day:............ [u]Cast[/u]: Johnny (typical spoiled brat neophye guitard) Mum n Dad (Johnnys parental modules) [u]Scene 1:[/u] [u]Interior[/u]: Johnnys home, living room. Johnny excitedly tears open the guitar shaped box with FENDER printed on it, to reveal..... Johnny: "Its a f***in bass you senile dingbats, and its NOT a stratocaster, cant you f***in read!!!" Parentals: (Whack!) "you ungrateful little bastard...." [/quote] Fixed.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1354121607' post='1882368'] I wouldn't buy a pint of milk from Tescos. I hate their aggressive expansion at the cost of local shops, . . . . [/quote] That's a fair enough opinion, but let's not forget who is actually responsible for the demise of local shop . . . their customers, or rather their non-customers. Big businesses can't force people to spend their money with them. People choose to do so, presumably because they are happy to do so for all sorts of reasons - able to do all their shopping in one store instead of carting their shopping from store to store in the rain, easy and free parking, etc etc. I'm not even sure price is at the top of the list. Anyway, I wouldn't buy a pint of milk at Tesco's either - but that's because I'm helping to keep our local milkman in a job.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1354048146' post='1881468'] I don't understand this starting a song in the wrong key. Surely you learn it in the right key for your singer and stick with it? Also the one time I've changed the key of a song to suit a singer it opened up a whole load of new possibilities for the guitar part which meant I ended up playing something entirely different to the part I'd originally written with no chance of getting the two confused. [/quote] Don't ask me, I didn't start the song! To be fair, I recall it was a new song and we changed the key to suit the singer but the guitarist simply used a capo. Come the fateful day, he forgot to use the capo.

The singer in one of my bands spent some time learning a harp solo and had got it down pretty well in rehearsals. At the first gig we played the song, for some reason the guitarist started the song in G instead of A. I spotted it immediately and changed with no problem. I don't think the singer really twigged the key change, or was thinking more about his forthcoming debut harp solo, but we couldn;t restart the song so I just waited for the inevitable train wreck. Actually it wasn't too bad but after a couple of lines the singer realised he couldn't make it sound quite right so he gave up and let the guitarist finish the solo. Pretty funny though. I've made plenty of live mistakes, but nothing show-stopping. Most times it's because I'm not yet totally comfortable about a new song and the mistake is usually related to missing a verse/chorus/middle8 change. Perhaps I'm a slow learner or the bands are too keen to play new stuff before we're really ready. It does have the advantage that the audience probably hasn't heard the song before so are less likely to spot the mistake!

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1354036176' post='1881254'] I'm not buying anything from Tesco until they start paying their taxes. [/quote] Hmm. I'm getting a bit fed up with all this hysteria about people and companies avoiding tax. Avoiding tax is perfectly legal and seems to be just as legitimate as someone buying something for less than the manufacturer's recommended retail price - by buying it cheaper you're avoiding spending more than you need to. Everyone does it. If we want to make people and companies pay more tax then it's up to us to change the tax laws, not moan about people and companies behaving perfectly legally but not the way we happen to think they ought to. Anyway, who do you think will pay for any increases in corporation tax? I'll give you a clue - it won't be at the expense of the company's profitability!

Don't all companies attempt to take over the planet?

Too late: http://www.officialscrapmetal.com/

Is this a similar sort of thing as a Sue Ryder bass?

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1354011062' post='1880671'] whats the difference between tescos and thomann? [/quote] That was my first thought. Why can't a retail business expand its product lines? After all, when you're one of the world's biggest and most successful retail businesses, how else are they going to maintain their growth? People buy all manner of things from Amazon after all.

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1354009865' post='1880642'] Get away with you sir. That doesn't make sense, if you think about it. You can only concentrate on things that are happening in the present. Mistakes are instantly in the past - so they can't cloud your concentration. And we are all allowed to have a memory. [/quote] Mistakes may not be able to cloud your past concentration, but they can certainly affect your present and future concentration while you're worrying about that mistake that's now firmly established in the past.

I reckon musical genres are like social classes - something for other people to define and pontificate about - and about as useful. Unfortunately, such things exacerbate conflict because people end up supporting bands simply because they play a particular 'genre' as defined by some aspiring music journo. Fortunately, most people grow out of such things and eventually learn to decide for themselves what music they like and dislike without needing to know the genre.

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1354000630' post='1880569'] I think there are three things you really need to be sure are compatable before choosing: 1. Playing ability 2. Personality 3. Commitment [/quote] I agree with that, though it would be interesting to discuss the priority of those attributes. I'd suggest personality and commitment above playing ability. Not that ability is not important, more that lots of people can play well enough but if you don't actually like them then the band will always be hard work. It's a bit like interviewing someone for a job vacancy. You can easily sort through a pile of CVs to get a shortlist with the right technical qualifications but it's the interview that's so important because that's where you (try to) sort out the people who would never actually fit in, regardless of their paper qualifications or, in this case, their playing ability.

I've heard of people posting stuff to themselves and keeping the postmarked envelope sealed, presumably to be opened in the presence of legal witnesses should the need ever arise. But for really formal protection I'd guess it's best to take formal legal/IPR advice. Incidentally, I've also read about crowdsourcing being used to try to uncover previously unknown prior art, which can then be used to dispute issued patents. The world of IPR is a minefield - a nice little earner for the professionals involved but a nightmare for the creatives. No wonder many tech companies woudl rather spend money on continual innovation to stay ahead of the competition rather than disclose all their secrets in a patent and rely on the courts for financial protection, which can cost more than it's worth. Just found this example of this sort of thing: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2011/10/07/revolutionizing-prior-art-research-how-crowdsourcing-could-save-the-angry-birds/id=19588/ There's also increasing support for 'first-to-file' IP protection, so potentially someone could steal IP and then get it protected in their name! http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/20/will-first-to-file-hurt-small-inventors/

There was a similar question some time ago where a car battery and mains inverter was suggested as a possibility. Then someone posted here about seeing some buskers actually using such a set up, so it seems a feasible solution. With everything strapped to a luggage trolley, it could be a reasonably portable outfit - depending on the exact circumstances of course.

Doesn't putting original stuff online actually help protect the author? I realise it won't stop anyone pinching the stuff, but if it suddenly became huge then the original writer would be able to more easily prove their ownership than if they had only ever played it down the pub and someone had pinched the idea from there instead. After all, isn't copyright protection completely automatic? You don't have to 'claim' copyright on original works, but of course you do need to be able to prove it somehow if there was ever a dispute. Or have I got this all wrong?

I've got both hard and soft cases for my (only) bass and I rarely use the soft case, but then I drive to 95% of my musical outings and the hard case is easly thrown (well, not quite) into the back of my estate car along with everything else and I never have to worry about it being damaged. On the one occasion I've gigged in London and went by train then the soft case, with shoulder straps, was perfect and if I did that 95% of the time I'd probably also be slagging off hard cases. Just goes to show there's no 'perfect' case . . . just like there's no perfect bass, amp, cab, lead, strings, picks, shoes, shirts . . . you name it.

[quote name='jackers' timestamp='1353761876' post='1878188'] I have spoken to them this morning and politely but firmly explained to them what I think about their attitude and rigs, and that it is not going to be worth my time, effort and petrol to keep playing with them. [b]They said some rude things back to me[/b], and that was that. Definitely made the right choice [/quote] At least they seem consistent in their behaviour. You'd think that with all the sound guys they encounter saying the same thing, and now you leaving because of the same issue, that they'd get the message. Still, at least they made your correct decision quite an easy one. Good luck with the next band.

Hertford Corn Exchange last night, supporting Neville Staple (ex-Specials). Have played there quite a few times and the sound has been very good, especially the foldback, but this time the sound check was rushed by the venue sound guy (not the one we usually have) and the on-stage sound was quite muddy and I struggled a bit at times and dropped a couple of clangers. Still, no one I spoke to afterwards mentioned it, so perhaps bass-player anonymity lives on! It was very much a reggae/ska evening, so we must have been brave or foolish to go on after a full-on reggae band that had got everyone dancing. Our brand of originals was definitely a big contrast but we didn't clear the floor and our one reggae/ska-ish song had everyone up and dancing. We also threw in a token cover - Time Is Tight - and our trombonist seemed to go down OK. We we were finished, the stage was cleared and Neville Staple's band set up their gear but didn't really soundcheck - just confirmed everything was working. They had their own sound guy and when they came on their sound was spot-on. So, a very enjoyable evening and I think we were "OK" but there's no doubt that we were very much in the shadow of the two other far more accomplished bands. A great experience for us though.

A brilliant piece of engineering, but it'll never be a substitute for the emotional touch of a live musician. Anyway, the concept of machines playing music is hardly new - piano rolls have been around for over a century but I don't detect a dearth of keyboard players these days. A good choice of engineering project though.

Wow! As mentioned earlier, I ordered a P-bass polo shirt late on Wednesday evening. I thought at the time it was a shame I'd left it too late for my gig this evening supporting Neville Staple (ex-Specials). 10:30 this morning there's a knock on the door with a neatly wrapped BC polo . . . so I'm all set for this evening. Yay! No sign of the lanyard though. I guess this comes via a different route?

What's the point of learning to play in a different configuration? After loads of time and effort you'll still only be able to play what you could before in your preferred style, so what have you gained? Better, surely, to spend all that time and effort improving your existing playing skills?

[quote name='fernandobicho' timestamp='1353532938' post='1875826'] Thank you flyfisher, but SWR Goliath III exists in 4ohm and 8 ohm. That's the problem. [/quote] Sorry about that. I did think about the possibility but the few sites I checked didn't give the two options.

Lanyard? Who needs a lanyard? OK then, I've ordered one . . . . and a custom polo to go with it. Keep up the good work!

According to this, it's an 8 ohm cab: http://www.thomann.de/gb/swr_goliath_iii.htm

Multicore will be fine for what is effectively a fixed installation because you'll be able to ty-rap the cable (not too tight!) and fully support it so that the weight of the multicore does not hang on the individual cores and connectors. Just make it long enough so that there are no tight corners and none of the split-out individual cores are stretched in any way. In fact, because it's a balanced system there's no real need to minimise cable lengths at all (within reason of course). Sounds like a nice system you're putting together.