The Bassist and Guitarist thread

[ColinJ]

Ideal for punk guitarists - a knuckle duster to deal with stagedivers who get too close to your rig.

No need - just do a Jean-Jacques Burnel and use your instrument!

Anyway... the band [The Stranglers] were playing and the densely-packed punk audience was pogoing away in front of the stage, with the occasional pogoer spitting up at the band. (Remember those glorious pre-virus days!!) They were getting a bit peed off with it and bass player Jean-Jacques Burnel leaned forward and growled into his mic... "Right, you can pack that f*****g gobbing in! The next f****r who gobs at me gets it!!" Most of the punks had enough sense to believe him but one idiot pogoed to the front and gobbed straight at him. JJB immediately smacked him in the face with his bass! The ailing punk was escorted from the building by security and the band carried on with their set.



It always struck me how young JJB looked compared to the rest of them - he looked like a precocious teenager playing in his dodgy old dad's band!

 

[Cycleops]

no words...

View attachment 738528

...and when you thought it couldn't get any worse :

 

[ColinJ]

Hmm, Big Google is watching us...

YouTube is now showing me multiple videos of gigs where The Stranglers and the crowd got a bit frisky together!!

Reading some of the comments where people reported having witnessed events very similar to what I saw, I am now wondering if they were a set-up!

 

[rogerzilla]

Hmm, Big Google is watching us...

YouTube is now showing me multiple videos of gigs where The Stranglers and the crowd got a bit frisky together!!

Reading some of the comments where people reported having witnessed events very similar to what I saw, I am now wondering if they were a set-up!

Next it'll be Dead Kennedys with Jello first throwing people off the stage, then himself diving off without warning. He still does it with his current band and he's no lightweight these days.

 

[rogerzilla]

I have terrible right hand technique (stop sniggering at the back) and find it particularly difficult to strum (STOP IT!) without dropping the pick.

I read recently that Chris Isaak drills a hole in them to get a better grip, so I tried it and it works. You could probably do a neater job than me.

 

[Drago]

I use Dunlop Tortex Triangle, 0.7 on bass and 0.5 on guitar and mandolin. It takes a few hours for the finish to wear in for them to become truly grippy.

 

[rogerzilla]

My daughter's off to university so I bought her this Squier Affinity Tele for £100, gave it a good polish and setup, and it plays better than my Warmoth partscaster which cost 10x more. Honestly, if this was the only guitar I ever had, it would be fine. I prefer a vintage-style bridge but that's all I can find to criticise.

 

[DRM]

My daughter's off to university so I bought her this Squier Affinity Tele for £100, gave it a good polish and setup, and it plays better than my Warmoth partscaster which cost 10x more. Honestly, if this was the only guitar I ever had, it would be fine. I prefer a vintage-style bridge but that's all I can find to criticise.

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That’s very nice, bargain too

 

[delb0y]

Trying a bit of Doc Watson style flatpicking yesterday. Doc plays this a fair bit faster.


View: https://youtu.be/vJOfFXTCqXI?si=uUvkAe6lnRJorhal

 

[Drago]

More tidying.

 

[rogerzilla]

I bought this very cheap practice amp for my daughter but it didn't work - there was nothing on the clean channel until max volume, and even then it was quiet. The overdrive channel sort of worked but everything was intermittent.

I got a refund but the guy didn't want it back, so I sourced (with some difficulty) four new mini-pots of the correct type and value, and got the soldering iron out.

It all works as it should now. I can't say the sound is lovely compared to my (also cheap) Vox VT15* but, reading the reviews, it's as good as it gets. The clean channel is hiss-free but a bit tinny even with the tone backed off. The dirty channel is very harsh but ok for those Led Zep riffs. The usual advice for these is to stick to the clean channel and use an overdrive pedal instead, but something nice like a Boss Blues Driver costs twice as much as the amp did. I do have one, tbough, so I'll try it out.

*the Vox has one triode for a hint of true valve sound

 

[rogerzilla]

Update: it's definitely better using an overdrive pedal on the clean channel - just lacks bass from the 6.5" speaker. I doubt it's an especially good speaker.

The main problem with all these little practice amps is that there's no reverb function. Ok, you can use a pedal for that too, but then it needs a power supply - reverb pedals generally use too much power for a battery - and an extra fly lead. It's much better when it's built into the amp.

 

[raleighnut]

It looks to have a headphone socket, try using that

 

[DRM]

Update: it's definitely better using an overdrive pedal on the clean channel - just lacks bass from the 6.5" speaker. I doubt it's an especially good speaker.

The main problem with all these little practice amps is that there's no reverb function. Ok, you can use a pedal for that too, but then it needs a power supply - reverb pedals generally use too much power for a battery - and an extra fly lead. It's much better when it's built into the amp.

https://www.laney.co.uk/amps/guitar/mini/ministack-lion
I got one of these it’s a stonking amp, with a built in tape style delay, it has a good sound, and it’s quite loud (6 Watts) through the speakers, it’s got four in the cabinet bit, £60 on Amazon, runs on batteries or a 12volt psu
Edit: You can also use the Tonebridge App to simulate loads of pedals/tones, it comes with the lead, and a connection on the amp part to connect to the app

 

[Drago]

Update: it's definitely better using an overdrive pedal on the clean channel - just lacks bass from the 6.5" speaker. I doubt it's an especially good speaker.

The main problem with all these little practice amps is that there's no reverb function. Ok, you can use a pedal for that too, but then it needs a power supply - reverb pedals generally use too much power for a battery - and an extra fly lead. It's much better when it's built into the amp.

I have a small and inexpensive Harley Benton practice amp and jt has an excellent reverb and a decent overdrive. Loud it is not, but the sound quality is surprisingly good.