Music

Are there no musicians here?

I personally listen to the masters from time to time (Baroque, Classical), but I don't play them. I like everything, but play more contemporary items. I don't mean that pop on American Idol stuff though. Jazz, Blues, and Rock in vinyl, when the songs went on for twenty minutes.

I pound a 1972 EB-3, 34" neck 4 string bass through a couple of MXR pedals into a Peavy amp (Ampeg, Marshall, and Orange are nice, but money is an issue).

What do you have, what do you play? What or who has knocked your socks off so much that you couldn't stop long enough to answer the door when the cops were banging ?

Do you still play?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZazEM8cgt0

... the first part anyway...

BTW, bought this bass (above) a long long time ago for $180. And no. The pots don't scratch at all when I turn them. And no. you can't have it. It is considered 'vintage.' One of the advantages of being a few months short of sixty.

When I was about 15 I went to music lessons and learned to play the flute. I quite enjoyed it but I wasn't able to continue with it because of financial/family difficulties. The flute I used was also borrowed from the school so I don't own one. I've always desired to reacquaint myself with it but haven't been in a position to do so. I would also love to learn to play the piano.

I play tabs mostly but know chords and make up stuff sometimes. Idk I can't get into learning music theory by myself and I can't afford a teacher so I just dick around on it.

Guitar is easily access able and easy to pick up, piano and flute not so much so I have a few musician friends who are big into jazz and blues and Robert Johnson. I have a big respect for musicians because you can't really claim to love music if you don't know the theory, chuck D said that not me

I love music but the dedication that people who know the craft obviously love it more

I have my uncles old washburn acoustic electric, all wooden body and still in great shape.

i am a musician too! i love music - any music! and i have tried hard to make a career for myself as a songwriter and recording artist but hey, its hard coming up with new ideas and perfecting your craft, even harder keeping a band fresh and exciting as well as staying committed to it. and what is more, anyone who believes they can make a living from recording or performing music must have some kind of delusion of granduer!
its true, having been a musician and thinking someday you'll get 'that' gig and have everything you ever wanted, adoration, love, respect, money, and grand country pile, whatever! its all just a dream, and it only comes true when you : -

1. give it everything you've got, and

2. the audience love you!

keep rock and roll alive! its better than any shit the worlds got to offer, not even jesus, drugs, money or pornography come close. rock and roll is a personal thing, shared by everyone!

also, thx1137 - nice bass you got there! i have a few battered and broken guitars, nothing expensive just cheap imported copies and a 'seconds stock' fender acoustic. i am surprised that fenders and gibsons and the like are so expensive, when the instruments i have owned were all cheap (under 300 pounds) and very playable. hey with some jiggery pokery, they even sound like they are a professional instrument, worthy of a 1000 pound price tag! not like i have that kind of money to spend just yet, though i hope i will do in future.

Deadcitystreets, Gibson and Fender are expensive now because they can be, if you get my drift. Actually, some of the less expensive stuff is much better than it once was. Personally, I think the stuff coming out of Asia is every bit as good as the American/English stuff -- without the price tag. But, as I bet you already know, each instrument is different. You can only mass produce them to a point. At some point they have to be set-up and tuned. There is a reason why each Stradivaris violin is given a name. You know it when you pick it up and work it.

Love the attitude. More music = better planet.

Pickup: Washburn is cool. Just play.

If you are playing for someone else, you do not yet understand.

Deadcitystreets, still, you can't have this bass. It is mine. Love you long time.

BTW, you will notice two dots on the side of the bridge soap bar reverse wound humbucker pickup. There was a guard there. Removed a long time ago, 'cuase it got in the way and didn't look cool.' Don't have it anymore. Well, I priced a replacement on ebay not too long ago. $125.00 big ones. For a piece of stamped metal. Should have kept it.

Another thing that has 'changed' This bass was meant to match the SG guitar of the time. SG stood for 'standard guitar.' It was not the Les Paul. It was the low end, for the low end market. Go figure. BTW, Zappa played SG. As far as this bass, Jack Bruce (Cream) played one of these.

Jeeves, really showing my age now...

[No, I would not consider myself to be Bruce. But I can carry the riff for Moby Dick without John Paul Jones being in the room.]

Hate to triple post, but I have to get this out for your comments.

Stages of a Bass player:

Beginner:
Thinks he sounds: “like shit.”
Sounds: “like shit.”
Preferred bass: Anything he can get his hands on, just short of a shoe box with rubber bands.

Intermediate:
Thinks he sounds: ““awesome.”
Sounds: “like shit.”
Preferred bass: Anything but this one.

Advanced:
Thinks he sounds: “good.”
Sounds: “good.”
Preferred bass: The one he can't quite afford.

Professional:
Thinks he sounds: “awesome.”
Sounds: “good.”
Preferred bass: Anything he wants.

Bassist:
Thinks he sounds: “like shit.”
Sounds: “awesome.”
Preferred bass: Anything he can get his hands on, just short of a shoe box with rubber bands.

thx1137? do you have a band you jam with? if so what are they called and how did you meet them? also, have you ever made any songs of your own and do you think you could post them somehow? i am willing to do the same if it is possible.

i had a band called 'the manson family' but we sometime reverted to the traditional 'a green eyed monster' because we changed our style. we dont jam anymore but i am planning to have a jam with an old neighbour who also has a band called 'lunar madam'. they're not a bad band, certainly as good (or bad) as my own. i still record songs on cubasis just for fun as i have very little to do in the evenings and it beats playing farmville!

Deadcitystreets, haven't been in a band since I left Atlanta years ago. Because of my age, not many offers now, but occasionally some sessions. I also play around at home with an old reel to reel four track, doing layers with the bass and synth drums. I don't use cubasis, since I work in Linux.

Sold the stack a while back - wish I hadn't. I am thinking about getting something in a quad 8 + a 15, but I would have to justify that to the misses. The 200 watt Peavey 12" I have now rattles the windows dialed at 12:00; but the low end just isn't the same as a stack. Besides.you can't show up to a gig with a combo, and expect to be taken seriously, (except perhaps, in a bar on 'live music night' as an 'in between' for the popular DJ or karaoke nights.)

I hope to get into something though, in spite of my age. I don't want to be the leader of a one-man-band who is just hanging around waiting for the group to break up.

you should start a band again. your about the same age as my mate, martin. he's not gotten so old just yet that he has stopped being interested in music, i have another friend dave who still has a jamming session from time to time when he has chance. matter of fact, even lennie - whose 45 this year is still jamming with his band and loving it! childhood dreams are supposed to last a lifetime, start having a punt on finding likeminded musicians who have some free time and dont wish to spend it drinking or reading or sleeping! i am but 33 but i imagine we have the same ideas about music, same taste etc. being in a band is really all i want to do these days, even if we keep it a hobby rather than a profession.

i am thinking about going out of my way to find my old friend paul bennett and propositioning him that we should get our band together again! i would still be jamming with him but he had to marry a few years back and i have lost contact with him, shame really because i really didnt have any other bandmates to jam with ;(

its either that or to join lunar madam, lennies band and see where we get to?

Thanks. You are right, you know. Too bad that you are across the pond (I make this assumption since your guitars are priced in pounds and not dollars.)

I'm also a musician, there'll be enough for a band sometime soon the way its going on here. I also play guitar, I've currently got 4 guitars, a takamine steel string acoustic, a cheap fender acoustic that I've set up so I can play lap-slide on it with a tone bar, a cheap 12 string which is also set up for lap-slide but is more like a problem child than a guitar, but the guitar I always seem to be playing is my yamaha nylon string with a cut away; its like a standard classical guitar but with a slightly narrower neck.
I'm terrible at learning a piece note for note, I prefer improvising and am quite happy to play in a number of different tunings.
I listen to and play blues, bits of Spanish stuff, and also love guitar music from Mali in north west Africa which is where some people have argued a very good case for it being where the blues originated. Son House, Skip James, Robert Johnson and many other blues of that genre just blow me awaym, Davey Graham legend, Django also,Hendrix.... I could go on and on...
There's a definite blues theme running through these posts, which is good to see because in record shops the blues section seemed to be shrinking to virtually nothing, although saying that haven't been to a record shop for about 3 years.
Anyway, it's good to know that there are some like minded people out there, keep the faith.