Rudi

Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf

http://www.spinnakertower.co.uk/ The Spinnaker Tower was built to commemorate the Millennium. That is so important isn’t it? We have a large round number appearing on the calendar. Lets spend £35 million quid so we don’t forget that big number later on. The thing dominates the skyline. Its like a big middle finger rising out of the harbour saying “ha ha, you just paid for this, up yours ” to everybody in the city. Now lack of money is blamed for Care Home closure, bus service cutbacks etc etc. Still we have the tower to look at, and that’s the main thing right? To paraphrase the immortal Arnold Rimmer, ‘There’s not a word bad enough to describe how what-ever-it-is you are, but you are one, and a total, total one at that. That’s how I feel about some Portsmouth Councillors. Mum has been put on 40 mg of Citropan as a result of medication assessment at Goddard. She was walking awkwardly on Saturday, bent knees and hunched over. Lodge manager Kaz suspects this is attention seeking. I don’t believe this. I think something is wrong. Tomorrow at 6.30pm we go to a presentation at the Lodge to hear about Portsmouth’s Residential Care Home strategy. So far, all we have seen is more closures. £35 million quid was found to build the Spinnaker Tower, maybe they should turn that into the worlds first 557 foot tall care home. If not, maybe they could use it as a launching platform for the elderly mentally infirm. The bodies would clog the harbour, but they have enough dredgers to deal with that. Why do people celebrate round numbers on calendars anyway? Why do people makes asses of themselves on New Years Eve? Why the big party for your 30th, 40th and 50th birthday? If it’s so important then why don’t we change our whole numerical system to binary. That would give us bigger rounder numbers all the time would it not? Time: I read a book about time recently. I then bought another (I wont get around to reading it until my present book is finished) to study properly. The upshot of the first book was that nobody understands time much better than St Augustine did back in the 1st century AD (354-430), and that we presently just understand the question much better than he did. I lean toward the view that time had to have a beginning, and so will also have an end, so it’s not infinite. But if eternity has duration, it cannot be measured outside of itself. Matter & Space cannot be considered without a time reference either, though time itself seems the most elusive component. Entropy encompasses the 2nd law of thermodynamics and that permits statistical ‘error’ (for want of a better word). This suggests that time, theoretically, could behave in all sorts of strange ways; even more so than it does during my guitar practice. Without time, my elbow wouldn’t ache. 26th May was the last Blown-Out gig and I have not picked up the Jackson since then. The Spanish guitar is still consuming all my practice time. I still struggle to wrap my hands around it (some stylists say this is a big no-no anyway, but who cares) but at least my fingers are becoming stronger. The right elbow is still aching after every practice though. 7 weeks ago I started to diet. I’ve lost 5 lbs so far. Fine, 5 stone still to go, though I somehow doubt that I will reach that target 10 stone. The good thing is that I haven’t been hungry (much). I know I could lose more if I cut out drinking, and if I cut out drinking, then I could DEFINITELY cut out smoking. But Rome wasn’t burned in a day. Not even a day expressed in binary. To be truthful, I have been enjoying the diet. I have been enjoying the fresh fruit & veg, and I still have a treat once in a while. Just last week Jan & I had a full blown Chinese ‘banquet’ meal. The pounds are still dropping at a steady slow pace. I’ve just worked out that at this rate of weight loss, in 5 years 8 months and 2weeks time, I will weigh nothing. My body will have achieved zero mass and I will cease to be an event in space-time. Meanwhile the fruit is very nice.

Nice take on the question Nick. I couldnt think of any favourite chords because to me they are always contextual. They sound different according to how & where they are used. I still sometimes make chord shapes up. I did for our version of 'Mama Told Me Not To Come'.

hiya Marie. Good to have a country artist around. Welcome from Portsmouth UK

I remember those. They were pretty good.

Lowell George died on June 29, 1979. He was the founder of Little Feat and had a distinctive slide style & sound. On a snippet of an interview on the Hoy Hoy album, Lowell can be heard saying "I use specifically this, Craftsman 11/16th socket wrench, because you can go most anywhere...." (at this point the sound has faded out). He was refering to the slide he used. I checked and it seems he used this: Sears & Roebuck 11/16ths spark-plug socket wrench He also used an odd tuning (one of several probably) an open G tuning raised to A. In other words he raised the string tension rather than lowering them. This is a good interview with LG http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/lowell.html I couldnt find a picture of the specific spark plug spanner (wrench) but this is likely similar Sears.com site Mostly he used a standard stratocaster. His was a bright guitar sound, with incredible sustain. A good example of this is to be heard on 'Tripe Face Boogie' on the 'Feats Dont Fail Me Now' album. Edit: I fixed your link. It wasn't working because of the expired Session ID. Didier

Yes it is. I was amazed by some of those tunings.

When you sit & play, do you balance the guitar on your right or left knee (assuming you right handed that is)? If on the right knee, do you have trouble accessing the upper register? I think most of us use the right knee, but playing beyond the 9th fret is easier if you use the left knee.

Welcome from Portsmouth UK Andrew.

The Brontosaurus - The Move

Of course not. That would be ridiculous.

1/ six x instrument leads and one speaker cable 2/ two x microphone leads 3/ Gaffa tape 4/ Spare strings 5/ two thumbpicks & a dozen picks (including a crap one to lend the bass player when he forgets his) in a tobbaco tin 6/ Switch cleaner spray can (for pickup selection switches) 7/ three power adapter cables. 1 long twin socket. 2 short quad socket. 8/ Band 'business' cards in a mustard tin 9/ guitar stand 10/ earplugs 11/ personal alarm 12/ Band demo CD 13/ wobble bar 14/ two apples 15/ bottle of water 16/ pack of various sized allen keys 17/ flathead & phillips screwdrivers 18/ carry strap 19/ three out of date french letters 20/ a pair of tinsnips 21/ a Moore & Wright 0-1" micrometer in spectacle case 22/ notebook & pencil 23/ a bar towel 24/ a microphone

No no, you just take a left turn at Albuquerque, honest! Hi Will, wecome from sunny Portsmouth UK. Yosemite Sam http://www.silvercollection.it/yosemitesam.jpg

Hi Suzi, there are some seriously sexy ukes out there, and they are awaiting a new champion to suceed George Fornby. Wecome back

Whats the link to Carmen J? Reeling in the Years - Steely Dan

Carmen - Georges Bizet

You're better prepered than me. I didnt venture into the gig bag. I'll think on it.

Together Alone - Crowded House

I wonder if cigs really alter the tonal qualities of the voice?

Come on Eileen : Dexy's Midnight Runners

This thread inspired me to write a full account of setting up. Its called Gigs, a guide to Setting Up

Before setting off, ensure you have all your equipment. Use a checklist. Your equipment should include a ‘personal alarm’ unit and earplugs of an industrial standard. Arrive at gig. As you ferry your equipment to and from the van/car, lock the car every time leave it. You might think you will only be a moment, but chances are someone will engage you in conversation and you will forget about the car. Place your gear in the staging area & try to ensure no one will interfere with it. Once inside, spy out the power sockets. Get first bagsies on the one you want. Try not to overload any one socket. Refuse to share your socket with more than one bandmate. If necessary, use a long extension lead from another part of the room. Gaffertape this carefully so nonces don’t trip over them. Also gaffertape the switch & socket to discourage jokers turning you off. If a DJ or another band is already installed and has monopolised the power supply, delegate the most diplomatic and personable band member to negotiate power sharing. Stake your personal territory in the staging area. Isolate & fortify this with instrument cases, amp, microphone stands etc until you are set up. Plug amp in, cable everything together. Protect floor level jackplugs from careless feet by positioning a microphone stand (or guitar stand) over them. Remove guitar from case at the last moment to minimise risk of damage/abuse/accidents during the commotion that is ‘setting up’. Plug instrument in, volume down. Switch on power. Volume up. Never allow children on stage. If they are persistent, get the parents on the case. If parents don’t care, you have no option other than to frighten the children convincingly. Ie: Tell them about your terminal infectious disease. Never let anyone ‘have a go’ on your guitar unless you know them personally. If you do, expect them to drop the guitar, pull the jackplug out before isolating the amp, turn the tuning keys when the nut is locked off by the Floyd-Rose system, stick lit cigarettes between the strings, hand it to their mates to try out too, etc. After gig, power off. Put guitar into case first to minimise risk of damage/abuse/accidents. Remove leads from the end furtherest away from you first or risk bandmates standing on them when you are trying to gather them up. Never coil instrument cables, fold them. When they folded to about 3ft in length, tie them in a loose knot (coiled cables twist, induce lateral tension, and they will knot up). When all packed up, you have to face drunk people loitering in doorways etc. Forget saying “excuse me please, may I get past?” This will not work. You are carrying heavy equipment, and cannot fanny about trying to sidestep around people. Insert your earplugs & switch on your personal alarm just before heading for the door burdened with amp etc. This will clear a path for you. It works.

Pearls a Singer : Elkie Brooks

My mainstay for the last 8 years has been a Fender Stage 112. I selected it for the qualities of both the ‘clean’ and the ‘gain’ channel. To me, it sounded great on both. This is neither a tube amp nor a hybrid, but I tried several of these out at the time and found them largely disappointing. Obviously I am not a tube purist. There are compression and gain dials on the gain channel and master volume and 3 tone dials for each channel. A middle shift switch and a channel selector foot switch come as standard too. There is a reverb dial, but the reverb unit has long been kaput! I used to use the footswitch to change channels, using the clean for chords & the gain for solos. Since then I have the amp slaved to a Boss GT5 unit. I use FIVE instrument cables to rig this unit in the amp’s ‘effect loop’ and line it out to the band PA. I could bypass the effects loop but only at the expense of sound quality. Being slaved, the amp is set permanently to the clean channel. This renders the volume & effect controls on the amp useless. Now the Stage 112 is relegated to little more than a monitor, as the PA handles the task of getting the sound to the audience. Only on practice evenings do I leave the Boss unit at home & use the amp the ‘old fashioned’ way. Here are a whole bunch of Stage 112 user reviews. Not all of them like the gain channel that much. http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews.../Stage+112/10/1 What they all seem to agree on however is that:- 1/ It is a workhorse that can take some serious punishment on an ongoing basis. 2/ It is LOUD 3/ The reverb (plate type) always breaks down and no one ever seems bothered to fix it. 4/ The clean channel really is clean. I would still prefer something lighter to lug around, though compared to the classic Twin Reverb, its still light by comparison.