The North London Power-Shift

What's the name of your band ?

 

That'll give away who I am.

 

You have a problem with that ? I thought you were a showman .... ?

 

I prefer to retain my anonymity.

I can tell you, however, that my band is widely regarded as one of the best in the area. We play all the major glgs and festivals.

 

You said we've met in real life though, so you must know me. Surely you don't mind returning the compliment ?

 

Did I? If I did, I was on another wind up. I can't remember half the **** I write!

 

I have been trying to tell you that for a while

 

I know! I was purposely ignoring you and working overtime to come up with more **** It was part of my Master Plan.

 

Well, you've certainly put in a fair shift to come up with a load of ****. I'll give you that

 

I still have my old Les Paul. We've been together for more than 35 years. When I did this for a living I had an SG standard, a maple neck telecaster, a 335, and a Martin acoustic. In those days, for gigs I used a Marshall 200w with a Marshall stack of 2 4x12 cabinets.

Now I just have a practice amp that I use from time to time. On the rare ocassions I do a gig, I borrow a mate's Fender Dual Showman.

 

Musicman Stingray 4 and a Trace Elliot 300w Combo. I've used Ampeg stacks before 1x15 cab and 4x10 cab, beautiful sound but unfortunately not mine. I used to play a 1979 pre Ernie ball Stingray but had to sell it to buy a new car when the engine blew up (big mistake) they now sell for £1500 upwards and will only increase in value. I play a 2006 3EQ Stingray now, which is a lovely bass. But I do miss the old tone of that early Stingray ....

 

Yeah, I made that mistake with the SG. It was a hand made 1950's original, complete with real mother of pearl inlays on the frets. It was a beaut, I loved that guitar. But, I got married, needed money.......!

 

Ouch ! I dread to think what that would be worth now. I've always liked the design and sound of the SG. I know Les Paul gets all the attention when it comes to Gibson guitars, but I always thought the SG had a warmer sound. I used to have really old unmarked Jazz Bass that I could only discern was made in Japan from some markings under the neck bolts. It was very nicely put together though, so I upgraded the pick ups and pots and had it de-fretted, added a bone nut etc and set it up with some flatwounds. That was my 'Pastorius' bass for a few years. But nothing beats the rasp of a Stingray for my style of playing.

 

Our little slide down the table was always likely given our set of fixtures since Christmas.

Our run in looks quite kind though and I think we can climb back up to around 7th or 8th by the end.

We don't have to finish above the spuds to conclude that a power shift from them to us is underway. Last season we finished 29 points behind them. This season I think the gap could be as little as 10-12. Next season will be even closer.

Going back to the original topic, if Man Utd win today then this thread is starting to look quite embarrassing

 

I like the sound of a bass, especially in the hands of a top player. A band has to have either a good bass player or a good drummer, preferably both.

I know it's more my era, but the best I heard was Jack Bruce - great, great player!

The SG is lighter and has better balance, IMO. The Les Paul is a terrific guitar - great sound. But, it's heavy and after a couple of hours it feels like it weighs a ton.

 

From that era John Paul Jones has to be my favourite bass player. I'm influenced mainly by funk players though, Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins, Bernard Edwards. But I grew up listening to Stuart Zender and the legendary Flea who is a massive influence on my playing (Hence the love affair with the Stingray) One of the best bass players I've seen in modern times though has to be Les Claypool, an absolute genius.

I gig with a Latin/Afro/Funk band thesedays. We're heavily influenced by Ghana Highlife and Afro Latin (Think Tito Puente) and straight out Funk. The Stingray has such a clean and very distinctive sound, I can pick it out in an instant on any track. It weighs nearly 5 Kilos, which hanging around your neck it quite a weight after a 2-3 hour gig. I'm quite an energetic player too, the Stingray just demands to be slapped and popped

 

HIAG made some very honest admissions about this thread last night. Let's just say he's come clean I think he has admitted that the whole concept of power shift (certainly between Arsenal and Spurs anyway) is a dead duck.

 

piskie HIAG and NSIS should start a band.
any ideas for a name ......

The Power Shift ?

 

The Power Shift.

What a great name for a band!

My band plays classic rock, and we take on the more challenging stuff that other bands cannot or won't play.

My influences were Jimmy Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Van Halen, Billy Gibbons, and Gary Moore. We cover a lot of the ground in the band, like ZZ Top, Led Zeplin, Hendrix, Bad Company, Yes, Floyd, and even taking in stuff by Santana.

I have a lot of axes, including a couple of '57 Strats, and several signature Gibsons. My custom Tele and my PRS Custom are my favourites, in terms of playability, flexibility, and tone.

 

Santana's stuff is relatively challenging as he uses different scales away from the usual pentatatonics . One he uses a lot is the harmonic minor scale.

Best blues player ( white) Peter Green.