Re: Tubes versus Modeling Caged Death Match

["Steve Lawson" <steve@steve-lawson.co.uk>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "mark" <sine@zerocrossing.net>
> Nope, I totally disagree.  If you put on big shoes and a red nose,
> you're a clown.

I know professional clowns who would have a severe hissy fit at that
suggestion, in the same way that I get all upset when guitarists pick up a
bass, play it like it's an oversized guitar and call themselves bassists -
they look like bass players but are in fact guitar playing bass holders. 
The
difference is only clear and label-able to the initiated, but the effects
are felt by all. In the same way that if I dressed like a clown, you'd look
at me and say 'Clown', but anyone who was really a clown would watch my
attemts at CLOWNING (a real verb, that describes a creative pursuit, not
just an idiosyncratic dress sense) and see in a secnd that I didn't have a
clue what I was doing. I looked like a clown, and to the uninitiated could
pass for a clown. But a real clown could behave like a clown without the
shoes and nose (Charlie Chaplin, anyone?) and you'd know what they were
doing...

Where this fits with the valves/modelling debate is so beautifully poetic,
I'm not going to spoil it but reducing it to some form of didactic
left-brain thingie... ;o)

big love

Steve (solo bass noodling purveyor of clown-chic - coming to a venue near
you soon)
www.steve-lawson.co.uk