Oooo,The telephone is ringing! You sound NICE.
January 17, 2018 10:17 PM   Subscribe

Nick Beggs, the very talented bassist/chapman-stickist from Kajagoogoo, has been receiving a lot of calls from scammy phone solicitors on his land-line. He's taught himself how to put the caller on speaker mode, and started recording himself fielding these calls. In October, he posted a flurry of selfies documenting these interactions. I think Nick just wants a friend.
posted by not_on_display (18 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think it starts here.
posted by not_on_display at 10:26 PM on January 17, 2018


Well, that's one member of the group who's not Too Shy...
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:34 PM on January 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


He seems to be slowly morphing into becoming Nicko McBrain as he gets older, if those video thumbnails are anything to go by.

Also, that Kajagoogoo baseline was always amazing.
posted by Brockles at 10:54 PM on January 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


Now I miss my Kramer bass!
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:58 PM on January 17, 2018


The video linked at the bottom of the page on Nick's 'Instruments' tab is fascinating (if a bit brief): https://vimeo.com/141402683
posted by Brockles at 11:03 PM on January 17, 2018


Kramer bass

I knew a guy in high school who had one of those; the case was all scuffed up at the headstock end, because when he got it, at age 13 or 14, he couldn't keep it from dragging on the ground, due to the weight of the aluminum neck, and he used to walk to school with it. So I guess "neck dive" was an issue with these basses?
posted by thelonius at 12:37 AM on January 18, 2018


> So I guess "neck dive" was an issue with these basses?

Depends on how it's balanced. You can always move the strap peg to a position that prevents neck dive, and this is part of the reason why many-string basses have ludicrously long horns relative to the body size.
posted by ardgedee at 5:55 AM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Ha, here's a guy rigging a fix one one of those Kramers.

---
I gave up on messing with telemarketers; it made me feel like a jerk, abusing a person who was desperate enough to take a terrible job, basically for no end but my own entertainment, because it did not solve the problem, or even really make me feel better about it. I just hang up now. If the same ones called again and again though, I'd perhaps rethink that policy.
posted by thelonius at 6:13 AM on January 18, 2018


If the same ones called again and again though, I'd perhaps rethink that policy.

Our go-to for repeat offenders is to whisper "The rooster is crowing."
If we're lucky, one of our roosters will be nice enough to make this true.

I'm not saying I feel good about this approach, but it does tend to stop repeat callers.
posted by slipthought at 7:17 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


More like "Hang Up Now," amirite?

I gave up on messing with telemarketers ...

I'm fortunate enough not to have to field a lot of calls from people I don't know, so I don't even answer calls from numbers that aren't already in my contacts. If it's important enough, they can leave a message, I figure. It's been years since I actually talked to a telemarketer.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:09 AM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


Huh. I don't think I've ever seen a chapman stick before.
posted by tavella at 8:28 AM on January 18, 2018


If you want more chapman stick, check out liquid tension experiment.
posted by dbx at 8:37 AM on January 18, 2018


> Ha, here's a guy rigging a fix one one of those Kramers.

Now you have me wondering whether anybody's ever fitted a Kramer neck to a lucite Dan Armstrong bass body. Even if it were to be a bad musical instrument it would probably be a fantastic weapon for gladiatorial combat.
posted by ardgedee at 8:46 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I don't think I've ever seen a chapman stick before.

Here is the first time I saw one. I had figured, from the album credits, that it was some kind of percussion thing. I also had assumed that Adrian Belew was mainly a singer, and that all the guitar solos and elephant noises were Fripp. Many things were revealed that night. (Why had I never heard of Belew? I was 13!)

The Stick has a beautiful, deep, punchy bass sound, but honestly, I think the treble strings sound one-dimensional, with uninteresting tone and no dynamics, and the Stick players who do a lot of stuff there kind of leave me cold. I think that's the case for all two-handed tapping based guitar, like Stanley Jordan, I am afraid.
posted by thelonius at 8:58 AM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


thel, take a look at trey gunn's work with crim and his solo stuff. he's really mastered the stick-related Warr Guitar (another tapping instrument).

if i had to go out on a limb, the very challenging crimso improv experiment 'projekct 4' record 'west coast live' featured trey on warr *and* levin alternating on his music man/stick.

it's not for everyone.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:57 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've heard Trey Gunn, but I did kind of lose track of Crimson after the double trio era. I've been meaning to catch up.
posted by thelonius at 10:47 AM on January 18, 2018


another great tapper: marcus reuter
posted by j_curiouser at 1:35 PM on January 18, 2018


Chapman sticker, surely
posted by Cogito at 4:40 PM on January 18, 2018


« Older Ways to Cope With Nazis   |   "It Had Never Been Done on Television Before" Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments