achknalligewelt

I taught myself by listening, with a little tab thrown in for stuff I couldn't work out myself. I suppose it did help that I'd played guitar for five years before starting on the bass. It also came as something of a revelation that a scale is the same set of finger positions wherever you are on the neck, and that a good two-thirds of basslines (in the pop/alt/rock genre at least) all use the same bag of about a dozen moves. Sorry, jazzers. Finding these shortcuts to playing also meant that the need to write stuff down was really reduced. Once I'd learned those basic elements, I found I could work out pretty much anything within a couple of listens and a couple of practices. I find this pattern-based approach works with teaching as well - even someone who's never lifted a bass guitar before can learn how to get a nice McCartney-esque fill into a simple line within a few weeks. Of course, I will work hard on the famous bits, but I do find that pretty much the only people who listen to the fine detail of basslines are other bass players, and we're a rare breed out there. So a lot of the time, I just please myself. Sympthetically, of course. Knowing the song and working with a good band you can trust is vital. In this situation though, and of course I make no claims to be an artist of the instrument, but a sympathetic ear and a decent bag of licks will get you miles, without a tab in sight.

I have a bass, a pick, a bit of wire and an amp. That's as complex as my rig is getting. I used to play guitar in an originals band, and used every effect I could lay my hands on, but over time I started to feel I was more about the effects than the playing. I didn't feel like I sounded like myself anymore, or indeed anyone in particular. I then pared it back and back, and when I switched to bass I pared it back some more. If I can't get a particular sound or feel from what I'm doing with my hands, then I probably don't need to be doing it anyway. And now I sound like me again, although, as we've said on here already, no-one in the crowd is going to notice what we're doing anyway.

To develop the point made by Paul Cook's t-shirt, I read a story a while back about how Carl Palmer of ELP (obviously) was stood in a queue at Heathrow in about 1977, waiting for something or other. Anyway, as he stood there, up crept two scruffy herberts who it turned out were Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies of The Damned. Now, this was all after the first flowering of punk, and it was well known that it was supposed to be a reaction against the King Arthur on Ice-ness of prog, so Carl was expecting to get some kind of bollocking for his trouble. Rat stepped forward, looked over his shoulder, then turned to Carl and, in a quiet voice, said 'Hi, I just wanted to say, I'm a big fan. It's an honour.' The two punks then shot off to catch their own plane. Lovely story, I think. [quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1330937938' post='1564859'] I like a bit of the Syd era stuff. Otherwise I'm pretty much with Paul Cook. [/quote]

I know this might be a contentious question, but hear me out. I have just read the thread discussing Blur's perfomance at the Brits last night. I didn't see it, but I gathered from reports today that it was pretty messy. The post on Basschat bore that out, but it also has quite a lot of people criticising Alex James as a player. I'll stand up now and say that I think he's a great player, but that's not quite the point I want to make. Because other names were thrown up as unremarkable, such as Mick Quinn of Supergrass and Mat Osman of Suede. I think they're great, too, playing excellent and fitting lines in some great songs. But the more I read Basschat, I find the conversation dominated either by the classic rock basists of the 60's and 70's, such as Geddy Lee and John-Paul Jones, or super-duper bass soloists, like Victor Wooten or Jaco Pastorius. Where is the flattering reference to Mike Mills? Colin Greenwood? Or even Andy Rourke? Are these players genuinely inferior to the giant rock players of the 1970's? And if so, why? I'd also like to say that I am not attacking the canon of leading bassists, nor those who admire them. I was called a troll on a post here a while back for a passing criticism of John Entwistle, and I don't want to raise hackles. But why are more recent bass players so readily ignored or criticised on these pages? What's wrong with them?

I've just had a kid, and so am on a hiatius from my band. However, I saw our drummer in town this weekend, and asked him how my dep, an old mate of our guitarist who I didn't knw at all, was going. He's been a musician for forty years, apparently, and a pro at that. I was apprehensive that I'd been replaced all too easily. I'm a self-taught amateur with a taste for being a bit too loud. A proper bassist of the old school would walk all over me. "Erm, you see," he started. This is it, I thought, I was going to get the sack. "He got drunk and mucked up all of the second set. I can't work with him at all. We need you back, mate!" Felt pretty good...

1) No mention of Alex James? My chief inspiration to play. Learning Girls and Boys was a real triumph for me. His choice of line is always cool, sharp and interesting. 2) No mention of Mike Mills? The musical brain of REM, his playing is again, melodic and apposite. He also sings at the same time, which puts him into a further league of awesome. 3) No mention of Joe Osbourne? His work with Simon and Garfunkel alone earns him his place - tuneful, rhythmic, endlessly inventive. Throw in some 4) Norman Watt-Roy and 5) Kim Deal and you're there. Why does everyone get so excited about John Entwistle? Overplayed and intrusive. Then again, I don't really like Chris Squire, either. Or Geddy Lee. Let the bass serve the song, because that's what anyone in a band is there to do. All the players I admire and try to let influence me are of the non-heroic stripe. Colin Greenwood, Glen Matlock, Krist Noviselic, Trevor Bolder, all great band players. Leave the preening heroics to the berk with the microphone.

I Predict a Riot by the Kaiser Chiefs for a wedding gig. Love them or hate them, their bassist, whoever he is, can't half play. The line is intense - all over the neck, high and low, fast 8ths, twiddly high-register bits and a couple of huge leaps. By the end, I'm knackered. Very satisfying indeed.

Thanks, everyone. Now I just need to find one to play...

I'm doing some freelance work, and by the time it's finished I should have saved up enough to get me the bass of my dreams - a Rick 4003, preferably in Jetglo, new or vintage, I don't care, as long as I can afford it. I have already cleared a corner of my dining room to show it off to guests in. But I do wonder. Should I? I know I love the tone, I know I love the look and I know I love the guitars they make, But I have known several players in bands I enjoy start using them only to move on to something else quite quickly. Mike Mills, even. Are they, actually, any good? I have only played one once - it was red, had horribly dirty strings, I didn't have a pick and the owner stood over me the entire 90 seconds I held it. I really didn't like it, but I don't know if that was for all those other reasons, or if I actually don't like them. Help me out here, before I waste £1500 on something I can't get on with and sell on within six months. I currently play a Jazz that I love, and my hands aren't big enough for a Precision. I don't like the look of the Stingray or the sound of a Burns Bison, and the Gibson EB-30 is just stupid. And all that custom uber-80's Warwick and Wal nonsense leaves me utterly cold. What am I supposed to do? It's not like choosing a car or a house, this is [i]important.[/i]

Also, who's to say the recorded version is somehow sacrosanct? Basslines are not that important for most casual listeners, and frankly, a lot of bands. People like Bernie Edwards or James Jamerson are very, very rare, especially in the 1960's, which is the era of our repertoire. Even big names would sometimes just toss out something and say 'That'll do'. For example, I really don't think the bassline on Let's Spend the Night Together is good enough. It's a killer song, but all Keef did (Bill couldn't even be bothered to play on it) was hit root notes. Rubbish. Give it some flair and urgency. However, the bass on I Saw Her Standing There is perfect, because MacCartney gave a damn about the low end, so I abandoned one entirely but learned the other by rote. Good Times is essentially a long (if repetitive) bass solo, so you'd keep it because it's the tune, but if you're playing Build Me Up Buttercup or Baby It's You, who knows how the bass on that should go anyway? Do what feels right for your band and after a few runs through, you'll have it nailed your own way. My thought here is that we are a band (The Solutions, available for weddings and parties, call now), and as a band we have a sound that we've worked out and come to over the years of playing and rehearsing together. We've said several times that people respond as much to our sound and performance as our songs and playing, so we keep to the formula. We like energy and a bit of room-shaking R+B. Basically, we want everybody to dance, so we make a sound that does just that. With that in mind, for me it's as much about sounding like The Solutions as sounding like Bill Wyman. Plus, we are in danger of losing sight of the fact that 90% of an audience at a birthday party don't care even if a guitar solo is wrong, let alone a bassline. However, we've found that because that 90% of people are going to want to sing along, that's the bit you need to get right, and hang your sound around. As long as the band are making the kind of sound people want to dance to and pay to bring to a party, then that's how I will work. You can tell I'm not a pro...

I never used to, until our regular backing vocalist had to miss a gig with a buggered throat, and I said, like a fool, that I'd give it a go. I'd always had an ear for a harmony, but not had the mic in front of me since I'd been the guitarist in my old originals band some five years before. And whaddaya know, it came off. A bit loose at times, and my hands did just fall off the bass during what had hitherto been quite a slick run during Build Me Up Buttercup, but it came off. Now I do harmony on about half our set, often countermelodies, barbershop-flavoured inversions and other complex stuff. I practise the singing first, as that needs things to be quieter, basically. I also need the space to work with everybody else, as the job of arranging our harmonies (often 4 part these days) falls largely to me and our lead guitarist (a fine purveyor of Brian Wilson falsetto). The basslines I play when singing, I mostly do from muscle memory and the usual bag of bassist tricks - we can all slide up to the third and catch the fifth with our index finger without really thinking about it, so I let my fingers do the walking. The really interesting bass playing I save for numbers where I don't need to sing. We already have three voices, so if the song doesn't require it, I stand back - proper rock playing doesn't need flowery Beach Boys stuff anyway. It's all about the song. At some point though, I'm going to need to do both!

Girls and Boys - Blur Something - Beatles Town Called Malice - Jam Man Sized Wreath - REM Breathe - Pink Floyd Keep The Customer Satisfied - Simon and Garfunkel Basically, anything played by Alex James, Joe Osbourne or Mike Mills. I love the sound of Chris Squire and JJ Bunel's playing, but can't do it, so I make it up. That's fun, too.

Thanks for the kind welcomes. I suppose I do go on a bit, but i am getting old... I'll get some gear pics on soon. Hope to make more acquaintence in the rest of the forum!

This is my first post here, so before I get into any arguments over the merits of a Rick 4001 vs a Rick 4003, I'll set out my bass stall. I didn't start as a bass player. I'd have described myself as a guitarist right up until a couple of years ago. Because I'm from the 90's, I played a lot of Bernard Butler-inspired riffing, a touch of Jonny Greenwood, a bit of Peter Buck and as best an impression of Graham Coxon as I could manage. I bought an Epiphone Dot 335 and a Marshall Valvestate 8080. And though I could write a song, sing a bit and fill the space as required without a rhythm guitarist, I never felt I could get the finesse of my heroes, and when my last originals band split up under the weight of no interest at all form anyone, I put my gear in the cupboard and didn't think about it anymore beyond practising Nick Drake tab to try and improve my fingerpicking. I was never going to be Bernard Butler anyway. Then, a couple of years back, a friend asked me if I could play bass for his band. Now, unlike a lot of guitarists, I'd always had a lot of time for the bass. We're all musicians. I like drummers, too, although I can't even begin to use a drumkit. And at the same time as I was spending my teenage years poring over tab books with my Encore Strat instead of talking to girls like a healthy young man, I was also picking out the bass parts to REM's [i]Monster[/i] and Blur's [i]Great Escape [/i]. I bought a cheap bass, mostly to play myself, but I was also aware that bands always need bass players. No-one really wants to be a bassist, but everyone needs them. And if I wanted to be in bands, I figured, why not be able to do two things? So for the whole period, I was also playing a bit of bass here and there, live and on tape. I loved the work of Paul McCartney, Alex James, Mike Mills and Micky Quinn. I also in time discovered James Jamerson, Chris Squire, Darren Jessee and JJ Bunel. I learned from my band's nominal bassist the rules of a bassline - melodic but rhythmic, sensitive to the song but assertive in its contribution to the sound, and above all, cool. I'll be honest, I find John Entwistle fussy and overplayed. But Joe Osbourn is a god. And now I play in a 60's-70's cover band, doing parties and weddings, and I love it. I try and bring my influences to bear on what I play, and just busk it all. Anything really famous I learn, obviously, but if I don't like a bassline I'll do my own - Keith Richards' line on [i]Let's Spend The Night Together[/i] is really just root notes, so I've made it more interesting with some Stranglers-esque attack, and now it's a highlight of our set. Our drummer really enjoys it. So this is me, and I hope to do some bass talk with you all. Bassists I find have a bond, and we can always find something to talk about and are always willing to let a fellow four-string have a go on our rigs - a Squier Jazz and an Ampeg BT-115, if you're interested - and that's probably the best thing about being a bassist. Only other bassists really pay attention to us, and so anyone who comes up to you at a gig is going to have something insightful and worthwhile to say. Plus, in a world where singers are egomaniacs and guitarists are all paranoid, it's nice to have some other people on the same wavelength. Here's to the Brotherhood of Bassists, Doug