Tech

i would love to go on tour - just so i could warrant getting a really nice big valve stack to saturate (guitar or bass would do!) more realistically though I do love the sound of valve amps - I had a valve trace preamp that had a gnarly tone, but nothing compares to a full SVT 8x10 stack... had the luxury of playing a gig through one once and I really almost creamed. I guess it depends on what you grew up listening to... but for me when I played through that stack, for the first time in my life I was sounding like the bassists on the records that I loved hearing. ...point slighty tarnished that they were probably linkin park and blink 182

I try and play something which fits the genre of the gig. if it's a bit funkier, i might jam some tower of power, or a verse from superstition (with some double stops/a little bit of slap)... for just about anything else, i'll do "the chain" (damn i love that bass riff ) as a band, we usually have a cover that's not in the setlist to play at soundcheck.

nice stuff!! reminds me a bit of dave matthew's band, and that's a great compliment IMO! but with more of a retro brit-feel (smiths-esque). definitely agree with the above though - vocals should stand out a lot more in the first track, and a bit more in the second track. bass in the first track should maybe be panned a little more centrally? maybe just have some 100% wet reverb being panned over to the left... it's a wicked effect but would benefit from being a bit more subtle. works well as-is in the second track though! really enjoyed that.

i have a battered old jackson on a stand next to my bed, for all the times when it's 4am and i can't sleep... i tend to write a lot of stuff then. other than that, i like *drinking* when writing, but not being *drunk*. so the first half of a bottle of wine, or the first can or two. when coming up with totally fresh ideas, i tend to do music-by-serendipity. as soon as i've come across a nice sounding melody i write it down and use theory to construct a song out of it. (although these days most of the stuff I write is bounced off the piano player and bassist in my band, who is an absolute musical genius!)

[quote name='Raggy' post='783555' date='Mar 23 2010, 04:27 PM']I always enjoy having a look in Vintage and Rare though [/quote] me too... especially for a noodle on the 6 strings. definitely the best shop on denmark street, shame about the price tags

i was in a big band once with a load of students from cardiff uni and the royal welsh college... i got the gig over the bassists studying music there, and the connection was actually made through church! networking is key. uni is probably a good place to network, but i can't really see the advantage being that big doing music other than lots of extra practice time and maybe getting to know a few lecturers. I swear i've gotten more gigs from general conversation than I have from actual music related anectodes! one of my mates was doing a degree in music production and was actually advised by his tutors to just get on with recording an album whilst he was still young instead of carrying on with the course. I'd do a degree in something else and try to make it in music in your spare time. i probably would have risked not having a stable career and attempted to make it in music if i wasn't such a science geek!

i once walked into an estate agent (a really small, shoddy, no business estate agent in a quiet bit of swansea) to hold open the door for a rather badass looking old man wearing 3/4s and a hat... who apparently was Robert Plant. i'm fairly sure bonnie tyler keyed my mates car (he left it outside her drive for a minute when we were unloading some stuff for a skate comp on the sea front, came back and it had been totally keyed!) i served charlotte church and gavin henson in boots, twice within the space of 5 minutes (he forgot to buy batteries) and failed to recognise either of them on both occasions (much to the amazement of all of my colleagues). oh and once i walked into the hospital for some clinical lecture and jo whiley was doing her morning broadcast from a table in the foyer... about 10 other students gathered to watch her and we almost managed to put her off (accidentally! we were just curious) live on radio one... i waved and i'm fairly sure she flicked the bird at me

my 1993 jazz is probably my favourite jazz that i've played. plays like the metaphorical butter, and does all the sounds i need from smooth jazz to gnarly, balls out rock.

if that also belonged to "the guns", as the case would indicate, i've probably heard it - i supported the guns a couple of years back... we had to use our own backlines though, gutted! but fair play if this was the amp - that bass tone was immense... so gnarly!

really good idea! grown used to anchoring my thumb on that pup over the last couple of years though so not for me. would be curious how they work out for you guys though!

the keys player in my post rock band has synaesthesia... it's absolutely fascinating. he sees modes as colours, as well as numbers (he's doing maths at uni). which is really bloody useful! the best thing is how easily he finds it to take on a style. when we first jammed, he was playing all of this crazy rachmaninoff style stuff. i recommended he listen to "ludovico einaudi", and next week he came back and sounded like einaudi.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='748816' date='Feb 17 2010, 07:14 PM']I've heard it said (not on these pages) that the sign of a good bassist is only noticing him when he goes wrong.[/quote] absolutely. as a bassist it's too easy to want to hear yourself and not the song. i love being the only guy in the room who really noticed that sneaky passing note, or that smooth double stop. classic example of this - that pino video with john mayer ("who did you think I was") that's been posted a few times. i've jammed that song before and we always thought the chorus sounded a little bit "empty". only after seeing the video I realised he hit the harmonics for a few beats! really made all the difference next time we jammed. when i want to stand out, i play the guitar. when i want to have a wicked night doing what it is i love, i play bass

[url="http://www.myspace.com/chromatoneband"]http://www.myspace.com/chromatoneband[/url] UCL band, picked up the single to review them for the student magazine and they happened to be playing that night - went to check it out, and they put on a wicked live gig too.

i'd be all over that if i didn't have a room full of guitars already! my room-mate might castrate me if i attempt to bring more bass in here.

good effort mate, i love mono! bit north for me, but fair play, you've done well there!

looks like this summer i'm off for a good few months from the middle of may to the end of september. from here on my summer breaks will start to get smaller and smaller, so if i'm ever going to go on tour like this i've only got a couple of years left to do it in. i can pick up a tune pretty quick, have reasonable gig experience of over 5 years, and am open to all styles - literally. can read music (can sightread but prefer to have a copy to look over in advance), chord sheets, or work out a bassline by ear. los angeles would be cool but i'd settle for aberystwyth!

RIP Jimmy ... so easily prevented - it only takes a moment to put yourself in someone else's shoes before you say something. when will people realise?

[quote name='Lenny B' post='743986' date='Feb 13 2010, 01:56 PM']I really didn't like Countdown to Extinction - I was so disappointed by it. Couldn't really listen to much after that.[/quote] i love it! probably my favourite album - but then again I guess it was the first one I bought which may make a difference. i also liked cryptic writings - they just seem more intelligently written and a bit more serious.

the number of times to play the riff at the beginning of 'by the way'... i played it in two different bands, and the singer came in at a different time in the second band. i never really adjusted to it and invariably would still be diddling up high on the neck whilst everyone else was looking at me like " " other than that... that little bass fill in the chorus of chris de burgh's "lady in red" is a killer, especially when we do it in a different key - my fingers just fail. oh and wilson pickett's "in the midnight hour" - that bass riff always goes on for a couple more licks than i expect it to!

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='742246' date='Feb 11 2010, 04:24 PM']The only question in my mind: are you tiny or are they giants?! [/quote] a combination of both both keys and singer are well into the 6th foot, i'm around 5ft 7/8. i was once the tallest member of a band... i found the only 3 musical midgets in the whole of swansea. those were the days

I picked up one of these around a month ago. tis a beautiful bass, one of the nicest playing fenders i've come across. a fairly balls photo but it's the only one i've had since getting the bass. i'd be happy to answer any questions!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='742110' date='Feb 11 2010, 02:10 PM']'Lemon Wedge' off Kim Mitchell's 'Itch' cd. 'YOU CAN BE MY LEMON WEDGE, AND I'LL BE YOUR TEQUILA!!!'[/quote] this song is well worth checking out - i remember hearing it and being pretty surprised too. that chorus sure is catchy!

[quote name='Huwberry' post='742040' date='Feb 11 2010, 01:18 PM']Colin Greenwood of Radiohead always manages to come up with something unusual that somehow 'works'... off the top of my head, I'd say Airbag.[/quote] i love the line in "talk show host" too - so simple, but it is exactly what the song needs. along similar lines, i think guy berryman from coldplay does a good job of keeping in the pocket whilst still being interesting and melodic-y. and on a completely different note, the bassline in outkast's "prototype" is probably the only time I can think of that I really wasn't expecting to hear a good bassline and then had my face melt when I heard it.