Linus27

After 25 years of playing, I still get self-conscious a little when the red light goes on. Not un-common though so don't worry about it too much, just one of those things Getting up in front of 20,000 to play live on the other hand has never been an issue. I guess when recording, the spot light is on you more.

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1384285863' post='2274905'] John, Sid, Steve and... Michael. [/quote] HAHAHA all these years and that's never been said. Its bloody obvious now. Nice one

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1384277621' post='2274766'] were you in the Sex Pistols then? [/quote] Huh?? (This is where I admit to knowing nothing about the Sex Pistols)

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1384128812' post='2273162'] The moral for me is that bands as democracy have the potential to lose drive and fizzle out like a cheap firework. None of the really good bands I've been in have been democratic. I think a band like RUSH is very rare. I have a firm belief that one needs a good bandleader, someone with talent and creativity, vision and drive, quality control and discipline, with a tangible level of confidence in the songs and the band's performance. These IME will usually be high calibre singer-songwriters. Unless you have all those qualities yourself and start your own band, I would try to get in an established band who sound like they know where they're going. Talk to them first and get a feel for them. There are never any guarantees with a band though. Hope you get there man. Good luck. And it will be mostly luck you need [/quote] This is a very good point and something I have been very aware of in the past. All the bands I have been in have always played originals. Covers just never interested me. I was fortunate enough to set a band up with some mates, who were all very hard working, dedicated which in turned paid off as we got signed and had a chunk of success. However, each band member had strengths and weaknesses. The singer/lead guitarist and I were the song writers. I would arrange and structure the song etc but would never interfere with the vocals, melody or lead guitar parts. The drummer and rhythm guitarist were happy to be led musically to the point of being guided or even told what to play. However, they did a hell of a lot of work behind the scenes like booking gigs, talking to promoter's, mailshots, photo-shoots, promotion and eventually dealing with the record company. This just made life so much easier as we could all trust and rely on each others judgements and we never got into arguments or bicker. Song writing was always a pleasure as Steve and I had the freedom musically. John and Sid likewise had the freedom to lead the band behind the scenes and it just so worked. We all knew our places and roles in the band and stuck to them.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1384032992' post='2272210'] Can we just lose the 'this is the first time I've ever heard them' and how it's 'dull and boring' stuff please! This video is hardly blummin' representative of their body of work!! P [/quote] Why should we do that, that wouldn't be a true opinion. It is the first time I've heard NIN so I am basing my opinion on this song which was dull and boring. The first song I heard from Pearl Jam (Jeremy) was bloody amazing and they are one of my favourite bands but a lot of the later stuff is dull and boring. I'm not going to change my opinion just to suit someone else.

[quote name='witterth' timestamp='1383956563' post='2271400'] what was awful? I love Pino's playing he cant do wrong for me and I loved that stuff [/quote] Yeah Pino is one of my favourite bassists but the song was so dull and had no melody, energy or direction. It just seemed a mess to me.

I've not heard any NIN before but that was simply awful. Obviously not my cup of tea

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1383921027' post='2270845'] Without wishing to change your mind on opting for a wooden neck , my two pence worth would be that , yes, a graphite neck sounds different, not least of all because of the hard and extremely reflective graphite fingerboard, but whereas that can sound slightly harsh and hypercritical in terms of technique when you are playing on your own , that perceived harshness all but dissappears when you are playing in a band context , and instead translates into some welcome extra cut in the mix. Fretless basses sound much more muted than fretted ones where a big part of the tone comes from a steel string being in contact with a steel fret. Once you remove the steel fret the tone and envelope of the same note is very, very different . The extended upper frequencies that a graphite neck can provide can to some extent be seen as a positive substitute for the change of tone made by removing the frets. It's a similar trade-off on fretless basses that have an epoxy coating on the fingerboard. You lose some woody warmth , but gain a lot of sustain , clarity and top end . It also has to be said ,that woody warmth can very easily become an over-softness on a fretless bass , hence why so many fretless players boost their midrange frequencies to make themselves more clearly heard . As with fretted basses , I would recommend players who buy a graphite necked bass embrace the tone for what it is rather than try and compare it to a bass with a conventional wooden neck . Graphite is a terriffic sound in its' own right , and a great option if you want your bass to be clearly audible . [/quote] Thank you, that has put a nice spin on it. Considering I have a Warwick Streamer Jazzman Fretless and an ESP Jazz fretless, maybe a graphite would be a nice addition as well as an alterative. By the way, I would had replied quicker but I could not stop stairing at your avatar

Thank you everyone for the replies. I think, the fact I don't want to lose that woody earthy fretless tone, I will skip getting a fretless graphite neck for my Stingray. Cheers for everyones input.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sadly, I am no wiser as there seems a mix between sounding different and not sounding any different I do have a tendancy to create a fair bit of fret noise when playing but this is only on a fretted bass so I might be ok

[quote name='pierreganseman' timestamp='1383902027' post='2270486'] Well, they are not the same beast. No doubt every thing produced by status is amazingly made etc I am gonna guess you could probably have a 'ray neck by musicman for a bit cheaper.. the main thing , they will not sound even close, sound of graphite vs sound of wood..... just my 2cent [/quote] Thanks for the reply. The problem is, finding a genuine fretless Stingray neck is near on impossible. The two options are to get Shuker to make one or get a Status one. That's surprising that you say there is such a big difference in tone between a graphite neck and a wooden neck. I wouldn't had thought it would be that big with the feel and perhaps the sustain being the biggest difference. Cheers.

Just wondering if anyone has an experience or owns one of the Status grapite fretless necks for a Stingray. I did a search and found no threads discussing them to my surprise. I am considering getting one for my current Stingray and would be interested to hear anyones thoughts and experience. Would holding out for a proper fretless Stingray be a better option or are the Status graphite necks even better than a wooden fretless neck?

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1378029238' post='2194769'] Wow, thanks Linus - hope you don't mind me passing that comment on to Rob! [/quote] No problem at all, he's a very talented guy and deserves the praise and respect.

I'm sorry but that that is simply amazing. Probably the best piece of music and playing I have heard this year. Top stuff.

I would sooner listen to this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGdiE-Ssfx4

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1377855827' post='2192726'] With all that fiddlin' around at the dusty end of the neck and multi stringed instruments why didn't they just play guitars? Sorry, but I'm a believer in that bass is a tuneful rhythm instrument.................. .................................but I have got a rug like wot they've got so maybe I should shut up. [/quote] This is my thinking also. They are playing bass like its a guitar so why not just play a guitar, its going to sound 10 x better. Sounded bloody awful to me.

[quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1370222348' post='2097818'] I don't own a Stingray at the moment, but I do use the MM pickup on my Lakland 55-02 most of the time and get pretty close to a Stingray tone. I tend to use the following amp settings to get that high mid burpy MM tone. [attachment=136166:IMG_0094.JPG] Adjust the bass, treble and bright to taste depending on conditions, but I always make sure the high mid frequency is up there. Everything else will work around that and always sounds right for a MM tone somehow. But, as always, this type of thing is subjective. Give these settings a try and let me know how you get on . [/quote] Just to say these settings worked great for my Stingray so many thanks. I now use these settings all the time.

Does anyone have some settings they run with a Stingray. Would be interesting to try some other players amp settings out to compare.

Hiya, I've just found out that the band have now found someone who can do the gig. Many thanks Roger.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1366462723' post='2052891'] That EQ setting is just what is needed. You've notched out some problem frequencies and bumped up a couple that were a bit weak. When I see massive EQ cuts ands boosts, it suggests that there's a problem in the signal chain... [/quote] Excellent, then at least my ears were telling me the right thing to do even if I didn't actually know what I was doing

[quote name='bluegazbloke' timestamp='1354485334' post='1886610'] Hello, I am the aforementioned Mr. Johnson. I don't know if anybody is following this thread but I'll straighten out a couple of things. I run a workwear shop in Seaforth, not a garage in Waterloo. Gary Daly played the bass on the original recording of African & White. The fretless playing on Christian is by Andy Pask, of 'Landscape' (Einstein A Go-Go, also the co-writer of the theme from 'The Bill'). Although I played it for so long I feel like like it's mine, it still makes me feel very emotional as it brings back some very sad memories. I joined after the release of Difficult Shapes and the first thing I recorded with the band was Tragedy & Mystery. And it's a Warwick Thumb 5-string, my hands are too small for a 6-string, and I still use it to this day in a pub band at the weekends. The drummer calls it The Throb. Thanks for listening. GAZZA. [/quote] Hi Gazza, thats for stepping up and introducing yourself and putting a few things right. Great to have you here, hope you stay around and look forward to reading more posts from you. Great to hear you are still playing bass.

This thread has so given me gas to get a white SUB

I started for a different reason. I was 15 and I was watching Live Aid. U2 came on and Adam Clayton was strutting around stage, not giving a crap about anything but looking super cool with a beard and black Dr Martin boots. I didn't know it was U2 at the time but this guy just looked cool. For me, in the 80's this was just symbolic and I just wanted to look as cool as Adam. Over the next two years I started to listen to more music (heavily into Madonna) but still had no drive to play bass. I then started college in 87 and a friend had a bass. I had managed to get a guitar which I had borrowed but had no interest in playing as I could not make the hand shapes for chords so it just sat in my room collecting dust. I liked the look of my friends bass as it had black strings and looked chunky and my friend always wanted to own a guitar so we swapped. We then bashed about making some noise but we had no idea what we were doing as neither of us could play. My friend gave up but for the next two years, I played along to every song I could find. My two sisters had a massive record collection but it was all eighties stuff like Duran Duran, The Police, Depeche Mode, Kagagoogoo, Spandau Ballet, Talk Talk, Inxs, A-ha etc but rather than know who these bands were or the bass players, it was just an excuse to play along with my bass. Skip to 97 and a few bands later, I was fortunate enough to get a record deal and had negotiated some new gear so I went to the Bass Centre in Wapping to spend my £5k. I bought my dream bass, a Stingray which to this day, I have no idea why it was my dream bass as the bands I was listening to (Pearl Jam and U2) were not using them but I think it was because John Giblin used one when he was in Simple Minds and I liked the look of it I also bought a 77 Precision which was my main gigging bass and 72 Telebass as it looked like a nice bass. I also bought the top of the range Hartke 900w rig with the alluminium 4 x 10 and 1 x 15 cabs on the back of Sting saying they were good I remember the day like it was yesterday when all my gear turned up at the record company rehearsal studio. I was so excited. I set everything up and oh my god, my dream bass, the Stingray sounded utter gash. I was totally gutted and nearly in tears. It sounded thin, twangy with no bottom end or balls. Well, if I was niave to basses, do you think I had any idea on how to set up a 900w Harke bass rig The Precision I must say sounded awsome with that famous boosted lows and high sweep settings and so I ended up using that live. I started to record my first album and I had started to notice different bass tones and talk to the producer about what I wanted although the only tone I liked was the Precision tone of Garry Gary Bears from Inxs on the Inxs album, The Swing and Listen Like Thieves. I didn't even realise that the tone of a fretless bass (Pino's tone and Paul Webb of Talk Talk) was done on a fretless bass despite recording one of the tracks on an acoustic fretless. Yep, still oblivious at that point Now skip to around mid to late 2000 and since joining basschat, my eyes have been very firmly opened. I have discovered things like flats, Motown, the Warwick tone, the difference between a Jazz and a Precision and what it was that I liked about the original Precision tone and how to achieve that Jaco tone on a Jazz bass. More importantly, how to make my Stingray sound great and what a bass, mid and treble dial does where as before it was full volume and full tone I've never had a bad tone as thankfully I have always kept it simple and tried to get that large punky tone with a bit of bottom end that you get from a Precision. If I knew back then what I know now then boy, things would had been different for sure but I am happy that I was niave or oblivious to so many things back then. I've also never tried to copy a certain bass player but probably unconciously been a sponge when playing along to all my sisters records, picking up a mix of great playing styles. There would had been bands like Duran Duran, Kagagoogoo, Culture Club, The Police, Level 42, Inxs, Japan, Talk Talk, Paul Young, Tears For fears so bands all with great bass players. So, I blame my naivety when I first started to play bass on basschat for not being around in the 80's and 90's to help me out Anyway, here is a picture of my old setup whilst recording some B-sides. You can see I made such an effort with the graphic EQ [URL=http://s85.photobucket.com/user/Linus27uk/media/Picture001.jpg.html][IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k46/Linus27uk/Picture001.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1366156640' post='2049160'] All except me, what happened? Trans teal, maple neck, one of the nicest finishes to any bass. [/quote] Have to agree with you there sir. [URL=http://s85.photobucket.com/user/Linus27uk/media/Stingray.jpg.html][IMG]http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k46/Linus27uk/Stingray.jpg[/IMG][/URL]