spinynorman

[quote name='algmusic' post='1086150' date='Jan 11 2011, 10:00 PM']I agree, after playing especially pop it can start to sound a but dull, but also being devil advocate, people hardly add and take parts away on a classical piece. Why can't pop players be this way..?? Just a thought[/quote] Classical is a different model. The writer and arranger functions are combined into the composer, while the role of musicians is to interpret what is written, under the guidance of the conductor. Even that isn't as set in stone as you suggest - Sir Thomas Beecham was often criticised for modifying scores to make them more exciting or accessible, but he was still an immensely popular and successful conductor. In "popular music" up to and into the 1960s the writer and arranger functions were separate. The arranger might work for the band or the recording company and might in some cases be the writer, but their remit was to provide the best arrangement of the song for the artist, with the resources at their disposal, without necessarily being tied to an original score. With the rise of pop groups and singer-songwriters in the 1960s the functions of writer, arranger and musician began to converge. The Beatles had an arranger (George Martin) outside the band, but many later bands didn't, though the producer might fill some of that role. Many of the members of early rock bands had cut their teeth in jazz, so they were more used to improvisation. As a result, the functions of writer and arranger become a collaborative effort within the band, and as the jazz influence has faded, there is a strong possibility that your immovable reference bassline was written by a spotty kid who only knew root notes. Of course, at the X-Factor/Pop Princess level the writer/arranger/artist relationship remains largely separate, as it was.

With all these references to Cream and Clapton, I now have this vision of Nathan East slaving over the tabs for White Room till he got the Jack Bruce part right.

He's tried before. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=115849"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=115849[/url]

Started aged 47 about 11 years ago. Some pub gigs can be a bit depressing, but as our guitarist says, it beats staying at home watching Strictly Come Skating. And it is still possible to find pub gigs and parties that are worth the effort. In a similar situation I think I'd take a well earned break, but expect the lure of the crowd to pull me back at some point.

But ... at heart Greg Lake is a guitarist.

[quote name='Shaggy' post='1081364' date='Jan 7 2011, 06:06 PM']I'm a confirmed vintage Gibson fetishist, but these and the Ripper / Grabbers have never really done it for me. Some iconic players have played them though - my favourite would have to the great Jim Lea of Slade (or was his a John Birch "copy"?)[/quote] He had both. Didn't the Gibson get nicked, then he had the Birch?

[quote name='headofire' post='1080693' date='Jan 7 2011, 02:27 AM']Mate, you should be ashamed of yourself. cheep shot cheep shot.[/quote] Shame doesn't seem to be a strong suit of contributors to eBay Links threads. Or tact. Or political correctness. Which is why its usually the first place I look for new posts.

Am I smoking something, or is that quite a reasonable price for an EB2? Admittedly most of the ones that come up are dealers, but priced well beyond £2000.

[quote name='Bassassin' post='1081146' date='Jan 7 2011, 02:51 PM']Steady on - that's someone's Imaginary Friend you're talking about there. J.[/quote] Carrying a 72 Jazz all the way up that hill, though. The Romans knew how to hurt people.

[quote name='lozbass' post='1079944' date='Jan 6 2011, 03:02 PM']I managed to pop into Dawsons in Manchester today and they have two of the shortscale Limited Edition 1960s EB3s (black and cherry) on display. Both are in the sale at £209 (until 9th January I think). I didn't have a chance to play either bass but they appear to be well put together and neatly finished. There's also a blue (Pelham?) and a cherry EBO and a couple of long-scale EB3s - all Epiphone. At £209, I'd say the shortscales are worth a punt[/quote] Shame they don't seem to be offering that deal on-line.

I was wondering who played bass on the Al Kooper/Steve Stills version of "It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry", which led me to Harvey Brooks, who also played with Dylan, The Doors, Electric Flag and Miles Davis. Can't believe this guy contributed so much to the development of bass playing, but I'd not heard of him and I'm not aware of seeing him mentioned in any of the "favourite bass player" threads. Lots of good stuff on his Youtube channel [url="http://www.harveybrooks.net/"]http://www.harveybrooks.net/[/url] And I've loved the bass on this since I bought the Rock Machine album in 1968 (but never bothered to find out who it was). Is it just me? Maybe I've been living under a stone for the last 40 years.

I'm using Sennheiser HD465 headphones, which are comfortable and handle the bass well, whether it's from the headphone out on a practice amp or a laptop. I also have Sennheiser CX500 inears, but don't really get on with them. You need a very good seal to get any bass, and I find they slip out whichever insert I use. If Happy Jack's right about the unplugged volume, you may have to run a power line out to the shed.

[quote name='noelk27' post='1079396' date='Jan 6 2011, 12:55 AM']Why's it sexy? Looks kinda ordinary to me.[/quote] Try reading the description like Lilly von Schtupp

[quote name='Steve_nottm' post='1074908' date='Jan 2 2011, 12:04 AM']Hi all. Any advice gratefully recieved. I play through a hartke 3500 into an Eden 4x10 and last night played a new years eve gig. As the pa was vocals only we were using the backline for everything else. Usually no problem. However, for some reason I couldn't turn my volume up above about half without getting a boomy throbbing noise coming through. It happened with the bass off (pedal muted) so isn't related to bass or pedals. I managed to get by but I don't know the cause. Is is something that needs looking at amp or cab wise? Is it just to do with the room, or something else environment related? Any ideas?[/quote] I'm impressed. When I had an HA3500 I never got above the 9 o'clock position. At least, not without pinning the punters against the back wall.

[quote name='dave.c' post='1079494' date='Jan 6 2011, 08:56 AM']..and I have it now! Great sounding bass and very well made, not heavy at all, balance is good and it doesn't really feel like a small bass. It's got just the right vibe and the bridge pickup tone is punchy, the neck is deep but not wooly. There are two woofier settings on the 6 position switch and I'm going to experiment with different cap values to just drop the ttreble without getting wooly. (the switch puts the signal straight out through the cap bypassing the tone pot, one position for each pickup) ...and it has a sensible bridge![/quote] 6 position switch - whoa, too much choice 2 very nice basses you have there.

[quote name='Paul S' post='1078512' date='Jan 5 2011, 01:07 PM']It is more the look/vibe of the thing really. I'm no Jack Bruce or Andy Frazer, sadly, but both bands I am in have been known to dip into Cream/Free covers occasionally and it is a different looking bass that still fits in with the style. If I am honest I really don't need another bass but, well, you know how it is. As GAS goes this is pretty cheap stuff so i should get off lightly! I might even have a go at a doer-upper - try my hand at a re-fin or something - if the right one comes along. Need to try a shortscale first, though, and see how I get on. I get confused enough playing my headless B2A with more frets than I am used to![/quote] Makes sense. The thing is Bruce & Fraser weren't the only EB3 players, there was Chris White in the Zombies for one and more recently Jared Followill in Kings of Leon, neither of whom sound much like Bruce and Fraser. Some of that sound was down to amplification. I actually found through my rig I could do a better Cream or Free sound with a Fender Precision than I could with my EB3.

[quote name='Sparky Mark' post='1079256' date='Jan 5 2011, 10:17 PM']I thought the new Epi EB3's were all long scale - hence serious head dive. The Epi EB0's are short scale I think.[/quote] There are some limited edition Epi "1960s" EB3s on the UK market at the moment with dot markers and custom colours like Pelham Blue and Alpine White. There has been some discussion on various forums whether they are long scale or short, as they're not on the Epi web site anywhere and the original retailers' descriptions weren't consistent. However, the ones I've seen recently seem to have settled on long scale. The only way we will find out for sure is if someone goes to a shop and tries one. Or better still, buy one and post some pics.

[quote name='Bass_Guardian' post='1078779' date='Jan 5 2011, 04:53 PM']Its only with slap.. Ive just replaced the strings again and its fine now strange.... My slap is fine so it must just be my stringing technique haha[/quote] I seem to remember reading something about it mattering how many winds you have round the post, though I've never noticed a difference.

Even people who think they're looking for the lowest price might understand the value of the instrument being checked over, or even set up, before they take it home, and the offer of "the setup will probably need tweaking in a couple of months, just bring it back and we'll do it."

I've had that a couple of times. Once it was a set of LaBella flats where the E string sounded dull and also looked different from the others, metal a bit darker, even the silk was darker. So I thought that string was probably from a different batch than the others. The other time it was just that the silk was on the bridge saddle. I've found this is common with Rotosound and a bit of hacking with a craft knife fixed it.

[quote name='Paul S' post='1077144' date='Jan 4 2011, 11:15 AM']Fantastic, just what I was looking to read. It seems the short scale bass would be the one I would be more interested in but, as I have never played on one, I need to try it out. Gotta love Basschat.[/quote] Is it just the look/vibe of the EB3 that appeals, or are you trying to emulate someone/something?

There seem to be more inflated expectations of used prices on eBay too. Unexceptional Japcrap with a BIN approaching £500 being the worst of many examples.

[quote name='tom1946' post='1078197' date='Jan 5 2011, 07:44 AM']Hmm in defence of guitar shops (I retired from owning one) emails very rarely result in a sale because the punter is trying to find the cheapest price. I couldn't ever compete with the likes of 247.com or GAK so what's the point of finding a price? I always answered emails like that with " Sorry I can't compete with the big shops". It's very timewasting too when you have to ring a supplier to check stock & price to discover that you can't compete and the punter never replies and says thanks anyway. If I've had a busy day (usual) I don't get much chance to read emails. When I did give someone a price they come back and ask you to pricematch with GAK!! Gak often sell stuff cheaper than a small shop can buy it. I always said no to that whether I could or couldn't. Doing that 8-10 times a day for nothing gets very tedious. If I was serving and the phone rang, depending on what I was doing I would excuse myself and answer it quickly. If I was selling a capo or strings I'd ignore the phone until I'd finished, if someone was trying a guitar out answering the phone isn't a problem. I was really hot on service in my shop and I had people coming from all over the UK to buy stuff. I can't stand bad service when I go into a shop, there's no excuse for it.[/quote] That response is interesting and I'm puzzled why you didn't see the email enquiry as an opportunity to sell your exceptional service over the pure price advantage of the big shops. Even an email back saying "here's my phone number, give me a call and I'm sure we can work out a good deal for you" would have more chance of success than no reply or "I can't compete".

Another classic description [quote]I have had this Bass Guitar serviced recently by my guitar Tech everything is working well. His advice was that I buy a new neck.[/quote] So that'll be everything working well except the neck. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Orlando-Vintage-Jazz-Bass-Guitar-Made-Japan-/160524909551"]Orlando Jazz Bass[/url]

The people most likely to pull your playing apart are the guy in his 40s who used to play bass, but gave up when he left college and became a solicitor, and the guy whose brother-in-law was a roady for Shawaddywaddy. You don't need to worry about either of them.