jonsmith

Drop my bass at home after playing two small festivals in one day, then head off for the pub my missus is working in for what feels like a well-earned pint. There’s a lady sat at the bar and she starts talking to me about what a hard day I must have had, playing two gigs in one afternoon. I tell her it was a bit hectic, but worth it. She tells me her brother plays in a band and works really hard at it, but it’s worth the effort. I ask her what band he plays in, just in case I’ve heard of them or even shared a bill with them. “Oh” she says, “they’re called Iron Maiden”.

Which has cheered me up today, especially this line: So craddock? A band called craddock but not as explicit as meow meow riot per se.

Yes, apparently the music was tweaked using Izotope RX’s Music Rebalance, to make the bass more prominent.

Geddy Lee said in a recent interview that it was on its second printing, so hopefully it will soon be in stock for those of you who are waiting. It's an excellent book & well worth these prices. I'm amazed that Geddy felt the need for a Badass to give him better sustain on a Rickenbacker. I know the Rick bridge is pretty cumbersome, but despite its flaws I've never had a sustain issue on a Rick (in fact I can't recall sustain issues on any bass I've owned). I wonder if the real driver at the time was his desire for a bit more bottom end - something he has complained about despite subsequently using a much thinner tone just after he went off the Rickenbackers. He probably didn't know about the bridge pickup capacitor bypass trick at the time, though I'm sure he or his bass tech must be aware of it now.

Thanks for further info. I don't think any of those involved are PRS/MCPS members at present. This is the first time we've released something outside of sticking it on Bandcamp/handing out a few CDs, so that may change shortly.

Thanks for the advice. We have given it a new title. All the words & the vocal melody were written by us. The basic chord sequences are the same, although we have mangled the chords and time signatures quite a bit. Sounds like it might be easiest to list them as co-writers of the new song. We already have written confirmation that we can use it as long as we give them credit for the original idea. In the unlikely event that we earn any money from it, I’d like them to earn some too.

One of my bands has just completed an album, which we are planning to distribute in both the old fashioned way (CD) and via streaming/download services (Spotify/iTunes etc.). On it, we have a cover of an instrumental song by another band, which we have reworked and written words for. The other band - who we are friends with and actually contains two former members of our band - is fully aware and happy for us to do so, providing a credit is given to their original composition. They themselves have not yet released the tune, though in time I'm sure they will. We want to do things correctly and declare that our album contains a cover on our submission to the distributor service, but all say that we need a licence to use someone else's composition. However all the licensing services refer only to compositions that have already been released in some form, which is not the case for this composition. In financial terms, the album is unlikely to generate much cash, either for us or for them as composers of one of the songs, but just in case... Does anyone know how to go about licensing a song in these circumstances?

Superb stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Sounds very interesting and presumably the others already like what you're doing with it. The stuff you're doing is probably a lot more complex than what I'm doing, but here's my experience, for what it's worth. Assuming that your improvisations in a given piece are always around the same odd time signature (perhaps a dangerous assumption), I think these things always work best when they flow naturally and for me that tends to come from practice. I get to a point where I stop really thinking about the time signature because I've sort of developed a natural feel or instinct for it anyway. This is even more handy when you have different players playing different time signatures - which happens sometimes with one of the bands I play in - and it would all fall apart if you relied too heavily on the drummer, because (for example) he's not playing 7s, but you are. We have another song with a 15/16 phrase that I then play in 4/4 later on while the guitarist is playing a reprise of a different part of the song that just happens to mesh nice harmonically. We jammed the 15/16 bit quite a few times at first (in the interests of getting it to sound effortless, plus the drummer does a "solo" there that kind of modulates over the top), so it's the 4/4 version that sometimes feels odd. The end result is much easier on the ears than the description sounds (I hope). Although I listen to a load of proggy stuff etc., I'm probably the least time signature savvy instrument player in the band, but it does all seem to work. Maybe ask the drummer to play a few grooves in different time signatures that you can record and then mess around with at home?

A tribute band I was in was approached to be in one of these sort of shows a few years ago. Given the panel on the TV show, we didn't expect a good outcome (if we'd even got that far) and politely declined. I was surprised to be approached at the time, but I suspect it goes on quite a lot.

I really enjoyed the ARW show I saw in Brighton last year. I'm sort of sad to say that it had a lot more energy and enjoyment than the last few Yes shows I saw - even when Chris Squire was still alive. I do miss the days when Chris Squire & Alan White played with risk and different live versions were worth owning. I understand that Alan White had some back problems (since operated on) and that the current Yes lineup with Billy Sherwood on bass may well have a bit more of the intensity of old, so I should check them out. Having said that, I also missed Jon Anderson's voice once he was dumped out of Yes. His singing at Brighton was the best I've heard him sound in years. I probably don't need another live version of Roundabout, but there's a few other things in there that I don't think have been performed since the Union tour (91) or Talk (94)? Lee Pomeroy's contribution, while a bit lower in the live mix than Chris Squire would have been, was excellent. I'll probably buy it. After the Union tour, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman said they'd really like to work together on fresh material. I must admit I'd be more interested to hear the results of that, albeit some 27 years later!

Also guilty (and not that long ago).

I've used a Roland PK5 in several bands and it's about to make a reappearance as one of my originals bands expands its palette a bit. I tried using software based stuff about 13/14 years ago, but found it just wasn't reliable enough in a live environment. That situation may well have changed in the meantime. I used a Roland Fantom XR as the source for the sounds and it was programmable enough that with a bit of thought I could play chord sequences with single key presses on the PK5, as well as monophonic lines, samples and sequences. This setup was 100% reliable. One of the bands I did use it in was a Rush tribute and there were all sorts of parts I ended up playing with my feet. Some of this was initially quite tricky to perform, but with a bit of practice it became much easier. Feels a bit like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time sometimes.

I have a six string deko version of this, that cost £52 including postage. I took a risk on it as I was depping for a band where the previous bassist had played a six string and written parts accordingly. The only thing I could find wrong with it was that the nut had been over-filed (£3.50 replacement). Even at full price, it would be fantastic value for money. I ended up joining that band and eventually picked up a Shuker six string, but I still take the HB along to gigs where portability or risk of damage are considerations. I prefer the Shuker, but given the Shuker was more than ten times the price, the gap between them is not as massive as that price difference would suggest. The guitarist in that band plays bass in another band and picked up a lefty deko fiver for less than £50 delivered. He also said he would have been more than happy with it at full price.

Like mine are.