peteb

The trouble is that you're completely wrong! As a producer, Beato worked with a number of punk and garage rock bands. His big break was co-writing a number one country hit, which led to him working with several big time country songwriters. One of the things I like about RB is that he has a pretty wide background in lots of musical styles - he might love Steely Dan, but he also sees the value in The Clash. He used to be a lecturer in music, so he does come from an academic background, which is probably what you don't like about him. For me, he seems likable and is very enthusiastic / knowledgeable about lots of different types of music and I generally find his content interesting. Each to his own...

F***, Bruce is starting to look his age! Dunno about calling it a day, but perhaps a younger drummer along with shorter sets and tours might help them to keep going a bit longer. I was never a Maiden fan - I was always more impressed that Nicko had played with Pat Travers in his earlier career. I never met the guy, but I was sat next to him on a train once! Him and Bruce were busy chatting to some girls who were going to a show that night. He seemed a nice enough guy.

A mate (of sorts) of mine is a very good bass player and used to tour with Paul Carrack in the late 90’s among others. He says that he had this discussion with Pino Palladino many years ago. Apparently Pino said to him “Everything you’ll ever need can be found in the playing of Jaco, Jamerson, Aston Barrett and Bernard Edwards and there’s a lifetime’s work there”. That seems fair enough! Having never really studied any of those guys, I would say my top four were: Mars Cowling, John Paul Jones, Alan Spenner and Boz Burrell (you could also add Neil Murray and Andy Fraser). I suppose that kinda shows what my personal tastes were when I started playing.

I would say that a 1x15 would not be enough for a loud hard rock gig. The ideal would be a 4x10 (or even a 6X10), but a good 2x12 would work as well.

Right then, the best would be: Thumpinator – a high pass filter for getting rid of low frequencies that you can’t normally hear. I’ve played a few venues where there is something odd going on with the low frequencies on the bass guitar, so you end up having to take out all the bottom end leaving you with a less than inspiring bass tone. When I’ve played the same places this year, the Thumpinator seems to have sorted that out at a stroke! Caveman preamp pedal – a bit of a luxury and it’s not as if you couldn’t gig without it, but a quality piece of kit that sounds great and gives you more options, both live and recording. Not cheap, but worth it. The worst: MXR octave pedal –I was thinking of getting rid of my existing octave pedal but decided to keep it just in case. Then I saw a MXR going cheap secondhand and now I have two octave pedals that I don’t use. It’s a really good pedal, but I never use it! There’s got to be some other use for it other than playing ‘I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down’ in soundchecks! NUX C-5rc wireless system – it’s not bad, but I have had a few issues with it and I’m not going to use it at bigger gigs. It will have its uses, such as rehearsals or jams and small gigs where I don’t want to bring my pedalboard that has the Shure GLDX receiver on it. It is what it is – OK but not great. Jury still out: A stripped late 70s P bass – looks cool and sounds great, but it isn’t going to replace my other 70s P bass as my go-to bass of that type. I didn't pay too much money all things considered and I’m still getting to grips with it. Jon Shuker is going to do some work on the frets to get it just right, so it will be a player (as Jon said when he saw it). However, if anything really cool came up that I just had to have, then I suspect that this would be the bass that would have to make way (I could be wrong though, lets see what it is like when I get it properly sorted out)!

Which, as we all know, is of vital importance playing in a U2 tribute act...! 🙂

My 78 is bang on 10lbs, which is OK for me. The 79 I got recently is a little bit lighter, as was the 77 I owned years ago (but a pretty cr*p example of a 70s Fender). The worst, weight wise at least, was a 90s Jazz I owned that was over 12lbs.

Dunno, its like any 70s Fender. I've got a got a couple of P basses from from that period that are great. I've also owned one that was f***in awful. While there is no one who is genuinely famous who is associated with playing an Antigua Fender, Ian from SBL and a couple of other guys who are playing as sidemen for reasonably well known guys who are using them. I'm no expert, so it will be interesting to see if @briansbrew's friend gets what he has been advised they are going for. My only comment is that me and my mates all hated that finish when it came out, but there does seem to be some sort of interest in those basses forty five or so years later!

I remember when I first started playing, when I got my first Fender and that finish became a thing. We all hated it! That seems to have changed in the past few years from what I can make out! Rarity seems to trump aesthetics...

I think that we're all really glad to see Rob is back.

I've just checked, my hands are exactly the same size as yours! My little fingers are quite short, so when I play a run I will often (but not always) move my hand position up and down the fretboard rather than play vertically. It depends on what feels comfortable. I actually prefer 70s style P bass necks (is that about 41mm at the nut), but I'm not too fussed and have a couple of jazz basses with narrow necks that I'm quite comfortable with. You just adapt to the bass you're playing really.

Jim Rodford always played a full size P bass, and he wasn't a big guy!

What are those GR cabs like (how do they compare to Bergs, etc) and exactly how robust are they on a gig?

I think that the thing with doing a tribute to someone like Adam Clayton is that he isn't really associated with a particular bass, giving you licence to use any bass he might credibly have used. The guys I have known in U2 tributes have generally used a P bass of some sort, and they always looked and sounded right. If you like that red Precision, then I would use that - it will work just fine.

Not so much at the time. As I said, the band I was in were doing very well and playing loads of bike rallies and such like, including a brief and rather bizarre run of playing high-end functions. I wouldn't have minded being part of the U2 thing a few years later, when they were playing to large crowds on outdoors stages in Cyprus and coming back with stories of staying at and playing in luxury hotels in Dubai...!

I reckon that even the songs you think you don't know on that list, you will actually know...!

That is a great set! I could never understand the negativity from some musos / media figures to U2, a truly great band loved in all corners of the globe. So The Edge can't play like Alan Holdsworth - he's still one of the most influential guitarists ever, copied by every 80s / 90s session guitar player on countless hit records! I was once asked to join a U2 tribute many years ago. I turned them down as I was in a pretty successful cover band at the time and couldn't do both. They went on do really well, playing all over Europe and beyond. They're still going (same singer, but with their fifth or sixth different line-up) and still really entertaining!

I doubt that you would turn down the Queen gig though! 🙂

Just to be clear, I don't think that he needed to read to get the job with Queen. That was for picking up more mundane, everyday gigs that help a pro to keep earning.

Actually, I wouldn't be that surprised at all. A couple of friends of mine used to be promoters, primarily on the blues circuit, and used to run a major blues festival in the north. I used to help out as part of the stagecrew on the main stages (apart from a couple of occasions when I played at the festival myself). A lot of the acts had British backing bands made up of pro players and I noticed that there seemed to be two types of musicians in these bands (remember that this was nearly ten years ago). The 'old school' guys were forty plus and had come up playing the clubs and the rock and/or blues circuits. They came from a variety of backgrounds, with some having gone to music college but most hadn't. The 'new school' were in their thirties or younger and virtually all of them had been to music college. They all seemed to come from pretty affluent backgrounds with supportive families. I mentioned Cliff Williams before. When AC/DC started to hit the real big time, they brought in Cliff who is as 'old school' as it gets and went on to become one of the biggest rock bands ever. Now that Cliff has retired (again), they have Chris Chaney covering his spot on the latest tour, who went to Berklee.

I'm not sure that's really the point. I think that what he's trying to get at is that by learning to play more complicated music you will develop more knowledge of harmony and possibly more faculty on the instrument that might make it easier to play simpler forms of music. On the flip side, many guys who come through the jazz route struggle to sound convincing when playing genres like rock. And after all, who the hell cares what Cliff Williams jazz chops are like!

Always the best way of getting good...!

You do realise that statement makes you sound a bit moronic and leads people to disregard everything that you say?

I have very limited reading skills, but a few years ago I did learn a Bach cello piece by reading the dots, just to see if I could do it. I didn't listen to it until after I had worked out the part from the notation and when I did, I had it down pretty well. However, it did take me several days to learn quite a simple piece. I always thought that developing your ear and learning to play that way was far more important. Reading seemed to be something you needed to be able to do to get gigs on cruise ships or play in a pit, and since I wasn't interested in doing that I didn't bother! I once had a lesson with the excellent Neil Fairclough (bass player with post John Deacon Queen projects) and he told me that he learnt to play by ear and that he didn't learn to read until after he had been trying to make a living as a pro for a while, as he thought that it would help him to pick up extra work.

Nothing that simple I'm afraid. I used the Nux the next day with the Xotic and it still had plenty of charge. The Stingray seems fine with a lead and with the Shure, so the only difference seems to be the second rehearsal room (that is a bit of a s***hole to be honest), but I can't imagine how the room could affect a wireless system! I'm not too bothered, the Nux has worked fine in every other situation and I think it seems to be OK with the Ray in the house. I will investigate further when we next rehearse in that room (probably after Xmas now).