Angel

A lot of suggestions here, great though they are, I don't think would be so interesting to your average 'party crowd'. For me there is one great bass piece that comes to mind, I've never met anyone who didn't love Stu Hamm's 'Country Music' the second they heard it. 

I'm not posting a video of Stu himself playing as he gets too overindulgent live for my liking, so instead here's a cover by Stuart Clayton. Now tell me that people wouldn't love to hear this!

2 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Funnily enough, I'm loving mine! It looks far more interesting than yer Fenders, and I find it doesn't dig in at all, though I strap it on good and high... Great sound too from the EMGs.

 

Fair enough! OK, so I was a bit rude with my post (no-one is interested beige replies!), but the bottom line is that I think they could have come up with a more elegant shape. Still, what one guy hates another likes so who am I to say.

I don't like most singlecuts. They just look ugly to me.

However, I can pick one bass that I HATE the look of, the Parker Fly bass. The original Parker fly guitars I think looked brilliant, so original. The Bass version just looks like a whopping great a r s e.  Horrible horrible. It looks like one of the guitars got depressed and sat comfort eating for a couple of years.

2 hours ago, JJTee said:

Everyone* in this video:

*In reality, I do appreciate their technical ability, and musical knowledge. But the vast majority of this video leaves me stone cold…!

Goodness me, what a horrendous advert for bass playing! As mentioned previously, I do like technical/gifted players, but that was just a ton of horrendous, poor-quality-sound widdle. Don't think I bothered to watch it all, I just skipped to each player to see who he liked. 

Wow, I had to do an instant replay on that image.

Looks a complete ****.

Bit worried about where one sticks the input jack. 

Wow, what a totally negative thread .... OK, I'm in. 

For me Wooten - I generally like 'gifted' musicians who are technically very good, but for me he's just too much widdle widdle.

Also Les Claypool. I don't get the fuss. I bought an album decades ago and it was so bad I took it back to the shop (HMV) and asked for an exchange (which they did!)

I have to admit that my eyebrows raised when I saw a few of my fave bassists named here. Years ago I might have been a bit irked, but these days I actually celebrate the fact that we don't all like the same thing. Diversity rules!

I have come to the conclusion that we are a miserable old bunch.

Great song! I liked it so much back in the day I bought the album. Didn't like any other song ....

The one that comes to mind is Yellow by Coldplay. I literally HAVE to remove myself from it immediately.

A song that I loved but ultimately hated - Vienna by Ultravox. Sure does go on.

Bloody hell, that Tears in heaven is superb. Charles is so musical, and plays with great sensitivity. He is absolutely a master of bass, if anyone chooses to dislike his stuff then fine, they have the right to that but you can't really deny that he is an incredible musician.

On 24/03/2024 at 11:43, Gasman said:

Please tell me - apart from playing on Youtube - what is his musical career?

Well he may not be playing every other month at the Dog & Duck like some of us, but there is serious money to be made with a successful YouTube channel. Would you rather be playing some pub occasionally or be wealthy through music?

Case in point - Steve Terraberry. If you don't know him, don't look him up, you won't like him at all! However, he is a home guitarist who does mad guitar related videos and now has 3.5 million subscribers. He bought this house:

He bought a McLaren 720s

OK, so lets go back to the question "what is his musical career ..."

On 24/03/2024 at 07:54, Gasman said:

Just my own opinion, but isn’t Mr Berthould, genius technician as he may be, a self-promoting PITA and the antithesis of what bands actually need in a bass player?

I never understand why some bassists seem to have this narrow remit of what a bass player should be. Any 'musician' can do what they like with their instrument of choice, and if they make money from it and give enjoyment to others it's all good in my book. A bassist doesn't have to have a 'job' to do in a 'band' although many do choose that role.

On Mr Berthoud, personally I love his playing. Unlike most uber technical players he seems to keep musicality and groove at the heart. I can't listen to the likes of Victor Wooten myself, too widdly widdly for me, but Charles I find really inspiring.

I saw this just today, mega exciting! Discipline is one of my fave albums ever, and I love Steve Vai. I would LOVE to see this if they come to the UK. I hope that a CD gets produced, either studio or live. Steve Vai is quite a left field choice, but to me that's what makes it more interesting.

Back in 82 I was at Luton 6th form college. My mate said come and see this band, the singer throws cucumbers at the audience! We went to the tiny venue (Luton Tech College Student Union Bar). There was this big guy slouched at a desk at the entrance selling the tickets. My mate said 'that's the singer'. I grabbed one of the cheap A4 posters and asked if he would sign it. He said "sure, come with me I'll get all the band to sign" and we traipsed in and met all the band in turn. There was no stage, and I stood literally 1 metre in front of the guitarist the whole gig. It was a fantastic experience. The singer was Fish, the band Marillion.

I was going to say that it was missing something!

@Richard R Hey, thanks for sharing that! I never realised that Guy Pratt is such a delightful guy. A total natural in front of camera as well. I shall be checking out more of his videos. Great bassline as well!

I'm not a dyed in the wool bassist like many of you lot. I'm a multi-instrumantalist who plays many things equally badly. I'm mentioning this because I don't particularly focus on bass playing when listening to music. Every so often (not that often!), I hear something I haven't heard before and the bass playing just leaps out at me in an inspiring way. Needless to say, I have just had such an occurrence. I was listening to an American jazz show and this song came up - Shakatak 'Endurance'. Thank goodness for Shazam! 

We all like different things so maybe no-one else like the track, but personally I can't wait to get home and dig a bass out!

As an aside, if you feel led to, why not post a song that the bass playing has inspired you recently ....

The idea seems weak to me and a recipe for disaster. For a start, one of them will be the best film, one the worst. Do either of the living Beatles want to be the main man of the worst film? 

For me just make one good film and leave it at that. 

I'm English, so C would be the natural option. But i like aged instruments, which negates the problem.

We often seem far apart on comedy so I don't see why we wouldn't be on music, speaking in extremely general terms of course.

Well I'm no expert on basses and sound, and I don't play live, but I got a secondhand J-retro years ago and I really like it. It was in my last bass and I moved it to my current bass.

OK, so off the bat, I'm just a hobbyist player. My number one bass a few years ago was a Fender Custom Shop Reggie Hamilton V bass that I got for a steal at the time. It was fun to play, but to be honest it was too new looking for me, I prefer more aged look instruments. I parted ways with it when Ii decided to go to 4 strings. 

Time rolled on and after years of not playing bass much (I play other instruments), I finally decided to get back into it a bit and built a 5 string. I really liked the old RH's pickup config - Jazz at the bridge and Precision in the middle area, so I thought I'd go for similar.

Anyway I got Delano pickups, basically because I liked the look of them! and also I installed a J-retro preamp.

So ...... it sounds 'OK', but to be honest I'm finding the Precision pickup a bit underwhelming. The RH bass P pickup had a lovely growl to it, and the Delano seems devoid of growl. 

Anyone else got an opinion on Delano Precision pickups? Is it worth changing to try to find my missing growl? Apparently the RH had a American Standard Alnico V split single-coil p-bass middle pickup. Maybe I should get one of those. 

I take a run up and throw the strings at the bass with velocity. It's never worked yet.

All off for a fretboard clean up and polish. Rarely happens though, I have one bass with 20+ year old strings.

Regular guitars are different though, I just replace the one string that breaks. I've never liked the zing of new strings.