geilerbass

Check out some Planet X.

Another shameless self-promotion - both my bands, To-Mera and Demagogue are partial to a fair amount of odd-time signature silliness.

And of course, there's the theme music to the film Halloween (to my ears, it's a fast 5/4).

If there are any basschatters out there who fancy some progressive and technical music this weekend, you could do worse than to come down and see my band To-Mera supporting France's Adagio at the Purple Turtle in Camden Town, London on Saturday night. I believe tickets are £9, (£10 on the door) and apparently also includes entry to the club night afterwards.

Tickets should be available at the usual outlets.

[url="http://www.myspace.com/tomeraband"]http://www.myspace.com/tomeraband[/url]
[url="http://www.myspace.com/adagioofficial"]http://www.myspace.com/adagioofficial[/url]

I think the lesson for this is to never assume anything when playing a gig and to make double sure that, if you have been offered backline, what it includes. And regardless of what happens and who borrows what, show some friendliness, gratitude and respect to your fellow performers - the music industry is all about networking anyway, so surely coming across as considerate and professional should be a high priority.

It's all down to communication - something that I've found many bands, soundmen, promoters and venues frustratingly lacking in. A simple email/phone call before a gig to confirm what exactly is being brought and used by who is always the best approach rather than assuming that 'backline' is understood as what you understand it as by everyone else involved. It really irritates me how un-professional and lazy some parties can be when it comes to this side of gig organisation.

And even if you are pretty sure that a band has agreed to lend out their gear, it's always worth double-checking with the actual person who's gear you're using (the bassist) that it's okay, before you actually plug in. Some people in bands are often very quick to assume that their fellow band members are happy to lend out gear, without actually checking with them first.

My interpretation of backline, as a standard, is cabs/speakers and non-breakable drums (excluding snare) and hardware.

But from what you say, it sounds as though they are aware you were using their stuff - again it's down to communication. If they were unhappy with it, they should have said something their and then.

Very nice! I'd love to try one of these out at some point - the 4 and 5 string versions are really nice to play, so it'd be interesting how this translates to 6 strings.

[quote name='basexperience' post='594715' date='Sep 10 2009, 01:25 PM']I'd almost put money on that. He's a tiny chap! [/quote]

While he's not particularly tall, he's got pretty big hands. His first signature Yamaha bass had a fairly wide neck and while I think the RBXJM2 was narrower, it still wasn't as streamlined as an Ibanez neck. The new EBMM Bongo Bass 6-stringer that he uses now, from what I've been reliably told, also has a reasonably wide neck.

Got my ticket! I'm not that familiar with the man's solo work, but I'd just love the opportunity to see him live in any capacity.

I got to meet him very briefly last year, at a screening of his film Electric Apricot - very down-to-earth chap. And the film was awesome.

[quote name='Sugden' post='586476' date='Sep 1 2009, 01:17 PM']Thats the Yamaha RBXJM2 and according to views on talkbass it is the same width as the 506 which has a 54mm neck.

Ooo didnt realise the corvette was only 52mm at the nut I know it has a 16.5 mm string spcaing though and it has a thickness at the nut of 20mm.

It always suprises me why larger brands dont advertise the exact specs of the instruments for neck sizing as for a 6 string instrument thats quite important. Yamaha don't seem to publish any of them which are useful its all through users measurments to find details.[/quote]

I used to own an RBXJM2. Also being an Ibanez SR 6-string owner, I can say that the neck of the Yamaha 'looked' narrower than the the Ibanez but 'felt' wider when playing. The Ibanez was definitely much easier to play and I have relatively small hands. I think the ratio of the neck width at the nut to that where it meets the body on the Yamaha, compared to the Ibanez, was greater, explaining why it looked narrower.

[quote name='Tinman' post='578233' date='Aug 23 2009, 02:57 PM']Could be the Barts (if that's what was fitted) My BTB 550 has Barts in it and they're awful. I think the problem there is that they're not even the proper US Bartollinis but ones made in Korea I think. If it was at the lower end of the price scale there's a good chance that it had those in it.[/quote]

This is true. The non-Prestige models don't come with proper Bartolinis, but with Bartolini-branded pickups that are made in Korea along with the actual instruments. You'll notice that the pickups are called Bartolini 'MK1' - apparently the 'MK' means 'made in Korea'. Or so I've heard.

The Prestige range of SR and BTB basses do come with US-Made Bartolinis and for me, there is a considerable difference in the sound.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='566375' date='Aug 11 2009, 10:59 PM']1. Everyone knows where it is.
2. Most people assume that it's a vintage-instrument Mecca.
3. Even in the largest city in Europe, we're not exactly spoiled for choice.
4. You don't actually have to buy anything ... you can widdle about & annoy the assistants.
5. Assuming you've bothered to do some research, you're always in a position to haggle.
6. It's an amazing fund of good stories to bring to Basschat.

Yes, but [b][i]apart [/i][/b]from all that, what has Denmark Street ever done for us? [/quote]

And aside from all that, most people (me included) love a good moan.

'Cajon' in Spanish, actually translates to 'drawer', I believe - but ultimately, it implies something in which you put stuff. Sorry, feeling pedantic today.

The drummer in one of my bands has one - sounds great, though we're struggling to find a way to integrate it with our progressive-extreme metal sound.

We use a backing track in a couple of songs in one of my bands. In one case, there is a guitar lead line in the chorus and a rhythm part and we have only one guitarist. It just doesn't work as well without both, so the solution was a backing track. In the other case, we have a break section in the middle with some heavy-sounding, layered strings and another keyboard part - it's just not physically possible for our keyboard player to do both so, again, backing track.

In both cases, it's simply to enhance the live sound and emulate the feel and atmosphere that is on the record. I think it works and never sounds as though suddenly there's a backing track.

With regards to the technical side of it, we got the guy who recorded the album to give us a mix of the tracks with just the parts that we needed in the backing, along with a click track. It's a stereo mix with the backing panned fully to one side and the click fully to the other. The tracks are WAVs, I believe and are played off an Ipod through a small mixer, where the signal is split into left and right. The side with the click goes as a mono signal into a pair of headphones for our drummer and the backing side goes out through as a mono signal to the desk (usually through a DI box).

Yup, that's Wenge-Bubinga. The best kind of neck, in my opinion

I have to agree that is a little misleading, as I would have thought that a Jazz rout would be by far the simplest and quickest task. But then again, I'm not a luthier.

Perhaps the £30 is for routing a soapbar into the space of Jazz?

That's a lovely looking bass! Would be interesting to hear how an SR sounds with EMGs - rather than Ibanez own or Barolinis.

I'm pretty sure, from the look of the pictures, that the fretboard is Wenge, with most likely a bubinga-wenge neck.

BC Rich basses, in my limited experience of them, look very metal, but don't necessarily aid the fast style required for death metal. I agree with the suggestion of an Ibanez, but I also think that your current Yamaha should more than do the job. Sound-wise, I'd say you need something with plenty of bottom-end, but also a tight and clear middle frequency range, to allow the bass to cut through the wall of guitar noise that DM inevitably involves.

Another recommendation for Ultimate Slap Bass. Loads of great exercises in there.

Very useful and informative. Fantastic work, sir!

I recall how broad the term 'latin' is, when we covered it briefly at college. I guess it's more a collection of genres that have similar roots - or at least, that's my interpretation.

I'll have to give some of those suggestions a look on Spotify and see if anything appeals. It'll make a change from metal and prog, at least...

My band To-Mera are in the process of recording a new EP and we have a couple of clips up on our MySpace page, showing us laying the tracks down. Including me stumbling through some quite fiddly sections - just about got there!

[url="http://blogs.myspace.com/tomeraband"]To-Mera recording[/url]

Lovely stuff! Great groove you have there.

Is that typical Bossa? I'm a complete noob when it comes to anything with a latin flavour, despite having South American heritage. Makes me want to listen to more. Especially with that chord progression - you really can't go wrong with it.

I've simply experienced bad customer service in Denmark St - some of the accounts on this thread hint at actual criminal behaviour. If I didn't have enough reasons to avoid 'Tin Pan Alley' like the plague, I certainly do now. Terrifying...

[quote name='garry' post='565625' date='Aug 11 2009, 07:56 AM']i was too young the first time around so never got to see them live, juudging by the youtube vids from this year, theyve still got it.... mike is the man![/quote]

They certainly have 'still got it'. In fact, when I saw them in June, I thought they were significantly better live than when I saw them in 1997 on their last tour.

I've got the 5-string version of this - it really is quite awesome. Glad to see someone else on here with an SR20th!

I didn't realise FNM were doing more UK dates - apart from Leeds and Reading of course. I saw them at Brixton Academy in June - suffice to say it was amazing. You're in for a real treat there!