molan

I should add that the songs that really bothered me were ones were I think the bass line is an intrinsic part of the song.

Obvious examples I can remember were:

I Feel Good - just didn't play that core bass line that holds the verses together (it's not like this is hard to play either)

My Girl - again, to my ears, the bass is a crucial part of this song and overplaying with lots of extra fills is just pointless

Honky Tonk Woman - a great groove with dynamics brought up & down between the initial verses & choruses by simply not playing any bass. When the bass comes in it's such a simple part. Last night the bass was played all the way through the song with many more notes than old Bill W ever played. With the whole band going hell for leather through the entire song it just seemed to lose all the feel.

I went to see a friend's band tonight which was full of 'seasoned' pros who have been playing covers for a very long time indeed.

I was listening to the bass parts (as I'm sure we all do at gigs!) and couldn't believe how far away from some of the original lines he was playing.

I'm not talking about wildly over-playing or just sticking to simple root notes.

He was literally playing bass parts that were 'wrong' compared to the originals. They were in tune and timing was fine but some really well known parts were simply ignored.

I'm talking about some lines that, for a bass player, almost define some songs - stuff like James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye etc.

The rest of the band were obviously striving to cover the original parts so it wasn't like they'd chosen to rearrange each song.

It really irritated me and I wanted to grab him by the lapels and give him a good shake, lol.

I mentioned this to a fellow muso in the audience, a keys player, and he hadn't noticed anything untoward.

Am I wrong in thinking that if you're covering a classic you should aim to be faithful to the original as possible or am I just being a 'bass snob'?

I moved to London in the late 70's as a, very impressionable, 18 year old.

Had already been to see several punk bands live - Clash / Jam / Souixsie / Gen x + lots of smaller bands like the Lurkers, 999 etc.

I moved into the room that Billy idol had just vacated, he'd moved to the flat next door - most immaculately dressed & coiffed person I've ever seen at 8:00 in the morning for breakfast by the way, lol.

We had various Pistols, Gen Xers, Chrissie Hynde, Marco Peroni, some new bloke who reckoned he could sing called George O'Dowd & a host of others round at out flat before heading off to party in the evening.

It was a fabulous time to be living in London and the city felt so 'alive'. Even just being out & walking the streets became all part of the social scene and there were some fantastic gigs - The Clash tended to kick everyone else's arse when some of the bands started moving up to larger sized venues like the Rainbow.

I think it was a massive change in the way the whole music scene worked for a few years. It became easier to get up & play live and, maybe more importantly, the independent label and distribution networks sprung up which meant you could much more easily track down your favourite latest single.

The way this affected some of the independent record shops made them much more exciting places to visit & meet friends, browse for rare stuff etc. Quite a few started branching out into imported reggae, harder core funk, rare groove soul and stuff. Cost me a bloody fortune in Jamaican 12" imports at £4.50 a pop!

Truly a great time to be alive and for me it was absolutely about the social aspect as much as about the music.

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1328539453' post='1528667']
Nope, all Genz amps have a voltage selector on the back. Just use the correct plug, and select the voltage. Away you go
[/quote]

I don't think the old Shuttle 3.0 has the power switching - I bought a 6.0 from the States when they first came out (rather than the 3.0 which was all I really needed) because of this.

I've just ordered one of the new Aguilar P bass pickups - wound to sound like one of the founders of Aguilar's '64 P bass - and I have a '64 to put it into so that's one reason for deciding to try them out

I've played one of Mike's new basses - a Funkmeister.

It was great to play, super-low action.

BassGear have one in stock at the moment.

Nice one Loz,

Wes's basses are great - I have one and am contemplating another!

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1329052483' post='1536459']
If I hadn't been to London before and only had a day I wouldn't want to spend it looking at bass guitars. I'd check out the tourist things - pick from Tower of London, Westminster Palace, The Eye, Tate Modern, South Bank, Borough Market, Museums of all descriptions - the list goes on of really well presented, top class places to go and see. London is an absolutely wonderful city with a long and diverse history often taken for granted - I know I do as it is on my doorstep.
[/quote]

There's a really great day out to be had if you follow some of these notes above.

Kick off in Borough Market just for the atmosphere, plenty of places to stop off nearby for a coffee or home made cake (maybe even start at Monument station & stroll across London Bridge to the market)

Walk through to the river & see the Golden Hind & maybe Clink Prison Museum

Head down the river to Tate Modern

It's too far to walk to London Eye but a short cab ride or walk to Southwark Tube & 1 stop to Waterloo.

If you've still got any energy / time left then stroll across Westminster Bridge to see Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey etc.


Alternative route might be to start in Westminster, across the bridge to Londen Eye, tube it from Waterloo to London Bridge & lunch around Borough Market. Then walk across London Bridge & round to the Tower of London. This route misses Tate Modern but if you're not into strolling around art museums then it's maybe best avoided anyway.


One other nice day out is Covent Garden, Soho, Leicester Square & down to Trafalgar Square - really not far to walk to see the heart of all of this & loads of places to eat & drink. Would allow you to do Denmark Street as well.

Have you considered something like a Zon?

Would be very different to anything you already have and would give you all sorts of options for plain or fancy tops, nicely ergonomic bodies and a graphite neck.

Alternatively, if you've got £3K to spend then you're on the edges of a classic 'vintage' Fender as well. Unlikely to get 100% original for that money but certainly you could pick up a pre CBS P bass with a refin body (like mine!) or a later 60's J.

You're also well up into the 'boutique' J basses from people like Sadowsky, Lull, Celinder or a custom build from Martin Petersen or Jon Shuker etc.

Choices, choices eh. . .

Now that is a very nice bass!

I'm a big fan of Wes's work

[quote name='Higgie' timestamp='1328994381' post='1535901']
Awesome site! Just downloaded all the Steely Dan backing tracks to make transcribing the bass lines a bit easier. I didn't know Anthony Jackson played with the Dan...Do you know what tracks, just out of interest?
[/quote]

Only ones I know of offhand are Glamour Profession & My Rival on Gaucho. May be others but might need a bit of serious Googling!

I've both and much preferred my Spectors to my '86 Warwick.

Very different basses tonally - certainly the ones I've tried.

My personal favourite is the 5 string American Spector - some of these are fabulous to play

Welcome Marc - whereabouts in Berkshire are you?

There's quite a few of us in the Berks/Bucks/Hants/Oxon borders area

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1328959083' post='1535258']


Character! We all want our stuff to be individual, yours clearly is.

I think the relative cost of gear (ie as a % of typical income) is a fraction of what it used to be in the 60s-70s, well good gear anyway. Things have changed.
[/quote]

Absolutely - when I bought my first Fender Musicmaster in 1979 it cost me £110 - my gross income at the time was £2,500!

Fantastic basses, easily a match for Sadowsky NYC, Lull etc

Thanks guys,

I thought I could see a washer under there - wondered why it might be there but I can see Stacker's comment would make sense

I've had immense fun today picking out bass lines from some of these & playing along

I recently bought a new RI '62 stacker body for a project I'm working on.

The twin tone controls are heavily ratcheted - is this normal?

Obviously they weren't like this on an original Stacker.

So Marco Mendoza has gone up in my estimations after listening to some live Whitesnake tracks

Apologies if this has been posted before but I've only just come across it:

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/author/OrangeGoblin.htm

This is a huge collection of songs with the guitar parts removed. Some are really cut back to just bass & drums, others still have vocals & keys. All are claimed to be album cuts or direct from the board live mixes.

The bass seems pretty high in the mix for each of the ones I've listened to so far.

Band list goes on forever but to give you an idea of variety

Steely Dan - this is how I came across this site whilst hunting for some Anthony Jackson stuff
AC DC
Alice in Chains
The Beatles
Jeff Beck
Black Sabbath
Bon Jovi
Carlos Santana
Chicago
Eric Clapton
Deep Purple
Doobie Brothers
Doors
Dream Theatre
Eagles
Fleetwood Mac
Foo Fighters
Foreigner
Hedrix
Iron
Maiden
Judas Priest
Albert King
Lenny Kravitz
Led Zep
Megadeth
Metallica
Muse
Nirvana
Pantera
Pearl Jam
Pink Floyd
Judas Priest
Porcupine Tree
Bonnie Raitt
Queen
Chili Peppers
Stones
Rush
Slayer
Snow PAtrol
U2
Van Halen
Whitesnake
Yes
ZZ Top

Plus lots of others - 507 in total!!

The tip is to make sure you click on the song rather than the band in order to get the Orange Goblin uploads. The majority of this site is, as far as I know, just midi backing tracks but Orange Goblin seems to have all original stuff.

Right - back to listening to Anthony Jackson with the Dan

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1328866631' post='1533809']
I'll check it out next time I'm passing! I think I have pictures somewhere...

*rummage*

Is this it? (May 13 2006 at the Borderline, history fans)


[/quote]

No - the one Phil has is sunburst, I think he's had it a while as well so maybe pre-dates this one.

[quote name='mcgraham' timestamp='1328864708' post='1533758']


Well [i]that[/i] has convinced me I need a Fodera, if only to be able to do that.


[/quote]

You'll need to find an old one then as they don't do this any more

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1328821514' post='1533365']
Caravan are great: check out Waterloo Lily, If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It Over You and their brilliant In The Land Of Grey And Pink.

The common thread with these albums is bassist Richard Sinclair - I can't recommend him enough, and his voice is perfect for the band as well. You'll also find him in Hatfield And The North, look out for their eponymous album and follow-up The Rotter's Club.

I saw Soft Machine a few times in recent years when Hugh was still with us - wonderful stuff. I once ended up sitting a few feet away from him when they played downstairs at the Pizza Express on Dean St. A big lesson there.
[/quote]

You have to pop into BassGear & play on his old fretless - Phil is more than happy for people to play it. It's just not for sale!

My '86 Fodera Monarch has volume control for each pickup and master bass/treble controls.

I use it in a soul / disco band set up to simply flick the switch forward for neck pickup only on the old solu/funk stuff for a P bass sound & then to both pickups, with the bridge pulled back a shade for the more 'modern' disco material.

Works really well for me

I have three tort guards sitting next to me right now, '63 original J, '72 original P & early 70's repro on a '63P.

Each one is slightly different with the '63 definitely much more orangey than the later ones (which actually works well on the seafoam green body).

I think Jeannie's has two different classifications - red tort & brown tort. I'm sure if you contacted them they could help