Huge Hands

I'm just gutted that, from the original thread, my vote for "Twang" from Animal Kwackers didn't make it into the Lonely Sods list

I have a 1U 2ch dbx compressor (I think a 266 or something?) that I used to use gigging, but now I can't be @rsed to keep carrying it about for the small gigs I tend to play. Good controls, but I find it is really susceptible to noise. I tried recording our band in a "live" situation in a rehearsal room with it on my bass and had to unplug it as there was so much noise. Without, there was none. It may be a fault on mine as it does get a bit kicked about (don't currently have it in a rack), but I thought I'd mention the experience. I suspect it just doesn't like dirty power supplies (or other sh@gged backline on the same feed!) and doesn't have much in the way of suppression, shielding or filters.

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='91209' date='Nov 20 2007, 01:00 AM']I'm surprised nobody's mentioned James Jamerson.[/quote] Whenever I listen to "Chained" by Marvin Gaye, I just laugh out loud. There is no way my sausage fingers will be able to blunder through that without sounding, well.... cr*p.

Does it get worse when your hard drive is being worked hard? I've had PC's that induce noise onto the line in, and when the hard drive is spinning hard, it gets worse. It is a constant noise, or intermittent?

Welcome. Bottle of Dog, Bonny lad, and some stottie cake in case it doesn't weigh me down enough! (Exiled Geordie)

[quote name='BigRedX' post='154134' date='Mar 9 2008, 07:51 PM']Marcus Miller seems to be enjoying playing it.[/quote] Looks like one slip and he'll be in A&E with a pierced chest cavity....

+1's go to Mark Bedders, Horace Panter and Joseph "Lucky Scott (Curtis Mayfield) My four big under-raters are: Lequient "Duke" Jobe of Rose Royce Russell Jackson - played with BB King between late seenties/early eighties when BB was at his funkiest. All thanks to Russell. Dee Murray - played with Elton John. Kelly Groucutt of ELO

You may be able to control it a bit by reducing the drive gain of the loop if it has such a control, but obviously you'll need a test person with either a hearing aid or loop tester to make sure you don't turn it down so much that it becomes redundant and doesn't work! You may be also able to filter the whine out of your signal using EQ, but this could also have a detrimental effect on your "sound". Might be worth it for the peace and quiet! Nasty problem that affects a lot of church players. I can remember the guiarist in our church band getting a mate to turn the loop off during songs. He often forgot though! Easiest answer is to get them to fork out for an infra red hearing system Drastic way is to get them to recable the loop well away from the band area, if there is a dedicated space for the band.

Welcome. I've got to get the missus a top like the one in your avatar. I have a feeling she'd be the only one prepared to wear one at our gigs, and even that would hard to persuade... She'd probably scribble it out and put "singer". Good looking b*st*rd!

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='160787' date='Mar 20 2008, 01:20 PM']I have no interest or connection with Maplin Electronics, but I've just been in to my local Gadget Heaven and bought this [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97489&criteria=trolley&doy=20m3"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...ey&doy=20m3[/url] Just what I've been looking for, to wheel bass cabs around. So cheap yet strong and it folds away. And it's on offer right now, with a tenner off![/quote] Thanks for the "heads up" Born 2B Mild, I've just bought one. Check me out! My first GAS purchase since joining BC! No matter how small, I am still emotional at the significance.....

[quote name='Hasmabass' post='160890' date='Mar 20 2008, 03:55 PM']Hi, I am new to this forum and i am mostly trying to check how it works!Not a big forum fan,better not great with the internet.Trying to though... I live in Nott'm and i have been playing bass for roughly 15yrs.I am self tought and i try to better my playing constantly...I recently went to 5 strings playing but i am sure i will get there eventually....I am 30 now and i have played in 5-6 bands,mainly original music which i enjoy most,since i can do my own thing.... So,hello to everyone![/quote] Welcome! I suggest you start your own thread (New Topic) and you'll probably get a load more replies. I would have thought people are starting to get sick of reading this one all about me by now!

Thanks Joe, very comprehensive! I'll keep my eyes open, and you never know, we may bump into each other here and there, even if it's only at Sainsburys, Asda or Tesco, whoever's doing the best deals on cat food at the time! (They're treated better than me!)

Just revisiting my "Bob Marley And The Wailers - Live At The Rainbow" DVD. Aston Barrett is the man! Sorry, I just had to tell someone.

[quote name='JoeS' post='160580' date='Mar 20 2008, 12:17 AM']Hi Stew, good to see another one from Crawley in our ranks (ignore my "Location", I'm Crawley born and bred, sadly). I'm now racking my brains trying to remember if I've met anyone fitting your description while out-and-about - are you in any bands playing locally?[/quote] Nope, sorry mate, we only moved to Crawley a couple of years ago (wife works at the Airport). I actually work in the centre of London (bugger of a commute every day) and have always played around that area. Our current band is based around the Kings Cross area and tends to play small bars around Soho and Islington-y areas, which is where the guitarist is from and he tends to book the gigs. I'm just happy to float along and turn up to where I'm told. I know it's not the best attitude, but I tend to be the technical/soundy kind of guy and always seems to end up having to scratch together bits of PA if a venue doesn't have one, so they let me off! I'm always up for a good gig though, you'll have to let me know the hotspots. We don't know the area well at all for that sort of thing.

I'd just go out and enjoy yourselves! I used to play in a serious blues band who got booked to do a work's Christmas party because the main boss had seen us elsewhere and liked that sort of music. He was grooving away at the back, but we went down like a lead balloon with the 16 year old junior secretaries and YTS kids who kept asking "Do you play anything we know?" We knew it would happen, and beforehand I even tried to get the band leader to have us practice some Christmas tunes to a blues feel, but he was having none of it. He wanted to remain "pure". In the end, we just tore through our usual set and had a really good gig musically, while laughing at the dead silence between songs. It's all we could do, but still walked away with the dosh at the end of the night. I had a ball! I'd also mention that I played drums many years ago for our local church doing Graham Kendrick style music. We often got out and about round the diocese - those are some of the scariest gigs I've ever played

I find that if I play along to slow, well known stuff by myself at home, I often start to feel sleepy, and have often been found lying on my back hands still in a playing position, but fast asleep! I have never felt sleepy when playing in a band. It's all about watching, listening to and feeling what everyone else is up to. Even the slow stuff. When you're playing with a group of (often strong minded) individuals who can all make (occasional) mistakes or go off on their own tangents, you don't necessarily know what's coming next, unlike the record you've heard a thousand times!

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='117959' date='Jan 10 2008, 04:40 PM']In all seriousness, probably not [b]most[/b] that dismiss it, but yes, a lot of people have a "Fast Show" opinion of jazz. Whether it was formed before or after seeing the Fast Show is a different matter. I'm not blaming The Fast Show for it, I'm just saying it exists. Obviously that opinion is out there otherwise the whole Jazz Club sketch wouldn't exist. Hence things like Chops' "Beret and beard" comment (no offence taken or meant).[/quote] I can remember visiting a jazz club a few times in Newcastle in the 90's at the far end of the quayside next to the law courts (was it the Little Theatre? Help me, fellow north-easterners!). This was when I was a teenager and in my "I must like jazz" phase. I remember this was before the Fast Show sketch, but if you'd have asked me, I'd have thought they'd have been in there the same nights as me! I loved the music, but there were some definite stereotypes in there. I remember one band saying "Look, this is our last number. We can't be bothered with all that clapping and coming back on stuff. This will be it". As soon as they walked offstage, a drunken woman and bearded man (both had no shoes on if I remember correctly) walked up the the front of stage and were shouting things like "Getcha goddamn asses back on the goddamn stage" in faux American-mixed-with-Geordie accents. Nice!

[quote name='StevieC' post='160205' date='Mar 19 2008, 12:43 PM']Not wishing to name drop, I was chatting to one of the Greggs brothers the other day (long story) and he said the only 'standard' product they make is the sausage roll. Greggs operates nationally because they keep on buying up other businesses so everything else is made to suit the local tastes. It might therefore be a bit of an uphill struggle to persuade the 'powers that be' that the southern softies can handle a stottie. (LOL)[/quote] Ha ha, so they'll try Paddy McGuinness out with an atomic mouth burning pastie, but not stottie! I'd love to hear that long story sometime. It's good to hear that fellow members are well connected.

[quote name='paul, the' post='159818' date='Mar 18 2008, 06:27 PM']I can't think of a more beautiful inanimate thing to have in a home.[/quote] No need to talk about the missus like that

Just thought, what about "Twang" from Animal Kwackers? Rory the Lion was one scary blue dude. I was a bit young for this, but my older brother had a record they'd done and I seem to remember playing it non-stop and then scribbling all over it in pen. Anyway, enough about last year In case I get done for copyright, I borrowed the picture from this site : [url="http://www.thechestnut.com/kwackers.htm"]http://www.thechestnut.com/kwackers.htm[/url]

[quote name='owen' post='159447' date='Mar 18 2008, 10:28 AM']No, not me, but if I had been there you would have been welcome to have a go [/quote] Shame, I'd love to thank him (and I'm sure the wife would love to kill him for causing us to have a big chunk of wood taking up space!) I also try to let people just have a shot when they come round, spread the word in the same way. It's especially fun to watch when mates/family bring their kids round and they are amazed by it and it's size. If I can trigger a musical desire (not just necessarily bass) in any of them, then it's a job well done. I don't even mind the sticky fingers, which I know I would be paranoid about and a lot more grumpy with them if I'd blown a fortune on one. I'm much more protective of my guitars which is weird, because none of them set me back much more than the upright! Not "dissing" the expensive stuff, I'd love to have the money, talent and regular requirement to justify buying one - oh and a house with more space and bigger doorways so I didn't keep dinging it everytime I moved it!

Here's mine (the order changes daily): 1. Russell Jackson (BB King) 2. Joseph "Lucky" Scott (Curtis Mayfield) 3. Lequient "Duke" Jobe (Rose Royce) 4. Aston "Family Man" Barrett (Bob Marley) 5. Willie Weeks (Donny Hathaway) And of course, Mr James Jamerson, who was still recording some good stuff in this decade. He goes without saying, in my opinion.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='159290' date='Mar 17 2008, 10:57 PM']Disagree!!!! thats not the half of it. Who the f*** are this idiot bastard no excuse f*** wits who give out such sh*t advice. As you can tell I'm seriously pissed off about this, For f***s Sake, Jamerson made the use of open strings an art form in its own right, they are sonically a variant to stopped notes and they give a rhyhmic articulation that is simply not available when playing two notes on the same string eg 9ths. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!! Huge Hands please don't take my vitriol personally I just can't contain my rage when people attempt to limit the freedom that should be available to all players[/quote] Whoa, well and truly flamed None taken! I agree that Jamerson used open strings for good effect especially due to his upright experience, and as I fumble on with my badly made cheapy upright, I am starting to use them more and more while I try and find the next position! The thread was about how we all play, and that's what has made me comfortable (and probably lazy) over the years. The guy who taught me was a gigging muso doing it as a bit of side cash (probably not the most legit teacher), but I admired the way he played and the consistent tone he always seemed to get. If you asked him, he'd probably say that he didn't mean it like that? It's how I interpreted it at the time, anyway! Note: I only went t him for a couple of years, and have been playing small gigs/in the bedroom for about 16. I have had many other influences since then! Cheers,

Drums, and trombone (at school). I was always more interested in being able to sit in any vacant seat in a band rather than being a master at anything. I know a lot of you will disagree with that philosophy - my brother went mad when I told him I was going to give up some of my concentration on keeping his band tight (drums) to learn the bass! I can fumble chords on a piano and aim to have a go at guitar next - I'm just trying to find a gullible mate who'll permanently loan me an acoustic. However, I always gravitate back at the bass. I don't claim to be a master of anything!