EliasMooseblaster

One thing that we do seem to have overlooked here is the precursory question of how many pickups your bass has. I can hardly blame Precision players for popping the volume on full and tweaking the tone control to find a spot where the tone sits well in the mix - that's exactly what I do with mine. But if you play a Jazz, or a Thunderbird, the volume controls also serve as your "blend" control. T-birds, in particular, have a particular sweet spot when the neck's on full and the bridge is on about '8'. In short, where I'd set the onboard volume may depend on how many onboard volume controls I have!

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1476830237' post='3157714'] Modern equipment is as loud at midrange and high fequencies as it ever was, but where it excels is in the low frequencies as you need huge amounts of power to get the bass frequencies to double in volume. An increase of volume in the bass range is a lot less noticeable to the human ear. [/quote] This is pretty much the crux of it. One of the loudest bass players around in the early '70s was probably John Entwistle, but his sound on those live recordings (I'm thinking [i]Leeds[/i] and [i]IoW 1970[/i], chiefly) is overdriven to buggery, and whilst it's rich in mids, it's a bit lacking in 'true' bass. If that's the kind of sound you're after (I am) then running a 100W valve amp into a modest-sized cab going to serve you very well for smaller gigs - heck, I've even managed to gig a 30W valve amp in some venues. This will not be true if you want clean, tight and funky, however. You'll need something that can produce clean tones with deeper bass frequencies, and that will require a lot more power to achieve comparable perceived volume - hence the 500 or 1000W SS heads that are so commonly seen nowadays. Granted, my 100W valve amp might be able to honk all over a 100W solid state amp, but the tone will be very different.

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1476754381' post='3156981'] This has got me thinking - I always thought that, if you use it correctly and tastefully, the volume manipulation technique known as violining (on guitar, a la Yngwie Malmsteen) can be quite cool. I wonder if there's a way to make it sound good on bass? Kinda doubt it, but it's got to be worth experimenting with. [/quote] I have an example right here: http://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/track/frozen-heart (Skip forward to about 1:00 to hear me attempting to mimic a cello via the volume knob and a Bass Tubescreamer.)

Looks absolutely gorgeous - I look forward to hearing the demos!

Just two weeks away now!

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1475584158' post='3147079'] The Line 6 comment was a bit harsh! I've got a Spider IV 75w...while I honestly couldn't care less about the bulk of the presets (which I guess is what it's sold for), it is pretty simple to dial up a decent tone. OK yeah, for sure I'll admit it's probably not the hardy amp you'd want to take out on a mahoosive tour, but for general use, recording and so forth, it's tiptop. I've used it on everything I've recorded in the last three or four years. New these are currently less than 200 notes, second-hand half that. What's to complain about? [/quote] The biggest problems I've found are the basic clean tone (not to my taste, not necessarily their fault of course!) and, more importantly, they seem to be really unresponsive to dynamics.

Hasn't this style been done before? I believe I know somebody who owns an Ibanez guitar with a similar design, but in blood-red on a white background. Designed, one might argue, to resemble spattered blood.

[quote name='bonzodog' timestamp='1475825199' post='3148944'] There is still time!! [/quote] [quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1475834107' post='3149049'] Ha ha! I'd be lying if I hadn't thought that myself [/quote] Alright, I'll get the ball rolling: [i]BUT IS THIS PETITION ANY GOOD FOR METAL?[/i] PS signed!

[quote name='Indy' timestamp='1475824623' post='3148941'] Loved Andy Rourke and his sound. Think I remember him saying he liked to do bass lines as a song within a song. Love the bass line in Barbarism begins at home. Jonny Marr said that the queen is dead album wouldn't have been possible without the bassists contribution. [/quote] I'd be inclined to agree Marr, some of the bass parts on that album are excellent! Any idea what bass(es) he was playing on those sessions? His tone on [i]Frankly Mr Shankly [/i]and [i]Cemetery Gates[/i] is wonderful.

Time for a new one: here's something I knocked out over the weekend [media]http://youtu.be/YgIaAwlfx4c[/media]

Bumpity-bump... [attachment=229036:CWeventBanner2.jpg]

Oh dear. "Generic" really is the word, isn't it? If they're reading this thread* then might I suggest they either go for something radically different, or reissue the SG-Z bass? The main complaint about T-birds seemed to be upper-fret access, and the (secondary) main complaint about SG basses was the great big mudbucker right under the neck; combining the SG's upper-fret access with a T-bird pickup arrangement seemed to be a good solution to me. *they're almost certainly not

I probably owe a debt of gratitude to my sister, and to a certain amount of serendipity. The Mooseblaster family have not, historically, been musical. On my mother's side, Grandpa Molestrangler played the guitar and was briefly a member of some sort of band. Sadly he passed away before I was born, though his acoustic guitar is still in the family, and is utterly terrible. On my father's side, one of his siblings briefly played the trumpet. I can't remember which of my grandmothers had a few piano lessons before the teacher told her mother, "I think it would be better for your wallet and my sanity if [name] didn't have any more lessons." That said, both my parents always enjoyed listening to music, so when my sister expressed an interest in learning the piano, they expressed a great deal of vicarious enthusiasm, and presumably hoped that she would get the musical education they weren't able to have when they were her age. After the first couple of months, she had to be badgered to practice (like most young children) but did, to be fair, make it all the way through the grades. It probably didn't help having a teacher who didn't appreciate that, whilst the work of JS Bach is technically fascinating to somebody who has spent their entire adult life teaching piano technique and music theory, it is terrifically boring to most children. Of course these things don't happen in isolation - after the piano appeared at home, I began to noodle around on it cluelessly until my folks found a teacher for me as well. Fortunately for me, I ended up with a jazz enthusiast, who encouraged me to listen to [i]Kind of Blue [/i]and taught me how to improvise. I think it's fair to say I enjoyed my piano lessons more than my sister enjoyed hers; I still wonder, however whether I would have taken this first step if she hadn't instigated the piano coming into the house in the first place!

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1475097766' post='3143116'] Did you move it on because the cat sprayed it? [/quote] Let's just say I'm glad Wunjo's only did a visual inspection and not a sniff test...

Off to see Joanne Shaw Taylor this very evening. Got a tip-off from a friend that she's doing an album launch at the HMV on Oxford Street. (One of those "the gig is free entry, as long as you buy a copy of the album from us" arrangements - but I figured if I was going to buy the album anyway then I may as well get the gig and an autograph out of it as well.)

Does it count if I took said "selfie" using a webcam rather than a mobile phone? [attachment=228840:felineVsFretless.jpg] (And does it still count if I know longer own the featured bass?)

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1474927258' post='3141638'] The noodle bar has struggled of late for entries so it would be great to get another entry in [/quote] Happy to oblige: https://soundcloud.com/cherrywhitemusic/funky-appendage/s-RxpFB

[quote name='Kevin Glasgow' timestamp='1473347615' post='3129393'] Hi folks, here's another solo video. This time it's John Coltrane's minor blues Equinox. Hope you enjoy it! ... Cheers, Kev [/quote] Cracking stuff, Kev! I used to love playing this song with my old jazz band - though I was certainly never doing anything that impressive with the bass part!

[attachment=228725:onstageProud.jpg] (Excuse the slightly narcissistic pic, it was the best one I had to hand!) This bitsa was cobbled together when I spotted a mahogany body going for a reasonable price on fleabay and thought, "ooh, that looks nice." It gathered dust for a long time until I had enough disposable to buy the other components. I got a luthier friend to widen the neck pocket, and spent most of the project trying to combat the fact that the body was almost certainly intended for a short-scale bass! French-polishing it was quite relaxing though. (Full build diary at https://thecrowfrombelow.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/the-birth-of-aradia-part-i/ ) And does this one count? [attachment=228726:brenda.jpg] "Brenda" was originally built from a Brandoni Guitars kit, but underwent a refurbishment a couple of years ago. The main focus was to redo the French-polished finish, but I decided to treat her to a nicer scratchplate, some new pots and a fancy Fender '62 RI pickup.

You can do a surprising amount of Creedence Clearwater Revival with just one guitar. You may have to make the bassline a little busier during guitar solos, but otherwise most audiences tend not to notice the absence of a second guitar part.

I call plagiarism - it looks suspiciously like my Frankenbass with an extra pickup (below centre)! [attachment=228724:bass_trio.jpg]

[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1474888127' post='3141220'] I've never encountered a hostile stage invader (yet) but we had a guy get up on on to our little foot high 'stage' at a recent pub gig who started to try to talk to our frontman mid song. My initial thought was that he must be drunk and was going to try and grab the mic. No, he was totally sober and was in fact try to ask if he could book us to play at a party. He obviously didn't want to wait until the break. [/quote] This, much like Dave's story above about a guy wanting to buy the band a round of drinks, are the most baffling ones. I've encountered heavily refreshed gentlemen who've wanted to get at the mic (and in my younger and angrier days I did shove at least one such punter off the stage into a crowd who were a bit fed up with his antics and told him to give it a rest), but why would you try and talk to a band member mid-song? If you saw someone was on the phone you wouldn't walk up and just talk at them, so why would you approach a band member when they're clearly in the middle of something and the stage volume is going to make it difficult for you to be heard? Mighty strange.

You'd think for three grand they could have at least come up with a slightly less godawful headstock! I didn't mind the look of the semi-hollow fretless which appears to have been made by the same people ([url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATLANSIA-VICTORIA-ARC-FL-Fretless-Bass-Free-Shipping/222237718389?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D202e0ccbcc5f44658446b103171a9602%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D222224221003"]this one[/url]), though similarly I don't know whether I'd stump up four grand for it...

I know it's not the guitar's tone [i]per se, [/i]but several guitarists I know have argued that thicker necks give better sustain - supposedly Paul Gilbert's most recent signature model has quite a deep neck profile for this very reason. None of them have been able to provide a physical explanation for this (ofr course), and unfortunately, among my basses no two are sufficiently similar for me to conduct any meaningful investigation, so I'll have to put myself in the "Don't Know" camp for now.

They're probably best described as "an acquired taste." I have acquired said taste, but I can appreciate they're not for everybody. Tonally, they're good for classic rock and blues (and, perhaps surprisingly, older sub-genres of jazz such as swing and bop) but they're pretty lousy for funk. I don't really play slap, but if I did I probably wouldn't use my Thunderbird for it. They certainly suit the taller lady or gentleman, given the way both the 'bird and my Epi EB-3/SG sit on a strap, but I have been blessed with long arms so this hasn't been an issue. Yes, the neck dive is a bit ridiculous on the SG, but the way my right arm sits counteracts this quite effectively. I'd argue the 'bird isn't as badly balanced as some have suggested, though I don't know whether the Hipshot bridge on mine is adding significantly more weight at the back than the original bridge (which, I agree, is a bit of a silly design!) For me, the greatest attraction is how articulate they are in the upper registers. The dusty end sings in a way that I just haven't found with many other basses - listen to [i]The Real Me [/i]by The Who for an example of the kind of sound that I'm referring to, and which sparked my initial interest in Gibson-style basses. It's probably also fortunate coincidence that their typical tone sits quite comfortably into my band's sound (thick Les Paul guitar sound, strong female vocal, chuffing loud drummer).