trent900

Yo Faithless! Gospel is almost infinite fun! Do it, and nail it. With regard to tips, the root of it is pretty simple stuff - it really can start off with root and 5th following the bass drum and snare backbeat. In fact, that's probably where it [i]should[/i] start, if you're not completely confident. Start simple, learn to love the simple groove, and sort out note voicings...and then start putting in sw***y passing notes, I would say. Note voicing is extremely important. Damping with left and right hands, rest strokes, hammers and pull-offs all have more influence in Gospel / Funk Gospel than any other style I've played (though I'm more than happy to be corrected on that). Also, a lovely common lick is to switch from root to 5th by going down to the lower 3rd note and running up chromatically. So - if you're moving from C to G, then drop to an open E string and walk up F-F#-G. An easy classic, and you can make it fit any song by letting it ring or choking the notes off with your right hand, or whatever. Lots of octave leaps, too...and seventh leaps, so G to F, and also 'funk 6th' leaps, so G-E-F. But this is all getting very stream-of-consciousness, so I'm going to pass you off to an expert I ran across on Youtube: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VryK2GtrWRc&feature=PlayList&p=95FD2C5F9A132617&index=0"]Youtube - Soulful Styles Bass Tutorial DVD[/url] He may have no neck but he's still a badass gospel bassplayer. I'd recommend listening to that band's stuff on Youtube and maybe investing in Wes's DVD. All the very best! Gospel is not easy to play well but oh man it isn't half fun when you get it. Cheers Jon

Oh my goodness that's astonishingly good! You say 'a few mistakes' but if people aren't allowed a couple of bum notes on something that tough then when are they? Brilliant job, man, brilliant job. I like the wince when you scuff one (just one!) of the double-thumbs... Jon

[quote name='SuperDuperStar' post='610921' date='Sep 28 2009, 03:35 PM']Hey Everyone, New to this side of the pond and looking to kick start myself back into playing. On the look out for a good music store in the coventry/birmingham area that stocks some good bass equipment. Anyone know of a place that may have a selection of at least some fender basses? I sold all my equipment before heading over........Sadowsky NYC, F Bass, Valenti, Ampeg , Eden as well as a couple vintage Gibson and Fender basses. Thought I was going to give up playing but now finding that I have an itch that need scratching! First things first I need to put a half right bass in my hands. Also for anyone who is in the coventry area and may need a bass player........................I'm looking for a singer who needs a band or an existing group to get involved in. Something on the go or starting from scratch. Into all sorts of music(pop, rock, alt, r& and know how to play for the song(and not show off/add extra notes). Plenty of recording and gig experience. Check out the link for a sample of my playing. [url="http://www.bandmix.co.uk/superduperstar/"]Demo Track[/url] Contact at sweetlowend AT msn . COM Thanks.[/quote] Coventry / Birmingham area? [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Home.html"]Bass direct[/url] is in Warwick which isn't that far and is a good day out anyway. They stock everything. Though I would say if you sold all your gear before heading over you're probably going to get a nasty horrible shock when you see how expensive stuff is over here. Think the same number as the US$ price despite the 1.7 exchange rate. We get ripped off something chronic. Enjoy. Still, with Bassdirect and Birmingham on your doorstep you should be laughing for stock choices. All the best! Jon

[quote name='Markff' post='612282' date='Sep 29 2009, 06:07 PM']My first post too. I'm a Bass player from derby mate. you're just not looking hard enough! i've sent you a pm anyway Mark[/quote] Oh, and PS. Welcome Mark! I live in Mickleover and would be at a rehearsal this eve but my band members have baled out. Are you banded up at the moment? What kind of stuff do you like to play? It's always nice to see people from around my way... Jon

Heh! I'm a bass player from Derby too, though I agree we are a rare-ish breed. I would PM you...but I don't like punk, ska or hardcore so there may be some issues there. B'oh! All the best though, I'm sure you'll find someone on this forum of forums. Jon

[quote name='The Funk' post='601725' date='Sep 17 2009, 09:03 PM']If you're not all that interested in music how did you get obsessed by gear?[/quote] Ooooh, it's so easy! GAS can strike anyone. The lure of shiny electronics is not confined to those who listen to hang around secondhand vinyl shops. My recommendation to Jobiebass is to mix bass playing with dinner. Pick a couple friends who can bash different instruments (I assume you have a couple). Cook them tarragon chicken and then sit down over a bottle or 3 of red and maul a few tunes. I recommend 'It's Late' by Queen just because it's awesome. Rotate around people's houses. Don't take too much gear. Once a month should do it. Even if you still feel like jacking it in at least you've got some society out of it. Jon

Don't know about on this board but the 210xl is only about £220 new so if you can locate a secondhand one £150 should be plenty. It weighs 46lb, what's that...21kg? It's not light. But then 20kg isn't actually that much. The 3 bits of my rig weigh 30kg, 15kg and 35kg and the only one I have trouble with is the 35kg head unit, so long as I lift from the knees and keep the back straight! To be honest, if you want power to match a ~300W head and you've got £150 I think 'lightweight' may be beyond you. I'm no expert but in my experience lightweight cabs are comparitively costly. I think neodymium for the magnets is expensive stuff. For example, a GK Neo 210 will be £350-£400 new, and the benchmark, the Epifani UL210 will be over £800. And even a Neo cab will weigh about 35lb - 16kg. Reasonably loud cabs are, in general, not light. A single 12" will be lighter and than a 2x10", and cheaper. I don't know whether it will have enough beef because I don't know what or where you will be playing. The GK Neo 112 weighs 14kg and is £300 new so somewhere near-ish to your price range if you can find one secondhand. I would [i]really[/i] recommend finding a well stocked shop and having a go at playing and lifting. Talk will only get you so far. But by all means get the Eden, it will serve you well.

Damn, Michael McIntyre can sing! To be honest, I'd much rather play this as a closing song instead of Hi-f'ing-Ho f'ing Silver f'ing Lining, which is what I currently get the honour of trying not to have a psychotic break through. Ug. Count thy blessings, those that may play KoL.

[quote name='MythSte' post='601465' date='Sep 17 2009, 05:17 PM']I love some of Pinos playing but this whole PSP thing seems a little soul-less to me [/quote] From that video, I agree. It felt like a technical exercise. To be honest...it sounded like a bunch of session musicians playing early 80s prog solos. I can imagine those tunes being from an advanced-level 'Further Drumming for Experienced Players' book & dvd tutorial set, you know? Pino is, very unoriginally, my bass-playing idol, but I'm not going to be rushing out to buy PSP tickets. That said, thank you Soulfinger for posting it, very interesting to watch! Jon

For £150? Hartke 2x10 again Just been listening to Anna Molly...quite a good tune I'd not heard before...cheers. I think it is actually quite a tightly compressed sound on that track, just without a lot of treble and with fast attack. Probably go for the Eden head. If you don't like it, live with it for a bit, then flog it or swap it. That's the beauty of secondhand. Reviews alone are useful but not gospel truth. Witness the eternal Ashdown debate: some reviewers will rave about them, some will hate them. Which are you going to go for? If there's a good shop near you it's always worth going down and trying to have a blitz on some stuff. I find so long as I push some business their way (even if it's not the massive stack I've been playing on) I don't feel too bad about it...

[quote name='Lew-Bass' post='598413' date='Sep 14 2009, 05:07 PM']Aren't Hartke cabs pretty heavy? And would the GK and Hartke provide the sound I want? (I'm starting to rather like the tone I've got atm, but there's a time and a place for such a compressed, overdriven sound)[/quote] Depends what you call heavy. Hartke cabs are no heavier in my experience than others with similar drivers. I don't think Hartke have gone Neodymium...I can't think of a lightweight Hartke but I might be wrong. The 410XL weighs 88lbs, which is about normal for a 410, but it's still heavy. Very heavy. Put some wheels on it. GK heads are solid, quite heavy, immensely rugged, die-hard solid state (until their recent foray onto the dark side), and very, very punchy. GK heads are famed for the GK 'growl'. Partner GK snap and growl with an aluminium cone Hartke 410 and you'll have a sound punchier than Vinnie Jones. It will kill a yak at 200 paces. Another advantage is that you should be able to fire anti-tank weapons at your rig and not damage it too badly. I'll stick my neck out and say that if you want to recreate a compressed, overdriven sound then you could do a lot worse than a GK/Hartke setup. See if you can get a 700RB or 800RB secondhand for a good balance of weight, power, quality and price. I have the 2001RB. Even if you can find one in your price range don't buy it - it is a fantastic bit of kit but absolutely backbreaking to lug around and stack on top of cabs. Hope this helps. Jon PS. I wouldn't get a Hartke single 15". They're less directional and cheaper than the 410s but I get the impression they're not very efficient and they don't have the punch and kick you expect.

Anybody got GS212s? Lots of people in thread have either one or two 112 cabs. Probably a wise choice! I have a GS212 which I love to bits: loud, punchy, rich and deep but still clear. Quite weighty though, about 30kg. Luckily it comes with casters. I had no idea about the mid scoop when I bought it (I bought it because it looked cool and was going cheap) but now it's been mentioned it does make sense. For my rig I put that mid straight back in with the Epifani 310 sitting on top, but when using just the Aguilar I do have to beef up the mids on the amp eq. All in all the GS212 is in my experience a brilliant bottom cab. Suitably rugged for stacking heavy stuff on top of and has wheels! And not a 15" so a bit different. Jon

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='596207' date='Sep 12 2009, 12:34 AM']I'm normally tuned C#G#C#F#.... you tell me [/quote] I'm pretty sure that's just plain contra! I'd love to hear some playing using an F# string. I can't imagine what on earth it's used for, lower than that horrible sounding bottom A on a piano. My only delvings into 'sub contra', and only by a smidgeon, is detuning the B string to Bb for some songs. It does throw my fretting out a bit though having to think about Bb E A D G tuning. What styles of music are using these mentally low notes?

Would wouldn't like this? I wouldn't like this. I often wonder how much of the entirely ludicrous rigs on big stages like that can be actually turned on before the level of on-stage sound becomes lethal... Knowing Pantera, probably all of it.

Borrow a 6-string from someone, suffer with it until it don't seem so bad, then get a 5-string. Suddenly you'll love it

[quote name='bythesea' post='556638' date='Jul 30 2009, 10:03 PM']Find the Youtube video ID (numbers and letters) then enter this: [code][YOUTUBE]Video ID here[/YOUTUBE][/code] And thanks for a great thread [/quote] Ha ha! Sneaky! Many thanks...

Bummer. Sorry to hear that - there'll be infinite chances for drummer-based fun later, I'm sure. Anyway, my 2p would be: Lock in with what's giving the rhythm - for rock it's normally the kick drum, for jazz it's normally the snare drum 'comp' pattern, sometimes it can be hi-hat. For fusion and things like that there is no rhythm so do whatever the hell you want except watch for the drummer's mouth to open because this means he is either about to give you a big off-beat crash or just totally wig out. If there is nothing to lock in with ie. the drummer is changing everything every other bar then it's going to be really hard, you may want to look elsewhere unless that freedom really works for you. You don't technically need very many notes for most things. Standard advice for beginning is to play root with kick and 5th with snare...it's incredibly cliched and crude but with a bit of finessing it's amazing how well it can work! Intonation is key. If you're in a funk groove, don't let many notes ring. If you're in a ballad, don't damp notes. My personal style is that any fret above fret 7 is 'specialist use only'...but that's only because I'm a bit of a tard up there and can't remember what note's what. Other than that +1 to getting to know the drummer. And groove! Body language is really important. You can play the exact same line but it will apparently sound much better if you're movin' to the groovin' and smiling along rather than concentrating on the kick drum skin like you're trying to play it via telekinesis. Last thing all the above is but generalisation and probably pish but it works for me. Cheers! Jon

Awesome stuff upthread, but one plug for my personal favourite, old Pino Palladino: Stolen a track from some italian chap's Youtube channel - Paul Young 'Wonderland': [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcJeJ5YdCtE&feature=PlayList&p=87D1B457B5420F20&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=37"]Paul Young - Wonderland[/url] I really must learn how to embed video... Cheers Jon

This is that damned American terminology which seems to permeate popular music causing such confusion. Try [url="http://cnx.org/content/m10945/latest/"]this music theory page[/url] for an explanation with pictures of whole notes, half notes etc. But basically, if we're talking a 4/4 time signature (by far the most common - for major beats in a bar - standard rock), then: A whole note, or semibreve in classical language, lasts a whole bar, or four beats A half note, or minim, lasts half a bar, or two beats A quarter note, or crotchet, lasts one beat and is generally the main driving beat of the piece An eighth note, or quaver, lasts half a beat A sixteenth note, or semiquaver, lasts a quarter of beat A thirty-second note, or demisemiquaver, lasts an eighth of a beat and so on A whole note is an open oval with no stem A half note is an open oval with a stem A quarter note is a closed oval with a stem An eighth note is a closed oval with a stem with a little tick at the end...or several closed ovals with stems linked together with one line A sixteenth note is a closed oval, stem, TWO little ticks...or several closed ovals with stems linked by TWO lines. If someone is talking about 'eighteenth note' then they do mean literally the eighteenth note in a sequence - note values themselves are only named after powers of two (2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc). Hope this helps. Its hard explaining it in words, you tie yourself in knots for which I apologise. Jon

Gosh, this is hard - normally I'm really good at 'constructive criticism' of those much braver and better than myself, but not in this case. I don't know anything about this type of music, that may be why. Also I'm not sure what you're going for with the recording! However, I have listened to all four of the songs you mention with increasing interest and have thought of a couple things, please take them or leave them as you see fit. You know your music much better than anyone here does, especially me. First, I love the beginning of 'The Drones' - often the slow build/rock out model of a song doesn't really work but I think this one really could and the piano intro is harmonically interesting anyway. Maybe you could think either about running the piano into the guitar riff if you're looking for the song to stitch together or having a bigger change in the loudness if you're trying to put a big surprise in? I also love the ending to this song, it just gets out of the way when it's done and I think that's great. Second, there are several points where the timing between guitar and drums is not quite 'right', probably because there's so much off-beat in this type of music...I think you've got two choices - keep the mistiming and celebrate it in a punky way, or eliminate it through experience and go for a tidier sound. Following on from the last thing, you don't quite sound like you're relaxing into the parts you're playing. I don't know how else to put that and I think it's probably actually a good thing, and I only mention it because the music I listen is generally pretty laid-back and heavily produced! If this is intentional, and I suspect it is, then you've hit the sound spot on. Finally, you've got the classic drum rhythm with the syncopated snare backbeat (oo flashy words!!) sorted and it fits the style perfectly...but in the future it may pay you not to overuse it. Basically, all the points above I think are things which someone smooth and produced like Sting would want to change but which an edgy, high-energy band like you will probably want to keep the same. It's all about what sound you're going for, and at the moment I think your sound, unusual as it is, matches your style rather well. Hope the above hasn't come out too po-faced and twattish! Cheers - really good listening! - not what I would normally gravitate towards but were I in the Manchester area I'd come see you play certainly Jon

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='472555' date='Apr 26 2009, 10:28 AM']Have you used a wide variety of passive instruments through the amp? I was wondering whether they might have microphonic pickups if your gain levels are set too high.[/quote] Off the top of my head I think we've tried a nice Fender with split single coils, Washburn, Warwick, and a crappy Squier. Can't remember which models of each. Gain always pretty low, never above about a third on clean channel level or 'boost'. I think there is a problem with interference from fields (we have a hearing aid loop which causes endless problems) but I thought it was worth mentioning that at least in the situation I'm in passive basses are really tough to control whereas active ones are just plug in and play.

Forgot one key point of information: I'm sure it's dependent on where it is and what cabs you're using, but where my stack normally lives (medium-size auditorium, close to drums, monitors, mics etc) if you plug a passive bass into the G-K you enter a [i]constant battle with a particularly ear-splitting brand of feedback.[/i] Not even a suggestion of feedback with any active bass; absolutely crippling with any passive we've tried. Something to bear in mind.

Howdy! Got a never used Warwick 4U Rack Bag sitting in my bedroom holding plastic bags. As posted on another section of the site (oops) it would take light duties only as a rack; effects maybe. Carry handles are handy, but to be fair the thing really isn't the toughest piece of gear I've ever seen. That's why I never used it. My head unit is about 30kg...this case would implode. I live in Derby. This is collection only I'm afraid. Cheers Jon