blue

64, and after playing for 50 years my hearing is a problem.

I now have to sacrifice most of my bottom because I can't hear low frequencies very well anymore, very muddy. I have to dial in a lot of treble.

Blue

If your good at it, and I mean really good and know when to use it, that's great. Otherwise it can come off as very corny, IMO

Blue

I've actually liked all my basses. I did get rid of 2 ( MIJ Fender Jag & Surf Green Dan Electro long Horn), but only to trade up to my Gibsons. My ES-335 and my Gold Top Les Paul.

Blue

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1508431287' post='3392180']




Although that being said, if anyone wants to take a gig of this nature and gets something good out of it, be that money, the warm feeling of happiness, a weekend away with the family, etc, the it's really none of my business anyway.
[/quote]

Agreed, however I am concerned about young bands being taken advantage of which was my point.

Blue

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1508364050' post='3391778']
Take the gig, don't take the gig, who cares?[/quote]

Me

Blue

[quote name='kevvo66' timestamp='1508397743' post='3391863']
Thanks blue, I've started noodling with my acoustic bass and it sort of freshened my playing up not hiding behind effects pedals has made a difference
Cheers
Kev
[/quote]

I still fall into that habbit. I was practicing last night with effects.

It's really a bad habbit to fall into.

It's like performing with a safety net. Gives a false sense of your true ability.

Blue

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1508358285' post='3391714']


You get the conditions for the gig and choose to do it or not. What others get as conditions and choose to accept or not is irrelevant, unless jealous. At a party, someone gets a slice of cake; you get none. Important to you or not..?
[/quote]

True, I guess my beef is not so much with what is chose or accepted. I'm concerned with unscrupulous offerings from shady charity event organizers

Like I said some bands are cool with being taken advantaged of. That's their choice and I'm cool with that.

Blue

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1508347108' post='3391582']


Isn't this jealousy, though..? What difference would it make if the band fee was huge, and the vendor giving stuff away..? Looking after your own affairs I can understand, but looking around to see how others have chosen to do things I find very odd. Just me as usual, I suppose. [/quote]

The issue is more about how musicians and bands can get the short end of the stick when it comes to poorly run, poorly organized charities and benefits

Not so much looking around to see how others have chosen to do things, more like an overall awareness of how the event is managed.

And in this case the band was asked to perform unpaid.

I'll give you this, at least the band was offered free lodging

Blue

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1507337216' post='3384896']
Not long back from another Friday night gig. Much better than last Friday, but not as good as last Saturday. I was feeling very tired, and the heat in the pub didn't help, and for some reason I had decided to use a Precision for the first set and a Thunderbird for the second. Despite my years of playing Ps, I knew it was a mistake from the first song, so glad to change in the break. I started the second set with next to no sound, until I discovered that I'd plugged into the active socket on the amp instead of the passive! All went smoothly once that was sorted.

Not so many people there as the last couple of times we've payed the venue, but the landlord was happy and wants us back in the new year.
[/quote]

We had 3 weekends of good gigs with nice respectable size crowds, good attendance.

However, last Saturday for some reason we didn't have as many people show up as I would have expected.

We usually do well at this particular bar. I have no idea what happened. There was a big University of Wisconsin football game that night but I'm not sure that was the reason for the poor turn out

Blue

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1508326167' post='3391354']


Indeed, from one of the food vendors supplying their services for free too?
[/quote]

Exactly!

Blue

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1508231572' post='3390622']

This - there is a huge amount of music to discover and accessing it has never been easier, spend some time listening to unfamiliar music and find something new that excites you.

Also, if you have been spending a lot of time playing covers, involving yourself in a project that is purely creative can be very satisfying, whether it is contributing to writing/recording original songs or improvisational.
[/quote]

Yeah, figure out what your connection to playing bass is, what do you want to do with it.

For me, for the past 50 years it means a lot of different things. However, all those things are driven by performance, gigging.

I also love all my basses and how they play. Good action, intonation, good looks, thin necks and lively strings.


Blue

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1508326016' post='3391352']


IME it's got nothing to do with your local music scene being weak, [/quote]

When I go to one if our 5 originals clubs the bands are always playing to a handful of people. Maybe I should have said the originals club scene is weak.

Blue

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1508314393' post='3391220']


We play this from time to time, it never goes down badly and sometimes it's a stormer, people of a certain age often and dancers sometimes love the rhythm. Other times it's just a song no-one remembers and is a bit weird if it's the first time you've heard it. Probably a much bigger song in the States. It's a fun bass line too.
[/quote]

Surely a hit for us with the 60 plus patrons but a surprisingly good number of the younger folks seem to know this song.

Your probably right about the song being bigger in the States.


Blue

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1508312844' post='3391199']


Actually so long as one or more members is taking care of the non-musical sides of the band during the week, an originals band is perfectly OK being "weekend warriors" as that is when all the decent gigs are on. From experience unless your band is capable of filling a 200+ size venue anywhere in the country (or is on tour with a band who is) there is absolutely no point in playing other than at the weekend. Perhaps Thursday and Sunday can be considered given the right venue and other acts on the bill, but the rest of the week forget it.

What originals bands do need to do is promote the hell out of themselves at every opportunity and be prepared to travel to get the worthwhile gigs and realise that there is more to being in a band than a ability to play the songs they have written. If you can't put on an entertaining and memorable performance at the same time, then there is little point unless you are doing it simply as a hobby for your own musical satisfaction (although that last point also applies to covers bands).
[/quote]

Agreed,

Even though I'm not real well versed in the originals scene in any specific part of the UK. However it seems like the local originals scene here in my neck of the woods is weak. You really need to travel.

Blue

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1508311165' post='3391185']
If a band is looking for exposure, is this festival a good thing to do?[/quote]

Depends, guess it depends on the nature of the festival. How much exposure do you get with 5:45pm slot?

Blue

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1508313093' post='3391203']
Aye, Mr. King is the only bass player who slaps consistantly.
That Marcus Miller, Larry Graham, Flea, Doug Wimbish, Stuart Hamm, Victor Wooten, Louis Johnson, Abraham Laborial, Freddie Washington, Stanley Clarke, Jonas Hellborg, Bootsy, Les Claypool, Bill Dickens, TM Stevens etc always get it wrong and should stick to playing roots and fifths with a pick!

[/quote]

I associate King with more of a dedicated slap performance and approach. The others you mention are not tied to the hip by slap IMO.

Blue

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1508230503' post='3390602']
It doesn't sound like its the first time they have done this so maybe it will work out ok for the charity itself, if not for the bands. I guess if those bands booked arent getting paid then that's their choice. They get a gig out of it and possibly a good weekend away. Best not let Blue see this :-)[/quote]

I've played several unpaid cancer benefits this year. All were well organized and completely on the up and up. I was happy to be a part of all of them.

For those of us that have been around for a while know that all charities and benefits events are not on the up and up and take advantage of naive bands. Those type of events I have no use for.

Now there are bands that are cool with being used and taken advantage of, That's their call and I'm cool with that.

Blue

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1508140646' post='3389929']
f*** em
[/quote]

Nice!

I say if one dime is being paid to anyone else providing a product or service to the event you are totally in line to decline.

Blue

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1508261827' post='3390979']
Its the duty of the young to come up with the originals, and to push music to new places. Its the duty of old guys like me to play covers in a pub band cos thats what I now enjoy. When I was young I was in originals bands, its the way of the world.[/quote]

For those who follow my threads know there's no bigger Stones or McCartney fan than me.

I have no interest in new material from The Stones or McCartney. I haven't finished studying all the aspects of the brilliant material they wrote when they were young men.

Blue

Very few use slap effectively on a consistent basis, IMO.

Mark King is the only one that comes to mind.

Blue

[quote name='uk_lefty' timestamp='1508262328' post='3390981']


Yep! I'm at a point now where I'm getting the impression my band wants to grow faster than I want. Gigs further away for more money. I don't think we are as good as the ambition yet and I don't have the time to put in to getting there. Sometimes I think going to a studio and helping someone bring their musical vision to a recording would be far less stress.
It's just my point in life, got a baby to support and a wife that I don't want to leave doing all the work while I go off doing band things. I drove over 2hrs for the last gig which I won't get paid for. It's created leads for other gigs but in even more remote places. I love the band, but need the balance in my life more.
[/quote]

I've debated this point on BC many times.

Guys with traditional jobs and young families are going to have a tough time with busy gigging bands.

We only have one venue that's a 2 hour drive. It's a 2k gig, I'm still not sure it's worth it.

Blue

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1508250525' post='3390849']


Just had a listen to White Rabbit and find it hard to see that go down well especially as a closing song. Afraid its not my cup of tea Blue.

Dave
[/quote]

That was exactly what I thought and It's not my cup of tea either. However it always brings the house down. I will say our lead singer has a lot of fans and she does a great job with it.

Blue

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1508244339' post='3390768']


It's a style which came out of black American R and B and transferred into all related genres (disco, funk, jazz funk, even hip hop). It also transferred into R and B influenced pop (I'm talking Seal, M People etc etc).

Rock musicians have generally not played slap - even RATM could be described as a fusion of hip hop and rock. However there's quite a bit of slap in metal.

So it seems to be alive and kicking in all the genres it was originally. And sometimes in pop - even radio-played pop.

Never popular in rock bands and I guess still isn't generally. Are there a lot of rock players on here?

I don't think too much has changed.....
[/quote]

I would hope I would be considered a rock player from the 60s & 70s. Probably why slap has bever been a part of my playing

Blue

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1507401280' post='3385278']
Been playing over 40 years, never played slap, never wanted to, never been asked to.
[/quote]

Same here, 50 years, no 5 strings,and no slap.

Blue

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1508236561' post='3390670']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]come on fella, who ru kidding?[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]If you are in an originals band, you are really just making it all up, and you can't write songs that make the girls dance and the guys come in to score;[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]that is it[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]A covers band is a [i]real [/i]band, they learned [i]proper [/i]music, also taking into account whether or not girly girls will dance to it.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]They [i]care [/i]if girly girls get up and dance to it, they want you to [i]enjoy [/i]the evening.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]and don't tell me that original bands make no money and play to empty venues, I can say the same about Beiber and Dylan, and I know who the richest crowd-pleasing artist is here [/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color]
[/quote]

Guess it depends on your location. Unfortunately none of your points would apply to the original bands in neck of the woods. And I speak from personal original band experience.

Blue