Baceface

One of the earliest concerts I attended was Whitesnake in 1980. NM was, and I'm sure still is, a cracking player who never let his considerable chops override his job in that band. Occasionally you'd get something pretty tasty sneaking in (Fool For Your Loving is a killer line) but it always fitted perfectly in a genre where fancy bass shenanigans were not the norm. Best of all was the way he and Ian Paice played together. I can only describe it as "heavy swing" and something that, even to my young ears, made that lineup pretty special. The next time I saw the 'snake, Colin Hodgkinson had replaced him, so clearly Coverdale had a thing for tasty bass players! Not sure that Colin was as good a fit as Neil, although clearly a great player. Cozy Powell was a great drummer too but while I think his style worked well in Rainbow, he didn't really do the Paice swing thing that seemed to suit the blues-rock material so well. The last time I saw the band Neil was back but things were already getting a bit heavier and a lot hairier (John Sykes lineup). Not quite my thing but much more to my liking than the spandex 'n' hairspray antics that followed. Neil's built up quite the C.V. over the years and it's nice to see he's still doing well. A real talent and someone who's ability was quite special in a genre of music where the bass player is more often called to do the "lukewarm water" thing, to quote another great player

Bloody hell. If you're not "fluent" then god help me (and I suspect a few others). Great versions of those tracks - really well played. I find Phil Lesh's style very difficult to get my head round. I read somewhere that "he played everything apart from the root and everywhere but on the beat"! I guess this is a bit tongue in cheek but there's an element of truth in there as I find his playing quite off the wall (although not in any way atonal), yet it utterly fits in with the Dead's music. Anyway, I think you're a cracking player and you've got a wonderful band there.

We can all be guilty of that. One of the best jazz guitar sounds I heard was from the neck single coil of an Ibanez Satriani signature guitar. Sounded great but I had to shut my eyes and pretend it was some kind of sunburst archtop with humbuckers! Ditto Geddy Lee switching over to the Jazz bass and sounding almost the same as on his Rickenbacker. I was surprised to see the jazz used at the concert when I'd only seen him in photos with the Ric.

Agree. It could just as well be a style of playing or just the look of a P-bass. I know we all get uptight about the sound of a P vs a J vs a MM etc. but I think in a band context* you can make most basses sound similar enough. I'd be very careful before going out and buying another bass to try and please the other band members.

Thanks @Dad3353 but rules is rules. I am a dangerous maverick who chooses not to play by them. (OK, an old git who didn't read the rules properly.) I'm not really too bothered about being in the voting as the entries I've heard are very good. I just wanted to show to myself that I could actually write a piece of music, however dubious.

Arghhh. Think I missed this by seconds... (OK, 6 hours.) Am still posting it as I promised myself I'd try something but assumed we had until the end of August. Still, just posting to prove I did create something. Went for a rather obvious Air-influenced French Band vibe.

It's not a mashup. As @4000 says, they played Subdivisions on this tour (Oct-Dec '81). Usually, the only thing I dread more at a concert than "we're going to give you something from our new album" is "we're going to give you something from our as yet unreleased new album". Fortunately, this was at a time when many people's unreleased albums were still very good so it was just about acceptable. It's pretty much musically identical to the final song but without the "Subdivisions" spoken word (IIRC they used a sample for that on later tours) and a minor lyrical difference. The line "some will sell their dreams for small desires or lose the race to rats" is slightly different but I can't quite make out what is sung. Link to line here: https://youtu.be/89APxjCQprE?t=1605

I was at that one. I've seen it called the Exit... Stage Left tour as that had been released a day or two before (or after, can't remember). FWIW, the merch all had Moving Pictures designs. Talk about crowd participation. I was nearly mashed to death during the 2112 opener. Decent audience recording here if you want to relive the sounds, smells and bruised ribs of your youth...

I do like a black/tort combination. Have taken the liberty of a little mockup, although it's obvious what they look like as there are plenty of California series basses using this combination.

Yup. Here's my VM4 bearing some scarring after a "Hipshotectomy".

My "superior" ears have been decidedly inferior since the first concert I attended, which was Motörhead in 1979! I'm just reacting to what I am hearing (from a pair Yamaha monitors, not headphones). What I often find with these A/B tests is that, although one might be able to detect a difference of sorts, both sounds are excellent and my preference would be for whatever instrument (a) costs less (b) feels nicer to play or, and this is the most likely, (c) is the best colour.

Tone full: The Moollon sounded brighter but I guess that could be the strings? Basic tone was almost identical to my old, knackered ears and both are brilliant, classic P-bass tones with the Moollon winning out because it sounds so plummy and round, yet super articulate. Tone off: The Fender had the edge here for me, sounding a bit punchier, with the Moollon smoother and darker overall. If forced to guess why, I'd suggest a more harsh treble cut from the capacitor (maybe a different value) but it might be down to other factors I suppose. Probably academic as the slightest little bit of an adjustment to open the Moollon's tone control a tiny bit would almost certainly get them tonally closer. Please take all this with a pinch of salt as I'm no expert. What I did hear were great P-bass tones played really well. It's making me want a P, despite my (admittedly cheaper) two basses both having a P pickup. They're close but don't seem to do that classic 70s P sound I hear on so many funk and jazz records.

That's beautiful. There's something Zen-like about a classic P in a classic colour done so nicely. I like the simplicity of their approach too. Classic designs done really well with limited options. The options that they do offer being completely worthwhile (e.g. J neck on a P).

+1 on the volume balance. My VM4 seems pretty balanced volume-wise with the MM humbucker so I can only guess that you're going to lose a lot of output by splitting it on the models that offer that option. I also find the solo humbucker to be a great sound - all honky mids. I use that sound if I'm trying to go for a classic Jazz-disco thing. I have however been disappointed with the blend set dead centre. It just seems to instantly dull things. It's the same on my Yamaha BB616 (P-J config). I'm guessing it's something to do with the physics - cancelled frequencies and all that. I do however seem to lose a more top end than the YouTube demos of the VM4 where the 50-50 blend position still sounds crisp. I might muck about with pickup heights as this is the only thing I can think that would alter the blended sound. In the meantime I just nudge the control slightly off centre and things sound a bit better.

I hadn't considered that! Do you mean that they might have boosted the bass in the mix? I was trying to be clever and, as usual, failing. It's just that it seems quite a consistent thing that when I listen to isolated bass tracks, they tend to contain more midrange and less bass than I initially expected them to do. I suppose there are possible tweaks in the mix and then the whole mastering process that would change the sound.

Sounds great to me. Agree 100% about the "feel" comments. It's the usual thing of sounding much more midrange and less low end than you might expect but this seems to be a very consistent thing with isolated tracks and shows us what fits best in a final mix. What did surprise me is that it sounds (to my uneducated ear) a bit like he's using a pick! Have seen modern footage of Nate playing it with his fingers and assume this was how it was recorded. Is it just that he hits the strings really hard? Or is it something to do with certain frequencies coming through that emphasise the attack? Or both? I've learned a pretty vanilla version of this, basically everything up to and including the first unison break. What's great about this is being able to properly hear all the fantastic variations and fills that he throws in in the subsequent repeats. That said, I doubt that I'll be able to play them any time soon!

Brilliant! Lovely bit o' work. Will enjoy messing with this immensely. Thanks.

I've bashed together quite a few Stealies over the years. They're infinitely customisable and great fun to do. Here's a few that I've not managed to delete/overwrite.

You're welcome. Here's a "steal your bass" one, as we're in that sort of company.

Yay. Deadheads for the BBs.

I saw them on that tour. Have the programme here but it's a typically low grade item. Have taken a quick snap of the pics of Neil but they don't add much. The b&w shot is really that horribly underexposed in the program. The yellow border picture is his Kramer. The last one is the modded P bass with the 51-57 Telecaster-shaped headstock.

Haven't posted in here before but here's my VM4 that I bought from Paddy on here in ..err.. December. It's way too good a bass for my meagre talents (but then so's my much cheaper entry-level Yamaha BB!) but I do love playing it. The action is fantastic and it feels much more compact than the BB which is currently sporting flats and is currently taking the role of bludgeon compared to the VM4 rapier. I do definitely prefer the passive sound though (I only use it through Amplitube modelling or DI into reaper with a bit of compression). The active bass boost does help fatten up the rear humbucker but I generally find that I keep the active eq off. Not to everyone's taste I know but I love the off-white finish and, while not completely convinced by the ethical issues behind relic finishes, I think Sandberg do it well and at least I'm not precious about the odd scratch or ding!

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I'm with @Al Krow - more BB colours please Yamaha...