AustinArto

I've never bought a signature bass. I don't think I've ever liked a bass player who had a seemingly-inimitable sound. And if I had, I would have tried to imitate it rather than buy his/her signature-model guitar. As much as I don't really care for Billy Sheehan's playing, or the cult he's a member of, I think his sig model is the only interesting one I've seen. I wouldn't buy one but it's something different and I imagine they're really nice basses due to his input and Yamaha being Yamaha.

I like the look of the Cusack Tap-A-Whirl, nice well thought out feature set, but I've never had one.

I play with a drummer occasionally who can get amazing grooves out of his, but he's trained in hand percussion, tabla and all sorts. But yeah if you can play, they're great.

Our guitarist has a microbrute and it goes proper gnarly! Good buy.

A filter with an ADSR-style triggered sweep (the filter off the old 24v Bass Micro Synth would be ideal) plus expression control of the stop frequency and OK let's have MIDI CC control on it too, why not. Or a small MIDI foot controller with a couple of onboard LFOs, say, half a dozen momentary footswitches, all programmable using a scripting language (maybe a Node.js module) so they can do program changes, CCs modulated in various ways, sequenced patterns etc. I was busy building that based on an Arduino chip last summer but then I bought a knackered house and I haven't unpacked anything since last September.

Mungo's Hi Fi in Sheffield in a couple of weeks. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Shj00PZRM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Shj00PZRM[/url]

I had the blue album on at work yesterday, there's a lot of strong songs on there and the guitars sound massive. Can say I'm a fan of theirs otherwise though.

I love Jonathan Maron's playing, so smooth. He's like a modern-day Bob Babbitt but with Latin chops. He's got the skills and just sits in the pocket regardless, one of the best groove players I've ever heard, smokes everybody I've heard from the UK tbh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfEvzmsu2Rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCi7hK0usHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP1Z6IXS1dQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PhWm2vgRTg

TBH Blue your input generally in this thread is pretty patronising. You adopt a position of being an elder statesman, an aspirational figure perhaps, but ultimately there are players younger than you reading this who are doing things differently either because they play different music to you, or they have different aspirations (4-hour bar gigs? Really?) or they have musical interests that are broader than just playing bass guitar in a given genre. You come across as being fairly small-minded in comparison with most contributors here. And I don't think it's an age thing I think it's just that you've been stuck in making music in one very limited way for a long time. You can't seem to understand that some people do it differently and enjoy it just as much as you, or more than you do. Playing formerly-popular songs to drunk middle-aged people for money isn't what young people want to do. It's not why anybody learns to play an instrument. I'm sure it's not why you learned to play and it's certainly not why I learned to play. I can understand why those who are pursuing a career as a professional musician will play weddings and so on but I'm in the position where I don't have to do that, and frankly I don't feel like I'm missing out.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1459809312' post='3019987'] Stuart didn't play on this version. I still to this day am not sure who did. I would love to know. I thought it was Randy HOPE Taylor but I've been told its not by Incognito's Bluey. There is a thing in my mind thinks its an incredible player called Ernie McKown.[/quote] Ernie McKone was one of the original guys playing on the old Acid Jazz recordings, playing with a group called Push, he was also usually the bass player with the band credited as 'Acid Jazz Alliance' on those old compilations they used to produce. More famously he was also the guy on all the Galliano releases. It doesn't sound like him to be honest - he usually found himself a really deep pocket with a little 1- or 2-bar ostinato and mostly stuck to it. I always figured he had a background more in reggae music from the way he played, he was a lovely groover though, and could bust it out when required if you've ever seen Galliano live.

I really like Me'Shell's feel and Zender too, I think Zender is really underrated actually, when he was younger in that Jamiroquai gig he was such a good fit, really shone. I know it's Jamerson but for me this is still the best recorded bass guitar part I've ever heard, there are parts of it where the harmony between him and Marvin are just achingly beautiful. When the bass and the vocal start up proper, around the 30s mark, the whole tune just blossoms. That's ****ing bass playing. And just his movement generally under the strings throughout really brings the whole thing to life. What a player. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMTPwVwd60o"]https://www.youtube....h?v=vMTPwVwd60o[/url] Edit: Apparently I don't know how to embed the video. :/

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1459723704' post='3019055']I don't see it as unreasonable. Groups of people who actually just want to play music, but don't want all the hassle that goes with dealing with the public. I am sure we have all done gigs when we would have prefered to be at home! [/quote] Half of the time I just can't be bothered with all the sitting around. I've done hundreds of gigs, it's enough to be honest.

Hmm. OK well I think you're off the mark a bit then. I think the only major 'genre' of music I've never played is straight-ahead rock, and yet here I am making music with a small bunch of people who don't want to gig. I don't want to gig either. I think you're assuming that everybody's motivation is the same as yours, but why would that be the case?

What do you mean by genre-restricted? You mean there are types of music they're not interested in playing? I've played a lot of different music over the years but I've never wanted to play something popular just to get a crowd, I'd much rather play music I'm really into, even if nobody else is!

I started out using three by accident, it was just easier for me to alternate my 1 and 3 fingers I think, didn't have to twist my wrist so much (my second finger is a good 15mm longer than my index finger) and I ended up using the second finger sometimes when changing strings or playing patterns between two strings, and I'd usually pick with 1 and 2 on the G, stuff like that. It gives me an odd sort of sound, not as smooth and even sounding as picking with 1 and 2 more quirky, I do sometimes just use 1 and 2 for the sound of it now, just like I'd use my thumb to pick or use a pick sometimes. It doesn't really matter how you pick if you like the sound you're making and you can play the music you want to play, IMHO.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1459378094' post='3016069']The old I have a job, so I'm better than you full time musicians. Lame[/quote] Your own post implied that those musicians who don't play for money (the majority) are less successful than you. Or that they are lesser musicians. When I was in my early 20s I did make a living playing bass for a few years although I was playing originals, which I'm sure you'll agree is harder to make a living doing and means that I was more successful than you which makes you the lesser musician. But I was living in the USA at the time and it's ridiculously easy to make a living touring a live band over there. Certainly when compared to doing the same thing here in the UK. You might want to bear that in mind in future when you are bragging about your esteemed 'professional' status. I will now take my oar back out again because I've got to load into the studio for a rehearsal for a band which has no intention of ever gigging.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1459331847' post='3015448'] Those are the benefits, for me, of being an antisocial, isolationist, musical hermit [/quote] I'm sort-of doing the same thing but I have another local guy who I collaborate with. I'm lucky in that we get on really well, like each other's ideas and have different skill sets, so we don't tread on each others toes at all, nobody's stuff ever gets rejected really just improved by the other, it's cool. We very rarely end up with tracks that are anything like what we expected when we started them, which is also nice.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1459291001' post='3015279']My band is working and getting paid. I'm musically fulfilled.[/quote] I get paid well enough at work that I can just enjoy music.

Just looked and mine is currently all Mouse Outfit and LEVELZ, with three Everything Everything tunes, two Ben Folds Five and one Mongrels track breaking in. Am currently loving the Manchester rap scene though.

My singing voice sounds better when I'm smiling so I smile now.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1458236333' post='3005906'] Littlest Things by Lily Allen - when it came out the sentiments mirrored how I was feeling at the time so accurately it was uncanny. [/quote] I love that tune.

Yeah I used to post to it years and years ago. I loved Usenet but stopped contributing when I stopped using a dedicated mail client. I do miss it actually. Proper takes-no-prisoners internet activity.

Cheap acoustic instruments are always many factors more awful than cheap electric instruments. Good luck though.

I mostly listen to music on my phone at work with a good pair of headphones, or in the car where I've got USB sticks with all my albums on. At work I've got a standing desk so I can get up and do dad dancing while I hack code. It also means our QA guy, who is an intolerable prick, is dissuaded from talking to me. Bonus.