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I haven't had a chance to play this at a gig yet, but this one is always fun:
 

24 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

With clips of them playing all root notes, to display their true "greatness"?

 

So he should have chosen 10 second clips of all of them playing nothing but root notes?

 

Doesn't have to be root notes at all - just some of the many available notes that are below the 7th fret would have been nice

3 hours ago, JJTee said:

Everyone* in this video:

*In reality, I do appreciate their technical ability, and musical knowledge. But the vast majority of this video leaves me stone cold…!

Most of the players are great, but the vids he's chosen are the bass equivalent of  

He wrote Relight My Fire as well. The original is a lot funkier than the Take That cover....

3 hours ago, ubit said:

For me, the bass is the bridge between rhythm and melody. That's where it should stay to complement the song. When players come out of this pocket, that's what turns me off. I hate w***ing of any kind over a piece of music, be it bass, vocals or even gratuitous overly played guitar.

I completely agree. There's nothing wrong with a (small) bit of showmanship at the appropriate time, but in general though the best virtuosos show their abilities by working _with_ (rather than playing all over) their bandmates.

On a related note, there was a good piece in the Guardian the other day about "unofficial" band members (people who play with the band, sometimes for decades, but aren't "in" the band).

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/20/touring-musicians-who-play-with-bands-but-arent-official-members-manic-street-preachers-simple-minds

I have to be honest that it sounds like a pretty good setup on the whole - getting paid to play but none (or very little, anyway) of the politics, drama, publicity etc.

1 hour ago, nilorius said:

I think those many bassists thought that it was wrong originaly and tried to make it sound better.

My theory is that putting in the "wrong" notes in this line is easier than leaving them out - it's sometimes easier for our brains to play a string of notes rather than think about gaps.

What I find is that if I sit down at the bass/piano/guitar after learning (or remembering) some music theory it makes my noodling more directed and interesting. So I see that theory can often be a shortcut to creativity rather than an impediment.

But this doesn't mean you can't be just as creative without knowing any theory of course.

I agree with the sentiment that playing it "your way" is usually the way to go. But it's still an education when, as @KingPrawn says, you thought you _were_ playing them just like the original (but weren't)!

I remember doing exactly this with Cissy Strut (not just a bass line - it's played on guitar as well). In this case, the original has less notes that my version which helps....

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

I’m always hard on myself. People content with mediocrity rarely prosper 

I meant it in the sense of "don't beat yourself up about your perceived failures on the night". I agree that striving to be better is a good thing!

I realise that this may not be particularly helpful, but just more of an observation that trying to compete with people who are playing extremely loudly when they're not at Woodstock / Isle of Wight is extremely hard and not usually a lot of fun. So it's another reason not to be too hard on yourself in my opinion.

22 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

 

Nah, I grew up listening to fusion stuff and am not a snob at all. 

 

It's all personal preference, it's just I've never really enjoyed a bass solo (I can admire them though!).

I think some bass solos are pretty nice but I mostly agree - I like bass solos that still hold onto the tune's groove somehow.

For me, the best jazz bass players do the same thing as good bass players in any genre - they underpin the harmony while also driving the music forward. Depending on the tune, tempo etc, this can be fairly simple sounding, or very virtuosic (e.g. Ron Carter walking at fast tempos with Miles Davis - it's "just" a walking bass line....)

22 hours ago, Linus27 said:

 

Amazing thank you. I had to raise the height of my G string as it was buzzing a little and sounding too much like a fretless. When I raised it a little it sounded so much better but as the string sustained, it then vibrated into an annoying buzz. So I raised it some more and the buzz went and its now sounding good. However the D started to do the same so I just raised that a little and its ok again. Now I have the measurements and know where to measure from, I can check what the actual heights are. 

Yep - it's counterintuitive, but sometimes raising the string height can make the bass easier to play as you don't need to play as hard to get the sound you're looking for.

21 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

 

Thank you for sharing. Super interesting. When he talks about the height of the strings, where is he actually measuring from?

On double bass you usually measure string height at the end of the fingerboard so I'd guess it's the same here. For comparison, on DB "typical" string heights are around 5mm for the G up to 8 or 10 on the E, but these are hugely variable between players.

17 minutes ago, Mr Bassman said:

I've been experimenting with double bass IR's for some time using a Mooer Radar. I'm not really using it anymore so might consider selling it including a few dozen IR's I've collected.

 

Thanks for that - any particular reason why do you don't use it any more? I'm guessing that with a decent pickup/amp setup an IR isn't really worth it for live situations.....

Finding the above video has introduced me to IR loaders (something that I was previously unaware of). As I'm skint, I'm wondering about using the TC IR Loader (about €140) with some upright bass IRs through my existing amp - has anybody else tried doing this? It seems like a promising way of enhacing the sound of the piezo output from my DB....

Not sure if this has been shared before but his results sound pretty good at the end:
 

Just putting this here:

https://www.thomann.de/ie/marcus_miller_gb5_4_natural_fl.htm

They're not released yet but with the right strings/action etc it could be promising.....

1 hour ago, philparker said:

This clip doesn't really show the right hand, but gives a good indication of the sound/tone.

 

 

Thanks for that - to me that still sounds more like a fretless bass than an upright. I found this clip which is a lot more DB-like to my ears:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrjoKSwt4iU

 

From the comments he says he's using nylon coated strings and a foam mute....

I haven't managed to find any videos online of people playing them with (and I realise this isn't a tight definition) DB technique, with the kind of right hand technique in particular that @Linus27 identifies above. If anyone can point me to anything like this (or record it themselves) that wouild be very helpful, thanks!

There are a million examples out there but this is a nice clear example of the standard "anticipated" bass tumbao
 

The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro is really good and he goes into tumbao and all the variations. You can start with the versions where you play on the 1 and then work your way up to the syncopated version where the 4 anticipates the next chord and ties over the bar line.

2 hours ago, petebassist said:

I like the tone that this guy gets on a Marcustio - don't know what the signal chain is, but the mids & highs sound great - lows lack the DB frequencies.

 

 

I was going to reply to the thread something along the lines of "you'll never get a BG to sound _that_ much like a DB but with the right strings, action and EQ you can at least get a good thumpy tone that will sit in the mix in a similar way"....but this video of the Marcustico bass is pretty impressive!

7 hours ago, MuddBass said:

I'd say no, it's far too quiet for that in my experience.

Thanks - I figured that might be the case alright....

@MuddBass Is the Earbox enough on its own for the job of hearing yourself? i.e. if the bass is going into the PA, does the Earbox make enough noise that you don't also need another speaker for the job of personal monitoring? I'm thinking of a small class D amp head with DI out to PA and an Earbox as the only speaker...