Owen

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='803488' date='Apr 12 2010, 10:40 AM']That threw me as I suddenly realised that in the past I've regularly covered at least 3 songs called Peaches... and all of them good songs in their own right! Presidents of the USA The Stranglers Prince (OK that one doesn't have an 'es' on the end ) So which one was it Owen? [/quote] Stranglers. Big boys music.

The A team or Peaches. Peaches always sorts out the people who know what's good from the people who don't.

Now and again I do some work in a studio which is local to me. Like all of us I like to hear more of me than the communal foldback will allow me to have. I take a small mains powered desk with me, plug the cans feed into that as well as a link from the DI. I can then mix myself as loud as I like. Unfortunately this places a nasty buzz in other peoples cans. Is there some sort of isolatiing thingumywotsit-ma-bob I can get to make all this earth hum-ness go away?

Yes, you read the parts on the session, but not with the red light on for the first read through. If the line is written, you can actually take liberties with it - it is more than likely written by a keyboard player who is not a bassist so will not 'sound' like a bass line as we know and love them. The producers or Musical Directors want bread and butter lines for 98% of any recording work you do. It is not about technical chops, it is about time and feel chops. It is about making a rubbish drummer sound good even though no one else in the room knows why the feel is not happening. It is about bringing enough fresh crunchy grapes to share around all the musos and the technical staff and making the vibe good.

Today I am A/Bing my Demeter with an Avalon U5. I am cataloguing my thoughts as much a record for me as anything else. All going into a Berg IP310. My wife is not loving the whole thing The tone settings on the U5 certainly change the output level, but there is loads of gain so that is not really an issue. Magnetic pick ups. The U5 seemed more "immediate' than the Demeter. Not sure how to define it really. There was more hit on harder plucking. Punch would be the wrong word really, more kind of aggressive poke. Harder or faster - not in a bad or good way, just different. Perhaps it is just more headroom. I tried the piezo pick up on my Bolin NS bass and there was certainly more "whoosh" of air movement with the U5. I guess what I am aiming at here is that the U5 delivers it's goods in a more prompt way than the Demeter. I'm guessing that this is due to the U5 having a better power supply able to deliver the juice quicker. Unbuffered Double Bass Piezo pick up. Again (yes, you can tell I have collected my thoughts by now) there is more speed in the U5. They both buffer the piezo really nicely EQ wise the Demeter is obviously a lot more versatile with the 3 bands and also the 2 bands of full parametric. I will keep both and gig with them for a bit. Will I actually hear the extra immeadiacy through the general noise on a gig? I really don't know and as such the Demeter wins. I will report back later on. I reserve the right to take a few years to get back to report further.

[quote name='Vibrating G String' post='795024' date='Apr 3 2010, 01:13 PM']Great video! And I love that he's doing it on a low end cheap bass.[/quote] +1 on the cheap bass. It appears that it IS all in the fingers. When I grow up I want to be able to play like that.

I have already had this discussion via pm with Wes, but does anyone else agree that there must be a market for a vintage spec 35" 19mm 5 string J or P with a "mature" finish? No out there is doing them.

[quote name='nottswarwick' post='791329' date='Mar 30 2010, 11:18 PM']bit of a hijack, but what monitor would be good?[/quote] To me, small means 10" or poss 12". A 10" will not fight with a full on drummer, I do not care what anyone says. It might for 2 gigs but then it will die. I use a Mackie 10" wedge (SRM350) for non aggressive drummer things when I need small. The 350 is much nicer than the 450 (I have those as well). The 450 runs out of headroom pretty quickly but the 350 is very nice indeed.

The headstock ding thing is not always a ding, but because of the real pointy bit, it wears very quickly in a gig bag. On a related note what are other Bongo owners using as gig bags. My normal bag is a Wood&Tronics one but with strap locks on it is a REALLY tight fit and the bottom strap button seems to stick out and be really thuddy when I put on a hard floor.

I am on my 3rd Bongo. It is a love hate thing really. The sound is big and it looks funky. However it is slightly heavy for me, when I sit down to play the bottom horn digs into my leg in a nasty way and the 34" scale does not quite do it for me on the B string. If I could gut one and put the electrics into my MTD Heir then I would probably be GAS free for a long time. It is teetering on the edge of being moved, but then nothing else sounds the same.

This is probably going to get me flamed into submission, but it strikes me in general that there are 2 kinds of bassist. Bassists who play bass and only kind of dabble in a bit of guitar/keys/drums or whatever (people who are exclusively bassists if you like) and also people who can play any instrument they turn their hands to and bass is one of those. The multi players seems to sing without too much hassle, but the bass exclusivists have a lot of trouble singing and playing. I cannot even smile and play at the same time let alone sing so you can guess which camp I am in. I am not saying either camp are better than the other - I would pay good money to play like Esperanza or Meshell, but I have come to the conclusion that my skill will never shine on that side of things. I am cool with this. [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='782078' date='Mar 21 2010, 08:38 PM']How on earth has she learned to sing and play such complicated timing on both bass and vocals with such control?[/quote]

There used to be a model of Galveston bass on Ebay which was gold sparkle and went for £150ish. I still regret not taking one and this was 5 years ago.

1. Get some lessons 2. Get some lessons 3. Until you get some lessons, at the very least practice in front of a mirror and make sure your bow is at 90 degrees to the strings. My rule of thumb is that the bow would be halfway between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge, but not knowing your bass makes that difficult because I do not know where the end of your fingerboard is. 4. The further up the fingerboard you go the closer to the bridge you should be. Why are you playing up there? We have cellists to do that stuff 5. What rosin are you using? Are you using enough? Too much? Not enough? 6. Get some lessons. 7. Are your strings suitable for arco? Making a good arco sound is really, really difficult and takes time. As bass guitarists we get lulled into a false sense of security about good tone. You can achieve a good sound on bass guitar pretty easily. You can achieve a good pizz tone on DB pretty easily. The physics of the pitch being created and the size of the body make it a long process to get a DB to speak quickly, cleanly and strongly. Not wanting to put you off, but it is actually far and away the most difficult thing about playing the DB. I know nothing about your chosen technique, but I use a German bow and I stand. As far as I am concerned, good sound comes from your back.