Beer of the Bass

You wouldn't like my band, then.

I don't think Jaco would have been philosophically against more than 4 strings, he had a 5-string acoustic bass he played in his off-time. But the Fenders were available and familiar instruments. If he'd managed to get on top of his issues and had been around for longer, who knows what he might have explored.

I do wonder if in future we'll see predatory court cases in the other direction. As in, creator makes money on an artistic work, AI company pulls our that creator's prompt history and activates their legal team. Possible? They're certainly well resourced operations who could afford serious legal rep.

I must admit, I have yet to click "play" on any of this AI music. Perhaps that makes my opinion on it uninformed, but I feel that if it wasn't worth someone's time to write, play and record it, it's not worth my time and attention to listen to it.

The thumbnail image looks AI, something about the proportions of the lettering and the amount of yellow tones. It likes yellow, I don't know why.

Ah, there was one like that when I was at uni. He was university staff and maybe 5-10 years older than most students, he'd impress people by reeling off a bunch of Jaco stuff and well known funk lines so it was known that he was the bass guy in our small university town. But then when people tried to get him in bands it became apparent that he'd learned a collection of party pieces by rote, didn't know the names of notes or chords and couldn't jam along on even simply structured songs that weren't one of his prepared things. All a little sad really, from a guy pushing 30 looking for status with a bunch of 18 year olds.

I'm not sure I'm thinking of it dismissively when I call something showboating - a lot of interesting and very accomplished musicians will bring out an element of showboating when it helps get things across to their audience. I mean that little "hey, get this" presentation of something obviously tricky. I think it *can* be done in a good natured way that doesn't take away subtler properties of the music, but to pull that off you have to have self-confidence and the ability to back it up, as well as making sure it's not the whole of what you have to offer.

I mix finger and pick playing depending on the song, so my focus is more on getting the balance right between the two with a single amp setting, and bringing out the differences I want to hear with the pick. So I probably make some different choices than I would if I did everything with the pick. I like relatively light picks (Dunlop Ultex triangles in 0.88mm), specifically to bring out the attack click. I always favour the neck pickup with a pick (on a bass with Jazz style wiring), tone control back just a little for an older feeling rock tone, or tone control up and a light overdrive for a brighter, "let's pretend it's a Ric" tone on one tune.

If they're a few years old, didn't Status strings have black silks? They came in medium scale and lighter gauges too.

Re tapping and other showboating styles, I was around Edinburgh during the Fringe for years and saw and chatted with a lot of street performers, and I feel that short-form, algorithm driven social media favours similar tactics to that. A lot of the performers who could dependably draw a crowd weren't necessarily doing something you'd watch a 3-hour show of or have as your all-time favourite album. The "wow, he's doing what with the instrument?" factor tended to be the big draw that got people walking by to stop. So lots of slappy-tappy-percussive looper performers, gimmicky or extravagantly faux-aged instruments, quirky arrangements of recognisable pop tunes, an unusual outfit or vibe, etc. Grabbing attention in the short term is everything, and I think TikTok and much of YouTube works the same way.

Fair enough, I did just skim the Sapko video, I find his quirky youtuber personality schtick grating.

I will admit I only skimmed through the Sapko video, but IDK how comparable her situation is to Turro. Yes, she has social media followers, but he was getting gear deals and trade show appearances, and selling tabs - does she have anything like that depth of success through fakery or is Mr Sapko just reaching a little?

How do we know that's not pronounced yiff? (Make sure you're not at work if googling that one)

Oh, the effects forum has reminded me of another - envelope filters with no reverse/downward sweep setting. Why would you want that? I get tired of the upwards quacky sound pretty fast, but the downwards "bowwwp!" like Bootsy on Chocolate City (or indeed, like the Grange Hill theme) is great fun and my sole reason for having one.

I always thought it strange that the Moog original didn't include a downward/reverse option on the envelope follower, and the Behringer looks like it repeats that. What's the point if you can't get that "bowwwp!" sound? I don't think I ever use my envelope filter in the normal upwards setting, the quack irritates me quickly. This might just be my personal weird preoccupation...