chris_b

Have a listen to Bobby Bland's albums, Dreamer and His California Album, on which he shared bass credits with Max Bennett.

They were the size of house bricks in 1965. Well. . . . nearly!

The only thing cheap basses don't always do well is pickups. Cheap pickups will make any bass sound less than perfect.

With advent of CNC machines quality of cheap basses has gone through the roof. The QC that Asian manufacturers achieve is down to the contract and how much the brand owner cares about quality.

The new price of my Fender Precision in 1969 was £120. That's nearly £1700 today. Within 3 years I'd replaced the nut (broken) and frets (worn down). I'm not sure prices are that bad these days. My guess is you get a better made bass, at all price points, than I did.

Yes. One of my favourites.

Don't buy a good amp and then cheap out on the cab. Do some homework and find out about Barefaced 2x12 cabs, the Super Twin and the Big Twin 3.

I guess his name isn't well known amongst the general public, but as a 1st call session player in LA, he wasn't unknown or underrated by the music business. I first heard him in the early 70's when I bought the 2nd Crusade double album. His bass lines were simple, effective and musical.

Powerful bass sound, powerful, relentless playing. I like that.

Many years ago we were trying out a new drummer. He was a bit of a name around here, and he announced he wanted to dep out the rehearsals and only do the gigs!! We told him to do one!!

No backup bass? Tut tut!

I've fitted Dunlop Strap Locks to every bass since the mid 80's and have never had a problem with any of them.

D!ckheads, idiots, narcissists, tw*ts, I've played with them all, and it can become very tiresome, but I've been gigging solidly via word of mouth for the last 20 years. You can't do that sitting at home, so I've learnt to live with the 10% of people I don't like in order to do the things I do like with the other 90%.

I bought my first set of Dunlop strap locks in the late 80's. I'm still using the same set on my main bass.

Tab, Bah humbug.

A month or so ago I saw Marie and Rosetta in our local theatre. Beverly Knight was incredible, but her co star, Ntombizodwa Ndlovu, was just as good. The two of them made a couple of hours pass like minutes.

i love the drummer and drum sound on this . . . .

How many times have I envisioned myself doing that!!!

No drummer beats a bad drummer every time, but why does anyone put up with a bad drummer? Play with a good drummer and your workload is halved. Play with a bad drummer and your workload increases 10 fold!!

There are always examples of players who can excel when being busy, but that's not the same thing as overplaying. A good player like Jamerson does both simple and busy. Overplaying is almost always negative, and comes with a lack of rhythmic ability, lack of good note choice and clarity of execution. Jack Bruce and Francis Rocco Prestia are more examples of very busy players who got it right.

Jeff Genzler makes some great bass gear.

Harp players never know when to stop blowing. Guitarists never have control of their volume. Neither do drummers. Drummer are always putting in fills that don't fit. Keyboard players don't understand that 2 bass lines don't work. . . . in any song. . . . ever!! Last week, I saw a quote from an engineer; "The best engineers have the simplest solutions". You could say the same about musicians, and definitely about bass players. The simplest lines are always the best. The spaces say more about your ability than the notes. Overplaying is a curse and the only way to fix it is to play with guys who don't.

All of them.

Good move.

My top 10 list of things to spend £20k on wouldn't include any basses. Carl Thompson and his basses are always interesting to read about but I have no inclination to own one.