chris_b

I watched the Shadows program. I thought it was an interesting look a the music business at a time when British music was was just starting to find its feet. We went on to dominate the world from these small beginnings. It was an interesting time. Old music isn't bad music. Apache was my first 45, I won it in a competition at school. I played the grooves off that thing.

When I was starting out, it never did. That's why there was such a fantastic club scene in the 60's and 70's. If you want "new music" the internet's full of it.

I've always loved the bass part on It Must Be Love, (surely another contender for the Wilton Felder thread). Dave Richmond is an excellent player (is he using a P bass in this clip?) , and I know guys have to make a living, but this Saturday night light entertainment stuff made. and still makes, me cringe! It's what my Dad imagined I'd be doing when I told him I was going to be a professional bass player. He was horrified when I told him I'd joined a Soul band based in Brussels.

Listen to Nathan Watts and you get the same type of bass line. It sounds great in the mix, but when he takes a break (at about 3.30) the sound is clunky, buzzy, over played and pretty horrible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6f6BOKXXxg The reality is that these bass parts were never designed to be heard in isolation. They were a signal provided to the desk where they would be re-EQ'd, compressed and mixed into the track. Listen to the original Motown mix of I Want You Back and compare it to the remixed HD version. The HD version is the same bass line but has a much better, fuller overall sound, because nowadays songs are intended to be played to the listener on speakers designed to a much higher spec.

On paper the position of the port might make no difference, but in practice it can do. I prefer front ported cabs because on small stages I might not have enough room behind the cab. Put a rear ported cab up on a pub bench seat and you get no sound out of the rear ports at all. Also I've run into several drummers who don't like rear ports. Depending on the stage layout, they can get a lot of sound from the back and not so much from the front. So they are getting less full range and more "woolly" bass.

I have and they are excellent basses. Unfortunately, for me, their weight starts at very heavy and gets worse!

Looks like "social distancing" will be the last thing to be relaxed. F1 and other sports want to start early and run behind closed doors. Can't see that working on a gig, so I'd be surprised to see any events involving audiences happening before Christmas, or more likely sometime in 2021.

Brother Strut and Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen were on the list. Are still on the list for when those gigs are rescheduled. I guess that will be next year!"

Good man!

A 4 string bass neck has about 150lbs of pull to manage. They are built to withstand that pressure on any plain, ie flat, vertical, horizontal etc so safe storage, away from knocks and dust, would be my aim. My basses are kept in their gig bags (vertical) unless I want to play one.

+1 for the extra cab. A more powerful amp will not drive the speaker harder than your current amp, but another cab will make a huge improvement in your sound, even if you play it at lower volumes.

This one sounds like fingers to me.

Beautiful. If that had 5 strings I'd be rummaging down the back of the sofa, right now!

I'd say that John McVie was using a pick on this one.

Yes.

Then by 1973 the Faces had an all Ampeg backlines. One rig in the US and another in Europe.

OK, give us a clue. . . . . . . . was this more or less than £500?

I don't know about the 60's but the Stones touring rig in the early 70's was all Ampeg.

The very impressive Trillion Total Bass Module came out about 10 years ago and hasn't replaced anyone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1toLihZkDs

Probably sounds like Babbitt because he was the bassist on Tears Of A Clown. The Jackson 5 never recorded in Detroit. Everything they did with Motown was recorded in LA and Wilton Felder seemed to be Motown's first choice for them. I think listening to I Want You Back and comparing it to your memory is not going to be very accurate. Listen to some bass lines recorded with a pick and then do the comparison. I don't recall seeing Wilton Felder using anything else other than fingers, but as we're all guessing I'm going to leave my opinion there.

+1 Over the years I've sold some great gear, but the best gear I've ever played is sitting right here in my front room.

That's what makes him one of the greats.

I agree. I really don't like Wilton Felder's bass sound, but as an A list LA session guy he must have been doing something right! Also I believe he used Precisions in the studio. I guess it's the transistor radio/Dansette record player/car radio thing. The bass had to have a hard sound and be played up the neck in order to be heard, which is also why many players used picks on sessions. This sound is then softened a little in the final mix. These days most of us listen to our music on better players so the way the tracks are mixed has changed, and IMO improved. Listen to I Want You Back, as it was released and they've mixed most of the "ponk" out and the bass sits shoulder to shoulder to the rest of the instruments. A good producer will listen to the track not the individual instruments.

If they all had neck dive maybe it's because they weren't designed correctly.

Anyone can make a mistake! I'd put out feelers for another Berg 112. You know how good two of those cabs will sound.