chris_b

Great player and he's been with RS for quite a long time.

I first saw Rod the Mod with Long John Baldry at the Uxbridge Show in the mid 60's. Singing Rock Me Baby to a bunch of Mums and Dads who were only there for the flower show, he looked and sounded a million dollars. I was listening to Beck-Ola yesterday, of its time but what a wonderful noise. One of the first [i]rock[/i] bands. About 20 years ago RS had a lot of trouble getting insurance for his tours because his voice kept giving out. If he doesn't see a voice training coach his voice is only going one way.

I gig with a 5 string bass that weighs 81/2 lbs, because I have to. I already do Pilates and use a 3" strap. Give me the best bass in the world and if it weighs more than that I won't/can't use it. If you're a 4 string player you can find good solid body basses that weigh 7 lbs and a lot less if you go for a hollow body. Get saving.

Led Zep did what they did for one reason. . . . album sales. Back in the day, when you recorded an album you always ran it through a 2" x 3" speaker to check the mix for the sound on a transistor or car radio, but you never recorded or mixed just for one of those speakers. I've recorded a few times for the BBC in the 70's and while they might have put their trainee sound engineers on the pop stuff they didn't purposely downgrade their recordings. The last recording I did at Maida Vale, about 5 years ago was on the full desk with all the bells and whistles. Rick Danko and Earth, Wind and Fire were two of the worst for re recording the bass when filming their bands on a gig.

Bass gear sounded fine back in the 60's and 70's for what it was and for what people wanted. It did its job but it sounded very different to how bass sounds today. The bass players I used to see were never quiet in the clubs. The sound coming out of TV's was pretty bad across the board, but IME it was usually recorded pretty well. I think bass gear has never sounded better, but Ronnie Wood playing Beck-ola on Bergantino or EBS gear would not have sounded half as good as he did through his 200 watt Marshall stack with every speaker straining to burst through the front cloth. I used to travel to my gigs in a Morris 1000 Traveller. There might be people who still think they are great little cars but I don't know anyone who'd choose to drive to gigs in one these days.

Are you gigging? If you are then get a good strap. Plenty of suggestions there. If not play sitting until you can afford to replace the bass. No point in modding a bass you'll be selling at the earliest opportunity.

Musicman is at San Luis Obispo, just north of LA. Alembic (Santa Rosa?) and Mesa Boogie at Petaluma. Both on 101 north of San Francisco, and both have factory tours, .

Bass Northwest, Seattle. Mike Lull, Bellevue, just outside Seattle.

I wouldn't say Wooly Bully was a novelty record! We used to play it as an encore, did again last night after being reminded of it in this thread. The audience loved it. The other odd one we sometimes do is Werewolves Of London.

[quote name='Slipperydick' timestamp='1441921542' post='2863072'] Surprised no ones mentioned Bonzo Dog Doodah yet. [/quote] I'll raise, your Bonzo Dog with both Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band albums. A recent BK lineup [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnWF8U8S5Kg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnWF8U8S5Kg[/url]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1441902816' post='2862845'] can it really be worth it? [/quote] This is a comparison between th eprice of a pre CBS bass and a CBS bass. If you are asking that question then it isn't.

A song that I seem to have been playing ever since it came out is The Joker by Steve Miller, and I still like it.

My next suggestions were going to be Star Trekkin and Bernard Cribbins. I'll have to make do with Charlie Drake, Tanglefoot and My Boomerang Won't Come Back and Nellie The Elephant by that band, whose name I've forgotten.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGdI7CXZUXc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGdI7CXZUXc[/url]

Everlasting Love. For the same reason. . . . relentlessly upbeat and cheerful, and audiences love it.

I didn't [i]hate[/i] any of those players, and amongst the overplaying and self indulgent twiddle mania I thought there were examples of great playing and fantastic technique. There were some aspects of that technique that we all could benefit from learning, and then adapting to our styles. My playing isn't up to that standard and while I don't get much call to play like that, I know if I could do some of that stuff I'd be a better player. Every time we pick up a bass we should be trying to improve. Maybe I'd start getting some of the gigs these music college wizz kids lock out.

Most of the gigs I went to in the 70's and 80's were sit down affairs, ie Hammersmith Odeon etc, so not much scope for a rumpus there. There were punch ups in the clubs in the 60's but they were generally old fashioned, "outside now" type brawls. Pride was settled quickly and very few people actually got hurt. As I recall the press was very happy with the column inches they were able to fill with Punk and Rave horror stories. The Punks we used to see in the Kings Road were a bunch of sweeties. I bet the Adrian Goldberg & Jim Frank's editor thought this was good copy. Whether it was generally true or not? Well, why spoil a good story.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1441810200' post='2861966'] perhaps clapping to the 2nd and 4th beat became popular when rock and roll 'invented' the snare on those beats. [/quote] Actually first played by Earl Palmer playing New Orleans R&B.

Too late. I've already claimed the prize.

Very clever.

You should still independently verify this with Fender.

I played a 5 string Lull Thunderbird a few weeks ago. I was very impressed by the whole package. What a great sound.

I have to say this isolated track does nothing for me. We play WGFA in the cover band and I went back to the original record to get a feel for the bass line.

I've just spent a week in bed due to sever back strain, initially caused 10 years ago by years of lifting Mesa Boogie cabs. This episode was caused by me just leaning over a PA amp and plugging in the leads! I'm now reassessing all by gear so I can keep the tone but reduce the weight even more. Wonky2, I was wondering about gigging if I suffered injuries that made playing a bass guitar difficult. I thought I'd give a keyboard bass a go.

[quote name='spongebob' timestamp='1441705918' post='2860966'] I'm not keen on his tone [/quote] You're not the only one. Pete Townsend didn't like it either.