StickyDBRmf

I like to play the "below E" ONLY when it makes everyone in the band, and hopefully in the audience, go "OHHH" (with a big smile on their face) AND...I owned a Yamaha 6-string Patitucci Model. And LOVED it. Especially because of the zero radius (it was like my Stick). But I NEVER. Called it a "Yammy".

Midnight Rider - Allman Brothers Band

I'll tell you the moments that made me want to sell the Fender Mustang and trade for the Fender Jazz. In my sister's '69 Mercury Cougar convertable listening on 8-track. Sly and the Family Stone - Stand! - Sex Machine. (I want to play that for 13 mins) And Iron Butterfly - Inna Gadda Da Vida. (I want to play that for 17 mins) Larry da Man...All others eat hay

Welcome! All my open mics are odd too!

I would put TWO pickups in...

George Duke - Feel. Oh yeah

Feel - George Duke

So is Marching Band!

The chorus starts off with: "Oh, it's so sad to be mistaken for a Coward..."

Here we go offtrack already...but I love early GONG - Daevid Allen/Steve Hillage Glissandoz Guitar. And what happy trippy hippy music! Now back on track. Some get the bass, some get the mug. Last year my gf got me TWO sets of Stick strings. I know, you're thinking...but when you're on disability and foodstamps, and Stick strings for 12 string DBR go for $68US, it'sa BIG DEAL. And - well, Stick strings last a lot longer that guitar/bass 'cause of lower tension and tapping vs. plucking, but this set is just going NOW. So I'll be changing strings for the New Year. And she's contributed to the re=fret project on the other one!

An Amish saying, found on a doorstop: "We get too soon old and too late smart"

If you can't take full pleasure in the present you may already be imagining being nostalgic for the future!

Actually I'll be taking my mid-80's Chapman Stick to the luthier to have the frets I had removed re-fretted, (fretless was an unwise decision for it, hence "worst" bass decision)). With the $ from the Stimulus Check, from April, haven't touched it. The Sticks have stainless steel fret"rails" these days, mine had jumbo nickel bass wire, what Emmett used from first production till he started playing with s.s. fabrications. My '08 has s.s. "rails". I'll talk w/ the luthier about it. He's well-known in this . neck of the woods and runs a school of guitar repair. I also may check out a Peavey Bass Combo - the relatively "new" Max series...like the 2x10 (or 2x8). I have 2 JBL-EON 515s that I thought would be a great idea for stereo Stick reproduction. It does work, if you're a Stick player that plays kinda "normal"...solo two-handed arrangements of Bach fugues (not that there's anything wrong with that). But for two-handed low-end altercations they just don't cut it. Not competing w/ a drummer and/or guitarist. When the day comes thru to get in a room and throw down, the JBL's won't satisfy. You can certainly HEAR them, but they'r not bass drivers (hence "worst gear" post...even tho it's been years). The only thing that would work w/ the JBLs would be an 18" sub and this 63yr old back ain't doin' THAT. Over-kill anyway. These days backline & line-out. There I've written it down now I'm committed...

He might of caught me poking a box, though...

Quit raggin' on him guys! When you've been playing music, you're in another mental place, you don't remember that the only low ceiling you've ever encountered happens to be your practice room. The double sock, tho not elegant, sounds good. The pipe cover might not stay in place w/out securing but it might stay in place inside a sock. I use "pool noodles" for all kinds of bumper things in my studio (really cheap pipe covers) Are you worried your wife/gf/kids are gonna make fun of your bass? (mine just make fun of my playing). The little hat is the cutest thing, probably get a cheaper one at the pet store. Maybe even with your name on it...talk about ridicule

You lucky devil. And for me this is not something that has developed as I've gotten older (or the result of drinking and drugs, which were in play). And I did well in school in tests. Like, I could "cram" the night before, or, usually, the study period before the test. Ahhh

Aw but it's so purty! (I'm really digging this...how much$$$?

4000 - Fretted. Fretless. The bass range of Stick in 4ths/5ths. And I play harder on the acoustic bass guitar than any other instrument. That was the latest addition to the arsenal. Yeah I sound different on different instruments. To a degree. Then there's cassette tapes of my '80's band in rehearsal space where visiting musicians, or our very accomplished guitarist, would pick up any of my basses - fretless, fretted, 8-string - thru my rig and you knew it wasn't ME.

Robert Fripp being the anal-retentive kept and keeps meticulous journals to this day. To the point of who he's shagged when and where. I think that part was because of his early competitions with Greg Lake. And then Tony Levin likes to take photos so you got one heckuva diary of Crimson '81on.

King for a Day - XTC

So at 12:27 he sucks all the oxygen out of the room and the fire sparks and almost goes out...

Take my word for it Leslie West is unheralded in the US also. And the band. They were a cohesive unit. Only guitarists will cite Leslie, and then, the band. The songs, the performances, studio and live, I mean, c'mon. West Bruce & Lang were decent - look at the particulars - but Mountain? With Felix Pappalardi they ROCKED. Leslie West really played tasty from first note and chords to last. A force to reckoned with, a sound immediately identifiable. THAT'S the definition of greatness. First rock band I was in, as a teenager, we did a lot of their tunes. It took two guitarists to re-create his parts! And we did Mountain's tunes because we loved the band, not because they were popular. (we did a lot of Joe Walsh/James Gang too!)

All my basses are odd. (heehee). Due to many factors, mostly being broke after The Last Major Purchase - Chapman Stick 12 string Bamboo DBR with PASV-4 p.u. and MIDI p.u. - just shy of 4 thousand US - I wound up selling my Pedulla 5 string fretless - no "Buzz" finish on the fretboard and no markers, P/J Bartolini Active, for a pair of powered loudspeakers. Now here's the thing. I sold the bass because I wanted to focus on being a STICK player. After a while, a drummer friend nudged my thinking during a session where I insisted on playing Stick and said, "Marty, you're a great bass player, and the song would be better served if you played this BASS sitting here." It was some kind of 5 string active some-thing-or-other that wasn't set up right (it's intonation was good though), and I reluctantly plugged it in and NAILED it. First take, first interpretation, the engineer is booking me for his next project... So the next time I'm in my local music store - the one who's owner is my go-to guy for anything I can't do myself, he has used instruments and etc., there's a used 4 string ESP LTD active EMGs neck-thru hanging there, and I check it out. One setting I dial in Stanley Clarke, another Squire, another Jaco, Wetton,...you get the picture. "How much?" "Two hundred." "Too much." "Two hundred." No tax, right?" "OK." "I don't like the strings. Gimme a set of D'Addario's and we got a deal." "OK." Another time, there's this Hartke PJ bass hanging there, Black finish scabbing off, no strap buttons, "$30, as is". So I grab it, it's playable, the neck is DEAD STRAIGHT. "What's the deal, did the guy kill someone with it?" "Close. The guy was living in a room-for-rent in a bad neighborhood and was worried about getting ripped off, bad period of his life, want's nothing to do with it." "Deal. It's worth more in parts, but I'm gonna rip the frets out." I took it home, the P p.u. shorted out, ripped the frets out, put buttons on it, right now it's "All Jaco, all the time" until I find something CHEAP to stuff in the cavity. I have a few other "odd" basses, stuff given or bought cheap, one's a science project, an Ibanez 8 string from the 80's that I bought new for $750 and eventually ripped the frets outa, right now it has hum issues (it's active). A Danelectro Longhorn - Now That Doesn't Sound Like Anything Else - and an Ibanez acoustic. But unless I find something cheap&odd, I think I got the "basses" covered. You guys have a Merry Christmas!

I like NIN. Might have to give it a spin...

A couple guys went with this: my Dad was always very supportive in ANY endeavour - supported my music aspirations ("as long as you take lessons"), drove me to and from rehersals with the amp barely fitting in the trunk...he was a truck driver, local, always home for dinner. Said he loved his job, it was different every day. Told me "whatever you do in life, I don't care if it's riding on the back of a garbage truck, as long as you enjoy it, persue it". I said before, I cooked for a living. I really enjoyed it, not for everyone, fast-paced, long hours, hard work. But at the end of the day, I knew i had put smiles on peoples faces. "With passion". Same as the music. One for my my soul, one to pay the bills. (and buy strings) All that matters.