StickyDBRmf

The Jazz Bass and Reggae. Was that the topic? If you accidently move the knobs put tape over them. (all real bass players know you don't need knobs) I have played Reggae with a Jazz, w/ a fretless P., w/ a Pedulla 5 string fretless P/J, and now with a 12 string Grand Stick Dual Bass Reciprocal. (that's for u cats that didn't read my introduction. DBR). Oh, and I also have a ESP LTD w/ active p.u.'s and a Hartke bass that only has the J p.u. working that I tore the frets outa the right way that I paid $30 US for (the P p.u. worked when I bought it but there were no strap buttons...that musta been the reason for the price), and an Ibanez 8 string that I took the frets out of the wrong way and I CAN PLAY REGGAE ON THOSE TOO. I said you don't need knobs on your axe someone here tell how to play with the flesh of your fingers...Oh bullocks I'm not trying to be a twit. Put your pick down and stroke the string with as much flesh as you can for "tone". Check out any upright players technique it'll work fr Reggae

I'm listening to (and learning) Lost Stars from the movie Begin Again. THE KEIRA KNIGHTLEY VERSION NOT THE BLASTED FOUL (Oh I Love His Falsetto) Adam Levine version (sound of wretching although I sinisterley love it). My girl can seriously sing the offal out of anything so we gonna do a duo this year (Dangerous Adventures) & some other covers and some extreme Corporal Punishment . Oh by the way Begin Again is a good movie I SAY SO.

I went to Negril back in '86 before all the Sandals-type places took over we got outa the plane in Montego Bay grabbed a taxi & headed toward our destination by the time we hit our first pit-stop for a Redstripe & tinkle we hooked up w/ our first bag of Ganja & proceeded to SLOW DOWN. The Island took over we got to the S. End of Negril found our boy friday picked out our dub tapes & high quality bud & I FELT THE MUSIC. We were there 10 days but the effect hasn't warn off. Reggae has to be FELT. I don't recommend any type of trendy chemical amusement aid but they all worked for me and I know going to Jamaica is expensive and dangerous as a field trip but to play Reggae you gotta BE IN THE TING.

I saw them for the "Songs of the Free" tour in New Jersey. Just the 4-piece Andy made sounds that would put the Edge to shame Sara Lee was Awesome I didn't stop dancing the entire nite. One of the best shows ever!

Okay this had to be the most incredible show I ever saw. It was Capt. Beefheart's last tour it was for Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) @ the Beacon Theater NYC and his opening act was James Blood Ulmer. I don't know who JBU's drummer was but I never seen anything like it. AND the guy sitting next to me was recording Beefheart (wasn't interested in JBU) I held his mics while he changed batteries, he took my address & sent me a cassette. (no return address-very paranoid dude. But I have Beefheart's last tour)

When I was trying to emulate C.S. I had a '72 Jazz Bass & was using Ernie Balls rounds. RotoSounds were astronomical. Thru a Fender Bassmann with a 2x15 cab. Turned ALL THE WAY UP. Tried to play w/ a pick but they kept flying outa my hand. I just played really hard with my fingers.

...where he took up welding. Yes and he built a talkbox out of Fender Twin Reverb and when he tried it out he rattled all his fillings out of his teeth. Us Jersey Boys anything for a laugh...

I'm a new Yankee on basschat so if this book has been mentioned forgive me. I recomend it to EVERYONE. "The Indie Band Survival Guide - Randy Chertkow & Jason Feehan - St. Martin's Press NYC $18.99 US 2nd ed. is 2012 I don't know if it's been updated again but it talks about everything you can do on your own or when you may need help. If any ofthe moderators review this & reccomend mebe it can help some of us thumpers out there

She's got a clothing line on one of home shopping networks. I mean, c'mon.

I was a real big fan of John Wetton...until King Crimson was no more. Oh, and coming from a jazz background, when I picked up the upright, Charles Mingus. Talk about gritty. And BTW, I became jaded w/ the jazz world (seemingly stuck in the Real Book) when I was introduced to the album "Starless and Bible Black". THAT was progressive.

OK I like the new Gong. And there's a band from my stomping grounds - Princeton NJ USA called Cactus Karma that sounds like National Health/Henry Cow sorta. Dave Stewart definitely. I'm trying to do/sound different on Stick will post when I get something recorded. Funny, no appologees here my biggest initial bass influence is Criss & the main reason I wanted a Stick was the T.L. SOUND but I sound NOTHING like either of them. And the Stick community kinda depresses me 'cause it usually sounds like treacly covers with no balls (am I gonna be censored?), testicles? What do you chaps call them in polite society? , or Bach stuff. I will search my other stuff & post accordingly.

Guitar. I can't play chords on guitar. Grubby little paws. Why all my guitars are "Joni Mitchell" tunings. One of the reasons I play the Chapman Stick. Left-hand chords in inverted 5ths I can play. Right-hand chords from above I can play. OH. You said instruments you struggle with. THE CHAPMAN STICK. I love the struggle though. And keyboard. And Roland HandSonic. Life is not lived without struggle. Or strudel.

There's always the Roland HandSonic (I have the older HPD-15) I bought it 'cause I wanted tabla. It's good if you like to bash about on something bigger than typewriter keys. And I also trigger it via MIDI with...AN ALESIS SR-16! I haven't embarked on the computer DAW merry-go-round yet - I've got Audacity installed but haven't recorded anything. Kinda off topic but I use a ZOOM H2 as a "notebook" for ideas outa my mixer.

http://IMG_20200106_123635423.jpg Not a bass but it's bamboo sorta like maple. I'm trying to post a photo. Ignore if there's nothing there

Bass players that take themselves seriously. Oooh, good name for a band

The Flux Capacitor works really well on Stick

G.S.-H. was DEEP. And the first rapper

I use a compressor because I like the sound! My first one (which I miss dearly) was in a 80's Roland Bass PreAmp SIP-300. (just youtubed it, optical). Not for any reason to wrangle my sound in, a sound effect in-and-of-itself. Think Tony Levin on K.C. Discipline. And yes I play the Stick. And that one is the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer. It has ONE KNOB

I know you're asking compressors, but...have you ever tried the Morley Wah AFTER the Big Muff? I'm talking INSANE. (and then some delay..........)

NOOOOOOO! I thought it was. Unwound strings just don't "tap", (and because of the tension & properties of tapping there's a lot in the set, even the bass 5ths side) and there's really no room to pick or strum on a Stick. BAD IDEA Oh, and BTW, lots of pretty basses posted. I think un-lined basses are just SEXY

I don't like lines. They throw me off. Just give me side dots. History of basses - Jazz bass, Precision w/ maple frettless, removed the epoxy/resin...wore the neck out, replaced w/ Mighty Mite ebony no finish, Pedulla Pentabuzz was requested w/ no "Buzz" finish, no lines...Ibanez 8-string that I .tore the frets out with a claw hammer...I wound up selling or giving away these except for the 8-string. I have two Chapman Sticks, one is an Ironwood from mid-80's w/ nickel frets that, after missing the Pedulla so much, had my local luthier remove the frets. WHOOPS. It'sa good thing I have two Sticks because a fretless Stick is a BAD IDEA. I'm having a luthier put frets back in. (I'm not sending it to Emmett, they're like his babies, I'm just glad he still sells me strings). And I bought a Hartke bass for $30US w/ a bad p.u. but the neck is so straight I pulled the frets out (the right way this time) didn't fill in the gaps just oiled the stinky poo out of it. Right now just the J-bass p.u. works so it's all Jaco all the time. I do have one fretted bass it's an ESP Ltd. neck-thru w/ active p.up.'s it sounds like any bass I would want. Like I said in other posts when I play these days I play Stick.

OH, AND ANOTHER THING...I have short stubby fingers. Never could play proper chords on guitar. (That's why I do Joni Mitchell tunings nowadays). The width of the fretboard and closeness in string spacing is a help not a hinderance on Stick. First, left hand chords in inverted 5ths are EASY for me (and with 6 strings in the bass, upper chords have lots of possibilities, and I can de-tune the 12th string, and I've never broken one. Lots of guys use the High Bass 4th tuning). Also, because the right hand engages the fretboard from above, I CAN play chords on the melody side. So, I'm always telling Emmett on Stickist.com that he invented THE COOLEST INSTRUMENT IN THE WORLD. Now realize also Emmett was a jazz guitarist coming up with a new playing method of fingers on strings with both hands perpendicular to the fretboard, he just happened to also build an instrument with a REALLY COOL BASS SOUND.

No matter who I try to sound like, I sound like me. Gift/curse? I can diggit.

OK I'm caught up. What everyone says / + my own 2 cents (pence?). Yeah, I'm not a guitarist I'm a BASSIST and I want to play the stuff the guitarist THAT IS NOT THE LEAD GUITARIST in the band is supposed to play, but is too whizzed off because he's NOT the lead guitarist, and never learned how to be the rhytym guitarist. You know, comping, GROOVE, things like that. (When I told my band in the 80's I was buying a Stick our guitarist threatened cutting the Melody strings off...he didn't) I found out SamAshNYC had a Stick in the shop ('85) I drove like a maniac up the New Jersey Turnpike and the salesman handed it to me and said, "Good luck". I didn't even plug it in just mucked about then handed over my cash (1,200US). Those days-no internet, YouTube, Skype lessons, just Emmett Chapmans "FreeHands" and I WANT THE TONY LEVIN SOUND. But...I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston MA for 2 semesters, they weren't teaching me what I wanted (my music has "No Commercial Potential") & I wound up working in the food bizniz fulltime & a band part-time. Also I became a full-time drunk, so, not much Stick-playing (requires effort, study), but could slog my way on the bass. Got sober in '09, got another Stick (12-string) that I've tried every tuning on, but I'm back to what I started with on this one, which is Dual Bass Reciprocal. Even though the tuning seems "redundant" the low end of the melody side sounds different than the bass 5ths side, I play "crossed" and "uncrossed" when & however I feel like it, I play "across-the-board" grabbing notes where they lay to fill out chords or lines, etc.,etc.,etc. The thing is, whenever I put any effort in something on the Stick, (especially "things I can't play", but hear) I get back SO MUCH MORE. So, bass players out there, if you're hearing more than just a bassline, and you want to compose (write tunes), GET A STICK (and stick with it). Oh, one more thing for now, I don't miss the higher melody string too much.

Just joined the forum mates (is that how u say it across the Pond?) I can get away w/ saying "Jersey" in the U.S. because we're the only state that drops the "New" from our name but I have nothing to do with cows or islands just attitude. So yeah, I'm a bass player that made the switch to Stick...not that I'm any good, but it's alot more fun to play than bass once you get the hang of it. So...ASK ME ANYTHING. I'm gonna read this post from the beginning to catch up.