AM1

[quote name='Marky L' post='443953' date='Mar 24 2009, 04:47 PM']Oh man, our drummer.. please never let me near a gun when he is in the same room. He can not keep a regular time. When we play live he seems to get worse and songs begin to get faster and faster. We had a gig at the weekend and I start Mustang Sally (yeah.. yawn) and by the end of the first verse I swear we had taken it up by 20bpm at least. Had to turn round and shout to him to slow down. That and he drums like a granny doing her knitting. Tippy tap tippy tap with no guts. And he can't play slowly loud and equally can't play fast softly. Has no idea about dynamics and I don't think he can count past 1. It is such a hard job to play with him, you can see and hear when he has forgotten where he is in a song, head up, dear caught in head lights look and he plays all quietly so he can try to cover his mistakes. Oh and he can't do fills in time. Has a frightful taste in music. Has no imagination. He insists on counting in EVERY song (even when he starts one on hs own!) but really quietly so you can't hear. And it's always him that gets up from behind his kit in rehearsal to tell others how to sing a song with some long rambling nonsense!! ARRGHH!! I get angry sometimes!![/quote] I say, kick his head right in.

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='444341' date='Mar 24 2009, 09:11 PM']I would advocate a rigorous programme of weight training, focussing particularly on the pectoral and triceps groups of muscles. Then use your newfound strength to beat your guitards and drummer into playing more quietly.[/quote] The Funk's method of taking a piss on their amp sounded like much more fun though!

We already discussed action though so I wondered if the relief had some specific influence on whether its harder to play or not.

[quote name='JPJ' post='443783' date='Mar 24 2009, 02:03 PM']also make sure that your bass is set up properly (i.e. not as low as it can go, but with a proper amount of relief).[/quote] Could you elaborate on the relief bit please?

[quote name='alexclaber' post='443725' date='Mar 24 2009, 01:10 PM']P.S. Our drummer.. has started doing back vocals too - it's awesome![/quote] So has ours! Quit stealing our drummer! EDIT - the ones that sing are usually happy at getting out of prison.

[quote name='Eight' post='443715' date='Mar 24 2009, 01:01 PM']You'll be needing that picture of me then. [/quote] I'm waiting, come on, are you a man or a mouse! Haha..../sexist ON When I complained about my blisters to one of our guitards, his response was, "well sort yourself out, see you next week". Grumpy git. Right, all joking aside, seriously, get the bass amp volume sorted out, so you can be heard in the mix, without attacking the bass, that will make a world of difference.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='443643' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:23 PM']Teach them the lyrics, get them to sing along in their head. The results are almost magical. Alex[/quote] Haha, doesn't that depend on the singer turning up? I'll get mi coat.

[quote name='Huge Hands' post='443683' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:41 PM']I thought it might be worth referring you to [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=19929&hl=superglue"]this thread[/url] I posted a while ago. The superglue tip certainly got me through a gig![/quote] Pah, bunch of girls. A REAL man would play til they bled. /Sexist off

[quote name='Eight' post='443650' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:26 PM']Stop being a g-.... Just kidding AM. [/quote] That's quite ok, I've decided to become completely sexist against all blokes here and I intend to take every opportunity to post pictures of fit male bass players, drool over them and anyone who complains about sore fingers or such unmanly nonsense will immediately become an object of humour to me. Blisters indeed, look, clearly the solution is to Harden Up!

[quote name='Twigman' post='443611' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:03 PM']After a rather extended rehearsal on Sunday night ( a full 4 hours ) I am suffering. The callouses [sp?] on my fingertips have developed into full grown blisters! My ring finger and middle finger on my fretting hand My index, middle and ring finger on my plucking hand they're all blistered!! What do you do to prevent blistering? I've never been a fan of Elastoplast or the like as it reduces the feel - I need to feel the strings. So what do you do? Just to add - I don't slap. I pluck finger style. I no longer use a plectrum - it doesn't really suit - fingers is the only style that satisfies.[/quote] The same was happening to me after 4 hour rehearsals. Turning the amp does help in that you don't have to dig in so hard on the plucking hand..but - you'll just have to get through a few cycles of this then the skin will change. In my case, I didn't pop the blisters, the skin underneath hardens a bit. On the fretting hand, I found that I was applying far too much pressure to the frets on the left hand, hence the fretting hand was also blistering on strings .45 upwards. Either drop to a lighter gauge for a bit or keep an eye on your technique. But definitely, cranking up the bass amp should help. If you have to pluck that hard to be heard then there's an issue overall with the mix. Regards AM

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='443588' date='Mar 24 2009, 11:47 AM']Out of my 4 bands we have 2 drummers. One is simply awesome with what he can do and the other is a straight unadventurous plodder. The fancy-pants drummer plays fast all the time especially at gigs and because he's in a world of his own most of the time can't jam. Once at a gig 2 or 3 songs in I tried to indicate to him that we were playing too fast he just shouted "Huzzah" at me and played the rest of the gig even faster. He claims that he has no volume knob and so plays too loud all of the time - which is excruciating in small rehearsal spaces and tricky to set up against in smaller venues. He is the only drummer I have ever played with that I don't listen to or have any chemistry with because he doesn't know how to co-operate musically. The plodding drummer plays in time all the time (and at varying volumes) His natural style very plain and limited but he's always open to ideas about what beats and fills to use when we are writing music - he's cool to jam with too because he can read the vibe and go with it. Recently we've been jamming at home a lot and he's a whizz at playing in real time on my Zoom MRT-3B. Despite our original music having some tricky timings which need a lot of work for him to lock into I'd take the steady co-operative plodder over the unpredictable selfish fancy-pants any day of the week.[/quote] Agreed. I've also encountered both and my opinion is that it does not matter how technical a drummer (or bass player is) if they cannot keep basic, solid time. It takes down the whole band if the timing is not right. Best response I've heard when poor timing is pointed out - "well you'd better find another drummer then".

[quote name='Bassassin' post='443304' date='Mar 24 2009, 12:10 AM']The most consistent, solid, reliable & accurate drummer I've ever worked with: Never speeds up, slows down, drops a stick, blows out gigs, dumps its kit in my house, expects a lift, takes forever to learn a song & still plays it wrong, expects me to modify the bass part to a song I wrote to accommodate it, farts, gets insulting when drunk, prioritises its crap sheepshagger pub band over this one, has overpowering BO, marries evil psychotic French harridans... And yeah, you only have to punch the song into it once. You'd never guess I'm having drummer problems. Jon.[/quote] I can't stop laughing. Sums it up about perfectly! That's when they're out on parole!

[quote name='neepheid' post='443192' date='Mar 23 2009, 10:12 PM']You seem surprised?[/quote] No, no, it was a heavy hint...see my first post in the thread!!

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='443209' date='Mar 23 2009, 10:21 PM']I'd die for a crisp clean drummer who had metronomic time. A band is only as good as it's drummer, that's why the Beatles sacked theirs.[/quote] I totally agree. Likewise about the crisp drummer with good timing! The only drummers that I know whom have metronomic time are the ones that have spent years practicing with a click track. It can be done - it is just not often that you see it. I do know drummers that have never used a metronome. I have seen drummers that slow down, ones that speed up, ones that ignore this when you tell them. But now I'm playing bass and I am really beginning to see how difficult the bassist's job can become with a less than solid on timekeeping, drummer.

Idle curiousity here, nothing more. Does your drummer slow down? Or speed up? Or do they keep consistent near-perfect timing?

[quote name='josh3184' post='443148' date='Mar 23 2009, 09:35 PM']true true, I just like disagreeing with you, you bring out the most colourful arguments![/quote] Me?

[quote name='neepheid' post='443137' date='Mar 23 2009, 09:23 PM']I have a Rockbass Corvette 4. It's pretty nice - got that clean, precise active sound from the 2 jazz style pickups and 2 band EQ, it's pretty light and the neck is reasonably comfortable. It's Jazz width, which I usually don't get along with but the neck is chunky back to front - very much D profile. It's well finished and I've been pretty impressed with it.[/quote] That's what I wasn't totally sure about, is it just an active bass ie. no switching between passive and active. OK fair enough. [quote name='neepheid' post='443137' date='Mar 23 2009, 09:23 PM']Having said that, I'm toying with the idea of selling it.[/quote] Ahem.

[quote name='ARGH' post='443143' date='Mar 23 2009, 09:31 PM']Cheap basses are great in the bedroom,get them cranked and they sound horrid....and they break,bad pots,bad jacks,bad fretwork,bad necks...bad nut,bad bad bad BAD!![/quote] I really disagree. I have a cheap FrankenFender P copy and I've had it through a Trace Elliott head and my own (newly acquired) Ampeg SVT3 Pro and the tone is absolutely outstanding. It was around £100. In fact, I will probably use it as my main gigging bass for now. Of course, you're probably right about mass produced ones, but this was hand assembled and is a quality bass for the price.

[quote name='The Funk' post='443089' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:55 PM']at a blues jam I go to sometimes (basement of The Spice Of Life, Cambridge Circus, Soho - Monday nights)[/quote] Haha, you're obviously not there tonight

[quote name='josh3184' post='443016' date='Mar 23 2009, 08:08 PM'] Well the older ones are still great, but all I thought is that once the new ones come out (no idea when btw, maybe in a month or two) the value of the first editions might drop if you want to get a bargain![/quote] Good call yeah! I love the sound. I have never tried the 4 stringer neck though, really curious about how playable it is.

Thanks both of you for the info, I didn't even know there was a new one due out. But I really prefer playing older basses that are a bit more worn in, hence if I could find an el cheapo 2nd hand 4 string rockbass, I'd probably buy it. PS..I play like a girl too. Oh..hang on...I AM one!

Just wondering if anyone here uses Rockbass Corvette. Great sounding bass which seems to be seriously under-rated. I have tried a 5 stringer, looking for some feedback on what the neck/playability is like on the 4 stringer. Cheers AM

How one plays the bass, or the degree of attack, has nothing to do with gender specificity. If you rephrased the question, it would better demonstrate that the real query is about dynamic control as a function of intensity of attack. Playing through inadequate ampage/too low volume and attacking the bass to be heard is NOT dynamic control. In this scenario there is effectively no means by which to create an effective dynamic range (using fingers). If you are digging in like an animal just to be heard, that's a function of inefficient integration of bass volume/tone in a band context and has no relevance to dynamics whatsoever. Playing with volume at an appropriate level whereby the bass can be heard with the lightest touch, affords a huge range of attack and dynamic control options. Regards AM

Hi Thanks for sharing - it is through communities like this that valuable consumer information can be disseminated. I would recommend that you ask for a full refund and walk away from any dealings with the store. It is an offence to misrepresent goods, whether knowingly or otherwise, under the Trades Description Act (which has now largely been rebadged but has the same core ethos). The penalty is a £5000 fine or imprisonment, or both, depending on the severity. Trading Standards is the Enforcement Authority with jurisdiction to handle complaints regarding misrepresented goods. The best way to deal with this is to remain calm and professional but make it absolutely clear that you are entitled to a full refund and will accept nothing less. Irrespective of the response, you should formalise your complaint after this. Positioning information about instruments in a way that is misleading, ambiguous or misrepresenting is unacceptable. Regards AM [quote name='Musicman20' post='439859' date='Mar 19 2009, 11:01 PM']Yes...it has ruined the experience of buying a USA Jazz. Ive wanted one for years. Ive told them I wont be ordering the Orange stuff with them now, and Im tempted to ring them tomorrow and explain that Im not happy and want my deposit back. Im off to Leeds on Saturday anyway, so I can pop in. I can just see myself losing my temper...not in an aggressive way, just like 'if this isnt perfect, then you can shove it'. Its a shame, because some of the guys there are obviously average blokes and love guitars etc. This guy just creeps me out. This lass called Kay in there was very friendly and was disgusted when I told her what this bloke had been upto. HAHAHA....if he really winds me up I will be naming him, to Fender, his manager, his Head Office, and everyone else.[/quote]