meterman

Today I have mostly been recording reggae music on a cassette 4-track, heavily influenced by Jackie Mittoo, Augustus Pablo and King Tubby. 
 

Hi-fi studio folks best look away now...

I started as a percussionist (aged 7) then graduated to drum kit, then later took up guitar in my teens so I’d have a compositional instrument. I only bought a bass much later when the bassist in our band quit and we didn’t know any others, and we had studio time booked. So I bought the cheapest bass I could find and got into it that way.

Coming from a drums / percussion / guitar background definitely helped me understand where to put the notes, where to leave spaces, and whether certain bass lines worked or not, etc. I eventually got into writing songs on bass, so it’s been a real help for me.

Still wouldn’t call myself a bassist though. Nor would anyone else, probably 😂

18 minutes ago, ped said:

Thanks. I think I’ll give those a go then👍🏼
 

I’m not planning on changing anything else but I saw a company in Yorkshire makes a replacement pickup which looks quite fruity from the specs 

 

https://www.northernpickups.co.uk/mustang-bass
 

Can’t see any reviews though and the stock pickup sounds fine from the vids on YT

Ooh those do look interesting 😎

I got a Squier Mustang bass a few weeks ago and put a set of LaBella 760FLMUS flats on, and I swear they just work. I’ve had half a dozen Mustangs from vintage USA, MIJ reissues to Squiers and this latest one with those strings is the best one I’ve had. Perfect combination. Love playing it. Hope yours hits the spot for you 👍

2 minutes ago, break-even said:

Hi all,

thanks for your inputs and support.

 

I'm listening to rock, grunge and heavy music, but I don't know yet if that will be the music that I will play as well.

 

I wasn't sure if everybody uses the pinky finger while playing, that's why I was thinking about to try left-handed bass, even I guess that it will take more time to get used to it, and to feel well during playing.

 

Was it hard for you right-handed to try playing left-handed?

Does the "unnatural" style inhibits you to play your favorite songs with the same feelings?

 

 

I’ve tried playing left-handed but it’s too weird for me. Didn’t feel natural at all. I’m not ambidextrous or talented enough to get away with it. Might be different for you though?

It also might depend on what style of playing you want to do. But if you’re right handed then maybe start playing right handed and see how it works out for you.

I never use my left pinky finger when playing bass (I’m right handed) as it’s very ‘clunky’ and tends to lock in a straight position if I try to use it, or if I reach for a note with it, it might lock and go to a wrong note or stick to my ring finger. I can’t rely on it to go where I want it to, so I don’t use it. My left hand technique looks weird but I make it work for me, I use 3 fingers and sometimes my thumb for root notes. You wouldn’t guess from hearing recordings as they sound alright. But my mates call my playing style “the mitt” because it looks like I have no finger interdependence. Skinny bass necks and short scale basses work better for me.

This is my playing from 20 years ago without using my pinky, it’s only an old funk vamp and I’m not Jaco Pastorius or anything but don’t let that put you off 😂

Definitely give it a go, you never know. You might love playing and be amazing.

6 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

He released an album called Chappo.

Superb 👏😂

16 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

 A Roger Chapman fan, I see. 🙂

The singer from Family? Don’t know a lot about them to be honest. Did he wear a straw hat often then?

I’ve rarely stayed in one place long enough to get around to hanging basses and guitars up. Only did it once and that was because the floor space was taken up with a Fender Rhodes, a Hammond organ and a vibraphone...

Will probably hang things up again in the future, I think our recent house move might prove to be a bit longer term.

10 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Any song in the top 40 is a great composition because it speaks to the souls of a million strangers, to be instantly replaced by next week's 'hit' and washed away on the turning tide of these same million strangers' fickle souls. Smoke and mirrors, for the most part; cold commercial interests manipulating these precious 'souls' to further their profit margins.
Disclaimer : I'm not a fan of Chic in any of the forms I've heard so far; my vision may be coloured in this light. 

I love Chic, and disco in general, but I think Nile Rodgers is off the mark a bit here. Yes, don’t be snobby about music (including inverted musical snobbery) but don’t kid yourself that the top 40 is the be all and end all of you need to aim for.

Brushy One String and his lo-fi beat-up guitar playing hits me a damn sight harder than any of the autotuned filler that clogs up the charts at the moment. Well, in France anyway. Your country may vary, etc...

4 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

From 'The-Off'....Air (La Femme... Moon Safari) meets 70' Film Incidental Muisc (Think 'Bullitt')... Both of which i love.

But, where is the rest of it?

Over too soon... Link to more please.

@metermanSweet tone...

Thank you, and pretty close to the mark influence wise. Our other big faves were early A Certain Ratio, and Can and the early US post punk scene, things like Liquid Liquid or ESG. All the records that got sampled for early hip hop records basically.

And yeah, the 45 had to be an edit as a 5” single can only fit 2 minutes per side. The album version will be nearer 6 minutes. With more Minimoog. And Mellotron. And more percussion breaks. 👍

11 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:My first contact with Genesis was an Eeel Pie Island multi-band concert; Genesis were one of many bands on, and played, at the time, acoustic guitars (I don't remember them having drums, at that time...). 

Oh I would have loved to have seen that period of Genesis. Acoustic guitars, that sounds good to me. I love other acoustic stuff from that era like Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Tim Buckley, Joni Mitchell... 

Oddly enough I enjoy the 80’s incarnation of Genesis if I hear it on the radio but never really got them otherwise. Will give them a go after Yes 👍

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

Yeah sounds really good meterman, good luck with your sales ☝️

The vinyl sold out within 4 hours 👍

Next time we’ll get more pressed.

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

My guess is that managing to de-program your brain from the 4/4, and to a much lesser degree 3/4, straightjacket dictatorship brainwash of the Western music tradition will likely be the main hurdle to overcome.

 

Once you get there a whole new world, quite literally, of musical experiences awaits you.

 

I was lucky being called to arms to serve as the second "lead" bass player in a couple of my old friends and jam partners's math rock project, which eventually set me rhythmically free. 

 

One day rehearsing with that band I, quite physically, felt the oppressive bond of the rhythmical norm's restrains in my brain snap.

 

Almost as if I had finally managed to solve some kind of Zen koan.

 

And to this day I navigate fluently in shifting odd meter rhythmical patterns.

 

 

I just released a single this week (vinyl and everything!) where the bass and drums are in 7/4, the percussion is in 3/4 and 5/4 and there’s a solo Minimoog passage. Prog might not be too far off for me!

The psychedelic funk collective I play in released our 1st 45rpm vinyl this week. We did a limited edition of 5” clear vinyl lathe cuts plus digital downloads for the non-physical-format folks. The lathe cuts sold out in a few hours. I was expecting them to take weeks to shift as we’re only a studio concern and have zero live following. Next time tho we will press more physical copies 😎

The little 5” lathe cuts turned out to be a winner. I thought we’d be saddled with unsold copies forever 😂

https://dimerecordsfrance.bandcamp.com/album/pool-phase-hashisch-scene
 

Hope the next ones go okay too.

Btw, nobody seemed to mind that we used a cassette 4-track to make a record with. Or a cheapo Squier Jazz bass. If we can do it, anyone can! 😎

I’m going to give Yes a full go this weekend. In chronological order too. I love OG British psychedelic music so I reckon their 1st album might be a good starting point. My “way in” if you like. If I can “get” Yes, then Genesis and Gentle Giant and stuff like that might be accessible to me. 
 

Would love to “get” Prog and I  am determined to overcome my caveman tendencies when it comes to music. 
 

FWIW I’ve always loved the artwork on their albums, and I know the musicians are amazing. Hoping I can unlock the music and finally fully enjoy the kind of 20 minute epic side-long musical odysseys that have been off- limits to me so far. Wish me luck, prog lovers 😎

11 minutes ago, grenadillabama said:

I got my first Squier. It sounds different than the PJ 'Stang I have. An insect landed on it.

Nice!

I almost went for a Comp stripe Mustang myself, they look great 👍 

37 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I’d listen to that, make it so!

Ha, challenge accepted!

When I get time to do it I’ll post it up in the recording forum. I already recorded a ska version of “Behind My Camel” by The Police, and a King Tubby / Augustus Pablo inspired take on “Fools Gold” by the Stone Roses. 
 

Daft instrumental ska versions of unlikely hit records is my bag, baby 😂

2 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

 

?? errm I don't like Roundabout at all but do really like Owner and for that matter most of 90125.

If Yes had recorded “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” in a Sound Dimension-esque ska style I’d have been all over it like hair on a gorilla.

Well, a sweaty gorilla. In Asda pyjamas.
 

Might have to power up the 4-track and do it myself.  

18 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I like Yes, a lot, but some of it really leaves me cold and or irritated (shades of, “Shut up! We know you can play,”). Take any bits you like and stick with them.

 

I really like the pre Steve Howe era Yes, Banks & Kaye definitely had something going on that I found and still find pleasing. Yesterdays is a intro to that era, with only 1 Howe, Wakeman era track, a cover of America, which is sublime. YMMV. 

It might only be “Roundabout” that I like? Might have to do an Open University prog degree and try them again 👍

I’ve tried a few times to get into Yes. My mates dad was in them and he was always saying “you really need to hear the early stuff” but I just never got it at all. 
 

I do generally struggle with prog though. Some of the Pink Floyd records I do like. The Syd Barrett era, and just after. But things like early Genesis, VDGG, King Crimson, ELP, Rush... I think I’m just too ‘caveman’ to get it. 

For 30+ years I’ve practiced unplugged and either working out my own lines, or playing along to the hi-fi on low volume.

Very rare that I plug into an amp to practice.

Bass isn’t my main instrument and I  don’t need everyone to hear my bad timing and constant mistakes. I save that for gigs 😂

3 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

This looks rather cool, i like the colour scheme ,out of curiosity  I’ve added it to my watch list 

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115478266551?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Qjvtuq5-RP2&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=1wDkd4CjTIi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Woah, memory jog! The bass player in one of my school bands had one, around 1983-84. It sounded fairly P-like, much stronger than the MIJ Ric copy he’d had before it. We were only 15 so anything that didn’t come from Woolworths was ‘proper’ to us.

Pics if you get it!

32 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

I haven't heard about Porky for ages, then we have this thread and I listedneted t olast nights MArc Riley show on 6music and he was talking about Porky.

Marc has had roles as a musician, A/R and label owner and spoke very highly of Porky, especially the run out grooves. The Fall had particularly good run out groove comment IIRC.

He also mentioned that Porky was responsible for cutting Hey Jude to 7".... apparently the longest song on 7" at that time (don't know about since).

I only knew him from his cuts in the late 70’s on punk or new wave records. Only found out later he’d not only done cuts for Apple, but Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, T.Rex, The Who, Faces, Toots & The Maytals, Genesis, Serge Gainsbourg, etc. What a career!

39 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Cool story, but leads me to a question... sorry!

Is the mastering done as part of the 'cutting' (i.e. you hand Porky the final un-mastered mix and he sets the controls to give the best master and then makes the cut)? Or you make a new mix made for vinyl and hand that over to Porky?

No problem! We definitely took a DAT tape of the finished mix to Porky’s and he definitely did the mastering, and as far as I can recall, the cut too. But thinking about it now, it’s possible he might have sent the master off to be cut elsewhere? The 1980’s / early 90’s are a bit hazy for me, to be fair.
 

I’d ask our label manager but I haven’t seen or heard from him since 1998. Or our royalty statements 🤔😂