meterman

Depending on the bass, tapewounds can be superb. I’ve had them on a few (mostly Fender) basses and love the feel and sound 👍

THAT is beautiful ❤️ I’ve only played a couple of vintage Coronado basses but they sounded amazingly funky. I nearly bought a refinished single pickup one from a shop in Denmark Street years ago, but it had loads of non-original parts (tuners, bridge, tailpiece, knobs, etc) and the shop wouldn’t acknowledge the non-original bits or budge on the price so I left it. Gorgeous sounding instrument though. And yours looks fantastic. Actually have Coronado envy now 😂

If you’ve got the money and room isn’t an issue then buy whatever you like, it’s not harming anyone. Most basses I had at one time was five but that was when I had a studio, and I wasn’t the only person playing them. Now I’m down to a P copy with flats for most occasions, and a hollow bodied Hofner bass just for fun. I don’t absolutely need it but it’s fun to play and if I ever need a 60’s sound it’s right there. My main instrument is percussion and so I only do occasional bass sessions and gigs but If I joined a band as a actual bassist I’d get another bass straight away, something more versatile, and be done with it. Have what you want, there’s no rules. If you buy something that doesn’t turn out to be right for you, you can always sell it and get something else anyway. New gear is always fun. Don’t overthink it, just have what you want, you might regret it later on if you don’t buy ‘that’ one you wanted!

Yeah, a couple of times in the 90s he was good when I saw him. At V98 festival he took ages coming onstage to join the band who had been warming up the crowd, but once he was onstage, doing the cape routine and the good foot dance, etc, I was really glad to have seen him do his thing. The rhythm section were great, really tight. Others? I thought the Blockheads were going to be decent last time I saw them, but they seemed to be on autopilot, and Derek The Draw was just swearing his head off. I lasted about 20 minutes and bailed. Fortunately it was at a festival I was playing at and there was enough other stuff going on that it wasn’t a big deal but if I’d paid to see them I would have been really disappointed. Saw a John Martyn gig in the mid 90s where he was absolutely wasted and letting his noodly fusion band do all the heavy lifting. It was the only time I saw him play a shocker though, every other time he was brilliant. Brand New Heavies phoning it in at a festival is another one I didn’t see to the end. Smashing Pumpkins at the Astoria was just a white noise thrash, from memory. They looked super coked, mind, so maybe that was it?

My tone depends on what context I’m working in. I rarely play bass in a live gig situation so most of what I do is recording, session work basically. Almost every time I record for other people’s tracks I’m using a P style bass with flats, with the volume and tone on full. I often record straight into the desk or interface and let the engineer EQ and process it to suit the music. If I’m playing or recording my own material I’ll take a similar approach. But if I’m playing for fun, like along to old ska or funk records at home then it’s a Hofner violin bass with flats and foam at the bridge, no treble, played with a pick and palm muting or plucked with the side of my thumb for even more bottom end. Amp settings are usually fairly neutral, I rarely touch them, it’s all about the thump and the boom coming from the bass itself. Overall I’m not too fussed as long as it doesn’t get too twangy or toppy, although I realise I’m probably in the minority here.

Yeah, I think ‘earlpillanz’ is the right spelling. If you find him on ebay and none of his listings are quite what you need you can send him a message and he’s usually pretty quick to respond. I sent him a pickguard last time so he could use it as a template, I think I had it back in 12 days or something, and that was in lockdown 2, so he’s pretty good I’d say.

I had a good experience using Earlpillanz (Brian) - I messaged him through eBay about a custom pickguard for a parts-stang bass and he made me exactly what I was after. About £27 if I remember correctly and turnaround was about 10 days. Last year he cut a pickguard for an old MIJ Bullet bass for me, and every screw hole lined up perfectly and it was a perfect fit. Can definitely recommend him 👍

Good lord, I’ll still be feeling the after effects in years to come 😂

It’s weird, soul and funk are my two favourite genres of music. So it follows that I ought to like slap, I guess? Musician pals always seem to think I must do, but... nah. I don’t hear a lot of slap in The Meters, or the J.B.’s, or Cymande, or the early (and best) Mandrill, or Lee Dorsey, or Dyke & The Blazers, or Black Heat, Ike Turner, The Daktaris, The Poets Of Rhythm, Jungle Fire, Vaudou Game, etc etc... maybe in some of the Sly & The Family Stone records I’ve got, sure, but otherwise I’m not hearing it in the stuff I truly love. Later period funk and soul, and disco, is chock full of slap, and while I like later period funk, soul and disco, I like it despite it having slap bass in it. I love soul, funk and disco but not slap at all. Doctor, is this normal? 🤔

I’ve often wondered if more players do this? I know Jimi Goodwin from Doves plays a right handed righty-strung Precision left handed. And I remember seeing Andy McCluskey from OMD playing a right handed Jazz bass right handed but it was strung lefty which took me a minute to get me head around. Must be more common than I’d thought? Ace T by the way 👍

He’s one of them lefties who plays right handed guitars strung right handed. Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals does the same thing. And I think Bob Geldof might do as well, but I’m not Googling him because I don’t want two years of YouTube Boomtown Rats recommendations. Or even two minutes of YT recommendations for his solo stuff. 👎

Because of this I watched “Shadows And Light” and then “Live at the Victoria Theatre in London” straight afterwards, but I would have really liked to have seen footage from the “Miles Of Aisles” era, not sure if there is any?

When people say they don’t like slap, do they really not like it? I mean, there’s repetitive slap, annoying machine gun style slap, 80’s throwback slap, YouTube bass demo hell slap... something for everyone, surely? 🤔

I final caved in and bought strings for one of my acoustics, a mid-80’s Ibanez. Back in December @Dad3353 had commented on how grimy they were. The last time I’d changed them would have been in 2008 or something. So I went on the Thomann site and ordered some old folks strings for it. Can fully recommend flats on acoustics 👍 Guitar not pictured because, well it’s a guitar and, “burn the witch” etc... 😂

That sums him up perfectly 👍 I saw him maybe 7 or 8 times and supported him once, he was brilliant solo (London Astoria, Soho Jazz Festival, Glastonbury etc) but I saw him once with his 80’s fusion-y backing band (oi, Soprano sax and DX7 synth pads - nooooo!!!) and it almost put me off seeing him again. But then I saw him play the most sublime version of “Solid Air” somewhere else afterwards... oh lord! He was the more astonishingly talented fella when he wasn’t on the coke and phoning it in.

Traffic, Nick Drake and this:

Haha, if there’s a box on the wall in the room with a big round dial, just crank it up baby. If you’ve got a fancy hi-tech remote control system with the sensor on an outside wall that relies on wi-fi like our last one did, then... er, just stick flats on it and hope for the best, is what I’d do 👍

I hadn’t planned to purchase anything this year but I just scored a working Fostex X-14. Cassette 4-track recorders never came much more basic than these. I’d bought one for my wife about 20 years ago and we had both used it loads, but it stopped working and we couldn’t find anyone to repair it so I sold it for parts. Always fancied another one, and here we are. One of my band’s forthcoming 7” singles was done on our original X-14, and even though they’re obviously a bit lo-fi you can still get away with it. Yes, they’ve got no EQ controls but who needs EQ? EQ is just for posh kids with no funk isn’t it? Or summat? Anyway, tapes for days! Flame away, flamers 😂

I’m sorry I can’t help you out with dimensions and stuff, BUT if you’re planning a build I’m subscribing, that’s for sure 👍 I’ve played a couple of vintage Wyman / Teardrop basses in the past and always loved the feel of the necks on them. Underrated basses, I think.

It got to 26 degrees here today, that’s warm enough to start breaking out the Brazilian funk I reckon 🇧🇷

Eh?!! I just had to google that, I had no idea the album was on Amazon 😮 If it’s not too late to cancel I can send you the CD for postage? I used to love Blow Up. That, and Tongue Kung Fu were two of my favourite London clubs back in the day. Daft escapist fun 👍

I might have bought the Picato flats from Strings Direct? I know I bought La Bellas from them for my last Mustang. They always had really decent pricing and fast delivery whenever I bought from them. 👍

Thank you 🙏🏻 The Filthy Six are like a proper grown up version of what we were trying to do, except they’re a proper band and we were just a couple of herberts with a Tascam portastudio and a crate of Skol. 😂

I had Fender flats on my last 34” scale bass and they cost £20 I think, off eBay. The tension might be a bit much for some folks but I thought they were nice to play and they recorded well. They broke in really quickly too. I had a set of Picato flats on a vintage Commodore bass that were great for the money (less than £15) but for short scale I’d go with La Bella or D’Addario chromes again, they’ve always been great. And sometimes you can get deals on them online. Think my last set of Chromes were £22 with an eBay voucher? Not bad, considering they’re still on the bass.