diskwave

Sting. Love him as an original thinking, hugely talented renaissance man but that pretentious thumb thing he does where the bass just disapperars into the mire? Ive tried it, just stroke the string with the soft part of the thumb?...awful, mushy and indestinct, and now everyone does it. No ta.

Its always been a dilemma. Ive often found those types tend to be very good at what they do, they tend to have fiery difficult temperaments. Remember a fantastic male singer I worked with many moons ago. He and the hotel manager locked horns and one night he (the singer) stopped the band mid set and into the mic launched into the most awful dressing down of the guy....finished and we launched straight into Totos, Hold The Line...it was dramatic and bloody embarassing for all, but we carried on for the season because he was the draw. Crazy.

Late Hitsville, ie 71 was I think Bob Babbitt, By then Jamerson was on the wain for all the reasons Im not going to rake over again here.

So way before "digital" this and that on all those old jazz records Motown cuts the guitar/bass players are out of tune? I started playing bass in 1977. I tuned to whoever was the dominant player, guitar, keys...horns, whatever and I was always in tune. As a much lesser cello player I use a tiny pitch pipe...never fails me..ever.

Has to be one of the easiest tunes to figure ever. Try and hear the progressions. Whilst its imperative to read notation its also good practise to train ur ears to catch stuff like this.

I'll leave the hate for the politicians but tunes? hugely dislike maybe and its pretty much everything from around 1990 onwards and, apart from the Sugar Hill Gang, and only that thnks to Bernie Edwards bass line, pretty much every hiphop and rap tune ever written.

Lucky man. I love those walnut 70's P basses, theyre just so 70's, and if its a good one then its a keeper. Having said that my walnut CV70 is not far off...

Now go listen to Radio 1 jingles from the 70's. Sorry but its predicatable and extremely boring.

Complete opposite here. Played an original Ray from 79 thru 91 and was never really happy. Heavy, kinda thin sounding. Been playing P's since I got back into it in 2000 and couldnt be happier. Funny ole world.

Ha.. the Chinese really are taking over the planet. When not playing bass Im a free time cellist of questionable ability. They are knocking out quality cellos for crazy money...Ive played 30K luthier instruments and 1.5k Chinese instruments and its hard to see the difference, so I'm not at all surprised that ur bass is as good as you say it it. Nice.

Hands down the CV 70's P bass. I ve owned loads of Fenders, Jap bases, Squires but the CV is the ony one with the big ole fat, 70's neck.

Yes, makes a feel a bit old. See me Smile..one of those unique tunes..nothing like it before, nothing like it after. Brilliant stuff.

Not one...Today, its almost like one massive great big competition to see who can the play the most notes the fastest in the shortest amount of time. I cant think of a single YT vid just showing a bass player playing... One.....in a funk style and doing it with touch, feel and groove.....One.

Agadoo anyone?..haha

..........why

Oh my Ive just heard....another of my heros gone. First time I heard this I couldnt beleive it...still cant play it like he does. Superb groove maestro...

Oddly never heard of him but couple years ago a Kylie Minogue track came on the radio and the tight little bass line really piqued my interest....found out it was him. Very tasty player indeed.

A while back. Got a call from a little rock outfit..I wasnt busy so thght Id go along...keep the chops going. Not bad musicians.. all flowed well sounded good but they didnt have a drummer. Q a couple of drummers for an audition...One was no good at all and the other one an older guy, long blonde hair,...ha...played an identical 1-3 on the floor back beat throughout each tune...no fills no nuthin... just bam blat bam blat for 90 mins. Ha ..we all kinda looked at each other... it was funny.

Some perspective . Back in the late 70's thru 80's I played in 'function bands' doing old school disco, funk, pop on a P bass and Stingray. Not a single bod from either the audience or music fraternity questioned my playing, my tone, sound or anything....on the contrary, my phone never stopped ringing. So yes this ole dinosaur says if you cant do it on a four string?...well there you go.

Yep. A keyboard player, guy called Jon Metcalf who I worked with ..blimey 40 years ago. Big beardy fella, big Harry Potter glasses (way before HP) and a lovely old Fender Rhodes. Guy was off the wall brilliant. I did an entire seaside season with, him, drums and a female singer just off a cruise and we packed the floor every night....doing old school disco, soul, pop stuff. He could make that Rhodes do things I didnt think possible..... No strings, pedals, gizmos nothing, just plain old rip rollickin musicianship. Happy days.

The term "music theory" is loaded in all the wrong ways. It conjures up an image of sitting in a dusty wood panelled practise room with an old tutor looking over his half rims at your evry mistake.....exactly how it was for me with my old violin teacher....hated it. Its much better to just... "learn to read music" Get a book and learn some notes, a couple of keys and some patterns off the stave. Make it fun. At th same time play along to ur fav tunes...start simple then pick somethig a bit more difficult and keep going.

Yep, Im pretty old and owned a ton of just about everything. Now play a Squire CV70's walnut P bass. Probably the most ..'playable' bass Ive ever owned. Fat neck, thick sounding PU's and feels solid like an old P bass, and most oddly watching the playback vid of a recent outdoor gig, sounded like a J bass on bridge PU only with more heft....perfect.

I have two sets of Chromes both nrly 20 yrs old yrs old.....beautifully dead with a biting mid range bark..but thats a long time to wait. best thing is to over stretch them a few tones tones....crank those tuners just short of breaking....that'll soon wreck them.

Reading music is not easy and if you cant do it then dont worry. Also forget about tabs and all of it, just put ur fav tunes on ur phone...stick ur buds in, plug in and play along... u'll be amazed how soon things will start to gel.

Did it for a bit back in the early 80's. Out every night basicaly watching ...'other people' enjoying themselves...For me it got real old real quick. However I got to play an amazing variety of music and met some great musicians.. some of which went on to have very succcessful careers... but you've really got to want that lifestyle....s'not easy.