diskwave

Just saying I got a dirty grt red warning for a heck of a lot less than Im reading above...just sayin. Anyway. Which ever way you swing...Sitting down ain't R&R cause R&R is the domain of the young and beautiful who look great jumping about wide legged and pouty. When I'm on stage Im just a craggy old bloke playing what ever pops up on the pad....totally different thing so sat, or stood, it probably matters not a jot either way.

65 thru 76. Recorder @ Primary school, Fiddle in Middle School orchestra.. (first chair no less... haha) then relentless study @ High School cause apparently I... "had something"...but my old pensioner tutor was dusty, fussy and hard work, no wonder I went off the rails..

I'll leave the hate for the politicians but Ive never been drawn to any other bass other than P basses and Rays, tried Jazzes once...nope.....A bass has to hang comfortably on the strap and sit well, and they do..plu they both sound solid.

Thats it then, I'm sunk without trace. CV 70's P bass wearing 20 yr old 'Dodo' dead chromes.....said nobody in 43 yrs of playing...haha. There's way too much over thinking here of something that at the end of the day is not an issue to anyone really.

Lets keep this thread tasteful, and decent, I find it neither when Jaco is brought into the yadda yadda. I mean to all of the above....who are you all?.. more famous and relevant then JP?..I doubt it very much. He came up with a style on "four strings", cause he couldnt get his hands on five, that everyone today is influenced by....even the ones who say they're not.

Sure is. I spent my playing life entertaining people in clubs, shows, TV etc. There's plenty for all.

S'funny these threads always end up going one way don't they... A sense that if u play five you are superior in some way to us lowly operators stuck in four banger land. It matters not a jot to me but its really noticeable.... not sure what to make of it really.

Five, four, one, 37, none of it matters. All that actually matters is.. whatever you play does it make people wanna party? Thats it. Personaly? Four strings have never let me down....

A good mid heavy tone will naturally sound grindy. Never used pedals pre amps or anything, always cut thru.

Def in the early years but as a 15 yr old, timing was terrible. Just about to do grade 6 or 7 on the fiddle and some bloke called J Rotten and his merry bunch came into view. That was it, bye bye vioilin and hello Fender P bass and me thinking " I wanna be like them", and its taken me 40 odd years to get back into the classical thing. No point with regrets, Punk was the sunny uplands Id been looking for and it was a revelation and it enabled me to have a great life as a semi free time bassist. Im now 64 , did my last dep five yrs ago and started Cello two years ago.....another revelation and having a ball... flippin hard work tho. Bet yeas Its important that I acknowledge the chance I was given at school.. and of course back then it was all free.

Haha takes me back. A hotel season on the IOW. Three Penguins and a female singer in a gold larmay jacket...Sure we looked the part.. but what part exactly? A bunch of 1920's gangsters I bet. Still got the set list...all those early 80's Disco stompers....happy days.

A tall music stool is actually pretty cool. Remember that early 70's ToTP's TV icon?..However I'd be most miffed if I'd payed to c the Pistols only to find them sat on their whatsists, shudder the thght.

I like basslines that swing so yes Im old fashioned. I'll put on a 70's Philly soul compilation and be lost for days...Some beautiful playing on a lot of that old stuff. Harold Melvin, The Drifters, O'Jays, Chilites, the list is endless.

Ha.. character building I call it!. Guess Im a cheapskate and prefer to get away with the bare minimum. Thing is you can easily spend 2/3 days charting stuff then what with the 20 hr full day of the gig for me it wasnt really worth the effort, so I'll scribble down the keys on a fag packet spend a good few hrs going over the real tricky stuff then hope for the best...it moreless works out...apparently..ha

Im not a bad player, read etc, good ear blah blah but four years ago I got a call from guys I had played with many years ago...anyway they needed a dep for a very well paying posh private party in a flippin grt manor hse in Oxford...two weeks away, only catch, it was 60 odd tunes from the 60's...Tons of tricky old Beatles that type of stuff....No charts, nothing. Probably about the hardest I'd ever worked...Great fun but my old brain was treading water like crazy and I made a few muck ups which the lead didnt miss either...oops.

And there you have it, plus older peeps dont drink as much. However it was up to them to spec you guys out so they would be happy, but that's their problem and they should have honoured the agreement. Happened to me a few times over the years...maddening!

My gigging days are over but I still have a BA108 in the lounge...gets quite thunderous pushing a P bass with dead flats thru it, my neighbour thinks so too, apparently...haha

Saw the Marvin thing last nite too and was rather thrilled when I noticed the bassist playing an SB900 thru a Muisicman rig. Exact same setup I had back in 81. Nice basses tho the neck was always a bit skinny for my hands.

Watching that video and listening to that guy is one of the most fearful things I think Ive seen in the world of bass. No wonder AI will consign all of us to the dumpster. Meanwhile....a certain Mr Jamerson has my full attention....That's better.

Rubbish and wind ur flippin neck in. You wanna diss all those classic tunes that people like you now have to "sample" to make yoiur music right, go ahead. But you will never ever better what came before so wind it in. And with that I bid you good day sir. Tho no doubt youll have the last word. I will not be responding.

And that makes for great music does it? Of course not.

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.