SumOne

^^^ Nice one, that's reminded me to give their newest album (think it was released in 2019) 'More work to be done' a listen, haven't heard it yet.

This Guardian article reckons Eddie Hazel's playing on Funkadelic's Maggot Brain is the best guitar solo of all time (well, basically the whole tune is a guitar solo) https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/apr/26/best-guitar-solo-of-all-time , I'd agree with that. "Play it like your momma just died"

Nice one, cheers.

Part of the reason I love Reggae and Dub is that it can seem sleepy and relaxing in some situations but the exact same tune played loud on a soundsystem can also sound really energetic and dancable. And the same tunes can also sound funky and fun while while also having serious political messages. Someone like Burning Spear does the contradictory relaxed/energetic happy/bittersweet thing amazingly well.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but I got the Reverb email (and have since changed my password) but in the meantime a fake DHL account sent me a text and email saying along the lines of 'We tried to deliver your package, but didn't complete delivery. ....additional shipping fees may apply please click this link' It's quite convincing as they have my name, email address and phone number. Their email address is clearly fake though : 'UPS-United Kingdom® <[email protected]>' Pretty annoying as it's probably due to Reverb, now scammers will be passing around my name/phone number/email address details to all their scammy mates forever and I need to check all my passwords in-case I'd used the Reverb one anywhere else.

Familyman = Reggae Bass Ninja! Yeah, he's definitely unpredictable, can casually listen to his baselines and think I've got them simple enough - but then try to play exactly like Familyman and realise there are loads of unpredictable slight variations that make it really tricky.

One day Reggae festival in Beckenham on 12th September, I'm optimistic this can go ahead. https://www.city-splash.com/

Any Reggae/Dub/Ska bands around Chichester sort of area looking for a Bass player then give me a shout.

Related to this thread but a side note: The drummer half of my rhythm section moved abroad, now practice rooms are re-opening I'm keen to get playing at volume and with humans again. So if anyone knows of a Reggae/Dub/Ska drummer that wants to do some jam sessions, or if there's a band in need of a Bass player then give me a shout. I'm west London based. I'll put this in Musicians Wanted/Bassists available section too but that only seems to have about 3 posts a year!

Weather/seasons really affect my mood and listening habits, I'm glad summer is on the way - once the sun starts shining I pretty much 100% listen to Reggae/Dub and Funk. In winter I still listen to it but tends to be the moodier stuff, and stuff like like Dub Techno, DnB, Dubstep, and Stoner rock get more of a look-in. There's a running theme of it all being being Bass driven and and I guess psychedelic (not in the sitar and chanting way, more in the hypnotic/atmospheric mood building type of way). Right now, this is the soundtrack to me zoning out and failing to get on with my work:

Nice one, I didn't know that. @donstrumental that's a great video - thanks! Subscribed within a minute.

On the Liquidator thing - there's also this.

Yeah, I'd always forgotten who it was by so hadn't heard it ages either. Excellent bittersweet sound and message.

Guns N Roses at Download in 2006 were pretty bad too, it was quite memorable and entertaining though. There were a lot of delays and Axl walked off a few times, I seem to remember him slipping over and everyone laughing, there were big noodling instrumental interludes before Axl came back on and he said something along the lines of 'don't you know who I am' to which the crowd chucked more drinks (and probably some pi$$) at him and started chanting 'who are ya! who are ya!'

^^^ I've just bought iReal due to these recommendations and it it looks really good. I downloaded the playlists of 400 pop songs and 54 Blues straight away so that's more than enough to get on with for a long time, and it looks like the forum has loads more to download. It seems a step up from Songster in that it encourages a more chord reading and thinking rather than following tabs note for note. I like the mixer options, and the transposing looks a good feature too. Slight downside is that it only has guitar/piano/uke fretboard diagrams...but I guess guitar fretboard diagrams can be applied to Bass easy enough and it's probably better practice to only use the chord names rather than fretboard diagrams anyway.

I'm having trouble getting my head around sight reading in anything other than C. I understand the theory and can figure it out over time and have a circle of 5ths drawn out but quickly sight reading something is in say E major and remembering needing to sharp every straight C D F G does not compute (unless I'm just paying an E major scale) ... Especially when those notes then also have a sharp or flat next to them, then one further in the bar doesn't.

Electro Harmonix Switchblade Pro https://www.ehx.com/products/switchblade-pro/ Lots is possible with this £100 pedal. I've done an old fashioned written review rather than video but I think this is a pedal where you can get away with that as it doesn't produce sounds of it's own as such - it opens up possibilities for how you order and blend your clean signal and pedals and that means lots of potential for new sounds (depending on your selection of other pedals of course). Features: Change order of pedals in series e.g. Chorus before fuzz - click a switch to have or chorus after fuzz. And can also add mix of clean dry signal. Place pedals in series or parallel e.g. envelope filter running series into distortion - switch to have envelope filter and distortion playing in parallel, can also add mix of clean dry signal - it's like having three instruments playing at once. (can also potentially mix signals from three instruments together and control the volume of each and run them into one amp, or could route one instrument output into two separate amps.) Volume/mix: Mix clean signal with pedals, and/or mix pedals in Loop A with Loop B e.g. add clean to a fuzz that doesn't have a clean blend. Or just use it for volume control e.g. some pedals like chorus and phasers don't have volume controls - can adjust that and mix with clean signal. Can also just boost clean signal upto 6dB of clean gain. Loop switching: Can have multiple pedals in both loops engaged/disengaged with one click of a footswitch - no frantically trying to engage/disengage multiple pedals quickly for a few bars of a tune that need more than one pedal turned on/off at the same time. Bypass pedals when they're not in use - reducing tone suck from certain pedals and lots of cables. (And it seems transparent- no noticeable changes to tone). Well built, grips onto cables like a vice, soft switching, comes with power supply, reasonably priced. Alternatives: Bright Onion Dual Reverse looper: Simpler and cheaper and works well but doesn't have as many features- just 2x loops on/off and their reverse order, I have bought the Switchblade Pro as it's upgrade. Old blood noise signal blender: Doesn't have as many features, only parallel, no order switching and I found the clean channel coloured the sound. Helix FX: I didn't find adjusting the 2x external FX loops to be intuitive or good to do one-the-go (you have to go into menus and signal path re-ordering and save different presets for the different loop orders and adjust parallel/series/volumes etc. then you'd need to know what that preset represents and have one for each eventuality such as loop A in parallel with loop B and 25% dry blend etc....not very hands on or intuitive for quick changes or being able to see in live settings). Boss LS2: Doesn't have as many features or the signal re-ordering, and, I haven't tried these pedals but as far as I know the Boss ES 5 & 8 can do the loop re-ordering (not sure about control over volume for clean and each loop though) but they're big and expensive and need menu diving and saving presets for all of the potential eventualities so doesn't seem as hands on and interactive or quickly visually obvious about what's going on as with the Switchblade Pro. Issues: Potential for switching confusion: The Switchblade Pro can do a lot so it can get confusing - this could be trouble in a live setting if you don't know the pedal switching controls and and how your loops interact (e.g. In series mode is green/red light above the A/B switch representing loop A or loop B first, and which volume controls each loop? Why is the dry signal still being mixed with pedals in Loop A when dry control is set at at zero? (that was because it was set to parallel mode with A+B switch engaged but with no Loop B pedals active - this is a useful instant footswitch control of clean blend on/off, but something to look out for when that's not what you're after)).....with great opportunities comes great responsibility! There are opportunities for mucking up your sound with a mis-placed footswitch click or parallel/series toggle in the wrong position if you aren't careful. I've added stickers to make things it a bit more obvious. More variety of lights could reduce potential for confusion: A few different LED colours would be helpful when quickly glancing down - rather than what it is with 3x red with one that turns to green depending on the order of A/B being selected, perhaps the bypass as a different two colour LED that also indicates if it's on as series/parallel, or perhaps lights under each volume control when that loop is activated. Or at a minimum just something that more obviously links the green/red of A/B to their corresponding volume controls like I've done with stickers or the old blood noise signal blender does with it's graphics. And I'll be getting out the tipex or for the volume controls - the thin dull white lines aren't obvious enough. Perhaps it could do with phase switches for certain pedal combinations - I haven't ran into any issues though. Overall: 9/10. Only loses a mark because it could be confusing if you don't learn it's various ways of switching and how they interact with the many potential various pedal combinations in your loops - there are lots of potential combinations (which is a good thing) so you need to know how to control them and what works and what doesn't. Perhaps some small design changes could reduce the potential for confusion. It's a bit of a game changer if you spend time to learn how everything works and interacts with your pedal combinations - it opens up lots of new sound options. Highly recommended.

That's a lot of Freezing and looping! I like the tipex on the EHX pedals move - I've done the same in the past and will do the same on the switchblade pro I just got (or I'll keep raiding my kids stickers collection!), always seems a bit of a design flaw to create pedal controls with tiny dull thin lines on them that are difficult to see from at least 6 foot away in a dark venue.

I'd recommend all this lot.

If a picture says a thousand words then it's probably equally (if not more) true using words to communicate a tone. The easiest way I could describe the tones I try for are to reference things people have heard: Robbie Shakespeare (Sly & Robbie), sometimes Bernard Edwards (Chic), sometimes Al Sisneros (Sleep)....all very different, but all heavy, solid tones.