risingson

I love Anthony Jackson. He always struck me as a little arrogant and pompous in interviews, but he really does blow your mind seven ways from Sunday when you hear him play. I like him when he just sits on the groove as well, his choice of notes and clean technique are just a complete testament to his brilliance.

Phil Lynott for definite. I'd like to see someone put out a Louis Johnson signature bass, but I don't know what would be special about it!

[quote name='Huwberry' post='418070' date='Feb 24 2009, 02:11 AM']I quite enjoy Zender's playing, but I hate his tone at times. His legion of fanboys (mostly posting on youtube videos it seems) also annoy me to no end - they treat him like some sort of deity, and make every effort to undermine the accomplished players who have replaced him in Jamiroquai. The phrase 'get over it' springs to mind. Well, I'm going to say something downright blasphemous - Paul Turner is far and away my favourite Jamiroquai bassist for his impeccable groove and tasteful playing. Yes, Zender was great in that band, but you must admit the current incarnation are tight as hell, and no doubt plenty of that is to do with Paul. Actually, can he do no wrong? I'd say so![/quote] I'm probably one of those fanboys Zender was (and still is) a great bass player, what I like about his tone is that he's one of the few bassists I can think of that actually sound like themselves instead of just another bass player. Most of his sound is the result of heavy studio compression, but live his sound was epic (for the most). Nick Fyffe wasn't a bad player, but he definitely wasn't the best either. Paul Turner is AMAZING, I got to meet him a couple of weeks ago and watch him do a masterclass, and he's got serious groove and technique. I got to pick his brains afterwards and he said that he felt tremendous pressure trying to fill in for Zender because he's got such a big fan base. I think he's done an amazing job... the one thing he did say is that after feeling all the pressure of trying to sound like someone else, he feels now that he can just sound like himself, favouring passive Fenders for the most to get what he likes from playing with Jamiroquai. He also expressed his feelings about 5 strings, and how he's only found a couple of 5's that sounded as good as his 4's (apart from his Alleva-Copollo, which he said sounds amazing).

[quote name='timloudon' post='417750' date='Feb 23 2009, 07:36 PM']Well... do you really want to be professionally or personally involved with people like that?[/quote] Exactly, we've made a few people angry in the past but our 'demands' (if you can call them that) are incredibly reasonable. We're not there to cause problems for potential employers, we're there to make it easy for them, but it 100% works both ways. If they want to take us for a ride or try or shaft us, then they're not worth dealing with, and we're unlikely to go back to them.

[quote]we got money, and they lost TV, furniture etc and no one messed with us again. Some clubs don’t book us as we warned them after trying to sort things amicably. We still work and we do get paid! Business is business! Be nice, be reasonable but if the going gets tough, mean what you say and go all the way[/quote] I think you might be my personal hero

[quote name='Cantdosleepy' post='417431' date='Feb 23 2009, 02:07 PM']Never read anyone on here ever bag on Mani or Peter Hook. The occiasional 'not my cup of tea' but that's as far as anyone's gone. I've definitely read criticisms of Enthwistle here.[/quote] Really weird you mention Mani, I was going to bring him up. Great player

[quote]Having listened to a lot of Coldplay, none of the basslines stand out to me as amazing. Have I missed something???[/quote] Probably not. Why does a bass line have to be amazing? Can't it just be 'enough'?

[quote]we had a choice of taking the door or a flat rate.[/quote] That's not how it should work really. You've got to be mercenary about how you sell yourself to pubs. You tell a pub how much money you usually go out for, and if they argue with your price (as long as it's a reasonable one), then you politely thank them anyway and look for a different gig somewhere else. It's not worth your time trying to get blood out of a stone. There was a guy a while ago who booked us for his pub. At the start of the night, in some half-baked attempt to prove his authority, told us that if we didn't bring a crowd then he wouldn't be paying us. We said fine, not a problem... promptly started to pack the gear up and got the van started, and told him that if there was the slightest chance he wouldn't pay us then like hell we're playing the gig for him. He immediately changed his tune after we asked for the money up front there and then if he wanted us to stay. It may seem like you're getting high and mighty approaching money like this, but at the end of the day you're only trying to make a living. As long as you're putting on a high quality show for people to watch and act professionally and friendly to the people paying you, then you should not for one second be in any doubt that you've earned your cash. Anywhere that will treat you like you described isn't worth your business.

I'd agree with everyone on this page so far on the players they've listed. Pino is amazing, and it goes without saying that Chuck Rainey is a genius. Same for Willie Weeks. But... I really like Guy Berryman from Coldplay, he can do no wrong in my eyes... say what you want about the band, but can you argue with his bass lines? There's loads of bass players I love, I think the whole idea of people slagging off the likes of Flea or Pastorius is such a redundant argument, simply because it serves only to anger other people who like these sort of players. You can state stuff as fact but ultimately, it's only your opinion... IMO

They helped me out a lot with the new bass amp when I got it when I was last down there, and were generally very helpful all round. Want to get back there soon and look for a new bass

I think they're absolutely superb, what a great idea. I know when I was younger I would have killed to have had one of these basses. There are a lot of kids and adults alike out there that look to Flea for inspiration, the very notion that he cares enough to put his name to something that is a.) usable as a bass for beginner and intermediate players, b.) insanely flashy and c.) with the guarantee that Flea plays one of these basses himself now, is admirable. Those who are commenting on the cheap look of the bass... you've missed the point completely (not everyone can afford a Fodera now, can they?). I say best of luck to him!

Our drummer went to Hitsville, he's a massive Motown fan. He said that if you clap inside the reverb chamber, the resonance is instantly recognisable as Motown reverb.

Sting - Seven Days. Anything by Oceansize... some interesting 11/8 in on the opening track of the most recent album

[quote]Well, here’s a blast from the past – I haven’t seen this type of 1970’s style bass for many years and back in the 70’s they were usually accompanied by a pair of wicked side burns, a pair of ludicrously wide Birmingham bags (trousers to those who weren’t around back then) and completed by some 4 inch platform shoes that caused the owner to totter around like Frankenstein.[/quote] Christ, what kind of spanners run this store? I think a chimp could have given me a more accurate and detailed description, with about half the bulls**t. There's generally a reason why I don't value the views of such shortsightedness -_-

[quote name='bluesparky' post='411553' date='Feb 16 2009, 10:34 PM']I'm going to stick my neck out and say that i've made a point of not reading any of the above posts, comments or discussions so i could leave my own opinion without being influenced by anything anyone else has had to say. Personally, yes, i do love listening to Jaco, his first solo album is one of my favourite all time CD's. When i first starting playing i listened to it relentlessly and played a couple of his / weather report tracks in bands and loved it. Some of his stuff he's played on is too "out there" for me, i just don't get it, but his playing has always remained an influence on me. I've worn out CD's listening to Heavy weather, word of mouth, birthday concert the famous joni mitchell live concert and Jaco Pastorius the album. The highlight is the chorus riff on "come on, come over", awesome - that's exactly how i want to play, funky, fun and to the point. I use that riff as a warm up everytime i practice. The book by bill milkowski is a great read too, very well written and a good insight into his life. Sorry if i'm repeating what anyone else has said..[/quote] Nice post I agree with everything. I think people generally get too caught up in how technical Jaco was, but I think that's really missing the point of him altogether. From what I can personally gather from his playing an interviews is that (for the most) he maintained a strong melodic approach to bass playing and music, intertwining this style with an often fast paced jazz playing (the term 'fusion' often gets tossed around at this juncture but I kind of resent it). I guess that could be confused with technicality but at the end of the day, that's just Jaco

Hendrix, Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Larry Carlton, Kevin Shields, Hiram Bullock, Johnny Greenwood, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jon Herrington, John Frusciante (back in the day), John Mayer spring to mind. The likes of Steve Vai's music and playing leaves me cold, feels very souless and not really the sort of playing I admire. Just my opinion, like

Cheers matey for the kind words, where abouts are you from?

[quote]I wonder what he'd have done with Waterfront , had Simple Minds asked him to help out? Would he have had enough humility to realise the bassline was already perfect for the song or would he have felt compelled to do more??[/quote] That's a good point but do you ever think that Jaco could have been put in that position? That wasn't Jaco's selling point, if you wanted someone like that then hiring Jaco over someone like Chuck Rainey or a decent session musician would have been insane... sort of like asking for trouble.

Hi guys, I've really been enjoying some of the music people have posted in this section so I thought I might take this chance to show you how I make my money! This is my band, we're called Biker Groove (no laughing... I hate the name as much as everyone else!). Feedback and stuff would be great, I haven't really had any opinions from fellow bassists yet! [url="http://www.fastersound.co.uk/groove.html"]http://www.fastersound.co.uk/groove.html[/url] [url="http://www.myspace.com/bikergroove"]http://www.myspace.com/bikergroove[/url] Cheers, Liam

Jaco could do funk and then some. The breakdown in Opus Pocus = funktacular.

[quote]There is a guitarist (forget who - I'll have to go & hunt him out) who plays not only the E bit also the A with his thumb: a country or possibly blues guy, plays in DADGAD a lot & therefore has 4th chords under his thumb (whilst he noodles with his other fingers: perhaps he plays jazz?)[/quote] Don't know if anyone's a fan but John Mayer is a regular practitioner of this when playing acoustic stuff!

Except it's really not guitar playing. It's bass playing.

I know what you mean about the thumb thing because recently I've been doing a bit for effect (it's way more common for guitar players to do it if they're playing complicated chords and need a root note on their E string) but it's not an effective way to fret a note in my opinion, for the simple reason that the contact between your thumb and the string produces a different sound than properly fretting the string with your index finger would, for example. It's not really normal practice. I've seen Marcus Miller do it when he plays 'Power', but because he's gotten his left hand technique up, he can utilise the technique a little more dispassionately. I'd practice not doing it first before choosing to use it in future. Hope that helps EDIT: I forgot to mention, you might find if you keep fretting notes with your left hand thumb that you encounter wrist strain as well, which is definitely something to be avoided!