risingson

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='402778' date='Feb 7 2009, 01:21 PM']The 3 nicest basses I have ever played are Fenders. I don't want to look like a space man when I'm playing so I hate all this carbon fibre sh*t. I also refuse to put batteries in a bass guitar. Batteries are for TV remotes and my girlfriends rampant rabbit. I also don't want to sound like a guitar. Just a dull thump suits me. Quirky basses f*** me off. The people who play quirky basses often have quirky hair. And probably wear trainers with a suit, just to look quirky. Just because you've got no personality and your parents ignored you, don't try and make up for it with a silly quirky guitar. Spikey metal basses. What a load of sh*t. Everyone knows the mettallers at school were the geeks who played dungeons and dragons. Having said that, a lot of those goth birds take it up the arse, so maybe their on to something? Still, get a hair cut, take of your cape and get a f***ing job that doesn't involve breeding snakes or working in the IT department. I genuinely couldn't give a f*** what its says on the headstock of a bass, I just think Fender got it right. Other manufacturers (like those c**ts at Warwick) seem to think "how can we make a design different from a fender?" as opposed to "How can we design a great bass?". I played a Burns the other day. That was alright. Different but still comfy and doesn't make you look like a c***. Although I do look (and act) like a c*** naturally. Fender copies. Fair enough. Don't see the point though really. I know Vintange do some decent cheaper copies. Wouldn't get one of these expensive ones though. Most of them take batteries. f***ing hate batteries. I've stopped using pedals because of them.[/quote] That made for entertaining reading... and I'm not even being sarcastic. I don't really mind what anyone has to say about Fenders usually (unless their opinion is misinformed or not impartial). I really love the feel, design, sound and usability that comes hand in hand with simplicity and good looks IMO. Fender's current QC control issues are a separate issue altogether, I don't subscribe to the idea that because their QC in some aspects of the company isn't great that this should be some sort of deterrent against the company, a company, that in all fairness introduced the world to what the electric bass guitar is still thought of today. To argue that tonally a Fender is boring also doesn't strike me as too much to think about. I've heard countless records now where the Fender electric bass has provided the backbone of that track. Motown, Stax, Capital, Atlantic, Beach Boys tracks, MASSIVE amounts of bass lines have been recorded on Fender basses. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't ever go out of my way to play something made out of carbon fibre, anything with a clinical sounding preamp, or anything more than 5 strings, because I'm just so sold on the idea that all I'll ever really need out of a bass is simplicity. All I need is a bass to compliment my playing and to be honest, Fender's usually tick all the boxes for me on that front. Also worth noting is the fact that Fender don't really hold up much influence in the bass world right now. Sure there are companies that take Fender's designs and evolve them with their own ideas (Sadowsky, Celinder, Nordy's, blah blah) and make great sounding instruments, but it's sort of their own tangent. Then there's companies like MTD or Roscoe or whatever that really try and branch out with their own ideas concerning what a bass should sound like or look like, which is equally admirable. I guess Fender is more of an idea that people either subscribe to or don't now, I think this is especially true of bassists. Just my opinion, like. x

There's no doubling with the synth on Virtual Insanity, and there's no effect, just a lot of compression which sort of became Zender's hallmark. It's a really great bass part, and the breakdown in the middle sort of sums up Zender's feel for me at that time. Very unique. I think you might be getting confused with Deeper Underground... the background to that track is that Zender DID record a part for it (and for quite a bit of Synkronized), but after he left the band, his parts got scrapped by the ever increasingly difficult frontman that is Jay Kay. Deeper Underground was completely synth-bass, I'll assume put down by Toby Smith just before he also left. Likewise, Canned Heat, Plannet Home.... synth bass again. EDIT - the only tunes that Zender did not play on the first three albums was 'When You Gonna Learn' (Andrew Levy from the Brand New Heavies played on) and the ALBUM version of Space Cowboy, who as mentioned before, was by a guy known as Mr. X. Stuart mentioned that he was left pretty sore after Jay Kay got another bassist in to play, and remains a bone of contention I would guess. He did play on the SINGLE version. /Zender nerd-ery

That's cool. I did look at going to LCM, but kind of fell for LIPA, plus the fact it's not massively far away from home as well should I want to go back for a roast on Sunday! If you ever play over here in Liverpool then give me a shout, I'm all up for seeing good bands...

Meshell's Celinder was amazing, I'd love to ut an order down for one if I could. Tal Wilkenfeld is a superb player. [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wK03pYCLJho"]Tal Wilkenfeld[/url] Pino Palladino with D'Angelo. [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m4XI6LXCsH8"]Pino Palladino[/url] And last but not least, (I know he got posted about above, but he deserves another mention), Paul Turner from Jamiroquai, my favourite bass player right now. I met him the other day, he's an incredibly friendly guy and very informative. Stuart Zender is still my bass hero, but it doesn't make Paul anything less than an incredible player. [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pKO8rnKg94o"]Paul Turner[/url] EDIT - no idea how to embed videos so there's the links!

Mate I'm over in LIPA in Liverpool doing Music in my second year. I know one or two people over in LCM. Hows your course going?

Been posting on here on and off for a couple of weeks, I like the forum a lot! Not introduced myself though... My name's Liam, I'm a bassist (obviously...) from near Liverpool. I'm in my second year of Uni here in Liverpool at a place called the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts studying for a Music degree. I've been playing bass for about 8-9 years now. My current rig I'm enjoying a lot is an Eden WT-800 and 410XLT cab with a good old U.S Jazz Bass, various pedals if I can be arsed... I never leave my Boss OC-2 far behind. Hankering after a Sadowsky 5 at the moment quite a lot, probably would like to invest in one in the next few months. I play a lot round the north west with my band but sort of up and down the country when I can too... where ever is willing to pay a bunch of delinquent musicians basically! Nice to meet you all

He, just listened to this. Pretty odd to be honest. I'd say it's too far removed from the traditional role of bass usually, but I don't think it matters... if you find it easy enough to express your musicality that way then who is anyone to complain!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='395237' date='Jan 30 2009, 10:51 AM']Marvelous quote, Liam.[/quote] Haha, thanks, I try my best

[quote]You don't do any of this instead of developing your ears; you do it AS WELL AS. In fact, it helps you develop your ears because, if you are reading, you need yours ears to tell you that you are playing the right notes at the right time and in tune, not your eyes to tell you your fingers are geographically in the right place (this is particularly important for fretless players). Readers aren't better than non-readers, they are just better than they probably would be if they couldn't read. If they have bad time, its because they have bad time, not because they can read.[/quote] Exactly what I think, which throws up a lot of constraint on classical players who have been brought up on a diet of non-deviation from the score in front of them. I'm sure if you threw Anthony Jackson a robotic-looking bass sheet, he'd throw in some choice examples of good musical restraint and taste. It's all about the player in front of the music, not the music in front of the player.

I remember watching a band a couple of years ago, this bass player strolled on and plugged a lovely new Spector into an Eden rig, and sounded awful. The second band that came on after were a reggae band, the bass player pulled out this battered Tanglewood, didn't touch the EQ, and had one of the best bass sounds I've ever heard. More often than not, it's a good player that makes for a good bass sound. I've heard Peavy Milestone's that sounded great in the hands of a good player. They can equally sound s**t, so it sort of swings in roundabouts.

I'm still only fairly young but my take on reading is that it's not as important as getting your ears together, which I honestly think is infinitely more important. Every good musician should have a good understanding of harmony, melody and rhythm, if you can read then great, you'll get a lot of work doing it, but it's not the be all and end all. However... there is no doubting that the likes of Nathan East hasn't got by all these years on just ear training. Most of the big session guys like Will Lee, Nathan East, etc. can read like monsters, mostly because they've come from a classical background and then moved onto bass playing. Freddie Washington in particular is supposed to be more or less unearthly in this department. Pino Palladino is quite the opposite, saying he gets by more using his ear having never been a great reader, which is equally admirable. So it's probably not everything to be able to read... but it would help to learn if you want to be a serious player.

Sorry, forgot to mention about Tom Jenkinson. I'm a HUGE Squarepusher fan, I've been in love with Tom's music for years, but as a bass player I can sort of take him or leave him to be honest. Clearly very talented, but kind of misses the mark playing wise for me personally.

Utterly ridiculous, mostly because a lot of the venues that implement these limiters have not had them set up correctly whatsoever. It's a real irritation... we played a function the other day and me stamping on the floor at a quiet volume pushed the level into red. Imagine what a floor full of dancers and a full band would do to it. Get real... if it's that much of an issue for the venue organiser then I'd be more than happy to pack up my gear and leave... you don't get a full band in to play a gig (and we are by no means a loud band), only to turn around to them and say that we have to turn down because a badly set up limiter is telling them that we're too loud. I just won't deal with it, and I'm really glad it's been brought up.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='371665' date='Jan 6 2009, 09:50 AM']I used to borrow Steve (Berry's) flightcase so going to get it would usually involve lunch, Steve is a diamond, watch out for his kids now too they are forging ahead well in the music game....[/quote] Yeh, great musician, I love his lessons, he's got a great outlook on music

Thanks for the reply. The 212 did look good as well, I need to check the weight difference between the two although I should imagine it's a minimal factor. There's around 10lbs difference between the Eden and the EBS, which isn't so bad... just a bit of a bind if you're carrying it around everywhere for gigs and stuff. Any other thoughts?

I think I might chip in on this one... Stuart Zender was always my favourite player and Paul Turner, the new guy with Jamiroquai has an amazing feel and groove. Other notables for me would be Randy Hope Taylor, Dave Holland, Andy Rourke, Colin Greenwood for his remarkable ability to keep it simple and moving, Yolanda Charles, and particularly (most importantly) Pino Palladino. In regards to Dave Holland, he taught one of my lecturers upright for a while, who then went on to play with Mike Walker on a lot of gigs... Mike and Steve are both remarkable musicians, and have said they owe a lot to him.

Hi chaps, new to this forum but it's nice to be able to see a lot of guys from the UK posting instead of trawling through the mountains of info at Talkbass! Anyway, to business... I was wondering if anyone owning the EBS Neogorm 2x10 has any thoughts or opinions concerning the combo overall. I'm in the market for one having played one abroad in Sweden last year for an outdoors gig, but I really wanted other people's thoughts concerning reliability, sound and such having not heard one indoors, and likewise, any info on it's main competitors like the Eden Metro or even the SWR Redhead would also be well received. I know it sounds great, but I wanted secondary opinion also if possible. Thanks, Liam