risingson

Really not palatable music, clunky and pretty jarring to my ears, and the production is sterile and very close. A terrible bass tone as well. Goes to show you can spend however much you want on buying a bass, making it sound good is a different story. Purely my opinion, sorry if it doesn't reflect your own. Clearly a good musician but the music he's investing his time in is definitely not my thing.

Braylon Lacy who plays with Erykah Badu (or used to), Ed Nash from Bombay Bicycle Club put together some really great bass lines on the last album and Chris Wood all get my vote, but most of the cool bass lines I'm hearing right now are on synth bass.

I've travelled over a thousand miles to get to Sweden to play that amount of tunes. But I did get paid, and unless you are as well I'd strongly suggest not bothering.

I've done 50 gigs this year dead on, by the end of December that will be 60. All covers which is killing me right now, but from January onwards this will be significantly less cover gigs and considerably more original work as our band have our debut album coming out and we'll be touring the country. It's been a good year, we've been busy recording weekdays and busy playing weekends so actually we've had to turn down a lot of work to compensate for studio time!

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='1023571' date='Nov 14 2010, 04:25 PM']I did a dep gig at Jak's in Liverpool a few years back, and a guy came over at the end of the night and complimented me. I took it very humbly, as I've never been one to blow my own trumpet, and I'm a jack of all trades & a master at none. Anyway, turns out this guy was the bass tutor at the university. I then took it a lot more seriously and it really did make me proud.[/quote] What was this guys name out of interest?

This looks very, very interesting.

[quote name='witterth' post='1020626' date='Nov 11 2010, 08:07 PM']Well I think, 1,Pino Palladino but... Quote" (not his fretless playing)" Unquote,...well why the Fu#k not? say I!!? Pino can do NO wrong for me, and his fretless playing influenced a generation and "reminded" me what Jaco did before, I may have missed out on his playing otherwise( if you were around and playing in '82and'83 youll understand)[/quote] Sorry, I missed this. Like you say, Pino can do no wrong. I like his fretless playing very much but no where near as much as what he did later on in the past 15 years or so with a P-Bass. I wasn't an 80's kid (well, ironically I was being born in 1989) and I don't like the artists he was working with when he did much of his fretless playing... I don't care how good the bass line is, if I don't like the tune then I'm not interested.

Yeh, the gloves did help at my gig tonight. I try and warm up a little before I play but sometimes I just don't get the chance. I'd never dream of wearing them DURING playing, but before a gig then yes.

Just about to leave for a gig and I saw this thread, I'm currently wearing gloves in order for my hands not to get too cold beforehand! Never tried this before. I'll leave them on until about 5 minutes before I go on for my first set. Seems a bit dramatic but I definitely know how you feel, I just cannot play when I'm too cold. I'll let you know how it pans out for me.

Presumably this article is a joke? The effect of lacquer to the sonic properties of an instrument will be so, so minimal. Honestly, this guy would have better spent his time doing the big shop at Tesco rather than writing this article. Some people concern themselves more with the formulas on good tone rather than being a great player with a good instrument, it baffles me.

icastle hit the nail on the head here with some really sound advice. We get practically all our gigs through word of mouth, we started off a few years ago playing a bar near us and then the manager set us up with gigs in his other bars locally, then people started to come and see us from the Midlands and further afield and started booking us for weddings, functions and all manner of well paid stuff. It's all about having a good rapport, and most of all being prepared with business cards at the end of gigs and being punctual with replies to gig offers and emails. Nothing sets you up better than being an organised band. Think about it: turning up on time, being set up when you're told and giving them a hell of a gig will mean that the chances of you getting recommended to play again are very high indeed. Finally, some people think they can mess bands around and put them on the back foot because they feel because they're giving you a gig they're somehow doing you a favour... but as long as you're drawing them a crowd, it's YOU that's doing them a favour. Don't waste your time with pubs that feel as though they can take the piss, there is money to be had elsewhere. It's worth while remembering the gigs worth doing and the the ones that aren't.

I try and avoid Bryan Adams likes the plague. Unfortunately every Friday and I Saturday night I get hounded to play it by someone and as a direct result of this I find the song makes me want to go firebombing!

Interesting, certainly. Pretty they are not!

[quote name='tedgilley' post='1021288' date='Nov 12 2010, 12:34 PM']Both Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper kicked off a new kind of awareness or appreciation of pop music while at the same time costing both groups many fans. Lots of people dropped the Beach Boys as faves once the surfing was over. It isn't just the quality of the music, or the skill, or what have you, that makes those albums great, it's the fact that, when they were made, the writers basically didn't give a sh*t what the public thought or wanted.[/quote] Err I'm not sure you could ever say that Brian Wilson or Lennon/McCartney 'didn't give a sh*t' about their audience, the people that take that attitude to music are usually the people you never hear about ever again. It can be said that Lennon outwardly appeared this way but really he was just very clued up on how to be controversial. Don't don't be deceived though, he definitely wasn't stupid. At the same time, George Martin knew how to haul in the reins if he had to. Their attitude to writing and producing music was revolutionary but the song writing credentials were always there, they did care about what people thought.

[quote name='GT40Graham' post='1020397' date='Nov 11 2010, 05:03 PM']I think you have to put the Sgt.Pepper into perspective, when you consider what went before it in terms of albums and recording techniques, it was and still is an iconic album. Remember that it was done with 4-track tape recorders and is a landmark recording. It's now 43 years old so it's not surprising that today, it's not considered quite as awe-inspiring as it was then, things have moved on, it doesn't have quite the impact with younger generations that it has with some of us oldies. It's not my favourite Beatles album, I prefer Abbey Road and George Martin has said on numerous occasions that issuing Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane as a single and not including them on Sgt. Pepper was one of his biggest regrets/mistakes.[/quote] Absolutely. To be honest that makes it all the more impressive, the album itself just stands up as one of the most seminal and historically significant music of all time in basically every respect: songwriting, arrangement, engineering and production. It's very easy to say you don't like the Beatles, and of course everyone is entitled to an opinion, but there is no denying the cultural and historical significance of something like Sgt. Peppers because it's just so, so good. [quote]Yeah, those damned Beatles are one of the reasons SMiLE got cancelled apparently. Although most of it was Mike Love doing what he does best - being a c*nt.[/quote] I can't imagine Brian Wilson was doing himself too many favours either at the time either, what with the gargantuan amount of drugs he was taking.

[quote name='Wil' post='1020361' date='Nov 11 2010, 04:36 PM']I said overrated, not bad. Is it so strange that I think the Beatles made better albums? Clearly it was an important album, but looking at it objectively, I wouldnt pick it over Revolver or Rubber Soul. Some great tracks, some mediocre ones. And they left off Strawberry Fields - insane...[/quote] I love the Beatles but Sgt. Pepper's isn't the first album I'd pick either. I prefer to listen to Abbey Road or Revolver. It's still an unbelievable album though, Brian Wilson more or less had a nervous breakdown when he first heard it because it was so good.

Pino Palladino (not his fretless playing) Paul McCartney Anthony Jackson Always changing though!

If I don't know the song I'll just listen to it a few times and play along. It never takes me too long to get to grips with the progression or the bass line providing it's not too instensive. However, I've been getting to grips with some Anthony Jackson bass lines on some old Chaka Khan tunes lately and that just takes a bit more patience learning. I never usually go note for note unless it's required (like Billie Jean for example).

There used to be a bass in my Uni, it had 4 single coils, had an Italian type name? It sounded bloody terrible. EDIT - could have been a DiPinto but I don't think it was.

[quote name='lojo' post='1017910' date='Nov 9 2010, 06:15 PM']And someone with a natural talent for acting who could not read could listen to a tape of hamlet and then recite it much better than me[/quote] You're not talking bollocks, in fact you've highlighted the key issue for here which is that if you're a toss musician then don't expect being a reader is going to make you any better. That fact really should be been cleared up the best part of 11 pages ago.

Bernard Edwards's style isn't exactly easily copped. People might think they can play Good Times like the record, but so many people lack the feel because Bernard Edwards was a stupidly good bassist who isn't easy to copy, simples. If you want to be a funk player, you either had to grow up in 70's Philadelphia or New York, and if you didn't, then you need to emerge yourself in listening to The Meters and Slave records for years at a time.

I think most jazz funk is pretty awful, minus a lot of Herbie Hancock and maybe a few others. I love playing playing funk, but the term itself is a buzzword amongst musicians and particularly bass players, most likely because most funk tunes have a prominent bass line and drum part. Realistically I find the fusion of jazz and funk most of the time pretty annoying. Just my 2p though.

[quote name='KevB' post='1016994' date='Nov 8 2010, 10:39 PM']I read somewhere that Harrison didn't like the bassline at all, too fussy, too many notes. I've always thought it a classic myself though.[/quote] They were never/rarely happy with each other's contributions, but hey... Harrison is definitely wrong, it's a great bass line.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1016935' date='Nov 8 2010, 09:22 PM']I met Pete exactly a week ago and I think his avatar has been photoshopped a little but its a reasonable representation! I still love the idea that if you can read you can play every style and tonal system from around the world live in front of thousands of people without making a mistake for the first time the dots are put in front of you. At what point do we class being able to read? Thats not me trying to stir it up I actually would like to know. If I could sit in with a large band and keep a tight root note performance from following the basic dots as it goes along it would sound OK does that count?[/quote] I think you'll know already before anyone has given you an answer that realistically you're never going to be stood up with a live rock band reading the dots off some crappy music stand. 1. it's not in fitting with a live band context and 2. the illusion of a degree of improvisation you would otherwise impart on an audience is lost. I don't think anyone is suggesting for one second that being able to read somehow gives you ability to keenly understand every last bit of music and if they are suggesting that then they're deluded. But let's be realistic: how well you read music is down to practice and experience in live, real life situations. There are a million and one musicians out there that get by on not reading music, and the list of credible ones is as big as the day is long. What I'm saying though is that if you want a thorough understanding of your role as a musician (not a bass player, a musician) then it is never a bad idea to have the ability to read and understand chords rhythms and dots. I don't think anyone's going to cry if you don't, it's your choice at the end of the day isn't it.

[quote name='skej21' post='1016896' date='Nov 8 2010, 08:43 PM']+1, this guy's timing is pretty poor actually.[/quote] +2 didn't watch the video on first glance. Not good.