Leonard Smalls

Aye... When I was in London (18 years!) I would only ever use the car to leave town; if I was going to the centre I'd cycle or get the tube. Going to work was either cycle or motorbike. But I knew some folks who couldn't cope with the idea of public transport, never mind pushbike; those people would drive everywhere - it was amazing how full the carpark at work was with cars that had driven 1 or 2 miles. They'd take 30-odd minutes doing that, then whinge about the traffic, or the congestion charge but would never think about who caused that traffic (them!) or why their backsides were increasing in size daily.

Some modern Dutch prog, as seen in my local boozer a couple of weeks ago! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7KgOuuV1Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLk5Y8JBb7E

Aye... While competent, I find they manage to both look annoying, and to play annoying music that sounds like a 70s novelty record. Still, each to their own!

Loving my new amp setup... It's lots of fx (3 envelope filters, a bass whammy, Darkglass b3k and Boss bass synth blended in a wounded paw blender) through BBE pre with extra DBX compression on the fx loop all amplified by a bridged Crown xls1502 into precision devices 1x15 enormo-cab and Markbass 102. There's almost no hum, even on full volume! And it's stupidly loud, which means masses of headroom as well as being as clean as I want it. It's currently on Lemmy-plays-Bootsy tone...

And that's the sad truth! I've had trouble before with guitarists who feel I should only be there to underpin their incredibly safe widdling, and they always got a bit freaked if I turned up with a bass riff involving chromatic runs and dissonant stabs (him - "What you playing there? That isn't in A minor!" me - "Bits of it are!"). Luckily I don't play in any bands that do "Mustang Sally", or "Sex on Fire" - though I have nicked the guitar lines from "Foxy Lady" as a funk groove, and from "Last Train to Clarksville" as a crazed jazz-rock widdle-fest...

I know a number of bass players who think that's all there is to bass playing!

This enormous Wal needs a good spanking... And it gets a sound one from about 2 minutes on!

I'm a Youth-man!

It rewards repeated listening! Once I'd got Mr Tacuma's style it opened all sorts of bass possibilities for me; as teachers all you need is him, Bootsy and either Lemmy, Les Claypool or Bob Trujillo.. Talking of whom:

Probably this:

Depends entirely on context! I've got 3 different songs that rely on either open A or D string ringing to provide a drone to a high melody. As for an open E, it's the basis of most folks slap technique!

Normally I can't be doing with him at all... His music seems moany and generally lacking in any sort of groove. However, I liked him on Later - for the 1st time ever! It was neither miserable or groove-less! Also enjoyed Easy Life, but not Muse's Elbow tribute act.

Popped into my local last night and found an amazing band playing in the bar... Who knows how they got there, or why they were playing in a pub in Powys that doesn't normally do music, all I know is that they played beautifully for 2 hours. I'm not normally a prog man, but these guys might have turned me: http://www.skyarchitect.com/ I'd urge anybody on Northampton or nearby to check them tonight (7th), or if you're in Wolverhampton, tomorrow. They're worth it!

I wouldn't change to in-ear monitoring, but otherwise I'd swap to something like an older Warwick Thumb, going into a Line 6 Helix Floor as pre-amp and FX, then a pair of Crown XLS 1502 bridged into Markbass 102 and 115, with crossovers set at HP 100Hz and LP 300Hz respectively, unless only using one cab for small gigs... Won't need 2100W then! The left over couple of grand would go on hookers and coke, obviously.

Been going for a while, very funky, very jazzy, very rocky, very everything!

I used to use my huge Yamaha folded horn with Precision Devices 15" speaker together with Marshall bass amp as a sub to augment some Richard Allen RA11s with Leak valve amps...

Some oldies like these would fit the bill! I've got their big brother, the 66 series 2 and they're the dog's... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Celestion-Ditton-44-Speakers-/253895374369

It's gone mad, I tell you!

I'd be happy to give bass players looking to join, or even to found, a 16 Choke Start tribute band tips on: a) playing far too many notes b) the best camo trousers based on price, weight, price and comfort c) stopping the guitarist and drummer fighting about what is, isn't or should be politically correct d) trying to educate said guitarist and drummer into The Funk, The Whole Funk And Nothing But The Funk

Aye... Our band decided before our 1st gig that we'd all wear similar clothes (basically the urban commando look). I turned up with camos, boots, the lot. Suitable, I felt, for a protest sort of band with songs like "Fight The System" Singer wore a Stussy t shirt with jeans (he said "but I like them!" with no irony at all in wearing a corporate logo!), drummer wore shorts and metal band tshirt stretched over his belly - his excuse was that he'd be too hot in anything else; I pointed out that camo shorts are available, and that I'd specifically gone and bought stuff according to what we'd decided! So no unified band image - we were just another band on the circuit looking the same as all the others.

Different short answer; yes. The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music have been assessing technicality for many, many years: https://us.abrsm.org/en/our-exams/ The above is the syllabus for piano exams up to grade 8 (I got as far as grade 7 about 40 years ago!). Unfortunately, they don't seem to do a bass exam so we'll never know what respective grades "The Chain" and "Schooldays" are!

Nowt killed rock'n'roll... Because rock'n'roll is an idea, an attitude; just because there's not much of it in "the charts" mean nothing. The charts aren't really the charts anymore, not like when I were a lad - people find music in a thousand different ways and just because some of us old fools on a bass forum can't find new rock'n'roll doesn't mean it's dead. It just means it's changed, or not. Either way, moaning about it is much the same as saying "it's not as good as when I was young". If you're interested, go out and find it! Otherwise just stay in remembering the good old days, and how the youth don't respect anything any more, and how you could leave your door open etc...