Boodang

Standard price starts at £1800, which is not silly money but.... starts is the appropriate word though and this is far from standard!

I think I've found my new GaS!

Heat treated roasted maple bound neck, vintage finish and great sound. 

Now, where's that piggy bank.

A slight digression but an interesting anecdote; in an interview with Svensson, he mentions a moment when EST were playing a gig and at the a venue nearby, James Last was playing.  JL turned up with umpteen lorries worth of gear and sold out for weeks, they turned up in a transit van hoping to half fill a venue. He thought EST was worthy of umpteen lorries and being sold out and vowed to make them more popular as a result.

Tuesday Wonderland was the start of that venture.

EST... what an amazing trio. Such a shame Svensson died when he did (always a shame when someone dies at such an early age).

Tuesday Wonderland is a must listen album.

7 minutes ago, skidder652003 said:

Gogo Penguin.

 

The only gig I've been to where I fell asleep standing up....

... were you on incubation duty?!

At the risk of breaching copyright (if Chicago press are reading I promise not to post any more pages) and as a taster, this is chapter 1, page 1. 

There's 215 more pages of exercises. 

11 minutes ago, Manwithvan said:

I’m glad you did use that phrase and found your explanations very interesting. I have an improvising band going atm and it sounds like there’s some good exercises to work with based on these ideas. I’ll try it out next session tomorrow! Our sound is clean and acoustic, and most of the players (viola, bassoon, clarinet) have classical backgrounds, so prog or fusion noodle-fests aren’t their thing. 

Glad you found it interesting. It was something I came across by accident but as I like the Gogo Penguin's it sort of became an obsession of sorts. By the sound of the lineup in your group the concept could be right up their street! 

The book is interesting and you get straight into composing exercises... it's a bit of a commitment though, and I've not finished it all yet as I reckon for the novice aspiring composer there's a few years worth of work, but it is rewarding. 

18 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

Seems like a pretty arbitrary notion wrapped up in an official sounding phrase.

In fairness I don't think Russo ever used the term 'micro-composition' it's just something that's been coined to encompass the notion of small 'cells' in compositions. It was just his approach to teaching the subject. I'm probably more guilty of using the phrase than most!

6 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

Seems like a pretty arbitrary notion wrapped up in an official sounding phrase.

You're not wrong! But as it says on the book cover, the philosophy behind this approach is for musicians with no formal training but who want to aspire to composing.

As Russo was the director of the contemporary American music program at Columbia College, Chicago he knew something about the subject!

Yep, more or less (to both pattern and the 'arbitrary' comments). In the book there's a lot of rules and challenges to focus on certain areas of composition but once outside the exercises it can easily end up as pattern based compositions. As I said in an earlier post the idea is to achieve rhythmic balance and melodic momentum and develop compositional skills by stripping it down to some basic rules. It's not designed to a straight jacket more just a way of focusing the mind.

Without wishing to blow Gogo Penguin's trumpet for them, they are a good example of how this ends up.

Yeah that is a shame. I found your original review, 10mm would make all the difference because other than that it looks good value for money. 

For those interested and fancying a new year challenge. 

51 minutes ago, dclaassen said:

Picking nits…

“compositional” (having to do with composing) and “playing” are really not terms to be used together, unless you are talking about improv, even then it’s a stretch. 

 

Not a really useful term to me….

I guess in this instance, as I'm the one who used phrase rather than the op, I'm being rather lazy and combining micro-compositions and the playing of them into one phrase for the sake of convenience. 

2 hours ago, Manwithvan said:

On another thread Boodang wrote about Nick Blacka from Gogo Penguin and their approach to micro-compositional playing. Rather than divert that thread about best bass players of 2021, I’ll ask here: what do people understand by micro-compositional playing? Because I’m not sure.

 

Also, this is a fair question as mostly we don't use this approach when writing popular music and is something more associated with classical. 

Having said that, it's another way of thinking about music and I've found it quite valuable when approaching a song that requires me to write a bass line. 

Some of the rules Russo gives for micro 'cell' composition;

Melodies with no harmony or accompaniment should start and end on the first tone of the scale and in the same octave.

Use 2nds and 3rds freely, take care with augs and dims (use as an expression of the human voice), & do not exceed the total range of a major 10th.

Don't alter tempo with ritardandos, accelerandos or fermatas as they get in the way of clear rhythmic motion.

The idea behind these restrictions is apparently to give focus and clarity to achieve rhythmic balance and melody that maintains momentum. 

2 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Microtonal is also linked to the temperament used.

 

For example, a lot of Turkish music doesn't use the same equal temperament as Bach decided.

 

In Indian music, the traditional music is microtonal music using Shruti, which is the smallest interval a human can ear and it can vary widely depending, of course, of the human being.

 

Microtonal music can sound out of pitch for Bach conditioned ears, but is not when it's your culture or you've immersed yourself in that musical culture and learn to listen differently.

 

There's is this YouTube channel dedicated to (Turkish) microtonal music and is worth a listening :

 

https://youtube.com/c/TolgahanCogulu

By comparison with Gogo Penguin music we're talking about a micro-compositional approach rather that a micro-tonal.

The pianist and bassist are not breaking out of western scale tones. 

So, in an interview with Gogo Penguin's they stated that William Russo's book 'composing music; a new approach' was a big influence on them. 

The new approach is about composing in small 'cells' with limited scope ie. micro-compositions. It's an interesting approach that makes you think hard about melody, harmony and rhythm. 

Gogo Penguin have taken this approach where they repeatedly play a cell then over the course of the song subtly change it to produce nuances on a theme. 

Just reread the ad for this bass... according to the post this prototype was designed to compete with the Peavey basses of the day hence the prefix PF stood for Peavey f**ker! Don't know if there's any basis in truth but still amusing. 

Unfortunately by having the bolted neck plate you end up with a bulky joint rather than the sculpted joint of the set only neck. That's why I'm particularly taken by the prototype. 

The large neck pickup had 4 individual coils and was quite fat sounding, although the position of it had a lot to do with that. It had individual trim pots for each coil, I believe Bassculture make a version of it.

The rear pickup on the original was not a single coil but a hum canceling split coil. 

Anybody remember the old Magnum basses? I loved them especially the early I & II which had a really interesting body shape. Obviously too radical as they changed it for something more normal (as above) for versions III & IV. 

Came across this one the other day and have been procrastinating so it's probably gone, but an interesting version. I'm not a fan of bolt on necks so was quite intrigued to see they did a set neck on this prototype, and just left the '4 coil' pickup in the hot spot.

Played these a few times back in the day (always someone else's) and always wanted one, then a while ago I bought one on ebay while I was living abroad. Unfortunately personal circumstances took a turn and I never picked it up or got it delivered (I know!!) so never saw it (or got my money back but the least of my issues at the time!). So, an unfulfilled dream but maybe the reality of the real thing would be a let down? You should never meet your heroes!

Rounds are not the only way to go! I love my jazz with flats on. There's a flat string thread going on over in general.... don't get involved it'll just f**k with your head... just enjoy what you've got.

Just had a look at the bumblebee, it's certainly cheaper. Looks well made, I like the adjustable build but the space under the top deck looks tight for pedals... maybe ok for a psu but not a tall pedal. Among the pedals I use I have 4 that are connected to aby switches, consequently they don't need to touched and can be tucked away. 

The waggi fly18 looks good for this purpose but it is quite expensive,  although you do get a steel case built in so ultimately could be a good deal.

Yeah, it's a bit of an investment but I'm liking the 2 tier idea and there's not too many options out there on that front.