Boodang

I’ve had red heads in the past but have settled on a baby blue which has become a part of my sound.

Dan Hawkins has some particularly good, well articulated, lessons on YouTube.

3 for triplets

Reviews and clips of the three EFs I own. The Fwonkbeta has a huge bottom heavy sound, not very versatile but nothing else like it. The Supa Funk is the closest to a normal EF, quite subtle, the Funk Machine is mental and good for the extreme Brecker Brothers 'Sponge' sound or as an LPF.

Before it gets busy again it's time for the wood shed... maybe get some composing done and record a fusion version of Summertime to get it out your system!

This is a good example of learning good technique from the start. It’s probably the one thing you need a teacher for rather than YouTube or a book. Basically higher strings not being played are muted by the left hand, bottom strings not being played are muted by the right hand thumb as you move it onto the E string, then the A so both are muted. Rest strokes on from the G land on the D which can mute, or you can place the thumb on the D and still mute the A and E. This is all assuming finger playing as opposed to pick. By resting your thumb on the pickup and never moving it, will make lower string muted hard for yourself.

The Jack Casady bass is awesome but maybe not suitable for the sound you want, although change the strings to round wounds will help a bit. Some standard rotosounds would do nicely.

PS I have a small area setup for practice which I think is important so you don’t have to faff about to get going. Also, I use a small behringer mixer (little 4 channel thing that was about £30), so I can plug in the bass and my laptop, play along to lessons, Spotify etc on headphones. Only use an amp when rehearsing or gigging.

Dan Hawkins has some great stuff on YouTube. I think his approach to theory is very clear cut and some great vids on putting it all together into bass lines and supporting songs. Even if you’re not into jazz, get into walking bass lines. Will teach you timing but more importantly chord structures, and this knowledge is relevant for any genre of playing. Ed Friedland ; Building walking bass lines.

Keep it interesting, always have a song you’ll learning and do the theory as you go in small chunks. For me the top tip would be to not get into bad physical habits when starting out. Get someone to show you or you’ll end up making life difficult for yourself later. For instance, the best way to position the left hand (don’t wrap your thumb around the neck. Might work for some people but not ideal). Don’t have a bent wrist on the right hand by resting your forearm on the body as this will cause carpal tunnel pain later.

Love the riff. IMHO that tract doesn’t need vocals. And yep, love learning stuff way outside my comfort zone. Tends not to be bass lines but solos in jazz numbers, I find it gives you a greater understanding of melody concepts. Currently obsessed with the Tim Miller solo in the Gwizdala song ‘Bethany’ as it’s a masterpiece. It’s mental tho and even on my 5 string high C it’s an uber challenge.

I would say that drumeo is worth ever penny tho.

Also, if you want to learns some jazz, the Jazz Drummers Resource on YouTube is good. Very understated, no ‘do these 3 things and you’ll be the best drummer’ stuff. https://m.youtube.com/@JazzDrummersResource

Drumeo is good. I’ve been playing drums for about 10 years now and one of the main resources is drumeo. Actually I take that back, Drumeo isn’t good, it’s awesome!

That’s more like it, effing brilliant. Love the Weckl / McLaughlin fusion stuff, of which this is very reminiscent. Like Howard Moon says in his jazz rant, at least it’s not ‘nursery rhyme’ simple with safe boundaries.

Magic sauce pedals... always on, either the Aguilar octamizer or the grape phaser.... or both!

Sorry, slightly confused... you play bass but you don't own one?!

Expensive acoustic treatments are about making a studio perfect, 31 band graphic eq's are about making a room workable in a live situation, and hopefully less awful than it would be otherwise. As well as playing bass I also engineer for some local bands that include venues with some very interesting acoustics and eq'ing for the room is most definitely a thing. The sound would be far worse if we weren't using the tools at our disposal on the digital desk... 5 band master comp on the FoH, notch filters on troubling frequencies and taking care of broad eq needs like making sure the bass has definition (some mids), eq'ing the bass drum/snare/cymbals to give space for other instruments etc. You can't cure bad acoustics in a venue but you can do a lot to mitigate. Interestingly, two cover bands I do the sound for, one uses an expensive Spector bass, the other one of the new, cheap, Steinberg headless basses. The Steinberg has a nasty nasal sound on it's own, but sounds perfect when in the context of the band and requires no eq, the Spector has a great solo sound, very full, and gets lost in the mix until we add some upper mids.

No band I get... well sort of, for this music. But miming, surely not! That's not even karaoke!

The Aguilar octamizer has a great tilt eq. Even if I'm not using the octave function, the tilt gets used.

I prefer a bridge pickup, mid heavy tone, so room boominess not such an issue but I do think a mid heavy tone is easier to eq for a room. I used to use a compressor and an SWR baby blue semi parametric pre amp, but now I use an xr18 with a Fairchild comp and Pultec mid eq. If the room eq is proving difficult I've got a fully parametric eq at my disposal but to be honest it's rarely necessary.

I took up drumming about 10 years ago. When my enthusiasm for bass is on the wane, I do more drumming, and then after a while the need to play bass comes back and the emphasis swaps. It seems that between the two instruments I’ve alway got enthusiasm for one and it keeps it fresh as there’s always a challenge. I’d say playing drums has made me a better bassist as well.

Passive vol/tone from Starr Guitars with 'vitamin' capacitors, old style. Had a series/parallel switch added.

...and, I know I've already mentioned it but it's a cracking bit of kit, a Bodyrez pedal to polish off the tone.