Boodang

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. 

21 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

Yeah Drumeo looks really good but it's a bit pricey with the monthly sub. I'm ideally looking for something more akin to the TalkingBass model, where you buy the course then you own it for life and can do it in your own time. 

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?!

56 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I can say I've ever needed to fiddle with the EQ when using my of rig to get the right sound. maybe I've just been lucky with the venues I have played. I have played two places where the sound was appalling, but that was down to the the acoustics of the room and no amount of adjusting the EQ would have made any difference, so I left every as it was. Remember that poor room acoustics are a combination of both frequency domain and time domain problems and a frequency domain solution while making it sound better in one place is having zero effect (or even making it worse) elsewhere in the venue. If you could fix room acoustics with just EQ there would be no need for expensive acoustic treatment in recording studios, you could simply slap a 31-band graphic across the monitor outputs and you'd be sorted.

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! 

10 hours ago, la bam said:

Usually I just run Amps flat with a little mid boost. 

 

If that ever doesn't work Laney have the best one dial trick there is. It's called a tilt dial. It takes whatever your favoured eq settings are (ie what you like in a good room) and tilts them either basswards or treblewwards. It keeps your eq across the spectrum and just subtly tilts it if it's too bass or not bass enough for that room. This is much better than adding or cutting a specific bass eq etc. If not, the usually dials are there if needed, but the tilt does a great job. 

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. 

7 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

This 

p bass, flats, roll the tone off a bit 

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

9 minutes ago, kristo said:

I tend to play at the end of the fretboard already, and the helpful advice here is suggesting not right against the neck, so out of the two options below I think the one on the left. Cheers.

At the end or over the fretboard? 

Mostly I’d say technique is the key. I play over the fretboard, around the 17th fret. As for eq, leave some definition (mids) in there. Also, and I use this with an EUB, a TC Electronic Bodyrez helps with the sound. Designed to put the body back into piezo guitars, actually works great on bass. 

The NS profusion of dots is utterly mental! In a deranged moment I had this dot system put on a 5 string I was having converted to fretted. It’s funny watching people play it for the first. 

This all reminds me of something I watched on one of those 'fly on wall' traffic cops shows. A police car following a vehicle, he notices theres a large amount of sandwiches in the back. He pulls over the hapless driver who says, oh yes, I'm delivering them for my sisters cafe. The policeman, having already done a check on her insurance and confirmed its only s,d&p, and much to the disbelief of the driver, then writes her a ticket. 

On 02/10/2023 at 22:35, JapanAxe said:

Played a sea-front bar in Weston-super-Mare with a rock’n’roll band that I often work with.

 

The positives:

Nice location opposite the pier.

Felt like I played well.

My rig sounded great (‘73 P > Demeter amp > BF Super Twin).

Paid gig.

Second gig with Boss WL20 wireless setup - loving it!

 

The negatives:

60 miles each way plus parking to pay for.

Loading area near the venue full of parked cars - owners obviously read ‘LOADING ONLY’ to mean ‘FREE PARKING’. Never mind, just blocked them in while I loaded out.

Guitarist’s DIY extension lead kept tripping the circuit breaker while we were setting up until I identified it as the cause.

Very few customers in the bar.

(New) lead guitarist hadn’t quite got his poop together.

 

I’m fed up with pub gigs and looking for some better quality work next year i.e. function band or tribute act.

 

I totally agree, pub gigs suck. That's why we don't have them here in Pakistan.... pubs that is!

46 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Like so many other bands maybe they'd get less contempt if they'd bowed out while they were still under 40 and at the top of their game.

I totally agree. On your 40th birthday the music police should come to your house and confiscate all your music equipment and spotify should ban you from listening to any new music from that point on to accelerate your transformation to an old git! 

I've used all types from unlined to the mentalness that is the NS Design dots on the EUB. There's a certain freedom to the unlined which I like but my favourite is fully lined with dots in the usual places (bottom pic). I used to be an 'unlined' snob but in all honesty I play better with lines so I've given up worrying about it. However, if you want to encourage your ears to do the work, go fully unlined, no side markers, nothing, the way double bass players do it. That'll be fun for you!