EssentialTension

It's good to improve technique ... but you don't need to listen to many isolated bass tracks to realise that what sounds good in the song and good in the mix may not be technically perfect.

When you say 'sitting beside the guitar' do you mean tuning via the tuner's microphone and not plugged in with a lead? If so, then the clip-on tuner will be more effective. But the 'use the harmonic' advice is good.

Thumb on the pickup is fine, either P or J ... but remember also that you can alter tone and attack by moving right hand nearer to neck or to bridge. Playing over the end of the fretboard feels and sounds different to anchoring on the J pickup near the bridge. On the P is somewhere in the middle. Different songs, different sections of songs, might call for a different approach. But whatever works for you.

I think reggae and other earlier Jamaican genres, e.g. ska, are more but not solely influenced, especially in the bass, from New Orleans early R&B, e.g. Fats Domino, but also from upright jazz players, as many of the original ska bassists were themselves upright players, as was Jamerson. They would certainly have been hearing Motown etc on the radio and I expect were playing some of it. Of course, mento, the Jamaican variant of 'calypso' would also be an influence. As for metal, I really know pretty much nothing about it.

Also, if you listen to JPJ before Led Zeppelin, when he was a session player, he often sounds like an LA bassist such as Kaye or Osborn. When asked about the influence of Motown, JPJ is quoted as saying: "Yeah we [JPJ and Bonham] were both huge Motown and Stax fans and general soul music fans, James Brown fans. Which is one of the reasons why I've always said that Zeppelin was one of the few bands to 'swing'. We actually had a groove in those days. People used to come to our shows and dance, which was great. To see all the women dancing, it was really brilliant. You didn't necessarily see that at a Black Sabbath show or whatever. So we were different in that way. We were a groovy band. We used all our black pop music influences as a key to the rock that went over the top. I mean rock 'n' roll comes from black music anyway, it's a mixture of rhythm 'n' blues and country." http://www.globalbass.com/archives/mar2002/john_paul_jones.htm Of course, Led Zeppelin, as a whole, were also strongly influenced by American blues, by British folk, and by world music more generally.

You beat me to it.

Session bassist Russ Stableford ...

Agreed.

I think you'll find that your list of rock bassists had carefully listened to and borrowed from the likes of Osborn, Kaye, Jamerson, etc.

I thought it was pretty good for a one song TV show performance with new members. And it will get better with a tour under their belts.

Rickenbacker seems to work for this guy ...

In other news ... Gillette is not the best a man can get ... 😥

If it sounds ok it is ok. If it looks ok that's even better.

It seems very odd to me to reduce the likes of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and many others to 'pop' even if it was extremely popular.

It was about a dozen labels operated by one company. Tamla was the originial label, Motown as a label came second. Other labels included Soul, Gordy, etc. I think, in the UK the label was issued initially as Oriole, then as $tateside (an EMI label), then as Tamla-Motown (also EMI). I just checked and before Oriole, the UK issues were London American (a Decca label) and then Fontana (a Phillips label)

One of the several labels that made up the Motown roster of labels was in fact called SOUL ... Are you also going to say the the Funk Brothers weren't funky?

I googled 'Queen of Soul' and apparently it's definitely Aretha Franklin. 🤪

😎

My old dad used to call anything with strings 'a banjo' (unless it was 'a Johanna') and anything that one blew into was 'a trumpet'. I told him it was called 'an harmonica' but he wouldn't listen.

Correct.

Here's a plektron for a bouzouki ...

There must be some formulae or even criteria?

Or it's plectrum, or pick, or flatpick ... you can call it what you like. 'Hey Charlie, I've forgotten mine, can I borrow a pick?' 'Sorry I've only got plectrums.' 'You're a tosser ... just lend me one of your plectra.'

YouTube but some examples here ... https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bisonic+novak I've neither played nor heard the Novak Bisonics live but I used to have a DeArmond Starfire with Hammon Dark Stars which sounded thunderous and deep with lots of mids and highs too. There's a subjective element in this of course. (Alembicized) Guild Starfire with original Hagstrom Bisonics and possibly Pyramid Gold strings through a Versatone combo and a Fender Showman ...