razze06

Thank you all for your responses and critique. All is very welcome. Will try and act upon the suggestions. Keep them coming!

To Dad3353: First of all, thanks for the critique, that's exactly what i'm after. In terms of song selection, we picked an mixed to show the various styles we play. What do you mean by "idiom"? I'm not I understand. We have some recordings of us playing live in front of an audience, but the quality is nowhere near as good. We could set up a proper live recording, but that would cost us much more effort and money than we are prepared to invest I understand what you say about the drums. I think it's largely due to two factors: the drumkit is a 70's Ludwig kit, so perhaps it doesn't have the sound you expect from a modern kit, and this was the first time our drummer used it. No much time to become familiar with it, so perhaps his drumming was a little more restrained that it would normally be.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1390225519' post='2342762'] Just having a listen to the very first song, sounded great mate! The one thing I would say that starting the very first song with just "plodding" bass did sound suspiciously like someone demoing a bass and if I didn't know a song was coming I would probably have shut it off before the song actually started. That's not a criticism of your playing in any way btw mate! I just think the first should be a little bit more "HERE WE ARE" from the very start. If they stick around then awesome! I'd probably start off with Long Train Running instead of Black & Gold personally All IMHO etc obviously [/quote] Got it, good shout. I'll just change the order on soundcloud. Thanks for the praise!

Here are the tracks, as promised. Mostly played with bridge pickup tone on 7, neck pickup tone pot at minimum, both pickup volumes fully open, both pickups on, and played fingerstyle digging in really hard! https://soundcloud.com/marco-razeto/sets/not-dead-yet-demo-jan-2014

I play in a covers band called Not Dead Yet. We're getting gigs, but want to get more and better ones. In order to help us with that, we invested a little of our band money in a full day of studio time. As this is meant as a promotional recording, we decided to do a live recording, to try and capture a bit of that feeling. Every song you hear is recorded live, and most of them are first takes. Only a couple of solos and backing vocals are overdubbed. All was recorded, mixed and mastered in about 9 hours Please have a listen and comment, anything you have to say is welcome! [url="https://soundcloud.com/marco-razeto/sets/not-dead-yet-demo-jan-2014"]https://soundcloud.c...t-demo-jan-2014[/url]

Peavey makes excellent basses. I have two, a 1980 T40, which is my main bass, and a modern Grind BXP. Both were inexpensive to buy, astonishing variety of sounds, great necks (the grind is neck through, bought for less than 400 EUR in Italy), solid and dependable. And that's all the way through their range. In general, people that "dare" to try one are impressed by the overall quality. And that Rudy Sarzo model looks phenomenal, good enough to eat!

I have used a RH450 for years now, unbeatable feature set! I like its natural voicing, but it's not unabashed love. To be honest, my favourite sound for my covers band still comes from my Peavey Mark III 400 amp, but it's just too big and heavy to be routinely hauled around town for practice and gigs. The lack of brightness in the top end makes certain sounds unachievable, and that is a bit of a problem. However, I found that I could live with it, as the fundamental tone is very good for live situations. I might change to something else int he future, but not just now

We just recorded a promo demo for our covers band. all bass parts recorded using the T40 in a few different configurations. Heaps of praise from the engineer, who had never seen or recorded one. I'll post some tracks when we're done mixing and mastering.

Sorry didn't manage to get in touch with to use the bass for a recording. My next gig is not for a little while, so I guess I'll have to pass

That Contempo is lovely!

I'm in Edinburgh, but I don't have any gigs planned for the next few days (or weeks). I'm recording on sunday, though...

I know this sounds a little trite, and you may be doing this already, yet I'm wondering if you couldn't get even more variety from an already versatile bass by changing your technique as well as settings on your bass? Apologies if this sounds patronising, I really don't mean it that way.

All that's been said, plus cut the bass frequencies. If you can, try cutting difference frequencies while soundchecking. It will not make yourtone sound great, but at least you'll hear it, and remove the boom. Thinner sounds are less boomy!

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1388419082' post='2321760'] What's your reason for asking? What could be bad about it? What worries you? [/quote] I quite liked the look and feel of this VM jazz i've seen in a shop, but the sound might be a little too harsh for me. So I was going to leave it, as sound is what matters the most to me. Then I remembered I had these pups in the house, so i started wondering if they could have a positive effect on the sound of that VM jazz. Before I shell out the money to get the bass and start modifying it, i wanted to see if anyone has done the same before, and what their experience was. Essentially, I wanted to know if that is technically possible (seems to be), and whether the bass would end up sounding more like a warwick in "wrong" body and neck, or if some of the characteristics of the original jazz would be retained. I guess this last question won't be answered unless I try it for myself

Two questions, if I may: - Do people who claim to have gone back to simple also use a simple signal chain and amp setup? I am thinking bass plugged directly into a (simple) amp... - For those who favour more "complex" basses, do you keep changing the sound of the bass while playing live?, Or is it more of a set and forget (as someone in the discussion already said)

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1388404502' post='2321529'] If you're thinking of it being a good move financially, then that's something else. I've got a Squier P. I bought it for £100, stripped it, sprayed it. Fitted new tuners, bridge, pups, pick-guard and pots etc. I've priced it up and I recon the whole thing cost me £300. If I were to sell it and wanted my money back, I believe I'd need to strip it and sell it as a basic p-bass and sell the parts separately. The bottom line is it still says "Squier" on the headstock. I might get more if a made it a fake Fender, but that would go against my principles. It's a great sounding bass btw!! [/quote] Not really thinking of doing it as a financially sound move, I tend to believe that basses sell best if left unmolested. Modifying one for personal use, that's ok by me! What I meant is, I need to decide whether to buy the squier jazz or not!

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1388400614' post='2321470'] I think you mean "MEC". I'm happy with the MECs on my Warwick. I'd go for it, if they fit as a straight swap you've got nothing to lose. [/quote] Quite right, edited i need to buy the bass first, hence my hesitation...

I have a spare set of JJ MEC pickups from a 1999 warwick corvette (it has EMGs now), and I was wondering if it would be advisable or even possible to put them on a jazz bass. Essentially I am looking at a cheap Squier VM, which plays nice but is a little harsh sounding, and I was wondering if it would be improved by installing the MEC pickups. On top of that, I'd be curious to know if anyone thinks it would end up sounding more like a corvette than a jazz after the transplant Any experience/opinions?

I don't have guilty pleasures. I enjoy every bass I own and play, and the approval and blessing of my fellow bass players is not at the forefront of my mind when I pick my next bass (or any other piece of kit). On the other hand, I very much enjoy reading other people's opinion of something, as that can help inform my decisions. I religiously play my basses in rotation, so that I rarely play the same bass two gigs or even two practices in a row. That keeps fresh my appreciation of what I have, and helps with my decisions on what to buy and sell.

this is what we played at our last gig: [b]Set 1[/b] Jumpin' Jack Flash Valerie Mercy Rehab Rolling in the Deep Tainted Love Favourite Game I heard it Through the Grapevine Black and Gold Black Velvet Jealous Again Hard to Handle Preacher Man [b]Set 2[/b] Proud Mary Angel of Harlem Take me to the River F*ck You Soul Man Long Train Running Hoochie Coochie man Paranoid Teenage Kicks Town Called Malice Play that Funky Music Teenage Dirtbag Nutbush [b]Encore[/b] Hush Johnny B Goode Silver machine Our singer has got a very nice soul and RnB voice, so we had to drop almost all of our rockier stuff

The worse aspect for me is that several such comments often come from other women, especially those involving surprise at ladies playing instruments. Sexism is bad, self-administered is worse.

[quote name='FlatEric' timestamp='1386347510' post='2299139'] Not played a Forty for 3 or 4 weeks - watching this makes me think, it's time to dig one out! [/quote] I do the same, I play another one for a while, but then I go back to the T40

I am currently in chicago for work, and saw this on TV while having breakfast [url="http://morningnews.wgntv.com/2013/12/06/plain-white-ts-perform-the-giving-tree-live/"]http://morningnews.wgntv.com/2013/12/06/plain-white-ts-perform-the-giving-tree-live/[/url] A natural T40, played by a current and (moderately) popular band (don't particularly like the song though)