Low End Bee

Help! I'm going to have to do a few of these next year and I need advice. The guitarist is sorted with his acoustic. The drummer has got one of those box thngs with the snare in it that sounds great. We had a stab at it at rehearsal last night and it all sounded pretty good apart from the bass. The Precision with super zingy steels through a TC Classic wasn't working. I EQ'd the top end off which helped but it was still too dominating unless I backed off the volume so much you could hardly hear me. I'm guessing flats. Maybe a different bass and amp too. Is fretless the thing to do? Short scale for some thump? I'm not going down the upright bass road and I don't want a huge acoustic bass either. Any suggestions? This is right out of my comfort zone but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Have a good one Mr C.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1354788961' post='1890303'] The Smiths? Come on!!!! Take away the singer/songwriter/frontman aspect of all those you've listed so far and maybe at a push Flea and Bernard Edwards, but don't fool yourselves, the rest as bass players, are very replaceable. JE was replaced in The Who, Larry Graham was replaced in Sly, [b]JJ was replaced by Bob Babbitt [/b]and Macca could have been replaced by Klaus. All bass players are replaceable, as are all musicians. [/quote] Bob Babbitt was in the Stranglers! Cool.

The man on the Clapham omnibus would probably only notice if the missing bass player was the frontman or the main song writer. The hard core fanboy is a different matter.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1354666025' post='1889041'] I'd go and see that [/quote] Just imagine our 'Randy Scouse Git'....

Looks like it was made for Simon Pegg. To kill zombies with.

Sean Ryder - Vocals Steve Jones - Guitar Rat Scabies - Drums Ron Mael - Keys Me - Bass As a Monkees tribute band....

I used to work as a van controller with a fearsome looking bloke in his fifties who was an ex bare knuckle boxer. It got incredibly busy on my shift and I made a horrendous cock up in my second week on the job. When he came in to take over from me I spilled the beans from the safety of the other side of the office. He walked menacingly towards me and when he was practically nose to nose smiled at me and said "Don't worry son. The only ****s that never make mistakes are the ****s who do **** all." I've always remembered that. .

EHX Bass Big Muff going into a Digitech Synth Wah. Just one song and only on the outro where it all goes a bit cheap acid.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1354202824' post='1883535'] I like the pick sound although I rarely use it myself. But now I play double bass more than bass guitar so I guess I can't be a bass guitarist now. [/quote] Man up. Play double bass with a pick.

Then again. I think of myself as a bass[i] guitarist[/i].....and I use the devil's plectrum.

Giuda - Italian glam guitars and subbuteo. Love it [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28wL4Jvq2k4[/media]

Bass by choice. I'm not a bad Steve Jones type guitarist in the right context too.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTGNnSgfp5Q[/media]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1354180542' post='1883027'] Because it's a late 70s Fender. That might be the reason for the lack of wear, on account of it being a complete dog and consequently has hardly been played. When I was helping out at my local music shop in the late 70s not a single one of the Fender guitars and basses that came in were in a fit condition to go straight on display. Most had mis-aligned necks, many had far more problems. All of them required time with the in-store guitar tech before they were in a saleable condition. By comparison, the Ibanez and Aria instruments that came in at the same time rarely needed even tuning. [/quote] I can vouch for this. I worked at a well known music shop and hire centre in the late 70s and most, I reckon as many as 4 out of 5, were indeed unplayable out of the box. Always gaps in the neck poket. Misaligned control plates, etc. Some of them were very, very heavy too. There were some good ones and these used to get sent for hire while the boat anchors were foisted on the retail buyers. Gibson stuff wasn't any better. There were a lot of horrid Les Pauls. Westbury's were the nicest thing in the shop by some distance at the time. It was a real boost to vintage* sales. *anything over 10 years old back then!

I'd take Mick Green over all of them.

I saw a band umknown to me recently (bass player not a BCer to the best of my knowledge) on a bill. Faultless. Every note. Everything was precise and on the money. I couldn't wait for them to get off.

Regardless of how many or how bad we never stop playing. It's the law.

Stop. You'll get me started on 'indie' being a genre......

3.7

It's lovely being in a band where I have to keep telling my guitarist with a 30watt valve combo to turn up the volume. My heart sinks if we're sharing a bill with a band and they start building a wardrobe on stage. It wastes so much time on a sound check too. For the right type of band in a big old venue it's splendid. In the 100-300 capacity ones we generally play it's like taking an aircraft carrier on the school run.

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1353935373' post='1879861'] Yup! In a rock context sheet music on stands would, and does, look seriously uncool. IMVHO of course. [/quote] Definitely. I find myself heading to the bar if I see a popular beat combo with music stands on stage.Looks really bad. I will admit to having the odd 'blank' when gigging. It's usually one of the buggers I've written too! These days I add a note or two to each song on the setlist. 'Starts in B,verse is E-A-D, chorus starts when he sings have a banana' or whatever will help me remember. Joe Strummer used to forget songs (ganja is bad) so his set list was the first line or two of each song. Watch any live Clash video. "This next song is 'Midnight to six man' You may know it better as White Man In Hammersmith Palais"

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1353587476' post='1876289'] Yes this is all true. But I'd better clarify it [b]isn't [/b]drummer who's the problem here! I was just trying to be a bit amusing in my earlier post and not identify anyone as such, . But it's the singer who's got the problem with this. And what worries me in particular is that he seems to get [b]so [/b]burned up about it that I wonder if he has anger management issues in general. So I tend to treat him with a bit of caution now. [/quote] The polite knock on the door and 5 minute signal is nothing to get flustered about. I've always thought it was a nice touch as you might be the band waiting to come in next sometimes. All singers are up themselves mentalists to a greater or lesser extent. I'd wind him up a bit to see if he has an early breaking point. You don't want to find that out during an important gig. You can delegate the drummer to yank his chain. They're usually up for that sort of caper.