Muzz

Elixirs on everything*, a mix of Nickels and Steels. They last for aaaaaages, and I'm a ham-fisted (mostly) pick player... * Other than my acoustic bass, which has D'Addario Flats on, but that's the exception in many ways...

Just remembered this for a couple of weeks ago...played a gig at the bar mentioned above, and there was a nice couple in their 50s, seen them before in there, sitting at a table by the very small corner stage where we were playing. They were enthusiastic, listening, and applauded, even shouted for an encore. After we'd finished, some friends of ours were playing across the road, a couple of doors down, and we could hear they had a later slot than us, so before we broke everything down, we popped across the road to see how it was going. Ten minutes later, I'm outside having a vape, and was standing next to the same couple...this was the conversation: Bloke from couple, pointing to band still playing: 'They're good, aren't they?' Me: 'Yeah, very.' Wife from couple: 'There was a good band over the road, too; they've just finished.' Me: 'Yeah, you were at the table at the front' Couple: 'Errr...yeah?...' Me: You know that bloke stood on stage for two hours eight feet from you? On the left? Your left?' Couple: 'Errr...yeah?' Me (pointing to my head, doing the Fozzy Bear thing): .... Couple: 'Errr...yeah?' I gave up at that point...sometimes picking up a bass does activate the Klingon Cloaking Device...

I replaced the BBOT on my BB414 with a Fender Hi-Mass (a great little chunk of engineering for the money), I knowwwww, it says 'Fender' on a Yamaha, I'm a monster, etc... Bottom line is I'm a (mostly) pick player, and it's a comfier place to rest the heel of your hand...and it's a solid bridge. The sound? I don't sniff corks too enthusiastically, I don't slap much, or use all that much zing, and once the drummer starts it's all kinda moot...

Wednesday night, depping in to co-host a jam night at a bar...I've played there before, both with the full band and I've turned up to the jam night to play a few, but this was the first time co-hosting and getting paid for it for a loooong time (the price of being in a busy steady band for more than a decade) - I'd forgotten how much fun busking can be, luckily the main drummer was great (a couple of others not as good, but we muddled through), so playing songs I've never played before (probably eight or ten), or even heard before (three of them) was a good workout...

Not a gig as such, but the singist/guitarist and I went to Lecce in Southern Italy to visit the drummer on a hometown visit...on Sunday night we went round to a garden studio belonging to one of his (pro) musician friends for a bit of a jam and to hang out. A couple of the host's friends came round and we had a good time, tho it was a 'never be the smartest person in the room' moment for me: when the four Italians got on the instruments, the first thing they jammed was Birdland...blimey, follow that... 😐 Oddly, tho, it appears Italian live music (in the South at least) is either sublime Jazz Fusion/Funk or full-on Country and Western...apparently that's where the money (and not much at that: £50 a man is good over there) is... We did get a lot of positive feedback, and next time we go there'll be gigs to play...

Still better than 'a bit of sick'... 🙂

I had a 4001 back in the day (early 80s) and was captivated by the 'Rick-O-Sound' output, so I got a splitter jack adaptor and ran into two amps/cabs. Was all very exciting, but, like so much up in the cork-sniffing end of the tone spectrum, once the drummer started hitting things, it was pretty much a bass sound, unfortunately...

I had a 78 that was the same weight as the one above and it was a crippler...is over ten pounds just perfect, or is the bass that good that you don't mind the weight? I can't conceive of actually wanting a bass several pounds heavier than it needs to be...

A proper late 70s Jazz: 11lbs 12oz...eeeek!

Could be worse...as I said, with the Walkabout I just drop the very bottom end out and use the Bass, Mid and Treble...the Mid is particularly nice...

Yep, there's three, though it has a Bass, Mid and Treble control as well - I leave the other Parametrics pretty much flat, but that left hand one is the 'HPF' one...

Our drummist is also a talented producer and MD (who'd have guessed for someone who started off hitting things with sticks for a living?), and he and I spent an illuminating afternoon working through compression with my bass sound(s) on my Helix. Turns out my previous prejudice against compression was entirely fuelled by my ignorance of how it could work, and the positives it brings...

Yeah, I've used a Walkabout combo once, and that speaker doesn't let the amp 'breathe' as much as a good modern (sensitive) speaker cab (see 'BF') does. I did use it with an 810 once in a rehearsal room (because the 810 was just sitting there, and it'd have been rude not to), and it was verrrry loud. I certainly didn't notice any difference 'dropping' 500-600w going from a Class D to the Walkabout. Maybe I don't play in bands that are that loud...but my tinnitus says otherwise*... * Actually, it says 'Eeeeeeeeeeee...', but that's by the by...

There's been a (semi)parametric on the Walkabout, and the M-Pulses (it even says 'Semi-Parametric' on those) for decades, and the newish WD800 too...I've always liked it, especially as dialling back the bass one with both knobs on the Walkabout (-15db at 30Hz) gives a rather useful HPF-like effect...

I should add I've gigged 800/900w Class D amps, too, and they were plenty loud...I'm not convinced that Loud and Watts are necessarily tied verrrry closely together; there's a lot of factors, including things like the sound you're after, for starters... The day I play a stage big enough to need kw of power is the day I'm renting the rig and having someone else carry it, anyway...or I'm using in-ears and letting the PA do all the heavy lifting...

I've yet to squish my '300w' (it may be more) Walkabout hard at any gig - for a loud gig without PA support (and why wouldn't I want that? I count it as a fail if I don't get it) I've run it through two BF cabs (full disclosure; it was a rock band, we were headlining, and it was far more for the Stacktastic look than anything else), and it was 'put-your-earplugs-in' loud...at that point you don't need any more backline power, you'll be through the PA, which (hopefully, depending on venue) has more power than you, anyway...

Steve Hackett at the Apollo in Manchester. A sit-down, chin-stroking kinda gig, but the level of musicianship on the stage was unbelievable. 96% blokes in the audience, there we a few ladies looking dutiful but bored...first half was his solo stuff, then the whole of Foxtrot, with an encore of Firth of Fifth and Los Endos, all executed perfectly. One thing, tho; there was a drum solo near the end, which went on a bit, and in The Quiet Bit, where said drummer tinkles about with stuff quietly, a voice soared from the the audience; 'Get onnn with it!' The place roared with laughter, but the drummer's face set like a handful of mince, and when they were doing the 'all bow in a line' at the very end, I clearly saw him say to the bassist 'Bunch of f**king tw**s'... If drum solos are getting short shrift even at Prog concerts, I think it's safe to say they've very much had their day...

Well, I'm not sure about the colour, but John's definitely got his upper fret access sorted a bit better than I have... 🙁😀

That, my very chum, is an Explorerbird...this, on the other hand, is a Fenderbird...well, a Shukerbird, but pretty close... 😀

The Dunlop Nylon .88s...been using them for, ooooh, 40-odd years now...I think I've got the hang of them...

Well, JJ did change his sound over the years as the band's sound changed (there's a Shuker JJB Sig Artist bass that's basically a piezo/flats semi-acoustic), but I have seen/heard him get 90% of the way back to the first three album sound on a few occasions live (and sometimes not really get there, probably down, as you say, to FOH hoohah) with his Ashdown rig, but this was the worst yet, and there was no Ashdown rig to fall back on...

I'm on record on here somewhere as to that bass at 0:14 on Hanging Around being my trigger into decades of faffing about with basses...culminating (on the JJB side) with a signed Shuker JJB P turning up any time soon... Imagine my disappointment (also on record here) when I went to see them a couple of months ago and JJB's sound was...gone. I'm hoping it was a one-night aberration (I've heard from elsewhere it was better on other nights), and they had switched to in-ears only for the tour, so that was probably it, but I was properly gutted...

Bass -> SonicPort -> iPad (Jamup) -> headphones. Job done. Will run for hours off the iPad battery. Apparently you can do the same with an iPhone, but I've never bothered.

Don't sell that Jetglo 4001 for £180, borrow the money from somewhere and stick it under the bed. Ditto that 70s P... Other than that (and the ears/tinnitus thing)...nope, that'll do... 😀

Went to see a couple of bands a short while ago (small gig; Rebellion in Manchester, probably 150 there, if that), and they were both two-piece bands; a singist/geetard (with some octave tracking on a few songs) and a drummist. It worked for their type of stuff, but again it's fairly niche, and not really a worrying trend per se. Royal Blood have shown it can be done, and yeah, punters don't (and shouldn't, if it's done right) care if there's a bassist there, as long as the band can make it work. On the other hand, I've been to see some very big bands at very big arenas where the bassist may as well not have bothered, you could hear so little of it, other than a cannon-kick-dominated, subsonic rumble...