ivansc

t was easier than I thought! Track is at least 30 years old so be gentle! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhrcSNYLTjw

I am sort of at a crossroads and wondering what to do. The singer of my long - time 60s band died a few weeks ago and the rest of us have sort of slid into doing other things. In my case, a couple of friends who form the basis of most of the house bands around here said they wanted to do some gigs with me and went so far as to actually get us a couple, which went well enough that I now have the likelihood of more if I let the promoters & landlords involved know I am up for it. The bad news is that the guys have said they will always play for me "whenever they are available". So - obviously if I decide to do this seriously, I need some regular musicians who aren`t already booked out to wazoo. Bearing in mind the comments on here about auditions, what do you think? Do I book a bunch of gigs so I can say I have work waiting before recruiting players or get the " new " band personnel sorted out first? What I do isnt the usual 3 minute 12 bars so I will need people who are prepared to learn songs.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1502182163' post='3349729'] Come on now Ivan, name and shame fella!!! Let's hear those chops!!!! [/quote] (grin) most of them were from when I worked in one of those "come to Nashville and record your singer-songwriter garbage in a REAL NASHVILLE STUDIO with REAL NASHVILLE SESSION GUYS" studios. A couple of things made it onto albums by The Beat Poets and Rudi Whaling, but I don't really have any of them. I will dig up a link to the ONE track I have seen on Youtube a while back, a tune from 1989 masquerading as a new song by Rowena of the Glenn. (!)

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that on eof the decades I spent playing country was spent in Nashville. So I can tell you not ALL the records coming out of Nashville are recorded on a P bass with flats. At least not the ones I played on!

Showing my age. Mis-read the title as "BMG bass guitar...." Was about to ask how Banjo Mandolin and Guitr managed to do a review of a Stingray.... For the kiddies among us, google it! EDIT Bloody Hell!!!! It is apparently still going! First read it in the early fifties.....

[quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1501956235' post='3348494'] Agreed. A slow blues is one of the hardest things to play. [/quote] I HATE bass players who insist on going "ger-DIT ger-DIT" along with the guitar player on slow blues. Walk it smooth and it sets off the guitarists chug perfectly. Not saying do that to the exclusion of everything else though....

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1502024662' post='3348794'] Yep, but that doesn't work if you're on a noisy stage and can't hear the guitar! [/quote] You ARE joking, aren't you???

1962 P Bass - the good ones measured 43-44mm x 18-19mm thick. heaven especially if you have arthritis of the hands. my USA reissue measures 19mm deep and 44 wide.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1501808344' post='3347526'] If I ever defect from GK, I'm partnering with Orange. And I'll run my bass through 2 of their guitar heads. Blue [/quote] I used to have an Orange Graphic 120 back in the day. Partnered with a 2x15" Altec Lansing pre-production prototype cabinet with one speaker facing up one down in a sealed box. Speakers faced a pair of parabolic reflectors that fired the sound forward. Never seen another but man that thing just THREW the sound out. Played the old Hammersmith Odeon with it in pre-Apollo days & it filled the place without a PA hookup! Amazing. I sold the cabinet in the UK before emigrating to the US & then had to sell the amp to make rent money in the US. Mind you it wold be way too heavy for me these days. SO well built though.

I bought a recent USA `62 reissue P bass a while back & while it isn`t a patch on "how I remember" my original 62 being, it is still a great bass, very comfortable to plays, sounds wonderful for the old rock and roll and soul stuff I have been doing. But anything more contemporary and I am back to my old pal the hybrid Explorer P/J. Horses for courses, so unless you really are going to buy the older one and wrap it in cotton wool, go with the one that you like playing best. I am seriously considering moving my `62 on as my bass gigs dwindle, especially since the singer in my rock and roll relic band passed on recently. But that would reduce me to one baritone, one e-bass and an electric upright, so I suspect I would have an immediate attacl of GAS...

I was living out in the USA (Nashville) when TE first appeared on the scene. Checked them and an SWR Redhead out (also just arrived) and wondered what all the fuss was about with TE. TE was slightly more expensive (!!) and every single amp I had seemed to get all of its bottom end from cabinet resonance. OK if that is the noise you want but I was used to an Orange 120 head with a 2x15 at the time, which blew every TE rig I tried out of the water. Unlike the Redhead, which I loved Saw Tim Drummond playing through one with no PA reinforcement at a relatively small venue in town and he sounded huge through just the basic 2x10 original Redhead. The Ashdowns I have tried since TE disappeared suffered from the same problems the early TEs.... I want to hear my bass, not a bunch of plywood rattling. And I still love the sound of a Redhead, just not the weight. So. Objectivity folks - are the current crop of TEs any better than the old ones in terms of fidelity and punch?

One thing to bear in mind is that the rechargeable ones dont deliver as much in the way of voltage as a conventional battery. If 9volts is the limit of what your kit can cope with, it becomes a bit hit-and-miss. I went back to Indistrial duracells or Kodak commercials after struggling with the rechargeables.

[quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1501486440' post='3344876'] I searched every music shop in that London in '73 to buy a Ricky, coulnd't find a good one ended up with a beautiful Italian Blonde - Gherson Yes - Dave tells it like it is [/quote] Bought mine in 1972 - you snooze you lose! ONE out of all the ones I tried in the Denmark Street area was a nice instrument, so I bought it. Traded for a Travis Bean a few years later because it was chewing the skin off my right forearm!

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1501321068' post='3343981'] I've mentioned this before; in the bands I was drumming for on arriving in France, mid-'70s, the 'standard' gig was 21h00-02h00, sometimes an hours or so longer, variety dance music, continuous, with no break. All the players could skive off for a number or two during the evening except for the drummer (me..!), who has to assure the beat for the dance floor. I would have trouble doing that these day, but at the time it just gets done, and makes one quite 'economical' in one's efforts. It's not a problem, playing for several hours; one gets very used to it, and it certainly makes for becoming a better player..! [/quote] I had the same experience in Corsica in 1991/2. We ran a Roland Sound Canvas with parts for everyone but the drummer & just punched ourselves in when we needed a piss or a drink. It is surprising how quickly you get comfortable with playing all night. We mostly started around 10-11 pm and finished when the last drunk collapsed. Great money all through the summer. I used to make enough to live off a couple of guitar lessons a week and my summer money. FWIW our drummer was one of the best I eevr played with.

My first gig back as frontman recently was in a pub with a huge garden and no A/C on one of the hottest days of the year. Played to about four people in the pub, but looking out of the window the garden was packed. Struggled through and much to my surprise we had compliments galore from people coming in to order drinks. Weird but in a strange way not so bad.

Blue nailed it. Its what you play not the instrument. Several decades of country rock and straight country under my belt to prove it. I have used a P/J, a Travis Bean, a Rickenbacker 4001 stereo and all three sounded just fine with me on the other end. And remember that the number of songs that you will get to play that actually ARE just root 5 are vanishingly small if you are playing them right. C/W is deceptive.

Skybone - how do you think the guitarist by the same name feels? http://www.roy-rogers.com/

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1500976078' post='3341376'] My experience (over decades...) of drummers on the Continent would echo the above ^^; I've very rarely seen any of 'em 'playing for themselves', at pro or semi-pro level, at concerts or festivals. Most (not all, but the vast majority...) are playing to the needs of the music, in whatever style, form trip-hop break-beat through to hard metal and all points west. From the many US bands I've watched, I've not noticed any major difference in attitude; I wouldn't know of the more local US talent that don't tour Europe, though. [/quote] OK I will confess I was being deliberately all-inclusive, as my experience in France is pretty much the same as yours. Just didnt want to single out UK players only! I assume your experience on the continent is also that there are far more players who have been formally educated in music than in the UK? Embarrassing but sadly all too true. Even the graduates of places like BIT GIT DIT KIT etc are still being indoctrinated with the Olympic Games of Music ethos still. Happily quite a few of the graduates in MY local area do seem to manage to transcend all that sweep picking and become decent musicians. I am going to shut up now before I start a fight. Sorry if my attitude offends anyone on here, just saying what my personal experience has been.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1500977447' post='3341393'] IME the guys Ivan talks about were more prevalent in the 70's. I generally find better players around these days but I mostly play with pro or ex-pro players and that really is a big difference, not in ability but attitude and effectiveness. [/quote] Some truth in this and I suppose its because I left the Nashville circuit, where if you don't cut it you don't work & returned to the UK club circuit, where there is still a dearth of people who want to do more than "bang out the ones the punters like". Drummer in my recently-ceased gigging 60's band has chops (and technical education) for days, but had to be practically forced into playing LESS. Not different, just less. But he has spent most of his working life either in prog rock bands or teaching. And YES the attitude and effectiveness bit is what I have been trying to get across. Playing what fits, leaving enough space for everyone else & allowing the music to breathe.

I have this theory: Most FOH engineers are called something like "Doof". For reason!

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1500898824' post='3340899'] So UK drummers have an individualistic approach because we don't have orchestras or marching bands?!? I guess you're posting from your own experience but your generalisation doesn't bare any relation to my experiences [/quote] Nope - they just dont seem to "get" all the places between the beats like the Yanks do. I have played weith some of the best that both the US and the UK can offer over 60 years gigging experience and the vasdt majhority of US players can lay down a groove that just makes you want to join in. UK players unless heavily influenced by or playing with US musicians seem to be playing for themselves. Not just the drummers. Willie Wilson`s (Pink Floyd) first band was with me. As were many others. Maybe the younger generation have improved but we have very few decent drummers or indeed bass players, guitarists, keyboardists locally. Sad really bearing in mind Cambridges heritage in popular music from the 60s on. Two things about your experience: don`t forget you COULD (not saying you are) be part of the problem without knowing it. Also depending on what genres you play you may not be aware of it. All the metal genres seem to rely very little on rhythmic subtlety, so who knows?

US players are in general better at serving the song than their european counterparts in my (extensive) experience. I suspect it is largely due to the emphasis put on ensemble playing (marching bands, orchestras, etc) in the US as opposed to the individualistic approach prevalent here in the UK. One of the hardest lessons for UK musicians to learn seems to be a combination of "there ARE other beats in a 4/4 bar than 1,2,3 and 4" and "the melodic part of the song isn't where you stand around looking bored between solos". But I still miss the American drummers I worked with.

Forgot a local singer back in the seventies Wayne Kerr. And I am another one who hadn't noticed the Jenny Taylor thing. MY J.T. was the drummer for local band The Chequers, featuring "big fat Bubs from Cambridge" (Bonzo Dog Doodah Band) on guitar. http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/lifestyle/nostalgia/bubs-look-bonzo-dog-band-3117612

Found myself enjoying this despite all the slightly formula-ridden widdlery going on. Big bad bassopotamus he may be, but the guy IS musical, unlike 99% of the ass-showing widdlers. Bet he is interesting on guitar, too.

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1500112915' post='3335675'] Never tried it altho i appreciate the bassline. Think its time to have a go tho. Dave [/quote] Played with pick, its pretty easy. (runs away, giggling evily)