The Funk

Just know what you're getting into. No matter how far up you go, you'll still have to deal with the same old sh*t. My friend played on 3 songs at Live Earth at Wembley. For the first song, the sound guys managed to not even turn on the channel for his acoustic guitar.

Playing a lot of these gigs at the 'name' venues is not about: 1. making money, 2. building a fan base, 3. playing a good show. It's about building your CV so that you appear more credible. It's worth playing a few of these venues purely for that reason. Let's face it, they're all shitholes run by disorganised twats on behalf of rip-off merchants... with terrible sound and no/low pay.

Just to add that these guys are dedicated and easy to get along with. Work going into overload has meant that I didn't get the chance to play with them in the end unfortunately.

How good are you now? Not as good as you'll be in a year. Join a band - best way to speed up your development.

I don't use a compressor even though I have a rackmount studio jobbie by Drawmer. I think learning to slap quietly is easier than learning how to use a compressor properly.

[quote name='ahpook' post='509268' date='Jun 9 2009, 05:14 PM']i think we should have a sticky thread where endless debates like this can be thrashed out[/quote] Brilliant idea: pick v. non-pick, solo bass, slap, theory/reading, Jeff Berlin, Victor Wooten etc.

You can slap quietly. My fingerstyle technique is exaggerated and my slap technique is relatively gentle so that there's not much difference in volume when I switch from one to the other. A compressor would also do the job so if you need to get there instantly, go for the compressor - but learning how to set the threshold for that can be quite tricky. The rest of it is not so bad. Just remember that you set the threshold so that the compressor kicks in at anything above that level, then set the ratio to decide how much compression will be applied (nothing wrong with 2:1 or 3:1), and set the attack and decay so that the notes still sound natural when the compressor kicks in and eases off.

[quote name='BarnacleBob' post='511650' date='Jun 11 2009, 10:15 PM']Never mind that, which bass player could you drop 40 feet from a crane and he would still work?[/quote] Anthony Jackson. But the crane would be done for.

It'd be cool if you could make that logo the top of someone's afro.

I should add that Matamp rate their amps on the basis of 'clean' watts (ie. before overdrive/distortion).

Buy. I think it's great that you live near to the Matamp factory! Make the most of it!

Their acoustic guitar amps are truly incredible. Never heard or tried any of the others.

Would it be wrong to ditch my own 30th birthday party to go to this? I totally missed it tonight because of a work thing.

I remember looking at some of the Marshall and Mesa valve guitar power amps for bass a while ago. In the end I decided that 50W a side just probably wouldn't be enough. They just seem like cool bits of kit nonetheless and I'd get one even if I had no real use for one. (My Warwick Quadruplet + a Marshall valve power amp would be a pretty tasty guitar set-up though).

A Jazz or a Stingray. Ps are pretty funky too though. But if GAS calls for an excuse, go for it.

Guys, thanks for rushing to my defence but it's not necessary. It was just a one line joke not intended to distract from the discussion.

Anyone planning on checking out this bass-player led double bill? I'm up for going if anyone else'll come and join me. Warning: could be full of fusion-silliness.

I've always been partial to his work with Dave Starsky and Huggy Bear.

Could possibly a guy who auditioned for my cousin's band once. I'll see if I can find his myspace again. He was a very good bass player - on his own. Can't remember his name but I'll see what I can find out.

Was he Russian and was his Ibanez blue?

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='501557' date='May 30 2009, 12:44 PM']This just makes it look like a dodgy French synth-pop player got ripped off on eBay: "Zut alors! Où est mon SH-101?"[/quote]

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='501444' date='May 30 2009, 09:44 AM']Or a funk-leak[/quote] Thank you for that term. I'm no longer going to take a slash or have a piss - I'm going to experience a funk-leak instead.

What do the speakers sound like? Do they distort or fart out?

Sounds like a good month for you! Sadly I won't be able to make any of those. I'd like to check out the funk band though. What are you guys called?