The Funk

A few metal guys seem to use Warwicks these days. But like other people have said, it all depends on what kind of metal sound you're after.

He left this bit out of the product description: "After it was completed, I plugged it in and decided it sounded crap. After leaving it a few days and looking at it again, I decided I can't actually bear to look at it either. Genuine reason for sale." EDIT: I actually half-like the look. It's not something I'd want to own or play but I think it could work in some settings. I just don't see why he'd go to all that trouble personalising something so much only to turn around and sell it. (Unless it sounded like crap).

[quote name='Gamble' post='182388' date='Apr 21 2008, 11:23 PM']"Recent studies have found that large-chested blonde-haired young ladies are inexplicably drawn to bass playing men, the [insert any filthy, lying red-top's name] can exclusivly reveal. Here is proof..... honest. Blah blah blah....."[/quote] Is she blonde? I thought she was a brunette myself. My ex-wife had similar hair-colour. I think that would mean I was married to a blonde for a few years without realising!

[quote name='markytbass' post='182422' date='Apr 22 2008, 12:04 AM']I find myself doing that quite alot with the drummer in the current band, some songs he starts too fast and then slows down as he run's out of puff. On others he speeds up and slows down throughout leaving me playing catch up. So does that make us a Jazz band?[/quote] Unfortunately it makes you guys a 'loose' band who need a new drummer. Dave Davies of The Kinks once hurled his guitar at their drummer on stage, knocking him from his drum stool to the floor out cold, with blood pouring all over the stage. He thought he'd killed him and immediately fled the venue and hid for 2 or 3 days. He eventually found out the drummer was ok and they carried on with the rest of the gigs they had lined up. I'm not saying you should go that far over sloppy time but I refuse to play with any drummer who has bad time (except for at social things like jam sessions). Noone should have to put up with it.

[quote]It aint pretty but it will show different ways you can keep a groove going with no drums or click track. It's putting all that technique together WHILE feeling a GROOVE under each lil piece. I'll replace this with a better one in a week or so, maybe even with something planned out.[/quote] I'm quite disappointed by his time-keeping to be honest. He says he's showing bassists how to keep a groove going without drums or a click track but his time is quite sloppy in places. Having said that, it sounds like he was tired and pressed the record button before he really had an idea of what kind of thing he might play. He's got some very good chops though. I'd like to see the next video. What I'm most disappointed about is that he plays with Whitesnake but still has to have a room-mate! Pay the guy a decent fee!

[quote name='markytbass' post='182379' date='Apr 21 2008, 11:11 PM']I havn't a clue when it comes to timing, I just follow the drummer. If someone was to shout this ones in (insert time sig) I wouldn't have a clue.[/quote] I'd be scared of just following the drummer. There are a fair few drummers out there with bad time. But then some people can disagree about time signatures as well. I once jammed with two very good drummers. I brought them a song I thought was in 7/8. One agreed with me, one said it was in 7/4. After a heated discussion which verged on the philosophical, both drummers agreed it was in 7/4. I deferred to their judgment. A couple of years later someone said "well, it's a compound rhythm: a bar of 4/4 followed by a a bar of 3/4". The nicest thing I had someone tell me was "well, that's definitely the funkiest 7 I've ever heard". After one gig my drummer (a third one) told me he could see the headline band "counting it". That's the most complicated time signature I've ever had to deal with. I'm pretty convinced now that it's a 7/8 and not a 7/4. I also know that it makes no difference to how I play it. I never count as I play - it's too distracting. Most tunes I've had to play have been in 4/4, with a few in 6/8. You get the odd 5/4 and 7/8. I've never had to play a 3/4, which is odd because classical music education places such an emphasis on it. So, I guess what my rambling post is saying is that you should look into time signatures a bit but don't always take someone's word for it (as they could be wrong) and if you can feel what the groove of the song is, that's better than 'counting' while you're trying to play. Obviously you can't fight against a drummer if you want to sound like a coherent rhythm section but if his time slips or meanders then you should feel entitled to reign him in and get him to follow you.

I use a large amount of mid-boost on my Aguilar preamp. But I send a flat EQ signal to the sound engineer from my DI. Every bass I have has to be EQd completely differently to all the others.

It's a quote from the article. I like his attitude. I also like that he's the bass player and producer, and his band is the house band for his own label. That's what I'm trying to do with my guys. I think he's going to become a bit of a role model for me. The main thing I don't want to copy is pretending that it's still the mid-60s. I like some digital recording technology. I also like valve amps and cutting everything live. I also can't pretend that there haven't been any interesting musical developments since then. The other thing I don't want to copy is rubbing grease into my strings. I have OCD when it comes to that. I can't eat a packet of crisps and pick up my bass without washing my hands first. At the same time, I haven't changed the strings on my main bass in 5 years (I hate that new string sound too, even though I play a fair amount of slap stuff). Sorry, that was all off-topic. I wonder how much he paid for that bass in a pawn shop?

Original Mu-tron III. As good as some of my other effects are, I could happily get by with just this.

The drummer in my first band played a gig the first day he ever picked up a pair of sticks. Some people are just naturals!

[quote name='chris_b' post='182212' date='Apr 21 2008, 08:25 PM']You just play along to your favorite records until you can play them too.[/quote] I never really did that. I started jamming with some friends of mine (who were pretty good) a few days after I first bought a bass. At school I jammed with some other musicians who were also a lot better than me (but who didn't realise as there weren't many bass players at school). Eventually I found myself in two bands, which later crunched down to one band. Obviously you pick things up talking to friends who know more about music theory than you do.

I taught myself from the age of about 15. I took about 6 lessons with this American bass player who used to live in London when I was about 18/19. He threw so much info at me I managed to keep going off that for a good few years. I've recently purchased a few decent books so that I can progress beyond the funk/rock/soul/blues stuff and delve into some jazz. My guitarist also wants me to audition for his metal band - that would be a completely different challenge again. I don't really have any desire to be a well-rounded bass player. I just want to nick whatever I can from every genre and stick it all into funk.

Looks like a Fender body, a Gibson headstock and P90 guitar pick-up. It somehow works though.

I've been after a twin neck 6-string guitar / 4-string bass for a while (bass on top, guitar below). It could only really work as a twin neck. I tried out a Danelectro twin neck once. It was a piece of sh*t. The body was made of chipboard, the necks felt like toys (and were identical) and the necks were the wrong configuration for me. Ok, but what about the tone? It sounded exactly how you'd expect a toy to sound - like complete crap. As it was a vintage model it had a price tag of around £1600! They don't have it in that shop anymore which means some nutjob actually paid money for it!

Quick question: is that your guitarist's hand down that girl's top? I know bassists are team players but that's ridiculous!

Brilliant! Of course, I would have just unhooked her bra and carried on playing. EDIT: I was going to make a comment about "milking it" but then I realised how else that could be interpreted...

Good band!

Damn it. I paid so much more for my CDs!

I've got about 5 or 6 but I can't remember what any of them are called or which songs are on which. I find that on some of his albums there's only one song on the album I can listen to. As someone said earlier, my favourite Stanley Clarke stuff is on the three 'classic line-up' Return To Forever albums. Yes, it's self-indulgent and some of it is silly but I do enjoy it.

I used to run my old Hartke 2.5XL full range and just send the lows to the Hartke 115XL. It sounded cool but I had to be careful about over-extension (or whatever it's called - over-excursion?).

[quote name='alexclaber' post='179736' date='Apr 18 2008, 01:41 PM']ultrasonic oscillation[/quote] If I ever start a prog project, that's what it'll be called! The suggestion about a vertical tweeter array sounds very good if possible.

The head looks a bit Fender-ish (but that could just be the colour of the grill cloth). Steve and Alex, I will give the Fender 400PS a full review once I've had a chance to give it a proper work-out.

[quote name='Clive Thorne' post='178481' date='Apr 17 2008, 12:32 AM']I'm sure she's very talented, but what she chooses to play is (IMHO) just so dreary![/quote] I like her playing (and singing) a lot. But I get exactly what you're talking about. I would never listen to Musiq Soulchild, Eric Benet or Level 42 (who she covers in her videos and tribute band). When she can play and sing like that, I'd love to see videos of more of her original material or something with a bit more bite.

In my List of the Top Ten Uses of the Word 'sh*t' (still in development), Duck Dunn comes in with "if the sh*t fits". Classic bass player. What's humbling about these guys is that they were that good and playing on hit records before they even finished high school. And on top of that, he and Steve Cropper seem like genuinely nice guys. Never heard anyone say a bad word about them.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='177646' date='Apr 16 2008, 10:11 AM']I think we're looking at easily under 40lbs complete, which will be amazing![/quote] Bloody hell. How do you expect it to compare to your old pair of Acme B2s?