4 Strings

Or big hands! I must say I'm always inspired by fab playing on 'traditional' instruments, gives me something to which I might aspire, seeing him on that Jazz was cool.

Love Ritenour's matching guitar and shirt! Pretty amazing playing by all. Is his Jazz bridge pup abnormally close to the bridge? Very nice, top class stuff. Personally I feel I've outgrown slap somehow, could certainly never do it to this sort of standard but wonder if this has now past. No doubt he does the fingers as impeccably! There are certainly some incredible young drummers coming out of the States recently. what fun Lee must have playing with people of this quality.

Standard control settings for me on the Streamliner is all pointing up with the Midget and the same for the Compact except the Master Vol goes to 9 O'Clock, but then I've hardly ever used amp eq anyway.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1348829210' post='1818756'] And The Beatles' inspiration was Brian Wilson They spurred each other on: "It was [i]Pet Sounds[/i] that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life ... I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album ... I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century ... but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways ... I've often played [i]Pet Sounds[/i] and cried. I played it to John [Lennon] so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence ... it was the record of the time. The thing that really made me sit up and take notice was the bass lines ... and also, putting melodies in the bass line. That I think was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded [i]Pepper[/i], it set me off on a period I had then for a couple of years of nearly always writing quite melodic bass lines." ---Paul McCartney The Beatles were great. But Brian Wilson was better* *in my opinion [/quote] Great quote, thanks. The Beatles had George Martin to do the 'music' stuff (for example Eleanor Rigby - fab!) whereas, assuming Wilson did the scoring, it was just him, no partner to test ideas etc. I have always thought the bass was extraordinary both rhythmically and harmony. While we ought to give Carol the credit for the playing (according to the video clip, this is one session she WAS on!) but the rhythm and harmony comes from Wilson. In the second clip above a guitar and bass track each other to get that sound. His vision was amazing and can be appreciated in these clips where almost everything had to be pre-arranged and set for the group of musicians in one go. Interesting that despite his otherwise impatience he was open to their suggestions.

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1348341210' post='1812642'] I've been listening to the Beach Boys, probably due to the fact I've got a P-Bass again and have once more gotten totally hooked on the brilliance of Carol Kaye! Thought I might share this audio clip for those who haven't heard it before, it details Brian Wilson in the studio directing 'The Wrecking Crew' session players and other assorted musicians from L.A on what to play and where on one of my favourite songs, 'Sloop John B'. It touches on Wilson's need for absolute perfection from the guys and girls he had in the studio during the Pet Sounds sessions, really incredible stuff and an superb ear for arrangement and production. It has also got one of my very favourite Carol Kaye bass lines on it also. Check it out: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9iu65sot1E&feature=related[/media] [/quote] Thanks for this, fascinating. Carol was playing a scored bass line. The achievement of this is all the more impressive when you hear balancing the flutes, for example, is by moving one closer to the mic. Having just completed a vocal recording on Logic simply using the best bits and pieces from a series of takes with an almost limitless number of separate tracks its all so much easier nowadays.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1348440123' post='1813756'] Brilliant. Never mind Lennon/McCartney ---the real hero of the 60s will always be Brian Wilson as far as I'm concerned. In a world where the word genius is thrown around far too often he really does fit the bill. [/quote] While I agree about his then genius (I have loved Pet Sounds throughout my life) his inspiration was listening to the Beatles.

I think I understand where Bilbo is coming from, we were booked for a 'Tribute Night' and, to be honest, many of the other acts were poor. We were the only act without BTs, our sax player was infuriated by the whole thing. After his years of study and extremely hard work in becoming little short of an elite sax player, working just as hard to promote his own quartet with original music among a number of other projects to see people being paid for the display of so little talent and heavy reliance on other people's for a, frankly, poor act it was a little too much for him. How could he find mediocre singing and performance to off-the-shelf tracks entertaining? The 'real world' sees the punters seeming to lap it up, I see people trying to make a living, the venue sees a booking fee less than a fifth of ours. Our sax player would rather have been anywhere else. He's not a musical snob, just knows what it takes to be a talented professional.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1348779878' post='1818243'] Perhaps the best guitarists are bassists Our buddy Guthrie does do the slap thing very well! [/quote] He does. I'[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1348779878' post='1818243'] Perhaps the best guitarists are bassists Our buddy Guthrie does do the slap thing very well! [/quote]He does indeed. (Im missing a Fellowship gig as I type )

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1348692784' post='1817108'] Or hats. Except Slash. [/quote][quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1348692570' post='1817101'] It's the long hair and the beard. Guitar players never have beards [/quote] [attachment=119515:guthrie-govan2.jpg] Perhaps the best guitarists have beards

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1348700221' post='1817253'] Cropper says he was the same when he first started in bands, ended up with a strap specially made to get it at low as he wanted & referred me to his last album cover. [/quote] Interesting, as his strap got shorter with age his sadly missed oppo went the other way; [attachment=119448:Duck Dunn.jpg]

Don't know if someone has said this already, but, assuming right handed, the right side can go down with the long strap but tip the neck further upwards than 'normal' This straightens the wrist on both hands and allows a low right hand. Bit like, but not as far as, the old Bill Wyman position. Someone posted a (new to me) clip of Jamerson and I was surprised how low he had his, but he also raised the neck end. I'm a bit of a short strap softy, bass rests on my belly, can't play as well with it low and I couldn't give a tinker's cuss what it looks like.

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1348679707' post='1816888'] As does (mainland) Spain and Italy, especially the Tuscany region from what I understand..... [/quote] I suppose places where holidaying Brits are not.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1348668690' post='1816696'] plenty of yin and not much yang one section of polyrhythmic cacophony going into another and then another just doesnt really take me anywhere - the first section up to 1:40 ish was listenable and getting there but then it sort of disintegrated completely before coming back into some sort of disordered order [/quote] But that's the art isn't it?

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1348659364' post='1816509'] good point, may go down that route after attempting this-swap-speaker-cab-thing! It was just a cheapish attempt to upgrade speaker/cab without (a) building a new one, ( waiting months for a new one (although thats now happened with the kappalite The Ashdown is pretty lousy as a piece of kit IMO so chopping it up doesn't bother me (they're not worth much anyway) [/quote] I suppose if the Ashdown doesn't work that well (even if an improvement on the original) could always transfer the driver into a ready made Bill cabinet. (I wonder if Alex will sell you an empty cab?)

Of the four words used in the OP I think Bonkers was the most apt! Love it, great to see 'traditional' instruments, sounds like an Entwistle P played by Squire on speed! Where do you start to make that sort of stuff up? (With so much difficult harmony going on the ringy snare got a bit irritating.) I'm off to find some more, thanks. oo, just to add, I don't understand it!

I know he had a twin neck thing going on there, but isn't this a synth, of interest because its been made in the shape of a guitar? There's been plenty of those in the past, just this one has the ipad screen instead of a keyboard. Probably has its advantages but just lose that part of the novelty and play a synth if you want those sorts of sounds and emulations. It was played by the bass player playing bass parts but then so did Stevie Wonder. Why is it considered a bass?

Of course, I understand that, but perhaps people won't want to water down their own opportunities and, in the end, you may have to suck and see. Certainly the big name agents will be the best for opportunities. We use 'Actz' and they keep our Motown girls extremely busy, 2-4 a week, and so they work hard and get gigs but that's mostly with BTs, very few with the full band. If I find any in our search more useful for a band I'll pass them on.

There are loads of agents, you have to get your promo pack together with photos, demos and videos together with rates, areas and what you can do. Send it around to all those that look like they deal with your sort of stuff. (Google is the place to start). We going through this process to expand our field for the Motown band, the current agent doesn't work with too many wedding/corporate opportunities which would have the budget for the full band.

Would it be inappropriate (unless someone already has) to comment that all the hard work has already been done by the likes of Maurice and Alex Claber for these drivers so why not flog the Ashdown cab and buy/make a BF (as in Bill) or buy a Compact from BF (as in Alex). More money, perhaps not as exciting as your journey of discovery but you'll get a cab that def works for your money as both these chaps know what they're doing with Kappas and didn't have the compromise of an existing cabinet.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1348586218' post='1815588'] I have this vision of Bottom E coming on stage and unplugging Rush on their next tour because they have gone beyond his guidelines of acceptable levels of samples and pre-recorded triggered bits [/quote] After Bilbo has walked out.

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1348582949' post='1815515'] Don't agree with that. Even 20% is enough to differentiate between somebody playing/singing and a bloody D J , karaoke or piped music etc. Besides - a 4 piece band might be using a recorded synth part and a click track or similar , where would you draw the line? >>>>As soon as someone is performing live it becomes live, even I suppose, to the mixing dj (we had one at Reading, was it?, this year). Someone's in a bar singing live and playing a guitar. That's live music. The backing tapes are on top of that. I wouldn't stay and watch but that's just me. [/quote] Not sure anyone stays to watch, that sort of thing is just background music with a little more repartee with the audience than a dj isn't it? Creates a sort of entertaining atmosphere as opposed to providing something to engage and watch, conversation normally being more interesting to the point of no applause at the end of songs etc. But that's fine too, isn't it? We offer dinner jazz for meal functions, everything is live but careful not to upset the meal atmos and conversation by being too loud. When there'a a little more money around hopefully people won't mind paying a bit more for live music. At the moment the next stage is not to bother with the one man and his guitar and tracks and just pipe the music, if it makes more for the bar.

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1348573143' post='1815308'] As above I am not sure that venues pay that much less, if at all, for the BT man. It's just the line of least resistance and they don't have to worry about musicians and all their noisy gear. [/quote] Its the other way round, we charge more. Our Motown band - £600 for 3 girls and tracks or £1,100 for 3 girls and the 5 piece band. Trouble is, why would the venue take the band, everyone prefers the live band (sax player - Andrew Linham - is sublime!) and always comments etc but who's £400 will it be? Certainly BTs have become more acceptable since the advent of the dreaded X-Factor, but I suppose that's not the only damage it has caused.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1348483827' post='1814028'] I just think people who visit a bar where there is a singer with backing tapes should leave but, before doing so, tell the staff that that is why you are going. The deal will then be, do more people stay to watch or do more people go to find something better? Persoanlly, I woudl never watch anyone singing to backing tapes. I am better than that, even if they aren't. {ducks for cover] [/quote] Hmmm, tricky one. Our Motown band goes out as a full band or just the girls with backing tracks. Half the cost, the venue is not likely to sell more food/beer etc just because they have a full band as the girls go down a storm either way. It's a commercial decision which I fully understand, even if frustrated with as they get way more gigs that way than with the band. With live music opportunities seemingly on the down and rates not changing in the last couple of years I'll be glad when we're out of this imposed recession.