gjones

18 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

Update … finger style tone great that it is but I’m discovering a new love of pick playing and setting everything up to EQ based around using a pick 

What have I discovered 

1: speed is a bit faster than my podgy digits 

2: less fundamental in the note ? 

3: less woolly tone ( low deep rumble ) 

4: clarity improved to the extent strings, effects, basses actually sound better instead of swamped with low bass 

5: Sounds very different near to amp and drummer but less so out front 

6: pick size materials and gauge make a difference 

I agree.

Been a long time finger player but recently played with a rock band for a while. A lot of the basslines just didn't sound right with fingers so swapped to pick and it made a big difference. 

I now chop and change with the other bands I play with. It's good to be versatile.

They're heavy when you gig with them because, unlike standard leads which lie on the floor for most of their length, you're carrying most of the weight of them yourself.

3 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

 

However, if the singer makes a mistake and the band doesn't go with it and leaves him/her high and dry, people will think "the entire band screwed up". It makes sense to me that one should adapt on the fly in order to escape the situation gracefully and as unnoticeably as possible.

 

 

I agree with you. I always go with the singer and if the whole band does it too, in many cases, nobody in the audience ever realises there was a mistake.

You only need to be as loud as the drummer at any venue that doesn't have front of house PA. At your next gig/rehearsal, get you drummer to play as loud as they can and if you can still hear yourself then you'll be fine. Any venue that has a front of house PA will put drums and bass through it. 

I've known about these little combos for years but ended up going down the digital head and Barefaced cab route. But when, just after lockdown, I saw a mint, late model one with the leather strap, going for a very good price on Ebay, I decided to bite the bullet and buy one.

3 years later and I've only recently had the chance to try it out in various scenarios and I'm really, really impressed. I've played through it with a quiet drummer, a medium loud drummer and a very, loud drummer, and it sounded great in every situation. Initially, I was afraid that the combo on it's own wouldn't be loud enough, so for the first two gigs I also brought along my Barefaced Super Compact but decided that the extra cab was overkill and disconnected it for both those gigs, which resulted in a more defined sound, which was plenty loud enough to project to the back of the room, and easily heard onstage. On the third gig I used it, I left the Barefaced at home.

It's also pretty light as well and an easy one hand lift (I have a sack trolley but haven't had to use it with the Markbass).

Why didn't anybody tell me these little combos were so great (ok everybody who owns one told me they were great but I just didn't listen). 

I wonder what the new version is like? What I do know, is that the original will be a difficult act to follow.

Played a couple of gigs with my brother in law at the Leith Jazz & Blues Festival in Edinburgh yesterday. I've played on and off with him since the 90s but only a couple of times in last couple of years. His usual guys weren't available so he asked me and a drummer he knew from about 40 years ago to do the gigs. For a thrown together band we did okay, the crowd had fun and the manager of the second bar we played in, who'd obviously made a mint in bar takings from his bursting at the seams bar, offered us twice the agreed fee at the end of the gig (my brother in law refused due to some reason I couldn't understand).

I like the 70s styles of music but some of my favorite bands, that play that type of music, were formed in the last 10 to 15 years.

Bands like Mamas Gun (soul), Young Gun Silver Fox (Yacht Rock), The Teskey Brothers (Motown), Israel Nash (Southern Rock).

Don't miss out the B at the beginning of Basschat or you'll get a shock when the website comes up.

Edit: someone beat me to it.

I've started playing some songs with a pick. They're the rockier, more aggressive songs in the set which would have been played originally with a pick. All I tend to do is turn the volume on my bass down a notch, or two, and go for it. 

After playing a gig last night, with a loud drummer, I think my favorite amp is now my Markbass CMD 121 P combo.

I brought my Barefaced Compact with me (with the Marbass sat on top), as I thought I might need extra volume, but after the first set I unplugged it and used the little Markbass all on it's own. 

It was very loud, punchy and clear, with gain at about one o'clock and the master at about eleven o'clock. I'm pretty sure there was a lot more in the tank if I had needed it.

I can't see a situation where it wouldn't be more than enough for any gigging scenario I might find myself in.

Most of the time I look like a miserable sod.

But occasionally I do actually smile.

I've always liked the Ashdown basic tone.

The Models I own/ have owned were/are...

EB 150 combo

ABM 500 III

MiBass 550

I've played through the RM 500 and really like that too.

I've also owned a TC electronic classic 450, GK MB 500 and 800, Fender TV 15 combo, Markbass 121 CMD. All of which were ok in their own right but not quite right for me (although the Markbass comes close)..

On 20/05/2023 at 23:55, Supernaut said:

Been a Jazz player for the last 15 years. 
 

Recently purchased a Precision and loving it. 
 

Had rehearsal last week and I was really struggling with the EQ to get a decent tone. No note definition, just lots of boom. 
 

Any tips? 

I'm a big Jazz Bass fan too but I bought a P bass after I saw a friend of his play his live and he had a great tone.

I struggled to get a good live tone myself until I turned the bass down and turned the mid up a smidge. I then turned the tone to about halfway. This gave the bass definition and a decent bottom end.

it's 1.2.3.4 and the bass comes in on the 1 of the next bar.

Two 12 inch cabs will always sound significantly louder than one. It's to do with the surface area of the speakers. If the cabs are both 4 ohms, and they're attached in parallel,  then the combined impedance will be 2 ohms. Which should be fine if your Eden is designed to work with that load.

I had an Ashdown Electric Blue 150 watt combo 10 years ago and they are decent amps. My band wasn't very loud so it was fine for pub gigs. It also takes an extension cab, so if your drummer is loud that is always an option.

I once put it through an Ashdown ABM 1x15 and with 150 watts through two 15 inch speakers, it was extremely loud 😀

That's a very good price for a lovely bass.

Dave Swift plays 6 strings, as many of the guests on The Later With Jools Holland show decide they want to sing stuff in a different key, from the originally agreed one, on the day of the performance.

Dave quickly learned it's easier to transpose stuff on a 6 string than a 5 or 4.

Luckily he has very large hands.

It's one of the reasons I bought a 5 string when I joined a cover band. The singer rarely sang the songs in the original key.

When I started playing bass, at 16, I learned a few Rock classics, then pretty soon after joined a band writing and playing original stuff for the next ten years. Then joined my brother in laws Blues band and for the next 30 years played nothing but Blues (in various bands). But since I've turned 50 I've branched out. I still play in a Blues band but have been in a ska band, a country band, a heavy Rock band, and a covers band (playing everything from Blondie to Queen).

So I've definitely become a more versatile player since my 50th birthday.  

I saw a couple of guys( one on guitar and one on bass) play about 4 U2 songs at a jam, with the bassist playing slap bass like Mark King.

There's overplaying.......and then there's OVERPLAYING!!!

Why not take the B off and make it into a normal 4 string, tuned EADG, with a very wide neck?

Whatever's easiest. Frankly nobody in the audience will care. 

Now if you were asking me about Sweet Home Alabama, that's a whole different question entirely..... 😄

When I started playing bass I had no amp and my bass was fitted with flats. So if I didn't play really hard, I wouldn't hear myself. As a result I got nasty blisters on my fingers.

Covid meant that the gigs dried up and after a couple of years of not playing I worried that I'd get blisters when I started to get back to gigging. My solution was to turn my amp up loud and play softly. 

I recommend you do the same. Turn your amp up way louder than you need to and it will force you to play softer.

Result......  no blisters.

Most early Pretenders songs have great basslines. Back On The Chaingang and Kid are two of my favourites to play.

I was in a band, until recently, which was originally formed by two guitarists in 2019. We'd started 6 months before lockdown and were working on a set. In 2022 we got back together and spent a lot of time and money working on two sets worth of songs (about 25 songs). 

I decided it was time to get a decent demo together so booked a studio. We picked the songs and 3 days before recording got together to go through the tunes we were planning to record. In the rehearsal room one of the guitarists seemed a bit distant and was not contributing much. Then, the next day (2 days before we were due in the studio) he sends a Whatsapp message to us all to say he doesn't want to join us in the studio.

Of course I contact the studio, to apologise for mucking them about, and cancel the studio session.

We then organised a band meeting and he explains he doesn't like approximately half the songs in the set, as there's nothing for him to do (i.e. there's only one guitar part on the original record and no guitar solos).

He's a grown man, we've been rehearsing this stuff since 2019. Why wait until 2 days before a recording session to tell us this?

The singer in the band started a poll to pick the songs that we all liked. At which stage I told them if the criteria a song has to meet to get it in the set, is that its a song we all like, then it's going to be an awfully small set.........and left the band.

But I took the singer with me. She is a great singer and really loves Americana and Country. The songs we will play will be the songs she wants to sing, not the songs the guitarist wants us to play (because he likes the guitar solo). 

What's that joke about how does a guitarist change a lightbulb?