Chris2112

[quote name='urb' timestamp='1349957450' post='1832666'] This is superb - sure the gurning is what it is, does it matter? How many of you *never* pull a face when playing...? [/quote] It's distracting from the actual music though. Not just that, but it looks so forced and false. Although when Patitucci did it it didn't seem quite as contrived as this. I remember seeing a .gif on ebaumsworld of Patitucci endlessly repeating some gurning at Chick as he played a little solo. It's like his face was reflecting what he was tying to do with the instrument, stuff like raising his eyebrows as he bent a string or whatever. I found it incredibly irritating to watch too, being a .gif! Overall though, I do find Continuum a bit worn out. Maybe it was hearing Victor Bailey's 'Do you know who' cover. Still makes me shudder. The best version of Continuum I've heard in a while was the Trio of Doom recording. McLaughlin's shimmering guitar intro and the interplay with the bass at the start makes for fantastic listening and breathed some life into this tune which I mostly feel like I've heard one or two many times before.

The first thing I thought when I saw the bassist was 'John Patitucci'. Patitucci was always going on like that when he played Chick Corea; gurning and swaying his head around whilst looking at Chick and trying to look 'jazz'.

Definitely you being a grumpy old man as Victor Wooten is awesome. Mind you, his party trick skills tend to get mentioned more than his music which is a shame. He is an awesome bass player, but most people are more interested in the jaw dropping slap solos he does for fun than the many, many albums of music he has recorded as a band leader and sideman. Victor is, I would say, probably the most competent and complete bassist out there.

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1349718008' post='1829581'] I have 5 string alembics which others have described as heavy but I doubt if any are 11lbs. Maybe I should check. [/quote] I've played some real boat anchor Alembics in my time. And I love them! But some of them are really heavy. Make my Thumb 5 string feel like a feather pillow. That said, I mostly play sitting down these days so the weight matters little to me, especially since if I am standing I will have the bass very high on the strap meaning my lower back is saved the job of propping me up.

The Arpege also has the cooler name.

I've never really been here nor there on Rickenbacker basses. They sound great through a cranked amp for playing rock, but then most things do. They looks do nothing for me. The thing that really bothers me is the way the company conducts business now. I respect their right to protect their trademark but they go about it in a fairly ugly fashion. I have also played Ric copies that would blow a proper Ric into the weeds, so I'll be unlikely to shell out top whack for one any time soon.

And as mentioned above, it's some real rock, not the robotic, quantised rubbish that gets batted about these days.

Is that from a live recording? The studio version sounds similar but actually comes across as pretty tight when the drums are added in. In a live situation, particularly a live one, we all know it can be a bit of a crap shoot sometimes! Lovely tone too, never though I'd say that about a P bass unless Tony Butler was playing it! Queen couldn't half knock out a good tune.

Nice playing, though I'm not sure the microphone is doing the bass justice as it sounds very lifeless. Dead strings?

[quote name='Mr Fretbuzz' timestamp='1349628773' post='1828446'] I was at this shop last year and a guy was playing one...he had GAS but when he saw the disgust on my face, [b]he put it down, decided to save for a real one [/b]and left the shop :-D It did sound ok though on an Ashdown combo. I've not heard a real Ricky yet but I seen one in a shop and I've got GAS [/quote] No he didn't, what a load of bollocks. He probably made a quick exit, stage left, after he spotted some judgemental mouth breather looking at him with a look of disgust on his face. The kind of repellent, arrogant fool who likes to hang round guitar shops on a Saturday afternoon.

I'd love a Rockinbetter. They rock better than a Rickenbacker.

Not to mention the fact that a lot of the time, the stuff you see in official tab books is wrong!

That Roland demo is just absolutely ridiculous. He seems to be playing right 'on the edge' of what he can cleanly pull off and his demo sounds far sloppier for it. However, contrary to popular belief from pub rockers and people can't do it, slap still exists and bassists still slap, even just for fun. I'll admit though, most demo videos aren't much if it's just a Nigel Clutterbuck style slap assault.

I still remember MX Tabs shutting down. And then realising that a waste of time tabs were!

Fender have long been associated with crap low B's. Though Stuart Hamm's OB1 Urge II sounded great.

I had never noticed before, just how out of time Cliff was on that 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' intro!

I too thought this was going to be about the death of Cliff Richard.

That little phrase at 01:23 is just awesome. Great sounding bass too!

Awesome playing there!

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1348745582' post='1817609'] Some might say you run the risk of becoming a musical snob with statements like that. [/quote] You will note all I have done there in the phrase you have quoted is to paraphrase the sentence that Bilbo had already written, and just changed 'jazz' for 'fusion', essentially giving the phrase the opposite meaning of what Bilbo had said. But if some might say that Bilbo and I are running the risk of becoming musical snobs with statements like that, that's a risk we'll just have to take! [quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1348735826' post='1817418'] Great Album all round [agree about the Synth sounds and being better] I remember buying it for about £20.00 or so around the mid 90's, now you can download from iTunes for about $10.00 Garry [/quote] Tell me about it. A few years ago I was buying as much of Jonas Hellborg's back catalogue as I could get my hands on. Some of the records costing as much as £25 a pop! A lot of them are still unavailable on the internet though. Some of them, I wonder if Jonas even has a copy!

I've been there and done that before. Generally I didn't find myself wanting frets too much for most things, but some things were just completely undoable (Level 42, for instance). In the end, I realised I was happier with a fretted bass!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1348478728' post='1813947'] I went through this phase..... What hindsight tells me is that a lot of this stuff suffered from a superficiality that meant it struggled to live up to the standards of great Jazz and often lacked the musical interaction that, for me, defined the greatest Jazz. [/quote] But then jazz usually lacks the flair and passion of great fusion, that, for me, defined the greatest fusion records. Jazz is all well and good, especially if you're hosting a dinner for old folks at the bowling green. But years of listening and research have taught me that whilst fusion grew from jazz, there is often a gulf between them in terms of their ability to interest me. I don't buy the lazy argument that fusion was poor man's jazz, amped up for the rock listeners. Rather, I would say it grew from jazz where jazz had become staid and turgid. As much as fusion players can be accused of excess and superficial displays of technical facility, more often than not I believe this stems from a desire to push the instrument and the music to it's limit. For even the most dedicated fusion players have had quiet, feelsome tracks. For every [i]Havona [/i]there is a track like [i]A Remark You Made. [/i]The same argument could be quickoly modified and thrown back at jazz; namely that it's players often turn out boring records, supposedly expecting some kudos and appropriate praise because it's jazz. At their closest, the bridge between jazz and fusion can be little more than electric instruments vs acoustic instruments because the music is so similar. But there are extremes at either end, from overly-fanciful fusion records to lazy jazz plodders. That's the thing with jazz, it often seems quite soulless and self-indulgent. To recommend some more great fusion though... I love this track. Very angular sounds, and Anthony Jackson laying down the bass with some serious groove. I have played this track for friends before and they say it sounds 'dated' because of the synth sounds. I think they're very much 'of their time' and the track is all the better for it. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8k53ZzJbc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8k53ZzJbc[/url]

[quote name='Fat Rich' timestamp='1348579402' post='1815440'] For me the important thing is that the low B should have he same tone and attack as the other strings on the bass, and not just with fresh strings either. Otherwise you'll find your low notes will just go missing and it'll feel like the bottom has dropped out of the song. [/quote] This is an essential factor for me. The Low B must be present and useable. On some basses it feels and sounds like an afterthought. Never played a Status with a bad low B (graphite ones, anyway). My Warwick Thumb 5 string is the bass that had brought me back to 5 strings after a considerable hiatus. It really is superb.

Yes, I used to know that one when I was obsessed with learning the Big Country back catalogue. I don't think there is anything particularly tough about it aside from some of the verse riffs. But in typical Tony Butler style, they are never far from the root. Try using a pick to make sure you stand out in the mix too, it'll help you keep track of your sound and what you're doing! The trick is to keep your ear on the drums. Tony often locks in with the drums and the guitars will set about doing their own melodies which can distract your ear if you're trying to follow the tune through the guitars.

Ah, at least you know it's just from over-tuning it that you've bust a string. Easier to sort than having a sharp bridge saddle!