Advice from Actual Famous(or been in known bands) Bass players

[borisbrain]

I recently asked Bruce Thomas (of Elvis Costello's Attractions) about his signature sound on classic early LPs and he was kind enough to give some detailed and useful advice on guitars, amps, speakers, effects, EQ settings and more. BT has set up a blogging website at www.brucethomas.co.uk and he is known to get quite chatty with some of his correspondents, along with posting some general interest or nostalgic morsels. Still not much love lost between him and EC though...

BB

[risingson]

I could have bitten Anthony Jackson's hand off a few months back when I met him but I basically had a mini-freakout standing in front of who I'd consider to be the most consummate bass player the world has ever seen. Instead I garbled a few unintelligible bits of poorly thought out conversation and that was kind of it. Lovely guy though, wish I'd asked him something at least half-interesting!!

[jmchich]

I think if you'd bitten his hand off, that would have been a worse outcome than just embarrassing yourself. How would he play with only one hand?

[Cameronj279]

Had two lessons from Nick Schendzielos (Cephalic Carnage/Job for a Cowboy). Learned more in those two hours than in 6 months

[Conan]

[quote name='bonzodog' timestamp='1371205440' post='2111128']
Glen Hughes' advice was "If you ever make a cock up just make sure the audience doesn't notice."
[/quote]

I heard a better version of that one, which I believe is attributed to Wilko Johnson:

"If you make a mistake, just look brash and the audience will think they heard it wrong!"

[jakenewmanbass]

I chat to Jimmy Johnson, (lucky enough to call him a pal really, have met him a few times) and have asked him several questions about different aspects of playing. I asked him last year about trying to give specific sounds to a producer as per their requirement for a session, he came back with a load of advice including some pics of an old P bass a studio had hired for him, they had placed a cloth under the strings near the bridge to get a thumpy sound, he said it was not really his sound but he was happy to give 'em what they were after. I've spoken to him several times about playing with James Taylor and Allan Holdsworth and sent him recordings that I've done for advice. He (Jimmy) is a really lovely helpful guy, very humble and in my opinion one of the worlds great players at the moment.

[risingson]

[quote name='jakenewmanbass' timestamp='1371483628' post='2114412']
I chat to Jimmy Johnson, (lucky enough to call him a pal really, have met him a few times) and have asked him several questions about different aspects of playing. I asked him last year about trying to give specific sounds to a producer as per their requirement for a session, he came back with a load of advice including some pics of an old P bass a studio had hired for him, they had placed a cloth under the strings near the bridge to get a thumpy sound, he said it was not really his sound but he was happy to give 'em what they were after. I've spoken to him several times about playing with James Taylor and Allan Holdsworth and sent him recordings that I've done for advice. He (Jimmy) is a really lovely helpful guy, very humble and in my opinion one of the worlds great players at the moment.
[/quote]

Jimmy Johnson is incredible, he reminds me a tiny bit of Anthony Jackson in the way that he is in no way constrained by the limitations of his instrument, or at least it never sounds that way when he plays. I like players that sound like they know the full extent to which their instrument can be played but not having to play like it all the time.