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Respect the bass!


Mickeyboro
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Been to two gigs recently where the bass has been disrespected - in my view anyway. 
 

Billy Gibbons and his accomplice in his solo show both played guitars with some kind of built-in octaver that produced a mushy bass note. Dusty Hill would not have approved. 
 

And while Zack Starkey does a passable Moon, the bass role has been diminished since Pino left the Who. Really unbalances the music.

 

Rant over!

 

 

Edited by Mickeyboro
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20 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

 

 

And while Zack Starkey does a passable Moon, the bass role has been diminished since Pino left the Who. Really unbalances the music.

 

 

 

I think they've been empty since John Entwistle died. I appreciate Pino saved the day but blimey, a more unsuitable player for The Who would be hard to find.

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I saw The Who with Pino on bass at the O2 maybe 10 years ago. He needn't have bothered ... I didn't hear a single bass note all evening, the sound was that bad.

 

I thought it was down to the venue (although the Stones sounded OK there) until I saw Fleetwood Mac at the O2; one of the best live bass sounds I've ever heard from Mr. McVie. He had a bloody great rolling rack unit of about 10 Orange amps next to him on stage, which I thought was a fair approach to foldback ...

 

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20 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

Been to two gigs recently where the bass has been disrespected - in my view anyway. 
 

Billy Gibbons and his accomplice in his solo show both played guitars with some kind of built-in octaver that produced a mushy bass note. Dusty Hill would not have approved. 
 

And while Zack Starkey does a passable Moon, the bass role has been diminished since Pino left the Who. Really unbalances the music.

 

Rant over!

 

 

 

 

For many years Dusty had an always on Octave when playing live. A MicroPog into a Thumpinator to cut everything lower than a low B so he could leave it on all the time. The Thumpinator made sure that nothing lower got through.

 

Elwood (when he was still the tech) explains it from about 1min30 here:

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

I saw The Who with Pino on bass at the O2 maybe 10 years ago. He needn't have bothered ... I didn't hear a single bass note all evening, the sound was that bad.

 

 

I saw the Stones at the O2 about 20 years ago and didn't hear Darryl Jones either.

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2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

I saw The Who with Pino on bass at the O2 maybe 10 years ago. He needn't have bothered ... I didn't hear a single bass note all evening, the sound was that bad.

 

I thought it was down to the venue (although the Stones sounded OK there) until I saw Fleetwood Mac at the O2; one of the best live bass sounds I've ever heard from Mr. McVie. He had a bloody great rolling rack unit of about 10 Orange amps next to him on stage, which I thought was a fair approach to foldback ...

 

I'm sure Mr McVie was personally involved in making sure the engineer got him a good sound at every venue. 

 

John Entwistle would have been the same.

 

Pino, in the end, was just a hired hand. So he probably didn't get too hands on with the FOH sound.

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23 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

I saw The Who with Pino on bass at the O2 maybe 10 years ago. He needn't have bothered ... I didn't hear a single bass note all evening, the sound was that bad.

 

I thought it was down to the venue (although the Stones sounded OK there) until I saw Fleetwood Mac at the O2; one of the best live bass sounds I've ever heard from Mr. McVie. He had a bloody great rolling rack unit of about 10 Orange amps next to him on stage, which I thought was a fair approach to foldback ...

 

Had exactly the same experience seeing The Who with Pino at the First Direct in Leeds a similar time ago - so not a venue problem.

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Well well well, I could hear the bass last night. Not a boomy mush but almost difficult to distinguish from the guitars as it was quite toppy, it could still have done with bring far more prominent giving that this is The Who. 

Several times though I noticed that only Roger, Pete and Zak were spotlighted with the rest in darkness, also the bassist was hiding away at the back almost behind the drums. 

But it was a fantastic night and they were on top form, the orchestra really lifted the sound. 

 

20230725_214941.thumb.jpg.482579028909f1f648db23ff7c56725a.jpg

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17 minutes ago, Maude said:

Well well well, I could hear the bass last night. Not a boomy mush but almost difficult to distinguish from the guitars as it was quite toppy, it could still have done with bring far more prominent giving that this is The Who. 

Several times though I noticed that only Roger, Pete and Zak were spotlighted with the rest in darkness, also the bassist was hiding away at the back almost behind the drums. 

But it was a fantastic night and they were on top form, the orchestra really lifted the sound. 

 

20230725_214941.thumb.jpg.482579028909f1f648db23ff7c56725a.jpg

Where is this? Looks like something out of War of The Worlds.

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2 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Where is this? Looks like something out of War of The Worlds.

The Eden Project, Cornwall. 

It really is quite amazing as a venue. Large amphitheater so good visibility from pretty much everywhere and the lighting in the biomes is linked to the stage lighting so mirrors the colours, strobes etc. 

Luckily it was dry and sunny. 

Edited by Maude
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It just so happens that Lady Maude recorded some of my generation on her phone, I know, it sounds terrible, but you can hear the bass! 

She must've learnt about bass through osmosis as this was the only bit she recorded all night and she managed to get the little bass solo. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Maude said:

It just so happens that Lady Maude recorded some of my generation on her phone, I know, it sounds terrible, but you can hear the bass! 

She must've learnt about bass through osmosis as this was the only bit she recorded all night and she managed to get the little bass solo. 

 

 

Now that is a perfectly respectable tone - nice bit of grit on top (I'd prefer a bit more though😄).

 

It's a bit of a hallowed bass solo though, not sure about that interpretation though... 

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