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My son is now playing DB in the local music service philharmonia - he's touring France with them this week! Trouble is, squeezing a DB into our gaff is going to be more than a mite tricky. Solution would be an EUB I think. However I'm no expert in this field, and dont want to lay out massive wedge for an instrument that may not be up to the task or more wedge than needed to get him an instrument to practice on; he plays predominantly classical, although he is going to get some jazz lessons too, so the main thing is a decent arco experience for him, akin to the real thing. There are loads of EUBs out there, but the things to bear in mind are its got to be 3/4 size (no vertical 34" fretless basses), its got to deliver a decent arco experience (the sound needn't be spot on, but the feel needs to be close to that of a db), the cheaper the better - cos he may just decide to stick to electric bass in the end. If on the other hand he loves it and applies himself then an upgrade would certainly not be amiss in a year or so. So gents, what are your suggestions?

[quote name='peteb' post='453628' date='Apr 3 2009, 07:42 PM']Agree with all that – sh*t hot player, awful music, talks both a lot of sense and a lot of crap! One thing that I will say about Jeff Berlin - I don't get the impression that he is a delicate little flower who will run off in a strop if someone has a go at him! I thought that he handled the talkbass thing really well, but I got the impression that he was a touch disappointed that no one really challenged him. I get the idea that he is definitely not afraid of an argument.....[/quote] Absolutely. Kind of bloke you could have a beer with and really put him on the spot and I very much doubt he would be offended at all, just argue his point his way. Take it or leave it. I like that about him an awful lot actually.

[quote name='neilb' post='453528' date='Apr 3 2009, 05:11 PM']Do you run the signal thru Ch1 as a compressor, then link to CH2 as a limiter then out to the amp?[/quote] No need each channel has a very useable limiter built in. You could go the whole hog and run ch1 -> ch2 with ch2 set up with infinity+ ratio 0 attack short release and pull the threshold down till it caught what you needed to. But being a compressor by design its shortest attack will almost certainly be slower than the limiter. The limiter if set up sensibly is extremely transparent, but you dont have to be sensible if you like it squashier than a shy thing. Its that good. Not even mentioning the bass boost on it (which is brilliant) - oops

[quote name='alexclaber' post='452219' date='Apr 2 2009, 10:45 AM']Don't like his playing, don't like his tone, don't like his clothes, but strangely I do like his attitude - even though I often disagree! Alex[/quote] I know what you mean, his tone even weirds me out and I'm the polar opposite of you tone wise. His playing sometimes seems a little too clinical and overly clever for me too (probably I'm not intellectual enough to 'get it' - whatever), although it is brilliantly executed. He looks like a very middle aged American tourist, and some of his statements are totally nonsensical to me. Yet I profoundly respect his ability to get to the nub of what he is trying to say. Also his musical knowledge is clearly way beyond mine, so it would be stupidity incarnate to just ignore him (as if you could). I thought his entire Talkbass thread was superbly executed on his part, the exact right amount of humour in his responses, and a really good effort to defend his position on things. I certainly agree that to be a really good bassist you need to be a musician first, but a lot of the other stuff he comes up with (the usual: metronomes, warm ups, fretless) I disagree with. His school certainly teaches what he preaches and is excellent at producing really top quality pro level players. The weirdest thing I think I've heard from him is he considers Billy Sheehan to be the best rock bassist in the world. Now just the fact that Billy S. knows virtually no theory, harmonic or otherwise, and cant read a note would suggest that Jeff would really not think that of him. I really struggle to get my head around that! (For what its worth I tend to agree with Jeff on that point too, esp after hearing the Niacin stuff)....

Currently my osteopath bill comes in at £36 every 3 or 4 months. I'm a degenerating fat git, I certainly am not getting any thinner. Maybe this would help me stop my back locking up (just above the shoulder blades)? I should also add that I slouch like a bean bag whatever I sit on, and spend all day in front of a computer. Mr Fitty the fitness dude I am not

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='453503' date='Apr 3 2009, 04:47 PM']I've spent more on a single night out than I have on my current main bass (a USA Fender Jazz) and current car [i]combined[/i]. How's that for mixed up priorities/stupidity?[/quote] Well ever since the Thai Lady Boys of Bangkok put up their prices for extras I'm not surprised that your wallet has suffered

+1 to the above. I more or less started on a 5 then swapped back to 4, took a break came back, got a 5 took me about 2 weeks to 'get used to it', and I dont mean I'm absolutely at one with it, but I'd gig it happily.

If you can go rack then the focusrite compounder is the daddy, and particularly handy for your needs since you can set up nice overall compression and a seperate (useful) limiter to squash those heavy duty snaps really well. Works brilliantly for me!

I've played an S300, recommended it to a friend who was starting out. Its a truly brilliant bass for the cash, the set up has needed a bit of tweaking to get absolutely right, but thats normal at this price range IMO. I think they are the best/easiest to play most ergonomically perfect bass in this price range. An absolute class of their own in that regard. Also sounds really good too for that kind of money (although the bart loaded ones in the SR range do sound a tad better to me). Highly highly recommended IMO

My two penneth. I have the Korg metronome mentioned earlier and on mine at least the output to the headphones is unaffected by the volume control and stupidly loud. Dont get it for in ear stuff it dont work right! I find a nice hand clap sound far better/less painful than a woodblock or (urrrgh) a blip.

Oh and believe Alex his 'fro is a scary mama 'fro and it will beatchoass!

[quote name='alexclaber' post='451740' date='Apr 1 2009, 05:23 PM']No, I completely agree. At some point I may have some lessons to get me playing jazz, though that'll be way in the future, am busy enough being a singing/writing/bandleading bassist and making the odd bass cab or ten whilst doing another fulltime job! There are an awful lot of bassists out there that think they can play funk and frankly haven't got a clue. The biggest giveaway is when you ask them to teach you funk and they show you how to slap - run away!!! I may sound bullish about this but I have a big inner afro and I'm not afraid to use it. Alex[/quote] Funk does not need to be slap, but it can be slap; slap does not need to be funky, but it can be funky. If someone asks me to show them funk I refer them to Bootsy and the One....... It can and does go a long way from there, but thats my start point.

So not the Glitter Band then?

[quote name='lowdown' post='451702' date='Apr 1 2009, 04:52 PM']Paul Jackson Garry[/quote] Who is the drummer?

[quote name='alexclaber' post='451685' date='Apr 1 2009, 04:41 PM']The shift from this to The Meters is not as far as you'd think - both the drummers and bass players have remarkably similar feels. And in more recent times RATM and even Korn have funked out, though from more of a [b]hip hop[/b] perspective. Alex[/quote] Dont get me started on Doug Wimbish again Alex, its going to get really tedious soon

[quote name='alexclaber' post='451672' date='Apr 1 2009, 04:29 PM']Sly Stone is generally a good starting place. "Everyday People" is open E 8th notes all the way through the song. d-dah-d-dah. Staccato-Legato etc. "Thank You (falletmebemiceelf)" is a dead simple thumpin' n' pluckin' thang. Larry Graham is great feel-wise because he generally lays it right down the middle of the beat, none of the weird Rocco topspin or George Porter Jr laying back. (Though check his overdubbed fuzz on "Dance to the Music" - he sits the fuzz line behind the beat but the clean line on the beat. Genius!) Alex[/quote] +1 Thats the place to start. Lost count of the number of times I've 'come up with the best middle 8 of all time' according to the rhythm guitarist, only to show him that all I'm playing is the du-duuuh-du-duuuh-du-duuuh-du-duuuh feel classic b-line. You swing that hard enough and anyone not dancing is officially dead from the groin down

Once again Mr Sheehan comes across as a very decent fella.....

[quote name='crez5150' post='451595' date='Apr 1 2009, 03:28 PM'].........If they had stock....... [/quote] Sheeesh, enough with the details!

[url="http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=79757&source=froogle"]http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?pr...;source=froogle[/url] 180 inc vat!

[quote name='mybass' post='451578' date='Apr 1 2009, 03:18 PM']Recently losing use of some old Sennheisers has started me looking at replacements. I was in a studio all week. The owner / engineer had the Sennhesier HD 600. They are reputed to be good enough to mix on and they did sound great and were very comfortable. The big "but" is they are around the £190/200 mark. I've looked at cheaper models but my head keeps saying go for these. My ears need looking after these days! Anyone else got them or knows a cheaper supplier. I'm trawling the internet today for a good supplier. Ta.[/quote] Ilisten all day on a pair of 575s and they are magnificent. If the 600s are better then they would be around that mark. I got mine on the bay of evilness years ago for £70 (and yes they are genuine) never seen them since. They are a bit weird, they have a 590 capsule in a 560 body or some such.....

To the OP the only way to really cop the funk is to listen to it almost exclusively for a few months. Craig Charles' show is a great starting point as is the funk101 thread on talkbass. Enjoy!

[quote name='alexclaber' post='451490' date='Apr 1 2009, 01:59 PM']Check out The Meters too. Technically very easy to play but the feel is hard - you need to sit back and cope with the drums sitting even further back. Alex[/quote] Oh yeah right with you on that - I came from a very punk/avante garde noise rock meets funk background, and playing behind feels totally alien to me as a result - Tippie Toes [b]should[/b] be easy, but making it feel like they do is a complete @*&^!! Love The Meters though, recently covered Fire on The Bayou with a band, that is absolutely awesome to play and its about 4 notes!!!

I picked mine up for £150 on the bay, so they can be bought for sensible money!

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='451287' date='Apr 1 2009, 11:04 AM']You'll be hard pushed to beat the multicomp without spending twice the money. I always likes the Focusrite compounder. They are quite expensive new compared to the EBS - but I have just looked at some on ebay that are at a comparable price to the multicomp. (the BIN one looks good) Works great in a live situation - and a great all round compressor for in the studio, even vocals. It's particularly good on bass drums also.[/quote] +1 (check my sig) its the canine undercarriage on bass

Whilst its true that harmonically funk is pretty simple, a lot of funk feel is damned hard to master. Even Sex Machine, which is not that tough of a riff, is really taxing on people coming from a rock/punk/blues or even jazz rhythmic background. Bootsy laid down some of the all time ultimate funk grooves with JB, and a lot of them use very natural sounding, but really hard to nail 16th note syncopation, and the real trick is he often played lines that syncopate off different 16th notes each beat in the bar. TOP is devastatingly hard in comparison, just because its so fast. Sure you maybe can play the line, but if you dont play it as solid as Rocco and grooving as hard then you have a way to go, and very few people can really do it (I know I seriously struggle when I start tying to play things like On The Serious Side - it sounds simple but its a killer). The notes used are almost irrelevant, you only need the root an octave, a fifth (maybe) and some mutes to be funky as hell. Notes don't make funk, groove does. I'd say listen to Craig Charles' Funk show every week, record it and cop you 5 favourite grooves off the program each week. One a day through the week. You'll be naturally funky in no time!