bassace

My three uprights are:- The German Blonde, Ginger and The Prof. Oh, and the Stig. That way my wife knows what I'm talking about.

Very nice, Steve!

There are two distinct schools of thought on string height. Set the strings low and you will be able to employ a lot of technique and become a hot soloist a la Stanley Clark. Set them higher and you will be able to get a lot more snap out of them. This will give you a bigger sound but will slow you down slightly and will make playing up the fingerboard a harder expereience, especially in the thumb position. The trouble is, the lower you set the strings the easier it will be for them to click on the fingerboard. The quality and setup of this component will be important. I checked my heights before I posted this and found that the G on the bass I use for larger groups is at 9mm while my more 'technical' bass for piano trios is set at 6mm. Normally my advice to a first-timer would be to go for the higher action (your 10mm should be OK for starters) and get your pizz technique well developed. However, as you come from BG, as several guys seem to be doing these days, you may experience less of a change by having a lower action. My advice to you, 6string, is to enjoy and explore the bass as it is for the present. Don't rush into any sudden changes, take in all the (sometimes contradictory) advice you'll be sure to get from Basschat, and take your time to decide. Find a good teacher if you can. Welcome to the world of URB!

[quote name='lowdown' post='242612' date='Jul 18 2008, 12:27 PM']Had a nice surprise a few days ago [not that i do many jazz gigs anymore] 'Have you met miss Jones'... [and not as a funk tune either...!!!] Not sure why i like that tune...but i do. Garry[/quote] Great tune, isn't it. Try to get hold of Oscar Peterson's 'We Get Requests' CD. Ray Brown plays bass and this version is held up as an example of really good, spare bass playing with every note counting. It also shows that a tune can swing without being up-tempo.

[quote name='TheRev' post='240995' date='Jul 16 2008, 03:57 PM']Girl from Ipanema.[/quote] +1. It's been done to death.

[quote name='The Funk' post='236086' date='Jul 9 2008, 09:34 PM']St James Infirmary is a jazz song when Louis Armstrong plays it, a blues song when Bobby Bland plays it, and a rock song when Eric Clapton plays it.[/quote] And before that it was an English folk song.

[quote name='dlloyd' post='236099' date='Jul 9 2008, 09:46 PM']I was going to mention Lonnie Donnegan...[/quote] He had a far greater influence on the British popular music scene than he was given credit for. Before Lonnie and skiffle, I think it's far to say that young people made music in the formal sense - classical, silver bands and a few joined dance bands, very often under parental guidance and influence. Lonnie introduced self-taught DIY music - three chord guitars, tea chest basses and washboards. These DIY merchants then developed their skills and rock groups followed. I seem to remember that's how the Beatles started. The other seminal moment was when Hank Marvin played the intro to Move It. Suddenly everyone wanted to be Hank and sales of cheap solid electrics took off. The rest, as they say, is history. Jazz, now that's another thing. Chris Barber and Humph had a great influence.

My bath belonged to someone famous but I can't remember who.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='231800' date='Jul 3 2008, 09:54 AM']This is interesting. Forgive this lack of modesty but Mike Walker recently said as a compliment to me, "when everbody else is trying to play a million notes you are trying to play one as well as it can be played, If I ever need a true minim I will give you a call" I was hugely flattered, and it sums up what I am about, I want to play the simple stuff as devastatingly well as I can. Given that this is in the 'I Love Jazz' thread maybe it will encourage some discussion on what is the most musical option, because as you say those guys' recognition of that is what sets them apart, and in my view makes them the guys to aspire to.[/quote] How interesting, that's how I've always felt. I once remarked to a drummer I was working with for the first time on a jazz gig that I could tell when the rhythm was swinging when I could move things along with a simple two in the bar under a gentle ride (listen to Cannonball Adderly playing 'Soon' - not sure who the bassist was). He replied, 'yes, but a minim's a long note to get wrong, isn't it!' A drummer with some intelligence - and wit.

Friday evening played Chicago style jazz with the Seven Stars at a golf club at Droitwich as part of their Music and Arts Festival. The URB and amps fitted nicely in the new Merc C Class. Sat morning did a shop opening in Witney with a scratch jazz four piece; trumpet, sax, me on URB and a female banjo player with a broken leg - you couldn't make it up! The shop owner let me park in his service bay but then told me that there was no power available because we were under a gazebo in the middle of the pedestrian area. So I played my old German lami unamped for two hours. Haven't done this for decades but it sounded quite good and my fingers were not too shot. Dashed back home to change gear and then off to Hook Norton Music at the CrossRoads where I played in the acoustic tent with FiddleBop, a fiddle, guitar and double bass trio. I set my stuff up and offered the sound gorrillas a pre-eq feed out of my amp but they insisted on putting in their own DI [i]before[/i] my impedance-buffering preamp - so the sound was pretty crap. Then when we were clearing the stage after our set they knocked a glass of beer over my EA cab. God bless em. Backstage hospitality was good, beer, wine and a good food buffet. Then home to be reunited with Mrs Bassace, a nice bottle of wine and crap telly.

When I started out I used to put the URB on the roof rack - blimey!

I've always used the compressor on my Gallien Krueger, it seems to give me a 'tighter' sound on URB. However on my more recent amps (AI Clarus, eg) they don't have a comp and I don't miss it, so go figure. Bassace nostalgic/boring mode - I played with Ted Fletcher in the sixties and he made me a compressor on his bench in ten minutes - first ever Ted product? Basically a lv light bulb was connected across the speaker output so the greater the output the brighter the bulb. The brightness was picked up by a photocell which then limited the volume peak if the output got too much. At least, I think that's what it did. Ted Fletcher, for those that don't know him is the father of Guy Fletcher, keyboards with Roxy Music and now Dire Straits/Mark Knoffler, also father of Konrad Fletcher sound engineer on Weakest Link etc. He is also brother of Guy Fletcher (Guy's uncle - confused?) who is a big noise in PRS and wrote lots of top ten tunes incl one for Elvis, Hollies, Cliff, Frankie Valli and 'discovered' Chris de Burgh, although we won't hold that against him. He is the dad of Justin Fletcher of CeeBeebies fame. A talented family. I think I'll lie down now.

I had mine in a loan Micra while my Mondeo was being repaired. No problem. As a rule of thumb you can get a bass in anything, however small, that has a rear hatch. I use a Focus Estate most of the time which is ideal for URB. I'm sure a Focus hatchback will be fine without folding the passenger seat because, although I don't have direct experience of this particular model, I had an Escort hatchback which worked OK and the Focus is bigger. Problem with any hatch is that there is quite a high lip to lift the bass over at the back. If you can get one, I'd recommend an estate every time for its flat load-in.

To think that in the sixties I was running an 18" in a cab the size of a wardrobe - and that was for an URB (although it doubled with a Jazz). However, technology has caught up and EA now do a perfectly acceptable 10" which, in certain circumstances, is superior to a 12" for urb. I think that very soon the price of diesel may be the deciding factor. I still like to get myself to a gig so I can put everything except the kitchen sink aboard, including different speaker options if I haven't played the venue before. But we did the Abersoch Jazz Festival last weekend (five hours each way) and four of us went down in a Grand Voyager with drums, PA, saxes, trumpet, double bass and overnight luggage. There was no way I could take anything bigger than a GK combo. Not my ideal amp but compromises have to be made if we still want to make a few bob out of the gig.

Malcolm Creese and Acoustic Triangle, on tour now and a new CD out. Good reviews in the Sundays.

I do all jazz these days so when I got a chance to do covers I used to enjoy it, real cheesy stuff if necesary. All in the past tense because I don't own any BGs anymore. Is integrity really the issue though? I'm just grateful that I'm able to play bass and that others seem to want me to play with them.

I haven't got my Stagg anymore, but from memory I think it's a piezo bridge pickup with very limited controls (vol and tone). It should be relatively easy, however, to fit a mag pickup on the fingerboard. Most successful slappers seem to have additional electronics to help out.

In nearly fifty years probably never. The sad thing about basses, particularly URBs is that the guy sitting four metres away gets a better sound than the player does. Otherwise GAS would never arise.

So, who are you with, Mr B?

I played the Trustees Hall with Richard Leach 7 Stars last Sat. Packed house, enthusiastic people, we got an encore. It's a good scene. Well done Mr B for publicising the venues. PS, if the avatar scares anyone I'll take it off.

I joined a keyboards/drums/bass jazz trio backing a singer for a charity bash in Oxford last night. A few big names there. The event over-ran so instead of doing 2x45 with a break we were squeezed into 1x80. Girl singer was great, we didn't use a pad and busked all the way but by the end it was a bit hard. Then the owner of the venue came up and said 'you have my personal permission to carry on for another thirty minutes'. What a arse!

Probably stating the bleedin' obvious but make sure the drums are miked if poss. Outside they could be the quietest instrument in the band. You will definitely benefit from good PA.

Cello is an awesome instrument. Elgar by Jaqueline du Pre is so moving. There is a Ray Brown LP of him playing cello that I heard once. It was very good but I'm not sure whether, being a bassist, he had it tuned in fourths. Red Mitchell was a bassist who tuned his bass in fifths. You can still get a 'Red Mitchell' set of Spirocores in fifths so I suppose that means there are others out there doing it.

[quote name='guyl' post='192498' date='May 5 2008, 09:20 PM']Was thinking of a Fishman Full Circle next. Any comments?[/quote] Yes, I got one two weeks ago. It fitted quite easily because my bridge already had adjusters on it. (If the bridge doesn't have adjusters you'll need a luthier). So I did it in less that half-an-hour, threads down which is the recommended config. This means that the 'hot' face of the pup faces up towards strings rather than down towards the bass. Sounded promising then stopped! I got a free replacement after five days - distributors and PMT at Oxford were very helpful - but my confidence was a bit shaken. I posted on Talkbass and found a few others who had encountered reliablilty problems but of course several who hadn't. So, detune the strings, take the bridge off again and refit the new Full Circle. This time good. I have so far only gigged it twice and both times in marquees so the sound has been a bit 'dry'. But it's very promising - the clarity is fantatstic and it is the closest to a DB sound that I have had; so I'm convinced it's the way to go. I'm playing in a small cinema at the Keswick Jazz Festival on Thursday through an AI Clarus into a 12" Wizzy for backline then through the house. I am using a simple Fishman Pro-eq preamp out of habit but I think you can safely run a Full Circle without one. When I'm completely happy I'll take the Underwood off so that the bridge can have more freedom to vibrate.

You could try Peter Tyler in Maidenhead (not quite Surrey). He is a very kind chap and perhaps not quite so precious as some of the other luthiers. If you offer him an 'internet' bass to work on he'll probably cough, smile indulgently and then get on with the job.