rushbo

One of my bands - Mr Apollo - did a live version of Lindisfarne's "Winter Song" for our website a couple of weeks ago. We had a great fun doing it - not perfect, but hearfelt.

I think there should be a "Fugly Thumbrests" thread...

Yep me too - sent out in super-quick time and just the job. He then printed me a couple of replacement buttons for my wireless systems and did a fantastic job. He's a star!

I may be biased as I'm a Brummie, but this is a top-tier contemporary music documentary:

It's such a lovely, simple idea, beautifully realised. It helps that I REALLY love tort...

That is gorgeous.

Oh, the fun we have on BassChat! I've always thought I had teeny-tiny hands and this thread proves it. My measurement from wrist to middle finger is 18cm. I'm 175cm tall, so that's in the ballpark, but still on the small side. I can't say it's ever impeded me in terms of playing the Bass. My favourite necks are the ones you find on Indonesian Squier PJ's which seem to be equidistant between Precision and Jazz width and profile.

"sounds like a rhinoceros on a skateboard on full volume. (in a good way)" If that doesn't sell it to you, I don't know what will.

As much as I love the Bassline to "Go Your Own Way" (I've played it for years in a covers band) I've never really considered it as an "emotional" line. It locks the drums with the chords in an interesting, melodic and supportive way, but it doesn't add to the poignancy of the song, IMO. I'm not a musicologist, but it seems to me that it's easier to convey emotion on a fretless instrument, or by bending notes, as they closer resemble the sound of the human voice. If there's a more mournful sound than the final note of Mark Bedford's Bassline on "Shipbuilding," I've yet to hear it.

Context is everything. The reason Jamerson's line on "What's Going On" works so well has so much to do with everything that surrounds it. Gaye's brilliant, emotional delivery, the gorgeous arrangement, the poignancy of the lyric and the strength of the song all highlight the nuances in what the Bassist is doing. As other contributors to this thread have already mentioned, the Bass is first and foremost a structural instrument. In a Rock context, it has a clear purpose - to bridge the gap between rhythm and melody - and it can be tricky to express an emotion when you're working within those parameters. If you're looking for some good examples of expressive playing, I'd recommend the "Hejira" album by Joni Mitchell. On this record, Jaco Pastorius manages to both support the song and play beautifully and lyrically. You could also listen to what Eberhard Weber is doing on Jan Garbarek's "It's OK to Listen to the Grey Voice" record. It's not rock or pop, but it's a masterclass in expressive musicianship that doesn't get in the way of the lead instrument.

When I was briefly under the illusion that a 5'9", mid-fifties, slightly chubby and balding bloke could get away with a Thunderbird, I had one of these to pop my Nikki Sixx signature bass on: ...and nice and sturdy it was too. Now I have a double Hercules "grab" stand which performs the same function for my age-appropriate Precision and Jazz basses.

This is great advice for somebody who might not have the confidence to join a band or play with other musicians yet. I remember spending between 30 mins and a hour a day, playing along to Radio 1 in the early 80's. It didn't matter what the song was, or even if you liked it. It was about reacting to music and finding the key and the structure purely by ear. A musician with " a good ear" is a valuable commodity indeed.

I picked up a slightly tatty, but generally intact Eros Mark II a few years ago, with a view to replacing pretty much everything except the body and neck. However, once I'd scraped off the filth and given it a very quick set-up, it seemed to play quite nicely. Pots were very scratchy and it had the weirdest fret buzz I had ever heard - a sort of fretless "mwah" noise, but just on three frets of the "D" string. A turn of the bridge height screw and bobs-yer-proverbial. A quick squirt of switch cleaner, followed by the dreary task of putting the thing back together (seriously... trying to put the pots back into a semi-acoustic is like trying to perform gynaecology through a letterbox) and it sounded way better than it has a right to. It took quite a bit of cleaning and there were some nasty, but shallow scratches to deal with. Out came the rubbing compound and some elbow grease and it looks the business. Well, I think so. These things are hard to date, but the venerable Bassassassin reckons it's "early seventies" so that's good enough for me.