musophilr

Further ideas: 1. Look for traits and patterns in the bass line he plays for a whole lot of songs. Watch for licks he's always pulling out of the bag. 2. Come up with a chord progression, use your knowledge of things he's already done to make a bass line for it that sounds like it was one of his. 3. Analyse his bass lines with respect to the tunes he played them for. Does he use any mimicry - playing snatches of the tune either as fills between tune fragments or in harmony with them? Does he counterpoint any phrases in the tune? Are there any rhythmic devices in the tune or any of the other instrumental parts which he copies on the bass?

Is it true that although the scales themselves are the same irrespective of instrument, there are some fingerings that work better on one instrument than another? EG classical guitar scales often are organised to that they can be played "in position", which means the player can find a bass note and a melody note within reach, whereas the strictly 3 notes per string scales the rock widdlers use require at least one position shift and cover 2 octaves and a fourth. Does a bass player use "stretch fingering" on the lower frets to play a 3-note-per string scale? I think you'd need big hands to do that. So wouldn't the question be about fingerings suitable for basses being not necessarily the same fingerings you'd use on a guitar?

Chris, you choose a superb bass player to study. May I suggest: 1. Your blow-by-blow account of how the bass line goes may well be accurate but have you thought of a slightly "higher" level of analysis? For example where you describe the G-7 in the "Climb up to Chorus 1" he's descending a G-7 arpeggio until he gets to the A and the F# at the end. 2. Nit-picking here but I'm sure they'll want you to be accurate: the G# near the beginning of chorus 1 is an augmented 4th. You could notate it as Ab to retain your textual description. 3.(related to 1) description of last 2 bars of the bridge: Can you say what scale he's using? Apart from the chromaticism, he's mainly sticking to the G aeolian (natural minor, 6th mode of Bb). The more you can describe it in terms of "this arpeggio" "that scale" the more you'll show that you've understood the music. If you can also show that you understand Eb/F as F11 and its use as a functional dominant (resolving to the Bbmaj7) you may get extra brownie points but the chord progression may well not be of Jamerson's composition, so outside the scope of your analysis. However, the way the chord progression moves is connected to the way the bass lines go (if you need a new root on the first beat of each bar how many chord tones, scale tones or passing notes are you going to use to get there?). The other thing is the rhythms. Are there any standard techniques you recognise and are there any names for them? Hope this helps, good luck!

Good find, Sir! Yamaha SG types are good axes (I've got a 2000). Enjoy

[quote name='lxxwj' timestamp='1327437827' post='1511286'] Phaser's just a watery sound, no volume increase there. [/quote] True, that's why I said [i]give the impression of[/i] ... when the swooshy bit reaches its peak you hear that bit more easily. If you set the rate control to be somewhat consistent with the note values you're playing and the leading edge of each note starts with the swoosh going upwards you hear the swoosh peaking after the leading edge of your notes. Setting the rate to swoosh once per bar might be preferable. Do you have a Cats' Protection League (or their equivalent) in North Carolina? I bet there's some little furry person just waiting for a home with a friendly bass player.

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1327420611' post='1510930'] i used to have a selmer treble n bass 50. Incredibly loud but broke up too low for any usefulness for me, not nearly enough clean headroom, amazing for guitar though! Sold it on ebay for £170 wish i had kept it now for our guitarist [/quote] TBH I never liked the way it distorted a guitar. The guitar channel is very good (with the pictured cab.) for a Rhodes piano though

Today I tried a compressor pedal. I'd have to tinker a lot more with the controls before I found a sound that I preferred to the straight through sound. Maybe at gig volume it'll be different.

[quote name='Ant' timestamp='1327410112' post='1510665'] for me it's all about having different textures at my disposal, i think its madness to think everything should be played or WANT to play every bassline with the same tone. [/quote] I agree, and I do play around with the tone and pickup volume controls. However I've never felt it necessary or even desirable to use a pedalboard for bass like I would with a guitar. Clearly there are some here who think otherwise. I might learn something from them by raising the issue.

1. Envelope I was thinking of things like phaser which gives the impression of something which gets louder after you've played the leading edge of the note, hence the most apparent part of your note occurs a few ms after you played it rather than on the leading edge. 2. Because (I think) when we listen to music we reference pitchwise to the lowest notes we hear. I'm not saying bass players shouldn't use vibrato on some occasions though. 3. Yes. Deliberate use in that way serves to reinforce the timing. I'm sure with tap-tempo etc you could do it live but I've only done it at home after a lot of fiddling with the rate pot. I did say that some might think this a silly question, but learning-wise it might have its uses. @lxxwj - like your cat !

[url="http://soundcloud.com/phil-aka-pip/"]http://soundcloud.com/phil-aka-pip/[/url]

I'm sure some will think this a silly question, but I've never used any FX on bass, and when I've been a guitarist in a band I've rarely been happy with the bass player using them. My main reason is that anything which confuses the pitch (eg chorus) will make other instruments sound like they're playing out of tune, anything which alters time will confuse the rhythm, and anything which alters the envelope will also give the issusion of confusing the rhythm. I concede that on occasions one might want to sound like Jack Bruce giving it stick at a live Cream gig hence some overdrive might have a little use, but on the whole I find it strange that there's a huge big section of the forum dedicated to bass FX. For now, I'm still quite happy to plug straight in...

[quote name='pikeman' timestamp='1327396875' post='1510391'] I've got a MK2 Selmer treble and bass, great sounding amp and puts out a lot of volume for "only" 50 watts. Good to see someone else using one. Have you tried gigging with it? [/quote] Have used it with a 1x15 in low volume applications (ie with acoustic instruments). Will be using it (again with 1x15) for an audition on Thursday. The big Marshall cab is upstairs in the musical playroom. If it turns out that I need to take it out with me frequently I'll swop them over.

[quote name='TraceElliotBass' timestamp='1327394487' post='1510351'] 4x15? How does that sound, bet it weighs a ton? [/quote] 1. Awesome. The 15" drivers do the bottom end, the 10" drivers define the sound with midrange. 2. More than a Marshall 4x12 - and IIRC still less than a Hiwatt 4x12 !

Our local landlady often puts a spelling or grammatical error on the laminated menu things she puts on the tables. If you point an error out to her she tells you to put £1 in the charity box for being a pedant.

Bass, Drums, Keys Prog Rock: [url="http://www.musica-electrica.co.uk"]www.musica-electrica.co.uk[/url] Baroque & Renaissance: [url="http://www.DasBarockOrchester.co.uk"]www.DasBarockOrchester.co.uk[/url]

The last time I used a 100W top with 2 4x12s was in the mid 80s. The last time I used those cabs was in the late 80s with a 50W top. I refuse to sell them, and even now still fondly hope I'll get another excuse before I croak ... These days a 2x12 combo does the trick - so long as I can stand far enough away from it.

Fanx!

Welcome ... I thought they'd drained the swamps around Ely. Still, I suppose in this day & age we have to cut back on things - they're even giving up fighting the North Sea over the coastline by Southwold. Let us know if you need help rescuing your bass & rig.

7 yrs old - recorder 8 yrs - violin ... took nearly 5 yrs to realise what a big mistake that was 13 yrs - acoustic guitar ... because I couldn't afford an electric 17 yrs - first electric ... but it was crap 25 yrs - first decent electric, first band 31 - first keys (s/h Rhodes Mk I) 33 - first bass since then - more GAS !

Fanx! FWIW your gear looks impressive.

If there's a definition of "pwn" here I haven't seen it. Is it rude?

The Anderton's spiel gives the impression the speaker will handle the bass. Question is, will the amplifier deliver it? From investigating the circuitry of a Selmer Treble'n'Bass 50 - OK OK I know it's not the same thing but get this - the only difference between the bass side and the treble side is the former has a 0.47µF d.c. blocking cap between it's preamp and the phase splitter, whereas the latter has a 0.22µF cap. So if it really is that easy to voice an amplifier for bass vs. treble, then a cheap component from Maplins with a switch (so you can have it as per original, or modded) should be easy to fit and you've got yourself an amplifier that'll do both. The main problem with putting bass through a guitar amplifier is that it sounds somewhat lightweight.The above cap. mod. could well fix that for you. As you turn it up closer to max you may start to worry about what's happening in the o/p transformer too, but at "home" volumes I wouldn't have thought that was significant: the neighours will complain before the o/p transformer begins to suffer. See your friendly neighbourhood amp. tech., and if he contradicts me, then believe him not me!

RBX375 on the right. On the left, I bought this many years ago from a bloke I was in a band with. It's an Antoria Precision, minus its frets (slots filled with araldite), plus a Jazz pickup and selector switch. The nut is brass. Both are wearing flatwounds.

FWIW I think you did the right thing. My mum used to be in the choir in the church she goes to (she only quit because of old age), and she describes the choirmaster as being Highly Capable, and one who demands the best possible result. However she also mentioned that he knows nobody is being paid for being in the choir, so while he sets high standards he chooses material that is achievable and encourages and helps the singers to get there rather than leaning on them heavily. Because he's been doing this for several years he knows how long it takes to get a piece of music to be gig-worthy. Therefore he can arrange a gig, an then work towards it. Sounds like the bloke you could have been "working" for didn't appreciate the non-professional nature of his outfit and dosn't kno whow to work towards a target.

One is a Harley-Benton GA5, an excellent-sounding retro-flavoured combo with one ECC83 and one EL84. I use it a lot. The other is a Vox AC4TV. It loves my 57 replica Strat and will do everything from sparkly clean to full on filth, but as the Strat is my least favourite guitar I don't use it much. People who come for guitar lessons usually plug into it and most of them get on fine with it. It also has one ECC83 and one EL84. I'm a sucker for anything that claims to run an EL84 in Class A.