peteb

I'm in West Yorkshire, but if I have anything than a minor job then I always take my basses down to Jon Shuker. It's a bit of a drive but well worth it.

Perhaps there is a classical music website somewhere with a thread on who is the greatest second violin?

If you turn up for an audition with an American Fender (for example), it sends out a certain message. The band leader can see that you are using a bass that many pros use and has the comfort of knowing that you are working with a tried and tested reference sound and image. Of course, it makes no difference what bass you bring if you can’t play, but it makes a good first impression. Similarly, a Dacia does not have the badass image that a black BMW does if you are intending to break into the extreme entrepreneurial world of selling drugs. What kind of cr*ppy drug dealer am I buying gear from who drives a Dacia?? It just screams disrespect me, invade my territory and rip me off. Of course, after you have cut half a dozen rivals and knocked a few reluctant punters around, then the message might get through that you are indeed a badass – but if you had the beemer you probably wouldn’t need to…!

There is a tradition of soloists playing featured sections within a musical piece going back centuries. So if you don't like guitar solos, then commenting on a thread on the 'Greatest guitarist of all time??' is probably not for you. After all, people still debate the influence of Niccolò Paganini, rather than that of the third violin in the orchestra in Vienna in 1828.

He may not be 'amazingly talented' technically as a guitar player, but as you say, he is very talented at using the guitar to create 'soundscapes' and has extended the possibilities of the electric guitar, just like Chuck, Eddie and Hendrix did! According to ace LA session player Tim Pierce, his go-to whenever he is asked to do something a little different on a track is to channel something that The Edge might have come up with...!

The best bass that I have ever played (at a jam session) was a Fodera. I don't think that it would work for the genres that I play, but it was a great bass. I would happily pay £2k for a bass, I think that £6k is more than I would really want to pay / comfortably afford. But I can see why some people would pay that price for that particular bass.

Very true. If we are taking about influential (rather than the greatest player), then why has no one mentioned The Edge??

But did he? There are way more people playing guitar today because Slash and his playing caught their imagination. Certainly more than have been directly influenced by T-Bone Walker. However, the reason that Slash sounds the way he does is because he was influenced by many players who came before him, who were in turn influenced by the likes of T-Bone Walker!

It's not just the look, it's also the image. Most people think of Foderas being played by either esoteric fusion guys, or by lawyers or other high earning professionals who never play a gig. They don't really have an image of being rock and roll or funky!

Fodera are a good example of a bass that some people dismiss as being boutique and start sprouting nonsense like 'there's no difference between a Fodera and my Squier / Harley Benton / entry level Yamaha' etc. Just to be clear, I'm not saying that you need to spend anything like that amount of money to get a giggable bass and I appreciate that entry level basses are a lot better than when I started out. Get a secondhand Stingray or US standard Fender or something similar when you can afford it and it will sound great and will cover any gig that you are likely to get, throughout your career as a bass player.

I loved Koss, not sure that I could make a case for GOAT but a unique player. Along with EVH, I reckon that SRV might be the best guitar player I've ever heard, but not innovative like Hendrix (for example). I know a lot of people won't like this, but if you ignore songwriting ability and his annoying personality, then Yngwie is one of the very best there has ever been. Obviously a great technical player, but also very musical (much more than people would like to give him credit for) and generally astounding. It's a shame that his original records are so cr*p, but great on the various covers he has recorded!

I remember having a chat with Phil Nixon (the guy who used to run Bass Gear) when he first started carrying Fodera basses. He said that loads of guys slagged Fodera off as just being boutique basses and being no better than basses costing a fraction of the price. He just used to get them to plug one in for fifteen minutes and it was remarkable how many changed their minds; indeed several of them started making plans to sell all of their basses to buy one Fodera. As Phil said, if there is something that you can nearly play on a cheaper bass, the chances are you can play it easily on the Fodera! As far as I’m concerned, if you have ambitions to be a proper player, you should get the best bass that you can afford and that suits you as soon as you can. You don’t need a collection of basses (although a spare comes in useful), but something that works for the gigs / genre you play. When I got my first job, working backstage in a theatre part time for the equivalent of minimum wage, I saved up to buy an American Fender P bass. I still have the same bass now (admittedly I did sell it, then buy it back)! If you can play like Jaco, then you will be a great bass player on any playable bass! But then again, you will be even better on a better bass! But if you can’t play like Jaco, then a decent bass (preferable with a credible provenance) will help you to play and sound better, as well as impress prospective band leaders (who do like people turning up with guitars that they are impressed / familiar with, like it or not)! But what do I know, I’ve only been gigging for more than 40 years and never had to pretend to be a musician!

Dave Murray - Greatest guitarist of all time?? Not sure about that one mate...

For me Eddie Van Halen was the GOAT rock and roll guitar player. One of the great innovators of the electric guitar, he had the lot - technique, flash, power, musicality and above all, feel (a great rhythm player - no one swings like the King). As far as I'm concerned, his real peers were Hendrix (another of the great innovators who reimagined what the electric guitar could do) and SRV (not innovative at all, but a truly jaw-dropping guitar player). Prince was a great musician, writer, multi-instrumentalist and guitar player - but nowhere near the the GOAT guitarist...

A quick search shows the guy with the red P (Fernando Rosa) tends to more usually play fingerstyle, on a variety of old Fender basses and is a very nice player. In fact, his bass playing is very nearly as impressive as his beard...! 🙂

For me, Coverdale's vocals in DP Mk3 and his first two solo albums released just after, make him my all-time favourite vocalist! I'm not so keen on his higher pitched vocals of later years. I'm not sure where you are going with your point on 'dynamic range'. Surely you have been arguing that Glenn Hughes et al are using an inappropriate amount of dynamic range, just for the sake of it? Or are you saying that you prefer singers who sing in two different registers (like Axl Rose, Staley, etc) rather than the white soul stylings of Hughes, Coverversion, etc??

It was the (early) 70s...!

Pretty much like that...

AS much as I love hearing great singers, they are a bit of a luxury in a way. You don't have to be have a Steve Perry in the band to produce some of the best rock and roll; sometimes being a stylist and an ace frontman can top being a great singer. Plenty of examples - off the top of my head: Joe Strummer, Mick Jagger, Dave Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon and many, many others...!

I've just bought that album, but haven't had chance to listen to it yet. I love Kotzen's singing, but I do know what you mean about Glenn Hughes - a great singer but really does over-sing (annoyingly so) at times. To me it's a bit like like comparing Mariah (Hughes) to Whitney (Kotzen). To me Carey, as great a voice as she undoubtedly has, just over-sings the life out of just about everything whereas Whitney was just one of the great soul divas, possibly the best ever! Not sure where you are going with Geoff Tate and Dio - they are / were just great, powerful, semi-operatic rock vocalists. No over-singing and nothing like the white soul warbling of Kotzen and Hughes et al. But the real question is, do you really want everybody to sound like Joe Strummer? Personally, I love hearing great singers - but there is a line...!

I've got a few OBBM speakon leads and a couple that I picked up from Bass Direct, which are really good...

When I joined the band I was best known for in the 80s, the guitar player / band leader literally stood over me and taught me how to coil cables correctly (as he did to everybody he played with). He now runs one of the biggest pro audio / PA companies around!

I've played with quite a few guys who work for PA companies. There is a few of us (who have all played in the same circles) that all say that we actually feel vaguely uncomfortable seeing people not coiling leads up correctly!