peteb

Well it's connected to groove, but not the same thing. You can have a goove that is bang on the beat, or one that pushes or lays back.

You sound like the first two Police albums... 🙂

Thread derail - back in the 80s I had a huge (8u) amp rack I could hardly lift on my own, featuring a Hartley Thompson bass preamp. Back as you were...

Very true, the Frankenstrat established a new standard format for the electric guitar (superstrat or other shape) i.e. humbucker in the bridge position, upgraded trem and a fender scale neck. Similarly, how EVH modded his amps led to a whole new industry of boutique hi-gain amps.

Remember, it’s the cigarettes that got him, rather than the booze or the Charlie (they just made him act like a d1ck at times, although I know people who met him who said that he was a great guy). Also, much as I would like to believe the Fred Durst story, it doesn’t really ring true with what I’ve heard about him. As far as I’m concerned, he was the GOAT rock and roll guitar player! He was up there with Hendrix for innovation, a terrific rhythm player and possibly the most distinctive lead guitarist ever. If you listen to his isolated guitar tracks, it is amazing how fluid his playing was, how clean he picked and his timing / groove were outstanding. Often imitated but never equalled…

More than anything else, being able to manipulate where you play in relation to the beat is the thing that differentiates the top pros from the semi-pros. It is not the same as playing too fast or too slow. It is certainly worth trying to learn how to play in the middle of the beat and then how to ‘lean on the beat’ or ‘lean back’. The only way to work on it is to practice with a metronome. You can actually do a lot without a bass. Set a metronome to a moderate setting (say 90 BPM) with an accent on the one. Clap your hands on the one and try and make the click ‘disappear’. Then clap on the backbeat (beats 2 & 4), then on every beat. If you are doing it properly then you shouldn’t be able to hear the metronome. If you can hear a ‘flam’ between the handclap and the click then listen to see if you can hear the clap first (in front of the beat) or the click first (behind the beat). Once you can consistently make the click disappear then increase the metronome by 10 BPM, then go down 10 BPM and so on. This isn’t easy and you probably won’t get it straight away – it is difficult to clap exactly on every beat for more than 3 or 4 bars. But if you keep at it you will be a far better player in a year’s time.

So you're a funk player at heart...! A Texan pro bass player mate of mine says he likes to play just behind the beat "cos that's where the funk is" (it works best if you imagine that being said in a Texan drawl)…!

Let’s be honest, detuning is a fact of life for bass players (and guitarists of course) these days. I prefer basses set up in concert personally, but I’m currently in two bands that detune a half-step and one that plays a whole step down. I once asked Jon Shuker about setting up a bass when you’re going to tune down and he told me that you should loosen the truss rod about 1/8 of a turn to detune a half-step.

You see, I'm the other way round. I ought to love Rush but don't - not enough decent songs and too many pointless time changes. I'm not a fan of Geddy's voice either (but then again, I could say the same about Jon Anderson). At least Yes have loads of great tunes amongst the pomp and circumstance...

Top of my head – And You and I, Heart of the Sunrise, Yours Is No Disgrace, Roundabout, Starship Trooper, Soon oh Soon, Long Distance Runaround and quite a few more (as you may notice, all of these are from the earlier versions of the band which shows when my prog phase took place).

Lady GaGa is a musician and an artist: she should play whatever her muse leads her to. It's up to the listener to then judge the authenticity of what she does and whether it's any good or not. As far as I'm concerned, she was great singing with Metallica and great singing with Tony Bennett. There's not many singers out there who would be able to pull both of those off...!

We’ve just had our last two gigs for this year cancelled; one in the north-east as they were struggling to make live gigs viable with the reduced capacity and another (that we thought probably would have gone ahead) when the 10pm closing time was announced. More worryingly, another in February has almost certainly gone as the venue (an established circuit gig with a capacity of 700) is on the point of going bust. All the places that cancelled gigs this year were pushing to rearrange for next year, but now they seem to be holding off to see how things develop. It’s going to be weird for gigs next year, with many venues going bust and others trying to rearrange all the bands they have had to cancel this year.

I have a couple of iGig bags (one single, one double), which are the business. I know that Mono make great bags as well. If you're not going to gig, then there are plenty of cheaper bags that do a good job. I used to have a cheaper fusion bag that was fine.

I don't really know Chris, although we have a few mutual friends (I remember seeing his Dad playing in bands 35 years or so ago). I have to say that the Leeds avant-garde improv scene is not one I am massively familiar with, obviously a fault on my part that I must put right as soon as we're allowed out again...! 🙂 Like you, a lot of my gigs seem to be all over the country, although I'm guessing that your theatres & function gigs pay more than obscure rock tribute bands and the blues circuit (at least I hope so)! I do try and keep a local gigging band going, so you may have bumped into me at some point if you have ever ventured out to local pub gigs. I did live in the top end of Great Horton for a while in the 90s, although I'm the other side of town now...

That's a strange way of looking at it. Scotland's response to the pandemic is generally perceived to be far better than Westminster's and certainly hasn't done the SNP / case for devolution any harm at all.

It seems that we have a few things in common - I'm originally from Essex and have lived in Bradford for most of my life. I've also known Chantel since she was a teenager. I'm sure that we must have a few mutual acquaintances (musical or otherwise). Out of interest, in which part of our fair city (!!) do you reside??

The SWR SM900 on sale here is about the same weight as a lightish 5 string bass and half the weight of a Barefaced Big Twin. A SM500 or an Eden amp will be a bit lighter than that. I assume that if you have an amp then you use a cab with it?

I can sort of understand that attitude regarding cabs and even big all tube amps, but is a 2u SWR amp (for example) really that heavy?? As long as it is something you can easily lift with one hand then why would you gig with something even lighter if it's not as good? I've tried a number of Class D amps (even paid a lot of money for one) but I have always been disappointed with them. I ended up buying a Handbox R400, which is a convenient size and not too heavy without compromising on sound. Perhaps more people should frequent a gym, or at least keep themselves in some sort of shape. It would improve their lives in many ways, not least allowing them to use a better amp!

I agree. Modern cabs are generally better and certainly much lighter than some of the horrors we used to lug around 30 years ago. but I can't understand the need for amps that you can pick up with one finger. There is always a compromise with something that light and Class D amps just don't sound as good as the great hybrid amps of a few years ago that you can pick up for peanuts these days. If you put them in a lightweight rack it is still an easy one hand lift, so why the obsession with making everything unnecessarily light?

The SVT4 is pretty much the industry standard when touring bands are hiring in backline! They sound fine to me. The real bargains for the great old SWR and Eden amps. There are a fair few in the Amps For Sale section on here going for an absolute song. I really don't need another amp, but every now and then I get tempted...

A musician smoking dope...! Who woulda thought 🙂

That's cool - what a great guy

The point that I was making is that if you should know the difference if you are standing in front of the amp while playing through it. There's no reason why the audience should know or care, they're only interested in if the band as a whole sounds good or not. The bass is only a component of that overall sound, but you would hope that the bass player would be able to tell the difference...

I am always a bit surprised when I hear people make statements like this. Can you really not tell the difference when you are stood in front of an all valve / hybrid / Class D amp? I am not saying that there isn't some confirmation bias, especially for things like an effect pedal housed in a plastic casing rather than metal, but there is a basic difference in sound for amps with different types of power sections. You might not be bothered about that difference, or even prefer the Class D amp, but the difference is there. As far as wireless units go, you really do get what you pay for. Over the years I have bought and then sold a number of mid-price wireless units, all of which were poor. Eventually I splashed out a lot of dosh for a modern top quality wireless systems and the difference is night and day.