peteb

The thing is that there is more than one way to skin a cat as it were and there are many different great bass sounds, just as there even more crap ones! What any bass player needs to do is find one that works for them and the type of music they play. My approach is that ideally it should be a tone that can be recognised as being a 'your' sound (hence I basically use just one sound and only use effects sparingly) and once you have found the sound that you want, then you forget about 'tone chasing ' and concentrate on playing!

I'm not sure that it's actually part of the show as such, just that it's easier (and more to the point quicker) for a roadie to pass him a bass rather than him check the tuning. I'm not sure that too many people are paying that much attention to Darryl Jones when the Stones are onstage.

I had one of these, but sold it on as I wasn't really using it too much (never bothered using the spare bass for a start). Nether the less, a great piece of kit that will be pretty much ideal for your needs.

I think that the clue was when the name of the band was changed to that of the guitarist. He is now the only key member of the band, that's just the way it works - not necessarily a bad thing but you have to recognise the reality of the situation. I would make a point of saying you think that they should get a dep bass player for the gig and that you expect a share of the gig money if they are going to use your PA.

Funnily enough, me & the guitar player were discussing this issue with another drummer friend in the pub over the weekend. He intentionally got a smaller snare so that he could control the volume better onstage. At the time I was in a band with him and thought that he should have gone for a bigger snare, but he was certainly on the right track. He was also the one who mentioned the rimshot issue with the drummer in the current band. No one wants it to be too quiet – drums in a rock band are supposed to be loud, to move air and inject a certain amount of excitement onstage. But there has to be a balance, especially on a smaller stage…

I know that it is not a popular opinion on here, but the fact is that most top rock drummers are pretty loud. From John Bonham through to modern day monsters like Kenny Aronoff, Taylor Hawkins, Josh Freese or many more – they can all play with a certain amount of dynamics but their default mode is f***in loud. I’ve been gigging in hard rock bands of various hues for the past 35 years and most of the better drummers within that genre that I’ve played with have been pretty thunderous. However, I do share your pain as one of my bands (playing rock covers) is having a similar issue. The drummer (not the best I’ve ever played with, but certainly not the worst) sounds great, but he is just too loud for most of the gigs we do these days.We need a find a compromise of volume and quality of sound from the kit, because our PA (not to mention our ears) can't keep up with him. You will probably find that most of the problem will be with the snare. Many hard rock drummers will intentionally hit a bit of the rim when they hit the backbeat. This makes the snare sound really big but adds a lot of volume. Our first option is to try and get our guy to do this a bit more selectively rather than as a default. The second thing is to try and persuade him to get a smaller, slightly shallower snare drum for pub gigs. This should still cut through, but with a more manageable onstage volume.

I've forced myself to take another look and you're right - he was hiding behind Kimball's not inconsiderable bulk! No idea why they gave the solo to the bass player then...

I'm guessing that when they got to the iconic Steve Lukather solo they realised that they didn't have a guitar player on stage and there was a look at Norm to say "it's down to you mate"! I've heard that Bobby Kimball has supposedly lost the plot a bit, but still amazed to hear him sing that badly...

You are of course right. The thing is that many of us do value the opinion of our peers (perhaps too much). Of course, having a good reputation with other players around town does help you get offers of gigs. The trouble with punters is that they tend to get the big things right (i.e. they can generally pick out the best bands) but they usually don’t understand why! I remember talking to one punter who was raving about a good band but seemed to confuse who was the best player in the band with the guy who had the best haircut…!

I agree with everything you say here, but I still think that to put on a credible performance there has to be a small element of something personal / selfish that you are inviting the audience to appreciate. When it comes down to it, most of us are just song and dance men of one hue or another and performing to an audience is the key to it all. But while playing rock, punk or ELO covers isn’t exactly high art, there does have to be an artistic element for it to be convincing.

In theory you should be more worried about your audience rather than other musicians' opinions. However, I am quite embarrassed about how much I value compliments from musicians that I respect and how blasé I am about what punters think...

Actually, I disagree with that. As much as I value performance skills nearly as much as musical ones, the most important people in the room are always the musicians. There always is a selfish element to any great performance and to have any authenticity the band have to satisfy themselves in order to satisfy the audience.

Pretty much this, where everything sounds bigger than the sum of its parts and you feel that you just can't get anything wrong! A great performance is usually (but not always) inspired by a great audience. After a great gig I don't even mind a long drive home - it can even feel sort of serene. Mind you can't embrace the serenity too much - I'm always worried about falling asleep at the wheel on a long late-night drive...!

Surely you are not expected to keep an audience for the whole of a 4 hour gig? I assume the point of playing that long is to catch an audience that is moving from bar to bar and try to keep them there for an extra drink, or pursuade them to return later on to catch the end of the show.

I remember helping out backstage on an event that they were headlining - terrific singer...!

The thing to remember is the order in which your signal is going from you hitting a note to the sound coming out of your speakers. Everything starts with you plucking the note, which is then converted to a signal by a pickup to go through the preamp in your active bass, to the lead, to the eq section of your amp. If you have already eq'd on the bass then any additional eq you add on the amp will be on the already eq'd signal. This is fine, but you have to be careful not to do the same eq twice or in extreme cases, stop you from eq-ing frequencies that you have taken away on the bass. For example, if you scoop the sound on the bass then scoop the eq on the amp you will have probably scooped the sound twice as much as you meant to! I hope that this makes sense (someone will come along to say I'm wrong, but I kinda know what I mean)! I would suggest that you get your basic eq from the amp, then adjust the bass to suit the room. I think that is a simpler way to think about it, although there is no reason why you can't do it the other way round and keep the amp flat...

About three and a half miles!

The trouble with Halifax (like neighbouring Bradford where I live) is that there is loads of musicians but relatively few gigs. I would say that you would be better living in Manchester or Sheffield if you want to establish yourself there. There is still a big audience for live music in Manchester and Sheffield, but not so much in Leeds. The north-east is certainly worth considering - they love their live music up there! Hebden Bridge is a nice place to live (if you can avoid living on the the flood plains) but not especially great for a musician, apart from one great club venue in the centre of the town.

Of you are thinking of moving to the frozen north, I would suggest Newcastle or Manchester. Sheffield might be worth a look as well...

An old band leader used to run a jam on pretty much the same lines and for the same reasons. OK there wasn’t an actual list and you only got two songs but very similar apart from that. I used to be the house bass player for most of them when I was playing with him and they were usually fun. In my experience, running a successful jam night is a bit of a balancing act. For us it was a chance to play with our mates who we weren’t gigging with regularly, finding musicians who were new to the scene / area as well as giving youngsters a chance to get a bit of experience, not to mention the odd old-timer who didn’t gig any more but still wanted to get up and do the odd tune. I think that people have to realise that music scenes by their nature tend to be a bit cliquey. The guys who get the work are those who are well known, have decent networks and who everyone knows that they can play. I would have thought that jam sessions are the best way to introduce yourself and get the opportunity to become ‘one of the guys’ i.e. join the clique! Certainly, the most rewarding thing about being involved in the house band was finding a good new player you hadn’t played with before. Also, the guy who ran the jam (as well as others) used it as an opportunity to audition people without a formal audition, which was how I originally got the gig in his band.

That is quite right - there is a difference (although I would be strangely interested in hearing someone trying to play Whole Lotta Rosie in fives)...!

But sometimes you may have to compromise on the money you get to take the opportunity! Also, I am very happy to travel for the right band and the right gigs. The other thing from your OP is that sometimes I can take the band leader (or at least MD) role and sometimes I can just be a sideman and turn up and play what I'm told. If you want to work it helps to be adaptable!

I think that you have to judge each potential opportunity on its own merits. My only two essential criteria is that it is going to gig and that I can stand to be in the same room as everybody in the band. Realistically it is going to be a rock or blues gig of some description, otherwise they probably wouldn't look to me to play for them. Beyond that it depends on what the band has to offer. I do some gigs for the money, some for the music, some for the kudos of playing with musicians who are well regarded and some just for the craic...!

Not really the types of gigs I do, but a mate who has been in a pretty high level function band for many years told me that demand is way down (north of England), they are not working any where near as much as they used to and have been forced to reduce their fees accordingly.

Fair point, but if you are comparing them with TKS you have to acknowledge that Sweden is hardly a third world, low wage / tax economy...