peteb

Because it is a fact that a lot of producers / band leaders prefer their bass players to use a Precision. Let's not pretend that a lot to do with that isn't to do with familiarity, both in terms of sound and image, but it is a thing. Whether you like that or not is something else, but if you are a pro freelance jobbing bass player then it is a good idea to have a P bass in your armoury.

To be honest, Magnum were a band that kinda passed me by at the time and the only song I really knew was ‘Storyteller’s Night’. However, I was asked to join this tribute that had a load of great local players involved, so I am currently learning a set of new (to me) tunes. After two rehearsals it is certainly lots of fun and sounds great. I would never have thought of Magnum as a viable tribute, but I have been surprised at the interest that has been generated on Facebook, etc months before we are even going to play a gig! Seems to be a band with a larger following than I imagined…

'On A Storyteller's Night' & 'Midnight', both for a Magnum tribute

Funnily enough I never rated that at all, but I was hooked as soon as I heard 'Man With The Child In His Eyes'. Virtually all of her back catalogue is quality...

I've done loads of jam session, including being in a the house band at blues festivals, and they can be really great. Whether they are fun for the audience largely depends on the quality of players taking part, but it is a great way for less experienced musos to learn how to busk, play with other musicians and improve. It's also a great showcase for a player looking for new bands and guys to play with. Yes, they often tend to be blues based, as that type of music has a tradition of jamming and has set forms that can easily be varied if necessary and lend themselves to busking. The same can be said of jazz, although you won't get people like me there! The biggest problem with regular local jam nights is that they tend to run out of steam after a bit, as you inevitably tend the same guys coming back playing the same stuff every week.

I used to do quite a lot of jams as part of the house band and one of the skills me and the drummer developed was how to bring long blues jams to an end when it became clear that the guitar player had run out of ideas. Of course, we tended to realise long before they did...

You are talking about the difference between one expensive hand made bass and another (even more) expensive hand made bass. It is all going to be down to minor details and (specially) personal preference. I've just seen a Paul Turner video on YouTube talking about his Stenback Basses and it seems that he is looking for clarity and a modern bass with vintage tones. It is obviously a great bass but would it make that much difference to you and me, let alone a punter! If you want an active bass but with a more vintage sound then perhaps you should think of replacing the East preamp with something like an EWS tri-logic? Either way, I wouldn't be seriously considering shelling out money to re-build a Sei bass...!

I think that we do need to consider that we have an ageing population in the UK (and the rest of the western world) and the rock and roll generations of the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s have now reached various stages of middle age and are not interested in the same things their parents were at that age. Younger people may enjoy live music if they are exposed to it, but it is not the same thing as it used to be and they can't be expected to turn up en mass for a night out to see a band playing a type of music that their parents grew up with. There is still an audience for rock music (or dad rock as some people prefer) and a few years ago there was a pretty vibrant scene in pubs. You could always get a decent audience if the band was good enough. Now you can't help but notice that austerity has taken its toll and it is more difficult to get people away from their TVs and supermarket booze, but I have still been managing to gig pretty regularly for the past few years in decent bands with guys ranging from their late 30s to early 60s playing to audiences of a similar age group. You need to know your audience. These days yoof culture is no longer necessarily king and its the older punters who are more likely to be interested in watching live music, not to mention to have the disposable income to do so...

I own both a mpulse and a Subway D800. I would say that they don't sound the same, but the Subway comes as close as any Class D I've heard. I don't think it has the headroom that some say it has, but does sound good...

Sounds interesting. What's their output like??

My ACS work fine. However, I think that mine are the Pro 10s. Perhaps you could try the 10s? Another thing is that I usually only wear one plug, in the ear nearest the drum kit. I feel too isolated with both in, like I'm in a different room to the rest of the band / audience...

I used to have one in a jazz bass I owned before! To be honest I found it a bit too much - you have to be very careful with the eq, especially the bass control. I handed it to someone once at a jam session (an excellent pro player) and he wanted a bit more bass so he turned up the bass control on the guitar. He nearly blew the speakers out of the cab...! I prefer the something like the Tri-Logic Bass Preamp like I have in my Xotic jazz, which I find a bit more musical / easier to use. I'm going to keep the MIJ bass passive and just get some hotter pickups. I don't really want to spend too much on it as it is only gonna be my jam session / travel / really rough venues bass...!

Yes, obviously I meant Seymour Duncan Quarterpounders. I know what Bartolinis sound like (I have them in a couple of other basses) but I'm looking for a few alternative choices that may hopefully come up for a bargain on eBay!

I've been using an XJIT4 in Black Cherry as my main gigging bass for the past 4 years or so. Great bass - sounds and plays ace.

I have a Fender MIJ (passive) jazz bass, which plays nicely and looks great but has rather underpowered pickups. I am thinking of having a bit of search on eBay for some secondhand pickups to beef it up a bit. This won’t be a bass that I gig a lot, so I don’t want to spend too much (maybe somewhere between £50 and £100) and I’m in no great rush, so I can wait to see what comes up. For reference, I like the sound of Bartolinis but I’m not too keen on Quarterpounders, nor am I too bothered about an ultra-authentic vintage sound. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should be looking out for??

Jaco has had an influence on bass players far beyond the fusion genre. Ditto, Jamerson heavily influenced John Paul Jones {amongst many, many others), even though Led Zep were not otherwise particularly influenced by Motown. If you genuinely do want to learn from 'as wide a group of musicians as possible', then you do have to listen to as many great players as possible, even if the music (as opposed to the playing) is not to your taste.

I'm obviously the odd one out here in that I can appreciate and try to learn from great musicians (especially bass players for obvious reasons), even if I don't particularly care for the music. For example, I'm not a big fan of Motown, but I certainty don't dismiss it as worthless and I have specifically listened to a lot of the headlines in those records...

Nothing particularly difficult there and as Blue says, there will be plenty of YouTube clips to help you if you need to learn them ina hurry. Write out lead sheets and you should be fine.

1) maybe, worth a phone call 2) might have been interested but not being told if I can drink or not - doesn't sound very rock n'roll 3) I'm way too old for that, but good luck to them 4) sounds awful and I doubt my singing would be up to it anyway

For most FOH engineers the 'generic bass sound' they will tend to use will be flat with possibley a bump in the upper mids.

Some of them do seem to have a 'one size fits all' approach to any bass player in any band - allows them more time to appease the guitar player and work on the biggest possible bass drum sound known to mankind...!

Which is another reason why many FOH engineers prefer using a DI box...

I've lived in the North for nearly 80% of my time on earth and I'm still a southerner...! Just one of those things...

Last time I was at Jon Shuker's place, he had one on the go (headless, designed to fit into overhead storage) - looked stunning...!

Yes & no! If you can’t play, or if you are in a band who are poor musicians or sound awful then it doesn’t matter what gear you use. If you get to play in a band that sounds great then they will expect you to sound just as good as them. As a rule, good gear will sound better – but diminishing returns sets in at a certain point. If you don’t know how to eq an amp then it doesn’t matter too much what you use. My advice has always been to get the best gear you can reasonably afford, then learn how to use it and not chop and change too often. Good players will always sound better than bad players, but good players with good gear sound better than good players with crap gear! Funnily enough, I have just been talking to my guitar playing mate about this down the pub. He is starting to lose patience with his bass player, who always seems to be chasing a sound in his head and keeps changing his pretty decent gear for stuff that is no better than what he had before. He is talking about getting a rig that just isn’t going to work in 80% of the gigs that they do and will cause problems for the soundman (i.e. my mate). Always better to get gear that works with the way you play and the type of music you do – then stick with it…