Sean

I'm looking for notation for these disco songs: 'We Are Family' – Sister Sledge, 'He's the Greatest Dancer' – Sister Sledge, 'Dance Dance Dance' - Chic, 'I Want Your Love' - Chic, 'Everybody Dance' - Chic, Anyone help?

Yesterday, I blew my Korg AX3000B again and though Korg are great and fix things pretty quickly, I'm bored of multi-effects units - I didn't get on with the Boss ME-50B I had. I can live without effects for the Blues Brothers tribute except for my EBS Multi-Comp and Sansamp BDI if we're playing a big gig but for this new Disco/Funk 70s band I'm going into I'm going to need a good envelope filter at least and a volume pedal so I reckon I'm going to go down the route of quality effects pedals to keep it simple. I tend to find that gadget-type things with big menus and lots of buttons suck up huge amounts of my time as I become obsessed with tweaking all the time trying to find the perfect sound much like a surfer sitting on his board all afternoon waiting for the 100 year wave that never comes. Over to the For Sale threads now to find a filter!

Francis "Rocco" Prestia from Tower of Power is one that springs to mind but [i]the[/i] bassist that shines through as part of a big band arrangement is James Jamerson on much of the Motown material. Darryl Jones playing on the live Rolling Stones shows is fantastic - check out Live Licks for that. Duck Dunn from any of the Blues Brothers albums - that's a big band with very prominent bass. Nathan Watts who plays with Stevie Wonder always shines through a very big mix. Wow, I've got myself all worked up and I'll be listening to that lot before going to bed tonight.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='61629' date='Sep 17 2007, 01:02 PM']Sean, can we assume that BC responded so positively [i]because[/i] of this thread, or would it have happened anyway?[/quote] I'd like to think that they responded positively because they were trying to sort out a customer issue and that's the way it should be done - I have no doubt that Andy at BC is a stand up decent chap who likes to see satisfied customers - who wouldn't? We must remember that communities like ours are quite powerful at spreading the word about anything and they certainly can influence consumer behaviour so retailers who are aware of such forums would be missing an important line of feedback if we were ignored, especially in such a niche market. As long as we keep our criticisms aimed at the business and not at individuals within the business than I think our issues will be listened to and hopefully acted upon.

Andy from Bass Centre phoned me today and has apologised for the poor service and answered some of the questions raised in this thread. He has promised to get my goods shipped today and I thank him for sorting it out. I've edited my initial post as I made an unfair reference to a member of their staff and I by no means wish to cause personal offence to any of the shop assistants. So apologies to the guy I spoke to on Saturday. I had poor communications with BC 18 months ago when I waited weeks for my Ashdown rig - it wasn't the wait that upset me it was the lack of updates and vague replies when I chased them. When I came to order my GK combo I went elsewhere despite BC offering better prices. I hope that threads like this one have the desired effect and that retailers learn that poor customer service is not acceptable. In our shrinking world consumers have the freedom to take their business overseas and with such superb service and a very attractive exchange rate Bass Central in the USA is bound to benefit if UK suppliers fail to reach expectations.

DR Extra Life are fantastic. Great sound, last for ages and funky colours too. You can find 'em for a good price from US shops on ebay too.

I played a Levin 5 at a gig about a year ago and thought it was very good, then when I found out how much the guy paid for it I thought it was really brilliant. If you can live with the colour and the string spacing suits you, go for one.

[quote name='Basszilla' post='61162' date='Sep 16 2007, 02:00 PM']Compared to the service I've had from Bass Central in the states these guys are a joke.[/quote] Couldn't agree more; I bought my Lakkies through Bass Central and the level of customer service is superb. All the guys there are great to deal with and Beaver kept me informed of the process all the way through and they called me to say when they had been shipped. It seems that Barry and his crew are super-arrogant and give the impression that they are doing [i]you[/i] a favour. Maybe one day I'll pop in there after a couple of pints of Thatcher's and a kebab and stink the shop out for them!

I was having thoughts about open strings versus fretted strings earlier last week when our band went to see another Blues Brothers tribute band playing (checking out the competition!). The bass player was playing songs in position and fretted "up the neck" whereas I watched Duck Dunn footage and just copied his positions. I spent yesterday afternoon sitting in the garden playing lots of the Blues Brothers songs without using open strings and it definitely gives a different feel. It was a worthwhile exercise on my part.but for this type of blues/soul I prefer the open string sound and as far as the "other" tribute band were concerned I'll never know as they had the bass buried in a very muddy mix.

My band's going through a big hoo hah at the moment over the way one of the backing vocalists who's been with us 4 weeks spoke to me at rehearsal. In a nutshell, she was extremely condescending to me and said that I couldn't be expected to learn the part in question as quickly as the keyboard player because I'm "just a bassist", she then told everyone they had to be patient with the non-musicians in the band. The week before the other backing vocalist commented on how novel it was that I read music, to which the first one said that bass music is much easier to read than "proper" music. I kept my mouth shut at the time but it has since become an issue and it looks like she'll be out the door very soon. If she'd have been a bloke I'd have punched his lights out - it's a shame I'm not an equal rights bassist really!

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='55809' date='Sep 5 2007, 11:40 AM']I wouldn't use anything but the trusty zoom H4. Set it on a camera tripod and press the big button. Then connect to a PC via USB and drag the wav file across for editing. Nothing could be easier, well nothing I've found. The sound quality is good enough for a live demo CD.[/quote] +1 - I use mine loads - it's so easy and so versatile.

Drive My Car is great too - bass sound on this is the best of the lot for me. Lakkies really are superb tools for the job.

Back on July 3rd I ordered a Comfort Strapp and some strap locks from the Bass Centre. A few weeks later I received an email asking what size strap it was I wanted - I promptly replied. After another week I called and asked where the goods were and I was told that they were waiting for a shipment of straps from the distributor. This week a received an invoice from Bass Centre for the goods so I phoned up to ask where the goods are. They took my details, said they'd look into it and give me a call back. Guess what? Yep, no call back. I phoned again yesterday morning and they said they'd sort it out and call me back - they lied. No phone call, no sorting, no parcel arriving. I phoned again this morning and the phone was answered by a member of staff who told me that the manager doesn't work on Saturdays (surely this is their busiest day?). He then told me that my order might have been mixed up with some other orders and that I'd have to wait for him to sort it out and he'd call me back. And now they've called back asking me to call Andy on Monday to get him to sort it out. And I thought Tesco were rude, useless muppets.

Internet relationships! There's something forbidden about it that draws us in!

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='60765' date='Sep 15 2007, 10:38 AM']Sean, in your avatar pic are you in the back of a Hercy-Bird??[/quote] Certainly am Terri. That's me on the left, with our drummer on the right. We played for RAF Lynam and they took us up for a blast - we went down the M4 over the Severn bridges so we could all see our houses in Chepstow and Caldicot, back up the M4 and then back to Lynam for the gig. We playing there again next month and I'm hoping to get a better pic of me on the tail. In the meantime here's some posey ones of me in the garden... and one from the "departure lounge" at RAF Lynam

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='60710' date='Sep 15 2007, 07:33 AM']Paul,the - I can't believe you have spent all these months hiding yourself away under that blue woolly hat!!!! I have one word for you............ Phwoar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wub: Terri xxxx [/quote] It's obviously a stunt double - there's no bass in the picture.

[quote name='jwbassman' post='60196' date='Sep 14 2007, 12:25 AM']Good Rhythm Guitarists - where are they - in my experience they all want to play lead...[/quote] I've never made the differentiation between lead and rhythm when it comes to guitar playing - a good rounded guitarist should just be able to play whatever guitar parts are required for the song. I hate that, "Do you play lead guitar or rhythm guitar?" question that people ask. Where exactly do you draw the line? Anyway, I couldn't agree more, good all-rounder non-egotistical, team-playing guitarists are thin on the ground and non-existant round where I live.

For my "other" band we are having nightmares finding a guitarist to suit. No one out there wants to be a Nile Rodgers-type player. They are all metallers or super-gifted acoustic boys.

I have a scar on my arm from playing a Fender Telecaster guitar for years. I used to gaffer tape a peice of paper or an old set list to my arm and that seemed to do the trick.

I've always loved the look of these beasts and had big cravings for one but I have one question... What are mortal men like me supposed to do with the twin output sockets? Can one of the outputs be used as a conventional socket where you can mix outputs or do you have to switch sockets for different sounds?

[quote name='paul, the' post='58404' date='Sep 10 2007, 07:43 PM']The Precision Deluxe has been around for a while.[/quote] Hmm, yes. I tried a Deluxe P a couple of years ago but didn't like the feel or sound of it. Sandberg have being doing a similar thing for ages too but they don't have the "it" factor.

[quote name='dood' post='58147' date='Sep 10 2007, 12:39 PM']Or go the whole hog and have the MM pup AND the P pup. Now there's some tones I'd like to hear![/quote] Imagine the two pups full on! Now there's a great project for someone... Any takers?

Jeff Ament & Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam - Jeff + any of the other drummers have been good but Cameron is so very classy and has impeccable time-keeping. Darryl Jones & Charlie Watts - I like the Stones stuff sounding tight, many people don't but these two mesh in a way that gives the old tunes new life.