thisnameistaken

I think there are investments with higher returns available, that don't require the value of your investment to be sitting in your house waiting to go up in a fire or get nicked by chavs.

To the people who are still replying to tell me what a good bass player Victor is, please read the 'king thread. Thank you.

It still sounds like beaver documentary music to me.

[quote name='endorka' post='651839' date='Nov 11 2009, 06:04 PM']does anyone else find that watching him bounces you out of the listening experience somewhat?[/quote] It's his jeans.

[quote name='Prosebass' post='652131' date='Nov 11 2009, 11:49 PM']+1 to that... Like I always say " if you are not in the groove you are w***ing"[/quote] I already get picked on in my band for knowing a bit about music. If they found out I can actually play my instrument too I would never hear the end of it.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='652102' date='Nov 11 2009, 11:15 PM']You just don't get Victor, do you? There are good musicians, great musicians, amazing musicians. Then there are people like Victor. Another universe. We mortals can only imagine what it's like there.[/quote] No I do get that, honestly I do, but I don't think it puts him beyond criticism and I still think the double-thumbing stuff he does is the worst sound I've ever heard come out of a bass guitar and it shouldn't be allowed. But you don't "get" that, apparently. [quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='652115' date='Nov 11 2009, 11:30 PM']Heh! Once again, we descend into Victa-bashing.[/quote] I'm not "bashing" anyone, I think it's a fair criticism. And I've yet to hear anyone else in this thread actually say "I think you're wrong, I really like the sound of Wooten's double-thumbing at inhuman tempos, I don't care if there's no audible notes in there I just like the constant repeating string attack sound and I enjoy listening to it at length. I also sometimes stop in the street to listen to pneumatic drill operators". Nobody's said that because you all agree with me.

Well I think we're still arguing at cross purposes here. Never mind.

[quote name='Doddy' post='652069' date='Nov 11 2009, 10:29 PM']He does show his chops off at times,but what is underneath it all is a solid musical foundation. Playing at a trade show and showing off chops is a world away from his 'day job' of actually playing music.[/quote] Well, he does the clinics, and he tours with Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller - excuse me if I assume that that's another gig where the audience is 100% bass players but I don't think it's an unreasonable assumption given that nobody else in the world would know who they are. He's got the Flecktones gig I suppose, but is there anything else he does where the music comes first? It seems his 'day job' is more about showing off his chops than being especially musical.

[quote name='Doddy' post='652055' date='Nov 11 2009, 10:04 PM']But you have made a couple of comments about 'awful double-thumb slapping noise'. While that is probably the biggest reason for his notoriety,it is only one part of his playing. How you come across is that this one technique is all you are familiar with when it comes to his music. Therefor you seemingly dismiss his music on technical grounds.[/quote] Well, as I've now stated explicitly I have heard some of his music. But what I was criticising was the showy nonsense he does, not his "serious music". I don't like his music but that's not really relevant, it's his music and not everybody has to like it, but I found it a little incongruous for him to declare that music's all about communication and pointless unless you have something to say, and then spend such a large proportion of his time showing off his chops for drooling bass players. [quote name='Doddy' post='652055' date='Nov 11 2009, 10:04 PM']You then refer to 'solid sections of unlistenable w***ery' on his first album (A Show of Hands). That's funny I've listened to the album a number of times.[/quote] Do you want a badge? This is to certify that Doddy has an exceptionally high pain threshold - that sort of thing?

[quote name='Alun' post='651984' date='Nov 11 2009, 08:55 PM']A few years back I played on a dance track - played the ostinato for 4 minutes and at the end the producer flicked through, found a bar where every note was mechanically dead on, and copy and pasted it across the whole track [/quote] I had a lot of that years ago. I used to hang out with some guys in the early '90s who put out a lot of house records and they'd have me sat in their studio just jamming along to stuff on a night after the pubs shut, and at some point they'd pull out a few bits they liked and use them, often on completely different tracks.

Turn up late, steaming drunk, swear a lot and tell some racist jokes. We once auditioned a sax player who did pretty much exactly that. We decided not to bother with a sax player.

[quote name='Doddy' post='652010' date='Nov 11 2009, 09:23 PM']Someone hasn't been listening to Wootens albums.[/quote] I used to have his first album, I might still have it. [quote name='Doddy' post='652010' date='Nov 11 2009, 09:23 PM']There is alot of great music on his albums that don't involve any thumping at all,so calling him out as being a hypocrite is just bullsh*t.[/quote] I didn't like his music but that's not really important. The album I had, I can't remember there being a song that didn't have fast slap on it. There might've been one, but I don't think there was. I haven't listened to it for over 10 years. There were definitely a few that had solid sections of unlistenable w***ery on there though. To be expected really, when the record was aimed squarely at the fawning bass player market. [quote name='Doddy' post='652010' date='Nov 11 2009, 09:23 PM']Once again,people see the chops and assume it's due to lack of music and feeling.[/quote] If you actually read what I've written you'll notice your response is completely hatstand and irrelevant. And I didn't assume anything, I've heard his music, the only person making assumptions here is you.

It's actually got worse for me lately because I have to give two other people a lift to rehearsals. One's not so bad - she lives across town but it's almost on my way, the other I have to collect from the train station, again not bad but it means I have to go through town. All together it probably adds another 20 minutes each way, or worse depending on traffic. Normally we'd be rehearsing in York more but our drummer's just had a baby so we're not bothering with rehearsal rooms since he's not coming.

About an hour, but not always, sometimes we rehearse about 15 minutes away. If it was any further I'd be a bit grumpy about it.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='651977' date='Nov 11 2009, 08:44 PM']For Heaven's sake, can you guys look past Victor's chops and see the great musician that he is?[/quote] Much like any other musician, I judge him on his music. If he hadn't wanted me to hear his awful double-thumb slapping noise then he shouldn't have recorded it, A MILLION TIMES. I have to assume he thinks it sounds great, but I think it sounds like a dustbin full of rocks rolling down an escalator. But even so if he hadn't also opined about how music's pointless unless you've got something to say, I wouldn't be sitting here calling him a hypocrite now would I? If he'd just said "Yeah I like to goof off and make these clangy noises to show off and I know it sounds like sh*t but what the hell, I can do it and you can't" then my only reasonable response would've been "fair play". [quote name='Pete Academy' post='651977' date='Nov 11 2009, 08:44 PM']Good job he isn't on this forum.[/quote] I'm sure he's heard criticism before and he's grown-up enough to cope with it.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='651974' date='Nov 11 2009, 08:40 PM']Victor bashing part 31.[/quote] Pointless response #72squillion.

[quote name='Rich' post='651850' date='Nov 11 2009, 06:28 PM']Gig dragged to -- Michael Bolton, supported by Kenny G [/quote] That's grounds for divorce. You could probably have taken her to court for spousal abuse too.

[quote name='M4L666' post='651761' date='Nov 11 2009, 04:44 PM']Well, my synth player took me to see Sonic Boom Six. I didn't dislike them per se, they just aren't really my thing. I was blown away by them, and all three support acts, Difference Engine, Random Hand and The Skints. They were well good, and bloody energetic too [/quote] I like Sonic Boom Six a lot. The Skints' debut album came out this week BTW, mine's stuck in the post I think.

I'd go for the Bad Monkey just because they can be had for twenty quid and they're really good. If that doesn't work out you've lost a fiver plus shipping when you sell it on. The MXR Bass Blowtorch is worth a look too if you're fussy about tone and/or you want more gain. I found mine a bit uninspiring because I like tonnes of fuzz and I didn't really have a use for it (given that the bass was the loudest instrument in my band at the time anyway) but in terms of practical cutting-through-the-mix distortion it's still the smartest pedal on the market.

[quote name='owen' post='651119' date='Nov 10 2009, 10:38 PM']I have case GAS. Tragic.[/quote] Hahaha, tragic indeed! [quote name='BIG.J' post='651147' date='Nov 10 2009, 10:54 PM']Quite expensive though at around £350 - £500[/quote] Bloody hell. I've only got one bass to put in it then, the other one would be tied to the outside in the hope of it sustaining more damage than the case.

[quote name='lowdown' post='651225' date='Nov 11 2009, 12:07 AM']Urm.. i meant lyrical in melodic sense. Oh well. [/quote] Yeah. I think both our points stand, don't you?

My (ex) girlfriend made me go see 311, who I almost liked at the time but not enough to go see, but it turned out a little-known band called No Doubt were opening for them. Their set was one of the best live performances I've ever seen, and of course Gwen Stefani's fairly easy on the eye. I remember they dropped out of one tune into 'Ghost Town' for a couple of minutes and confused the crap out of all the 13 year olds in the audience who didn't know what it was, but it sounded great.

[quote name='lowdown' post='650886' date='Nov 10 2009, 05:59 PM']35 years ago i was having Bass lessons with a player called Joe Mudele. He pretty much said to me what you said. To me it can be any tempo, any amount of notes. But if you are not lyrical, forget it.[/quote] But then I've heard Vic Wooten himself say that music's nothing unless you've got something to say, and then bombard people with a barrage of double-thumbing noise that sounds like a hyperactive toddler with a pair of spoons and a metal bucket for 3 minutes straight. What was he trying to say? "I can play bass THIS fast"?

Hmm. That would be a good excuse to buy another bass.

[quote name='51m0n' post='650783' date='Nov 10 2009, 04:13 PM']Didnt mean a derail, but honestly foot ball is a completely alien concept to me, I happily know nothing about it, and would like to remain this unknowledgable.[/quote] Football's easy to understand: Basically the teams borrow money and give it to whichever foreign players are most convincing at looking like they got tripped in the penalty area. Each weekend they gather together and fake being tripped up for an hour and a half, then at the end the manager who lost calls the referee a tosser. The winner is the last team to be declared insolvent.