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Everything posted by EliasMooseblaster
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More specifically - buy one of the good Epis! The neck-through models will do you much better than the cheaper bolt-on ones - indeed if I didn't already have the Gibson myself, I'd be very tempted by one of the new vintage-style Epis with the Gibson pickups. Personally I find the real charm of the 'bird is up the dusty end of the neck - the high notes can be wonderfully articulate. That, and the crushing, piano-like honk from the bottom notes when you get the pickup settings just right.
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Self build kits. Anybody done one?
EliasMooseblaster replied to Newfoundfreedom's topic in Bass Guitars
I've been playing a kit-build Precision since 2001 - for several years it was my only bass! Bought mine from Brandoni Guitars in North London, and it turned out to be a really good instrument. I refurbished it a couple of years ago - details and some pictures at https://ralphbeeby.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/precision-bass-refurb/ if you're interested! As Andytre says, you may want to upgrade some of the components, but when you consider how much money you save on the kit, it doesn't seem like such a shame to splash out on a nicer pickup, for example. If I were to do it again, I would also invest some of that saved money in getting it professionally set up. I really didn't know what I was doing when I built mine, and the neck is slightly bowed after years of stupidly high action and no truss rod adjustments. Still a great instrument, though, and still getting extensive use (I used in on Cherry White's last single, if you wanted to hear it in action... https://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/track/broken-land) -
How bothered are you about your recorded bass lines?
EliasMooseblaster replied to MacDaddy's topic in Recording
Perhaps it's one of the privileges of playing with a band that's typically recorded as many parts together as possible. It's nice to be able to vary the line a bit, and the fills always work best if they play off what the drums and guitar are doing. I think you'd have to put in an awful lot of effort to recreate that feel with a sequencer...possibly even enough effort that it would just be easier to set up the mics and record the band playing it! It's probably worth admitting that I'm not completely precious about it: I'm happy for engineer to edit out the odd bum note here and there, or let me "punch in" to replace a shonky couple of bars - god knows studio time is expensive, and those would be quicker than me insisting that my 15th attempt from the top will be a perfect take! -
You might like to try the Sony MDR-ZX100 - particularly as I believe you can now get them for less than £20. Mrs Mooseblaster passed a pair on to me and I was pleasantly surprised by them. Sufficiently surprised, in fact, that I looked up some online reviews, which included a few people saying they'd found them good enough for mixing - apparently the EQ is relatively flat compared to the horrific low end shelf on a lot of other well-regarded headphones.
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I think I struck lucky: my band includes a Welshman, who is de facto more interested in the rugby, and a Brazilian who emigrated for reasons including, but not limited to, his native country's increasingly tedious glorification of its past footballing prowess. The fact that I keep an occasional eye on Leicester City's results makes me the closest thing to a football expert in the group....
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Perhaps I'm too used to passive basses. I tried a couple of Sadowsky Jazz-type basses at the Gallery a few months ago, and I also found the onboard EQ a bit challenging to work with. In the end I decided I liked them best in passive mode - no denying that the guitar itself was a delight to play, to be fair. Perhaps the preamp is a bit of an acquired taste! For balance, I also tried a couple of Sandbergs, and similarly found myself wondering whether I'd ever use the active EQ if I bought one, though I did find their slightly more subtle cut/boost controls easier to get used to. (I say all this having only owned one active bass previously, and the EQ knobs hardly ever left the detente when I was playing that one...)
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Is your amp valve or SS? If valve, you'll knacker the amp very quickly unless you plug it into either a speaker or dummy load. I think you can get away with it on a SS amp, but there are probably still reasons why it's not recommended...
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Strengths: I can carry my amp. Weakness: I can't carry a tune.
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I used to front a blues-rock trio. Good fun, if very draining. If I can offer any single nugget of advice: Make sure you can trust your drummer. The logic is as follows: your attention is split between the bass and the vocal line, but the majority of the audience will focus more on the vocal line, so you need to make sure that is as spot-on as possible. As others have said, you may find you have to simplify the bass part as a result, and you won't be able to devote as much attention to the rhythm and the groove. Ergo, the last thing you need is a clodhopping shed builder behind you who can't keep time or lock in with the rest of the band.
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Joining another band...staying in first?
EliasMooseblaster replied to Mickeyboro's topic in General Discussion
I used to play with a band that was comprised entirely of deps. It was a singer/guitarist who had a reservoir of friends he could call on who knew his songs (yes, it was originals) and obviously liked to fly by the seat of his pants! It became his running joke to say to the audience, "...and at this point, I'd like to introduce the band...", then turn around and introduce us to each other - fair enough given most of us had literally just met for the first time. -
I shall continue to fly the flag for Schecter. The Model T is an excellent P/J bass. I've recently gone back to playing mine more regularly and remembered how much I love it. If you turn off the J pickup, you essentially have a beautifully-made Precision which sounds as good as an American Fender, but only costs a bit more than a Mexican one*. *I'm assuming you can still get your hands on the passive Model Ts; the active ones cost a bit more, but I've heard they're also very good!
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Who is 'old' and still looks our for new music?
EliasMooseblaster replied to operative451's topic in General Discussion
I agree: the usual playlist on Planet Rock makes me fear that rock music is in pretty dire health (I have ranted on this subject quite a big in the past). Every so often I come across groups like All Them Witches, or Bouquet of Dead Crows, who seem to have some fresh ideas, but they're few and far between. Like you, I also owe a couple of great discoveries to Last.FM - it's a shame it's not more widely used. -
£500 is an insanely good price for an insanely good amp. Hope you enjoy it!
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Joining another band...staying in first?
EliasMooseblaster replied to Mickeyboro's topic in General Discussion
I think, at its most ridiculous, I was playing in about six or seven bands at one point. Fortunately, most of them were fairly ad hoc, so it wasn't too difficult to manage the calendar around them. You may have to make a decision about which band gets your first priority, though - and maybe make this clear to the other band(s). -
Tom Petersson's Hamer FBVIII - when things went weird.
EliasMooseblaster replied to NancyJohnson's topic in Bass Guitars
"Home is where the (victim's) heart is..." -
Tom Petersson's Hamer FBVIII - when things went weird.
EliasMooseblaster replied to NancyJohnson's topic in Bass Guitars
Exactly: if you were looking for a place to live, you'd expect to see plenty of photos before agreeing to a viewing, just so you don't find yourself standing in a pigsty / fresh murder scene / sex dungeon, awkwardly trying to explain to the lettings agent that this didn't really meet your standards for a "cosy family home." If this bass is indeed the "ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND, YOU B**T**D TIME-WASTING TIRE KICKER; I BET YOU KICK PUPPIES AS WELL, DON'T YOU, etc, etc" then surely the guy would be all too happy to send you some more photos to show the thing off? -
One of the trickiest things to nail will be the custom shop pickups. The P pickup is very bright - a '62 RI would probably get you there - but the J in the bridge position is apparently something they designed with TF himself, and may be difficult to come by outside of that bass. Not being a connoisseur of Jazz basses, I'm not sure how to compare it to other bridge pickups, or what might get you close. If you do decide to go down the bitsa route - firstly, I look forward to hearing the results! - and secondly, you could probably improve on my only gripe with the design: replace the blade switch with a blend control!
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One concise, if slightly dismissive, maxim I've come to like is that "there are no prizes for being the healthiest person in the graveyard."
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Cover Versions - Like the original or not
EliasMooseblaster replied to Nicko's topic in General Discussion
I'm not sure there's a clear rule one way or t'other, but I've tended to be of the opinion that: If you're recording it, make it your own or else what's the point? If you're playing it live, it depends how well-known it is: most of the audience won't know the Camel song you've snuck into the setlist, but there'll be one bloke at the back who'll be delighted to hear it. But if it's a radio-friendly pop song that most people would recognise, I think there's a lot to be said for putting your own spin on it and leaving people guessing. Which provides a neat segue into my own link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifIpiVFDMKc -
Cover Versions - Like the original or not
EliasMooseblaster replied to Nicko's topic in General Discussion
Tui. It probably wouldn't offend me quite so much if they didn't have the advert playing on a loop while you take the little shuttle train from one side of Gatwick to the other, but being forced to listen to that crappy fey cover of Chaka Khan multiple times is a new and subtle form of torture. -
So when I wake up with my ears still ringing, after trying to get my screaming toddler back to sleep in the small hours, and having achieved all of three hours' sleep myself, I should actually try and power through without coffee if I want my ears to recover? Thanks, life. Way to kick me while I'm down...
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How do I control volume between finger and plec style
EliasMooseblaster replied to bayles's topic in General Discussion
Turn down the tone control a tad. -
Your *Top 5 Tunes* for improving technique
EliasMooseblaster replied to Cicero's topic in General Discussion
My Generation...but NOT for the reason you'd think. Of course there is plenty of merit in learning those solo breaks, but if the band plays it properly, it is a song in which the bass has to hold everything together, but is also right upfront and completely exposed. Listen closely to the original single (and the better-known live versions, for that matter). Study the bass part, but also study the guitar part. The guitar chords on that intro are actually very sparse - those droning crotchets are just being played by the bass. You have to be right up at the front of the mix - time to kick in that overdrive pedal with the midrang hump, perhaps. Now listen to the drums. This is the other giveaway: My Generation swings. Keith Moon's over-the-top playing obscures this fact a little, but if you listen to the way the drums and the bass lock in, you will hear it swing. If you play it straight, you will fall into the same pit of mediocrity that caught out Green Day, Oasis, and countless others. Once you have beaten these subtleties into your bandmates' consciousnesses, take some time to learn the solo breaks. Because we all know that any Who fans in the audience will be judging you on those. EDIT: I'll come back with the other four when I think of them... -
Where do I even begin?
EliasMooseblaster replied to ribbetingfrog's topic in eBay - Weird and Wonderful
I was wondering this - has he just assumed that, because a 7-string is typically strung down to a low B, it is de facto a bari guitar? -
I've a couple of tenuous ones... 1. Years ago I saw The Hamsters in Milton Keynes - I'd had no prior warning that they were filming that gig specifically to generate footage for a live DVD. They were their usual, reliably entertaining selves, though it did feel a bit odd when they "broke the fourth wall" towards the end and started discussing which songs they wanted to get another take of. Tenuous, because I never did find out whether said live DVD was finished and released. 2. I am in the audience on the DVD release of Bill Bailey's Part Troll show. (Tenuous, because his act is more "comedy with musical bits" than a band.) A group of friends managed to get tickets for one of several nights at Hammersmith. When the DVD was released, we weren't sure which night - or nights - the footage had been compiled from. Not, that is, until he started talking about hash brownies, and asked the audience what else they had cooked with weed - somebody yelled out "stroganoff", and at that point we knew, yep, that was the night we were there.