TKenrick

The site has had another facelift and is still having its 'back end' done up... New transcription and play along video of Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now': http://youtu.be/OFRUtk69FOU Transcription pdf is HERE I also put on my Big Girl Pants and did my first ever gear review, demoing the much-hyped Noble Preamp: http://youtu.be/YsuuPfxFXvA

Another High Action Club member here (whoops, starting to get a little too much like Talkbass...). Although there are some proponents of low action/light touch who do great things, I can't get on with it at all. [quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1488833527' post='3252256'] I've always needed my strings a hair off the board, it seems like every bass I pick up has what I consider a huge action, and I just don't get how people play with any fluency on them!? Super low for me [/quote] I always have the opposite problem - I try other basses and feel like everything is choked and there's no 'room to move'!

[quote name='krispn' timestamp='1488795911' post='3251749'] Top work both with the review and the the playing videos. [/quote] [quote name='Kevsy71' timestamp='1488800468' post='3251803'] Yep terrific review and love those funky tracks! [/quote] [quote name='sk8' timestamp='1488809543' post='3251923'] Great review. Can't wait to get my mitts on mine! [/quote] Thank you for the kind words on the review gents, much appreciated. Completely agree that the Noble is more 'vintage-ish' than being an authentic reproduction of vintage tone, but it had a number of features that made it more practical for me to purchase compared to other similarly (over)priced preamps. I'm keen to try the Motown DI when (or, more accurately, [i]if[/i]) funds allow.

I'm no Ed Friedland, but here's my attempt at a review of the Noble for those who are curious. Recorded examples with jazz and P bass with various EQ settings, overview of features/specs and honest feedback from using it 'in the field' over the last 18 months: [media]http://youtu.be/YsuuPfxFXvA[/media] Examples of the Noble in a full band mix (signal path was bass>Noble>desk, nothing else): [media]http://youtu.be/WW6_XDJTME8[/media] [media]http://youtu.be/FLIEZuRcoZc[/media]

Any more detail about the actual part - what note values are you playing at that point? In terms of articulation, you could interpret it as being the mid-point between playing staccato and playing the full note value; this is easiest to play when you're dealing with crotchets (although it depends on tempo, obviously!). I hear Anthony Jackson play what I'd term 'slightly detached' lines, where each note is strongly articulated but not staccato, the notes sound full but there's a bit of room between them. Check out his line on the chorus of Chaka Khan's 'Clouds' (from 16 seconds in): [media]http://youtu.be/xADrCKYUE[/media] And again on 'Our Love's In Danger' (from 16 seconds in again): [media]http://youtu.be/_SkCsW90g0U[/media]

I went through this exact situation when I started playing upright, having been an electric-only player for 10 years; I found that having thicker calluses on my right hand fingers changed my tone when I went back to electric and it wasn't to my liking. For me, it accentuated the high mid frequencies and I definitely felt that my tone was 'scratchier', even on a dead-sounding p-bass with flats. For a while I really disliked the sound of my own fingers which is a disconcerting thing, to say the least. Experimenting with different EQ settings and right hand placement helped to remove some of it - I don't really know if it 'fixed' the problem or I've just got used to it. So yeah, I feel your pain!

[quote name='krispn' timestamp='1486378415' post='3231174'] I'd be interested in using one but the price is prohibitive. In saying that if it was your main 'sound' and did a lot of live and recording it would make a lot of sense. Big warm tone, pedal board friendly etc. I had considered selling my main pre to get one, I play about 40 gigs a year give or take and if I sold my main pre the Noble could replace it. Be interested to hear what its sounds like into a power amp. I'm supposing it could drive a power amp I'll pop over to the Noble site for a read! [/quote] It's a big investment, and I held off for 6 months before taking the plunge (the exchange rates was also more favourable when I bought mine). I do lots of gigs where I take public transport and don't need an amp so the noble was a good fit for my requirements. It should be fine with a power amp, I tend to bypass the EQ on my Aguilar head and effectively use it as a power amp. [quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1486388219' post='3231300'] Haven't gone hunting for clips, but the ones on their site are terrible, just some live recordings with a noisy crowd. I'd want to hear comparisons with a bass going in to a regular clean DI vs this to convince me. [/quote] I'll see what I can come up with as far as reference recordings go...

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1486330561' post='3230978'] Funnily enough, the bassist from the band at my mate's wedding in October had an upright, Noble pre and Aguilar amp. If that was you, thanks for letting me borrow your amp for the few songs we played!!! [/quote] Ha, that was almost certainly me - I can usually be found lurking in wedding venues with an upright most weekends. Either that or somebody has cloned my setup... The wedding was in West Sussex, right? Sorry that we didn't get a chance to chat, I wanted to quiz you about your pedalboard!

I've been using mine for about 18 months and although I try not to rely on specific pieces of gear I really miss it on the rare occasions that I'm on a gig without it. What does it do? In short, it allows me to take a lightweight class D amp (Aguilar TH500) to a gig and make it sound like I'm playing through a big old tube head. The 9v power outlets are also a big plus if you like to run pedals on the gig - the only drawback is that they're not isolated so you can't use a standard voltage doubler cable for 18v pedals. At almost every gig I get band members or sound engineers coming over and asking 'what's the black box?'. Singers using IEMs have commented that the bass still sounds 'fat'. I have a regular gig in a hotel on upright, one week I left the house in a rush and forgot the Noble... At sound check the sound engineer pulled me over and said 'look how much I've had to do to your channel - usually I can just leave it flat'. I've used in on a few recordings and it comes across really well - the EQ is great and it's one of the only pieces of gear that I actually use the treble control on. Is it much more expensive than other DIs? Yes. Is it worth it? For me, definitely. Compared to Sansamps, Radial DIs and the Aguilar Tonehammer DI this is vastly superior.

Theory is dry. Unfortunately, there's not a lot that you can do to 'dress it up'. What [i]isn't[/i] dry is the application of theory, i.e. [b]making music[/b]. After all, that's why most of us got into playing, right? It's easy to get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of things and lose sight of the bigger picture; you can learn theory until you're blue in the face, but if you can't apply it in a playing situation then it's pointless. (I say this as someone who suffers from this exact problem - I understand many things on an intellectual level but can't apply them in real time on the instrument). If you could share what you've been practising and (more importantly) what you want to sound like then it'd be easier to advise on a course of action.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1483544982' post='3208102'] I dabbled with high C some years ago, but I really didn't like the tone. To me it always sounded like a cheap and nasty guitar. The same notes always sounded better played on the G or D strings. [/quote] I feel the same way - I've never heard a C string in a live context that didn't sound like a bad classical guitar (that includes those belonging to Anthony Jackson and John Patitucci, both of whom are pretty good...). Having gone through dubious 6 string (too much teenage exposure to Dream Theater) and E-C 5 string (one too many Janek masterclasses) phases, I realise that I can't get on with C strings. I know that others here are fans of them, but it's about the range of the instrument that you [i]hear[/i] in your head; I hear brown notes. If you're into extensive chordal playing and believe that your solos won't cut unless they're played in guitar territory then the E-C thing is worth a look, but for more 'everyday' applications then I'd say that you're better off sticking with B-G. The possible move to a 6 string brings with it some major technical adjustments and the search for an instrument that doesn't feel like you're playing an ironing board.

[quote name='dand666' timestamp='1484154000' post='3213119'] No midi keyboard? [/quote] Ah, that's the part I'd forgotten about! Yeah, midi keyboard and numeric keypad (for note lengths and articulation) are important parts of the Sibelius equation.

Gary bought a set of pickups from me and was an absolute gent from start to finish. Swift responses to messages and prompt payment, couldn't have been easier.

New additions: Did a gig with Suggs in October (CLANG!) so here are charts for a couple of Madness tunes: Madness - Baggy Trousers Madness - My Girl Also added: LaBelle - Lady Marmalade (none other than George Porter Jr. on bass!)

[quote name='dand666' timestamp='1482422580' post='3200463'] Used your transcriptions for a few gigs! They're great. What software and equipment do you use for transcribing? [/quote] Good to hear they're useful! I use an old version of Sibelius for writing things out, other than that it's spotify > vox headphone amp > cheap headphones. If I'm working on something that's really complicated then I'll use Quicktime 7 or the Tempo Slow iPad app to slow things down and loop sections.

[quote name='NoirBass' timestamp='1481847821' post='3195755'] Nice one, just had to do these and you've saved me a job transcribing it. Thanks. [/quote] Anything to save people having to endure listening to these tunes too much!

Some seasonal offerings which might save time prepping for gigs: Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1480368170' post='3183843'] Listen to a shitload of Paul Chambers, Ray Brown and Milt Hinton. Then practice for the rest of your life [/quote] This. Transcription, although much more strenuous than getting lines and concepts from books, is much more beneficial. As well as giving you insight into what the masters of walking bass played on various tunes it teaches you the [i]feel[/i] of walking bass, which is a vital ingredient that you can't get from the page. Part of the problem is the bass is difficult to hear accurately on many recordings - it might be worth searching for records that don't have drums on (there's a great duo album by Jim Hall and Ron Carter called 'Alone Together' which is worth a listen). Another option is to seek out the Jamey Aebersold Jazz books that had decent players on the recordings (such as Ron Carter) as these allow you to isolate the bass part. Also... if you're not comfortable with chord tones then the whole process will be much more difficult. Good luck!

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1479762892' post='3179135'] The fact that the time signature is 4/4 but the first bar has 1 quaver in it, isn't right unless the last bar has 7 quavers - but then it's incomplete. [/quote] Pedantry alert: this, I believe, is part of the joy of the modern anacrusis - any pickups into the first bar of a piece are generally notated without any rests preceding them and don't have to be 'balanced' by subtracting notes from bars at the end of the line. This is definitely a case of conventions having evolved over time from the 'rules' of classical notation. That Espana part is HORRIBLE to read, A.Carter needs a slap for awful chart writing.

[quote name='paul_c2' timestamp='1479296736' post='3175383'] Scales are - and always will be - a bit abstract compared to actual pieces, but there is a vague link so they are vaguely useful. It does seem that the classical training (of other instruments) seem to like them though, maybe too much so? For bass, probably just as important/more important is arpeggios. A lot of the time in pieces, arpeggios of a certain chord come up again and again. [/quote] I totally agree with this - I find that placing too much emphasis on practising scales leads to vague, noodly scale-based playing. Once you understand how a scale is constructed and have the sound of it in your ear then I don't really see the point in playing it to death for technique's sake. Much better to play some music that stretches your technique [i]and[/i] gives you context for the scale/arpeggio that you're working on.

[quote name='moonbass' timestamp='1479325938' post='3175707'] Any gigs coming up? [/quote] They're playing at Pizza Express in Soho on December 15th (sadly I'm up north doing a function that night so not on the gig). https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/mr-littles-nosiy-band