spectoremg

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1473880174' post='3133869'] Got a link? [/quote]YT - The Mighty Fly - Spirit of Radio.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1473890127' post='3133991'] I guess they dropped Spirit of Radio when the new bass player couldn't do it and want to have another go at it. I suspect it needs a certain audience. [/quote] That's what I think.

Some great update comments on this one. For the record I came clean and said that I wouldn't be able to achieve that standard any time soon - which was totally honest. I'm never afraid of a challenge - that's how I got to my current standard. As someone has already said I personally wouldn't want to see or be in a band who bored the pants of a pub crowd with Wayward Son. I was also suspicious of Bohemian Rhapsody aspirations. I've seen this band in one form or another for nearly 20 years now and they've steadily become more um... self absorbed - playing three or four songs that no-one recognises is a cardinal sin IMO. I did find a video of them doing Spirit of Radio with their last-but-one bass player and actually they pretty much nailed the doodly bits - not bad for a six piece!

Actually that just looks very old (and unloved).

Update: I bailed. The prospect of learning/achieving the standard for Spirit of Radio, Knights of Sydonia, Bohemian Rhapsody and Carry On My Wayward son sucked the life out of me before I picked a bass up. Thanks again for all the positive comments.

[attachment=227805:2TimMcInnery.JPG] Another fad.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1473613474' post='3131670'] Sometimes it's (partly) about whether the candidate has personality enough to say "no". IMHO that too is interesting with candidates. [/quote]A good point - that's part of the intrigue.

Jeez I can be thick sometimes - of course no-one else is gonna be able to play it!! Talk about not seeing the wood for the trees! Job done. Many thanks for the replies guys.

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1473457685' post='3130500'] Mike Rutherford. Some of the sounds he gets on the early Genesis stuff are sublime but not suitable for filling out the bottom end of a guitar/bass/drums covers trio [/quote]I loved the sound he got when he was using a Rick circa Selling England but the bottom end left the room.

Thanks for the replies so far. It isn't a case of the song being complicated - that wouldn't be a problem, it's simply beyond my ability. What's added to my suspicion is that Bohemian Rhapsody's in there, which I can do but I doubt would ever get gigged. And to be fair to everyone the song's Spirit of Radio - the doodly bits are too fast for me.

Someone's been a teeny bit optimistic with those castors it's on too.

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1473518451' post='3130954'] Yeah, but put an SVT on top and think of the kudos you'd have turning up (eventually) with a rig with its own gravity... [/quote]

I'm auditioning for a band sometime soon and I've been given six songs to learn. The band play pop covers. Two of the songs I've been given aren't in their current set and I'm pretty sure never will be - and one of them is a real bass challenge. I don't want to get into a discussion about levels of ability (and we're talking Geddy Lee) but I've got the feeling I'm being asked to do something that's unnecessarily difficult just to massage someones ego. I haven't contacted the band about it because I've some other stuff to sort before I make contact. Opinions please.

Nah, baby elephant with it's mouth open.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1473012343' post='3126047'] I've talked about this (and bored the pants off of folk) before. My opinion is that the answer is fairly simple: build a bass with the pickups in the right places and you are mostly there. For example, this Peterbuilt bass is basically a '51-style P bass with two pickups in the Rickenbacker locations: The neck pickup on a Rickenbacker is in basically the same location as that of a Gibson EB-0 - EB-3 bass. The classic Rickenbacker tone (Squire [i]et al[/i]) comes from having a reasonably low output single coil pickup in that location and another in the same position as a P bass pickup, as per the picture above. Squire, Lee and co split the output of their bass, with each pickup running through a separate signal chain. I think Lee used different amps for each pickup, whereas Squire actually mixed the two pickups back together into a mono signal chain, bolstered with Marshall amps. The important bit is that the two pickups don't 'see' each other, so don't cancel frequencies or load each other down electrically. You basically have two '51 P bass circuits running independently on opposite sides of a 3-way pickup switch (that basically runs as two kill switches and a 'both on' arrangement in the middle position). Rickenbacker also used to fit 4.7 nF capacitors in series with the bridge pickup, cutting bass frequencies. This doesn't put the pickup ninety degrees out of phase (as some would have you think) but basically scoops the frequencies from this pickup right where they would interfere and interact most with the bassy frequencies of the neck pickup. However if you are running a bass in stereo you can remove these bass frequencies from the bridge pickup anyway, so it probably isn't all that vital to have it there. Chris Squire had a way of making all instruments sound like Chris Squire. Probably a combination of low action, rotosounds, warm-voiced valve amps on the brink of distortion and forgiving producers like Eddy Offord working with him to get a full bass tone. In the world of Yes Chris was given a lot of space so, luckily for us, you can hear a lot of his tone! I've got the multitracks to Heart of the Sunrise somewhere, and Chris's bass sounds the same solo'd as in the final mix. For a lot of isolated bass tracks I've heard you tend not to realise the full tone of the bassist until the other instruments are stripped away. Sticking with Squire for a bit, the other contender is that we don't know what he used in the studio, really. On The Yes Album there are times that the bass is in stereo and panned across the stereo field, but on Fragile it is pretty much in mono and down the centre of the mix. Squire actually acquired a 21 fret Mapleglo 4001 bass around The Yes Album time (if not earlier), so it is hard to know what tracks he used this on. That bass had factory Ric-O-Sound fitted, so perhaps he modified his cream 1999 RM bass to have a stereo output after he purchased the 4001? Beyond the bass we also don't know what amp combinations he used in the studio, and what limiting and compression was added to the signal. From memory there is some drum bleedthrough on the bass tracks to Heart of the Sunrise, so this suggests there was a mic'd amp somewhere in the mix. Another idea I keep coming back to is that Rickenbackers don't sound like Rickenbackers. New 4003 basses sound way darker and less charismatic, in my view, than the originals. I played an early '70s 4001 last year, and the tone was way more open and bright sounding. Admittedly it had quite a low output and, with some fingerstyle playing, I got some ugly transients coming from the bridge pickup. I find modern 4003 basses to sound like dark, rubbery Jazz basses, and the 'vintage' tone circuit (which introduces the 4.7 nF cap mentioned earlier) just muddles up the mids a bit, adding a subtle honk to the tone. Rickenbacker went through an odd period of winding hotter and hotter pickups, using weaker magnets and generally making dull sounding pickups. I hope a manufacturer someday mass produces a bass with single coil pickups in the Rickenbacker locations. Copyists tend to try and copy the outline of the 4003 bass, and then get into legal trouble with RIC. Ironically none of the modern clutch of copies sound much like Rickenbackers, with some exceptions, due to a number of reasons (pickups used and scale length being the most obvious). Somebody could produce a P bass like the Peterbuilt above and RIC could do nothing. [/quote]Thanks for an informative, informed and very interesting article.

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1472941555' post='3125541'] Chris Squire made a Fender J sound just like his Ric [/quote]Good point. I was thinking about Parallels today - didn't realise he'd used a J on it before being told.

I agree that there are several Rick sounds. My benchmark would be Chris Squire's (all of them) and I find there's a shedload of fundamentals in there. I bought some gear from a BCer in Suffolk last year and he had tons of basses which of course being a BCer he wanted to show me - including a Rick. He then said 'if you wanna hear a Rick sound try this' and plugged in a Vigier. He was right too.

Welcome zonular. A word of caution, only get a P if you've the time for the regular threads about them that crop up ad nauseum. 😀

The original destroyed in a fire? Covered itself in petrol buddhist monk style more like.

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1472285459' post='3120005'] And Genesis could sound pretty immense with Bill/Chester in the instrumental bits where Phil wasn't singing... [/quote]I've seen the tribute band G2 use a 2nd drummer occasionally.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1472286612' post='3120018'] Errrm that's 'emojis' and don't Orange do it already? [/quote]A bass amp for drummers!

Just finished watching it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great playing - great music.

You know when your eyes light up and your heart's lifted by a thread title; heft, punch, growl, utter bollox? Edit: describing sound is like trying to describe an orgasm.

Just finished watching the Quincy Jones prom - now THAT'S how you do a tribute!

Sorry no I know nothing about the bass, it turned up in the g/f's old pics (she couldn't resist bass players even back then). Taken in Gosport around '99.