Hellzero

I know Jaco by heart, but I hate the worshipping around him, like any other worshipping that is always a kind of bigotry blinding the worshipper himself. We all have influences, that's a form of heritage that we accept. Jaco is the main influence of a lot of bassists, but they don't become bigots because of that, ... well some have. Hatzi, as he's nicknamed, has never been afraid to say that Jaco has been his main influence over a long period, but he integrated this influence in his composing, just like his Greek roots as well as Pygmies (the Aka tribe) music or Indian music and classical music too. The result being his band called Aka Moon. Of course, you'll see lots of videos of him playing Jaco as it's what people retained, but better listen to Aka Moon to hear what they did and if you check recent stuff, you'll notice that he's now playing a fretted bass... He had a tribute band for a one-off in 1999, just after finishing the transcriptions of Jaco's material, but that was to spread Jaco's music and it was a real homage. Nothing more. This summarises more who Jaco the musician and Jaco the man were : To loop a loop, here is Hatzi playing a well known Jimi Hendrix tune, Little Wing, on the ... bouzouki : And here a recent solo piece : As I wrote, it's all about influences. And to end up with this usual derailing, didn't I also wrote that Hatzi can play Jaco better than Jaco, and simply because he has integrated his vocabulary and grammar in his playing and composing. I'll let you seek for Aka Moon music or you can push the ignore button if you don't like my posts. That said, even if it's an interesting feature, I don't use it.

And I forgot to mention the great Biréli Lagrène who can play Jaco perfectly even if he's before all a (real) gipsy acoustic guitar player. He also played, toured and live with Jaco Pastorius. Biréli is an amazing fretless bass player like Hatzi, but they both play their own music, not just a copy-paste of Jaco Pastorius, they are just a step further having fully integrated Jaco's vocabulary and grammar in their playing and compositions. What's bad with this, it's the way music goes.

Listen to Aka Moon @Bilbo and you'll hear that the student has surpassed the master. And don't forget Percy Jones who has always impressed Jaco Pastorius himself. Michel Hatzigeorgiou has all the recognition he deserves by Jaco Pastorius family including all the music scene and he also had this recognition by Jaco Pastorius himself who considered him like his son and as good if not better than him even when he was completely bipolar. Those things happen quite often in fact. There is a before and an after Jaco Pastorius, of course, like for Jimi Hendrix on guitar or Esjbörn Svensson on piano or Jóhan Jóhansson on film score.

Use hairspray and a match. Second best use of hairspray. What a lovely can it is with multiple use. I'm going to buy some !

STOP !!! STOP !!! STOP !!! STOP !!! STOP !!! STOP !!! Are you crazy, Mick ? It's a nitro finish and acetone (or nail varnish remover) will remove it too ! Don't ever do this to a nitro finish !!!

With a friend, who like me was fed up of endless subcategories in the metal genre, we decided to call metal anything played with distortion and jazz everything played without distortion. It was a very effective way to categorise. 😎 That said, there's even a faster way to categorise things : music opposed to dire.

On the other hand, sorry, but I didn't learn anything and to be frank, the title should be "The *ss licking documentary". The assertion that comes back all the time saying "no one can play like Jaco" is so stupid. Never heard of Michel Hatzigeorgiou who plays Jaco better than Jaco and who has transcribed all Jaco's music... Hatzi also played for years with Toots Thielemans who has been ignored in this documentary. Maybe worth asking Hatzi (as he lived with Jaco for a few horrible weeks and simply run away) or Michael Manring who Jaco really was... I love a lot of his work, for sure, but this kind of documentary is really useless and soooooooo incomplete. Won't make friends, I know, but it's not the point.

I've did it a lot of times. Finding wound strings for the F is the main issue, but Kalium in the USA provides almost anything you want. LaBella and D'Addario 0.020 F strings are plain. In the U.K., you can have a set made to measure by Newtone : https://newtonestrings.com/shop/custom-bass-string-configurator/ In Germany, Pyramid will do the same for you : http://pyramid-saiten.de/de/custom-shop/custom-shop.php All these manufacturers make excellent strings.

They both look good to me and certainly get requests. 😉 That said, even if Ray Brown is the original double bass player on this huge piece of music, the way NHOP is playing it is very interesting too and I tend to prefer it over the "original". Maybe it's because I've listened to this Oscar Peterson album hundreds if not thousands of times. So it's a bit like a refreshing or rehearing of this very tune.

Granny Awkward !

Indeed NHOP never got the fame he deserved. He was such an amazing player, always grooving. Thanks @Barking Spiders for reminding the bass community that if Jaco only needed 4, NHOP played with 3. Hats off.

Absolutely totally fully non original. Look at the decal that is not a ... decal and the chrome plated tuners with the Fender® stamped on them that appeared in the 70's ... without forgetting the brass nut and the greasy dirt everywhere on the neck. That said it's only £400 ... binned.

No more TLRT's so here is one for you fantastic work ! 💙

No more TLRT's so here is one for you fantastic work ! 💙

Thanks for the heads up. You did it and all was fine, at least as expected (too bad for the missing crowd), which is what music is supposed to be : fun. 👍

Was kidding Douglas. 😉

I guess it will work with a thin flat blade screwdriver. Don't we all agree.

Use a flat blade screwdriver and it will come out with the right strength applied.

Shall we start listening to some Talking Heads ?

If the pickups are wired exactly as indicated, they shouldn't be out of phase... Maybe your neck pickup is way too close to the strings... or the bridge way too far. Concerning the fact that you only hear output changes on the remaining 10% of your pot, it's normal as your pots are logarithmic ones. If you want to hear a better progression, put some linear pots instead. Nothing wrong with the way you made the grounding. To be sure just check the grounding continuity.