Doctor J

Parallel is a little mid-scooped, very controlled and useful tone we know and love. Serial is growl central. Not an all-the-time tone but when you need that extra bit of aggression, that push over the cliff...

I had a non-Yamaha PJ bass to which I added a push/pull pot, which gave me both pickups in series when activated. It's definitely worth doing.

Just a warning for any other bands who might end up playing a birthday party or anniversary in that area. One day, a guy might come up to you, say he's a lead guitarist and ask to play a song or two with you...

No. It's not ironic. It just doesn't make sense. I haven't taken offence, I'm just baffled why you thought I had. I have, however, expressed an observation that many news stories these days seem to be a minor celebrity taking offence at a bigger celebrity which frequently raises their public profile and results in easy exposure to the outlets carrying the "news". I've also tried to offer the context around the carefully selected quote from Clayton, having watched the entire documentary and knowing quite a bit about Lynott and the reference from a bygone era which Clayton was trying, clumsily, to convey. But offended? Not yet 🙂

I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

Because taking offence at nobodies doesn't equal clicks and exposure.

It's a couple of lines in a documentary on Phil Lynott - "A Song For While I'm Away" - he's talking about Phil and how Phil added a sexual context to his performance with a bass. There were so very obvioulsy phallic insinuations with Phil, a man from a very different era. Let's be honest, if you watch a documentary on Lynott and think Clayton is the notable mysoginist, well... you've only seen what you wanted to see. Context, as ever, is everything and, as ever, is easily overlooked when there is attention to be grabbed.

Quite a lot of "news" these days is someone you've never heard of taking offence at something someone you have heard of has said.

As Adam was speaking of bass playing as a whole, including female bass players, has Nadine just said she stinky poos on all of us? That's both rude and messy. Seriously, though, future interviews will soon be monosyllabic grunts for fear of someone taking offence at using an old saying which can be misconstrued and used as a weapon. That's great when it comes to the likes of Liam Gallagher, but some artists can be genuinely interesting when giving their slant on the world.

Sexy ist verboten now.

Also worth noting, Abigail Ybarra, she of Fender myths, legends and healthy asking price bump, was working for Jackson at that time and could have wound both our pickups 😉

They're very good guitars. The headstock puts people off, yes, but the build quality is excellent. I have a Predator from the same era. Love it.

Definitely! Maybe? 😉

Why do you care what anyone thinks? Do you enjoy playing bass, does it move you? If so, continue to enjoy it. Just the feel of low frequencies rattling my rib cage takes me to my happy place. I get lost in the enjoyment of the subtleties of our wonderful instrument. If others don't get it, it's their loss. Or, in another way, it's not you, it's them. 🙂

I bought it, listened to it three times and cannot remember a single thing off Torn Arteries and will probably never listen to it again, which is a shame because I thought Surgical Steel was really good. Mastodon was ok but nothing incredible, Helloween was ok but nothing incredible. Ascension Codes by Cynic, which came out last week, is one of the few releases which has really captivated me. It's a very interesting piece of work. It has been a fairly weak year for the heavy stuff, in my opinion.

The virtual amp trade is a slippery slope. No matter how many you have, you'll always want more.

Shims are fine if done correctly.

What are vintage characteristics in the sound?

Work on your tone and the volume balance of the instruments. If the derrière drops out of it when the guitar starts playing lead, then the guitar is providing the derrière. The bass needs to be the derrière. I'm a big fan of the power trio kind of sound, but if you don't get the instrument tones right, you get the derrière drop you describe. It can be done well, though, and it's a great sound when you get it right. If you're scooping out mids, don't. The guitar is probably providing much of the mid sound of your band and, when they stop playing rhythm, your overall sound is missing those mids. Spend some time between you and the drummer, just playing without the guitar. Listen to how much the bass and drums are filling out the sound when there is no guitar. Chances are you need a tone you're not going to like in isolation. If you use pedals to try to fill the sound during leads, you just get this lumpy old sound which goes up and down in volume. The bass needs to fill out the sound all the time in order for you to have a consistent sound regardless of what the guitar does. The guitarist might have to take some of their low end and low mid out, too, in order for the bass to be the component which provides those frequencies. You and the guitarist need to sort out your frequencies to compliment each other, even though you might not like the sound of them when you play by yourself. The guitar needs to sit on top of the foundation laid by the bass rather than being the meat of the sound. Listen to some power trios to hear what I mean. The bass needs to be big all the time, it's the only way it works. The likes of Free and Bad Company are a great example. Or this

That's foxy. I like it. I always use a strap so knee be damned. If it was a vier banger I'd be very tempted.

For me, it's when he's sitting at the piano plucking Let It Be out of the air and Mal is there, yapping to him. Mal, please. Something big is going down. Stop! 😂

I dunno. Myself and my good lady decided to make a Beatles playlist of our favourite songs for car journeys and the like. We ended up with 120 songs. That's not bad 😂