BrunoBass

I watched this last night, as a Jazz Bass player predominantly I enjoyed the video.

I was playing rhythm guitar in a covers band some years ago, mainly playing a Telecaster. I’d had a good quarter at work, got a nice fat bonus, and so decided to scratch an itch that had bugged me since my teens and layed down £1800 on a Rickenbacker 360. I was massively disappointed. Fit and finish was terrible, and the sound was weedy and / or harsh. I took it to two luthiers to try and sort out how badly it played and neither could make any significant improvement. It kept going out of tune despite more tweaks. I gigged it once and put it down after one song, never to be played live again. I kept it for a while, not being able to bring myself to sell it as it looked so gorgeous but eventually let it go and took a big loss on it. Honestly, it was a piece of junk. Lesson learned.

Old thread, but I’ve only just seen this. My Boomslang is my number one live bass, it’s a superb instrument. Here’s my NBD post:

Paul and The Beatles can do no wrong in my book, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this amazing album over the last couple of days on the newly released Anniversary edition. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window is probably my favourite bass line on the album. I like the way it grooves along. Least favourite bass line is on Something, which I’ve always found overly busy and slightly distracting.

No monkey business here either. It’s a decision we made collectively that we’re all happy with.

My attitude too ⬆️ The way my covers band works, we put all of our earnings into a kitty, and then dip into it with everyone’s approval if we need to; for instance this year we upgraded our lights, last year we upgraded the PA. At the end of the year we split whatever’s left three ways, a nice Christmas bonus, if you will. In my acoustic duo we just split in on the night.

In no particular order: Abbey Road - The Beatles Gold - Ryan Adams Pink Moon - Nick Drake Southeastern - Jason Isbell The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers Vehicles and Animals - Athlete London Calling - The Clash August and Everything After - Counting Crows Scoundrel Days - a-ha Live at The Old Quarter - Townes Van Zandt Streetlife Serenade - Billy Joel Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen Luxury item: an acoustic guitar and a lifetimes supply of strings Book: I’ll forgo the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare and take On The Road by Jack Kerouac instead Oh, and I’ll have Roy Plomley interview me instead of Lauren Laverne, thanks.

London Calling, Clash tribute band, at the Bullingdon in Oxford in a few weeks. I was going to see them next weekend in MK but we’ve got a gig that night now.

Thank you, I’ll investigate 👍🏻

I don’t cringe at anything I’ve done, even the demos my first band made back in the mid eighties, similarly my first solo recordings. I was making the kind of music I wanted to make at the time, to the best of my / our ability. I’m proud of everything I’ve ever done, even if some of the early things might sound naive now, and whilst many people might think it’s sh*t I still think it’s all great!

I’m a massive Depeche Mode fan, and I do wish Alan Wilder had stuck around after 1995. The two or three albums after his departure are among my favourites of theirs, but I wonder if his guiding hand could’ve saved their most recent work; their last three albums in my opinion have been frustratingly weak.

They said that about Led Zeppelin too

I’ve played Ernie Ball Slinkys for years and have always been happy with them. More recently I’ve found myself favouring a darker tone than the brightness of the Slinkys. I’ve tried flats and whilst I loved them they weren’t right for my band, I need the bite of a round, just less twang. Obviously I can darken the tone with EQ, but then I feel like I’m losing something of the character of the string. In an attempt to avoid costly experiments, what are your recommendations?

Billy Bragg’s BBC Sessions CD, complete with capitalist marketing incentives. My preordered Abbey Road Anniversary Edition set should arrive tomorrow.

Saw him do a great solo acoustic set a few years ago, opening for Ryan Adams. Met him at the merch stand afterwards too, nice guy.

Good to see too that they’re now fitting a more traditional looking bridge. Mine came fitted with a modern high mass type bridge which looks a bit incongruous on a vintage style instrument. I’ve since replaced it.

Glad to hear it, looks like a peach! If I hadn’t have already reshaped the headstock and amber lacquered the neck I’d have returned mine.

Good point. My issue with grunge (or should I say early 90s American rock) is how destructive it was; not nihilistic in a punk sense but in self destructive sense. Too many drugs and too much smashed up equipment. Not that impressive.

Nevermind is the most important of the three on a global scale, in that it had a huge impact on the scene and breathed new life into guitar rock which was suffocating under a haze of hairspray and spandex at that time. BSSM launched RHCP into the mainstream, when Under The Bridge became a hit, but my memory is that it was greeted as just another Chili Peppers album on its release, and took quite a while to build momentum. Whereas Nevernind was an instant smash BSSM bubbled away for a few months / years until it reached the status it now has. Give It Away didn’t even become a hit until 1994.

...and this one taught me how bass could be melodic and counter melodic whilst still preserving my maxim that ‘the song comes first’.

Not bass albums in the virtuosic sense, but this one made me want to pick up a bass guitar when I was a kiddie...

I thought it might be. Did you win it or did you acquire it later?

That looks like the bass that Paramore gave away in a competition (after having kicked it around a car park).

I’m going to see that in a few weeks when the exhibition opens!

I’m looking for a detailed specification of Paul Simonon’s famous Precision bass - the maple necked model he smashed on the cover of London Calling, not the rosewood necked model he still plays today. It looks like it’s a Seventies model and I assume it’s all stock, but can anyone shed any more light please?