oldbass

Havent played live for years so take this with a huge pinch of salt but from memory. Few of us get the chance to walk out intoa room full of punters during the actural gig to hear what we sound like.....bet you'll find that poor tone on stage and clankyou describe sound full and cutting out in the room.

Another of those musicians that I grew up with as a young teenager no longer with us. What a strange start to a year with so many musicians and musical influences that many of us grew up with now gone....

Just blubbed my way through a playalong to the beautiful Life on Mars...my 71 P has never sounded so woody and kinda early Bowie sounding.... Yep Life On Mars does it for me..

..ziggy played guitar....... I cant believe it. A real icon, the first avant garde musicaly visual artist...influencing so many acts that followed and never to be repeated. I feel bit teary.

+1 I'm just starting with 8th notes and rests...seems just when you think you've figured it all out you turn the page and more and more difficulty is heaped on top...but it certainly feels good when it comes together. Checkout a German guy on the Tube called Tom Bornemann he seems to have a knack of writing easy melodic eight note rythms which are just a delight to play...Ive found his stuff a huge help.

Love this thread cause this is exactly my situation too. Played for decades, tried a few times but unable to read a dot until recently when it dawned on me that I'd had it with pub bands and the same old R&R. Started off with Stu Claytons Crash Bass...not easy but Im trying...Did a search for easy bass pieces on Google, one site has all those first yr school pieces which is a really good way to learn whilst actually playing real tunes. Agree with all the above...you've gotta learn the simple 4/4, 1/4 note stuff till it hurts then move to the next level. Ha..wish I'd never quit the violin when I turned 16..

Any slowish version of autumn leaves will get u started, there are hundreds of versions out there on the tube.

Bruce Thomas brilliantly musical. Norman Watt-Roy....unique.

Try the Squire VM range. I bought one last year and didn't really expect much..have to say its a very nice bass for the money. Fit and finish are perfect,its light too and easy to play...doesn't have quite the tonal heft of my vintage P but the J PU is very handy for anything needing a bit of a Jaco burp!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1450431542' post='2932664'] I really don't get this attitude. I very much doubt that anyone on here was able to play a tune competently the first time they picked up their chosen instrument. Song writing is a skill just like any other that is developed by being rubbish at first and then practicing until you are not. [/quote] Good song writings not a skill u can learn it's a gifted ability which some have but most of us don't have, believe me if I had it I probably would'nt be sat here clicking away on a basschat forum.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1449841278' post='2927390'] I always take how a bass sounds in isolation with a pinch of salt... [/quote] Too true. I'm always amazed if I'm noodling on my P with the tone turned down a bit..you know that slightly indistinct muddy sound....until that is the room fills with people, someone in the kitchen making a racket, a plane goes overhead etc etc....all of a sudden that muddyness starts to cut clearly through....ha one of lifes little mysteries I guess.

We used to pass a big old 'classical'music shop now and again on a naughty detour from middleschool. For some weird reason the shop got in a load of HH gear one of which was that classic 100 watt bass combo... Will never forget the impact that 15" speaker had on me, it seemed out of this world to a 14 yr old spot riddled oik, incredibly exciting. A couple of yrs later my best friend turned out to be a very good guitarist so my fate was sealed really.

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1449753210' post='2926494'] Off you go to the Custom Shop then! [/quote] You mean these can be ordered in different colours,I had no idea. By the way..how much harder is it to play that wider neck than the 70's width.

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1450390856' post='2932421'] I heard Mr Holder refer to it as "my pension." [/quote] Lucky man...and the Roy Wood tune too...I couldn't write a song to save my life...hats of to these guys.

I wonder how much cash Noddy Holder has made from Merry Xmas?..yeah we all hate it but its still an immense tune... I quite like the Mariah Carey tune with that beautifully played plodding bass... +1 on everything else that's been mentioned.

John Giblin who I always thought was a bit underrated. The way he plays that line on Cannot Believe Its True by dare I say Phil Collins, sorry, is sublime...soooo smooth, like he's barely touching the strings. Very tasty player.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1396809000' post='2417587'] yes yes yes all of that and where to start on the lyrics ! [/quote] and again thumping great YES to it all.....don't think I can think of another female writer who can put chords together the way she does....fabulous...mother of all solo female story tellers ever. Not so keenthough on the heavy smoking thing she has going.. oh well that's genius for ya.

Great image...kinda pretty vacant looking

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1449698769' post='2926169'] I find it a bit odd to focus in on one bassist in one genre. Motown was somewhat synonymous with the civil rights movement, and the music was made to capture the spirit of the era as it was unfolding. To perform a dry, academic analysis of this music, and the bass lines especially, seems a bit odd, when the actual cut and thrust of the music is ignored. For me, I find Jamerson's lines to be a bit twee, if anything. I'm not convinced that such a fiddly bassist would be as popular in other circumstances. [/quote] Ha Twee?...Fiddly?.sounds like me on a good night...lol

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1449697537' post='2926158'] Bob Olhsson seems to be suggesting that Bob Babbitt was a better bass player than Jamerson! I've got a gig at the weekend - am I still OK to do it?? [/quote] I think by 1970 his drinking and depression was taking a heavy toll and Babbitt was new, could sight read on the spot and was reliable..u can see why he got the calls.

He started something new...noodling in public using a bridge PU on a Jazz bass and now every wannabee jazz bassist does it and they all sound like Jaco so I guess he was first which makes him pretty special. Great tone, and tasty technical playing. Back in the 70's he was like something from another planet which with the passing of time probably seems less obvious today.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1449693723' post='2926114'] Didn't Jamerson have difficulty finding work later on as producers felt his sound hadn't moved with the times? With hindsight his work comes across as classic rather than dated, but I guess there was a time when it didn't seem that way to everyone. [/quote] Yep,it's all in the Motown Standin In The Shadows book if you can find it, and what a fascinating read it is. But yes apparently on a session in the early 70's in LA a stand in bassist brought a pack of rounds into the studio but he refused to fit them on his bass....and it appears from that point onwards the work gradually dried up. His very last No 1 hit....was "You Don't Have To Be A Star" by Billy Davies and Marilyn McCoo. Very sad.

Would love one in shoreline gold.

Depends on what works for you really. My 71 r/wood P is a smidge heavy and the bridge is in the wrong place, as many were ...so already some may say its a "dog"...but it's got the chunkiest stiffest neck I've ever played... never ever moves and the sound with 10 yr old flats on whilst not overly "boingish" is very heavy and smooth... I absolutely love it but many probably wouldn't.