Russ

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1343307138' post='1748639'] Room for one more? I live in darkest Surrey these days, well Sanderstead anyway, and so far it looks like I have the 29th of September free. I can bring along a couple of ACG basses to show off, plus a few pedals and odds and sods. I'm also going to be the proud owner of one of the prototype EAD Foundation 112 cabs very VERY soon, not soon enough of course. I'll be able to bring it along for you guys to have a go if you fancy? Eude [/quote] Sanderstead eh? I'm down the road in Selsdon.

My Sei Jazz 5-string fretless - I love it.

I haven't played in a band properly since late 2009. Admittedly, plenty of things have got in the way - first-time fatherhood, family bereavement and an international move, for starters. But now our little boy is a bit bigger and that we're back in the UK, I'm going for it again. Hopefully going to start something up with some old musician friends. I'm 40 now and don't have any aspirations of record contracts or stardom anymore (been there, done that, sort of), but I still want to play - I think I'm a better player than I've ever been, I've got great gear (which I resolutely refused to sell), and I think I have a lot to give to the right band. It's easy to lose confidence in your playing abilities, and your ability to be an effective member of a band, especially when you've had a bad experience, but this is my second "hiatus", and, based on the first one, it's just a matter of keeping up your abilities and looking for the right group of people. Got to agree with BigRedX when he says it's more or less all about the people you play with and how well you get on as friends first and bandmates second.

Also, any chance of persuading Larry to ditch that current big, blocky Hartke logo? I think it looks a bit "cartoony" and cheapens the gear...

[color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]So, I'm back in the UK after 5 years of exile in Bumblef**k, USA. And, guess what, I'm looking for a band... [/size][/font][/color] [color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]Let's get the usual spiel out of the way - great gear, fretted/fretless, transport, can do fingerstyle/pick/slap/whatever, commitment, image, etc all present and correct. Influences from Meshuggah to Miles Davis, Jane's Addiction to Joni Mitchell, Devin Townsend to David Sylvian, Tool to Take That. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]OK, maybe not Take That.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]I like heavy guitars, long solos, good songwriting, talented singers and a bit of proggy weird widdly-diddlyness. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]I'd prefer to play with older, 30+ guys who aren't desperate for that whole being signed malarkey - been there, done that, got a box of screen-printed T-shirts, and not all that interested in going there again. Let's write some cool tunes, gig them all over the place, throw in the odd ironic cover, do lots of recording, release stuff on the internet guerrilla-style, and tweet a lot. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]I'm based in Croydon (yeah, I know), and I'd prefer to play with local guys - not got all that much time to commute to rehearsals, so if you rehearse at Scream or Rockbottom, I'm in. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#666666][font=verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3]Anybody? [/size][/font][/color]

[quote name='jc_riffs' timestamp='1341762767' post='1723708'] Afternoon all. Just managed to get myself a Sei jazz 5 from a fellow basschatter. It has Kent Armstrong hand wound humbuckers on at the mo with east pre. Anyone got any suggestion on a suitable replacement pickup arrangement for these. Awesome bass already just after a different sound. Cheers Jc [/quote] My Sei Jazz fretless has Nordstrand MM & J pickups with a tweaked J-Retro (with MM frequencies) - the thing still astounds me with its sound. It's the best-sounding bass I own by a long shot. I'd recommend that setup to anyone.

Ol' Larry's building up quite the endorser list as of late, isn't he? I must admit, as a former user of the old Hartke gear, I wasn't a fan (sounded great, but I must have blown and replaced 6 aluminium 10" speakers over the years I had it) but I do like the more recent HyDrive stuff. They need to join the lightweight gang though... even Ampeg has now!

Great player - the late 90s and early 00s were a good time for rock and metal bass players, with Martinie, Katunich, etc showing what could be done. I think a lot of his tone is just the growly sound of a Thumb Bass, not a lot of processing to my ears, although his recorded tone changed after LD50 - it was more subby and less middy. Shame, the character of a Thumb's sound is in the mids. Maybe the producers wanted more sonic space for the guitars. Technique-wise, he owes a lot to Doug Wimbish, looks like he's stolen quite a few of his moves, but he does it very, very well.

I'm in - we'll be living back in the UK by then. Time to pop my bass bash cherry.

Endorsements are a two-way street - you get discounted (or occasionally free) gear, and the manufacturer gets publicity by having more visibility for their products. It has to be mutually beneficial. However, don't get tempted to endorse stuff you don't like, just because it might be free or cheap. A band I know scored themselves an ESP endorsement - the whole shebang, publicity, free guitars, everything. But the guys in the band actively disliked all the instruments they received (especially the bass player), so they muddled through for a while, but ended up having to give them all back. I had a short-lived endorsement with Warwick back around 2003, when MAD were running the show for Warwick in the UK. A lot of their higher-profile UK endorsers had dropped off the radar at the time (people like Stuart Zender, Glen Diani, etc) so they were looking for bands to do deals with. The band I was in at the time was doing fairly well (just put a CD out, played a big festival, done some touring, etc) so I approached them. They offered me a Streamer Jazzman 5-string at a serious discount, so I went for it. It was alright, but I just couldn't get along with it (it had that HUGE Warwick neck). So, in the end, I called it off, and sold the Streamer for pretty much what they cost in the shops, so I made a few quid on the deal too. I think it's unlikely that I'll ever be in a band again where the possibility of an endorsement might arise, but, even if I was, I'd probably give it a miss. At the end of the day, I'd rather play the gear I actually like, rather than gear that someone pays me (in kind) to like.

I'm a Sei guy (currently own 2, and have previously owned 2 others) and I love Martin's work and attention to detail. My singlecut 5-string has been my go-to bass for the past 9 years and hasn't missed a beat. It's actually got better with age too - the neck has settled, and the tone has, if anything, become growlier. Love it. I've also got to give mad props to Alan at ACG, Paul at Wal and Bernie at GB - they all make astonishingly good instruments and you won't go too far wrong with any of them.

[quote name='lxxwj' timestamp='1339695258' post='1692944'] -that guy in Korn -that guy in Avenged Sevefold -that guy in the Deftones (can't even hear him half the time) TL;DR pretty much every metal bassist besides the 2 from Tool.. [/quote] A7X's bass player is actually very good. It's just the band he's in that's s**t.

Ament, Trujillo, Grey and, to a lesser extent, Dirnt are excellent players. Not to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but worthy of a great deal of respect. Ament pretty much defined alternative rock bass in the 90s - who doesn't know the 12-string intro to "Jeremy" or the lovely fretless on "Oceans"? In that genre, he's almost peerless (with the exception of Eric Avery). And Trujillo... well, just watch this (back when he wasn't stuck playing regular 16th-note metal bass): [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob3buKk6ALc[/media]

Here's a video from Rick Wakeman's British Rock Ensemble, showing Lee doing his slappy thing (on a GB bass, no less) - there's a good close-up of him slappin' it good around the 1:50 mark: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbLMIQQUino[/media]

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1339025516' post='1682739'] ... but it's all the same techniques as playing guitar not specifically bass guitar. [/quote] I'd say that slap (the thumb method, not the double bass method) is ostensibly a bass technique (although I've seen some guitarists appropriate it since, mostly acoustic players), and fingerstyle on bass is technically rather different to how it's done on guitar. It's also being done on a bigger instrument with thick strings, wider string spacing and a long scale length, which necessitates quite a different approach than someone might take on guitar. Although, obviously, both instruments are from the same family so some crossover is expected.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1339014371' post='1682548'] I thought you hated this discussion? [/quote] I've done a lot of things I hate. Several ex-girlfriends spring to mind.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1339014429' post='1682550'] I wouldn't deny that at all. I use a more classical guitar picking style for several pieces and I only play 5-string basses. What I am saying is that to get the best out of an instrument with more than 7 courses you need to be looking at techniques (both left and right hand) that are different to those most commonly used on 4 and 5 string basses. [/quote] There's some basic differences, mostly to do with muting and adapting to closer string spacing, but other than that, I can't think of any ERB-specific techniques that I've ever seen. It's all the same old fingerstyle, slap, tap, pick, etc as most people use on a bass with fewer strings. Some people might use a more classical guitar-influenced style, some might use more tapping, but it's all the same techniques.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1339012142' post='1682499'] Actually most players of these instruments seem to favour a technique that has more in common with classical guitar than traditional bass guitar. Most of the clips that get posted are of solo pieces. Anyone got some links to 9+ string being played in a band context? [/quote] The classical guitar-style technique that some ERB players use is equally applicable to players of lesser-endowed basses - I use it a lot for various things. It's one of a range of extended techniques that can be used on the bass, including slap, tapping, etc. These sorts of techniques tend to get used a lot on ERBs, mostly because the people who choose to play them are, almost by definition, more adventurous players. Nobody would call Matt Garrison any less of a bass player because he uses a classical guitar-derived thumb-and-fingers technique on the bass. I've also noticed a lot of players who use ERBs are readers - on a 7-string, you've got the entire range of a regular 4-string bass under your hand in fifth-fret position, which makes reading easier since there's no need to do big leaps up the fingerboard to get to the higher notes.

I hate these sorts of discussions. For me, it's pretty cut and dried. A 9-string bass is a bass because, a) it shares a very similar scale length and form factor with the regular bass guitar, b ) it's played with the same techniques, c) they feature similarly voiced electronics, and d) they're primarily played by bass players who have graduated from the 4-string instrument and are hence played with the sensibilities of a bass player.

I know Lee from years back, when he worked in Rockbottom in Croydon and played in a band called Moondigger (who actually sounded a lot like It Bites). He was stupidly talented even back then, 20-odd years back, and, as for his little bit of slapping with Grace Jones, this is a man who I've seen play Mr. Pink at double speed, left handed and upside down - it's something to behold. I'm glad he's gone on and done well - he deserves it. Local boy made good and all that.

Roland Handsonic + keyboard amp = awesome.

Been back and forth to the US with basses many times. Never had a problem. Then again, my cases are all a little roadworn, so they hardly look like new instruments! One thing to consider, if the Status is a headless, it might fit in a guitar gig bag, which means you should be able to take it into the cabin instead of checking it! Tom/thisnameistaken - We lived in NJ for quite some time, we're in PA now, and we're heading home to the UK in July. The US was fun for a while, but we've both had enough!