Barking Spiders

What is low budget as opposed to regular budget? We talking about Stagg , Chord etc. i.e under £200? All my basses (and electric guitars) cost me less than £500 new; Aria Pro II IGB Integra, Sub Ray 4, Cort GB 74 and B4FL, Peavey Cirrus BXP 4 and a Vintage V940 fretless. All for keeps and I've nowt negative to say about any of them

Yea big fan of Two Tone here though not of ska proper as such and esp like the bass in The Specials and The Beat. Not a big fan of reggae except for 70s Dub, mainly King Tubby productions

Bass heaven - bass sounds, techniques, lines, specific players whatever that make you go aaaahhhh!!! Bass hell - ditto the above that make you go aaaarrrrgh !!! But just one nom for each .For starters... heaven - the whole of the bass line on Forget Me Nots. It's all there for me; tone, phrasing, feel, the whole kit n' caboodle hell - trebly galloping basslines

I'm 100% in Scandinavian electronica at the moment mainly Lindstroem, Biosphere, The Field, Trentemoeller and Ugress. Some cracking basslines on the Ugress albums though I suspect they weren't done on the bass guitar. Nevermind, they still pulsate

Yep, I actually prefer it to Headhunters and for my money def one of the top 5 jazz funk albums I've heard and that's many. On the subject of jazz funk one of the best combos from the 70s here with this mighty, monolithic slab of bonecrunching funk

I play drums too and Mike Clark is def among my top 10, muchly to do with his incredibly funky playing on this cracker

News today that the company that owns mine is merging with another which means several hundred redundancies are likely. So the talk in the office has been which parts of the biz might be for the chop. This then came down to us asking if in fact how good or bad are any of us at what we do. This got me thinking about other stuff I do like playing bass, guitar, drums, speaking foreign languages etc. Where am I on the spectrum? Viz bass you could say that highly technical session players are maybe 10s and use them as the standard but if they lack qualities such as feel etc then maybe they're not 10s. Or you could say you have a repertoire of several hundred great lines off pat which might give yourself a high rating but if you can't improvise then maybe you're lower down the spectrum. So without being modest/self-effacing what do you do to try and get a true picture of your own skill level?

Still got my Aria Pro II Integra IGB, passive, 1989/90. No complaints at all . In fact I like it's fairly small body, light weight and thinnish neck.

Yep, probably the all time #1 producer in all hip hop, possibly hitting his peak on Snoop's Doggystyle Also just gonna give a big up for Naughty by Nature, one of the best from the late 80s-early 90s..

This is a big fave funk track of mine by the not well known Rhythm Makers. Has a very insistent and catchy bass line

'kin love funk me, the proper stuff from the 70s going into the Washington DC Go-Go scene of the early 80s. I cant get into the retro copyist stuff like Uptown Funk etc. For my money no one did it harder and heavier and funkier than Trouble Funk

Speaking as a quadroon I see nowt offensive in this lyric at all

Methinks you can apply this to actors, directors, authors, sportspeeps etc. If you find someone highly personable and good humoured you're much more likely to have an open mind viz what they do. The opposite is true, if someone comes across as an utter bellend you're more likely to go out of your way to find fault in what they do and so not enjoy the whole. Fr'instance I can't abide Mel Gibson, for his racism and general weirdness. This has made me much of aware of his terrible acting and stupid mullet in films like the Lethal Weapon series. I quite enjoyed the first two when I was young and ignorant of Gibson's personality. Now it's straight to changing channels if any come on the box

One of those bands I liked the idea of but not much that they put out

I've been dragged along twice to see him and a more sullen, obnoxious person it would be hard to meet. I therefore actively did not want to like his music and in doing now actually more than just dislike it. I suspect your mind can sub-consciously alter your perception of someone's work based on whether you like them or not. Viz the proggers I felt bad about not liking their music and made more effort to appreciate it and in doing so ended up finding something to like about bits here and there. As for James Blunt he's a right good laff who has far more things of interest to say than most of the more 'cool' or acceptable names. Because he's a good bloke I don't mind his music even though it's not really my bag. Conversely, I used to be a fan of Echo ATB but Ian McCulloch's personality put me off to such an extent the band's music irks me

This is the flip side to the discussion here on Gary Glitter. Have you ever disliked a band or artist's music but once you'd seen them in interview and were quite impressed at what nice blokes they seemed to be, you then started listening to their music with more charitable ears? I watched a recent show with Cat Deeley talking to U2. Now I've never been a fan of their music but they came across very well esp Adam Clayton and so while I might not buy a U2 album I can now listen to them on the radio.. Also I used to have deep seated dislike of 70s prog but after watching Prog Britannia a couple of years back I found myself warming to fellas like Carl Palmer, Ian Anderson , Rick Wakeman etc who were quite happy to laugh at what they used to be like. Nowadays I don't baulk if my partner ( a lady) puts on a bit of Jethro Tull, Genesis or Yes. If someone's good humoured and don't take themselves too seriously then that's good enough for me.

Making it is purely down to the laws of probability. At any time there are thousands of music acts trying to make it. Most will be of comparable talent, looks etc but only one will be at the right place, the right time, with the right sound and looks for the times and with the right contacts. Being technically accomplished and knowing music theory are pretty irrelevant

Weren't the basslines to Hyperactive by Thomas Dolby and Frankie GTH's Two Tribes done on a Fairlight? Quite difficult to get the exact sounds on tha bass

Chuck's long been one of my fave session players especially his work with Donald Byrd, pretty much all Dan albums and Quincy Jones.

Does anyone now just sit down and listen to music anymore? 70% of what I listen to is on the car CD player, while I'm driving that is. The other 30% is while building my 'amazing space' project. Not sure I ever sat/lay down to listen to music when I was younger except when having a toke

Aye I totally get what you and Dropzone are saying it's all about the market i.e. needing to play familiar stuff you hear ad nauseam on pretty much every music radio station . Same thing applies to whether viz jobbing bands playing well worn covers or own/less known stuff. Guess I'm bored with what the 'market' keeps pumping out. Possibly both the bass players need to put a bit of a performance into their schtick but I'd have stopped for five mins and bunged 'em a quid.

that must be it. I think most middle aged women prefer a vintage Fender Jazz

I don't mean the excellence of the guy's playing but the sad and dismal lack of interest from any shoppers. Had he been some girl warbling an Adele number to a backing track there'd have been a good size throng.

Having just said what i did last night I did play three albums by the great and woefully overloooked Fila Brazillia back to back without a break, the first time I've ever done such a thing. The great thing about FB is their stuff is so eclectic I never get bored

Isnt it Cort that make the Ibanez and Squier basses anyway? +1 for the Sub Ray 4. A cracking bass in all departments. Think you guys are being a tad harsh here though the distortion doesn't do the Ray any favours. It would've been better to demo some slap n pop. After all the Stingray is widely favoured by funkers