Barking Spiders

Another thumbs down for Ricky 4000s and P basses. I love funk and slap but obviously Rickys dont cut the mustard there and I dislike the clangy tones, the sort you hear on Yes albums (not that I like that band one iota). P basses are just too chunky and heavy for my delicate hands though I love the Jazz. Initially I found it quite hard to get on with the Stingray, mainly cos it's a big, heavy b@stard and the strings felt like suspension cables after playing my Peavey Cirrus BXP. However, determined to get that Louis Johnson sound I persisted for several weeks and now love it.

Skipped through all four shows in the current series in half an hour. 30 -60 seconds of each act is all I needed to avoid wasting anymore of my life. LWJH has rmanaged the near impossible, reaching new depths of dull.

If I dont play bass for a while it's usually cos I've temporarily lost interest in music, preferring to do other things. I can go for several weeks without music. Right now bass has taken a back seat to my newish Epiphone Sheraton. Anyway , dont think it;s all over and get rid. I've done that, much to my regret

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1507888119' post='3388532'] Every Jazz Guitarist ever. I always struggle with the underrated thing because it is inevitably subjective but there are a million Jazz guitarists who can outplay the more populist players yet remain obscure even amongst musicians. I am not going to list them as there are far too many. [/quote] to which you could add all the country / Nashville session players, bluegrass , steel string fingerstyle / folk and flamenco players all labouring in semi-obscurity.

Slap bass has had it's day for sure, as has proper funk. What passes for funk these days ,like that Mark Ronson effort, is just watered down pastiches. As I said in an earlier post I love slap n' pop meself but can see that to others it might sound a bit dated, especially if they can't abide Level 42, Freez and other 80s pop-funk merchants

These days I'm happy enough going to open mic nights and just jamming. No expectations no hassles

I'm surprised at the lack of love for slap. Not only do I love it but many of my fave players are well known exponents, Larry Graham, Marcus Miller, Louis Johnson, MK,..As with pick playing and fretless it can sound sh*t when overused

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1506975528' post='3382494'] Bonehead from Oasis. Those barr chords - major AND minor! A veritable colossus of the guitar world. Bonehead is a legend for sure but still a distant second to Dave Hill from Slade [/quote]

pretty much all acoustic virtuosos the mainstream continues to ignore especiaolly Tommy Emmanuel, Pete Huttlinger (RIP), Leo Kottke, Dan Crary, Beppe Gambetta, Antonio Forcione, Peter Lang.. Viz the electric Danny Gatton (RIP) and the Hellecaster lads could have wiped the floor with many so-called 'guitar heroes'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snS4u6K5NbY

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1506437258' post='3378725'] There's a lot more to being a good musician and band member than playing your instrument better than the next guy. [/quote] sure but the thread's about being the worst or best PLAYER in a band not necessarily the best or wort band member. Often I've found myself in bands where the best player was often the worst band member as they were usually self-indulgent and not team players.

Not sure how you can learn from better band members unless they play the same instrument as you. The main thing is everyone knows how to play in the right keys, how to count and is familiar with basic music theory. I've known guitar players who can whiz up and down the fretboard but ask them to play something in the key of whatever and they look at you blankly.

Teach Yourself Instant Greek. One day I plan to retire to Kefalonia or some such and no amount for economic horror stories will put me off. The missus still needs persuading though

If you're gonna be the least good player in a band then you ought have something else to offer such as being the best songwriter or frontman or the one with the great stage banter. Wop's happy being the anonymous bloke at the back of stage simply holding down the bottom end?

Steely Dan - for a long time i thought they were a bunch of smart arsed pseuds. I still think they're smart arsed but pretty damn good at that Deftones and System of A Down - I guess the loose nu-metal association stopped me appreciating them but now I've all their albums of course it also works the other way round In the distant and murky past I had G n' R, Judas Priest, Genesis, Stone Roses and Aerosmith albums and now wonder what the hell my brain was playing at

Cee Lo Green and other modern say ersatz 'soul' acts who peddle rehashed, by rote 'soul' for cruise ship ship cabaret evenings

Dire Straits - MK is a fave guitar stylist and influenced me to change from using pick to fingers. However, the music is mostly beige coffee table pish for people who probably also were uber fans of Michael Bolton and Jennifer Rush back in the 80s Dream Theater - arguably the most technically advanced collection of rock musicians out there - terrif bass player, top class drummist in Portnoy and Petrucci is a better shredder than Vai and Satriani IMO. Unfortunately their output is preposterous prog metal twaddle. Foo Fighters - DG is an excellent frontman, great drummer, decent guitarist and seemingly all round good bloke. Unfortunately the FF are to rock what Level 42 were to funk and the Mumfords are to bluegrass. And another thumbs down for Florence. ATM could be half decent without her one trick pony style of belting out the same way whether a ballad or a rocker

Depends how you define 'overrated' . On the one hand there are those bands that come in for near unanimous fawning from music critics - but which might not necessarily shift loads of units - and then there are those bands who sells gazillions even if not liked much my the music press. A few bands fall into both categories. Personally I fail to understand why both Radiohead and Arcade Fire are such critics darlings and also have fervent fans who won't hear a word said against them. Not sure Rush are overrated as they're generally ignored my the media and unknown by the general public. And is they're anyone other than American teenage boys in the 70s who doesnt realise KISS are utter shoite?

Easy one for me, 80s German synth combo Propaganda's version of Scottish indie band Josef K's 'Sorry for laughing' , included on their epic Secret Wish album

I don't aim for a core tone at all but like the challenge of using the simplest set up to obtain as many different sounds as possible so this means using all right and left hand hand techniques and all combinations of tone controls on my fretteds and fretlesses. Occasionally i use a compressor and flanger/phaser.

For me this question is purely hypothetical as Child of the Corn #1, aged 13, only listens to Heart FM while #2, aged 11, also of the female persuasion, doesn't show much interest in music. If either were interested in bassing I'd lend them some Meshuggah or Lamb of God for no other reason than I'm slightly twisted. My olds were never interested in music other than classical and had they tried to encourage me to play x or y instrument I'd have deliberately not done so as was the case with cricket, classical music and English literature.

too right I do and on the bass I only use for slapping, from time to time I boil the strings to keep that clanky, thwacky sound.

I think it's fine doing covers, as long as your choice of covers is errm ..'original' i.e. excludes Sex On Fire, Mustang Sally etc. I used to play in a funk band but we avoided evergreens like Good Times, Play that Funky Music White Boy et al ..great as they are. instead we'd cover Flashlight, I Wanna Take You Higher, Hollywood Swinging. We had out own material but knew we'd have a snowball's chance viz getting any gigs

No, to my ears the mix of metal - or any rock for that matter - and classical is a total abomination and praps a cynical ploy by those metallers trying to seek approval from the CM community. I enjoy a good old bit of unpretentious thrash and groove metal but symphonic metal is too much too swallow

Despite pants like Bananarama and Timmy Mallett etc the 80s was a good time for pop. Much more varied than what's on offer today what with most writing and playing their own stuff e.g. Wham, Spandau's, Duran, ABC . Quite a lot of pop acts were on independent labels so weren't at the mercy of avaricious manipulators like Cowell plus there wasn't this TV culture of endless crap singing competitions spawning vanilla chart fodder. No, I'm not a rose tinted bespectacled old fart but Olly Murs isn't in the same class as George Michael.

I'm more than handy with drums & percussion and several types of fretted instrument but the mandolin's a bugger as my podgy digits make a mess of the fingering. Did try the flute for a bit but had issues with the breathing technique. Biggest disappointment is my singing voice which isn't even good enough for backing vocals. It's flatter than the Norfolk Broads. I'd swap what I can do on instruments any day for a cracking set of pipes. Wish i could sing like Mike Patton from Faith No More