Spoombung

[quote name='skelf' post='643272' date='Nov 2 2009, 11:48 AM']My favourite track of Kev's is Return of the Bung which I think is genius and suggest you hunt it out well worth the effort.[/quote] Thanks Alan. I probably shouldn't say this...but my own personal favourites don't usually feature the bass too much!

[quote name='Sibob' post='643271' date='Nov 2 2009, 11:43 AM']I liked it! Don't think I could more than 8mins of it lol, but nice to hear someone doing something a little bit different with solo bass rather than just slapslapslapslapslapslaptapslapslapslap etc Si[/quote] It gets good about 5 minutes in!

Where the hell is Moffat, anyway?

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='643247' date='Nov 2 2009, 11:19 AM']Anyway, it prompted me to have a root around the musical travels on your website, and.. wow. What an adventure! Nice one...[/quote] Why, thank you.

I found an old recording of myself from years ago (1996) playing the 'Spoombung' - a solo (prepared) bass piece - so I've uploaded it on to Youtube. The inspiration for the piece came out of my interest in free improvisation and Cameroonian music. The main ingredient is a pounding beat at a fixed tempo, lots of overtones and harmonic complexity and triplets and flams to produce the rhythm. Tonal variation is provided by an 'assistant'. His job is to move the clips and other paraphernalia around. There is much rattling. If I think about it retrospectively, it's more like an art piece - you know: a performance. 'Preparing' instruments is nothing new, as any student of John Cage will tell you. Guitarists like Fred Frith and Keith Rowe from AMM have been using it for years. But curiously, [i]not bass guitarists[/i] - and I haven't really seen another example after all these years. I thought there might be a gap in the market! My own opinion is that bassists do not tend to like 'experimenting' because they're usually in a supporting role. I abandoned it years ago because I felt I couldn't really move the technique onwards or create much variation from the original blueprint. Unfortunately I never got to play it at big venues (only in front of small gatherings of people in free-impro clubs in London). I did have a go at it at the weekend, however, and it all came back after about 15 minutes. Anyway I wondered what Basschatters might think of it...

[quote name='Musicman20' post='631742' date='Oct 20 2009, 08:06 PM']This is why I love Precisions! [/quote] That's the only Precision I ever heard that sounds like that. I always thought it sounded more like a Rickenbacker, ala Chris Squire. Anyway, it's an awesome, rough sound.

I had the 100 in the 70's and early 80's. Sounded very rich and pleasant.

[quote name='Prosebass' post='631159' date='Oct 20 2009, 10:35 AM'] [/quote] [color="#FF00FF"][size=4]*CRINGE*[/size][/color] You've gone too far now, Paul.

[quote name='Davo-London' post='630952' date='Oct 19 2009, 11:34 PM']Spoombung I see where you get your sound from now ... Davo[/quote] That's good investigative work there, Detective Davo. He was a big influence - the original idea when I started playing all those years ago was to condense some of the Jones language into a 3- minute energized post-punk format (an idea that was considered an act of Punk treachery among my peers until they saw how it all came together in Stump - then it was all [i]Wow, where did that come from?[/i], etc, etc). Since then the objectives, techniques, and context have changed and I've moved away from the ideas I had in my twenties.

[quote name='Prosebass' post='630702' date='Oct 19 2009, 07:54 PM']Well trying at least, same notes I suppose... [/quote] You're far too modest, Paul. I thought you sounded rather accomplished. I was intimidated, to be honest.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='629412' date='Oct 18 2009, 12:58 PM']Nice bit of communal herbage going on in the rythmn section.[/quote] No, no, you've got that all wrong, Steve! Mick was the only partaker of 'herbage' in the band. Rob and I are simply sharing a fag. Someone had to stay sober in that band and I'm afraid it was left to the boys in the rhythm section (as always).

Funny. I favourite a lot of drummers on Youtube... but don't particularly like playing with them. They make too much noise.

Noizy Young Men.

[quote name='Prosebass' post='627480' date='Oct 15 2009, 11:51 PM']Nay , Nay and thrice Nay........ just different Whilst we are exploring fretless in this thread how about a bit of Chris Gartner [/quote] Oooooo, I haven't come across him before. Interesting style. I like the way he hangs around in the sub notes then surfaces occasionally for extended slides and growls. In that way he has similarities with Mr Jones. Great sounding bass too. I might have to Google him now.

[quote name='Prosebass' post='627297' date='Oct 15 2009, 08:12 PM']Having just listened to 'Product' from 1979 I have been reminded of John Giblin.....a name that doesn't crop up much on the forum.[/quote] Ah, I remember you playing 'April' at one of the bassbashes, Paul.

Nicely done.

Sweet.

Oh it's good to be among Percy fans! This is probably one of the best bass solos on Youtube IMO: It's got all of Percy's greatest riffs. Great if you like your music over a root drone. It also shows off the piezo sound rather well

EuroBassDayMusic.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='626041' date='Oct 14 2009, 02:29 PM']Its all in his fingers.[/quote] Yeah, I agree. On the Ibanez he uses the piezo pickup (old AFR model). That partly accounts for his acoustic sound. I doubt if he uses flats. I don't think his current setup stands out as well as his Wal in a band setting, however. As for his own music, unfortunately he is still making that late 70's early 80's brand of fusion music- you know - the sort that includes nasty midi instruments: chiffy flutes and bells with chorus on. And he nearly always has a terrible guitarist in tow. It sounds dreadfully dated to my ears. He's best in other contexts IMO.

Very nice! I like the birdseye maple on the fingerboard a lot.

[quote name='mrcrow' post='621847' date='Oct 9 2009, 05:38 PM']whatever fits if you havent tried EMG actives...try before you buy...imho they are the pup equivalent of marmite without correct eq being fitted..EMG preferably have you tried other amps/combo's...i think most pups go in the bin unjustly[/quote] Well, I can't 'try before I buy' because the pickups need to be put in the bass first and I don't have any spare ones lying around and I can't borrow any and solder them in. The only basses that seem to have them in already are Spectors and Metal basses. Yes, I've tried other amps and I'm still looking for something more agreeable to my ears. I originally heard the EMG Hz's in a cheap bass and they sounded pretty good. However, in mine, the John East pre seems to bring out the 'quack' quality - the sound you hear when you lift your finger from the string.