chris_b

Nice tone and an excellent example of a good left hand technique. No stretching, 1FPF or any other shenanigans.

I always have to listen to this track when we're talking about great bass tone. Nathan East just kills with this tone. . . .

Sharay Reed has played plenty of non religious music. It's all out there.

You don't have 5 songs in the top 5 positions of the US top 10 unless you're the best there is. They were that good and then they went and got better! Good enough to change the way the whole recording industry operated. You can hate them and you can try to ignore them but you can't escape them. They influenced all your heroes so, like it or not, they have influenced you!! Poetic justice for all the haters.

What do you guys want from an18 year old bass player? Playing a musical instrument well is an end in itself as every" proper" musician will tell you. Playing it this well is something that many of her critics can't do. There are composers and musicians and sometimes there are guys who do both. It's very boorish to criticize one for not being able to do the other.

Good Pop music is great. Listen to chart songs from every decade. This was supposed to be "disposable" music, but the production values are very high. The guys making those records weren't banging them out. They were crafting the music. Even Punk, supposed to be the antithesis of what had gone before, has high production values. You'd think as they were rebelling against the musical establishment, there would be some rougher edges, but everyone is in tune and in time. The guys in the charts have always taken care over their music.

She's obviously having a great time, but the band is overplaying to the max. You really think Jaco is serving the song? Not for me.

He probably is but didn't change the way bass players played or viewed their position in the band or song.

I can appreciate a great player no matter what genre/style/band he's in. Some guys are exceptional players and transcend their surroundings. Sharay Reed is certainly one of those.

My bass players who changed the world, rather than just great players, list is a short one, Paul McCartney, James Jamerson and Larry Graham.

There are some great players around these days. . . but IMO this guy takes the prize

I regard McCartney as a great musician who was playing bass, rather than being an exceptional bass player. In the early 60's he said he didn't know a lot about bass, but just tried to follow Ringo's bass drum line. After Revolver he seems to have discovered his confidence and became a very innovative bass player.

Melvin Lee Davis is pure class. This isn't the kind of slap I dislike. It fits the song perfectly.

I like this. I hear a more traditional bass line with riffs and a hook, rather than the disjointed circus bass slapping most "modern" slap players put up on YT.

. . . . plus Anaconda, Manson, JD, Watson and Sei, to name a few more.

I sold what I wasn't gigging about 3 years ago. Since then I've bought 2 cabs and a battery. I'd like a British made bass but none have come up that have caught my attention. Basically, there are no more upgrades required and I'm happy with what I've got.

No. I don't slap. Sadly, iIt's a technique I've never got to grips with. The bucket of spanners falling down the stairs that is modern slap just leaves me cold, but I love the old "thumping and popping" that Larry Graham invented.

James Jamerson was one of the greatest bass players. He's up there in the top 3 most influential bass players ever. He completely changed the instrument. He changed how people thought and expected bass lines to sound and fit the song. It helped that he had perfect timing, a total understanding of music theory and an ability to make up interesting and complex bass lines on the fly.

IMO a great sounding bass isn't much use if it doesn't feel good to play. I know this is a first world issue, but as I said before, my preference is to buy great sounding basses that are of a similar spec, rather than having to work at changing my playing style for every bass. If anyone wants to call that a lazy attitude, then I'm happy to agree with them. I'm mostly attracted to Fender style instruments, so I really don't have to look too far for excellent basses that fit my preferences.

How about Racket Grip etc, the strips of sticky backed cloth you wind around squash and badminton racket handles.

I own a 1968 Fender Precision and while it wasn't quite a "dog", it was nothing special. I gigged and recorded with it for 25 years and it worked, a) because there was no internet temptation to make me want to sell it, and b) because to the rest of the world (including a couple of good producers) a bass is a bass. I wouldn't buy another 60's Fender but since owning a 2006 Mike Lull P bass I would certainly buy another. The Lull is several orders of magnitude better than my old Fender. If you're looking to spend "Vintage" levels of cash on a bass, only do so after checking out a Mike Lull bass first. We buy basses for ourselves, a Squire will work just as well for the band and an audience.

It doesn't matter what the string spacing is, as long as you get your muscle memory right you'll be fine with wide and/or narrow. I'm lazy. I decided to stick to 18-19mm with all my basses (one string spacing to rule them all!) , because then I don't need to spend any time adjusting. All the basses I've played and am ever likely to play have come in those widths.

IMO TOTP was pretty unmemorable in most years. The great music was being made by guys who weren't going to be invites on to TOTP in a million years.

In the 60's and 70's Fender QC was patchy. Sadly, with Fender, age and "vintage" is not a guarantee of quality. Play them before you buy. If I was after a Fender Jazz bass, the only model I'd be looking is at the Fender American Standard from 2012 - 2016. They were gems.

Sad news.