chris_b

In the early 70's at least 2 studios I recorded in had a small car/Dansette style speaker by the desk that they would run the mix through to check the balance etc in a "normal" listening situation.

There you go again. Making assumptions!

I believe Paul Tutmarc started making his solid body basses in 1936. He sold a few but preferred to be "tinkering" and inventing so didn't go further. Leo Fender came up with the first mass production solid body bass, not the first.

We do The Door in one of my bands. It's not my favourite but always goes down well the the audiences.

This tone is a P bass with flats. Volume full up, tone full up on the treble side. Lowish action to get that clank. Probably some foam to soften the edges. A bit like Wilton Felder in his sessions, particularly this one.

Start with Spoonful, Going Down Slow and Smokestack Lightening, by Howling Wolf. Sumlin played in HW's band for decades.

A forthright article, pulling no punches. Sadly Gordy's business style wasn't unique. He was only one of many business men and managers in the music business who was seriously ripping off the artists.

These are fantastic basses. They appeared out of nowhere, perfectly formed and ready for any style of music. The pickups and preamps have undergone upgrades but the rest of the bass is pretty much as it appeared in the late 90's. IMO an indication of how good they were and still are.

The brilliant Reggie McBride The marvellous Stan Sargent

The Funk Brothers put in thousands of hours playing together, in the studio and on gigs. They supported Jamerson with his complex "issues" and when his confidence and ego reached a tipping point he burst out with his world shattering bass lines. Bob Babbitt was very good, Midnight Train To Georgia has a great bass tone, but take Babbitt away and you still have Motown, take Jamerson away and you just have another, albeit very good, recording label. Without Jamerson we'd just be taking about the songs and the singers, not the label. Babbitt, David Hood, Tommy Cogbill, Mike Leech, Duck Dunn, Carol Kaye are the cream of studio bass players but none of them changed bass playing. James Jamerson did, and made it look easy.

All good. Thanks.

Interesting video. Much cleaner than the original recordings. Also interesting that Motown high passed the tracks at 70hz. They had world class songs and singers, but boil it all down, what really makes Motown sound like Motown? IMO it starts and ends with James Jamerson's bass playing.

That's booked. Me and the wife are seeing Keb Mo on Wednesday 22nd.

Keb Mo is the man. I have most of the CD's and each one is a bass playing master class. Almost every band I play in does at least one of his songs. Reggie McBride is one of my all-time favourite bass players. Current bassist, Stan Sargent, is excellent too. . . . . . . . . . . I've just seen, he's playing Subterania on the 22nd January. Check out the tour page on his website for other gigs in the UK and Europe.

That might just be an urban myth, although Jaco did say something about chicken grease. UK 60's bass player Binky McKenzie use to put Vaseline on his strings to speed up his playing. Then again I believe Binky had many "issues" at the best of times. David Hood, Muscle Shoals bassist said be used a Jazz bass in the studio. Which went against the trend at the time which was almost 100% Precision bass. Sorry. . . . . . /pedant

My TI flats have been on for about 5 years and they're not even broken in yet.

I had a Wal and sold it. I have a Sadowsky and I'm keeping it.

IMO for Precision basses the various year options are probably driven by the marketing department rather than for any other reason. I replaced my Precision pickups with SD's, which were then replaced with Bartolini. Which are still in place.

I did 62 gigs in2019. That's up slightly on the year before. All bar 4 were deps. Everyone is saying their gigs are getting tougher to get so I'm expecting 2020 to be a quiet year!!

. . . . . or me. I can make a Jazz bass work just fine in loud or quiet trios. This is probably an EQ problem. If you have both pickups full on they will cancel each other out a little. What you do is dial back one of the pickups. I usually take the bridge pickup back a little, until I hear the volume come back up. Also, if you are standing right in front of the cab you can sometimes hear the lower frequencies better than the top frequencies. Out in the room, though, all the notes should be cutting through.

Me too. Depping in a band with Jamaican drummers was a hugh learning curve. Then you realise you have to relearn everything you thought you knew. I loved it.

My first gig was on 20th November 1966 so next Monday's gig will kick off my 54th year of playing in bands. I haven't liked every gig, every song or every band member but for every negative there have been thousands of positives. Tell me tomorrow we're starting a 6 week tour around Europe living in the back of a van and I'll be waiting on the door step, passport in hand, when the van arrives.

When Jamerson played busy bass lines they were so musical that the song was always enhanced, no matter how far he pushed the limit. He invented busy bass playing, but only used it where appropriate. He had perfect timing and a full knowledge of musical theory, and used it well. That's why the whole Motown organisation was queueing up to use him on everything. A lot of players who came after thought that busy playing was just throwing in a lot of notes. They were wrong. I don't know how you define underplaying. Less is always more in my book. Baby Love, Dancing in the Street and My Girl are still perfect examples of restrained bass playing that just makes those songs.

You started with "I've always heard Jazz bass bridges are terrible". First, that's such a general statement that it is very unlikely to be true. Second, do you hear any issues with your bass? My guess is that you don't have a problem but think you do. If you really think that replacing parts on your bass will make it sound better, my advice is to just buy a better bass. Then you'll have lots of better sounding parts rather than just an upgraded bridge.

A Pointer sisters track from the 70's, featuring a fantastic bass part from James Jamerson. I guess this is from his LA period. This is nothing like his Motown tone, but sounds equally good IMO. Impeccable playing a fat punchy tone. I can't see why those producers didn't like him. Enjoy.