chris_b

Pro's can use any bass, but here is why they are asked to use a P bass so often. . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=habje7Yl0Ug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0F9lh8TiSM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUngZLJVscc

Listening now. Like them. Cheers

I haven't "discovered" anything new in years. Vulfpeck and Tedeschi Trucks were the last guys who I "found", but that was years ago.

I would think your problem is almost certainly caused by the changes to air pressure in the cabin. Do you have a lot of wax in your ears?

To all the people moaning and slagging off Later. . . why do you bother watching? Shouldn't you be at least making an attempt to start the year doing something that makes you happy rather than the opposite? I've started on the recording, I'm 20 mins in and unusally for me I've watched everything so far (tip: if you record it you can ff through the bits you don't like). Loved the start with the Hot 8. Reminds me of the guys I saw busking in NOLA last month. IMO you can't beat a bit of Boogie-Woogie. Just enough R&B in Yola's song to keep me interested and Jess Glynne always comes up with good tunes. The beardy US guys were my least favourite so far. I ff through anything that isn't music and the interviews so they don't bother me at all. If there was a Later every day of the week I'd check each one out. IMO you can't beat live music. . . . you really can't.

I'll usually play either a made up and noisy riff or a walking bass line in G.

Same as ever. Keep fit, healthy and network better than I did last year!!

I saw Little Feat at the Shepherds Bush Empire and when they started they sounded perfect, just like the records. I was standing by the desk and as the set progressed the sound got worse and worse. I watched their sound guy turning every knob on the desk for the whole gig! It sounded so bad! How could someone like that get it so wrong! The acoustic duo I was in did support for Paul Jones in a big echoing church, and his sound man got us the best sound I've heard in years. On the sound check, he could spot and name the frequency that was causing trouble, then EQ it perfectly. He was worth double what they were paying him! Sadly, most of my FOH experience is in the past, but I have always found the sound guy, introduced myself, shaken his hand and, assuming he's got the time, had a chat. After, thank him and shake hands again. I always tell them they're getting post EQ from my amp. Never had a fight about that. I have only had 1 bad sound on a gig (at a festival, a huge boom on most of the notes) and for some reason it took the guy 20 mins to fix it. I didn't thank him after that! Otherwise I've been pretty lucky, because no-one's given me a sound I could complain about.

I don't think you can generalise. There have been, and probably still are, many great engineers. IMO they are getting a lot of unnecessary blame in this thread. These guys are dealing with many things at once. Never mind the equipment, the "baggage" that comes with certain musicians and producers, record company execs and or artists who may or may not be helping! I've seen some who were so stressed they could have murdered someone. That is irrelevant to whoever is paying the bill. The tracks are listened to a week later and they have to be "right" or the guys on the session might not get booked again! IMO, studio engineers, certainly the ones I've met, are all unsung heroes.

I'd have a professional set up done on your basses. I use a Sadowsky which I thought was pretty easy to play, until I had it set up at the Gallery. It was so much better to play when it came back.

As a P bass fan I think there are many reasons to use a P bass on a studio gig, all good ones. But the main reason to hire a bass player is how he plays, not what he sounds like. Hobby players are all about the gear that gets them "their sound". Pro's can sound good on anything and "their sound" is the way they put together the bass lines.

I've always been jealous of this guy's talent. What a player. He's very successful at doing what I tried to do, and failed, ie making a living out of playing bass. Guy's that can do that always get a thumbs up from me.

In that instance I went from a short scale narrow neck to a wide fretboard Fender P bass with one run through, before the red light came on. It was a real roast to play anything in tempo on that bass, but I did it. Sadly, they made it sound like it came from Toys R Us! But, no matter, on the strength of that session I was asked back many times. In that world, the true measure of you as a bass player is how well do you play, how accurate you are (no bum notes allowed) and how quickly you can contribute to the session. I wish I could play to that level today! I saw Nathan East at a Bass Clinic at GAK and he said the hardest thing on the LA music scene, is to be asked back. True, it isn't a hobby players world, but if you aspire to playing like your favourite player it's good to also be aware of the environment many of them work in.

I don't know that this still happens in the UK, (might still happen in the US), but there were many instances when the guys in the band weren't even allowed to play on their own records! Bass players, it seems, were/are regularly at the mercy of the producer, band leader or record company. Another question, do we know that the guys in these bands made their own decisions or were they asked to "try" a bass suggested by someone else? There seems to be a huge conformity to Fenders in the "pro band" world. I was once handed a real 1962 P bass at the start of a session. "Here, use this" was how the discussion went!!

Really? Do you think that there are crap producers and engineers working at Stax, Motown and almost every other studio in the US for the last 60 years? The pro players can use what they want when they are working on their own projects. In the studio they are at work and their job is to turn the music into what the client wants. There seems to be a lot of confusion here about this simple fact. In the studio both you and the engineer are working for the client. That can also happen on many gigs, but as has been previously pointed out, where the sound engineer isn't calling the shots he is usually working for the band, where a totally different set of rules apply. In the 70's I knew a guy who wanted the best, so they hired Herbie Flowers. When the session started the bass sound wasn't right, so they asked him to take the foam off his bass. Herbie refused because that was "his sound". Another bass payer replaced him for the rest of the recordings. Herbie's lines from that session were over dubbed. If you're the "best" sometimes you can get away with that attitude. Most session players can't. A P bass has a relatively tight range, mostly in the low-mids, and it can be easily EQ'ed in the studio where the tone stays away from the other instruments. If you turn up with "your" sound which tramples all over the other instruments you're not going to be popular and you're not getting called back. Good move if you want to make a living in the studio.

Certainly, in the US, unless you are at the Nathan East, Lee Sklar or the late Louis Johnson level you play what the client wants. Most of the top working session guys will get porterage to bring anything up to 6 basses to the studio. They will run through them and the client will choose. There are a lot of interviews with these players on youtube, and as a lot (most?) of the guys say, they'll usually end up on their late 50's, early 60's P bass with flats. A lot of the UK session guys will play Overwaters and Fenders. Ian King, for instance, plays 4 different basses on his show. Not because he wants to, but because that's what is written. If anyone in this thread thinks that bravado and "their" sound is of interest to the client, it's a good job none of you are trying to make a living in the pro session player world.

Depressing, isn't it!!!!!

Oh dear!!

Tell your friend to try to copy what Joe Dart plays. His own sound will emerge.

. . . . and don't forget Laskys.

I agree, it's not an equal comparison. My MM was maple board made in 1989. I thought he fb had an edge, but maybe my memory is playing tricks.

Go and look at the Scott Devine video I posted at the start and see what "properly" means.

Define "usual flaws" so that it's such not a meaningless term. My first 5 string bass was an MM SR5. I played it for about 4 years. It had a good punchy tone and no dead spots or "problems" that I recall. It was on the heavy side but my back problems hadn't started so I could deal with that. I didn't particularly like the fretboard, if I remember correctly, had sharp edges not rolled. I only sold it because a US Lakland 55-94 came up at a great price. Sorry MM fans, IMO the Lakland was in a different league.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about active cabs. Why would you worry about your amp? I don't see how anyone can mistreat an amp in a way that will damage it. Cabs, on the other hand, can be damaged by players not looking after them.

Unless there is a bypass I would expect the amp to be hard-wired into the driver.