chris_b

When I started seeing bands musicianship was enough to get the job done. There was never much "show" in gigs by John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Jeff Beck, Alexis Korner and most of the others, but that didn't matter. There were lots of great bands that did "show" like Geno, Jimmy James, Zoot Money. We had a lot of choice. Me? Sadly a personality black hole. I make John Entwistle look animated. I don't like to look back at videos and see what is actually happening when I'm going through my "moves". . . . because the reality is there is never a lot to look at. At the moment I can get away with it because the main guy I play with does it all, dancing on the tables, out in the garden. He attracted the interest of the Police one night, soloing on the side of the A30, when they didn't believe that he was performing in the pub on the other side of the dual carriageway! Anyway, I don't loose too much sleep over it. I'm at the age when I fall over if I move too suddenly. Blue is right. We can be musicians in the rehearsal room, but on a gig the best of us are also entertainers.

I strung a set of DR Lo-Riders through the body on my US 55-94 and didn't think that made much of a difference, so went back to stringing through the bridge.

+1 In this situation I would lead the process. Tell them what I want and get them to do it. I also don't care for "naming and shaming". My experience of "young fellas" working in music shops goes back to the 60's, and it seems that the personality type that shouldn't be let loose in a music shop as an assistant still exists!

I don't know of any D class amps currently on the market that are unreliable or less than well designed. My minimum is 500 watts and my current go-to amp is 700 watts. Lots of headroom is always a good thing. I've used Aguilar TH500 and AG700 amps for a few years now and would replace them if they were stolen. I know a player who uses a Markbass 800 watt amp with an EBS Valve Drive. Sounds as warm as a warm thing!

Who suggested that you need a flatter fretboard for these techniques? I've seen all these techniques performed on every kind of bass, so I'd question that advice. I'd only change if I found that I actually had a physical problem with my bass.

I'm not disagreeing. I don't think Kaye ever claimed to be JJ. I think she was just claiming the sessions she played on and a couple (out of the 1000's) may well have been claimed in error. Back then songs would be recorded and rerecorded for singles, albums and for various other artists. Lots of chances to play on different versions of hit records and when you add in the overdubbing of parts the puzzle becomes more and more complicated. I think she got a couple wrong, but IMO that doesn't take anything away from her being one of the top players in the history of electric bass playing.

Why breakup a winning team? If your ego is big enough you can break anything. It seems Gordy would do anything to get into Hollywood. A lot of the creative talent was leaving Motown towards the end so maybe the ship was sinking anyway. Motown used many players in LA. Wilton Felder on ABC etc. Many of the LA tracks were released, and some, as we know, were rerecorded in Detroit. That is probably where the claims and discrepancies come from. Plus when the session guys were given a chance to get royalties from their work, they were screwed by having to apply for each track in a pretty short time scale. Even more scope for inaccuracies! I would imagine Carol Kaye's record keeping is pretty good, maybe better than the guys in Detroit (?), but she wouldn't know about the overdubs and rerecording that went on after. At one point JJ claimed to be the bass player on Cool Jerk, even though Bob Babbitt played on it. It seems things were not so clear cut back then and certainly don't look any clearer from the outside today.

Have a listen to the Pogues version. They just play root and 5. So chord C to chord G jumps from a low G note (the 5th of C) to the G (root of G) an octave up. Playing the same note between different chords doesn't matter. When the other instruments are playing their lines it all makes sense and doesn't sound clunky at all. It works because it is that simple.

With Higher and Higher, or any repetitive line, you have to focus on playing the song. Forget about the bass line and focus on the groove. It becomes very easy after that.

Hands up. Who, around here, has been asked to play What Is Hip on a gig? If I was asked to play Forget Me Nots I'd just picture Bernard Edwards playing it and do it that way.

How often have you run both cabs together? Was it at low volume? You don't have to sell anything. Just run 2 rigs and daisy chain them. Run an instrument lead from the send on one to the return on the other. So you'll be running the preamp in the amp your bass is plugged into and both power amp sections into their respective cabs. That will get you your extra volume from the second cab without risking any damage.

All the early stuff had the bass sharing a track with other instruments so it was mixed back and in many of the tracks where JJ was almost "invisible" he was using his double bass. No one ever recorded double bass in pop music properly back then.They started mixing him further forward when he morphed into the amazing "lead" bass player that still gets him so noticed today.

Not quite floating thumb. I believe he anchored his ring finger on the pickup cover.

This sort of mismanagement isn't confined to younger bands. Some of the oldies I play with are as poor in their organisational and communication skills as this. I find throwing the toys out even when perfectly entitled to do so rarely get any results, never makes a good impression and never makes me feel any better. I usually put it down to experience, moan like hell to the wife and move on. IMO never leave on bad terms, always be the professional one and leave a positive vibe behind you. Sometimes people will remember this and it could be you who gets the phone call when an ex band member is looking for a bass player. Edit. . .. hey Cat, we're on the same page.

Bob Babbitt said JJ played the strings with the lightest touch. That will make a big difference.

Are you addressing a problem in the way the bass plays? A good set up will always make a bass feel like a million dollars. I generally prefer thicker strings, but I'll use what I can get. The flats on my P bass are .43 to .136 and the rounds on my Jazz are 45 to 125. Both feel fine, and I had to look up the packets to remember what I put on. Does your playing style notice a difference in string gauges? Mine doesn't.

My loft is well insulated which makes it as cold as the garage. The other draw back is I have to use a ladder to get into my loft. Do you have stairs to get into yours? Anyway my suggestion is: fix the leaks in your garage (I'd be doing this anyway). Store some of the other stuff that's taking up space in the house, in the garage. Keep both cabs in your now decluttered house. Job done.

I played at Pro Jazz V in Guitar Guitar Epsom and was impressed. I liked the feel of it and thought the redesigned pickups sounded good. The B string sounded "attached" to the rest of the bass, which doesn't always happen with Fenders. It was way too heavy for my shoulder/back but I liked it.

That is a familiar story, ie Fender, Gibson, IBM, British motorcycle industry. Major success in their field seems to stop companies from considering the effectiveness of the competition.

You left John McVie off the list. Marshall was considered to be the best sound around at the time. They were the first ones with that rock sound and while every one else was trying to catch up Marshall cleaned up. Good gear was expensive back then so most gigging musicians played what ever they could get their hands on. But owning Marshall was the aim. Until Hiwatt, Orange etc cam along then Marshall had some serious competition.

Years ago we had a new keyboard player and were rehearsing to go "up north" for 3 days. He casually mentioned that he now couldn't do the middle gig and could we get a dep. There then followed a pretty uncomfortable 15 mins while he was fired, packed up his gear and left the room. This is why I prefer to be friendly with the guys I play with but not their friend. Try to keep personal feelings out of playing.

IMO the engineers were responsible for a lot of Jamerson's sound. If you listen to the before and after videos on Youtube, they cleaned up his sound. . . a lot. What would they be sounding like now? As Bob Babbitt ended up playing PJB, very clean sounding gear, don't assume that JJ would still be sounding distorted/saturated.

Tough bass lines? Ones that are perfectly in time.

Prince had a left handed bass player (Sonny T) in the early days who played a 5 string Warwick. Apparently before Prince's OCD went into overdrive he didn't mind bass players choosing their own instruments. The bottom line is, anyone playing at this level will use what ever bass is appropriate, required or requested.

Exactly, all about personal preferences and how you decide to do the job you have to do. The end result should be the deciding factor. I've been playing 5ers since the mid 90's. They are very rarely mentioned by the bands or other musicians (I've never had a negative comment) but they are noticed and commented on by audiences all the time, and they are always inquisitive and intrigued. The only negativity I've seen towards 5ers has been from other bassists and only on the internet, never in person. I don't understand how the instrument any of us play can cause a negative reaction in anyone. Why do they even care? I'll admit I'm lazy, but I don't see any benefit in swapping to an EADG tuned instrument, in the middle of a set, from an instrument that is tuned BEADG. I know a regular 4 string player who's tuned CFBbEb. I have no idea why and didn't bother to ask. He just likes it that way. No better reason in my book.