risingson

His bass playing, if I'm completely honest, bores me. His music however, along with Aphex Twin and the Boards of Canada also on the Warp label, is some of the most inspirational music I've ever heard

Marcus sounds heavily Jamerson influenced on the track itself. The Nightfly is still used by some producers to check monitoring systems in studios, simply to prove what could be done with a record back in the day in the hands of a good production team. It's hard to fault any of the bass players Steely Dan or Fagan have ever used, especially Tom Barney and Freddie Washington recently. I am a HUGE Steely Dan fan, but I do find their recent production sounds too clinical to my ears. Plus, I find it way to muso for me at times... it might sound ridiculous but it's almost like Fagan and Becker try a bit too hard sometimes.

I used one live once, in a drop key for a very heavy outro which relied heavily on open strings which the guitarists had and I didn't. Not the most practical thing to do in the world though. I heard someone saying a while ago about McCartney using one with the Beatles, but I don't know how true this is.

Oh, and I'd take Zender's 'Chrome Ender' Gozilla bass, Pino's faded Fiesta Red P-Bass, or Sting's old P-Bass as well.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='515397' date='Jun 16 2009, 03:47 PM']Andy Fraser's Gibbo from 'Alright Now' and [b]whatever Entwistle used on 'My Generation'.[/b][/quote] [url="http://www.vintageandrareguitars.com/web/our-catalogue/Fender/Electric-Basses/item/5887"]http://www.vintageandrareguitars.com/web/o...asses/item/5887[/url] All I know is that it was a Jazz bass. Could be it.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='514668' date='Jun 15 2009, 08:04 PM']No offence taken but its easier said then done. First off thats the going rate so we arent getting ripped off or anything like that. We still go home with around £100 each, thats still more than i make per day in my day job. 25+ gigs a year still adds up to some decent money. If we gcould do weddings every week we would but we dont get offered that many so yes, money has to come form somewhere. Look at the amount of bsas player on this site that get all excited becuase they have a gig coming up three months down the line etc. Some would jump at the chance to do even a pub gig and make a bit of money so who are we to turn regular work down. I really do want to get paid more but the money isnt in the clubs. quite a few are closing down as the mebership is going down. And i dont hate this sort of gig either. We can look on them as a paid rehearsal.[/quote] That's fair enough, and I know the feeling about the paid rehearsal. Money for us is definitely in private gigs. My idea this year for our band is that we can afford to be taking lower paying gigs on weeknights, but Friday Saturday we look towards taking more, and ideally more on weeknights if possible, which means residencies, agency bookings etc. I think if you travel as well then there should always be a gig for a band. You can drink the river dry if you want to make money as a band but only rely on local gigs.

That's cool, I like it when companies value their customers like that. I need to bulk-buy about 3 or 4 sets of strings for touring, I'm debating D'Addario over the usual DR's. Decisions decisions...

But if they weren't giving you a decent deal, why bother at all dealing with them? I understand completely where you're coming from, and I know money has to come from somewhere, but surely there has to be a better deal coming in from somewhere else. Sorry, not trying to be argumentative, just curious is all.

My EHX English Muff'n is completely brilliant. Got it off Tayste the other day and it sounds superb.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='514617' date='Jun 15 2009, 07:23 PM']When we first started doing the social clubs we were getting more than we were in pubs at the time. After a few months we started asking for a bit more and for about 4-5 months got no work, from any off them.[/quote] The places we play (and I don't mean to sound arrogant by this at all), we as a band pull the biggest crowds. I think the venues we play understand that to lose us would mean that all those people that know us and turn up for gigs won't be there anymore. It then becomes a position in which you have the ability to bargain with bars and alike... and that's not to say you should be greedy about it either, just realistic. Anyone can have that sort of bargaining chip if you're in a band that can pull a good crowd. [quote]I'm just glad I'm only in a 4 piece band.[/quote] Tell me about it... up until 3 months ago we were a 6 piece!

[quote name='bassicinstinct' post='514561' date='Jun 15 2009, 06:24 PM']I do tend to "get on my soapbox" a bit on this subject. In my experience, a band doesn't have to do too many gigs for £500 before they "become" a £500 band. It's not too bad if you remain ever conscious of it and vigilant about it, but it is horribly easy to drift into that situation - and many bands do. It seems fairly obvious to me that5, if a venue can't or, more likely, [b]won't[/b][i][/i] pay you what you consider you are worth, they won't be booking you and they should be looking at cheaper bands. I don't see that in any way as a failure as you will only ever price yourself out of a market you probably don't want to be in anyway!![/quote] I would agree with this a bit, although I think that if you're vigilant enough as a fledgling band then £500 is a fairly good starting off fee at a small club or pub venue. You just need to make sure you take on the private gigs off the back of public gigs at a more reasonable price for yourselves. We make a point of going out once or twice every month now and playing a slightly lower payed gig at a public venue for two reasons: 1. it's fun, and 2. it gives a chance for clients to come and see us perform and decide if they would like to book us. This is usually to our benefit, as they've heard of us through word of mouth and almost definitely book us anyway. From then on, we charge a fixed and competitive fee, and will add excess for travel, food, and accommodation should it apply. If the overall figure is considered too steep for a potential buyer, then we might consider doing the gig for less money should we not be particularly busy at that given time (a rarity), otherwise, that's it, and we'll politely tell them that they can't afford our band. Like it was mentioned, the business from people who can't affod you is expendable, at the end of the day you need to be a bit mercenary if you want to make money somewhere. Generally we have tapped into a market of 'word of mouth', that is to say we're pandering to an audience that we will almost 70-80% of the time get at least one booking off of, otherwise more.

It's been a while since I listened to Good Times, but it does sound just like a Stingray. Odd that MM would get mixed up. And apparently, after some research, all the old stuff, i.e. 'Dance, Dance, Dance', was a Fender Jazz! Puzzling

Me!

Nice guy isn't he? Got a signed poster off of him!

[quote name='lee650' post='513652' date='Jun 14 2009, 10:34 PM']Hi guys Louis johnson used a p bass early on, and had input in the development of the musicman stingray which he used on pretty much everything he did,(although i believe he used yamaha for a while) he shared bass duties on the micheal jackson records with bobby watson (from the band rufus) who used a 62 precision (on "rock with you") also he did the george benson stuff, as well as abraham laboriel who used either a p bass or a goya panther (very similar sound to a p). as far as i know bernard edwards used both musicman and BC rich eagle basses (both now owned by duran durans john taylor), but in those days as you correctly point out a precision was a session requirement, you cant beat a good jazz bass though!!! i love em!! al the best - lee[/quote] Yeh, I've seen clips of Louis Johnson playing Yamahas. Sounded great! Concerning Bernard Edwards, he did use Stingrays a lot, but I found this out about him from Marcus Miller's website: [quote]Yeah, Bernard was a friend of mine. We would run into each other in studios, in the street. He would give me advice about a lot of things. He told me not to move to LA (I didn't listen :-) I remember, around 1978, I saw Bernard on a Chic album cover with a BC Rich bass. It was white with this unusally shaped body. Anyway, the song "Good Times" was on this album and I thought it sounded so good, I ran out and bought a white BC Rich. I got it home and started playing Good Times...I'm saying to myself, "This don't sound like the record........." I met Bernard shortly after and told him I bought the BC Rich but couldn't get that cool sound. He said, "Man I didn't play a BC Rich on that album. I played my Fender Precision!" I said, "But you have the BC Rich on the album cover." He said, "Yeah, well the BC Rich looks good, so I take pictures with it!" God rest his soul......[/quote]

Haha, cool thread! Easy - Coldplay - Yellow Intermediate - James Taylor - Shower the People Hard - Stevie Wonder - For Once In My Life. Note for note, but nowhere as good as the original! Fun - Michael Jackson - PYT Insane? - I dunno about this one. I can play Jaco Pastorius's Opus Pocus note for note, but again, no getting close to the original

I'd take the Jazz bass matey!

[quote name='lowdown' post='513511' date='Jun 14 2009, 07:12 PM']I know Louis Johnson used a precision in the early days, But i thought he and Bernard Edwards were Musicman guys for the most. Might be wrong, and usually i am. Garry[/quote] No, you're right I was going to mention that! Louis did move over to Musicmans, but in conjunction with his P-Basses as well, especially on a lot of Michael Jackson and George Benson stuff.

[quote name='Bay Splayer' post='513499' date='Jun 14 2009, 06:57 PM']correctomundo[/quote] But that's my point... it's easy to settle on an opinion if you're only tried the particular gear you mentioned in one environment. Whilst you may have made a partially informed opinion of both amps, it isn't necessarily indicative of the quality of sound... environment has everything to do with how good or bad your amp will sound.

I would agree with you, but I think to them, they consider themselves a very big fish in a very small pond. There is basically no competition from anywhere else because they are way too specialist, so I guess to them it's not important how they price their instruments. They also come with a history of good service, which is nice to know if you're going to be spending a few grand on an instrument, safe in the knowledge that the dealers you bought it from have a good technical knowledge and good service.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='513128' date='Jun 14 2009, 07:22 AM']Blunt alert..... I hear this a lot and it's complete bollox. It'll take you half an hour to learn what the basic scales are, what basic chords and arpeggios are and another half an hour to learn to play them. This is pretty much 95% of the theory you will ever need, it's dead easy and will stop you looking like an idiot when playing with other people.[/quote] Yeh I would agree with this. Learning the bass should be like learning any instrument if you want to get good at it. Scales are hugely important and definitely shouldn't be viewed as a mundane task, they help you get your ear together, think about chord patterns and passing notes, and help your dexterity. Aside from that, I think it's easy to think that technical ability is the be all and end all of being a musician. It's really not. Slapping and tapping and whatever have their place but it's easy to forget that you are first and foremost a bass player, and have to have a good knowledge of how to keep things firmly rooted in a band situation. But I don't mean to be massively patronising about it, technique is very important... it's just that I think you shouldn't lose sight of the fact that your technique should simply be an extension of your theoretical and musical ability. You don't have to prove anything to anyone if you're happy with yourself as a bass player. You can be your worst own critic at times, but if you put effort into learning something then your skill as a musician will very much be an unspoken, but widely realised thing amongst other musicians that have heard you.

How close were you to the amp when you were playing? A lot of good amps won't sound good if you're stood right next to them, but will project a fantastic bass sound a couple of feet away, or more. Also the type of room you were in makes considerable difference, etc. etc. I myself have had the best monitoring results, i.e. how good my amp sounds up close, from environments that have minimal reverb and are inherently dead sounding, but I don't think that the audience get the best sound from that sort of environment, so really you need to be in a position where you will compromise how good the monitoring is on stage for you, and how good it will sound out front.

I think the Fender sound is a versatile one. It's pretty well known that you weren't even allowed in certain studios in NY and LA without a Fender bass back during the golden age of session musicianship. I'd still say that the P-Bass was probably used to cut more records back then, with Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards and Freddie Washington playing them almost exclusively on all the records they played on. But there is something about a Jazz bass that just can't be beaten... such a rounded sound, everything you need about a bass just under your fingers!

Any musician that considers conversation concerning gear etc with anyone else aside from another musician that asks is probably a bit boring. Bassists I reckon are not as boring as guitarists in this respect!

I played one a while back and simply couldn't get on with it, the B string was not well defined, and the E suffered at the expense of the extra string, something that really annoys me about bad 5 strings. Played it back to back with a Lakland Joe Osborn 5 and a Darryl Jones 5, with limited alterations to the Ashdown combo's EQ I tried it through and there wasn't much of a comparison IMO. However, having said that, I'm a big Jazz bass fan, and I reckon I'd just struck upon a particularly bad one. I also had limited time with the bass, but I am of the opinion that a good bass can just be picked up and played with little to no adjustment. If it's the Deluxe Jazz, then I hear those things are supposed to be pretty great too, and benefit from the onboard EQ that they have. Hope that isn't too much of a downer for you, and I hope the gig goes well! I'm off to Hamburg in two weeks or so to play as well, I can't wait!