risingson

Carol Kaye.

It's funny how a bass player like him can rattle so many other people's cages. Slap is the easiest way of demonstrating quickly that you have some kind of talent to those who are unaware that what you're doing is nothing special. It's frustrating but I don't suppose he's doing anyone too much harm.

Hi Pickle, I've dropped you a personal message with my details.

[quote]or heaven forbid EBMM themselves(and start a sh*t storm.)[/quote] It doesn't half piss me off that as a legitimate customer you would have to put up with any repercussions for simply posting up a technical query on the EBMM forum, especially when it's a bass you've spent a fortune on. Is it just me that thinks that is totally backwards? My opinion is that if you have a problem with the switching system that you should bring it to the attention of the technical department of EB. If you have a faulty item then measures should be put in place to assure that you get the customer service you deserve.

[quote name='bassicinstinct' post='1268808' date='Jun 14 2011, 04:03 PM'][url="http://www.bassplayer.com/article/%E2%80%9Cready%E2%80%9D-freddie-washington/January-2010/105429"]"Ready" Freddie Washington on "the groove"[/url] Amen to all of that!! What a refreshing change, too, to hear from a "name" player who isn't constantly falling all over himself trying to prove how many notes he can cram into a bar? [/quote] The most interesting thing about what Freddie says is he feels music in half-time. I've tried doing this myself and it's much harder than it sounds. As far as I'm aware there are very few bass players more capable than Freddie Washington, his reading skills are meant to be the best in the business.

[quote name='sweeneyjimbob' post='1268091' date='Jun 13 2011, 11:38 PM']Just something where when i click it it makes it stand out alot more and alot more ballsy. Im rubbish with technical terms, sorry.[/quote] I know what you mean now. If you want a bit more 'umph' to your sound then it might be worth investing in something like a Sansamp Bass Driver or an EBS Microbass. The Microbass is good because it offers you two channels to select from so you can set the two differently. The downside is that the latter is fairly expensive, but both are great for recording purposes too and have dedicated D.I outs. I don't think a compressor is what you're after here. Links to both pedals: [url="http://www.bass.se/2009/microbassII.htm"]http://www.bass.se/2009/microbassII.htm[/url] and [url="http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html"]http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html[/url]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1267988' date='Jun 13 2011, 10:10 PM']True [url="http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150206755544165&oid=112984485439757&comments"]http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=...57&comments[/url][/quote] Nice to see the tuner was working before its untimely demise, that drill seemed to be sounding a good solid A note

Sorry to be stupid, but what's an attack pedal?

[quote name='Toasted' post='1267443' date='Jun 13 2011, 03:49 PM']Double P... *barf*[/quote] Got to agree with this, it should always be a single coil at the bridge. It does look interesting though, providing it's not ludicrously overpriced.

Most important bass player of all time!

[quote name='Evil Undead' post='1266275' date='Jun 12 2011, 04:35 PM']IIRC, Jamerson liked a high action as well[/quote] I'm sure it was a bit to do with preference as he was originally an upright player, but I think it had less to do with whether he liked it or not and more to do with how he probably couldn't be bothered with the upkeep of his bass! La Bella flatwounds don't help either if nothing is done to relieve the tension that the strings have on the neck of the bass. I like my action somewhere in between. I hate really low action as it doesn't suit my playing style. I think some players learn to put up with the quirks of their bass guitars because they don't have the time or the knowledge themselves to set them up properly, and as a consequence when someone else plays their instrument they find it difficult to play properly. Our old guitar player's telecaster was virtually unplayable for me and anyone else because the action was so high, but he could play perfectly on it and was happy with what I considered to be a really terrible setup.

I haven't been impressed with the U.S ones I've tried and have been put off MTD basses for life, sonically unimpressive to my ears. Prices for these ones are silly!

BB, the first two tunes you listed are two of my favourites, I also love As and all the early Motown tunes. I love his ballads as well, Lately is just a brilliant piece of music!

There seem to be quite a few bass luthiers out there that need a bit of a reality check. Is it too much for them to be humbled by all the interest in their instruments without being egomaniacs?

Unless the rest of your band are being unreasonably loud then I would completely agree with the advice below. Mids are your friend, depending on the bass and room you're playing in but I find somewhere in the 300-500hz range helps (I experiment from room to room) in cutting through in a band situation. Also, I don't know of any onboard active EQ that boosts any one frequency independently, and it takes a bit of fiddling to find out what works best with your preamp. It might be that you just leave it flat and let your amp do the work, in which case see below again [quote]Your EQ and your gear isn't helping the new bass to shine. You've moved up a league with this bass and now you need an amp of the same quality.[/quote]

Gladiator is on ITV2. No gigs tonight, got all the time in the world to sit round and wait for this site to load! Relax, it's Friday night

Great, great bass playing, totally solid and rare to see someone solo with that much character and interest in their playing. I can't listen to Mike Stern for longer than a minute or so though, or Weckl either! Just not my kind of music, really jarring and uninteresting for me at least.

[quote name='Beedster' post='1263178' date='Jun 9 2011, 08:03 PM']Fair point, but I can think of lots of players who've gone from another brand to Fender, or to Warwick, to MM or Wal etc, but none that have gone [i]to[/i] Ric? Perhaps I've missed them?[/quote] Chris Wolsenholme went from Pedulla to Zon to Rik. Ricks are distinctive instruments and I think they've been tied, perhaps wrongly, to rock music, aethetically as well.

You've built up a complexity and taken a knock to your self-esteem because you can't get your head around a type of music that you need to live and breathe. Why? We (mostly) grow up with western music in our ears to the point where we're bogged down in it. I certainly wouldn't know where to start if I was suddenly moved over to Indonesia and was made to play Gamelan all of a sudden, but that's not exactly surprising, is it? I've not grown up about it and it isn't what I've learned and it isn't what I know. If you think about why most people pick up an instrument in the first place, it's probably because they have a love for music. Your talk of 'vanity, narcissism and selfishness' may exist for you, I don't know, but if it does then that will be a recent development of you becoming a competent musician and realising your strengths when you play live and the reaction you get from the crowds... it has a tendency to elevate you above modesty on some level. You clearly just need to remind yourself why you ended up playing music in the first place and persevere with it. The only reason you have a defeatist attitude about what you're doing at the moment is probably because you can't handle something so totally unfamiliar, but just remember the kick you got out of learning your first bass line or guitar part successfully as a fledgling musician and be humbled by the fact you get a chance to play some incredible music that not many western musicians get a chance to play.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1262194' date='Jun 9 2011, 01:21 AM']Bass players who have heard Billie Jean should be able to play Billie Jean. It's one of those 'You obviously play it like this' songs. Anyone who can't play that song at the drop of a hat probably can't play anything without getting a tab off the internet.[/quote] I don't mean it's not straight forward to play (although I dare say I've seen more than a few people mess it up, maybe it's the repetitiveness of it that some people can't handle), I mean if you play anything else apart from what Louis Johnson put down on the record then it's most likely going to sound toss.

My word, that is stunning! Great job!

I depped a gig on Saturday night with 3 other people that had never played together before. We had around 40 tunes to pick from, of which I blagged all but about 2 purely from muscle memory. Learning basslines note for note is fine but the best thing for a bass player to be able to on gigs like the one you describe is to play something that resembles the bass line but is essentially your own, all without overplaying or it sounding wrong. Unless the bass line in a song is integral and has to be played note for note, e.g. Billie Jean off the top of my head, then learning bass lines perfectly removes a lot of the fun of sounding like yourself.