risingson

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1261493' date='Jun 8 2011, 05:31 PM']Jaco was, in many ways a lick player. If you listen to a lot of his stuff, you will eventually hear his cliches.[/quote] I kind of agree, however most musicians have their go-to licks that make them sound one of a kind. The difference between someone who just recycles old licks from other players and someone like Jaco was that they were his licks, unique to him and whilst clearly influenced by other musicians, they were of his own construction and were his own brainchild. I love hearing how he had an uncanny ability to leave his hallmark on so many records, even as a sideman as well. James Jamerson used to do the same, those passing notes he used as stepping stones to get to chordal notes was a technique so widely reused but the way he played it made him unique.

As someone who doesn't really love bass guitar 'soloing', I totally 'get' Jaco Pastorius, I think (know) he was an innovator and a genius. I also know that he's like marmite on these kinds of forums and of course everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I think it's quite impossible to deny his impact on the bass guitar. He was like Hendrix except jazz-inflicted: controversial, totally unique and widely imitated.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='1260584' date='Jun 8 2011, 12:45 AM']Just had to listen to that again.[/quote] Get your ears round this Steve, unbelievable bass playing if you've not heard it already

[quote name='51m0n' post='1260558' date='Jun 8 2011, 12:04 AM']Can I point something out to all those here who have some belief that a compressor will remove all dynamics and render your playing lifeless, and equally to all those here who believe it will eradicate any kind of bad technique. You are all wrong. Really really utterly misguided and proof beyond any doubt that you don't really know how a compressor works compared to a limiter say, how it can and should be used in a live context and have not ever used a serious compressor to achieve any specific goal. In which case, don't buy a compressor a few days before a gig, and expect it to work miracles. A compressor, unless set up to completely extreme settings of either threshold or ratio or both, will not either iron out all the dynamics, or render poor technique unnoticeable. Set up properly a compressor is pretty near transparent. By which it is meant that you cannot hear it in operation. You can measure it, you can hear it in the context of a mix, but you actually cant hear it soloed unless you really know what you are doing. Set up properly a compressor can achieve 6dB of compression and you can't feel it when you play, you can't hear it when you listen, yet your quiet signal is 4 times louder than it was. 4 times louder compared to you loudest signal. Or to put it another way, your average RMS level is increased by around 3dB. This is HUGE. You cant feel it though, when you dig in you still perceive the louder note as louder, as a result of the change in the transient, the amount of treble and the decay of thee note. Its all still is there to hear, the compressor will not magic that away. If it is set up right. Any crappiness in your technique will be made far more obvious. Any dodginess in your groove, any excessive fret noise, any bum notes will be made as loud as can be, and will be heard. By everyone in the audience. DO NOT BUY A COMPRESSOR IF YOUR TECHNIQUE IS NOT SORTED ALREADY!!!! Next point, a compressor without a limiter as well is nigh on useless in a live context. You need to set up a compressor to allow the leading edge of the transient to pass, so the attack must be fairly long (say 100ms), otherwise you will rapidly lose those all important clues to the nature of the attack that psycho-acoustically fool you into hearing the dynamics perfectly. This long attack allows the transient to be uncompressed, but the makeup gain you set to raise you overall level also takes up the level of the peak. Without a separate limiter after the compressor you cant stop the most over exuberant peaks from clipping your rig. So you cant get the most out of your compressor. A limiter is different from a compressor, not in what it does, but in the way it is designed to do it. Both devices prevent signal over a set level (threshold) from increasing in volume by their natural amount. A compressor may sniff signal over several tens of milliseconds to determine if the level has crossed the threshold, a limiter may do this over several nanoseconds. So the limiter is all about the peaks, a compressor is more concerned with the averages. A limiter attack setting may be measured up to a millisecond or 10, a compressor attack is typical from 10 ms up to as much as 500ms. Again limiters catch peaks. A limiter will have a ratio near infinity to 1, certainly no less than 10 to 1, a compressor will have a ratio settable from 1:1 to 20:1 typically, some go higher. Compressor are far more gentle devices. A limiter has a threshold set less than a dB from maximum a compressor can be set with a threshold as low as 40dB from maximum and still be useful. I typically set up my compressor with an attack time of around 80 to 120 ms, a ratio of as little as 1.4:1 and a low low threshold. The release is usually around 100ms to 200ms, sometimes less. I aim to get around 6dB of gain reduction, I use the makeup gain to add this in to my level. I turn the compressor off and set the limiter so it just lights up when the loudest peaks come in, then turn the compressor back on. I then have transparent compression that adds some punch and keeps disparate techniques at a similar output volume from the speaker. Yet I still have total dynamic control. The issue I have to deal with with this set up is that if I make a mistake everyone can hear it.[/quote] Can we sticky your posts somewhere? I really do think stuff like this will help people understand more about how compression and limiting works outside the sea of misinformation that gets bandied around on the internet!

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1259415' date='Jun 7 2011, 10:31 AM']Jackson is left with no nuts after grooving them off w. Robben Ford (guitar), Jimmy McGriff (organ), Bernard Purdie (drums), and the horn section of Phil Woods (alto), Bob Berg (tenor) and Art Farmer (trumpet). If you don't 'get' it, you have no pulse. [/quote] I think Anthony Jackson is one of the few bass players that I would describe as one of the greatest players of all time. Amazing bassist!

[quote name='dc2009' post='1259557' date='Jun 7 2011, 12:21 PM']Congrats, what a great brand to get an endorsement with. So out of interest, how do you go about getting one of these, how big do you need to be etc? There are plenty of bands I've never heard of that get endorsements, yours being one of them (though I did just go have a look on your website and I guess I have now), so how big do you need to be for them not to scoff in your face and not even reply to you. Are you guys signed and doing headline european tours, with record sales in the tens of thousands, or not at that stage - just curious ?[/quote] All you need to do is contact the distributor of Sandberg in the U.K. I contacted Sandberg directly a few months back and they passed my details on to Synergy U.K distribution and offered me a good deal on any custom build I wanted with a really good discount but I decided not to take them up on it just yet. You don't need to be incredibly big; what they want to see is you promoting the Sandberg brand in any way you can and it always helps if you're a touring artist as well so that the brand can make the link to your fan base. As far as I can gather, Sandberg are a good brand to be tied to and offer a good amount of discount, providing you do the best you can to push them.

[quote name='uke' post='1254841' date='Jun 2 2011, 11:40 PM']For me, as a bassist, watching Queen without John Deacon is like watching The Who without the Ox! They are the people who inspired me to play bass in the first place![/quote] It's probably total blasphemy to say this but I got to see The Who with Pino Palladino on bass who is one of my favourite bass players and it was brilliant! I was never keen on Entwhistle's playing, although I understand he was integral part of their sound and a really unique player.

[quote name='73Jazz' post='1254827' date='Jun 2 2011, 11:33 PM']How many types of bluejeans do Levi`s need? They all look almost exactly the same and you pay much for for those than other bluejeans eg those from japan sry couldn`t resist [/quote] Ah you see I don't get Levi's jeans! I buy Japanese denim from a shop in Sweden every year at a snip of the price... 16oz denim, good indigo dye and the fit I want. I have the same issues with all sorts of companies that do this. I love Fenders, classic design that are totally functional and very usable but their product range is ridiculous now.

How many different types of P-Bass do Fender need? They all sound almost exactly the same, the only difference is that you'll pay out the nose for one of these as opposed to something like a U.S or Japanese P.

I like passive basses for the same reasons a few other people have described, i.e. you just plug in and play, you know where you stand and there isn't any hassle. Haven't played a Big Al myself (although they look great), but I found the Bongo's 4-Band EQ section excessive, there's no way I need that amount of control in a preamp. I also prefer Stingray 2-band EQ's to 3's.

Steve, yeh love it. I've been meaning to get in touch to see if you fancied a quick look over it like we talked about but been a bit financially constrained... will definitely speak to you before the month is out. [quote name='urb' post='1253005' date='Jun 1 2011, 06:50 PM']Nice stuff Liam - I'm feeling the groove and er, feel, in both your vids - lovely stuff My latest upload can be [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=138313"]found here[/url] - hope you guys enjoy Cheers Mike[/quote] Thanks Mike, I actually stumbled across your vids whilst doing a bit of research into Matt Garrison's thumb + three finger technique, if I can get it down as well as you can then I'll be tremendously pleased

I think I would have ended up committing to whatever instrument I took up, but I was asked to join a band at aged 12, a friend of mine was getting a guitar and the other was getting drums, so I got asked if I wanted to buy a bass and play with them. That was that really!

Cheers Steve! Another one, PYT - Michael Jackson.

He didn't really mince his words when it came to what he thought of people. Disregarding his mental state towards the end of his life, his general attitude should have added up to someone I really don't like, but nonetheless he remains one of my favourite bass players. Great, great bass player.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1252196' date='May 31 2011, 11:11 PM']I will give it a whirl, I was never a die hard Blur fan but always a Blur over Oasis in the event of the usuall argument back in the day. Funnily enough me and EBS freak were discussing blur and what bass we associate with Alex James, For me I always see him as a Ray player but he (who is more of a fan) says he is famous for using a P?[/quote] The documentary gave me a new found love for Blur. They evolved over time as well; their music changed a lot, something that Oasis totally failed to manage IMO, although I still like a lot of their music too. I'd really recommend watching it! I always associate Alex James with his 50's reissue (real?) P-bass now. No slouch on the bass either... not great, but definitely not a bad player.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1252163' date='May 31 2011, 10:44 PM']I like radiohead and blur I'm 33 so bang on for Britpop but Queen are massive in comparison. I would enjoy a good in depth documentary on all the bands mentioned but even as fan of most of them to make it interesting enough for a wider audience it would have to be about many of them rather than just one. There have been some good ones on BBC four over the years following different eras and scenes.[/quote] You should watch 'No Distance Left to Run' if you haven't already, great Blur documentary!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1252066' date='May 31 2011, 09:21 PM']All failed to break the states afaik.[/quote] Radiohead sold 300,000 albums of Hail to the Thief in the first week in the U.S when it was released, over a million eventually. They have a massive U.S fanbase. Totally different bands though, both notable in their own right.

[quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' post='1251810' date='May 31 2011, 05:40 PM']Looking at the list of bands below - I rest my case! I wouldn't put any of them in the same league as Queen. Don't ever recall The Smiths selling out Wembley!![/quote] Not that it's a competition or anything but Oasis and Blur, maybe even Radiohead could sell out Wembley. Oasis sold out Knebworth quite a few times over at the height of their careers. The other two aren't as likely to play stadium gigs, although Blur have sold out Hyde Park before for example. That's 65,000 people.

[quote name='Ross' post='1251235' date='May 31 2011, 11:18 AM']Wouldn't really do to sh*t yourself in front of 10,000 people.[/quote] Less to do with that and more to do with the fact that I could see through time before the start of the gig, but absolutely your point too.

[quote name='51m0n' post='1251527' date='May 31 2011, 02:16 PM']Agree they were some pretty excellent programs, not sure about the entirely unparalleled production, 10cc's "I'm not in love" could arguably be one of the cleverist bits of production of all time Read up on it [url="http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun05/articles/classictracks.htm"]here[/url]. Very very clever stuff! That apart though Queen did sound damn fine, I dont think they sounded better than Abba did though, as good, but not better (purely talking production here, regardless of whether or not you dig the tracks)[/quote] My point was that nobody sounded like Queen apart from Queen really, they pioneered a sound for themselves. 10cc were great writers with great production values but their music wasn't nearly as enduring as Queen's!