Boodang

Very much an adult band. 8 piece and nobody under 40. In fact the guitarist and I started this band last year and between us we provide everything (pa, mics, stands, keys, drum kit, even the bl**dy tambourines) and he has a rehearsal facility we all use with everything setup. The guitarist is very talented and dedicated, puts in the work so he knows the songs, which makes this tourette's all the more awkward as in every other respect he's spot on.

It's like an 'adulation' syndrome some musicians have (I'm looking at guitarists here) where the audience appreciation has to be just for them.

Id settle for a bit of ‘teddy bears picnic’ rather than whole segments of sandman… spare me!!!

I’m in a covers band and at gigs, between numbers, the guitarist blurts out death metal riffs, none of which we do in the set. Recently we got a second guitarist and, encouraged, is now doing the same. I was talking to the 2nd guitarists wife and she said ‘well, the audience seemed to like it’ but my point is yes, but A. We’re not doing the song the riff comes from (which is metal) & B. we do lounge numbers like ‘fever’. We’ve talked about this issue, particularly that I don’t think it’s very professional, but it still continues. I’ve never come across this before in any band. I’ve suggested that separately they form a metal band to get this out of their system! They want, and enjoy, being in the covers band but it’s like a guitarist form of Tourette’s where between numbers they can’t help themselves. At the moment we’ve lost our sound guy so I’m doing the mixing. Their noodling fecks me off so much that the ‘automatic’ mute function operates on whichever channel a feckwit metal noodling guitarist is using. They think this is unprofessional! So touché. Has anybody come across this sort of behaviour before? I haven’t come across this problem before at this level, but it doesn’t seem to extend to keyboard players, drummers or vocalists, if anybody it seems to be the province of guitarists.

"Give me a gig!" at the very start of this video says a lot about where Jaco was mentally when this was recorded. Has to be one of the most unexpected starts to an interview for someone of his talents!

'Cross stage' monitoring only, how was that? Or were you wearing in-ears?

Love the drum set up!

Acrylic drum set is cool!

Jaco wasn't in a good place mentally when this video was put together and I think Jerry and friends did it to highlight his talent. It's a shame it's not a full on structured tutorial 'method' style book/video though but given the circumstances at least we have this to look back on. Two years later he was dead, a really sad story. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, a really good documentary with some great interviews with Zawinul and others who played or knew Jaco is; Jaco Pastorius "The Lost Tapes Documentary" (on youtube).

Eq is what you need. Basically you're going from a more mid emphasis finger tone to a scooped mid slap tone. There are various ways to go about this, a pre amp with two channels of eq, a pedal with eq presets like the source audio eq2, or keep it simple and have the creation audio funkulator which has one knob to scoop the mids, just kick in when you need it.

I'm a pedal board guy, my current setup has 14 pedals on it (soon to be more!). I've been down the multi-effects pedal route (and I still check out the latest offerings) but the reason it's not for me is the interface, I like knobs and hate screens. Also, with few exceptions (mostly synth sounds I'd say, so not bothered), my pedals sound better and I have some analogue pedals which digital versions in a multi can't really replicate. I think the nearest I came recently is the TC Plethora as the interface is ok, but I'd still have to integrate it with my analogue pedals. And then there's the biggest reason for having pedals... the artwork on them is better!

Have had success with parcelforce. No hassles with the length of the case (for some couriers it's too long). Even managed a delivery to a remote part of Scotland with no problems. Worse ever was Hermes, now called Evri I believe. It's still the same company and if the name is the only thing that's changed I wouldn't touch them with a hazmat suit on.

On the basis that the pups on a ric and a jazz are in different places, would be good to combine them into a 4 pickup bass.

I can't comment on the Maui, although it does look a good solution for small venues. We did however buy the LD Icoa 15a speakers and they've been great, so a thumbs up for LD with our limited experience of them. Did a small outdoor gig (around 150 people) and the Icoa handled the FoH duties no worries. Was particularly impressed with the reproduction of the kick which sounded like it was coming out of a bin rather than just a ported cab.

I have to say it seems almost a random way to achieve your sound! After all, every active eq will have different Qs, peak frequencies etc. Having said that, if the ears say yes then who cares!

You're going to have to help us out here.... 'mellowship'?

You've put your drummer in a cage!

... and no amount of arrangement can fix pedals that need improving!

I have a thing for sunburst and tortoiseshell pick guards, so want to do the same to mine. Got as far as the tone control plate! Went with the vol/tone, vol/tone with a parallel/series switch from Starr guitars in the USA. Got held up by customs as it was labelled 'tortoiseshell' and they wanted to confirm it wasn't the real thing!

I control all my effects pedals through the EHX tri mixer. 3 parallel channels each with input and output gain. That way I can keep the gain structure and thus volume, under control. Some of my pedals are sensitive but with the mixer I can make sure the signals are not too hot for them, and then I can set the return gain to where I need it so no jumps or dips in volume when I kick them in.

Love my Squier VM jazz fretless, one of the best basses I’ve ever owned. Upgraded pups, preamp (still passive) and nut, don’t care what the resell value is as will never sell. Plays a treat. With the resin fingerboard and flats, everyone who plays it loves it.

A park bench in DC. Quite surreal!

Passive pups aren't going to have much response above 6k, so I cut everything above that just to keep noise to a minimum,and boost 3.6k for harmonics.

I totally agree, it should be bass & motorcycles analogies.

http://www.audereengineering.com/index.htm If you're going for a preamp, I can thoroughly recommend these.