EssentialTension

[quote name='JohnSlade07' post='475333' date='Apr 29 2009, 06:25 PM']Has anyone got any good tips for approaching walking bass lines? I'm aware of the following ideas (although I've only touched on the first few so far): 1. Root. 2. Root and fifth. 3. Root, 3rd, fifth. 4. Arpeggios. 5. Chromatic approach notes. 6. Mixture of the above obviously. Apart from these I realise the swing and feel is foremost, just looking for a few more ideas to get my teeth into. I'm odd admittedly, but I find all this stuff fascinating (God I feel ashamed saying that!). Cheers John.[/quote] Not odd, just a musician. I try to make my walks a combination of: 1. Chordal movement using the triad of the chord 2. Scalar movement using the notes of a relevant scale 3. Chromatic movement using notes chromatic to the relevant scale that lead to wherever I want to get to. 4. Use open string notes to give you a moment to move left-hand position when necessary. 5. A walking line doesn't have to be four notes on four beats in every single bar; little variations can add to the swing. 6. And don't be afraid to repeat a note for two beats in a row if it sounds good. My theory is let's say average so I don't know if the the above is the best way to express it but it's how I think of it.

[quote name='leschirons' post='349048' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:56 PM']Carole Kaye I reckon. Seem to remember she did the low end (upright) on an old Nancy Sinatra song called These boots are made for walking. First ever bassist to use defined quarter tones in a bass line. (for the intro)[/quote] Just been listening to that - it's great, whoever it is. Did Carole Kaye play upright?

Well, nice enough but I couldn't see or hear the connection with it being a 66 Precision so it didn't live up to my expectations given the title of the thread.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='470457' date='Apr 23 2009, 10:36 AM']Here's a little vid I made a couple of weeks ago, where I switch between the three pup combinations on a Tony Franklin fretless. It should give you an idea of the tonal differences...[/quote] Very nice, especially the P pickup.

[quote name='Spoombung' post='470472' date='Apr 23 2009, 10:53 AM']Nice. I must say it's VERY rare to hear a fretless player using anything but the bridge pickup.[/quote] Usually full on neck pickup on my fretless Jazz here. Very rare I use the bridge pickup. In fact not that happy with the Jazz tone, so got to get a fretless Precision I think.

[quote name='ednaplate' post='470416' date='Apr 23 2009, 09:41 AM']That maple neck looks lovely. [b]I keep hearing on here that the current Skylines aren't as good as they once were which is why Lakland have moved production. [/b]You all seem very happy with yours though.[/quote] The Cort factory in Korea, where the Skylines were being machined, closed down. So Lakland had no choice but to move. What they had to decide was where to move to. So now it's the Cort factory in Indonesia. My Skyline Decade is Indonesian - no problem with its build quality, especially since it was set up and plekked in Chicago.

[quote name='SJA' post='467759' date='Apr 20 2009, 07:17 PM']yeah- when Fender revamped the US precisions and jazzes in 1994, they introduced a lined fretless US precision- rosewood board only, no front dots, no skunk stripe, trussrod adjust at the body, graphite neck reinforcement, through-body stringing. it came strung with heavy flatwounds. I've got an old issue of Bass player where they reviewed the whole range of new US standards and deluxes- and it's pictured. IIRC they discontinued it around 1998.[/quote] Great, thanks for that info.

[quote name='Beedster' post='468089' date='Apr 21 2009, 08:49 AM']Yes, straight swap (as much as any Fender 4 bolt necks are, that is, I can't guarantee the tightness of the neck in the pocket)). The board DOES have fingerboard dots - it's from a Jaco '62 reissue so made to look like a defretted bass.[/quote] Ok thanks for the info. I think I'd want to avoid the fingerboard dots in between the lines, does sound weird. I'm starting to wonder about maybe an unlined fretless P.....hmmmm

[quote name='WILD FROG SHOT' post='468509' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:06 PM']Doubt this will be the last time but, once again, music is not a competition. There are technically bad players in all generations; is it really a crime for younger people writing their own music to be below par? At least they have time to develop and improve. [b]Surely it is more of a "lazy" crime to play solely in a covers band.[/b][/quote] I really can't see why playing in a so-called covers band would be thought of as 'lazy' or, even more so, as a crime. Sounds to me like you're treating music as a competition. Speaking for myself I'd rather play quality songs written by somebody else than poor originals written by me. Actually, don't most musicians play songs written by someone else. I play in a covers band (not my only band) and what we do is neither criminal nor lazy. We're very hard working and put on a great show. [quote name='WILD FROG SHOT' post='468509' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:06 PM']+1 on the comments that bands should act as a unit rather than a group of individual fret-w***ers.[/quote] Agreed. [quote name='WILD FROG SHOT' post='468509' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:06 PM']I cannot really comment on nu-metal; wasn't the point to remove the face-melting solos and add some hippity-hop to get some groove back into heavier music? Also didn't it open up Metal to a new audience of kids who weren't the sad greasy-haired B.O. fuelled loners at school /adults (that never grew out of it)?[/quote] I know nothing about Metal, it's never interested me, so no comment. [quote name='WILD FROG SHOT' post='468509' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:06 PM']Arguably, isn't being technically good (as in near-perfect theoretical knowledge and knowing what one "should" play here and there) and having "standards" the complete polar opposite to what music is supposed to be about?[/quote] So, according to you music is about being technically bad (as in near non-existent theoretical knowledge and not knowing what one 'should' play here and there) and having no 'standards. Don't invite me to your gig.

[quote name='Platypus' post='467079' date='Apr 19 2009, 10:58 PM']Whoa! Essential, Thats stunning, would love to hear it in action.[/quote] Thanks. I'd love to hear it in action myself but the band I planned to use it with lost the drummer, had to recruit another and so took a break as soon as I got the Decade. No gig with that band now until June. So although I have rehearsed with it I haven't yet played it in anger, so to speak. But wide range of sounds available due to the placement of the pickups I guess. Does a great sort of Gibsonesque dub sound on the neck pickup soloed with tone rolled off and played at the neck. And a not quite Jazz but nonetheless Jazzesque growl with the bridge pickup soloed and tone on full. Plus lots in between. Also, very good balance across the strings and smoothness of sound up and down the excellent plekked neck. EDIT: I think the mahogany body does something to the tone as well, a kind of darkness.

[quote name='MarkP' post='467643' date='Apr 20 2009, 05:07 PM']Swift make a lined fretless precision, however it is £60 delivered to your door, so I would imagine it would need a change of pickups etc[/quote] Hmmmm...thanks...I'll bear that in mind....

[quote name='silddx' post='467563' date='Apr 20 2009, 03:49 PM']You are SO right, Chris. I'm definitely an unlined, side dots "on the fret" type of geezer. I found it so weird with the lines and in-between dots.[/quote] I agree in-between dots would be weird. The MIA lined fretless Jazzes don't have them. The in-between dots would be a problem on a defret job.

[quote name='Beedster' post='467194' date='Apr 20 2009, 08:38 AM']I'm sure there's a few fretless Precision necks have come out of Japan but probably not many. I may have a new lined fretless Fender MIJ Jazz neck for sale once I've decided which of my necks to keep, so let me know if you'd be interested and I'll hang onto it for you. Chris[/quote] Chris, thanks for this. A jazz neck on a P bass is what would suit me best. Are the P and J necks a straight swap? Does that MIJ Jazz neck have fingerboard dots? Am I understanding your other post correctly?

[quote name='Clarky' post='467191' date='Apr 20 2009, 08:34 AM']Fender certainly used to make lined fretless Ps as I bought one (3Ts, rosewood neck) about ten years ago at the old Bass Centre in Wapping (sold it a c oupel of years later as I am cr@p without frets to cover up my rubbish intonation )[/quote] I have seen a couple of them on ebay etc but they usually look as if they may have been altered, defretted maybe.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='467188' date='Apr 20 2009, 08:30 AM']I'm fairly sure there's no such beast in the MIA or MIM line-up at the moment. As for MIJ... maybe. Have a word with Mr. Guitar Emporium, perhaps? Or.. get something defretted. Or... get a replacement neck...[/quote] That's what I thought would be the case. Thank you.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='467172' date='Apr 20 2009, 07:07 AM']A PM to Beedster would probably answer this well as he's had more than his fair share of dealings with Fretless and Ps.....[/quote] And Beedster turned up very quickly without being asked.

Thanks to you all for your responses.

[quote name='Beedster' post='467355' date='Apr 20 2009, 12:04 PM']I should add that moving from lined to unlined necks - and surprisingly vice-versa - is not as easy as you'd think. In fact, I've been unable to make the move to lined from unlined as the result of being habituated to working from dot markers [u]at[/u] the fret position (as they are on an unlined neck) as opposed to [u]between[/u] the fretlines (as they are on a lined neck). So, whilst I thought buying a lined fretless neck would improve my intonation, it's actually made it worse due to "should I be fingering at the dot or at the line line" confusion! I'm either going to sell my MIJ lined neck (I have two '70's unlined necks as well), or get some dots put at the fretlines so that it's consistent with the unlined necks.[/quote] Well, I see the problem but my lined fretless Jazz (MIA) has no dots at all on the fingerboard, only the lines. It does have side dots but they are on the lines not between the lines. So the unlined fretless Precisions have side dots 'on the lines' - if you see what I mean - is that correct?

Title says it all. Anyway, I'm playing a lined fretless Jazz bass and no problem there except I'm more of a P bass kind of guy and so is the band I'm using it with. Almost all the fretless P basses seem to be unlined, whereas it appears that J basses are much more often lined. So what are the options for getting a lined fretless P? And if you feel the need you can tell me just to get an unlined P but that's not what I'm asking. Nonetheless [u]all[/u] advice happily received, with thanks.

Here we go:

[quote name='LWTAIT' post='466715' date='Apr 19 2009, 01:43 PM']and the whole ERB thing was a joke, i won't even play a 5 string, never mind an ERB.[/quote] Good. Me too. [quote name='LWTAIT' post='466715' date='Apr 19 2009, 01:43 PM']oh, and please don't call me LW call me Tait, thats what most of people call me. I might get the mods to change my username to Tait sometime, it's easier to say for a start.[/quote] Tait it is, you can call me ET or Dave or 'Oi, you'.

[quote name='LWTAIT' post='466673' date='Apr 19 2009, 12:33 PM']I've never read that before. The Sex Pistols were just the first example that popped into my head, I didn't mean it as an attack on them in particular. And, yeah, Glen Matlock's a pretty good bass player, I'll admit.[/quote] I didn't mean to be criticising your point LW. To be honest I'd always assumed the Pistols couldn't really play and that Spedding didn't just produce it but also played the guitar parts in the studio, with other session guys. I found the quotation when I was trying to establish that he did play the guitar parts. It looks like I was wrong. [quote name='LWTAIT' post='466673' date='Apr 19 2009, 12:33 PM']Old people, eh. If theyre not moaning about ERB's then they're doing their "youth of today" speech.[/quote] Not all of us, I'm 57. Most of the moans about 'youth of today' that I've heard in this and other threads I've been hearing ever since I was a teenager. They were wrong then and they are wrong now (IMNSHO). Mind you, I don't quite get the ERB thing - however old the person playing it is.

[quote name='lee650' post='466541' date='Apr 19 2009, 08:37 AM']And a more deserving chap, i couldnt have gone too really glad your giving it the use i didnt - cheers - lee[/quote] You're too kind, many people are more deserving than me.

Chris Spedding who produced the first Sex Pistols demo thought they could play (minus Sid). He claims his demos were remixed to make it sound as if they couldn't play: Quote: Spedding explains, They are not the same mixes that I did. Dave Goodman, the other producer besides Chris Thomas, went in and re-did them and added a lot of echo to them and added stuff to them. So they'd been marketed as the Spedding tapes, but they are not really my mixes. The mixes I did sound better. I'm quite proud of the Sex Pistols demos, especially when compared to their other later recordings. On my demos you can hear everything quite clearly - the bass and drums are really audible plus you can actually hear what the rhythm and lead guitars are doing. Part of why they (McLaren and the Pistols) didn't like my demo was that because I like R&B, I highlighted their rhythm tracks with a big bass drum and bass aound, particularly because Matlock had some intensely played bass runs. They wanted a guitar soup. I think that whenever you've got an interesting rhythm section like that, a band sounds like they can actually play, and since that was the whole point of my demo - to prove they could play - that's what I pushed. When you have a guitar soup, which is what the demo they recorded later sounds like, you have to face the fact that someone's trying to cover up the fact that they can't play. And that's what McLaren wanted people to think that they couldn't play, that was just an idea, a way of making all this anarchy stuff happen. [url="http://www.chrisspedding.com/session/sp/sp.htm"]Source here[/url] Unquote

[quote name='funkypenguin' post='466489' date='Apr 19 2009, 01:48 AM']Its my opinion (and ONLY an opinion) that many young musicians dont practice enough and dont push themselves.[/quote] And when in history was that not true.