Grimalkin

Melding the songs might be a problem... Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Some Sweetleaf After Midnight? Paranoid Chiquitita? 'S hard work...

It ain't what you play it's the way that you play it. That's what gets results.

Setting up a bass isn't rocket science.

Sabbath. A Black Sabbath/Abba crossover. Versatility, that's the name of the game.

I don't think Pino cares for what is on the headstock, the bass Pino is playing in the pic above looks like a £90 pawn shop find. He cares more for how a bass sounds and is it the right sound for the job. Pino has an exceptional pair of ears.

I'll bet he would if he considered it the right instrument for the job. That's what I'm talking about.

If you buy a lined, decide whether you want to intonate behind the line or directly on top of the line. Willis says he wished he had began splitting the finger by fretting directly on top of the line, but it's too late now. If you buy an unlined, Pino used to intonate the bass with another fellow making the adjustments for him as he played it. So that the notes were where Pino visualised them, the bass was intonated to him.

When someone hires Pino, they are not hiring the instrument, they are hiring the player. One thing I like about Pino, is that he isn't too prissy about instruments.

^ Above is the sensitivity of the human ear in regard to pitch across frequencies.

It depends what you want to play on it. Playing over the 12th is when you really have to pull your pants up. The human ear isn't that great with lower frequencies, there is some leeway, but in the high frequency ranges, you're wide out in the open. It has to be together or it sounds absolutely awful.

I've found the guys with the best intonation, have lines. Pino, who usually stays below the 12th and uses quite a lot a vib, is the unlined exception I go for but unlined players like Percy Jones, Alain Caron on fretless and Steve Bailey, the intonation is a real put-off for me.

When I took to fretless decades ago, I would leave the fretted in the house and only take the fretless to gigs. Intonation playing in your living room, is a whole different animal from playing it in a band context at a gig.

“The principles underlying propaganda are extremely simple. Find some common desire, some widespread unconscious fear or anxiety; think out some way to relate this wish or fear to the product you have to sell; then build a bridge of verbal or pictorial symbols over which your customer can pass from fact to compensatory dream, and from the dream to the illusion that your product, when purchased, will make the dream come true. They are selling hope. We no longer buy oranges, we buy vitality. We do not just buy an auto, we buy prestige..." Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Revisited. The key word there, is prestige.

Who would show up to a session with a bass that sounded like that?

I've owned a few bits and pieces, Wal, Jaydee, Musicman, a short endorsement with Warwick. At the end of the day I like Jazz basses, I'm a fan of that sound and playability. The bottom line is not what instrument you play, it's how well you can play it.

It may have been lucky, and ended up with someone who can play it.

Think about a five string, having low E at the fifth fret of the B brings the scale stretch down compared to first position.

Willis would not be able to play the range of the board with that level of intonation without lines. You'll notice that he watches the neck almost all of the time and uses muscle memory to play the faster lines, there is no time for pitch adjustment, that comes from a visual/muscle memory approach. Same as Lagrene below from 0.30. Pitch correction at those speeds... forget about it. It's all visual and muscle memory.

"I Do Not Know the End."

They won't give you the skin off a rice pudding unless there's something in it for them. You usually tell you to nip down the shop for twenty Bensons and a loaf of bread before saying jack.

"That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep." Aldous Huxley.

He's using some kind of envelope filter as far as I can tell: