JellyKnees

When you can play well enough to keep the drummer in time.... I used to call myself a bassplayer when that was pretty much all I played, now I tend to think of myself as a musician whose main intrument happens to be the bass. I'm certainly not a virtuoso bassist and don't have any desire to be, but I've developed enough skills over the years to be able to handle most things. Deveoping musical ideas for my band is my main focus these days, so for me it's all about the expression of musical ideas and bass is merely one tool for achieving that end. Other tools for me would include guitar, keys, percussion and a computer + cubase - I'm reasonably competent on guitar and can play keys well enough to get some basic ideas down. But I still probably enjoy playing bass the most... a good bass would be my 'desert island' item of choice.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1350830790' post='1843947'] i put AJA on when i go to my sisters house and her 2 daughters love it..... they always say "put steely on" i think its great to bring up kids listening to music like that... did me the world of good being subjected to micheal mcdonald and george benson when i was a nipper [/quote] My 12 year old daughter likes a bit of the Dan too... she's grown up with my musical choices being played alot, and a good job too because her mum's got bloody awful taste in music

Hard Normal Daddy kicks arse, it's one of my favourite instrumental albums...so many fantastic ideas crammed into it.

[quote name='lowregisterhead' timestamp='1350752688' post='1843115'] Yes, I think you are, but you're doubtless moved by something else entirely. For me, I don't get Miles Davis, or The Beatles, or a whole host of other acts that most people might think sublime for that matter, but I think Steely Dan are wonderful. When I put on one of their albums, I'm transported to another place. Yet, when I was offered tickets to see them live in London a number of years ago, I turned them down - I didn't want to be disappointed. On record, they're always fabulous. All part of the rich tapestry that is life, my friend!! [/quote] Absolutely agree, I love their music, including most of the recent stuff. I don't like the Beatles either, but I do like Miles, so it is indeed horses for courses. Souless though? Don't get that at all. Maybe it depends on where your soul's at?

I prefer steels over nickels, to my ears they have a fuller tone, whereas nickels seem slighty scooped. It's easy to eq out some highs if you find steels too bright, it's always easier to take frequencies out rather than try and boost them.... Feelwise, i've been using steels so long I don't have any problem with them feeling rough, but then my fingertip are pretty well calloused so I guess its just a personal thing...

So much for ze ruthless efficiency of ze Germans....

Originals for me - I write/co-write the music for about 60% of our band's material. These days I see myself more as a musician whose main instrument is the bass, rather than a bass player in a band...

We use backing for drums with our originals band for playing live, mainly because we haven't been able to find a good enough drummer (yet - we're still looking)... it's a compromise solution, I'd much rather have the real thing, but if we hadn't gone down this route we wouldn't have done any gigs at all (I'd rather do what we do than play with a mediocre drummer). It does give us some flexibility to add a few extra sample, keyboard sounds etc as well...ideally we would have another person to do some of these things too, but again it comes down to practicalities, logistics etc. It also gives us the ability to control volumes and play in some smaller venues (it also means that we don't have to wait while the drummer skins up again...) FWIW, we haven't had any negative comments from any audiences or other bands that we have played with, they've generally seemed pretty receptive to what we do, but then I've spent a lot of time programming the backing stuff to make it sound interesting and convincing.

I brought a secondhand (but looked brand new) SR505 in the summer and the action was way too high. It was fairly easy to set up correctly though. Didn't like the nasty elixir strings it came with at all, currently using d'addario steels on it, which sound much better imo.

I've had these on my tune bass 4 string fretless for a while now, and I really like them. I wanted something between a round and a flat, and experimented with both roto pressure wound and daddario half rounds for a year or so, but ultimately found that they both had too much tension/stiffness for my liking, so these are a good lower tension alternative (they're not LOW tension, just lower than the halfs that I tried) The daddario tapes are nice and punchy, well defined and really glassy smooth. Also, you can get them for just under £30, which is kind of my cutoff price with strings these days (I have paid more in the past, but I'm less flush than I was a couple of years ago). I have also tried the status tapewounds, but they didn't sound nearly as good to me - a bit thin sounding tbh. Not tried the la bella tapes, which have been recommended to me, but am put off by the price and also the fat gauge - I don't really want to have to muck about with the nut. I've not noticied any change in the sound since I got them so I would imagine that they will last a long time.. all in all excellent strings, definitely worth a try...

Look at the mouldy strings - I think you would probably be in danger of catching a disease off this thing...

Hello and welcome from sunny Birkenhead! I do wonder why people refer to it as 'The' Wirral though? Short for 'the wirral peninsular' perhaps? But I digress, this is a very useful site for all things bass, and occasionally things that aren't...have fun

Very bad form asking you to pay! I would have told 'em to whistle...which they no doubt would have struggled to do, given their obvious lack of musical prowess.

[quote name='JakeBrownBass' timestamp='1346870732' post='1794338'] I'm currently touring with a Michael Jackson tribute. The moneys good, the songs are good, the bass lines are good, the crowds are good, the theatres are good. The goods far out weigh the worry of not appealing to bass chatters. [/quote] Is there a Bubbles doppelganger backstage to add to the general ambience?

[quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1346853696' post='1794066'] Then it would be more like acting, or in my case, panto. [/quote] Oh no it wouldn't... [quote] [b]Original Material Bands. What's the bloody point?[/b] [/quote] Who would the tribute bands impersonate then? Each other???

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1346782133' post='1793203'] You accept the fact that Thin Lizzy are over and gone and you can't see them. [/quote] Indeed. Live in the moment. Nostalgia is so yesterday.

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1346763649' post='1792809'] No personal disrespect intended,but this shocks me. [/quote] Me too. I went to Womad this summer (my 5th time there) and I'd never heard about 90% of the music I heard there before hand, and it was utterly fantastic. In fact one of the main reasons I go there is so I can experience new sounds, most of it stuff that you just don't get to hear in the mainstream, and I usual buy a few CDs off the back of it. The idea of only going to gigs where I know all the music beforehand is totally bizarre.

[quote]erm, I've had some lovely experiences at the end of the pier... [/quote] I take it you're not talking musical experiences here, nudge nudge... . As for my end of the pier comment, well even Spinal Tap didn't like playing second fiddle to a puppet show... [quote]Its the MacDonaldsisation of music. Its is only a matter of time before major acts start selling franchises to anyone who wants to do a tribute.[/quote] Jesus, don't give 'em ideas Bilbo. Large Pink Floyd with a side order of disappointment please.

It's all a bit too close to stars in your eyes for my liking, all very end of the pier variety show.... I just don't see the point. I saw Floyd, but even if I hadn't, I really don't need to see a bunch of clones 'pretending' to be them, no matter how well they can play.

I've tried both the dads and the status halfs on my piezo fretless and much prefer the tone of the dads, i just didn't like the high tension that they had. I found the status lacking in oomph tbh, so I guess alot depends on ur bass, set, preference etc...

poodle rock.....arghhhhhhhhh

The Cure in 1980 at liverpool uni mountford hall, so Robert Smith, Lol Tollhurst, Simon Gallup and someone whose name i can't remember on keys...

[quote] many (most) guys/gals in local original bands look down on it as another example of the local council/tourism crowd overlooking new local talent in favour of cabaret shenanigans [/quote] That includes me then. Precisely why I don't go to it, that and all the lagered-up meat heads. [quote]I was just happy to be probably the only sound engineer in Liverpool to have a full weekend of work booked in over the festival weekend yet not hear/mix a single Beatles song![/quote] You did well then. I find the whole Liverpool Beatles tourism thing hugely depressing to be honest. I don't dislike the Beatles, but I'm not huge fan either, I simply wasn't part of that generation. In the late 70s/early 80s we had Liverpool bands like the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Wah Heat etc and there was definitely a feeling of a music scene that was looking forward rather than back to the 60's, unlike now where we seem to be drowning on an endless tide of nostalgia. I Iike the idea of the F**k Mathew Street alternative - I don't really like or listen to punk music anymore, but I applaud their spirit.

You've never seen the cover to London Calling then?

One of my favourite songs from my favourite Dan album... Never tried to learn the bassline, but I reckon like most of their stuff it's all about the groove...I certainly wouldn't get too hung up on the specifics. I did learn most of Peg once as an exercise, made me realise what a great player Chuck Rainey was. Is there gas in the car? Yes there's gas in the car....