JellyKnees

I don't generally like heavy rock/metal, especially all that dire 80's NWOBHM stuff, but I do like abit of zepplin now and then... Houses of the Holy is probably my favourite album. Early Sabbath stuff has a certain brutal charm and starkness, but it's a bit too gloomy for me...

I'm slightly too young to properly remember the 70's, but my first decent bass amp in the early 80s was a marshall valve bass head ... I can't remember how many watts it was, it might have only been 50, but it certainly wasn't very loud so I ended up part ex'ing it for a Peavy TNT130, which was a big step forward at the time. The Marshall did have a good rock sound though... I wish I'd kept it in a way as it was in really good nick and would no doubt be worth a few quid now. I remember seeing a lot of old Selmer, Wem and HH stuff around back then...I did know one guy who had a Wal and and Orange Amp/Cab setup, but I think that kind of gear was quite rare in those days.

Technical proficiency aside, Entwistle wrote some fine basslines and his sound was an essential part of the Who's sound. Likewise Geddy Lee. To me, being a good player is all about playing well within the context of the music... some musicians are one great in a particular genre, but put them somewhere else and they fail miserably. Ultimately a futile discussion.

Ah the 80s...it all started so promisingly and ended up with Deacon Blue...never mind. One of my faves from the mid 80's... if you can get past the syn drums, it still sounds great to my ears. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu0LL-M5gxM&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL094ABECF15457526[/media]

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1330621679' post='1560596'] Unfortunately, I know a guy who still can't play it in time and he's been playing for 10 years... He also plays the intro to 'White Room' in 4/4. It's like he's stuck in it! [/quote] Sounds like he needs to get a new hobby...

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1330620614' post='1560555'] Yeah, Stranglers is a good shout. I considered Money by Floyd, but felt 7/8 is probably not the kindest of things to introduce a total beginner to! [/quote] Just don't tell 'em! I could play it long before I knew what 7/8 was... Another idea, how about Guns of Brixton?

I was going to suggest something from the Stranglers early period, but Bilbo beat me to it with Peaches..the 'kids' might even recognise it from Sexy Beast. How about Money by Floyd? or Word Up by Cameo?

I've recently started using EZ Drummer in Cubase 5 after years of creating drum tracks with a combination of loops, battery and various other bits and pieces, and I think it's the business. I've not tried much 'from scratch' programming with it, I would imagine this could be quite tricky to do convincingly, rather I have tended to use the existing grooves as a starting point and then cut them up, edited them, change the sounds around etc. to create what I'm after. Not got any completed songs as yet, but am finding it a very useful addition to my system.

I saw Jeff with this band in Manchester the same year I think, and it was utterly fantastic. He is one of the best musicians I've ever heard - having great text book 'technique' is soooo over-rated in my book - what's important are the ideas and the feel (irrespective of how how you achieve them), not how many notes you can cram in to a few bars...

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1327510203' post='1512617'] Even the between song banter is the same each night and is scripted and rehearsed. Ad-libbing simply leaves too much room for things to go wrong. [/quote] God that's depressing.

We did a gig last year in a medium sized club venues with a metal band whose guitarist had 2 4x12 cabs stacked up...it was completely ridiculous. The sound guy tried in vain to get him to turn it down so he could mix it properly through the pa but t'was in vain... A decent 2 x 12 combo has always been more than adequate for most of the guitarists I've ever played with. Our current guitarist occasionally uses his mesa combo which has a single 12...it sounds great but it's too directional... I much prefer it when he uses his fender twin...it just seems to spread the sound better.

Some of my band's stuff... [url="http://soundcloud.com/handsetbongo"]http://soundcloud.com/handsetbongo[/url]

I think it depends entirely on the genre and style of what you are trying to write. If you are writing 'traditional' songs in the singer-songwriter mode, which have a formal harmonic structure i.e. songs that stick closely to the 'rules' (whatever they are....), then possibly no. If however you are writing music that is more riff or groove based, or you are doing something a bit more off the wall then most definitely yes... I write or co-write roughly 50% of our bands stuff and most of my ideas have developed out of bass grooves. I tend to jam along to drums loops and then record any ideas that I like. I then re-visit these and pick out the ones that I think have potential, and import them into Cubase. Sometimes I'll try and find some guitar chords that work with the bassline, sometimes I might just add some riffs or some syth ideas or some samples or whatever, and then I'll give the idea to our piano player/singer to see if she can come up with anything. She might add some chords, or just a vocal, sometimes she has an idea for another part and the song will go off in another direction... My advice is be creative and flexible in your approach...just try stuff out. There is no formula for writing, everyone has there own way of doing things. Most of all, have fun doing it!

Hello from Birkenhead ...or Brokenhead, Jerkinbed etc etc.....

[quote name='PJPofStHelens' timestamp='1200566129' post='122023'] Hello,Could you recommend a Luthier/Guitar Tech in the Merseyside area? Anyone? [/quote] I'd recommend KGB, but then I would as I have one of his hand-made basses... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/134889-my-basses/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/134889-my-basses/page__fromsearch__1[/url]

Pocket cup [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTiXtnlhZYU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTiXtnlhZYU[/url]

Indeed... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-f0P7-fxUQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-f0P7-fxUQ[/url]

Finding a good drummer is like trying to find a thin lass with no kids in Birkenhead.... We use pre-recorded loops, samples etc which circumvents the problem, but it does somehow miss that live feel... We ARE currently trying to find a good drummer, so i guess that proves that it's not the ideal solution. Still, I'd rather use pre-recorded drums than have a horribly out of time real drummer. I think part of the problem for me is being so use to recording with a perfectly in-time track, that I find it very hard to play with someone whose timing is not very good...

Yup, I do it all for our band ...it's a complete pain in the arse. Most promoters (or should i say wannabe promoters) are a complete waste of space. Fine, if you don't like our music or don't think we fit in with the night/venue/clientele just bloody say so, don't completely ignore my emails/facebook messages you ignorant gits!

I've tried most of the grounds out there on my fretless and have finally come back to the Rotosound solo bass as i find they have the best overall balance between tone, feel and tension. Ths D'addarios have a great sound but are just too tight for me, also they're pretty expensive. The Elites are too dull sounding, basically you might as well use flatwounds. The status ones were ok, but lacked a bit of oomph. The Rotosound are priced somewhere between the status and the D'addarios and work very well for me...

I need a funk shake right now, preferably with a Bailey's chaser from a shoe...

A frequent occurance at rehearsals... Me - 'Shall we play song xyz?' Guitarist (who has been playing with us for 2 and 1/2 years now and has played said song [i]hundreds[/i] of times) - blank look, mental cogs whirring, I [i]know[/i] he doesn't know what song I'm talking about... Me - 'This one...' play a few bars of the bassline, look of exasperation passes between me and singer/pianist....we only have about 20 songs in total ffs! Guitarist - 'Oh right, yeah' Actually he's a nice bloke and good guitarist, and he always seems to get it right for gigs....it still drives me nuts sometimes though...

[quote] Live music was also killed off by the introduction of the 'disco' which, let's face it, is just a bloke playing records. [/quote] You can blame the late Sir Jimmy Saville for that apparently...although that could just be him self-mythologising. Now then, now then, jewellery, jewellery etc

Cool, will check this out later at home. Hugh's solo album Nosferatu is one of the first records I ever bought and remains one of my favourites - the production still sounds fantastic today and there are some great dark twisted off-the-wall tunes on it. I heard Hooverdam fairly recently and it's pretty cool too - certainly more interesting than anything the stranglers seem to have done since Hugh left them.

[b] [size=4]Do you think that "Real" Musicians era is going to end ?[/size][/b] [size=4]Not when the oil runs out...[/size] [size=4]Joking aside, I'm in two minds about this...I love watching great musicians play, but I think ultimately it's the ideas that count more than the execution. Watching a bunch of music school clones playing covers as an excuse to showing off their chops is pretty dull. I'd rather see a bunch of less skilled players do something interesting and original. And Jo public doesn't care a jot whether the music on his latest download was played or programmed. [/size] [size=4]But I'm not a 'professional bass player', so what do i know.... [/size]