4 Strings

Bye Jim, you've left a fantastic legacy, indeed changed many aspects of the world. Talent only goes so far with a good heart.

[quote name='REDLAWMAN' timestamp='1333617765' post='1604209'] I'd no sooner buy a second-hand valve amp' than a second-hand pair of underpants..... [/quote] Wow. I would. Have. Why not, is it like a gold nibbed fountain pen which wears to the writing angle of the original owner maing it scratchy for subsequent users?

This is all a little odd as the (kind of) general consensus appears to be that its the responsibility of the whole band, not the drummer, to keep time and so will be in agreement with the Bill Bruford view. Not the response I expected. For jazzers, I can see this. My sax player (thoroughly jazz, all other music is worthlessly shallow - but much better paid hence his compromise) talks about the pocket of the beat, where the bass may be slightly ahead of the drummer (or vice versa) leaving a pocket which allows variance for the other instruments to be flexible and interpret. In pop/rock/funk etc, which has been my own experience, precise synchronisation between bass and drums has been the sign of a good rhythm section. I'm always watching and listening to the drummer (focussing on the movement of the kick drum skin or pedal if I can't hear things properly) to be accurate with him, even if he's varying from a rigid tempo. If this isn't tight together it sounds sloppy. I can do this but, frankly, I'm not good enough to intentionally create a 'pocket' for more than a couple of bars. I have been playing with a conductor in an orchestra that includes a drumkit. Perhaps its lazy but while the conductor has been the prime focus for tempo its been the drummer I've been co-ordinating with to get that tight sound and so relying on him t be watching the conductor, me only paying attention for rits etc. Test recordings show the string section to be consistently slightly behind the beat giving a rather relaxing, lolloping(?) effect the conductor liked. Where should I play? So much to learn.

[quote name='Ben Jamin' timestamp='1333486265' post='1602514'] Saw [url="http://www.matamp.co.uk/bass-500/"]this[/url] on the new Matamp site today [/quote] Been in quite a bit of contact with them about this, they just seem to be struggling to put in the time to sort out niggles, for example the fan power supply. I was asked to contact them at the end of this month for more news. They may make a demo unit which may be tried for a week before placing an order (for those like myself a long way from Huddersfield). Apparently its a clean, warm sound - perfect for the predominantly Motown and soul music of current bands. No longer holding my breath, I need a little amp quick so I've bought a Harley Benton for hardly anything (yet to arrive) as the development at Matamp may trickle on for longer. I'm still interested (unless the HB is a wonder!) but I can be less impatient lugging my heavy amps around.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1333454141' post='1601837'] After getting my nice new Squier CV P i couldn't wait to show the band. when i got the gig i opened the gig bag to find my CV Jazz....in pieces. I had put the stock pups back in a week or so before, but hadn't wired them in as i wasn't going to keep them in there. For some reason i had put that bass back in my usual gig bag rather than the spare. I also only had a strap with strap locks and no pins in the bass so i ended up fixing the pups with gaffa tape, wired them in with gaffa tape and used nails to hold the strap on. [/quote] Great never-say-die attitude!

This is a spillover from the 'Depressing things your band members say' thread regarding comments made by poorly timed drummers. Some drummers speed up when it comes to fills or other exciting parts of a song. In my experience, if he speeds up the whole band does. The drummer I play with most often sometimes complains that that the band has sped up, I always reply that we can't if he doesn't. He always replies that we'd be out of time if he didn't. I always reply that we play to his speed. Same conversation, more than lots of times but reducing in frequency. He is also very good at mouthing a count at me if he thinks I'm drifting, I hate this but glad of it. Should the drummer be setting and maintaining the tempo? He's the one who counts us in (unless its dinner jazz in which case its the singer or, bizarrely, me!) Ours carries a metronome so we can practice at the right tempo. Bill Bruford's a jazzer and he thinks this way - look about halfway down; http://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/Interview_with_King_Crimson_in_Musician Is the drummer the timing machine (as I think) or is it our collective responsibility?

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1332932535' post='1594981'] I arrived at my first gig with the band to find they had set up everything on the stage. PA mixer, PA amp, monitor amp, PA speakers, guitar rack for 7 guitars with 4 guitars in it. Leaving no room for us to move. Me: we need to move all this stuff off the stage into the wings, people have come to see us play and we've got no room to move about. Guitarist1: But then no one will be able to see how much gear we have. [/quote] Saw something similar with one of my lad's bands a year or so ago, one of the other bands turned up with a van full of 4x12s and goodness know what else c/w, I kid you not, a rack of 5 basses (none of them on my list!). They had some work to do playing-wise.

[quote name='Alec 'Aleb' Mills' timestamp='1332889503' post='1594621'] Ah I suppose thats partially true. I mean in traditional swing/jazz, its really the bass player that should be keeping time with the walking bassline and the drums mking the piece more interesting - not that professionals should need any help to keep time [/quote] This is too interesting to stop here, but this is not the place, I'll start a thread.

The real world for me needs one person keeping time, be it the drummer or a conductor, left to just me we'd be going too fast at the end. Interesting discussion could be had, but getting back to the subject... ...much work left to the last rehearsal before we provide backing for 150 kids in a youth choir and what you don't want to hear is a last minute call from the drummer who has strained his arm and shoulder at work and can't move anything. Of course we all want him to get better, but can't help but think that it had better be by Saturday!

Sounds glib but too busy playing. Every night except Friday this week. Would really love to get out and see other members play. Gigging>rehearsal>watching>home practice>sleeping

Bill Bruford had other ideas; [i]"Drummers used to keep the time. Remember that idea? And it was held that other musicians -couldn't- keep time, so they employed this guy called a drummer to do it for them. This is all a farce, of course, and we have to assume by now that Robert Fripp can keep time. And if he can't, well, that's tough. But timekeeping is also something we need for the audience. The machine can handle it, leaving me free to stand and play a vertical rack setup of Simmons SDS 7s, embroidering the top. "Look, when you play a note, and I play a note, I quite like both of them. But music really occurs in the distance between the two. It's the minute human differences that make the music for me, and these are increasingly known as errors. Take the history of the rattle; a good kalimba player will leave the rattles on his instrument. Rattles are essential flack around the sound. But in the West we spend thousands of dollars getting rid of every conceivable harmonic distortion, and then of course spend thousands of dollars putting it all back in again. At some point I put up my hand and say I can't hear any music here anymore, just binary code going past. In this oscilloscope mentality, music is supposed to abide by some mechanized rhythmic formula. Rhythm has never really been like that. Rhythm, to me, is about Tony Williams coming and going like the breeze, like a storm, rather than the thing that military bands went to war with. Which is called beat. Rhythm is pulse, as opposed to beat." [/i] I speed up.

HiWatt clone? looks like the internals are totally different.

[quote name='untune' timestamp='1332509719' post='1589359'] I was playing Alan Wake (a game before I confuse anyone) the other night and when I finished it, Bowie's Space Oddity played over the end credits. Heard it countless times before, but at the time I had headphones on and realised I'd never really paid the bass much attention. What a tone! Herbie Flowers I believe? Seem to remember mention of a fretless jazz... Isolated here but it sits so nicely in the mix, sounds different again [/quote] Fretless, flats, compression, add an octaver and it'll be Sledghammer! You're right, never listened to the bass before, much more complex than I'd expect.

Do they not? Aren't the mechanism that produce and 'pickup' sound mounted on frames etc. What would be more prominent in the sound of a Hammond, the wood casing of the organ or the Leslie? Would the wood of the bass cab casing an effect on the sound, perhaps more than that of the wood supporting the pickup on the bass? Do the materials chosen in our cabs have a more pronounced contribution to our sound than the batch of wood from the world market that was used for our Fender? Do we unwittingly rely on people like Alex Claber much more than we think we rely on Leo Fender for our sound?

This is what Dads are for! Celebrate by buying him a pint when you can. Great its worked out, if you need more power you can tap in another cab.

That'll be great, thanks, I'm really waiting hard here!

How's the hybrid coming along? Seem to be still having niggles with the micro amp.

Difficult to muck up the sound with flats. I have recorded only one song with no eq on the bass at all, plugged straight in and nothing on the recording. A P with flats (Trubass), sounded great straight from the jack.

For an acoustic instrument this may be true. I wonder if the plastic casing on a Fender Rhodes has any effect. Or the mahogany case for a Hammond.