LawrenceH

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1249655' date='May 29 2011, 09:07 PM']I respect your opinion, Your wrong but I respect it still [/quote] fair enough! When I somehow win that lottery thing I never bother entering, I'll self-indulgently set up my own review site to test gear and see if I can do a better job...(shouldn't be hard ) In the interestes of fairness I'll demo each one fingerstyle and slap. Pick players can go fly kites though.

Bear in mind the pickup positions on the Yamaha BBs aren't the same as on Fender PJs, you will get an inherent difference in tone switching to a Fender. I assume the RBX has the same spacings as the BBs?

[quote name='Doddy' post='1249795' date='May 29 2011, 11:34 PM']I'm not saying that all basses sound the same with a particular player,but that a player has a certain sound that they bring out of an instrument. Like I said about the two Claypool videos,the Carl Thompson was slightly more midrange-y that the Rickenbacker,but there was still a similarity in the sound that was produced that was uniquely Claypool.[/quote] Fair enough, although the difference to me between the two basses is not slight. But I wouldn't call the sound 'unique'. I do think a player with versatile and competent technique can usually emulate the portion of the sound a particular player brings fairly convincingly. I can't play like Claypool (and don't want to either, not really a fan), but I can string a couple of notes together using a touch like his on the right part of the bass that'd sound pretty damn similar, and I'm quite rubbish in the grand scheme of things. A studio mix can mask the differences between different basses with a mix of compression and EQ, but a raw jazz bass sounds like a jazz bass etc. My old Ibby SR500 was so far away from where I wanted to be tonally that I'd break my fingers raw trying to get there, and still fail. With my jazzes, it's effortless.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1249779' date='May 29 2011, 11:14 PM']But I will disagree about how I'm listening to the music. While the playing is recognisably Claypool,so is the sound he produces,regardless of the instrument. No matter what bass he is playing,he has a recognisable sound as well as style. There is no way I could listen to anything he has done and say 'Oh yeah,that's a (whatever) bass',but I can recognise his sound a mile off.[/quote] Doddy, I don't really understand where you're coming from now. Are you honestly saying you think all basses sound the same with a given player? And/or that if you heard a set of single notes, each distinct in isolation rather than a continuous riff, that you'd actually recognise they were all played by Les Claypool?! Surely this is just a matter of what you're calling 'tone'.

[quote name='TimR' post='1249479' date='May 29 2011, 06:12 PM']"They couldn't afford us." Walks away smugly. [/quote] "Ah, we charge extra for no mistakes, too" Smug balance restored

Tecamp's 112 combo secondhand, if you can find one, probably fits the bill pretty well. It's a clean combo and compact as well.

[quote name='TimR' post='1249355' date='May 29 2011, 04:18 PM']That's the kind of sound engineer I like. It means he's comfortable that he's got a signal and will sort out what it sounds like when the rest of the band are playing. Nothing worse than playing solo for 10minutes while he works out which buttons to press and knobs to turn.[/quote] +1 - I'd always line check bass in isolation and as long as there were no major problems, get the rest sorted in a full band mix. You just can't do it sensibly in isolation unless you know the band's sound in advance, really well.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1249319' date='May 29 2011, 03:51 PM']This is how The Who were introduced to Moon.[/quote] And if I were Mitch Mitchell and it'd been my kit he smashed the s*** out of, then I'd have found it quite annoying!

'Wow that guitarist you've got is effing brilliant' ...after said guitarist has royally f*****d up the rest of the band the entire night with their sloppy rhythm playing, lack of structure/harmonic awareness and not listening to what anyone else is doing, only concentrating properly on their over-indulgent loud rock solos. In a funk band.

I'll often have a shandy as a 'loosener' but avoid anything more until the end. Biologically, the first drink (temporarily) actually acts as a gentle stimulant which is ok but after a while the depressant effects irrevocably take over. I hate playing with crap drunken bandmates and I'd hate being that crap drunken bandmate. That first shandy often helps though! Lime sodas all the way after that, nicest non-alcoholic drink in the pub and about the cheapest that isn't water.

If you've got the means, clamping the necks over a period of days into a slight forward bow is probably your best bet

I'm perhaps the only person on the whole bass-playing internet who finds Ed Friedland's reviews utterly tedious, I don't know why but when he speaks it's like it's a different (and very boring) language. I also don't find his soundclips very helpful - the ones I've managed to sit through sound so coloured by room, mic, recording quality etc that I just can't get a frame of reference to usefully assess what I hear. I know it's off topic and no-one else will agree but saying that feels cathartic! You can all ridicule me now. Anyway, Stevie's mu-tronned clavinet beasts Flea's 80s slap any day of the week.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1248194' date='May 28 2011, 01:07 PM']I think that more important than the 10,000 hour 'rule' is what you practice. If you spend 3-4 hours a day playing riffs and lines that you can already play and enjoy,you won't benefit as much as someone who studies new material for an hour. As far as the 'natural' talent thing is concerned,you still have to work at it.All these people that are call 'a natural' at what they do have usually spent a lot of time working on it but all you ever see is the end result-you don't see the hours and hours spent practising.[/quote] + many. The practice HAS to be meaningful, targeted, or the hours are wasted. That's why I'm so bloody crap

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1233253' date='May 16 2011, 04:35 PM']I find myself repeatedly drawn to freer forms of jazz but I almost always leave disappointed and confused. Must try harder [/quote] Maybe most of it's just not that good...(runs and hides)

I don't see a problem with slap bass not incorporating complex harmonic exploration - that's not what funk's about! That's JAZZ-funk. 'Jazz's deformed cousin' in the words of Vince Noir. Complex harmonic exploration never got anyone's booty shaking, ever. Love that Bootsy vid, not seen that one before!

Something largely overlooked is slap being unusual in that it's more straightforward to play something in that style that sounds 'complete' on its own. A lot of bass lines need rhymthic and/or melodic context to appreciate them, whereas slap incorporates more of the role of the drums and you often get a kind of counterpoint between low and high within a single part. So a solo video makes more sense. Mind you, the best slap parts are IMO those where rhythmic context in relation to the rest of the band is everything, which is why I can't see the point in slap with metal.

I feel uneasy playing for free in commercial venues, unless it's a jam night where the organisers get a cut. It feels like I'm stealing someone's job, I wouldn't like it if a load of volunteers came into my lab and took over my projects! It just becomes something that only a wealthy elite can afford to do, like many internships. I'm not convinced that pub chains constitute the most worthy charities...

[shameless plug] I'm selling a J-Retro 01 that I got in a trade and never got round to fitting if anyone's interested [/shameless plug] I must say I've never tried them myself, but I love the tone of other people's basses fitted with DiMarzios! When funds allow my 75RI is getting Model Js.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1241063' date='May 23 2011, 12:46 AM']Hate to even think about being so 'pro gaga' but Madonna doesn't stand a chance in the talent contest. Have you seen Gaga play piano and sing in different styles?! It's quite amazing for a popular artist to A) look so normal as in girl next door and B )be able to write, sing so well and play instruments with that much talent. I didn't think much of her until I started to hear about her past and her musicianship.[/quote] Honestly?! Her voice to me is incredibly average, and I can't tell the difference between her songs and a load of 90s europop that we used to laugh at for the cheesy production values. I don't know about musical talent, perhaps she has it in bucketloads, but I can't say it's evident in her hits. Excellent at marketing though and evidently she's got something right with those songs, I just don't see why it works for her but those 90s euro gay club divas failed to crossover in the same way. Oh, back on topic, the Roots is a great call!

Doddy's line up is very hard to beat for sheer musical awesomeness. Especially Hiromi on piano, she's a phenomenon! But for a more soul/funk line-up I'd go for: Drums - Akira Jimbo, the man is hilarious and brilliant. (Rhythm) Guitar - Prince. Horns - gotta be Maceo, Fred and (I guess for lack of anyone else springing to mind) Randy Brecker Clavinet, Synth, Vox - Stevie Wonder Rhodes, Vox - D'Angelo All fronted by Sharon Jones My only concern is age as ideally I'd like it all to be choreographed by whoever did MJ's best stuff. And I want a Bill and Ted-style 16 months of intensive bass and dance training so I don't end up looking like a total embarrassment.

[quote name='Sparky' post='1244976' date='May 25 2011, 11:14 PM']I've got a MIJ '62RI from 1996. I love it. Apart from a good setup, the one thing i'd like to get sorted on it is the E tuner... there's movement between turning the peg and it ratcheting. Make sense? Means whenever i tune the E string I have to tune to below the note to tune back up - to make sure it doesn't slip. Do you know where to go for an exact replacement? I don't want to have to drill any new holes and I've no idea where to start. What do you reckon Bubinga? Cheers, Sparky.[/quote] Sparky, have you tried just tightening up the tuner with a screwdriver when it's not under tension? Normally sorts this problem out. Bubinga5 that is a sweet bass, I have a battered old MIJ 62RI from the 80s and it is just lovely in every way despite the gouges(!). My 90s 75RI though, the pickups are definitely a bit of a weak spot and replacing them gave the bass new life.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1243515' date='May 24 2011, 09:39 PM']I and others have said many times, reading and understanding theory are not hard and can be enormously empowering. Noone is being elitist about it. Anyone near me wants a hand with either aspect of their craft, get in touch and I'll get you going in the right direction.[/quote] That's a great offer. But I wouldn't say music theory as an academic discipline isn't hard. I guess it depends how far you take it, if we're talking the basics of formal harmony that's fine but look at the myriad alternative analyses of something like Giant Steps - at that level it turns into a philosophical debate about harmonic perception and it's not easy going at all! Out of interest, how do dyslexics cope with reading music generally? My wife, who is dyslexic, really struggled with it despite not being in the least bit work-shy. If it's the same as the written word she would never be able to do it to a level where she could sight-read fluently. I know I must seem way out on a tangent in this debate, but I think if we're generalising it's an important one and an interesting one too. In my family we are very uneven, some of us very highly academic and others with various degrees of learning difficulties. It's fascinating to me just how differently we approach understanding something like music, and I have an obvious interest in understanding the science of learning itself. It frustrates me then when people make general pronouncements about these kind of things without a full appreciation of the process of learning in different individuals. An expert teacher is not the same thing as an expert practitioner. Maybe I'm the only person here who finds the neurological/conceptual questions of how we learn music, the common elements and the specific differences between individuals, interesting. In which case I'd better shut up I guess!