LawrenceH

[quote name='thodrik' post='1253306' date='Jun 1 2011, 11:07 PM']I'm not dismissing the merits of Queen, Led Zep, Deep Purple and in all honesty prefer them to many of the bands I listed. I just find that the BBC take a very narrow view when it comes to 'rock' music documentaries. Most of them are great admittedly, but usually we've seen most of the stories and talking heads before. I just think that as a public service broadcaster BBC should be providing a bit more.[/quote] I think Queen's fan base on a global scale is a lot broader than something like the Smiths - in fact pretty much all those bands listed. But a lot of them have been the subject of features or similar on 6 Music. Blur are an interesting one, their sound evolved an awful lot from mediocre indie beginnings. Queen were far better all-round musical performers than most of the others though IMO, the fact they did pop is neither here nor there (I don't remember who made the Abba comparison but Queen were far more versatile with more complex song structures).

I love a bit of tape saturation on bass, even just from crappy cassette it is incredibly effective.

[quote name='bigbottomend' post='1251885' date='May 31 2011, 06:51 PM']Each to their own and is it just me because personally i think these sound awful.[/quote] Me too, but perhaps it's better if you swap out the valves like HJ suggests? There's valve warmth and then there's valve burnt-out black lifeless husk.

[quote name='Beedster' post='1251706' date='May 31 2011, 04:15 PM']A decent set of machines is a surprisingly effective upgrade.[/quote] You find a tonal difference then? I must say the bridge upgrade is probably worth it to some, not others. It makes a difference to sound, but whether that's good or bad depends what you're after! I'd always go pickups first.

Really enjoying watching these on iplayer, thanks for the heads up bassace. A shame John Deacon is quite so reclusive, I'd love to hear him talk about his approach to bass playing. But I suppose the documentary was more about the biog than the music anyway! I wonder if he ever plays for fun these days, I can't imagine walking away from it so completely.

[quote name='seb' post='1251011' date='May 31 2011, 01:18 AM']yeah, same as in the picture...so if it is like that i just need to buy a strap button and thats it>[/quote] Fitting a regular strap button instead of this will involve unscrewing this one, taking it out, then filling the hole with toothpicks and woodglue or (better) a piece of dowel. If you want to keep the locking strap you need the right kind of button for whatever make it is - Dunlop make them, maybe Schaller as well?

Really hard to tell from that picture but looks like you might have actual strap locks rather than regular strap buttons. Some of them are recessed into the body like this [url="http://www3.alembic.com/img/uni_lock.jpg"]http://www3.alembic.com/img/uni_lock.jpg[/url] If so you need to know what make it is to get the appropriate bit for the strap which then locks into the hole, or replace with regular strap buttons. If not, then ignore my post! PS this should really go into the 'repairs and technical issues' forum

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1250032' date='May 30 2011, 11:01 AM']The thing is that you will never be able to convey correctly what any bass sounds like over YouTube. For 1 YouTube compress videos terribly, another thing is that you will either be listening to the bid through tiny cheap monitors or your headphones. You can only really get a sense of bass sound when next to a full ranged cab. I like ed friedland but I don't like how he will always boost mids and bass(if he can) which to me just chokes the sound. At the end of the day you should base your opinions on a bass on some douche on YouTube, you will only know what a bass is like when it's in your own hands.[/quote] True enough about youtube compression, but there are some videos on there that get a lot closer. I listen on decent headphones, which are the same as the ones I practice with at home, so I know how they translate to a rig pretty well. Plus I like the bass tone on a lot of recordings, which I always listen to via 'phones or hifi speakers, my aim is always for my rig to sound like that but 'bigger'! But if he boosts the bass routinely that explains a lot, that'll eat up most of the headroom on the video. I can't see the sense in demoing a bass through anything other than a completely flat, clean DI (maybe a very transparent compressor if converting to a lossy format).

[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!