Gamble

[quote name='3V17C' post='166742' date='Mar 31 2008, 08:44 AM']which was me!!! peace c[/quote] Aaaah... alright cheif! I still can't write a better bassline for Confort In Stereo than yours, damn you!

Yep.

I wish I'd gotten back onto this forum before last night now! Oh well, maybe next year.....

I never went to the Wapping shop, but the first few times I went to the Bass Centre on Brune St I was served by a Guy called James (I think) and he was a legend. That might have been 'cos I was keen on buying a Thumb bass and he was selling one himself through the shop, but because he was a nice guy and a good salesman I went £400 over buget and got the bass I wanted instead of settling for something I could afford. I bought a little Hartke practice amp from him too after that, but unfortunately he left the shop. After that I found out a guy who used to work in my local Academy Of Sound had got the job of manager at the Bass Centre, I guy called Deano. I went in and saw him a couple of times but he was mostly upstairs with the skinny stringers. The service and just plain friendliness of the staff in general seemed to have dropped. I tried out a few pretty pricey basses one day and the guy downstairs just didn't seem to be taking me seriously if he was taking an interest at all. I do tend to try out basses that my skill level doesn't warrant, but they shouldn't assume that I wouldn't buy them all the same. Shame, but like others have already said, the variety of stock they were carrying seemed to be diminishing as well as the service. The Bass Gallery has always had amazing stock, but I've never quite felt comfortable in there. That's not to say that I've been made to feel UN-comfortable by any means though, maybe it's that thing I mentioned before about my playing not being "all that" just lurking at the back of my mind and feeling slightly out of my depth in there. The fact that it's TINY in there makes me feel a bit on display whenever I've tried stuff out too, but I think that's probably in my head. I just get a bit self concious when I know I'm around other bass players I guess! What about the shop half way down Denmark St? The one next door to a guitar shop that's fronted with the same colours. They've always seemed alright in there to me, anyone else got any experience with them? Is that place even still there? A friend of mine has recently moved back to Essex so I'm hoping to make a trip to see him and visit the Bass Merchants too, I don't really have anything in mind that I want, but I do enjoy a good days bass shopping! Can't get that online, which I think has been most people's point on this thread so far. I'll stop rambling now. Cheers!

Dude, I forgot about Dirk Lance! Another big influence on me too!

Sikth have 2 albums as far as I know, and you'll be wanting both of them! They are called: The Trees Are Dead And Dried Out, Wait For Something Wild Death Of A Dead Day ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As far as Primus goes, I'd say check out: Frizzle Fry Antipop There's a couple of songs worth giving a go on The Brown Album too, and I think I should probably reccoment Pork Soda too but I can't remember all the songs on it at the moment 'cos I've lent my copy out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mudvayne albums are all pretty good, LD:50 The End Of All Things To Come Lost And Found are the ones I've got, like I said they get a bit less "tech" each time but the songs are still good. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pretty much the same with Alien Ant Farm too, I don't have their latest album and I think they have an earlier one I don't have too, but I wouldn't want to choose between: ANThology and TruANT They're both just good "rock" albums to me. Maybe they're not groundbreaking enough for some people, but the drummer's great as well as the bass playing and they do mix in some unlikely styles - like SAMBA! I think they pull it off but I guess you can all make your own minds up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out my bands too, I might as well plug them while I'm here! I'm not the best or most outlandish bass player, but I think our songs are pretty good. www.myspace.com/draglineband <-- that's the heavy/proggy band www.myspace.com/thestanton <-- that's the more up-for-it rock band Please let me know what you think! No Harm Done and The River (Arch Stanton) were recorded with their last bass player, but they're still in our set. I'll have a think about other bands you might find interesting Mr Faithless, but I think I've covered all the bands I'd make a big deal of. Cheers!

I've never listened to a Dream Theatre album, but I really quite enjoyed them at Download last year. I was worried before they came on as I'd only caught a snippet of them on dvd at a mates house and they went from rock/metal to what sounded like fairground carousel music in the blink of an eye - thus strengthening the show-off over songwriting image in my head. I watched them with the same friend who tells me that they picked a fairly straight-forward rock/metal set so maybe that's why I didn't have to kill myself. Les Claypool is one of my favorite bass players, probably the most inspiring in my list. I got into Primus through the more comedy and unusual stuff like Jerry Was A Race Car Driver, DMV and Wynona's Big Brown Beaver (the first 2 for the innovative playing and the latter for the lyrical genius!!) and I'm still not quite sold on some of the more sombre stuff (or alot of Seas Of Cheese even though it's meant to be their classic), but they're more a prog band than metal. Les' solo albums are good too, although I preferred Purple Onion to Whales And Woe they've both got some great tracks on them with grooves and interesting bass lines. Ryan Martini from Mudvayne is a good example of complex bass playing in heavy music, but again it tends to be techy/proggy metal. The albums seem to get more straight laced as they release them which I quite like, I like to think maybe they got bored of showing off and wanted to get back to writing songs with grooves as opposed to getting pushed in a direction by labels/the industry. Tye Zamora is a great bass player with restraint in my eyes, only playing what's needed even though he could go absolutely ape - it would spoil the songs. I think he plays plenty when the song is improved by it, but then just chugs it out when that's called for too. He's from Alien Ant Farm incase anyone didn't know. Lastly - SIKTH. Dear god CHECK THEM OUT if you haven't already. It's the craziest metal mixed with jazz mixed with god knows what and even though it's tech as hell they manage to keep a groove going through it. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about them - and now they've split. Arses. But our very own Dood is playing with one of their guitarists (if not more of them) so there should be more good things to come. That reminds me, promise me you'll keep the grooves DoooOOOD!!!