Chris2112

It's a good channel. I found it when I was looking for Jeff Berlin videos. There is a good Studio Jams clip of him playing Bill Bruford's 5G with some other guys. It's a great clip. I like the fact the channel leans towards jazz and fusion as it makes for an interesting listen. The fact you often see the players talking about the arrangement and how they're going to approach a song also provides interesting context.

Some of those estimates seem very low.

[quote name='Dazed' timestamp='1493057260' post='3285273'] Animal Logic anyone? Stuart Copeland, Stanley Clarke and Deborah Holland. Late 80s if I remember. Just well crafted pop. Well I liked it [/quote] Two albums and that was it. Deborah Holland didn't really dig the touring and performing aspects of the band.

Sounds good. Neil is a good lad and it sounds like an entertaining evening. I'd love to go.

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1493128298' post='3285851'] Have always wondered about people buying a house next to a known source of noise and then complaining. In 80's my local pub / venue sold off flats above the pub. Low and behold the people that bought one of them complained of the noise from the bands. Didn't help that one of the couple was in the police and knew his rights. No idea how they got around it or whether the couple just moved but al of a sudden it was ok again. Have to say if i would never buy a flat above any bar / pub / venue as there will always be noise during busy nights. Dave [/quote] I'd be surprised if this bloke was actually in the police. He might have worked for them but not been a police officer. They have very strict rules about residing on licensed premises, for whatever reason, it's just not allowed. A girl I know in the police wanted to move with her husband (a landlord himself) into a flat that was part of the title of the pub. It wasn't physically part of the pub, it was actually in a courtyard round the corner and was simply a small bedsit. No trade went on at all there and you'd never know it was part of the pub. She put in to live there, thinking it'd be okay as it wasn't physically connected to the pub. She was refused the move because it was on the deeds and rules is rules. That went for unafilliated flats that were above pubs too, but those rules wouldn't apply to police staff. Anyways... I find the culture of the NIMBY rather distasteful, particularly when someone is moving to an area and taking issue with the established landscape there. I can see why you might not want a football stadium being built next to your house and I wouldn't chastise a reasonable objection there, but to move to an area and start shutting things down is just insulting and moronic. I find the noise limits at UK racetracks to be complete nonsense. Barely a decatted car can get round without being flagged for noise now that they're no longer turning blind eyes to people lifting off past the noise sensors. TVR's driving round with slip-on silencers and motorbikes with bungs in the exhausts. It's stupid - my road bike has an exhaust so loud it wouldn't even pass a static noise test on a UK circuit, yet it's road legal, just about. I display a little consideration in my home village when I'm riding in or out, of course. The restrictions on the UK circuits are down to NIMBYs, many who moved in knowing their neighbour was a full time track.

A drummer really has to know 'Mr. Brightside' to avoid making an arse of it because it's such a well known tune. Everyone screams when the guitar plays the opening bars but it's driven by the drummer really working the hi-hat and snare. It needs to be played fast and clean. The drummer doesn't need to be Simon Phillips but he will need to know the parts well to keep the rest of the band in check. For a relatively simple song, it's not really one I'd want to wing.

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1493111031' post='3285609'] Some of their celebrity success stories are a bit iffy. Would be interesting to know how genuine some of the claims of celebrity alumni are. [/quote] What are their claims? That they secretly taught pro players a few tricks?

As mentioned, your reading will need to be absolutely spot on. Even moreso than if you thought if yourself as a reasonable session reader, as the MD will expect perfection at the first pass and for the audience to hear a flawless performance. The music will be dreadful and the audiences often far from discerning but you'll have to perform the parts well. It tends to be a gig given to known faces hence well regarded theatre bassists are often very busy despite not being household names. I believe the Basschat user OutToPlayJazz is active in that scene. Edit: I've just realised he hasn't logged in to the forum in five years!

Every player has their way of working something out. I find it to be a really great way of getting to know the fretboard by ear. I usually start with the root note. Find the first or second note in a line and work from there. I use my ear and listen for chord tonality, so I can check the nearby chord tones and then start working on any 'outside' notes once I've been through the obvious stuff. It's not much help for Mario stuff as it's written on keys, but a lot of bass stuff is played with the next note in easy reach of the last. I really think that singing a part can help you to make sense of it. Any tricky parts, just sing them back to yourself. This will quickly get you on track.

[quote name='Bass Culture' timestamp='1492954248' post='3284327'] If it was the blue one, Chris, I think I may have sold it to you. The bass above is a much more reasonable - lighter, in fact, than I thought it was going to turn out. I think Mike's down-sized his bodies a bit recently. [/quote] It was indeed. I can't remember what the body wood was, possibly maple. It was something heavy, certainly, but the lightweight neck probably made it feel heavier than it was. I didn't keep that bass all that long but I certainly wish I had kept it a bit longer.

Most likely to be an imbalance in the pickup height, does the pickup slant upward towards the E string?

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1493058308' post='3285288'] Totally agree, I've ended up having some epic chats with folk in strange car parks whilst exchanging bass gear. BassChat is full of some very cool people. Anyone toting local beers gets my vote [/quote] The lad I bought my old Zon Sonus from was into his old Escorts (the cars, not the Wayne Rooney kind). We spent ages gassing on in the car park at Wetherby services as he had turned up in a vinyl roofed Mk2 Escort. I was in a considerably newer, but still old (17 years at the time) MR2 Turbo.

I had a Zoot fretless years ago, had a graphite neck on it, which is what attracted me to it. I mostly remember that it had an unbelievably heavy body.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1492629863' post='3281862'] And what a massive disappointment that turned out to be. Some of the music was OK but Deborah Hollands lyrics were bloody terrible, some of the most banal garbage I've ever heard. It's a shame the project with Holdsworth never happened. [/quote] I've got both Animal Logic records, I got them when I was about 17-18 and listened to them loads as I was mad about Stanley Clarke. Both records have some great songs, and 'there's a spy' is an absolute favourite of mine. The first record is the stronger of the two but really, both records could be condensed into one, retaining the bangers and dropping the dross. I agree about some of Holland's lyrics, they really are dire in places. Overall, I liked the style of the band for the most part. Stanley and Stewart cut some great tracks. If only they had got Joni Mitchell onboard, imagine that!

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1492692690' post='3282396'] I have a Cort Rithimic 5-string and it's by far one of (if not [i]the[/i]) most playable basses I've ever owned. I only wish I'd discovered it sooner! [/quote] Yep, they do set up very nicely to play cleanly with a very low action. I suppose Cort knew that they'd have to meet that requirement for Jeff Berlin as I know he espouses the benefits of a straight neck with just a touch of relief and really taking the pressure off your hands and just letting the bass sing. I remember reading a post from someone on Talkbass who had tried his personal USA-made Dean bass out at a tradeshow and struggled to get a clean note out of it because of his technique. With my Rithimic, I can dig in and play hard if I want to without clanking or buzzing but I just don't need to do that because it responds so well to a lighter touch.

I used to be a soft-hearted fool. I thought then, and I still believe it to be the right thing to do, that we all cut each other a good deal here. For instance, I was over the moon to get a used bass on here for a very great price. I won't go into specifics as I don't want to name names etc. The price was a real bargain because someone needed some cash quickly to pay for another toy. I thought I'd got the deal of the century, so once I'd had my fun I decided to sell the bass on the boards for the same as I'd paid for it. I made one stipulation when selling, that is if the bass were to be sold via the boards again, share the good fortune of this great deal and honour the original asking price. I was rather disappointed to see my good nature was ignored, when it turned up for sale a short while later for about twice what I had sold it for. I didn't make this stipulation to preserve some misguided sense of friendship between basschatters, but I did consider that we all benefit from good prices amongst each other, something that would soon slide if everyone became a mercenary. I've never sold a bass or amp for a price that I wasn't happy with, but a few years ago when the forum was maybe a little smaller there was more a sense that we could all benefit from trading gear for good prices.

Low action and a light touch suits me. I'm fairly adaptable, and I'll make a go of playing any sort of setup but I have really found that a low action and light touch works well for me. My Cort Rithimic has the lowest, cleanest action I've ever played outside of my old Alembic Epic fretless. It is easygoing on the left hand but still offers the same, if not more dynamic control than a bass which has a high action. My right hand isn't working as hard to produce the same sounds as it did on basses with a higher action.

I wipe a cotton cloth over the strings when I'm done playing, and always wash my hands before touching the bass. That seems to ensure my strings last a reasonable amount of time. I don't bother with any other cleaning method, I just replace them when they're done.

I'm happy with an unlined board. My first and best fretless basses have all been unlined, and once your hand and ear are settled in you should have no problem. I'd probably be faster and a little more accurate with lines, but I don't profess to be a wizard anyway. The important thing is to keep practicing with music, so that you can hear when you're getting your notes in tune. Playing with a perfectly intonated instrument like a keyboard is the real test of how good you really are!

Wait, you actually want to do a Morris dance? Or as it was known, the Morisse Daunce?

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1492417966' post='3279990'] He's also played with Level 42 (probably Gary Husband's influence there...) on 1991's Guaranteed album. Played live with them the year before at their 15 night run at the Hammersmith Odeon (as it was then) which is where I first heard him. Big loss. RIP. [/quote] I always thought it was funny that he had been with Level 42 for a period. Top player. His solo on the outro of 'if you were mine' is just masterful. It has all some really 'Holdsworth' moves in it, which I loved. He really brought his musical personality wherever he went. His stuff with Berlin and Bruford was top too.

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1492333708' post='3279415'] I wonder if this will last longer than SMV? They managed a year from 2008 to 2009. [/quote] SMV was never meant to be a long term thing. Stanley announced to a magazine interviewer that they were going to do it, as before that they'd only kicked the idea around. But once Stan said it was happening, it was on. There was no real chance of it going further as all three of them have other commitments, especially Marcus, I would say. It's a bit like Jeff Berlin, Stuart Hamm and Billy Sheehan doing Bx3, just a bit of good luck with a calendar and a one off project of good, wholesome fun.

RIP Allan. Truly, a legend of nearly peerless talent. I always wondered how the quiet and unassuming man from Yorkshire developed the most alien, otherworldly music language. I love his music, but his sense of harmony is so wildly advanced I have often struggled to follow the musicality of it, and I'm a paid up fusion-head. He did alright for someone who never considered his playing to be as good as he wanted it, and didn't really want to play the guitar. I'd say his voice as a guitarist is the most identifiable out there. He was a magician.

I had a look on google for it, only found the Basschat adverts but it is a great looking instrument.

I always wondered why Rob moved from a full carbon fibre 'cricket bat' on the earlier Series II instruments to a bolt on effort on the S2. I know the neck on the S2 goes further down than the appearance suggests but I have always found that the Series II sounded a bit brighter and a bit more articulate. I can imagine the S2 setup was cheaper, but then isn't the flagship supposed to spare no expense? Or perhaps Rob consciously wanted to move away from the classic Series II tone somewhat?