Tried listening to The Stranglers today....

[Si600]

They want me to sing now, the fools. I can only just play most of the notes in mostly the right order, I can't remember the words as well.

 

 

Hanging Around is a bugger to play consistently, I keep missing the octave.

 

Sample set list for your edification:

1.    Mach Dich Lieber Anders Tot 
2.    Sometimes 
3.    Princess
4.    Hanging Around 
5.    Better Change 
6.    Golden Brown 
7.    No More Heroes 
8.    Duchess
9.    London Lady
10.    Get A Grip
11.    Goodbye Toulouse 

12.    Nice 'n' Sleazy 
13.    Peaches 
14.    Ugly
15.    Walk On By 
16.    We Are The Firef***er

Edited Thursday at 22:41 by Si600

[Geek99]

On 26/02/2025 at 21:49, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Exactly, some people will debate that for days, but who wants to talk about adjustin a parametric mid control that has a vastly greater impact...?

Or does it ? 🍿

[Velarian]

9 hours ago, Si600 said:

They want me to sing now, the fools. I can only just play most of the notes in mostly the right order, I can't remember the words as well.

 

 

Hanging Around is a bugger to play consistently, I keep missing the octave.

 

Sample set list for your edification:

1.    Mach Dich Lieber Anders Tot 
2.    Sometimes 
3.    Princess
4.    Hanging Around 
5.    Better Change 
6.    Golden Brown 
7.    No More Heroes 
8.    Duchess
9.    London Lady
10.    Get A Grip
11.    Goodbye Toulouse 

12.    Nice 'n' Sleazy 
13.    Peaches 
14.    Ugly
15.    Walk On By 
16.    We Are The Firef***er

That’s a great selection of Stranglers classics there. Well done for learning them so quickly. 

[Si600]

1 hour ago, Velarian said:

That’s a great selection of Stranglers classics there. Well done for learning them so quickly. 

Ha!  I'm only up to No. 7 😉  It's been a lot of fun though to do so far.

Edited Friday at 09:46 by Si600

[Baloney Balderdash]

I am partial to this live recording, just amazing raw P Bass tone!:

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 25/02/2025 at 16:25, Lozz196 said:

Given JJs pretty famous sound I’m surprised he hasn’t put some form of Sansamp in his rig, it would def get nearer to that tone than he currently gets. Unless of course he wants to not be quite so full-on nowadays.

P Bass with stainless steel rounds, pick, and a Tech 21 Oxford, or Joyo Oxford Sound.

 

I bet you can get pretty close with that.

[Beedster]

16 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I am partial to this live recording, just amazing raw P Bass tone!:

 

 

Glorious isn't it 👍

[Beedster]

17 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I am partial to this live recording, just amazing raw P Bass tone!:

 

 

......and I can here my dear old Dad saying 'But this is just noise' during the synth solo as he skulked off to listen to a Lonnie Donegan LP

[Velarian]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I am partial to this live recording, just amazing raw P Bass tone!:

 

Except that’s not a live recording, as evidenced by Jet stood up at the back not putting much effort into the drums. I’m pretty sure that’s the album recording. It’s still awesome though. 

[PaulWarning]

no it isn't but this is, or maybe not on reflection, shouldn't alway believe what's on youtube

 

Edited Friday at 19:07 by PaulWarning

[PaulWarning]

and this is interesting, JJ's modern bass sound

 

[PaulWarning]

I think I've finally found a early live version, just audio, starts just before the 39 minute mark, It doesn't sound a lot different from his modern sound as in the last post

 

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

and this is interesting, JJ's modern bass sound

 

 

Not so bad at all 👍

[Lozz196]

No, even on iPhone don’t sound bad at all

[Leonard Smalls]

12 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

and this is interesting, JJ's modern bass sound

He's a lucky beggar! He's up very high in the mix... I find soundmixers are often firstly obsessed with getting that ridiculous thwack off the bass drum that swamps everything low down, then keeping guitar to fill everything from there up leaving the tiniest of tiny spaces for bass guitar! Not always the case, but far too often.

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

lucky

 

Mmm, I suspect it's more than luck  

[PaulWarning]

8 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

He's a lucky beggar! He's up very high in the mix... I find soundmixers are often firstly obsessed with getting that ridiculous thwack off the bass drum that swamps everything low down, then keeping guitar to fill everything from there up leaving the tiniest of tiny spaces for bass guitar! Not always the case, but far too often.

 

5 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Mmm, I suspect it's more than luck  

I find it strange, you would think The Stranglers would have their own soundman, yet when I've seen them the bass is nowhere near that high in the mix, and it should be

[Beedster]

2 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

 

I find it strange, you would think The Stranglers would have their own soundman, yet when I've seen them the bass is nowhere near that high in the mix, and it should be

 

I'm guessing that some if it is room acoustics, sound near the stage - backline and monitors - could be very different to that elsewhere?  

[PaulWarning]

1 minute ago, Beedster said:

 

I'm guessing that some if it is room acoustics, sound near the stage - backline and monitors - could be very different to that elsewhere?  

could be but not when you're standing next to the sound desk

[Beedster]

10 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

could be but not when you're standing next to the sound desk

Fair point  

[Cosmo Valdemar]

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

He's a lucky beggar! He's up very high in the mix... I find soundmixers are often firstly obsessed with getting that ridiculous thwack off the bass drum that swamps everything low down, then keeping guitar to fill everything from there up leaving the tiniest of tiny spaces for bass guitar! Not always the case, but far too often.

He might not have sounded like that on the night - sounds daft but often mobile phone recordings make the bass sound better than it it actually did. I'm guessing they don't pick up all the subs? Also in a live venue our ears are being thoroughly battered which can make it hard to clearly pick out what all the instruments are doing.

I don't record gigs myself but my brother always insists on filming a few songs. A couple of years ago we saw Steve Hackett at Hammersmith and the sound was overall pretty good but the bass was the expected gut-churning rumble. Very little definition.

On the mobile phone footage, crystal clear Rickenbacker goodness.

[PaulWarning]

14 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

He might not have sounded like that on the night - sounds daft but often mobile phone recordings make the bass sound better than it it actually did. I'm guessing they don't pick up all the subs? Also in a live venue our ears are being thoroughly battered which can make it hard to clearly pick out what all the instruments are doing.

I don't record gigs myself but my brother always insists on filming a few songs. A couple of years ago we saw Steve Hackett at Hammersmith and the sound was overall pretty good but the bass was the expected gut-churning rumble. Very little definition.

On the mobile phone footage, crystal clear Rickenbacker goodness.

fair point, mobile mics won't pick up the very low frequencies so may filter out the 'gut churning rumble', but the footage I've posted from Gilfest looks to be professionally recorded so presumably came from the mixing desk, which I suppose means it could have been mixed this way afterwards

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

He might not have sounded like that on the night - sounds daft but often mobile phone recordings make the bass sound better than it it actually did. I'm guessing they don't pick up all the subs? Also in a live venue our ears are being thoroughly battered which can make it hard to clearly pick out what all the instruments are doing.

I don't record gigs myself but my brother always insists on filming a few songs. A couple of years ago we saw Steve Hackett at Hammersmith and the sound was overall pretty good but the bass was the expected gut-churning rumble. Very little definition.

On the mobile phone footage, crystal clear Rickenbacker goodness.

 

Can't win can we mate 🤔

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

the bass was the expected gut-churning rumble.

I find this to be the norm...

We played a decent venue last year; the sound engineer took ages sculpting the bass drum sound to get that kick-in-the-kidneys thwack and left that as the loudest thing in the mix as if it's somehow a badge of honour to get that sound! But ultimately, both our basses were drowned out every time there was a kick.

I know that some venues have poorly designed PAs that will go loud and give the idea of low bass, but in actual fact there is no definition between frequencies due to bad speaker placement, poor acoustics etc, but you can't get that kidneythwack without reasonable subs and mid bass reproduction. It's like the matey wasn't interested in us poor bassistas! I blame metal... 

[Grooverjr]

19 hours ago, Velarian said:

Except that’s not a live recording, as evidenced by Jet stood up at the back not putting much effort into the drums. I’m pretty sure that’s the album recording. It’s still awesome though. 

I think Jet largely stood at the back not putting much effort in even when it was live. That is my memory of it but I was very young and only looking at JJ and Hugh at those gigs. I think his drumming is perfect for The Stranglers but it could never be accused of being overly involved. He perfected this by just programming a drum machine for the everything after, from memory, La Folie.