What's your 'Hey, the bass player's here' lick?

[Dad3353]

The Other Side of This Life, version 'Bless Its Pointed Little Head' (Jefferson Airplane 'live' ...)

 

 

[Waddo Soqable]

Oh, I used to sing  "on the trail of the lonesome pine"  (Stan laurel version) as a sound check mike test if that counts... 

[Bleat]

When I was in a gigging band my soundchecks mostly consisted of me playing E-E-E-E-E-E-E  until I got a thumbs up.  I'm not a bass soloist, not into playing party pieces, nor impressing anyone with great technical playing ability. Maybe boring but It did what was actually needed. I proved my "ability" by playing the songs well with my band when it was time to perform.

 

[Waddo Soqable]

7 minutes ago, Bleat said:

When I was in a gigging band my soundchecks mostly consisted of me playing E-E-E-E-E-E-E  until I got a thumbs up.  I'm not a bass soloist, not into playing party pieces, nor impressing anyone with great technical playing ability. Maybe boring but It did what was actually needed. I proved my "ability" by playing the songs well with my band when it was time to perform.

 

I did that on a sound check once and the bloke behind the desk got the right hump.. 😁

[Bleat]

2 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I did that on a sound check once and the bloke behind the desk got the right hump.. 😁

 

Every sound bloke iI ever encountered apart from one were grumpy, short tempered tw@ts from the offset to be honest.

[Waddo Soqable]

Just now, Bleat said:

 

Every sound bloke iI ever encountered apart from one were grumpy, short tempered tw@ts from the offset to be honest.

Yep, strange but true 

[Dad3353]

4 hours ago, Bleat said:

When I was in a gigging band my soundchecks mostly consisted of me playing E-E-E-E-E-E-E  until I got a thumbs up.  I'm not a bass soloist, not into playing party pieces, nor impressing anyone with great technical playing ability. Maybe boring but It did what was actually needed. I proved my "ability" by playing the songs well with my band when it was time to perform.

 

4 hours ago, Bleat said:

Every sound bloke iI ever encountered apart from one were grumpy, short tempered tw@ts from the offset to be honest.

 

Do I see a pattern here..? 

[Bleat]

5 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

 

Do I see a pattern here..? 

 

No not at all. My first response was just simply stating a fact about myself, not a sign of grumpyness at all. Second response was a statement of personal experience. 👍

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I did that on a sound check once and the bloke behind the desk got the right hump.. 😁

Any decent SE prefers to hear the bass cover notes across the strings to get a better balance of tone and make sure its not more thump than clarity. That's why i quite like Money as it slowly covers the 4 strings, its a simple bass run and there's enough of a gap between the notes for him to make any tweaks he needs to.

I guess it depends on the style of music you play. Have to say most SE i've met in recent yrs have all been pretty helpful and we generally have a good rapport with them We try to treat them as a we would a member of the band. Certainly works for us.

Dave

Edited February 18, 2023 by dmccombe7

[Waddo Soqable]

8 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Any decent SE prefers to hear the bass cover notes across the strings to get a better balance of tone and make sure its not more thump than clarity. That's why i quite like Money as it slowly covers the 4 strings, its a simple bass run and there's enough of a gap between the notes for him to make any tweaks he needs to.

I guess it depends on the style of music you play. Have to say most SE i've met in recent yrs have all been pretty helpful and we generally have a good rapport with them We try to treat them as a we would a member of the band. Certainly works for us.

Dave

Take your point of course! This was just a one off where he was being a right di¢k, so thought I'd have a bit of a lark with him 😁

[Franticsmurf]

As a bass player, it seems logical that you want the SE to hear a representation of what you'll be playing. So a run across the fretboard makes sense. I would also demonstrate any specific effects that may alter the tone and/or volume (I'm talking synth or filter effects primarily) so the SE isn't trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

 

4 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Take your point of course! This was just a one off where he was being a right di¢k, so thought I'd have a bit of a lark with him 😁

 

I'm fortunate enough to never have come across such a beast, but I can picture the fun to be had by, say, playing with the bass volume turned down and insisting it's a problem with the FOH. 😃

[Marky L]

14 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I’m really good at bad slap bass 😁

 

That's crazy! I'm really bad at good slap bass

[Waddo Soqable]

2 minutes ago, Marky L said:

 

That's crazy! I'm really bad at good slap bass

Cool.. That's several contestants we've got already for  "The very worst of Slap Bass" 

I'll be punting the series concept to channel 4 on Monday morning

[Reggaebass]

5 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Cool.. That's several contestants we've got already for  "The very worst of Slap Bass" 

I'll be punting the series concept to channel 4 on Monday morning

It’s gonna be well busy by the look of it 😁

[Burns-bass]

Did a nice gig yesterday and just did a line check, then we ran through an entire track and adjusted levels on the fly. 

 

If it’s a gig where you can soundcheck before anyone arrives, I’ll run thorough all 4 strings top to bottom then a bit of James Brown.

 

Turns put lost people don’t want their conversations interrupted by my noodling!

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Take your point of course! This was just a one off where he was being a right di¢k, so thought I'd have a bit of a lark with him 😁

tsk tsk tsk i thought bass players were above that. That's more a guitarist thing. Are you an ex-guitarist that's had a brain implant ? 

Dave

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Marky L said:

 

That's crazy! I'm really bad at good slap bass

Now that's an interesting take on this. I can see where you're coming from. 

This now confuses me, i no longer know whether i'm good or bad at slap bass. 

Dave

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

 

Turns put lost people don’t want their conversations interrupted by my noodling!

And those are the very people you should aim your persistent noodling at.  IMHO of course.

Dave

[Franticsmurf]

3 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Cool.. That's several contestants we've got already for  "The very worst of Slap Bass" 

I'll be punting the series concept to channel 4 on Monday morning

 May I suggest an alternative title 'When Slap Bass Goes Wrong' for the C5 market with guaranteed repeats on YesterDave.

 

Slap goes wrong all the time for me, which makes me a truly talented bad good slap player. I think. 🤔

[knirirr]

"Carter takes a train" usually does the trick for me. 

[Burns-bass]

41 minutes ago, knirirr said:

"Carter takes a train" usually does the trick for me. 

Classic Roy Budd! Was listening to this the other day and playing DB.

[Edenburgh]

My soundchecks often start with the intro to Tits on the Radio by Scissor Sisters.  

[Waddo Soqable]

4 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

 May I suggest an alternative title 'When Slap Bass Goes Wrong' for the C5 market with guaranteed repeats on YesterDave.

 

Slap goes wrong all the time for me, which makes me a truly talented bad good slap player. I think. 🤔

Or "When Slap Bass goes Horribly Wrong"  they like a bit of hyperbole on the telly.. 

If Mark King's not available to present the show, maybe Nick Beggs would do the honours... 

[TimR]

19 hours ago, Bleat said:

When I was in a gigging band my soundchecks mostly consisted of me playing E-E-E-E-E-E-E  until I got a thumbs up.  I'm not a bass soloist, not into playing party pieces, nor impressing anyone with great technical playing ability. Maybe boring but It did what was actually needed. I proved my "ability" by playing the songs well with my band when it was time to perform.

 

Yep. Sound engineer just needs a signal. He can work out the rough settings while the whole band are playing the sound check and then fine tune during the first number once the room is full of people. 

 

You can tell whether the sound engineer knows what he is doing by how quickly his thumb comes up. 😉

 

I played a mini festival recently where each band had about 30minutes. The bass player was wireless and spent ages walking around out front bashing his bass and listening from different places. No idea what he thought he was achieving. 

[dmccombe7]

Posted my comments in the wrong thread. Should have been the "How Was your Gig last night" thread. Now copied over so just ignore this. Wont delete it as people have now commented on it. 

 

Just home from a great night in The Dreadnought in Bathgate with the punk band Emergency Exit. 

Turned out to be busier than we expected. Helped a fair bit by a crowd of Blue Angels appearing to see us. Not sure if they were at the last gig we did in one of their club houses or were just on a night out but the owner said he's never seen them in there before. Maybe more gigs at their other club houses who knows.

Feedback was fantastic and the cream of the crop comment was that a guy had 2 tickets for Belinda Carlisle in Edinburgh tonight but when he heard we were playing and covering Ramones songs he wanted to see us. Now that was nice of him. Those tickets cost him £34 each he said.

Usual phone vids being taken.

All in all i thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dave 

Edited February 19, 2023 by dmccombe7