The nature of the beasts
Perhaps I should have decided at the outset that I was simply going to blog about music, in a loose sense. Certainly I am spending virtually all of my time lately doing various things which are musical. And there's nothing wrong with that, far from it. I do have to apologize to all those who used to tune in, here or on the old blog, to enjoy(?) my misanthropic rantings about the state of things, but I'm afraid that I have decided with characteristic perversity that the best form of attack is defence. So I'm countering the sorry state of the world with immersion in those arts I have some aptitude at. Well, you'll be the judge of that. There are photos going up on the faithful Flickr sporadically, and there are sounds a-cooking.
There follows musings on a number of musical topics.
My basses. I primarily gig as a bass player, and like all musicians who have any techie bent - or an ear for good sound - I am still looking for a setup that allows me "to fully express myself". In plain English, an instrument which sounds a little less like a drunk kicking a cardboard box to death in a fit of temper than most. Yes, I realize that this is more about amps than basses. I'll get to that. Over the course of my lengthy but on-off bass playing career I have tended toward conservatism. In 30 years I have owned maybe ten basses, if that, and generally they have been of a cheap and cheerful disposition. Basses are by nature pretty tough old birds, and I changed them only when I was skint and not playing much, in order to free up beer money or even pay the bills.
I had the statutory first bass so rubbish that it was barely usable. A B and M, I think. I followed it with a Shergold Marathon, with a body made of balsa by the feel of it, which balanced so poorly that all my time was spent holding it up by the neck to the detriment of musical expression. Finally I got a Squier JV '57 Precision reissue, which would be moderately valuable these days. Great quality bass, but a neck so large that it hurt my hand to play it. As a result of misaligned upper vertebrae I am more than usually susceptible to shoulder, arm and hand trouble or at least pain. In a ten year subsequent span of musical non-activity I had no bass, unless someone I knew was virtually giving something away in which case I'd noodle awhile. I had a nice Tokai Jazz, but sadly it had been de-fretted before I got to it. Fretless playing is lovely, but it's not what I do.
A return to actually gigging resulted in my acquisition of a Yamaha RB 270, which was a great cheap bass that in some ways I wish I still had. I foolishly replaced this with a more upmarket Yamaha with two pickups and active circuitry. I coped badly with the complexity, and found that I don't much go for active circuitry. Two pickups is nice though, for tonal variation. I also had the cheapest possible Dean, bought with a few knocks from their sales rep on a whim for double figures, and found that this simple one-pickup, volume and tone passive bass was the one I used all the time. Still got it, albeit a little battered. It had the twin attributes of good balance and a comfy neck, which I belatedly realized were the sine qua non of basses. I ditched the glitz and I played the Dean, whacking some very big screws in to stabilize the bridge and replacing bits of machine head with bits of old credit card to sustain it. Student model, not entirely designed for systematic heavy grooving.
Then some loot appeared, and as is the way of such things I became ambitious. I succumbed to temptation and brought a pretty Ibanez, which among other things did a very creditable impersonation of a Music Man. It had a criminally crap bridge though, and still awaits my going through hoops to put something that actually works on it. I then picked up an actual Music Man, which is something I always wanted and which was my first reasonably pricey bass. A stroke of bad luck meant it had an iffy neck, and after I and the local talent and then Music Man themselves had tried to get to play decently I eventually got a refund for it. Another pricey job was a Fender Jaguar, which looked great and had the Jazz neck to end all Jazz necks. Pino Palladino uses one with The Who. All I can say is that he must have fitted working tuners to his, and he must be tolerant of fairly bad balance or have found a way around that. Got my money back out of that one too, with a bit of wheeling and dealing. I would dearly love Pino's signature model Fender Precision, but then I'd dearly love the two grand required as well.
Apart from the student Dean Playmate which I have semi retired until I get a decent set of tuners for it, and the Ibanez for which carpentry will be required in order to remove the disintegrating rubbish recessed bridge, I now use two fairly humble basses. I have a Squier Vintage Modified Precision, which can be picked up for a couple of hundred quid and is generally great, and a Yamaha BB - the non-active variant. The Squier is as bassy as a very bassy thing, so one needs to be careful with amplification, and also has an output so high that it actually tends to overdrive my bass amp. I use this with care, or for reggae, which amounts to the same thing. The Yamaha I have fitted with a Seymour Duncan Bass Lines pickup as a replacement for the Yamaha P-bass type pickup, and I use that rather than the rail pickup at the bridge. It's nice to have the option though. It's a work in progress, this bass, but I can't recommend Yamaha highly enough as a maker of good inexpensive working instruments. I love them. I intend to wire it as a Jazz, with two independent pickup volumes rather than a toggle switch, at some point. And I will almost certainly fit a Badass bridge, although at the moment Loctite Blue is doing an admirable job of keeping the Precision-type bridge in whack. Great balance, great neck, good sound.
And that's basses. Guitars will have to wait for another time :)
For a bass amp I am limited in that I need my amp to fit in the boot of the senile Escort which we use to get to gigs. I always had Peaveys, a couple of TNTs (old ones are great) and a big old Mark 6 head with huge Peavey Black Widow cabs. I still have this big rig, and it's fantastic, but I don't have the back or the wheels to take it out. I currently have a compact Ashdown Mag 300, which gives you a 15" speaker and 300 watts in a very portable package, again very cheaply. I don't think it sounds too great, but there's nothing to touch it for size / price / performance and I can get a lift in the Escort with it. I don't want the burden of a big rig right now, or to be subjected to the refreshment-free sea of pain which is driving to gigs myself. When I find something better the same size I'll get it. I did want an SWR but the rep told me that they blow speakers like they're going out of fashion, and rely on a specific driver to sound the way they do, thus precluding replacement with something more robust.
Recording...
I am using my first Mac, an iMac. This is proving productive, although as yet I am using GarageBand still. Well, it was there. It has limitations, but it is good for the looping stuff I'm working on. I am exploring "proper" software but as yet it's either a ton of money or theoretically great freeware that I have yet to thoroughly tweak into working properly. Hoping to get Ardour going when I persuade Jack to play ball. Getting guitars and basses down via a Line 6 TonePort, which is cool, and also via the little interface which came with my Behringer Xenyx desk. I have a Korg Electribe rhythm synth, grooves for the manufacture of, and I'm using a little Boss Micro BR for getting ambient sounds and ideas down. I have some nice rain and traffic...
I stick this through decent-sized Samson monitors, and a part from the odd software issue I'm getting on well with the learning curve of it all. Roll on being thoroughly familiar with the software, which I shall persevere at!
Listening.
I remember listening. It's what I did before I immersed myself in trying to create. All hail jazz and groove podcasts, which I can have going on the old PC for inspiration and entertainment. Here, as a reward for your perseverance in reading thus far, is a list of the podcasts I get, or at least the music ones. There are many, many out there. These are just what I've stumbled across and found good. Please feel free to give me a heads-up if you know of more similar cool stuff. There is commenting available here, along with a range of snacks and beverages.
Well, there's commenting at least. Perhaps you'll need to do your own tea and sandwiches.
Bending Corners, jazz and groove monthly show.
Dub Session Podcast, which I think describes itself.
In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond, also pretty self-explanatory.
JaJaClub, a French eclectic 'cast. Little-updated these days, sadly.
Also Radio Free Amsterdam, Taran's Free Jazz Hour, Waxing Deep, mindReset and the list goes on. You'll have to Google these. I have run out of time and cannot easily cut and paste info from iTunes into here I fear.
Back soon!
There follows musings on a number of musical topics.
My basses. I primarily gig as a bass player, and like all musicians who have any techie bent - or an ear for good sound - I am still looking for a setup that allows me "to fully express myself". In plain English, an instrument which sounds a little less like a drunk kicking a cardboard box to death in a fit of temper than most. Yes, I realize that this is more about amps than basses. I'll get to that. Over the course of my lengthy but on-off bass playing career I have tended toward conservatism. In 30 years I have owned maybe ten basses, if that, and generally they have been of a cheap and cheerful disposition. Basses are by nature pretty tough old birds, and I changed them only when I was skint and not playing much, in order to free up beer money or even pay the bills.
I had the statutory first bass so rubbish that it was barely usable. A B and M, I think. I followed it with a Shergold Marathon, with a body made of balsa by the feel of it, which balanced so poorly that all my time was spent holding it up by the neck to the detriment of musical expression. Finally I got a Squier JV '57 Precision reissue, which would be moderately valuable these days. Great quality bass, but a neck so large that it hurt my hand to play it. As a result of misaligned upper vertebrae I am more than usually susceptible to shoulder, arm and hand trouble or at least pain. In a ten year subsequent span of musical non-activity I had no bass, unless someone I knew was virtually giving something away in which case I'd noodle awhile. I had a nice Tokai Jazz, but sadly it had been de-fretted before I got to it. Fretless playing is lovely, but it's not what I do.
A return to actually gigging resulted in my acquisition of a Yamaha RB 270, which was a great cheap bass that in some ways I wish I still had. I foolishly replaced this with a more upmarket Yamaha with two pickups and active circuitry. I coped badly with the complexity, and found that I don't much go for active circuitry. Two pickups is nice though, for tonal variation. I also had the cheapest possible Dean, bought with a few knocks from their sales rep on a whim for double figures, and found that this simple one-pickup, volume and tone passive bass was the one I used all the time. Still got it, albeit a little battered. It had the twin attributes of good balance and a comfy neck, which I belatedly realized were the sine qua non of basses. I ditched the glitz and I played the Dean, whacking some very big screws in to stabilize the bridge and replacing bits of machine head with bits of old credit card to sustain it. Student model, not entirely designed for systematic heavy grooving.
Then some loot appeared, and as is the way of such things I became ambitious. I succumbed to temptation and brought a pretty Ibanez, which among other things did a very creditable impersonation of a Music Man. It had a criminally crap bridge though, and still awaits my going through hoops to put something that actually works on it. I then picked up an actual Music Man, which is something I always wanted and which was my first reasonably pricey bass. A stroke of bad luck meant it had an iffy neck, and after I and the local talent and then Music Man themselves had tried to get to play decently I eventually got a refund for it. Another pricey job was a Fender Jaguar, which looked great and had the Jazz neck to end all Jazz necks. Pino Palladino uses one with The Who. All I can say is that he must have fitted working tuners to his, and he must be tolerant of fairly bad balance or have found a way around that. Got my money back out of that one too, with a bit of wheeling and dealing. I would dearly love Pino's signature model Fender Precision, but then I'd dearly love the two grand required as well.
Apart from the student Dean Playmate which I have semi retired until I get a decent set of tuners for it, and the Ibanez for which carpentry will be required in order to remove the disintegrating rubbish recessed bridge, I now use two fairly humble basses. I have a Squier Vintage Modified Precision, which can be picked up for a couple of hundred quid and is generally great, and a Yamaha BB - the non-active variant. The Squier is as bassy as a very bassy thing, so one needs to be careful with amplification, and also has an output so high that it actually tends to overdrive my bass amp. I use this with care, or for reggae, which amounts to the same thing. The Yamaha I have fitted with a Seymour Duncan Bass Lines pickup as a replacement for the Yamaha P-bass type pickup, and I use that rather than the rail pickup at the bridge. It's nice to have the option though. It's a work in progress, this bass, but I can't recommend Yamaha highly enough as a maker of good inexpensive working instruments. I love them. I intend to wire it as a Jazz, with two independent pickup volumes rather than a toggle switch, at some point. And I will almost certainly fit a Badass bridge, although at the moment Loctite Blue is doing an admirable job of keeping the Precision-type bridge in whack. Great balance, great neck, good sound.
And that's basses. Guitars will have to wait for another time :)
For a bass amp I am limited in that I need my amp to fit in the boot of the senile Escort which we use to get to gigs. I always had Peaveys, a couple of TNTs (old ones are great) and a big old Mark 6 head with huge Peavey Black Widow cabs. I still have this big rig, and it's fantastic, but I don't have the back or the wheels to take it out. I currently have a compact Ashdown Mag 300, which gives you a 15" speaker and 300 watts in a very portable package, again very cheaply. I don't think it sounds too great, but there's nothing to touch it for size / price / performance and I can get a lift in the Escort with it. I don't want the burden of a big rig right now, or to be subjected to the refreshment-free sea of pain which is driving to gigs myself. When I find something better the same size I'll get it. I did want an SWR but the rep told me that they blow speakers like they're going out of fashion, and rely on a specific driver to sound the way they do, thus precluding replacement with something more robust.
Recording...
I am using my first Mac, an iMac. This is proving productive, although as yet I am using GarageBand still. Well, it was there. It has limitations, but it is good for the looping stuff I'm working on. I am exploring "proper" software but as yet it's either a ton of money or theoretically great freeware that I have yet to thoroughly tweak into working properly. Hoping to get Ardour going when I persuade Jack to play ball. Getting guitars and basses down via a Line 6 TonePort, which is cool, and also via the little interface which came with my Behringer Xenyx desk. I have a Korg Electribe rhythm synth, grooves for the manufacture of, and I'm using a little Boss Micro BR for getting ambient sounds and ideas down. I have some nice rain and traffic...
I stick this through decent-sized Samson monitors, and a part from the odd software issue I'm getting on well with the learning curve of it all. Roll on being thoroughly familiar with the software, which I shall persevere at!
Listening.
I remember listening. It's what I did before I immersed myself in trying to create. All hail jazz and groove podcasts, which I can have going on the old PC for inspiration and entertainment. Here, as a reward for your perseverance in reading thus far, is a list of the podcasts I get, or at least the music ones. There are many, many out there. These are just what I've stumbled across and found good. Please feel free to give me a heads-up if you know of more similar cool stuff. There is commenting available here, along with a range of snacks and beverages.
Well, there's commenting at least. Perhaps you'll need to do your own tea and sandwiches.
Bending Corners, jazz and groove monthly show.
Dub Session Podcast, which I think describes itself.
In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond, also pretty self-explanatory.
JaJaClub, a French eclectic 'cast. Little-updated these days, sadly.
Also Radio Free Amsterdam, Taran's Free Jazz Hour, Waxing Deep, mindReset and the list goes on. You'll have to Google these. I have run out of time and cannot easily cut and paste info from iTunes into here I fear.
Back soon!
posted by Jim at 10:59 am
2 Comments:
iTunes? iTunes? Pah!
Yes, iTunes. I have an iPod. And I've yet to find a better thing to handle all my music stuff overall. Only irritates me in a couple of ways, where Winamp irritates me in a ten and everything else is a non-starter. But then I seldom use it for anything other than podcasts and web radio, and I also use it on my Mac.
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