Great ebass playing

[difalcojr]

Well, lots of chords in early and later Beatles music, then, you are both right. :) They also brought so many different orchestra instruments into their music, even animal noises, anything. So versatile, musical. Here's another group of that time, great bass player too, John Entwistle. The Who had a great lead singer, musicians.

 

[Hornbein]

Well, lots of chords in early and later Beatles music, then, you are both right. :) They also brought so many different orchestra instruments into their music, even animal noises, anything. So versatile, musical. Here's another group of that time, great bass player too, John Entwistle. The Who had a great lead singer, musicians.

The Beatles certainly popularized fancy multitracking arrangements with all kinds of instruments. Karlheinz Stockhausen started that, adopted by Frank Zappa for Absolutely Free. Then there was this.

The chance meeting between the two bands happened on 21st of March in 1967 — coincidentally, the two bands were both working on their respective albums in Abbey Roads Studios in London; Pink Floyd was working on their debut, Piper at The Gates of Dawn, while The Beatles were recording what many consider one of the best albums ever made, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Some say that the Pinks did it first, some say the opposite, but they both came out with albums like that.

I didn't see the big deal about John Entwistle until I heard his live stuff. He's quite restrained in the studio recordings.

 

[Hornbein]

The ebass player I like most is MISA of Bandmaid. For a pro she has ordinary skill but that doesn't matter to me. I say that the role of the ebass player isn't skill, it's to make the band sound good. MISA has terrific drive and the thunderous tone that I like, lots of treble and bass. It would be very difficult to replace her.

Ensemble play interests me a lot more than solos. It's largely a matter of luck : you put some people together and either the magic is there or it isn't. As said Jimmy Page, "Led Zeppelin was a freak of luck. It wouldn't happen again for a million years." No one has more of the magic than Bandmaid. They have had ten pretty lean years, I'm sure this kept them together. They all knew that this was the best fit they could ever have, that it would never come again, and they didn't want to stop.

MISA is a busy bass player but here she uncharacteristically starts out playing only the roots of the chords. I say an ebass player should be able to play nothing but roots and still sound great. Could Jaco do that?

 

[pinball1970]

R.I.P Mani, fellow Manc, unassuming guy.

 

[pinball1970]

Some context with the Stone Roses. Pop music in 1988 was horrible 1980s formulaic garbage. Dance, boy bands and production line Stock, Aikin and Pete Waterman. The worst period of pop music ever, these guys came along and we're a band again. When I first heard them, I thought they had a nice enough groove and it was a step in the right direction back to real music.
Anyway, the only bass player I have met and had a beer with on the list.

 

[difalcojr]

I didn't see the big deal about John Entwistle until I heard his live stuff. He's quite restrained in the studio recordings.

Same with me. I like to hear the bass at about the same volume as the lead guitar, not low volume in the background, like it is in a lot of studio albums and bands, I think. Can't be too loud for me, bass. Bass is loud enough to hear on this one, could even be louder.

 

[Hornbein]

Same with me. I like to hear the bass at about the same volume as the lead guitar, not low volume in the background, like it is in a lot of studio albums and bands, I think. Can't be too loud for me, bass. Found this one for the 'covers' thread but fits here. Bass is loud enough to hear.

The reason is that people prefer louder music (until it gets too loud). Today the game is to make your pop record as loud as possible. The ear doesn't hear low sounds very well so by mixing down the lows the rest can be boosted so that the recording can be made louder as a whole. Also, maybe people today listen on computers that can barely reproduce lows so why even bother with that at all.

Me, if a recording displeases me I re-equalize it myself and make my own version. It's pretty easy to do once you know how, but not as easy as in the old days when all stereos had bass and treble controls and a loudness button to emphasize the bass. I don't know why that disappeared. Maybe the controls were low quality, but in the digital age that's no longer the problem. It's a mystery to me. Maybe they were bugged that so many people always turned up the knobs all the way. Like I said, within limits louder always sounds better. Or maybe it's just to save money.

 

[Hornbein]

This is about as good as it gets. The whole band is great, a most unusual thing. Drummer Don Alias somehow seems to always be overlooked. Note that Jaco has a fretted neck on his bass but it sounds exactly the same. How does he do that? We may never know, but I expect his Acoustic 360 amplifiers are part of the secret. Its unusual speaker cabinet gives a unique kind of subtle distortion. Those things weigh over a hundred pounds apiece and he had two of them. I'd do that but only if I had roadies to take care of it.

 

[Hornbein]

Same with me. I like to hear the bass at about the same volume as the lead guitar, not low volume in the background, like it is in a lot of studio albums and bands, I think. Can't be too loud for me, bass. Bass is loud enough to hear on this one, could even be louder.

When the bass is too loud it sounds like there is a blanket over everything else, muffling it out so that detail is lost Not the case in this recording.

 

[difalcojr]

Yes, true, agree. I exaggerated. Just getting an equalized, flat amplitude output over the entire sound range would be nice. Trying to remember songs with good bass leads is difficult. Even the ones I thought had good bass sounds, did, but most all of it from the studio albums was too subdued in the background. Clapton & Bruce best I remember, from that live 'Spoonful' on Wheels of Fire album. I hear way, way too much bass a lot here when cars with huge woofers and sub-woofers in their trunks drive by, at full volume, every part of their car vibrating. Fuzz sound.

 

[Hornbein]

Yes, true, agree. I exaggerated. Just getting an equalized, flat amplitude output over the entire sound range would be nice. Trying to remember songs with good bass leads is difficult. Even the ones I thought had good bass sounds, did, but most all of it from the studio albums was too subdued in the background. Clapton & Bruce best I remember, from that live 'Spoonful' on Wheels of Fire album. I hear way, way too much bass a lot here when cars with huge woofers and sub-woofers in their trunks drive by, at full volume, every part of their car vibrating. Fuzz sound.

Those things are a tube with a speaker at either end. They have that characteristic boomy sound. Once I was in a library next to a concert where they had a number of big ones. The library was rattling like crazy.

 

[Hornbein]

I dunno that this is "great" but it's good fun. I think this is What Is Hip.

 

[pinball1970]

I always though this bass was fun on this

 

[pinball1970]

This has to be one of the best of that time

 

[pinball1970]

Quite a lot of top end which makes this even more fun.

 

[pinball1970]

On the Chorus

 

[pinball1970]

The last one would not play @difalcojr @Hornbein

Album version

 

[Hornbein]

This has to be one of the best of that time

Ch

That's Bob Babbitt. Flatwound strings with a foam rubber mute, that was the sound. Nobody else has done that for a long time. Fender stopped putting the mutes on their basses because everyone was taking them off and throwing them away.

Jamie Jamerson is more famous, his style is similar but a little wilder.