Bass This Week

Okay I'm just giving in and creating a "bass" tag. I've had mixed feelings about adding my trials and tribulations with the bass to this blog...but it occurred to me this morning that it is called "Rhythm Movement" and that is totally consistent with the bass. And I'm thinking about the bass alot and I'm not starting a new blog to talk about it. So here it will live.

On Saturday I took my two basses (one white Lotus and one green Yamaha...both Fender knock offs) over to EE's workshop and she showed me how to set them up properly (minus tension rod adjustments, which they didn't need). Her girlfriend did a quick fix on my rattling tuner on the Lotus too. It's better now, but not perfect. If I plan to play that bass much I probably ought to replace that tuner. Not sure yet if it is worth it. The other bass, the Yamaha, is my favorite anyway....because it is lighter. She thought it was a better instrument too. Now that the action is lower, it feels good to play too. My hands aren't falling asleep now.

We talked about amps and cabs a bit. I've been under the impression that a 300 Watt amp head and a 4x10 cab would be the way to go. They challenged this, saying 100 Watts was plenty...and why not a 1 x 15? The truth is, I don't know what I like sound wise, and I don't know what I need because...I don't need anything at the moment. Basically I'd need something to play in a venue like the High Noon...but that wouldn't blow people off the map in a practice space. I need to be able to operate in a mic'ed and non-mic'ed situation. But I only need that if I ever actually play out with anyone...which I'm not convinced at this point I ever will. So I basically just need to cool my jets...continue doing research...pay attention to what other people are playing...and save my money. Maybe a year from now if the need arises.

Had a nice long talk with KS on Monday night. We only touched on bass a bit, but I think he'll be a nice mentor.

Thought alot last night about how I really do like Danny Vacation's bass playing. He and I don't get along as people, and I'm still irritated with him...but I can't deny that I like the parts that he writes. I think Educational Davis probably helps write those parts sometimes...and I don't think Danny has much of a grounding in theory. I think he noodles alot and just plays what feels good to him. I think that I'm going to try to learn the bass parts off of our album. I already have a sense of them...it would just be a matter of working out the details. I think it would be a really good exercise. Really rewarding and also super helpful with transcribing and also with thinking about how people structure bass parts...some people anyway. His playing is a little busy and I think a little unorthodox, so there's caveats on the study...but it would be fun.