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The Guitar Pron Thread


Celery Man

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4 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

No, if you jerk your upper body to the rhythm, frantically tap one foot to the beat, and make faces, you are a fantastic bass player.  You can do it!

I’m going to form a Jaco, Chris Squire, Billy Sheehan hypothetical B3 supergroup tribute band.  It will be me on stage alone with a 3 necked bass and a click track.

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Often true for guitar, but I think most of the time true for bass - the tone that sounds super nice and pretty playing by yourself is shitty with a band. With bass I think it's always the super scooped mids that sound all juicy and nice. And then when the band kicks in it's just some treble clacking sounds up high and noise pollution from the low end. That's why I like a p-bass with healthy mids. But, I'm not a sound engineer or a knob twiddler, so it's not unlikely that I fall into the main bucket of bassists that Jimmy describes.

 

Definitely was serious about what would have been the smart way to recruit a bassist in high school. Echoing whoever said that bassists are often the unmusical person who wants to be in a band, when really musicality is precisely what you need in a bassist. Don't get the guy who can't play and can't hear, get someone who can hear and doesn't realize they can play. If you go the "find the hot/cool woodwind player" route you have 1.5 years to be successful before someone hooks up with her and the band implodes.

I ended up as a bassist because my... actually my second little band exploded for whatever dumb teenager reason after our 3rd or 4th show, and then the bassist in the other band in our circle of band nerds quit to be a dope with his girlfriend, so I filled in for 15 years. Man, thinking about that and talking about how I'd like to play with other people - I'm not a motivated songwriter but I love fiddling with works in progress. Charting, arranging, introducing hooks or accentuating existing hooks, chopping it down, distilling the whole thing. I miss doing that. Bassist is a good seat to do that from.

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44 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I've never played bass, but after having recorded nine bazillion bassists I think the first thing I'd try to get a new bassist to do is figure out decent tone, because most bassists have horrible tone.

And then I'd tell them the two magic secrets of rapid ascension on the bass:  (1) play the root and (2) follow the kick drum.

...and (3) load/unload most of the gear.

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2 minutes ago, DougO said:

...and (3) load/unload most of the gear.

csb, repeated again in Cliff's notes... h.s. band between 2 gigs, decided to let gear sit in van overnight (foreshadow:  yeah, bad decision).  Overnight someone broke into van in lead g's driveway, stole all of the equipment - except my heavy Leslie 147 RV and Farfisa organ.

Sometimes, it's nice to play keyboards.

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47 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Often true for guitar, but I think most of the time true for bass - the tone that sounds super nice and pretty playing by yourself is shitty with a band. With bass I think it's always the super scooped mids that sound all juicy and nice. And then when the band kicks in it's just some treble clacking sounds up high and noise pollution from the low end. That's why I like a p-bass with healthy mids. But, I'm not a sound engineer or a knob twiddler, so it's not unlikely that I fall into the main bucket of bassists that Jimmy describes.

 

Definitely was serious about what would have been the smart way to recruit a bassist in high school. Echoing whoever said that bassists are often the unmusical person who wants to be in a band, when really musicality is precisely what you need in a bassist. Don't get the guy who can't play and can't hear, get someone who can hear and doesn't realize they can play. If you go the "find the hot/cool woodwind player" route you have 1.5 years to be successful before someone hooks up with her and the band implodes.

I ended up as a bassist because my... actually my second little band exploded for whatever dumb teenager reason after our 3rd or 4th show, and then the bassist in the other band in our circle of band nerds quit to be a dope with his girlfriend, so I filled in for 15 years. Man, thinking about that and talking about how I'd like to play with other people - I'm not a motivated songwriter but I love fiddling with works in progress. Charting, arranging, introducing hooks or accentuating existing hooks, chopping it down, distilling the whole thing. I miss doing that. Bassist is a good seat to do that from.

jones.jpg?w=980&q=75

 

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59 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Bassist is a good seat to do that from.

A lot of great bands have a secret weapon bassist.  They play (and don't overplay) the bass on records and shows, but they have some other high-level musical skills which are employed elsewhere in the process of making music.  See Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, et al.

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17 hours ago, Celery Man said:
. Anyways, you don't want someone who *wants* to be a bassist, you want someone who is musical who you let be in a band.  

 


One of the projects I have going on right now is with a pair of friends who are a couple. She's never played a musical instrument in her life and he'd given her about 5 drum lessons. She's incredible musical by nature with great rhythm from dancing. With 5 lessons we were able to start creating some stuff that I think is going to be great. The biggest thing is her confidence. She'll be nailing a song, but when I start fucking around with her she thinks she's screwing up and stops.
The other night he was messing around on drums and she was holding the bass. So i started showing her where to put her fingers to for the root notes of a basic riff idea. Within 10 minutes we had 3 parts written - 4 chords total. I recorded this on my phone, keep in mind we are teaching someone who has never played a musical instrument in her life save the recent drum experience. 1st time with a bass in her hand. Some people just have it.
 
 

 

Edited by AnotherUTFan
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6 minutes ago, AnotherUTFan said:

 


One of the projects I have going on right now is with a pair of friends who are a couple. She's never played a musical instrument in her life and he'd given her about 5 drum lessons. She's incredible musical by nature with great rhythm from dancing. With 5 lessons we were able to start creating some stuff that I think is going to be great. The biggest thing is her confidence. She'll be nailing a song, but when I start fucking around with her she thinks she's screwing up and stops.
The other night he was messing around on drums and she was holding the bass. So i started showing her where to put her fingers to for the root notes of a basic riff idea. Within 10 minutes we had 3 parts written - 4 chords total. I recorded this on my phone, keep in mind we are teaching someone who has never played a musical instrument in her life save the recent drum experience. 1st time with a bass in her hand. Some people just have it.
 
 

 

She did great on that.  Is she hot?  I'm going to go ahead and imagine she looks like this.

https-hypebeast-com-image-2020-05-khruan

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41 minutes ago, Goredho said:

A lot of great bands have a secret weapon bassist.  They play (and don't overplay) the bass on records and shows, but they have some other high-level musical skills which are employed elsewhere in the process of making music.  See Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, et al.

this guy agrees.

1072758995JAMESJAMERSONB1.jpg

so does he:

Tony-Levin-Interview-Bass-YouTube.png

and her:

Carol-Kaye-e1551366565418.jpg

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53 minutes ago, AnotherUTFan said:

The other night he was messing around on drums and she was holding the bass. So i started showing her where to put her fingers to for the root notes of a basic riff idea. Within 10 minutes we had 3 parts written - 4 chords total. I recorded this on my phone, keep in mind we are teaching someone who has never played a musical instrument in her life save the recent drum experience. 1st time with a bass in her hand. Some people just have it.

Ha!  The worst part of that is the fact that her bass is out of tune.  She might have something going there.  I dig the little Zep-ish break.

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Man, Tony Levin.  I post live versions of this tune all the time, but I'm gonna do it again, just a different version, because there are a bunch of them, but everybody should watch and absorb full evidence of just how badass a bass player can be.  Jesus, Mary & Joseph, the bottom end, the whole tone, the groove.  His downbeat right after the first horn flurry just completely seals the deal.  It's all over but the cryin' after that.

And, might I add, quite possibly the greatest song about fucking ever written.  Every single person in that crowd was trying to figure out how to get laid that night.  Half the couples were probably trying to figure out how to ditch their other half to find something better.

 

 

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She did great on that.  Is she hot?  I'm going to go ahead and imagine she looks like this.

https-hypebeast-com-image-2020-05-khruangbin-so-we-wont-forget-single-stream-music-video-tw.jpg
Ha!  The worst part of that is the fact that her bass is out of tune.  She might have something going there.  I dig the little Zep-ish break.
Here's one where she's on drums. Probably her 10th or 12th time behind a kit.

Listen to Dirty Squirt 2021-02-24.aac by Racer5 #np on #SoundCloud



Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

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37 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Man, Tony Levin.  I post live versions of this tune all the time, but I'm gonna do it again, just a different version, because there are a bunch of them, but everybody should watch and absorb full evidence of just how badass a bass player can be.  Jesus, Mary & Joseph, the bottom end, the whole tone, the groove.  His downbeat right after the first horn flurry just completely seals the deal.  It's all over but the cryin' after that.

And, might I add, quite possibly the greatest song about fucking ever written.  Every single person in that crowd was trying to figure out how to get laid that night.  Half the couples were probably trying to figure out how to ditch their other half to find something better.

 

 

 

as the resident PG superfan, i obviously agree.  pretty much any pg live show just puts tony on full display in a way that isn't necessarily as discernible and obvious from the studio albums.  pick a fucking song and there's tony out there not just providing a low end engine...but absolutely putting on a musicality master class. 

 

 

this was a good vid.

 

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I've never played bass, but after having recorded nine bazillion bassists I think the first thing I'd try to get a new bassist to do is figure out decent tone, because most bassists have horrible tone.
And then I'd tell them the two magic secrets of rapid ascension on the bass:  (1) play the root and (2) follow the kick drum.

Kind of along these lines I’d say the ability to create and keep a pocket with the drummer is priority 1 for a bass player.

After that I’d say buy Fodera basses and Aguilar amps which is what our bass player uses and they sound fantastic.
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6 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Man, Tony Levin.  I post live versions of this tune all the time, but I'm gonna do it again, just a different version, because there are a bunch of them, but everybody should watch and absorb full evidence of just how badass a bass player can be.  Jesus, Mary & Joseph, the bottom end, the whole tone, the groove.  His downbeat right after the first horn flurry just completely seals the deal.  It's all over but the cryin' after that.

And, might I add, quite possibly the greatest song about fucking ever written.  Every single person in that crowd was trying to figure out how to get laid that night.  Half the couples were probably trying to figure out how to ditch their other half to find something better.

 

 

 

5 hours ago, sidis said:

 

as the resident PG superfan, i obviously agree.  pretty much any pg live show just puts tony on full display in a way that isn't necessarily as discernible and obvious from the studio albums.  pick a fucking song and there's tony out there not just providing a low end engine...but absolutely putting on a musicality master class. 

 

 

this was a good vid.

 

Probably for another thread, but Tony would be in my prog supergroup with Neil Peart, Tony Banks and.... some guitarist to be named later.  Maybe Guthrie Govan.  Even though he's not known for prog per se, his mastery of different styles would work really well in a prog band.

Edit:  Peter Gabriel, Jon Anderson or Ian Anderson could do lead vocals.

Edited by Goredho
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1 hour ago, Goredho said:

 

Probably for another thread, but Tony would be in my prog supergroup with Neil Peart, Tony Banks and.... some guitarist to be named later.  

My friend Willie Oteri roped in some heavyweights on this record . . . Willie's a helluva player, but DAMN.  Recorded mostly live in downtown Austin:

Willie Oteri - guitar
Tony Levin - bass
Mike Keneally - keys
Pat Mastelotto - drums
Ronan Chris Murphy - keys
Ephraim Owens - trumpet

https://wd-41.bandcamp.com/album/oteri-levin-mastelotto-keneally-murphy-spiral-out

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On 4/16/2021 at 3:19 PM, sidis said:

it is seriously like someone inception'd me or something.  usually i am completely irrational and stupid about buy production software, virtual instrument plugins, a billion different reverbs...  for fuck's sake, i could buy a brand new ferrari for the price i've paid on my different solo violin legato samples.

but i woke up one day, thought to myself, i need a sunburst les paul.  and it has been a seed that has been getting nurtured in quite liberally in my subconscious apparently.

which is weird because i suck at guitar.  but my subconscious is saying "that's just because you've never had a gibson les paul. if you get one, you will sound like prince doing the while my guitar gently weeps solo...obviously"

my very rational mind laughs heartily at such idiotic reasoning while my id hands over $2k for a sunburst les paul.

Aaaand, it is here. Looks good with its new roommates. 

E3FABC1C-2CD8-4AF1-A700-C1E16AE8BC7C.thumb.jpeg.a9645c7a9061dfed65ec36eeee41afe0.jpeg
 

33E624F7-7862-49C4-8CC2-3A9A1875BF0F.thumb.jpeg.a6b32b21a9fa58840d29c3fd311014b0.jpeg

 

805198AB-D01E-49AB-852A-934A5EA0A9F6.thumb.jpeg.5f432ef888136888c9ee5534a9981531.jpeg

 

033A7927-716E-4B8C-BA12-A63E3FB2383A.thumb.jpeg.f6221f476fb318f524be1116a7feddc5.jpeg

 

now I just need goredho to teach me how to play the guitar. 

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3 minutes ago, sidis said:

Aaaand, it is here. Looks good with its new roommates. 

E3FABC1C-2CD8-4AF1-A700-C1E16AE8BC7C.thumb.jpeg.a9645c7a9061dfed65ec36eeee41afe0.jpeg
 

33E624F7-7862-49C4-8CC2-3A9A1875BF0F.thumb.jpeg.a6b32b21a9fa58840d29c3fd311014b0.jpeg

 

805198AB-D01E-49AB-852A-934A5EA0A9F6.thumb.jpeg.5f432ef888136888c9ee5534a9981531.jpeg

 

033A7927-716E-4B8C-BA12-A63E3FB2383A.thumb.jpeg.f6221f476fb318f524be1116a7feddc5.jpeg

 

now I just need goredho to teach me how to play the guitar. 

Pretty Les Paul and a really nice lineup there.  Makes me want a new guitar!
 

Lol, you don’t want to learn from me, but If you are serious about getting some instruction, I’d recommend Carter Arrington, who I’ve been taking zoom lessons from the last  4 months or so.  He’s not just a superb guitarist, but also a gifted teacher.  Has really jump started a next phase of growth for me.  Here’s his website and a clip of him playing with David Grissom.   Hit me up in a PM if you want me to see if he has more bandwidth for teaching.
 

https://www.carterarrington.com
 

 

 

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I kinda want to do some stuff to my tele. Swap out the pups which I'm not blown away by, and I really do like the vintage style bridge plate with the edges. I think the old school three piece bridge is cool and presumably it can be intonated very accurately, but is it at all a pain in the ass to deal with? Extra care needed when restringing to not knock it off kilter?

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