why i love bass players

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starbuck26

starbuck26

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funny thing happened last night.

my bass player looks at me... he plays on my bass amp, a hartke ha300 w/ 4x10 cab. he goes: "Dude... why is it that I can't get any more volume out of this thing without clipping? When we play shows the clip light is, like, permanently on?"

I replied by saying I hadn't played that amp in two years, and that after two years, he knew it better than I did. "But I can't figure it out, have a look."

So I walks over there. I haves a look.

"Perhaps you should try plugging into the line level input. You're playing an active bass."

"I am."

"No, -10 is the line level, -20 is the instrument level."

"Oh. I thought that the minus sign meant it was subtracting 20 db from the active signal to make it more like an instrument level signal."

"If that were true, why would they subtract 10 decibels from the instrument level?"

"Good point." He plugs it into the line level input. Sounds fucking great. "Thanks man."

"That's what I'm here for." I paused, then added: "That and I provide all the melodic hooks, the creamy tube-driven overdrive sound, the cool looking guitars, and the tight pants."

He started swearing at me. So I blasted him in the face with diminished chords while yelling "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, YELL LOUDER YOU NEANDERTHAL."

BUT WHAT REALLY CONCERNS ME IS... none of us HEARD the clipping for over a year.

I'm going back to cello. :rolleyes:
 
everyone in the band should take a pro-active interest in all other aspects be they drum setups or even bass!!

get a grip ....
 
yeah, bassists have more jokes about guitar players than vise versa :D Bassists usually know more about music and theory, it's a lot easier to be "a guitarist" (I didn't say good) in a band than to be a bassist. 1 bad note by a guitarist - makes him sound bad. 1 bad note by a bassist - makes everyone else sound bad :D

i agree, everyone should know basics about gear/tone. i would only forgive it if the player is really REALLY good. Plus, it's usually better if only 1 person sets up the sound and others don't argue about it.
 
In my band, we all take a vested interest in each others sound, and I think it's quite a healthy thing to be able to say "no, that's too trebly", "more bass please", "bit quieter/louder?" without feeling like you're being bitchy or overly-critical. Sort of means we have a sound we're happy with most of the time.

... "can you try that with snares off, and, like, without slowing down?" :D

Andrew
 
I have successfully ventured to guitar playing and recording at times, the guitarists tend to look at ME while adjusting their sounds.:D
..the drummer, looks at the singer/guitarist while tuning the drums!:D
 
Ah the bassist. The member of the band that's only there to help pay rent. :p
 
My beef is with,and has ALWAYS has been,with drummers here in Vancouver.
Mediocre at best and they all want a pay cheque.Paid rehearsal??? C'mon dude...
I understand that they have limited mental capacity [you HIT things fer a living...or so you hope to] but c'mon....get a REAL job like the rest of us.:rolleyes:
 
Corndog said:
My beef is with,and has ALWAYS has been,with drummers here in Vancouver.
Mediocre at best and they all want a pay cheque.Paid rehearsal??? C'mon dude...
I understand that they have limited mental capacity [you HIT things fer a living...or so you hope to] but c'mon....get a REAL job like the rest of us.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Oh man, that sucks.
It's always nice to have a friend that's a good drummer, and likes the same music as you, and lives close... :rolleyes:
 
Times is tough here in East Van...
Metal rules and Punk is king...

...we're psychobilly.
 
no sense in dissing drummers either. it's true, there's plenty of them out there that just learned a few beats, but the same goes for guitar.

a real drummer (they do exist) will both understand music (at least the rythm part of it) and feel music. i've had pleasure of working with some - it's a sheer joy not having to worry about tempo, etc. it's pretty hard rehearsing without a drummer, though.

don't diss any musicians - it's very bad "sportsmanship"... er... musicianship.
 
I remember playing in a power pop band in the late 80's. we were rehearsing a new song written by the lead player.
For some foolish reason they asked me to contribute to bvox whilst playing my bass line (I'm not allowed to humm in my house I'm so bad). I reluctantly agreed but after a couple of runs through the lead singer & the lead guitarist started having a go at me about singing out of tune.
I knew I was in tune with my bass & with the arrangement as I'd actually taken the time to write down the chord progression and other notes.
They insisted they were right & I was wrong. I wore the abuse for another run through then politely asked the song's writer what the progression was. He explained it - it matched what I was playing, singing & had written down.
Ah, we then discover that the singer had been playing another progression & singing to that. the lead player was playing the right progression but singing along with the singer. I, on the other hand, was playing & singing the right progression which they both reluctantly admitted.
I was asked to leave the band a few weeks later - "musical differences".
Ah bass players, can't live with 'em, can't play without 'em.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Can we diss ourselves? I, as a bassist, am a big fan of dissing bassists.
Click to expand...

well... me too. that - yes. i always laugh when bassists talk about being underappreciated or underrated or when people think their bass is a guitar - there's certainly a good bit of snobbery going on at bass forums. but that's just the thing - they start saying how they're "more" of a musician than others, etc.
 
andydeedpoll said:
In my band, we all take a vested interest in each others sound, and I think it's quite a healthy thing to be able to say "no, that's too trebly", "more bass please", "bit quieter/louder?" without feeling like you're being bitchy or overly-critical. Sort of means we have a sound we're happy with most of the time.

... "can you try that with snares off, and, like, without slowing down?" :D

Andrew
Click to expand...

some of the most productive rehearsals I've ever had have been about nothing but dialing in our tones to work as a group. It doesn't always go perfectly - I had a bassist who refused to use the built-in compression on his Haarke head because it wasn't "vintage", so whenever he dug in for a fill the mix suddenly became all bass - but we usually sounded better for it.
 
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