/ \ / / - _--__| / | | / \ ________--__- O --- ____ | | \ \ / \ =======/-/=======| |) O --- ___ \ | / / ======/-/=====================| |) O--- ___ | / =====/-/===================================| |) O--- ___ ====/-/================================================| |) -__ ___/_/ _|_ | _ ___ ___ __|__ _ \__ __ \ ___\_\\-_ | |_ / \ | ) __ | | | | / \ | | \ \\ \\\\\\\\\-_ \_/ | \ |-- |--< / \ | \_/ \_/ _ |\ \ | | \__ | \ \__/ | ____ \ o \/\ |_\ /\| \_ |___/ ____---\\\\\\| \ \ \ \ \_ /\| \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\--- \_ \ \ \ _/\/ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\------ \_ \ __-\\\/ ---\\\\\\\- Issue #280 January 21, 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To post: Subscriptions, deletions, requests: bass@uwplatt.edu bass-request@uwplatt.edu (Bitnet: bass@uwplatt.bitnet) (Bitnet: bass-request@uwplatt.bitnet) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today's topics: RE: The Bottom Line #277 Shops & clubs in London Fretless Bass for Sale: AMAZING PRICE New SWR Cab, "Henry the 8 by 8" About nerves and a little tab Playing bass and reading music Primus Tab and Intro... Info Request: small combo amp RE: Why Can't I remember tunes? BABoL II Gig announcement/you want to catch... (none) Equipment tried TubeWorks MosValve bass amp? More Underrated Bassists... ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1993 20:00:23 EST From: I'D RATHER STAY A CHILD & KEEP MY SELF RESPECT IF BEING AN ADULT MEANS BEING LIKE YOU Subject: RE: The Bottom Line #277 Dear Mike, As a fellow equipement oggler (sp?) I myself have also been "torpedoed" by both SWR's luxurious appeal (not to mention impressive endorsements) and Carvin's checkbook appeal. Here are some points to consider... -Carvin's resale value is a fraction of SWR's. A rep is a rep, ya know? -SWR's have existed long enough to prove road-worthiness (cabs, heads etc) -VERY IMPORTANT!!! Carvin sorta plays "games" with their spec quotes, especially regarding rigging options and power output. That is to say they do not make it clear that you MUST biamp. All in all I may be wrong, but take advantage of Carvin's 800 number and pester them for details. Also consider this, you may find a used Carvin stack by calling around area dealers, but you can always find a new or used SWR practically anywhere. Also, SWR's rigging options are much wider than Carvin's (SWR's also look, smell, and taste better, and they use environmentally safe insulation). Good Luck, Dan ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 16:45:28 CET From: Pontus Astrom Subject: Shops & clubs in London I'm goin to London this spring so I want to know where to go shopping and (h)earing music. I'm into Funk & Jazz (and would like to find a used fretless Stingray). Either "post" or mail me (and I will summarize). anyTHANXway Pop ----------- Quiz: Eb-7 C7b5 F7 Bb7 ? ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 13:01:12 EST From: jost@itd.nrl.navy.mil Subject: Fretless Bass for Sale: AMAZING PRICE For sale- Hohner PJ Fretless, nearly perfect condition (a few scratches) $100 firm, you pay shipping or pick it up here in Washington This was my learner's fretless, I've moved on to something else...I want it to have a good home, I'd also like to sell it fast, as I have limited storage space for it. Drop me an email to jost@itd.nrl.navy.mil or call me on either (703) 516-0648 [work] or (703) 549-3688 [home]. PJ ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 07:01:32 PST From: 19-Jan-1993 1000 Subject: New SWR Cab, "Henry the 8 by 8" From USENET. Another new SWR cabinet, this one with *8" speakers*! Pretty soon we'll all be blasting away through walls of headphones if this keeps up...8^) 8^) What a name, sounds like a character on "Shining Time Station". From: dbox@valentine.ics.uci.edu (Don Box) Date: 19 Jan 93 08:57:28 GMT I went to NAMM yesterday and SWR has a new speaker cabinet. It is called "Henry the 8 x 8" It's about 36" tall with eight 8" speakers and the same horn as the Goliath II. It weighs slighly more than a Goliath II BUT it has tilt back casters a la AMPEG SVTs. It looked bretty cool. It's supposed to be for players that need to overtake loud guitarists. As for SWR reliability, I have had nothing but good experiences with my Goliath II and Jr. I don't own any swr electronics. From what I remember, Steve W. Raub (sp?) used to be an engineer at Acoustic. When I have spoken to him, he seemed like a decent guy, and I'm really critical of people!! DB Brian Rost ÿ rost@tecrus.enet.dec.com 508-568-6115 DEC, Hudson, MA ******************************************************************************* "Have you noticed how the hole in the ozone layer has grown progressively larger since rap got popular?" -Anonymous ******************************************************************************* ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 16:45:49 +0100 From: Patrick Schaumont Subject: About nerves and a little tab Hi, Here are two little messages to the land of bass and bottom. 1. Nerves on gigs ... anyone knows what I mean ? Every time there are people from outside watching (like on a gig) I get the nerves and I loose all speed I can normally play when practicing. This is quite a frustration, of course, learning all bottom lines as good as you can get them to sound, and then finding out on stage that your fingers won't follow your mind any more. I was wondering wether everybody doing gigs experienced such problems; I mean, do you play worse due to nerves ? If so, do you just live with it or what ? 2. I already saw and used a lot of bass tabs here. Here's my 0.02$ worth (And it really is 0.02$; this is a beginners' tab, it is one of the first I ever played. Sorry you 20-finger tappers and 160 bpm slappers. Also, I didn't added timing - I guess that everyone knowing the song won't have any problem figuring this out). Three Imaginary Boys - The Cure This is a nice intro which isn't originally in the song, G |------------0-----2-----2-----2--5--5--------------------| D |*--2--3--2-----2-----3-----3-----------------------------| A |*--------------------------------------------------------| E |---------------------------------------------------------| G |------0-----0--------2-----2--0--0-----------------------| D |--------------------------------------------------------*| A |---3-----3-----3--0-------------------------------------*| E |---------------------------------------------------------| Here is the bottom line used in verses: G |---------------------------------------------------------| D |*---2--2--3--2--------------------------1--1--2--3------*| A |*---------------------------2--2--3--2------------------*| E |----------------3--3--5--3-------------------------------| Text: 'Walk across the garden in the footsteps of my shadow see the lights out no-one's home In amongst the statues stare at nothing in the garden moves Can you help me ?' Here's the chorus tab: G |---------------------------------------------------------| D |*---------------------0--2--------------4--5--4--0------*| A |*---0--0--0--0--3--3--------2--2--2--2------------------*| E |---------------------------------------------------------| Text: 'Close my eyes and hold so tightly scared of what the morning brings Waiting for tomorrow never comes Deep inside the empty feeling all the night time leaves me' G |---------------------------------------------------------| D |----------5--4--------4--3--------3--2--------3--2-------| A |---------------------------------------------------------| E |----3--3--------2--2--------1--1--------0--0-------------| Text: 'Three Imaginary boys ...' This one's the solo, normally played by the lead, but it's nice to play it on bass (And I really see no reason why basemen shouldn't do a guitar solo) G |-----0--2--4----8--8--9--11--9--7--4--4--4--2--0---------| D |--2-----------------------------------------------4------| A |---------------------------------------------------------| E |---------------------------------------------------------| G |-----0--2--4----8--8--9--11--9--9--11--11--12--12--------| D |--2------------------------------------------------------| A |---------------------------------------------------------| E |---------------------------------------------------------| G |--14--14--16--16--20--20--21--21--24---------------------| D |---------------------------------------------------------| A |---------------------------------------------------------| E |---------------------------------------------------------| If do not have 24 frets, you can go down back after the 14th fret of the third bar like this: G |--14--14--16--16--14--14--12--12--11---------------------| D |---------------------------------------------------------| A |---------------------------------------------------------| E |---------------------------------------------------------| That's it. Quite simple. Pit. ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Jan 93 21:38:00 GMT From: chris@green.att.com Subject: Playing bass and reading music Greetings, I have been reading The Bottom Line for several months and have not seen this subject discussed. As a bass player, do you read music? If so, do you also improvise or modify the written score? What types of music do you play that has a written score? How did you learn to read music? Since I am illiterate when it comes to reading music, I can only work from fake books (guitar chords, melody line, and lyrics only). What am I missing out on? I only play for fun and have no ambitions towards any professional, but there has been an occasion or two when I needed to play from something written. Comments and discussion are welcomed. --- Chris Hardin chris@green.att.com ...!att!green!chris 404.750.5246 ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1993 16:15:54 -0600 (CST) From: Kenneth Churchill Subject: Primus Tab and Intro... Greetings all in Bass-land. This is my first posting to TBL, and as such, I'll start with the customary Introduction... I play a Yamaha RBX-200 on a Crate B40-XL practice amp. I have only been playing for about 4 months, so I don't think I'm particularily good. :-) Now to my posting: Does anyone out there have any Primus tab? I am looking for the following songs in particular, but any will do: Tommy the Cat, Jerry Was A Race Car Driver (4-string tab, please), Harold of the Rocks, Too Many Puppies, and John the Fisherman. Either reply to me through E-Mail at either address below, or if they want it, post it in TBL... Thanks in advance for any help rendered. +-----------+ +------------------------+ | | I am: Ken Churchill | | | Egg | churchil@plains.NoDak.edu | Mr. Bungle | | | ud191217@vm1.NoDak.edu | | +-----------+ +------------------------+ (((((((((((((((((*********************.*******************))))))))))))))))) ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 14:17:53 EST From: rm@centerline.com Subject: Info Request: small combo amp It seems like I'm going to be doing a reasonable amount of work in the near future for which it would be nice to have a small combo amp, and I was hoping for suggestions. I've currently got a large amp with effects which is big enough for anything I ever do and it sounds great, too. But it is a pain for me to load in with it, requiring two trips with a hand truck, or (at least) three without one. I also have a little practice amp which is really only good enough for solo practicing or jazz (or other quiet music) rehearsals. What I'm looking for is probably a GK M150E/112 (catchy name, eh?) which is a 26 pound combo amp with a single 12" speaker that puts out (probably) 75 watts into its (probably very inefficient) builtin speaker. It's got a built in chorus and compressor. If anyone has any experience with this amp, I'd appreciate it, particularly if you gig with it. I've never played through this amp, but it would suprise me if it sounded bad, given my experience with other GK amps. About the only drawback is the price- about $600. I really couldn't consider a new one, but if they can be found on the used market, I'd be interested in that too. If there are any similar amps that anyone knows about, please let me know about them as well. I've seen a little single 10" Carvin combo in the catalog that looked fine on paper, but at almost twice the weight, it is probably too heavy (I'd like to be able to reliably take this on the bus on a regular basis). And I used to have a Peavey TKO 80 which was a little too big, a little too heavy, and sounded like shit (that really didn't bother me too much though) but couldn't be beat for $75 used. Thanks in advance. rm ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 18:16:27 EST From: rm@centerline.com Subject: RE: Why Can't I remember tunes? Nice theory about the different parts of the brain and all Oz, but me thinks you can't remember the lyrics for the same reason that I can't remember them- because you're old! 8-) In the words of my famous father-in-law: "Getting old isn't so bad, but when your memory goes, forget it." Seriously though, I do know exactly what you mean. I usually try to beat either the bass part or the lyrics into my head first, and then learn the other one- sometimes this helps. Also, if I'm learning a part from written music, I generally "accompany" myself by singing along. This was done originally just so I would have some harmonic context in which to compse a bass line (or justify a written out line), but it does have the side effect of drilling the lyrics into my head. For my last gig, I had to learn the tune "A Whole New World" from the Alladin movie- being a funky kind of guy, not the kind of material that I would normally gravitate to. It has about a bizzillion changes and a modulation, and parts of it were going to be played rubato, so I learned it by singing along as I composed my lines. I don't know if I should recommend this technique or not- now I have a bunch of all-too-precious brain cells permanently dedicated to the lyrics of a song I will never sing! But anyway, I do sympathize with your plight. On a similar note, I have noticed that if I learn a part by always having the music in front of me (as opposed to relying on my memory) then I always need the sheet music every time I play it, no matter how many times I play it. I have a friend who does theatre work a lot, who observes the same thing. After a few dozen shows, he plays totally from memory, but there are other players who come in every night and read the part. Pretty strange, huh? rm ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Jan 93 10:21:11 U From: Oz Barron Subject: BABoL II Quick reminder, we meet on Tuesday, January 26 at THe Boston Beer Works. See Ya There! -Oz oz@pharlap.com ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 93 10:42:10 EST From: bobdavis@viewlogic.com Subject: Gig announcement/you want to catch... this funky pop band I've been doing sound with. Very high overall quality, with together instrumental chops throughout, especially the bassist/drummer and rhythmic togetherness in general. The band's name is "i2i". The bassist's name is Larry Jackson, who's been a very "present" bassist in the boston area for quite a while, including long stints with "the Courage Brothers" and "Search Party". Say hello. Thursday, Jan 21 (tomorrow), 9-1, Johnny D's --- Davis Square (I'll be at this one a little late due to an earlier rehearsal) And if ya ski, perhaps this will interest you: Saturday & Sunday, Jan 23-24, 9:30-1, Rusty Nail --- Stow, VT If you'd like to be on their email or paper mail list, just reply to me, and I'll put ya on it. keep smiling -Bob ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 12:15 EDT From: RWILLIAMS@rabbit.ess.harris.com Hello Fellow TBLers! I'm back from NAMM and suffering from post-NAMM depression. For starters, anyone planning to go in the future should plan on going all four days. You need the time to see all the equipment, demos, concerts, etc. I believe someone told me it was 800,000 square feet (thats 18 acres!!). I was there two whole days and I still somehow missed the Steinberger booth (4500 sq.ft.). The show was divided up into five halls plus the arena. I understand now why this show doesn't travel, there are very few places that could match this footprint. I suppose you're all dying to find out who I met and saw, so here is the tally: Catagory I: Met and saw play: Michael Manring (Zon Guitars) - Video taped a 20 minute solo performance using various basses plus a three bass solo. Very nice guy, down to earth, easy to approach, kinda shy. Very expressionistic playing, a bass god.; Brian Bromberg (Peavy Guitars) - Highly progressive player, using piccilo bass, and a variety of stringings on the same model bass (his signiture model). Has new album coming out shortly. Nice guy, normal looking joe, plays with acoustic styles (see his interview in B.P.). Several minutes of video tape both with band and solo demo. Amazing thing - his hands barely move, yet millions of notes are being played.;Bunny Brunell (Carvin) - Exceptional fretless/upright performer. Plays a wide variety of styles, extremely dexterous, execelent tapper. Has a signiture fretted five string from Carvin. His has a Hip-Shot on the "B" string to go down to "A". (Yikes!). Quite type, french accent. Noticed his nails on his right hand to be quite long. I think he uses them for intonation. Have a video tape of him and Reggie Hamilton doing a duet.; Reggie Hamiton - played a jazz improv on fretted with Bunny on fretless. I think he would have sounded better on fretless judging by his playing technique. Good display of techniques, excellent timing, good grove, plethora of scales and modes. Freindly, reserved. ;Unkown Bassist (Roland) - no, he didn't wear a bag on his head! He played for Roland's demo fusion band. Have on video tape but the sound is rather distorted due to the intense volume. He did look familar though. Excellent slap and pop player. Used Peavy MIDI bass. (Check out the MIDI bass, its an excellent controller and bass guitar). Lastly - Chuck Rainey - Performed with a trio at the Dean Markley booth. Kept falling out of the pocket with the drummer. His improv solo was out of time and went to keys that made no musical sense in the blues-rock style that was being themed. In all- pretty crappy Chuck. ;( Catagory II - Bassists I saw play but didnt meet: Will Lee - very exuberant style, lots of jumping around, joking with the audience. Need I mention he's good? Catagory III - Bassists I met but didn't see perform: Lee Sklar, John Patitucci,Rudy Sazaro (OK, I can't spell it!) and VICTOR WOOTEN (!!!!). I missed Victor's demo and I could have shot myself!. Oh, the Kiss bassist (Simmons?) was there too (oh boy). Catagory IV - Bassists I missed all together! : Nathaan East, Vail Johnson and Stu Hamm. Oh Well! There were also full-fledged concerts after hours that required tickets. However, the tickets must be obtained first thing from the designated booths else they're history. I waited just a little too long and missed out. Victor Wooten has a duet album coming out with Steve Bailey. Fender debued the "Urge" bass that Stu Hamm endorses. Very small body. Neck has a larger radius than the Kubicki but the width makes it easy to play. Nice action. Didn't get to plug it in. Played a Linc bass. Unusual dual arc neck. The cross-section of the neck has a semi-triangular shape that works well. The body is semi-hollow and very light and comfortable. The sensitivity was awsome! Playing lightly presented a singing fretless sound while poping and slapping gave a brilliant, dynamic sound. Various configurations available. Highly recomended. Another was a Robin Machetti series five-string fretted. Body is stepped in parallel with the neck in such a way as to provide a continuous thumb rest along the length of the body above the pickups. Very bright, hot sound. String spacing was rather close, but still slappable. Excellent action. Very pricey (1695 and up). Beautiful finishes and woods. Head stock is Vee'd to make tuner access easier. The Carvin Bunny Brunell signiture five-string has a progressive string spacing which puts the strings further apart at the bridge. Very playable. Comes in fretted and fretless. Fretless has a nice growl to it. Reasonably priced. Zon has a variety of basses on display including a 10-string, the Michael Manring Hyperbass, a headless Steinbergerish type bass, and several fretted and fretless models. Beautiful finishes and woods, great sound and playability. Listened to many cabs. Found most with tweeters to be quite bright (bleeding ears, etc). SWR was used for the majority of the demos. The Trace Elliot had a mellower sound but still full-range and punchy. The Bag End cabs were very compact and retained a big sound. Messa Boogie, definately a Rock-n-Roll system. Fender showed off its new bass stack. A 200 watt head with cross-over, EQ, compression, 4x10 and 1x15 cabinets. Pretty generic. A lot of unusual and foreign instruments. Everything from sitars to bagpipes, steel drums, and weird looking little guitars with millions of strings. In all, a very impressive show, even if it did rain the entire time I was there. If any of you have specific questions, mail me directly and I try to answer them for you. ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Jan 93 15:14:37 U From: Oz Barron Subject: Equipment tried I had a day off for MLK's B'day and thought I'd treat myself to a day in the music stores. Sooo... I went to a couple of our local establishments and brought my bass. I wanted to check out small cabs. The first thing I saw was the Hartke 210 transporter. The combo was NOT in stock, so, I plugged my trusty 'berger into the hartke head into the 210 cab. The cab was very clear, but thin. with dramatic EQ settings on the head, the fullness of the bass came out. I then plugged into the Eden 410 just below it and...(Brace yourselves Eden/SWR lovers) I did not lie it. I thought the 210 sounded MUCH fuller, and was certainly more clear. A quick word about the head, It was the biamp model, but only one amp was in use. What a nice head! One thing that struck me was that this head offers both a solid state and a tube front-end, and the tube pre-amp blew away the solid state pre-amp. Why is that? Did the designers concentrate all their energy on the tube? I mean, there is no reason that I know of for a tube to sound much more brilliant, crisp and clear, then a transistor. Tech heads wish to respond? Anyway, I then went on to try out a Peavey 210TX cab, 2-10" spkrs with a horn. I played this through a Peavey MkIII head set absoulutly flat. I plugged it in and... WOW!!! I had to ask wice if it was the only cab plugged in. What depth! What clarity, what a blast! WHAT A PRICE!! $280.00 vs $399 for the Hartke!!! I was really blown away. I think this cab with the Hartke (or similar) head would be amazing! I think I need it and my 15" for a killer bi-amp setup that even I can carry! Check it out! OK, lastly, I played a 5 string OLD 'berger. It reinforced why I didn't like them when I first plated 'em, they put 5 strings on a 4 string neck. It's so close together as to be uncomfortable, and I have SMALL hands. That's it for now! Bye! -oz ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 93 22:28:16 -0500 From: mjkobb@media.mit.edu Subject: TubeWorks MosValve bass amp? Greetings! Well, my amp quest continues. I took the Spector over to the store to try out the amps again (some of you may remember that I said that I'd tried out a whole slew of amps with one of the store's Warwicks, and I thought they all sucked, so I concluded that the bass must've had problems). Anyway, I tried the Hartke, the GK 800RB and the SWR SM-400 again. The Baby Blue was just too small, and the Ampeg was gone. The Hartke seems really well engineered, but the sound just didn't grab me. I had to crank the hell out of the EQ to get the sound I wanted. The GK 800 sounded (to me) a bit better, but I found the tone shaping filters to be not what I was looking for. The SM-400 sounded the best of them all, even with the tone controls flat, and I really did like the tone. Of the amps I've tried, it's winning so far. However, there are still two amps that I haven't had the chance to try: The Eden VT-.75, and the TubeWorks 3300 MosValve amp. I'm still waiting for literature from the Eden folks, but the TubeWorks folks sent me some literature. The 3300 sounds pretty cool on paper, and I was wondering if anybody had had a chance to try one out. The don't seem to have any in town. What did you think? How about the other MosValve stuff? Does their "sounds like a tube" claim hold water? How about the Eden? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? ;-) Thanks! --Mike ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 93 23:24 EST From: LPR100@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Subject: More Underrated Bassists... Check out John Myung, playing with Dream Theater. The second album, Images And Words, is easily available, but the first is out of print for now except on import from Japan. He plays a mean 6 string, and has a style that is quite different from the standard rock bass gods. He uses chords to a large extent, and occasionally does some very tasteful tapping. The unfortunate thing is, he is mixed quite low and has a very 'muddy' tone on I&W. I'm having trouble picking out a lot of what he plays, and it wasn't until I saw him live that I was truly impressed. If these guys come around, don't miss them! (Dream Theater sounds a bit like Rush meets Yes meets Queensryche, but with lots of originality thrown in.) Also, don't miss Doug Pinnick of King's X. Not the flashiest bass player in the world, but if you've ever wondered how to fill up space in a trio without playing a million notes per measure, give him a listen. Incredible voice too.... ___ ___ Larry Rossi -- LPR100@psuvm.psu.edu / \ _ _ _ _ / \ _ ___ | O | || || | \/ | | O || | | __| And for a moment when our | -< || || | | | --< | | ||= world had filled the skies, | O | ||_|| ||\/|| | O || |_ ||__ Magic turned our eyes... \___/ \___/ || || \___/ |___| |___| Jon Anderson ---------------------------------------------------------- Anonymous ftp access for back issues, etc.: kappa.rice.edu (128.42.4.7) in the /pub/bass directory (Username is 'anonymous', password is your e-mail address. Try typing 'help' for more info once logged in.) _The Bottom Line_ is a digest dedicated to the art of playing electric and acoustic bass. It is distributed on a basis that coincides with the amount of material received, from the University of Wisconsin - Platteville, USA; Kevin Tipple, Erik Habbinga, editors Copyright _The Bottom Line_, 1992 The contents of _The Bottom Line_ are solely the opinions and comments of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the authors' managements or the digest management. The editors do not assume responsibility for copyright infringement of submitted material. *************************** End of The Bottom Line #280 ***************************