Over playing

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:20 am

Harry, great point. In my band, I find I am often the "glue" between the guitarist, keyboards and drums. If I were to "take off" at a certain point, the foundation holding things down would be lost. There are definitely opportunities to showboat all I like, just have to pick my spots.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:45 am

Duck Dunn is not a simple bass player ... he uses plenty of notes and most of them are not the root note ... he walks around his bass neck a lot ...

Geddy and Entwistle are just plain fun to listen to ... the worst is Country and westen music ... some of that has horribly boring bass lines ...

I play in a band with 2 guitars ... with a good rhythm guitarist I can do some lead bass playing ... without a rhythm guitar I need to make sure the rhythm is coverd by the bass ... also you can play fast with lots of notes and still have some air between the notes ...

clankchris · Post by **clankchris** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:05 am

I definately wouldn't call myself a lead bassist. I play in one band and one "project"(no singer yet).
My band has two loud guitarists, and is sometimes a challenge to create an interesting bassline. The one with no singer is the power trio, and is more fun because I feel like everybody's sound is separate from each other. The guitarist is much more experienced than me, knows how to eq his guitar well, and forces me to reach over my head, and play things I normally wouldn't.(kinda like when Adam Clayton started playing with the Edge) As for the drummer, he also plays in both groups and has been playing together with me since he started over 3 years ago, giving us a good ear for each other's playing.

clankchris · Post by **clankchris** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:02 pm

Overplaying? See the lead guitarist in my band. Tries to inject blues solos in some of our more indie or acoustic songs. Picture this... a random "Texas Blues Generator" that someone left running all practice long!

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:33 pm

over-playing any instrument is bad ...

jblakey · Post by **jblakey** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:38 pm

It's a good thing Rush had Geddy Lee but it's also a good thing that CCR had Stu Cook.. it just depends on the magic of circumstance.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:35 pm

I also believe if you are listening to the band you will probably tend to not overplay much. And of course it matters what type of music you are playing, over playing is overplaying no matter what type of music or even what instrument you are playing or singing. I think basically overplaying is playing extra stuff that doesn't belong in the song, showing off, a little of that goes a real long way. Some of the best bass solos I've heard are the one liners from the 60's. You've got to know your limitations also. Practicing 32nd note Jaco runs in the middle of songs does not usually sound very good. Country music taught me how to play very simple (which is much harder than playing notes all over the place) and play with the kick drum, good "old" country music also has a lot of space in it.
Jeff, I don't know how much Duck Dunn you've listened to but he is definitely not a busy player at all, he's very lean and sparse, he lays down a groove with lots of space between his notes and very rarely wavers from it. But he does lay down some mean grooves, check out "Hip-Hug-Her" Booker T for a great groove and overdriven B-15 sound, or "6345789" Wilson Pickett for his simplicity.
Incidently he didn't play bass on "Green Onions" I forgot why but it's explained in their greatest hits and it's 4:30 am, I just drove three hours back from a gig and I'm too lazy to go get it.

nattiep · Post by **nattiep** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:35 am

Luckily for me I'm not as good as Jaco was so I can't do the "32nd note" runs. I usually add stuff where everyone stops and its just drums keeping the beat. Nice to fit in quick little fills.

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:27 am

"My band has two loud guitarists, and is sometimes a challenge to create an interesting bassline".

...it's probably even more of a challenge to be heard. In a gig situation, most soundmen will just bury the bass in the mix of two loud guitarists.

thx1955 · Post by **thx1955** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:37 am

Bob, you're right Green Onions was 1962,Lee Stienberg, the original Booker T bassist played on that.

Donald replaced Lee in 64. Should have remembered that .... well spotted, 4:30, post GIG !!!

clankchris · Post by **clankchris** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:57 am

Yeah Joey, you are dead on. The two guitarists in my band hastened my decision to get a Mesa Bass 400, as I was previously running a Hartke Kickback 15 on the ragged edge (baaaad clipping sound!). They always would say things like "Oh, I can hear you fine!". Now they say "Wow, when did you change the bassline to THAT song?"
Hmmm.....

clankchris · Post by **clankchris** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:04 am

Not advocating volume wars here, was just sick of being completely buried in the mix.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:33 pm

If you have problems with two loud guitarists do what I do, buy an old SVT, preferably with two cabs, throw flatwounds on a new 4003, play with plenty of bottom and clear where you and the guitarist's sound won't mix too much. And you also don't have to worry too much about the soundman burying you because they can't unless you are playing in a ridiculously loud band with a million watt PA. SVT's were designed when almost all guitar players had either non-master volume 100 watt Marshalls or Ampeg V4's, both will peel paint off the walls and make your ears bleed but sound great.

clankchris · Post by **clankchris** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:18 pm

Have a newfound appreciation for tube amps ever since I first played through my Mesa Bass 400! It has 6l6's now, but just ordered 6550 svets as per Mesa's advice. It's loud now, I can't imagine it with twice the wattage. Should have seen the guitarists' faces the first time I played it. Wait till I replace the eden 210t with a 610 or 810!
Yes, I'm also an Ampeg fan, just love Paul D' Amour's tone from Undertow with his Mesa.