... about Bass Players

bitzerguy · Post by **bitzerguy** » Thu May 18, 2006 5:59 am

True story: An impromtu jam broke out in the basement of the condo I was sharing with two other folks. One of the residents knew a group of older gentlemen (all in their 70's) except for Richie Henman (formerly of April Wine), who at that time was nearing 50. All of these gentlemen showed up with various acoustic instruments (banjo, fiddle, a beautiful and very old Gibson mandolin) and a double bass.

As the evening progressed, we played all styles and had a ball. During one break, I was curious and asked the double bass player what tuning he used on this huge instrument. "You have to tune these? I just put my fingers on it until it sounds right." was his honest to God answer.

Floored us.

...Dean

bitzerguy · Post by **bitzerguy** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:00 am

I should not fail to mention the bass player was astounding. Fabulous talent.

...Dean

steverok · Post by **steverok** » Thu May 18, 2006 7:00 am

Drummer - the most respectable gig in the band.

Good band except bad drummer - sounds bad.
Bad band except good drummer - sounds good.

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:41 am

I have to agree. If the drummer's no good, then the whole thing's a waste of talent. Nothing can cover up a lack of timing.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu May 18, 2006 2:19 pm

Sooo...this means we're all going to show drummers a little more respect and consideration from now on, right? (Not holdin' my breath on that one...)

Good ones, I mean, of course. Then again, to me there aren't good drummers or bad drummers...there are drummers, and there are non-drummers (many of whom own drum kits, sadly).

bassduke49 · Post by **bassduke49** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:53 pm

What does it mean when the bass player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth?

The stage is level.
Ba dum bumb -- crash!

geddeeee · Post by **geddeeee** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:56 pm

Our drummers timing goes up and down like a yoyo. We've learned to go with him. It's become very organic!
We haven't been found out yet.... WHOOPS!

heinpete · Post by **heinpete** » Thu May 18, 2006 8:50 pm

A guy walks in the shop and asks the sales person: "Do you have a Marshall-Hiatt-AD30 amp top and a Gibson-Stratoblaster with a Fried-Rose-Tremulo?" The person behind the counter replies: "You're a drummer, right?"
The guy: "Yea, how did you guess?"
The sales man: "You know, this is a travel agency!"

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:13 pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does it mean when the bass player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth?

That's a drummer joke, I use it all the time. Some of them even get it.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:23 pm

Another golden oldie, it's in the archives a few times I think.
A drummer wants to be a musician and walks into a music store and looks around for a while,
finally he says: I'll take that red trumpet and that silver accordian. The owner thinks for a minute and says, well, you can have the fire extinguisher but that radiator stays.

heinpete · Post by **heinpete** » Thu May 18, 2006 11:05 pm

A bass player sitting in his living room, with his custom made Alembic-like-high-end-heavy-duty-noble-vintage-gear and his 20 years of experience in all kind of bands, only playing one tone, one string: Plang, plang, plang...
He is totally relaxed and happy just playing plang, plang, plang...

One day his wife, who is convinced about her husband as an excellent bass player, comes back from a concert and excitedly tells: "Wow, that was a fantastic band, great drummer and the bass player - he was really amazing: Totally virtuous and fast across the whole fingerboard - damm, badumm, dadamm, slap, dumm, da da dumm da da dum, slap...!!!".

The man, still holding his instrument, looks at his wife emotionless and replies: "Well, that guy is probably still searching..." and continues, plang, plang, plang...