1981 4080 JG
Plays like a dream!
What's your favorite bass to play?
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Thanks for the great picture and information Todd. I love stuff like that!
I REALLY like that bass! Unique sound, great looks, you can't beat that!
Great story behind that one, and THANK YOU for the links to the sound clip and the Album download!
I've only listened to side one so far, but I REALLY enjoyed it. Some tasty things going on there!
Never heard of The Ship before, but I was just wondering, did you pick the name of the band and the picture for the front cover? I know you do some boat building and I was just wondering which came first.
Guys, you should check out that LP link and give it a listen.
I REALLY like that bass! Unique sound, great looks, you can't beat that!
Great story behind that one, and THANK YOU for the links to the sound clip and the Album download!
I've only listened to side one so far, but I REALLY enjoyed it. Some tasty things going on there!
Never heard of The Ship before, but I was just wondering, did you pick the name of the band and the picture for the front cover? I know you do some boat building and I was just wondering which came first.
Guys, you should check out that LP link and give it a listen.
"Freedom of expression is important, but I have learned that people want to know how much you care before they care how much you know."
The only time a bass player gets noticed is when he stops playing.
The only time a bass player gets noticed is when he stops playing.
I hadn't started learning to sail yet at that point and was doing mostly whitewater kayaking. The two guys in the group who wrote the songs for it named it and since neither of them had ever been sailing either, we're lucky that it's not full of technical errors. There are a few somewhat questionable nautical references in the lyrics, but nothing that stands out like a sore thumb.
I think Steve Goodman put it best. We were sitting in the front row annoying him one late night while he was doing an informal "sittin' in" set at the "Earl of Old Town" nightclub. He pointed to us and said "The Ship - five jewish guys from Chicago singing songs of the sea". In reality, only two of us were Jewish and from Chicago....but they were the two guys who wrote it.
I think Steve Goodman put it best. We were sitting in the front row annoying him one late night while he was doing an informal "sittin' in" set at the "Earl of Old Town" nightclub. He pointed to us and said "The Ship - five jewish guys from Chicago singing songs of the sea". In reality, only two of us were Jewish and from Chicago....but they were the two guys who wrote it.
Tony, I've always liked the combination of a deep low end combined with a tight "thump" at the beginning of a note that that old bass produces with the humbucker/P-bass pickup combo. I usually flat-picked it and with each pickup into it's own channel, it allowed me to really fine-tune the mix of the two sounds. Through my old 18" Sunn folded horn cabinets, it was capable of making some really seriously deep low end and projecting the thump clearly all the way to the back wall of a big hall. Unfortunately, most of the time I was on stage with two or three Martins and a piano, so I didn't get much chance to go wild and crank it up. Even so, that soft, deep sound with a clear punch worked well for that type of music.
I have one quickie scratch track using that bass. The mix isn't great, but if you play it through good speakers or headphones it demonstrates the "thump and boom" combination pretty well. The recording itself is pretty lame and has a whole bunch of things that need fixing, but I wanted to play with some parts and get it on tape before I get Old Timer's disease and forget my own damned song.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music%20stuff/Hard%20Years.MP3
I have one quickie scratch track using that bass. The mix isn't great, but if you play it through good speakers or headphones it demonstrates the "thump and boom" combination pretty well. The recording itself is pretty lame and has a whole bunch of things that need fixing, but I wanted to play with some parts and get it on tape before I get Old Timer's disease and forget my own damned song.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music%20stuff/Hard%20Years.MP3
Since acquiring the '64 RM 1999 it's been hard to play anything else...
Coming equal second are the two basses I brought back from the US recently, the '72 4001 AZG and the '68 P Bass (which plays beautifully thanks to Dane Wilder's superb set up)
Coming equal second are the two basses I brought back from the US recently, the '72 4001 AZG and the '68 P Bass (which plays beautifully thanks to Dane Wilder's superb set up)
'59 425, '59 335, '60 335, '60 360, '60 335F, '60 345F, '64 RM 1999, '65 RM 1998, '65 360-12, '66 335, '67 450-12, '72 4001 '72 4001, '75 4000, '75 4000CS, '00 700S, '01 700C, '01 700S-12, '01 730S-FH, '06 660 DCM
Todd,
IMHO, You REALLY should do some more recording.
I thought the song Hard Years was great. I put it through my headphones and after 3 or 4 times, I stopped listening just for the bass and just took it all in. Listening to the guitars, the vocals, and the lyrics themselves.
You have a very special sound, IF you ever put something together, I'd buy a CD in a second. AND, I'm sure so would many others.
I listen to a wide spectrum of music. Yes, my personal favorite is Progressive Rock, but I also enjoy Folk, SOME country and most everything else EXCEPT RAP, but I won't go there!
When I get my spring wound too tight, and I want to just mellow out and relax and watch the sun rise or set, it's John Denver or Don Williams time on the boom box.
The vocals on your song were soothing, smooth and just made me feel really good. The instruments sounded great, it just has a great feel to it.
If it is OK with you, I'd like to save it to my Ipod.
I honestly enjoyed it a great deal.
Thank you!
Oops sorry everyone, I now return you to thread!
IMHO, You REALLY should do some more recording.
I thought the song Hard Years was great. I put it through my headphones and after 3 or 4 times, I stopped listening just for the bass and just took it all in. Listening to the guitars, the vocals, and the lyrics themselves.
You have a very special sound, IF you ever put something together, I'd buy a CD in a second. AND, I'm sure so would many others.
I listen to a wide spectrum of music. Yes, my personal favorite is Progressive Rock, but I also enjoy Folk, SOME country and most everything else EXCEPT RAP, but I won't go there!
When I get my spring wound too tight, and I want to just mellow out and relax and watch the sun rise or set, it's John Denver or Don Williams time on the boom box.
The vocals on your song were soothing, smooth and just made me feel really good. The instruments sounded great, it just has a great feel to it.
If it is OK with you, I'd like to save it to my Ipod.
I honestly enjoyed it a great deal.
Thank you!
Oops sorry everyone, I now return you to thread!
"Freedom of expression is important, but I have learned that people want to know how much you care before they care how much you know."
The only time a bass player gets noticed is when he stops playing.
The only time a bass player gets noticed is when he stops playing.
It's between these two...My '89 4003S and my '73 4001.
I really like the feel of the '89 neck though.
...Oh and Darren....I'm jealous!
I really like the feel of the '89 neck though.
...Oh and Darren....I'm jealous!
'73 4001 MG '88 4003S JG '89 4003S FG '91 4003S MG
I will get stuck on one bass for a while then change to another one, but I keep going back to my 79 4001 for some reason, it's got a real balanced tone string to string and up the neck and has a nice bottom and top end along with a lot of presence. It's the one I played in that clip I posted here several months ago from youtube.
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green_us90
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incubus2432
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That's a seriously fine pair of basses! Kind of a "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" approach.
Tony,
"IMHO, You REALLY should do some more recording"
...at least until I get one right! Recording one track at a time is interesting in that you can build a song from the ground up, all by yourself - but at the same time, it's difficult for the same reason. There isn't any kind of "group" feel until you get well into it and I tend to get either bored or lost when putting down the first track or two. You also don't have input from other points of view and the addition of parts that perhaps you wouldn't have thought of (funny story to follow in a minute).
I always wanted to have a nice, melodic singing voice with some range and control but it didn't happen so it really limits my song selection to the few that I don't sound truly awful on. The last thing I heard, Bob Gibson (an old folk music pioneer that we did some commercials and a demo for a movie theme song with) had a scratch copy of "Hard Years" and he was going to play it for John Denver to see if John wanted to record it? It's been about 30 years, but I expect to hear back from Bob and John any day now....... Personally, I've always wanted to hear Willie Nelson sing it. Maybe I could pay him to lay down a quick track?
OK, the funny story about adding other points of view when recording: The final song on The Ship album is the big finale and is made up of about four different sections, some old, some new. It starts with a fast section where I was playing some jazz-style runs. Then it blends into a big four-part harmony chorus of a previous theme where the part I was playing was actually inspired by Macca's bass line on "Rain" with some tenth and twelfth fret stuff on the D and G strings and then drops into a revamped version of the opening number with kind of a mellow, "rolling ocean" tempo. This goes on for a verse or two and then it goes from the key of D to A major (they went down to A, I went up to it) and a new section starts.
The lyrics are "The bond that held me captive...was a hold I had to sever...etc." This section is very four-to-six-part, Beach-Boys-ish in terms of harmony with the extra parts that Gary Usher had us add. Tempo-wise though, it was powerful, but slow. In my mind, it seemed to plod along. When we were doing the basic tracks, without vocals or other points of interest, it R E A L L Y seemed to plod along. At some point during a run-through, I had had enough and started playing a new, up-tempo bass line. Normally when you're recording and somebody starts playing something weird, it means "Cut! I screwed up." So everybody stopped and somebody looked at me and said:
"What are you doing???"
"Well, err, uhhh I'm playing the bass line to "Sugar-pie Honey-Bun". This thing needs something to liven it up. Just keep playing and let's see if this works."
They kept playing, I kept playing this counter-tempo Motown bass line against what they were playing, it worked and we kept it.
Here is a copy of that last cut in case you don't want to download the entire monstrosity.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music%20stuff/ending.MP3
U-haul trailer rental to Los Angeles - $167.00
One month's supply of fresh strings and picks - $253.00
Dinner for five at the Teriyaki Tiki across the street from Elektra Studios - $34.00
Ending your folk opera with "Sugar-Pie Honey-Bun" - priceless!
Tony,
"IMHO, You REALLY should do some more recording"
...at least until I get one right! Recording one track at a time is interesting in that you can build a song from the ground up, all by yourself - but at the same time, it's difficult for the same reason. There isn't any kind of "group" feel until you get well into it and I tend to get either bored or lost when putting down the first track or two. You also don't have input from other points of view and the addition of parts that perhaps you wouldn't have thought of (funny story to follow in a minute).
I always wanted to have a nice, melodic singing voice with some range and control but it didn't happen so it really limits my song selection to the few that I don't sound truly awful on. The last thing I heard, Bob Gibson (an old folk music pioneer that we did some commercials and a demo for a movie theme song with) had a scratch copy of "Hard Years" and he was going to play it for John Denver to see if John wanted to record it? It's been about 30 years, but I expect to hear back from Bob and John any day now....... Personally, I've always wanted to hear Willie Nelson sing it. Maybe I could pay him to lay down a quick track?
OK, the funny story about adding other points of view when recording: The final song on The Ship album is the big finale and is made up of about four different sections, some old, some new. It starts with a fast section where I was playing some jazz-style runs. Then it blends into a big four-part harmony chorus of a previous theme where the part I was playing was actually inspired by Macca's bass line on "Rain" with some tenth and twelfth fret stuff on the D and G strings and then drops into a revamped version of the opening number with kind of a mellow, "rolling ocean" tempo. This goes on for a verse or two and then it goes from the key of D to A major (they went down to A, I went up to it) and a new section starts.
The lyrics are "The bond that held me captive...was a hold I had to sever...etc." This section is very four-to-six-part, Beach-Boys-ish in terms of harmony with the extra parts that Gary Usher had us add. Tempo-wise though, it was powerful, but slow. In my mind, it seemed to plod along. When we were doing the basic tracks, without vocals or other points of interest, it R E A L L Y seemed to plod along. At some point during a run-through, I had had enough and started playing a new, up-tempo bass line. Normally when you're recording and somebody starts playing something weird, it means "Cut! I screwed up." So everybody stopped and somebody looked at me and said:
"What are you doing???"
"Well, err, uhhh I'm playing the bass line to "Sugar-pie Honey-Bun". This thing needs something to liven it up. Just keep playing and let's see if this works."
They kept playing, I kept playing this counter-tempo Motown bass line against what they were playing, it worked and we kept it.
Here is a copy of that last cut in case you don't want to download the entire monstrosity.
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music%20stuff/ending.MP3
U-haul trailer rental to Los Angeles - $167.00
One month's supply of fresh strings and picks - $253.00
Dinner for five at the Teriyaki Tiki across the street from Elektra Studios - $34.00
Ending your folk opera with "Sugar-Pie Honey-Bun" - priceless!
