[Dixielandjazz] leaders and bass amps

[Patrick Cooke]

One thing you're right about, John....There are some bad sounding amps and 
bad pickups out there.  I have thrown out at least a half dozen pickups.  I 
finally have one that sounds good on my bass.  I have also gotten rid of at 
least 3 amps, and I have 3 more that sound from acceptable to excellent. 
Yet I still like to add an equalizer in front of the amp to balance the 
whole thing. The equalizer is extremely important, but it won't work without 
an amp.  The equalizer gives definition to the bottom notes.
       I know a very good bass player here who had one of the worst sounding 
amps I ever heard.  I tried to tell him about it, and he blamed it on the PA 
system and the soundman, yet there wasn't a mike anywhere near him.  I saw 
him a few months ago with a different amp, and he sounded much better.
     No matter what kind of equipment the rig has (including purely 
acoustic), there is still the variable that is the player.  There are so 
many ways to set the amp controls, some guys just don't know how to deal 
with them.
      There are basses that just don't sound good with or without 
amplification.  They don't all sound alike.  This may come as a surprise to 
some, but there are some terrible sounding acoustic basses
       You recommend just a microphone. This works in a lot of places, but 
know that you have given all control to the sound man.  Some sound men like 
to put a mike in front of the amp speaker.  This allow me to hear myself and 
the sound man controls it from there.  I don't have to tell you about sound 
men...but I will.  There are excellent sound men, and there are those to be 
feared.  It he has a tee shirt that says "Hard Rock Cafe", beware.
       I can't just reject all technology because some guys don't know how 
to use it.  I have tinkered and tweaked mine till I feel it is well balanced 
actually has a better sound than without any amplification.  .
    Here's hoping your next bass player has good compatible equipment and 
knows how to use it judiciously.
      Pat Cooke

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "john petters" <johnpetters at tiscali.co.uk>
To: "'David W. Littlefield'" <dwlit at cpcug.org>; 
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 5:33 AM
Subject: RE: [Dixielandjazz] leaders and bass amps


.Quite right. When ever I do a dep job and I see a bass amp and a row of 
mics
on the front line, I always start to feel depressed. It means I cannot play
quietly or dynamically. Last night was different. We played a concert of
hymns and Spirituals at Saffron Walden Baptist Church, nr Cambridge. I had
one microphone for announcements and vocals. It was a standard 6 piece band
with banjo, bass, drums rhythm section. I could control the volume of the
band by how quietly I played. So we could be roaring through a loud chorus,
with lots of riffing behind the solos and drop right down to an almost
whisper level. The banjo and bass were louder than the drums at this point.
If we had amplification - which was not needed - we could not have achieved
this.
Most musicians wrongly assume that their audience wants to hear amplified
music. This is not the case. When ever we play totally acoustic and I
announce the fact that they are hearing the real sound of the instruments,
it always brings a big round of applause.

Amps have changed the way bassists play. The percussive attack of Welman
Braud and Pops Foster, Jimmy Blanton and Walter Page has been replaced by an
obnoxious thin twangy noise which sounds in many cases like a wasp in a jam
jar. The direct injection from bass pick-ups on modern recordings has ruined
many of them for me. If a band needs amplification, use a good microphone,
set it up and leave it alone and don't deafen your audience.

John Petters
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ
www.traditional-jazz.com

-----Original Message-----
From: dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com
[mailto:dixielandjazz-bounces at ml.islandnet.com] On Behalf Of David W.
Littlefield
Sent: 12 September 2004 01:08
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Ride cymbals

At 10:23 AM 9/11/2004 -0500, Patrick Cooke wrote:
>There is another problem...On the same gig, one guy will want me to
>crank it up, and another will want me to turn it down.  I don't have an
>answer for that one!


>     I guess you have to be a bass player to understand it fully.  I
>sometimes go on a gig, and before I'm even unpacked, the leader will come
>over and say "Don't crank up the amp, in fact you really don't need
>it...it's a small room."  I know I'm in trouble, because I do need it and
>tell him so.  As a drummer, I'm sure you have been told to keep it soft
>before you have even set up.  Its in the manual titled "How to be a band
>leader."  Bass players and drummers are always being told how to play by
>people who don't play either instrument;  yet I don't remember having ever
>told or even suggested how a horn player should play.
>     Pat Cooke

It's the band leader's *job* to determine the requirements of the gig and
client preferences, and then to instruct the band as to what these are.
When a leader tells you to play softly, he's not telling you HOW to play,
but WHAT to play, and that *is* his prerogative. If he tells you to play
straight 4/4 or 2-beat, that's telling you what, not how, to play. Same for
telling the drummer to play mostly brushes, and percussively rather than
soup-stirring; or hi-hat rather than riders, and simple straight 4/4 swing
rather than 50s Count Basie style. It's the leader's job and right to
determine the sound and feel of the band, which means manipulating the
individual pieces. You don't like being told what to play, ask the leader
how he wants it played before you accept the gig. And if you haven't asked,
then play it with a smile, and when you get your pay, tell the leader not
to call you again...

--Sheik




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