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Meet The Band
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Then ... folk rock bands (in the Fairport/Steeleye Span) vein to... Jamgrass band(s). I have a circle of trusted buddies with whom I have spent many years exploring many aspects of many things. This is usually approached from a folky/bluegrass/improvisational/jamming/jazzy direction. Hey man, don't try to pigeonhole me OK?!?!?! Through this I've found bands like the Grateful Dead, moe, Phish, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Frank Zappa’s many incarnations, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, String Cheese Incident and many others potentially far too dull to include for general consumption. As far as bass players go, I hold Dave Pegg in high esteem, along with Mike Gordon, Victor Wooten, Mark Schatz, Tim Commerford, Phil Lesh, Berry Oakley, Macca, Tony Levin, Jack Cassady, Norman Watt-Roy, James Jamerson, Ron Carter, Les Claypool, and Rick Danko. This list will have changed since you started reading it, though. I was kind of born into the folk revival/revival of the 70s, and spent many a happy night in a variety of folk clubs from the age of about five. So I've also heard some amazing solo performers and have come to understand the importance of sincerity and commitment to what you're doing. Tip o' the hat to: Martin Carthy, Warren Zevon (when playing solo, obviously...), and the criminally underrated Simon Nicol. Again, I could go on and on and maybe even make some up, like my bluesman alter-ego Blind Lemon Jiff. But I won't. So, your honour, to conclude…I’m lucky to be able to do this, and I cherish each gig, even the ones I approach with a sense of dread (I’m sure we all have them). I’ve met fabulous people, been to fabulous places and had fabulous times (and agonies too; funny how I can’t remember so much about them though…). For the anoraks, if you’ve read this far and if you’re interested, I use… Warwick Thumb V through neck or funky ’72 Precision with P/J EMGs and a BadAss II bridge into either a 300W Trace 4x10 SMX combo, occasionally atop a 1x15” extension cab, or a Peavey DataBass 15” combo .How on earth the Peavey rates at 450W, I don’t know. And thank you, yes I am aware that it eats speakers for tea. I don’t care much for these new-fangled ‘horns’ the young folk seem to like in their amplificatory these days, they’re too ‘clicky’ for me. I use whatever strings I can find in 40-120 guage, and I don’t change them that often. I sometimes think the people who can hear different brands of strings hang out too much with the people who can hear which type of battery is in an effects pedal. I’ve wasted gazillions of £s on various effects and modelers over the years, only to find after months of effort and toil, my bass directly into my amp via a decent lead is the sound I’ve been looking for over the last few months. That said, I’ve found some that are useful, but they don’t tend to be of the pitch shifting, ring modulating, chorussy/flangy/phasey variety. About once every vernal equinox, I’ll stick an EBS OctaBass in the loop of the Trace, not the Peavey – I’m afraid the loop hums like a bugger, and I can’t be arsed to get it done. A Yamaha NE-1 preamp, my own active DI box and a knackered Boss LM-2 limiter are always within reach, too.
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I’ve been gigging since I was 15 yrs of age. My first gig was after my older brother's band lost their bass player. He handed me a bass and said 'the gigs start in three months, let's learn the songs'. To him I am ever grateful, because I'd have been too lazy and impatient to have started myself. Thanks Steve.