Ze Butcherbird iz complete

[Chris P.]

Liar! You just buy basses because of the looks. And because some famous dude used them too.

Totally missed this!

Yep, I only buy basses for their looks. Really! And why not. Bass is just a low rumble, no one hears exactly.


But really: I don't have any customized basses, though I'm busy with some ones. I love practical basses like Rob's Tonka Hobbit, both Mike Watt basses. I prefer them to nice mint basses. All my basses are players and all have their issues, but I don't care.

My 4005 is another story. According to my 'rules' I have to sell it, but I can't. My rules are that I sell a bass if I don't use it for a long time. I buy something else instead. I never regret sold basses, though I wish I still had ALL of them:) But I don't regret selling a certain bass.

[Highlander]

Sounds familiar to me too, almost too familiar, Rob...

First thing I saw on colour TV was THUNDERBIRDS (are go... 1969 we were well behind the US of A - predictable...? how dare you...) hence the Peter Cook T'bird being so colourful, or was that being taken to the cinema in '68 to see the HAL 9000 on the big screen... still blown away by the "through the monolith" section, maaaan... probably explains the loose screws..., oh yeah Martin Turner, Phil Mogg... Mr Entwistle - ohh, those fingers could dance...
Dennis Dunnaway and Jim Lea and Jack Bruce and Andy Fraser- my wanting to play bass and after an EB3L (so what, I settled for an SG, she was cheap at the time...) which I will probably get one day...
Felix Pappalardi - a sad obsession with EB1's - a truly MOUNTAINous sound... poor deranged Gail Collins, living with that...
Berry Oakley and Dennis Dunnaway - tried a Jazz for a while (loan), just felt like a piece of wood... sorry Fender Dept... but loved the sound they got with them, never tried a Pre CBS as I like that neck profile (ref to PC'bird) ...
Roger Glover and Gary "Geddy" Lee - In London, at the time I bought my RD, Ric's were even MORE expensive... but what a sound... both have, mostly, moved away...
John Gustafson - standing behind the speaker stack at the Marquee taking photos of the jazzy Ian Gillan Band and this man GLARING at me making these thunderous sounds... great night... great band... too expensive an instrument...
Jaco and Paladino for fretless, but Im really quite normal, honest...

oops... strayed again...

Well, some of it Rob (and Scott, and Mark) ...

How did I end up with an RD...? oh yeah...

The Ruthlessly Desecrated had the same Badass as yours, Scott (I think), at least for a while, and was on the PC until the rebuild this year... languishing on the bench in the shed at the moment - might be tricky to fit to a headless, which is the only one of the trio left it's not been on, and a bit bulky to use as a thumb rest...

oh yeah... as people are being generous to me and if on a tight budget...
anyone want a Badass...? gratis...
Saddles are quite "altered" (wide neck on the PC compared to the RD) can post pic...
If not it'll stay in the shed for now...
That "Pay It Forward" moment...

I don't own a "stock" instrument, but in due deference to the the moderators, it is probably best that none of you ever see my Ibanez 12 string, nor my Hohner Jack...

Rob, to me, selling an instrument would be like cutting off a piece of my own flesh, same goes for my Hiwatt and my Marshall, but I do understand where you are coming from... your in the NBPC - loan her to Chris and see if he'll loan something to you, just to try out... oh yeah, and bass players can "hit the note" too - you can have a dog of an instrument as a looker, as long as it works... my simple philosophy...

My Dell laptop (where I do my primary writing) which is getting long in the tooth ('03), which has lost connectivity with our SOHO... as the "fault" is confirmed (working on both as I sit here) will have to be reformatted as soon as I've backed up my back ups of my back ups onto my backup HP and my primary Dell (which is where I'm at) - 30 gig via USB1 - that is what I mean by PC HELL...

[uwe]

"John Gustafson - standing behind the speaker stack at the Marquee taking photos of the jazzy Ian Gillan Band and this man GLARING at me making these thunderous sounds... great night... great band... too expensive an instrument..."

You saw the Ian Gillan Band live? Now I'm jealeous. Brilliant music and I still listen to their stuff regularly. Gustafson is one of my heroes on bass (also for his Roxy Music work, just listen to Love is the Drug) and Brit-Latin-Prog (a flleeting moment in late seventies music if I may so) never got better than them (never mind how no one else tried it!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5cqBBYBS0Y&feature=related

[gweimer]

I opened up for Gillan.  They were deafeningly loud, and STILL Ian's voice cut through the mix.

[uwe]

But that was the later incarnation going by the name of "Gillan", with the punky blond guitarist (Bernie Torme) and the bald bass behemoth (John McCoy), right? Ironically, McCoy came from a jazz rock background (Brit outfit ZZebra) and turned rock, while John Gustafson (the bassist with the prior incarnation, i.e. the Ian Gillan Band) had a rock background and only became jazzy with the Ian Gillan Band.

[sniper]

I was listening to  GMT (Guy, McCoy and Torme) this morning doing a DP song with Dee Snider walking on during the encore. Torme has not the range Gillan did and genarally GMT seems to be a bit more "basic" than Gillan but the incarnation is a good one.

GMT has just opened up distribution rights here in the states.

John is a behemoth but I like his playing. Tommie is a small little thing but a very accomplished pianist/singer (very multi instrumented too!)

Love the bass Scott! That is truely a working work of art. 

[uwe]

"John is a behemoth but I like his playing."

No issue with his playing at all. I copped quite a few things from him, like playing syncopated eights where you would expect straight eights and so forth. In a kind of Gene Simmons way, he makes his bass playing seem a lot more rigid and heavy-handed than he actually is: he's quite nimble. I also like his songwriting, stuff like Restless and Fiji are just brilliant, he has a very typical way of using various chords while hammering through on one note.  It's an old trick to make yourself heard as a bassist: Let the lesser mortals who play guitar and keyboards toy with their childish chord changes while you obstinately hang on to one note. Adds drama and people will start looking at you.

What's happening here at the beginning, at  0.40 and 1.22 is classic McCoy songwriting and bassplaying ("Who me? I might have written those chord changes, but I sure as hell ain't playing them!")

[OldManC]

I got a friend request a while back on Myspace from GMT and thought they sounded pretty good. I've been aware of Bernie since his very short stint in Ozzy's band. It's nice to hear they might get the ball rolling in the States. They may not become a household name, but a tour here could considerably open up their fan base.

[Basvarken]

Hey Ken don't worry, I was only teasing Chris a bit

[Chris P.]

 

[Highlander]

Rob, I guessed that...

Er, Uwe, I have a deep dark secret re Mr McCoy...

When I was 18 and 1/2 way through my apprenticeship with British Airways, I used to haunt the Marquee, seeing all sorts of bands, usually drinking too much...
I would get there early, and a lot of the time would have no problem getting up behind the stack to do a shoot, ran into all sorts of people who also were into NWOBHM, like Mr Ulrich of some US beat combo these days... I was more "old school"...

I saw Wishbone Ash, all Thunderbirds and flying V's (saw them a lot), when someone opened the rear doors and sardined the place (400 max and they estimated 700 - what a gig...!) the Pretenders (a Christmas eve show - I predicted a new song of theirs would be a hit - brass in pocket - saw Jim Scott Honeyman join Nils Lofgren for 1/2 a set a few years later - Odeon show - a week later he was gone...), anyway, I digress...

I saw 3 lineups of Gillan at the Marquee - IGB (they used to do a stunning version of Child in Time... I'll e you some pics when I dig them out), the Steve Byrd line up (the night Blackmore came on - no camera that night - the look on Steve Byrds face when RB came on to steal his glory, playing Smoke, and Tokyo... - Byrd also played on the 2nd Zzebra LP wth McCoy), and the Torme line up (sold JM a set of pics of that gig, remember seeing Torme supporting Whitesnake, pre Gillan days)...

a few days after that show I ran into Mr McCoy in a second hand book shop near where we both lived, a mammoth of a man and a great player, and he was wearing this big furry brown coat... we chatted for a while, usual subject - bass guitars - anyway, he mentioned this band (singer and guitarist) he was producing that needed a bass player and a drummer, they had had a couple of singles out (he depped on bass) but were looking for regulars, and invited me for a jam with them...

It is here that I made a decision that put me where I am today, and steered me away from ever seriously taking up a career in music - I explained that I wanted to finish my apprenticeship so I could have something to fall back on... which he appreciated... and wished me well... I had no wheels, and personally, at the time, it would have been the wrong move for me...

Anyway, a chap called Chris Aylmer (rip) joined on bass, and a oddly named drummer called Thundersticks; the guitarist was Mick Samson (now also rip)... the vocalist used to wear these ghastly dayglo leopard skin print vests and had this really cheesy moustache, with a voice slightly reminiscent of Arthur Brown, and used to go by the name of "Bruce-Bruce"... band was called Samson, nothig really noteworthy in musical history, except for the singer...

I think the line-up recorded 3 lp's before Bruce Dickenson left to join Iron Maiden and seems to have made a career out of it...

So many stories, so little time...

Tiiiime for bed...

Sproing....

0230 - my wife is going to KILL me...

[dexter]

"John Gustafson - standing behind the speaker stack at the Marquee taking photos of the jazzy Ian Gillan Band and this man GLARING at me making these thunderous sounds... great night... great band... too expensive an instrument..."

You saw the Ian Gillan Band live? Now I'm jealeous. Brilliant music and I still listen to their stuff regularly. Gustafson is one of my heroes on bass (also for his Roxy Music work, just listen to Love is the Drug) and Brit-Latin-Prog (a flleeting moment in late seventies music if I may so) never got better than them (never mind how no one else tried it!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5cqBBYBS0Y&feature=related

uwe  ,    i don't know if you are aware of John Gustafson's work with  QUATERMASS , a progressive trio from 1969  John's bass work and vocals are astounding .
They only recorded one album , but fortunately it is released on CD, so you can buy it. definately a must have .

check em out if you haven't already ...  http://www.alexgitlin.com/npp/quatermass.htm

dexter

[Freuds_Cat]

I loved all that Glory Road Gillan stuff I remember learning every song on the album just for fun. One of my old bands which included the guitarist, singer and keyboard player in the vids I've been posting recently did a support gig with the IGB here in Adelaide. I was already in London in a band with Terry Ollis from Hawkwind so I missed out. There is a cool photo with Rocky our guitarist and Gillan jamming in the back room at the same venue that the vids were recorded.

I did however see Garth Rocket and the Moonshiners at the Half Moon in Putney in London and got to say hello there which was a big thrill.

[Stjofön Big]

Concerning Gustafson: did you folks ever see the pictures of him while he was in The Merseybeats? All T- and F-birds! That's where I first laid eyes on the beauty of a Bird. Must have been like 45 years ago!!! (Holy s--t! Watch out Dänicken! Here I come) Here, you will not only get the guitars, but also the greatest Bird on earth those days: Dusty!