Baz Cooper Custom Futura 8

[uwe]

But mine was discarded by Francis Buchholz, so there!!!

[Highlander]

Who...? (I know there's going to be a sting-in-the-tail for this)

[nofi]

its a scorpions thing. also, why is every bass player i see using a pick these days. they all can't be frustrated guitarists. its disturbing i tell 'ya.

[uwe]

Your vision is warped, Nofi, that's why.  I am your father a frustrated guitarist a pick player (all the time) and all I ever see/notice is finger players!!!  Whenever I'm in a a music shop and try out a bass, I'm the only guy who does that with a pick (and I just know that all the others are watching me - all the time),



everyone else plays with fingers or slaps, I am convinced that I am the last of a dying breed.

I had no choice but to play with a pick. My first amp - a Dynacord Echolette Showstar -



with 40 watts and a 2x10" cab was inaudible with two (or three) guitars and a drum set if I played with my fingers. So I started playing with a pick and real high, 12th fret and higher - that helped to be heard. Decades later I read that New Order's Peter Hook patterned his bass playing the same way for the same cause in his early Joy Division days.

But the pick and the high register playing stuck with me - even though I never was nor wanted to be a guitarist. I know a lot of good bass players that never venture beyond, say, the 10th fret, but for me it's natural to play little snippets up high and go back to the low notes. People ask "but you're losing the low foundation if you do that", but to me playing high is Pavlov-ingrained with being heard at all (the foundation can wait a few seconds and I always return/dive-bomb back to it with renewed zeal/fervor after my adventures up high!  ) though I have long had bass amps that can transport those low notes at audible volume too. But as they say: Once bitten, twice shy, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

It influenced my playing in other ways too. I never learned to slap, but I'm a proficient and creative chord player on bass, plus have a penchant for a good bass melody. And I guess that I play in a way that automatically draws atention to the bass, whether it is root note simple or something outlandish. That stems from my early days too - I learned that to get noticed I had to play things in a certain way as I could not rely on sheer volume.

Nowadays, of course, I'm loud AND obnoxious.

[Bionic-Joe]

But mine was discarded by Francis Buchholz, so there!!!

Well.....Well.....MINE WAS MADE FOR TOM PETERSSON!!!!!Blah!!

[uwe]

Tom who?   

[patman]

Hey, I use a pick more and more these days...my sixer just sounds awesome with one for some rock material...it really rips.

I play mostly finger-style, but I slap a good bit, also.  i have a hard time controlling the slap on the sixer, though.  It's not as effortless as on a 4 string because of the tight spacing. With both pickups dimed the mids sort of drop out on the sixer (kinda like a Ric), and then it sounds great with a pick...for fingerstyle I back off the neck pickup, and it gets a nice burpy Jaco type of sound.

They are all just techniques to learn and use to "color" your sound.

[uwe]

I just sound so crap doing fingerstyle that I never do it except at home on an acoustic fretless occasionally.

That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate it with other players, Neil Murray's and John Deacon's finger styles always amazed me. Or Dee Murray, Bernard Edwards, Geezer Butler and John Taylor. To name a few.

[patman]

Gee, that's the second video this week with Bill Holloman on sax...(Chic)...

[uwe]

Chic is always worth being posted here - severely underrated!

[leftybass]

I've always like Dee's blue suit in that clip.

[Highlander]

The "dive bomber" bit stood out for me...

So, do we call you Uwe "The Stuka" Hornung now...?

[BTL]

I love that Futura bass...I've never seen one before!

I had floated the idea of having that body shape programmed as a bolt-neck on another forum, but got no takers.

I guess it's an acquired taste.

[Bionic-Joe]

Tom who?   

Okay..Okay.. Ya got Me...BAD-ASSS!!!!!!!   I WOULD Trade YOU my Hamer Candy Apple Red Thunderbird 8 string for this bass.. but ONLY to you. The former owner of my bass offered me a 1964 Thunderbird II for it... I said, "No".

[mc2NY]

Uwe.....

That pick playing is a lawyer thing.

They naturally pick-pick-pick-pick-pick-pick-pick EVERYTHING !!!   




That Scorpions korina TBird is my fave bass you have. LOVE korina TBirds!!
Can I trade you my hot GF for it? She's nice but hates bass gear....

BTW....that live Scorpions clip....I can see why my pal Bobby Rondinelli was brought in to play the drums (uncredited) for the Scorpions album that gave them their biggest hits    I'm a Scorpions fan but can see why they wanted a new drummer.