Flemtone

Thanks, gents. It's getting easier to deal with. I haven't picked up and played yet, though - we'll see how that goes. Sure will be quiet.

The Flemtones lost their drummer, Mr. Orlando Staton, to COVID-19 on Friday. I had been playing with him since 1974 in various incarnations of the same high-school band, lastly in our current line-up. He was a great drummer, a wonderful friend and the kindest, gentlest soul I have ever and possibly will ever meet. Our last show together (and the last one for the Flemtones, obviously) was on February 28th, our 34th Anniversary playing a monthly gig at a pub in northern NJ. Three weeks after that, he was gone. No idea why I'm posting this here, except that fellow bassists will know the special relationship between themselves and drummers. That glance, the wink, the nod, the smile that says 'let's show 'em how it's done'...I'll no longer share that with this brother-in-arms. Anyway, salute - Mr. Orlando Staton. Gentle soul, loving husband to Donna, heart and soul of the Flemtones and good friend, gone much too soon. [video:youtube]

Yeah, since the original post, NJ has also done the bar/restaurant thing plus the <50 person thing and a 'please stay off the streets between 8pm-5am' thing. I know a lot of bars that will have an abundance of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes left over after today. That's a crime against humanity.

Well, I have my first cancellation - a St Patrick's Day gig with an Irish band called Bedlam Boys. The mandolin player (also guitar player for the 'tones) is self-quarantined after having contact with someone who is now in hospital with C-19. Don't know the status of the 'tones end-of-month gig - it will depend on the health of him and our drummer who is also in hospital with pneumonia. One of our other friends is also in with C-19 and he's the healthiest guy I know. Any adverse effect on anyone else's upcoming shows?

Lug. Lug killed music. The end.

OK, so THAT'S a cool speaker!

Just ask Gorrie if you can have one of his old basses. Then send it to me.

I did for a couple of years, before I started bass (early 70s). I put together the cheapest set of drums I could - a beat-up Sears-quality kick-drum/tomtom set and multiple trips to 48th St in Manhattan to comb thru used gear for cymbals, a floor-tom and a halfway decent snare. Found a place called Professional Percussion (a walk-up with rooms full of gear just piled up in corners). Dug out a couple of good Zildjian crashes, a pair of high-hats and a nice thick ride cymbal (and I mean, really dug them out from under a pile - I don't think I payed more than $35 for any of them - they were beat to hell). Went into the Snare room and found a really pretty Slingerland snare (red sparkle with a nice full sound) and the salesman, seeing a sucker, talked me into a Premier floor-tom. The fun part was dragging all this stuff home to NJ on the bus. I played until we found a real drummer (who's still in the band) and I took up bass because, well, we needed a bass player and I found that, unlike Levon, I couldn't sing and play drums at the same time. That was a bit of a deal-breaker for me. The old kit was used by our new drummer (he didn't have his own kit yet) until it literally fell apart (he had it tied together with rope for the last several gigs we played with it as Dark Star), then he bit the bullet and bought a huge Tama kit for our Southern Rock phase (Sidewinder). I regained possession of the snare and it sat in my basement until I met Stevie Becker from the Asbury Jukes. He and I became really good friends when he came off the road. He was still doing a bunch of session work with various artists and fell in love with the snare, so I gave it to him and it became his go-to snare for session work because he thought it had really good attack. I have no idea where it went after he passed on but I hope it's still making eyes wince when banged. Every once in a while, with the 'tones, we'll swap instruments for a song or two during a set. The drummer plays guitar, the guitarists play either mandolin or bass and I'll sit behind the drums. I still remember a few things but I'm also VERY happy to surrender the sticks to someone who actually knows what he's doing.

I was approached by one of the guitarists in the 'tones and he wanted to know if I had an old Fender Bassman head that he could use as a guitar amp. We're all getting older and he was looking for a lighter alternative to his Super Twin - he was going to get a pair of 12" speakers and had heard a lot about the old Bassman heads being a great guitar amp. In going thru my old gear, I thought about all the gear I've used thru the decades. When I started playing in '73, I borrowed my brother's Dual Showman head and Showman 1x15 cabinet. I didn't have enough money for an amp but saved up my paychecks from my after-school job to buy a new Rickenbacker 4001 ($425.00). I didn't have enough money for a case, so I spent the first year carting it around in its original cardboard box. Finally got a case (2nd hand - thank you, 48th St and Manny's!) and I was off to the races. Of course, I didn't know you needed to actually measure the bass to fit the case so the Ric rattled around in a case with a cut-out a good three inches too big. Our band was called 'Dark Star' - we played standard 60's-70's covers with a couple of surprises thrown in (a cover of Todd Rundgren's 'Utopia' went over big with the air-guitarists in the crowd), playing school dances, parties and the occasional 'Battle of the Bands' (which we invariably lost). Dark Star had broken up - college had taken one of the players away and we didn't want to continue the name without him. The rest of us jammed together and joined up with an acoustic 3-piece that was looking to electrify and expand their harmony base, doing originals and Eagles/Fleetwood Mac-based vocal 'soft' stuff. We were with them for a couple of years until the original 3-piece core imploded, then we remnants of 'Dark Star' moved on individually and played in various short-lived bands. I was still using the Fender rig until my brother moved to California, taking the speaker but leaving the Showman head. One of the guitarists/singers in the acoustic-based trip had become a very good friend, so he and I started playing duo at various restaurants for virtually no money. I bought a Fender Sidekick amp (small 70W combo with a single 12) for hauling around. It fit and was a nice clean bass amp for the money. In 1979, the three Dark Star alumni (myself, the drummer and guitarist), my Duo partner and the guitarist's wife (also a singer) started a southern-rock band called 'Sidewinder', adding in a young guitarist who used to come and watch us rehearse as a mid-teen and had grown to become a stellar player. I needed a speaker to go along with the Dual Showman head so I bought a Sunn 2x15 Reflex cabinet that was a big as a Subaru. I screwed heavy-duty casters on one side of it and we used it as a cart to move the amps and PA system for load-in and load-out. It had a HUGE sound and paired really well with the Ric and the Showman head. Sidewinder did pretty well until my Duo partner (Bobby) started having problems remembering words and chord changes. We slowed down our schedule a lot until we got a call one night that he had woken up to a massive seizure and was in the hospital. The diagnosis wasn't good - an inoperable brain tumor. We tried to continue without him as he was undergoing chemo, but we couldn't bring the same spark - it just wasn't right. The band went on hiatus. Bobby's condition worsened. 1985, the remnants of Sidewinder start talking about reforming with a keyboard player, changing directions a bit. We jammed together, cobbled a couple of sets of tunes and fiddled with possible band names. Since none of us ever expected to make The Big Time playing music, we kept our sense of humor and called ourselves 'Big Fun, featuring the Fabulous Flemtones'. We set up our first gig for February 1986. Got a call a few days before our first gig - Bobby had passed. The funeral was the afternoon of our first gig as Big Fun. The name was shortened to just 'The Fabulous Flemtones' a few months in. My insane bandmates and family bought me a new bass for my 30th birthday in 1987 - an Ibanez Roadstar fretless. Sweet bass - put away the Ric and the Roadstar became the #1. In 1988, I bought a Trace Elliot AH250 amp & a 4x18 TE cab, putting away the Fender rig. The Ibanez thru the Trace was a stellar sound. Tradition continued - the band and the family bought me a Dan Electro Longhorn short-scale bass for my 40th birthday. It has a nice, poppy sound and is light enough not to cause backpain after a 4-hour show. I ran that thru the Trace rig for a number of years as well. Jump to 2005, I was at a show and the bassist was playing a G&L L2000. I talked to him about it after the show and he was gracious enough to let me try his out. Within a month, I had the exact same model. I paired it with a MarkBass LMII and a 1x15 MB cab and that's what I'm currently playing. Still with the Flemtones (34-year anniversary coming up in February - same bar, same regular gig), still with the same guys I played with in high school. tl/dr: Basses: Ric 4001 to Ibanez Roadstar fretless to DanElectro Longhorn to G&L L2000 Rigs: Fender Dual Showman/Showman 1x15 cab to Fender Sidekick 70w (combo) to Dual Showman/Sunn 2x15 Reflex cab to Trace Elliot AH250/Trace 4x10 cab to Markbass LMII/MB 1x15 cab Share your stories! How have your instruments & rigs evolved with your playing progress?

My God - it's gone to plaid!

It's great to see some old buds popping up again! This was my first group, invited by Bob G after some very interesting discussions re: upright bass. It's true - you never forget your -first-. I continue to check in here every morning to see what's what and who's who and I'll try to contribute more when time permits. Thanks to Dave and 09 for keeping the joint jumping, and to those stalwarts who keep renaming their bands.

You weren't??? *stares out window at bleak and cloudy cityscape, hears slow sax solo drifting thru the fog*

Hey, gang! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, Welcome Solstice, Begone Krampus etc etc etc. That should cover most everybody. Stay healthy and happy for the New Year, all. Be firm, fly low, stay cool. [video:youtube]

Yo, Seamy! How goes the band?

Kinga Glyk is a lot of fun, that's for sure. I hadn't heard her before - thanks! I've been checking out Davie504 for quite a while. He has a great schtick and yes, he has some serious chops. I always come away laughing. Divinity is always good. She makes it look effortless and has a great singing voice as well. Vulfpeck is really good technically but doesn't really do that much for me. It's more of a "Well, now we know he can do that..." kind of thing. Fast and clean but I must have missed the 'feel'. Good stuff, bruddah! Thanks!!

I'm also a big Casady fan, not much on the later works but the original JA line-up. His style was perfect for JA and Hot Tuna (and the period, of course). Probably my favorite bassline of his is from '3/5ths of a Mile in 10 Seconds' from the live 'Bless It's Pointed Little Head' album. [video:youtube] I don't really see that kind of playing translating well into a lot of other musical genres, though. Like Phil, Jack's style is a pivotal part of the genre of 60s psychedelic rock and the Haight-Ashbury scene and is identified with their groups and musical catalog. Meshed with that kind of music, it's unstoppable. To have that kind of busy playing for a majority of other genres is kinda like that Harmonica Player from Hell that we've all shared the stage with at one time or another - just soloing all the time, during verses, during choruses, intros, outros, breaks, trips to the loo, loading out, breakfast with the family, etc. I have a very good friend, an excellent technical bassplayer but sometimes I just want to smack him upside the head and remind him that there's a root note in there somewhere - maybe he should play that every now and again. It comes under the heading of 'Well, we know he can do that...!'. Thanks from bringing up Casady, though. It gave me the excuse to cue up a bunch of JA for this morning's soundtrack.

Well, welcome aboard! Glad to have you at the site! What you describe is a really good way to get started, that's for sure. It saves a lot of time having a musical background in scales and frets, not to mention rhythm theory picked up from drumming. I went along a similar path, starting with piano as a yout', acoustic guitar/singing for those evenings in the early-70s with my folkie friends in high school (hey, there were girls! They loved Cat Stevens, CSNY and James Taylor songs - guess what I learned?). Then, after meeting electric guitar players, moving to drums. I played drums in a band until they found an actual real drummer and needed a bass-player, so I picked it up and that was that. I was hooked. Learning to sing while playing acoustic guitar helped me sing while playing bass, something I could never do as a drummer (though I looked longingly at those who could, like Levon Helm). That was another thing that took me away from drumming and put me on the path of bassplaying. A love of old Soul and Motown tunes helped me get started and bands like AWB and ToP helped me learn about funk. I've never been able to get the hang of the 5-string, though I cheated on one of my fretless basses and put a hip-shot tuner on the low E to do an instant drop-down to D. What kind of amplification are you going thru? This is a pretty crucial area and all dependent on the kind of music you'll be playing, whether you'll be in a studio, a bar, a hall, a stadium or your living-room. You might enjoy a 4- or 5-string with a thinner neck or possibly a short-scale (30" scale (measured between the bridge and the nut) instead of 35" like your 5'er probably is). Those are great for people more adjusted to the neck-scale of a standard guitar - less finger-stretch and strain and they sound great. I have a couple of short-scales (a knock-off Violin bass aka McCartney and a Dan Electro Longhorn, one of the best pop-band basses I've played - it was my go-to for over a decade). A lot of it depends on the kind of music you'll be playing. Use your fingers, use a pick, use both, use a thumb-pick, use just your thumb, use one finger, two fingers, three fingers, whatever. There are no rules - just what makes you feel good and gives you the sound you're looking for. I babble - it's Saturday morning and I don't have a gig this weekend, so relaxation-time. Welcome to the LowDown! There's good folks here with centuries of knowledge between them. Hang out and enjoy! Just straighten out the towels when you're done with the hot-tub.

J., that's a really good idea. With the explosion in tats happening these days, that should work very well in today's market.

Nice! We've just recently started a merch table at shows. It's pretty cool seeing the band's name around town. [video:youtube]

I've not heard of them before but, after YewTewbing various demo videos, all I can say is...well, okay. I mean, they sound good using various settings (at least for the kind of music I play), but their main drive seems to be the distortion effect that you can achieve. I imagine it'd be perfect in a death-metal setting but probably not so much in a Beatles cover-band or to play surf-music. Country and Western are Right Out. They have an impressive promo video on their website. Lots of flash, exciting music, sweeping camera angles of knobs, jacks, EQ sliders, cooling vents, little rubber feet. I almost expected a teeny-tiny Robert Downey Jr to stride out from behind the amp and start blowing stuff up. Pretty thrilling, eh? They didn't mention how it'll stand up to some yutz spilling beer on it at a bar gig. To me, that's a thing. I'm sure that to some, like your buds, it's the Next Big Thing, but I see it more as a niche amp. Great if that's what you're looking for but definitely not for everyone.

Oh, look! A Snickers bar!

In all seriousness, thanks Craig for changing my life. When I started becoming active on KC around 2008, it allowed me to do things I don't think I would have considered if it weren't from what I learned from KC and the fine people there. I don't know if I would have a music nor a music-related career at all if it weren't for KC. On top of that, I've made friends and connections and had experiences that definitely would not have happened if it weren't for meeting people on KC. So to the guy who got it all started, I say thank you. First off, welcome back, Craig! We kept the light in the window for our Wandering Boy. Secondly, Joe - are you in any way related to the family that owned Muscara Music in Belleville, NJ? I made my first stringed instrument purchase there in the mid-70s.

No, not dat bum! "So c'mon, c'mon, do the Craig Andertion with me. You got to swing your hips, baybee..." Hi, Craig! We kept the place clean for ya, but Lug was the last one in the hot-tub. That was a few years ago, so tread lightly.

Not dead yet. Woohoo!! Thanks, folks.

I'm a huge fan of Trace - played thru a TE rig for a few decades until it was just too darned heavy to drag around. Now on a Markbass LMII and a 1x15 but a 2x8 I had never considered. Now I know why I've been saving my gig money. It looks well worth checking out. As far as the Ibanez, that's a sweet looking fish. When I was playing thru the TE rig, I was playing an Ibanez fretless Roadstar that the band and family had bought me for my 30th birthday. Together, the sound was huge and I'm a real bottom-end player. There wasn't anything that rig couldn't handle. Unfortunately, my spine said otherwise. Good thread, bruddah. I'm not sure my sweetie would agree but every once in a while a new toy or two is required. If I pull the trigger, I'll sneak it in under my coat.