Introduce Yourself

[jeremy c]

You'll do better on your SAT's if you know that the correct phrase is "pique your interests."

 

p.s. Why aren't you in school right now?

[Basshappi]

^BUMP^ For the newbies!

[dhurstlmt]

hey, my name is David. I have been playing guitar and bass for about 5 years and feel moderately competent therein. I grew up in Bolivia, but I now reside in Oregon. However I am soon to move to Nashville I barely ever gig, but I play for fun with different groups just about every night. I own only one bass, unlike many bassmiesters here. My baby is a tenor 5 string Peavy Cirrus. (tuned EADGC) Yes, I play a Peavy. My Peavy Sessionbass (200W) gets my groove out to the world and for fun I play around with my Digitech BNX3. I am excited to have found this forum and have thoroughly enjoyed jeremyc's theory lessons. Thanks man! Keep up the great communication.

[mavick]

Hi, my name is Michael Vick, & I play football for the Atlanta Falcons. I get injured on & off so I can practice my guitar more. Please check out my web site below for A/V + Free-Bananas!

MV

[FunkySmurf]

My name is Mark Crino. I have been playing for 15 years. I started out in Metal and hard rock genres but then little by little my tastes changed and I now play Jazz, Funk,hip hop,various dance styles and a more proressive improv stlye of rock. You can check out my website markcrino.com to see my sexy pics of me or you can go to my band\'s site to hear what I'm doing musically.

For equiptment I have a Warwick Streamer 5 with a bartolini preamp, a Fender Jazz5 with bartolini pup's, an 85 guild pilot fretless with emg's, a Hartke 3500 (which I will be upgrading soon to an SWR or Eden) and two cabinets each with a 15" and horn which have been frankensteined with parts from several brand manufacturers. I like to play clean but neccessity has made effects a part of my rig so, ocassionally I use wah, OD,octave,chorus,and a BBE(for slap stuff).

 

I am also a sound guy/recordist but lately I have been rehersing and gigging with the band so much that it cuts into my sound giging almost completely.

[JeffE]

OK, might as well...

I'm Jeff, 29. Played trumpet/baritone in HS, messed around with guitar and was asked to fill a need at bass in church 9 years ago.

While technically playing for 9 years (all in the church), I've only practiced for the last 2, so, well, yeah...I'm not too good.

Let's see, got married last August (LOVE my wife), work at the church (office manager & run the Audio/PA dept) , read this board when I can (~2 years now, I think).

[JeffE]

Oh yeah, gear.

Rig (use only at church-room seats 250):Bass Pod Pro/floorboard (increasingly unhappy with tone), QSC RMX 2450 (1500 watts bridged into 8 ohms), Acme low B-4 (thanks Lowdowners for the Acme discussions)

Practice: Peavey TKO 115

Basses: '98 Fender American Deluxe V Jazz (ash/pau ferro, red burst w/ white pearl pickguard-pretty). This is the church's and will be leaving soon-it's more of liability since I play my own now.

G&L SB-2 (modded w/ Bart P-J)

Squier P (5'er) (modded-see 'Aguilar' thread if interested)

[Talas In Wonderland]

Hello All,

As to my beginnings and influences ... I was turned on to music very early and started to get formal training when I was 10. I started with some piano, but mainly it was sax and drums. Besides the normal school type performances, I started playing out and was doing gigs with bands becoming a part-time professional by age 15. I was always hanging out with a older crowd so I got into lots of good old stuff like ELP, Yes, Deep Purple, Zappa, The Who, just to name a few. When I was about 12, almost 13, I started getting into rock and roll and was getting away from the formal and classical music from just a couple of years before. Around this same time a friends band had this kinda wacky bassist so one night we started talking and the next day had me at their practice playing around on a bass. Probably the night that changed my life was in the summer of 78 when I went to my first concert (of someone else). Someone couldnt go and my friend TOLD me I WAS going (remember Im 13 and most of the people I was hanging with were 18 and over). The band was Black Sabbath but it was the opening act that got me, none other than Van Halen on their very first tour. While watching Edward play I said to myself if I can do that on 4 strings Ill have something and I guess the rest is some kind of history (if only for me lol).

Shortly after that I was playing bass exclusively and then to my dismay, a friend heard me playing with this band and said your playing like Billy and I was like WHAT and he continued to tell me about the Eddie Van Halen of bass. Not to long after this disastrous news he picked me up one night and took me to see Talas. After the show he got me backstage to meet Billy and we hit it off and he became somewhat of a mentor to me. I am originally from Baltimore, Maryland but also lived in New York and some other areas, of course, this was when I wasnt on the road, which seemed like always. Being from the Mid-Atlantic region was helpful to playing almost every night and also crossing paths with Billy and Talas. Billy was the reason I got into the stereo bass setup. He let me check out and play his rig at a sound check, way back in the day. I was amazed by the setup and at times, barely able to control the power of his rig (circa 1979-1980). Billy and people around Talas were very helpful to a couple of groups I played with and later when he was with DLR, we opened a couple of the DLR/Cinderella shows on the east coast. Ive played with many different groups and with many different people (most of which with some kind of stage name including John Christ (Danzig), Richie Sambora and Sebastian Bach. So my main influence would be Billy. Many other players like John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee and of course Eddie were all ground up and out came my sound. I think Billy opened up a highway for bassists and its our job to build the different off ramps for other bassists to come.

Its getting late and Im getting long-winded, so I better go. Its great to have commarades-in-bass to communicate with. Talk to you soon.

 

P.S. - Back in the day (1983), I had a chance to see a couple of Raven shows (Metallica opened up for them) and to meet John Gallagher. He was extremely cool, very much like Billy, willing to talk shop and not be an egotistical asshole like some people can be (First name starts with a Y). I would say he also had an impact on me and my playing (and of course the trem bass). Wow, its hard to believe that was 21 years ago (Man, I must be getting old ...lol).

[pink33]

Hi, I'm Stephanie, and I just registered about ... 3 minutes ago, after spending 2 hours reading this board when I should be working.

 

I've been playing bass ... for ... um ... less than that.

 

Over the past year or two, I've progressed from always-wanted-to-learn to hanging-out-at-Guitar-Center-way-too-much to the day I finally picked up the Yamaha RBX260, couldn't put it down (didn't know what to do with it, I just couldn't let go of it), bought it, brought it home and now I just LOOK at it. It makes me happy to look at it, but I'd kind of like to do more.

 

In summary: I'm Stephanie, I'm 34, and I'm a bassaholic. An ignorant-but-willing-to-learn one. Just need to figure out where to start.

[Sean Eldon]

buh

[Basshappi]

Welcome to the LowDown Pink33 and Sean Eldon!

 

The LDL is a great place with great people. We have information valuable to both beginners and experts (and everyone in between)so you have come to the right place.

 

The forum has been around for quite a while and there is loads of info here, so if you don't see a particular topic use the 'search' feature in the upper righthand corner it really helps speed up your search rather than going back through all the pages(not that that isn't fun to!).

 

Again Welcome,I look forward to reading your posts!

 

Cheers!

[Phoney McRing Ring]

Hey, my names David (all:"hello david") but ma friends call me Morri and i'm from Glasgow, Scotland. I'm currently in my last 12 or so days of High school and am hoping to go to Glasgow Calidonian University to do Risk Engineering next year.

 

Currently i'm in three bands:

 

A kind of funk rock band with my friends called Got the Car? currently seeking a singer.

 

A side project band called "Side Project" with me and two other guys from other local bands, currently seeking a singer.

 

A jazz-funk-fusion-rock jammin trio with my dad and one of his guitar playing buddies. No name for that yet, no singer needed

 

I currently own three basses, an Ibanez sr700 4 string, a Spector Q5 professional and a Spector Q6 Professional.

 

I like this thread, good idea

 

Much love Dave

[zeronyne]

I just spent the last hour reading all of these looking for the one I posted...Nada! Zip! Nothing! Like a few others who have posted, I must be going senile...

 

My name is Sam, and I have recently turned 37, and I'm really in a great place in my life right now. But I'm jumping ahead.

 

I was born in Seoul, Korea, but my parents emigrated to the U.S. in the early seventies, and we bounced around for a while (my dad was designing cruise missles back then...recently he designed zoos and labs...he retired this week) until we settled in Chicago. I consider Chicago my hometown.

 

I've been playing piano/keyboards since I was 7, and I did the typical garage band things in high school that went nowhere.

 

I attended the University of Chicago, and I have a bachelors in Economics, but it took two extra years due to my discovery of industrial music. I toured with some prominent acts as a ghost keyboard player, much to my parents' chagrin...but isn't that what music is for?

 

Since then, I've worked at music stores, I taught MIDI at Columbia College (an arts college in Chicago), I was a Creative Director for the oldest ad agency in the world, and now I split my time between two overlapping professions. I am a multimedia designer, and I've worked on projects for 120 of the Fortune 500. I am also a prototype and user interface designer, and in that capacity, I started working this week within the Dept of Homeland Security as a guest of a major contractor (I'm not sure how I feel about this last bit, but the work is compelling, and I have yet to tackle the moral grey areas).

 

Musically, I have been blessed to have worked for/with some of my favorite musicians in the past, but my life has been quiet as of late.

 

I took up bass last year, and I feel as strongly about it as anything I have ever done. It's really the antithesis of sequencing and MIDI, but not in an advesarial way...it just fills a mental niche in a way that keyboards cannot.

 

As part of my job (and G.A.S.), I have an modest but high-quality home studio built around the Apple Logic and MOTU Dig Performer platforms. As far as bass gear, I have a Bass Pod XT, and I just ebayed my sansamp to Berkeley. I have a MIM Fender Active Jazz, an Ibanez EDA900, and tonight, on my way home from the airport, I bought one of these http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/51/513052.jpg

for an unbelievably low price from a pawn shop. It will tide me over until...well, that's another thread.

 

I presently live just over the border from Chicago in lovely Crown Point, Indiana, which is famous only for the fact that John Dillinger escaped from the courthouse/jail here with a gun made out of soap. I was in that courthouse tonight buying flowers for my wife (it's a boutique mall now).

 

So to summarize: 37, employed, married to a woman who actually suggests more gear to buy, 2 year old daughter, 3 basses I don't deserve, and I'm a member of an internet forum with a priceless amount of combined experience, generosity and simple kindness and encouragement.

 

As I said, I'm in a great place in my life.

 

Thanks.

[goldfinger]

My name is David, I play bass for already 17 years and must have played in about hundred bands - sometimes eight at a time. I cheat on my basses sometimes with my guitars, keyboard, drums or my sax - but my heart belongs to my two J-basses (frettet and unfrettet) and my Ampeg.

I played on quite a few studio-productions - mostly rather straight-ahead pop, when I remember right even on the soundtrack of the Pocemon II movie, play in churches in Canada and Germany, did two great tours with a bigband in Bulgaria and Kenia, am the musical leader of a jazz-funk band and a jazz-funk-dance-band, played in a latin-band - and play the big drum in a marching band and will do a small tour with them to Copenhagen and Norway next month. I was blessed to play with the drummer of one of my favorite bands, Incognito, a few years ago in The Boarderline, a club in London.

I am currently writing my thesis as a Technical Translator and when I'll be done with that want to move to London to live as a pro musician there.

Would love to get in touch with some musicians from there - so if you are one, send me a message!

 

Peace, Love & Jazz!

Goldfinger

[Tom Capasso]

Welcome to our recent additions.

 

Special welcome to Sean - my daughter Marie has been his friend for some time now (and has served as "surrogate mother" to Sean's band ASOB). His judgement about instruments is lousy - proved by the fact that he loves the feel of my EB3. I understand the discussion went something like this:

 

Sean: Would your father sell that bass?

Marie: If anybody gets it, it's me.

 

Later, Marie told me what was said.

Tom: You're not getting it either (though you can use it whenever you want). I'll be buried with that bass.

 

Welcome to the fun

 

Tom

[Basshappi]

Noticed the new crop 'o newbies so I thought to give the old thread a BUMP!

[passgroove]

My name is Peter Pass and i'm from Latvia. I'm 20 years old and have been playing bass for about 4 years, but only a year ago started serious studies on jazz. My main influence now is Mat Garrison

[BenHack]

Hey Lowdowners

 

My name is Ben (in case my ID didn't give that away). I live in Australia and I've been playing bass for about 7 years. I've just finished studying jazz for 2 years and am really diggin music and the all important groove. I play in three bands, an acid jazz/ fusion band (all original called Phunk Shui), a jazz trio and a funk covers band.

 

Currently I'm playing a 5 string Sadowsky, 5 string cort fretless with the Steve Bailey pickup system and a warwick 5 string fortress (e-c).

 

Aside from bass playing I like to lurk aroud the Lowdown and learn more than I could imagine. I'm also finishing my PhD dissertation. Thanks to everyone for all I've learned and for now I'm back to lurking - and dissertating C-YA

 

Ben

[Funkster]

I figure I would add my 2 cents in this thread..

Thanks for having me. I'm enjoying my stay here so far.

I'm 40 been playing for more than half my life, Still taking lessons to improve.

Play in three bands and Work fulltime

GO is my all original project, CounterAttack is a Led Zep tribute, Been together for 18 years, Almost Human is my wifes band and we present the music of KISS with a female vocalist. We don't look like them but we sure sound like them.

I been a strict Fender user for years but I recently discoverd this vintage Ibanez lust that came creeping out..

That's about.

Thanks for letting me use up some of your bandwidth.

[RHINO_ROB]

my name is rob. i have been playing bass off and on for about 11 years.(mostly off) i have played in a few punk and goth bands. i now am in a rock band 3+singer. don't have any creds. or anything not mundane to post. i play a 2003 fender p-bass(flat wounds),a 2002 ibanez sr 300b that i have modified back to passive with seymour duncan p-ups, a 2003 ibanez srx 300 (collecting dust), and a old beat up alvarez 5er. my stage rig is a samson uhf synth 32 wireless,an art nightbass processor,alembec f1-x(for back up),a lexicon mpx 200,a nady spa 850(due for an upgrade), a swr goliath 2 4x10,and a yamaha 1X18. also a big muff pi reissue and coming soon an akai unibass.

[bassopotamus]

Hrm, well, now I gotta throw in my two cents, too...

 

My name is James, Im 22 and have been in the Navy for three and a half years. But I still find time to jam. Ive been playing bass for around six years, although the first three werent exactly diligent... The past three have been much more involved and I delight in learning new things all the time.

 

It really does take practice! Some cliches are actually true...

 

Well, Ive never taken lessons but Im a student of all the people Ive jammed with, always trying to learn something to tie everything together. Maybe eventually there wont be any more gray, "out of focus" parts of the bass for me. I look forward to that day.

 

My current band of two years is now defunct, as the singer just got out of the navy and is headed back to Texas. We'll see where things go, but personally Im ready to move on. I also jam with a friend who is a drummer and all we do is lay down some funky grooves and reggae. Just me and him, although every once in a while a guitarist will sit in and I realize thats the one thing that is kinda missing. GASP!! just kidding.

 

I play a fender USA Jazz V, which dont seem to be very popular but I find the neck and action extremely smooth, and great tone to boot. I also have a Tacoma Thunderchief acoustic bass which sounds so good, and another cheap ebay acoustic that I take camping etc. My first bass was a pawn shop fender bullet bass, and I still have it somewhere back home. I recently bought a '78 musicmaster which is my project bass. And I recently sold my Ampeg BA-210SP, which was a great little thing and I used it all the time. My new rig will soon be a used SVT 4 Pro and eventually an SVT cabinet. At the moment its a crate head and 8x10 cab, which isnt exactly the holy grail of bass amps...

 

But its nice being single with no kids.

 

Well, its good to be here among all these cool, polite people. Cheers!

 

[ATM]

Good Day!

 

I'm ATM and have been playing the double bass since 5th grade (1982) and bass guitar since 1984. I play an Electra MPC Outlaw X610 that was rare even during its production years of '77-'80. After traveling around the world, I've started to settle down and pick up my instrument again. Glad to see so many of us out here.

 

ATM

[Rick Hoffman]

Hi I'm Rick, 28 yrs old from Long Island, NY

I played bass as a first instrument when I was 13, picked up guitar later on.

I took a break along the way for a while when I was in the Marines, but got back into it again about a year ago.

I have been auditioning with many different bands here in the area, it is very hard to find the right group of people. Very frustrating.

I am a carpenter by trade.

I play a Fender USA Jazz thru an Ampeg BA210SP, with a Fender vintage silverface Bassman 100 head and cab on reserve.

[tarkus]

Sorry for skipping the intro.

 

I'm 38, I work in NYC and live in NJ. I've been playing bass for over 20 years. I currently play in a classic rock band where I must play bass and keys. I'm a trained classical guitarist, as well as a decent pianist and drummer. I wrote 2 symphonies and 4 divertimenti when I was in college. I also build strange instruments out of scraps and use them live. The last instrument I purchased was a Mandolin and have a collection of strange instruments from around the world.

 

My first Bass was an imitation P-bass (Masada?). The original owner pulled the frets out of it in order to be more like "Jaco". I adoped the horrible s-bowed bass and put a Fender J neck on it and a Badass Bridge. Two years later I reunited that bass with its owner, in exchange for a Gibson EB-1 with a fractured neck. What a POS! I gave away the EB-1 to an aspiring harmonica player. My next bass was Kramer that looked like a Steinberg headless. Not bad but I traded that one away for a warped mandocello. I later purchased a Fender Precision Light. My next bass was a Yamaha RBX 3000. This bass was special to me. It was an RBX like no other. Beautiful wood grain, six bolt neck perfectly set and shaped at the heel, 24 frets of perfect intonation, growling P neck pickup and an excellent bridge pickup that did not hiss nor hum nor act as an antennae. I then purchased an Acoustic -Epiphone El Capitan 4 string. Later I thirsted for an 8-string like Greg Lake had during the 1977 works tour. I contacted Chris Stambaugh after pricing several luthiers and he did it for the right price. Three years ago, the unthinkable happened. My house burned down and all my instruments were destroyed. My 1973 Les Paul standard, My 1970 Guild Mark IV classical guitar with the mahogany top, my midi guitars, my synths, my basses. Under the wreckage, still in it's case was my one of a kind Stambaugh 8-string. The case was virtually destroyed, but the bass survived un-marked! So I stood with my bass and my charred didjereedoo and resolved to rebuild. I recently purchased a Fender J-bass with a maple neck/fretboard. I'm on the road to rebuilding the collection. BTW - my amp was an old Sunn Beta 115 - a beast. That was replaced with an Ampeq B-210 digital (built in effects are quite nice, I don't use em too much though..).

 

I like it here, you folks are cool.

[Tom Capasso]

Welcome to the newly posted. It looks like I'll have to get a catering hall for the next NYC LowDown meeting

 

Cliff - where on Long Island? Which Guitar Center - Carle Place or Hauppauge?

 

Tarkus - so sorry to hear about your fire. It's a scary thought.

 

Tom

[tarkus]

Remember folks - SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE IS A MUST FOR YOUR INSTRUMENTS!

[Jeremiah]

I suppose I'll join the party here, too. My name's Mike, and I'm in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Been playing bass for, oh, 30 years or more, and guitar a little longer, although not continuously - life and family get in the way from time to time, and so there've been layoffs of several years through that time. I've usually kept my hand in to some extent by playing in churches. But the kids have moved out on their own now and I've never lost the need to play hard, so I'm back into it and driving.

 

My current gear is all over the map - MusicMan Stingray 4, Rickenbacker 4003, Carvin LB75, four electric guitars (my '61 Gibson ES125TCD is my baby), four acoustic guitars (can you say "Olson"?), Eden World Tour 800 running two Bergantino HT322s, a Carvin PB200-15, a Fender CyberTwin(!), a Peavey Delta Blues amp(!!), another Fender guitar amp, an Alesis QS-8 synth running through a Roland amp, an Alesis SR-15 drum machine - all of which feed an Aardvark interface card into Sonar 3.1 Studio.

 

Right now I've got three musical projects going - an ensemble class at a local music school to get the feel back for playing different styles of music, a blues/rock trio practicing in my basement with a target of Fall to start gigging, and a friend from the music class with whom I'll play various instruments for coffehouse-type gigs. After having been out of it for a while, this is like water on a dry plant - it feels like life is starting all over again! Just grayer ...

[substrat-0]

Hi i`m Eugene,i`ve been playing bass since the 60`s.In the 70`s i was the bassist fo the Temptations.I`m still having fun.

[Basshappi]

time for a BUMP

[Shars]

As i have been posting here but i havent added a picture as such, well a decent one anyway, heres one of me and my Boyz, YCB

Real name is Sharmin but know affectionatly as YaCaBaby, I live in London and i work in the Music Biz.

I am 30 something and love all sorts of music but my true passion is funk with the likes of Tower of Power, Weather Report, Light of the World, Level 42, James Brown, Macio Parker, The Meters etc...

I don't play anything as such but have tryed over many years to get a grip with guitar but never had the time to really study it.

I love bass though and watch in intrest at people that really have a grip of playing it.

I leave all the playing to the bands i manage but i love music and anything to do with music.

Hi everyone

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/SharminHall/Picture+YCB+shars.jpg