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Upright Bill
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Posts posted by Upright Bill
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Upright Bill
Wow, that Roscoe is sweeeeeet!!!!
And I'd love to have something like the Emminence. 
I need to get my digital camera hooked up so that I could post some of my pictures...
Besides my Englehart Upright, I also have a really nice German Upright (c. unknown).
I don't play as much electric these days but I have a 1972 Fender precision bass, a Westone Fretless Jazz copy (which believe it or not plays and sounds fantastic!!! -- I play it a lot with one of the groups I play with) and an old Peavey Fretless T-40 bass (heavier than %^&* but looks cool!!!!!!
). I sold off quite a few electrics, which today, I wish I still had!! I've played both five and six string electrics but made a decision a while back to put the majority of my energy into the upright -- I admire folks like yourself who can do both so well. I can make you a great deal on the Eminence.
The Roscoe is sweet, the picture doesn't do it justice. The top is spalted maple, Keith Roscoe has a technique where he somehow fills the holes in the wood so that they are completely filled and smooth but look completely 3-D, when I show it to people they always try to put a finger into the spalted areas.
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A few years back I am doing a blues gig, as front man, at a sports bar outside of Detroit. I've got the bass player from Rare Earth with me, and a sax player (an Motown session player from way back) out to hear me. There is talk of some other recording project, etc., so I am fired up. At one point during the night I bust into what I believe to be a fairly smokin' solo, not thinking a bit, feeling every bit of it, getting right to the climax of the solo, and bam! the room erupts with applause!!!!!!!
An otherwise quiet and indifferent setting becomes my dream gig. I am at one with the Universe. All my hard work was finally paying off... oh.. wait...
the 18 million freakin' screens in the joint are also echoing some applause...
yeah, o.k... the Detroit Red Wings just scored a goal.
I HATE sports bars.
That is the most amazing, fascinating sad story I've read in a long time. Saw it coming from way back ....
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At least they let you turn off the big screen tv.
No they didn't, I blacked it out in Photoshop!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
What is it with bars, and nowadays even restaurants, with TVs on constantly? I was playing at The Green Door with my r&b band this weekend and while I was setting up, one of the TVs had some plastic surgery show on where they were actually showing the surgery (it was a tummy tuck) and then showed the big pieces of fat they took out. Totally disgusting. Do we really need to watch that at the bar?
I walked over and turned off the TV. Within five minutes, the waitress had turned it back on.
Reminds me of when I was doing a gig recently. It was the night of the World Series, the last game where Boston won. It was on the tv at this club. They didn't let us do a gig because nobody noticed us. Till this day I still don't know why. Hmm, maybe I need a new bass player.
I'm available!
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Bill,
I thought it looked like a Fishman pick-up from the picture. I've heard a lot of good things about the Fishman Full Circle -- I've never heard how it sounds -- how does it compare to other pick-ups you might have used? I've tried a couple of others but I keep going back to the underwood. I should look into the Full Circle.
I should have mentioned that I have an AI Contra Combo amp. I also have a polytone amp, a vintage Ampeg B15 and a Fender Bassman (from 1972 with 2 15s in it). I gave the Fender Amp to my son who plays bass in a punk rock/ska band -- that thing really sounds great for him (too big and heavy for me)!!!
I really like the Full Circle, after I finished adjustint it. You can change the tone by rotating it. Now that I have it set, through my AI it sounds like my bass. I was using a Bass Max, a piezo in the bridge and microphone pointed at an f-hole. I liked that alot but really suffered from feedback.
I have the Contra, an Eden Metro, a Nemesis, and a little Peavey Microbass. For instruments I have the Reiley and an Eminence for Uprights, a Marcus Miller Jazz bass, one of Gary Willis' own Willis Ibanez, a Keith Roscoe six string bass, a hand-made (by me) copy of a 1972 fender jazz bass, and at least a dozen guitars.
The Roscoe is sweet! The picture doesn't do it justice.
Here's the Eminence:
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i am in a band with two guitarists and no bass. this lets me do a lot of the basswork on my keyboard. i have a crappy microkorg, but it can almost emulate the nice thick sound of the minimoog for some jan hammer-esque basslines. the two guitarists use extra thick strings to add to the bassiness of their sounds, but i get to hold it down. playing basslines is fun. i imagine playing them on an actual bass would be just as fun.
Playing walking bass lines on a Double Bass my favorite thing to do standing up!
Playing chord melodies on my bass guitar is awesome when there are people listening that appreciate it.
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At least they let you turn off the big screen tv.
No they didn't, I blacked it out in Photoshop!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
What is it with bars, and nowadays even restaurants, with TVs on constantly? I was playing at The Green Door with my r&b band this weekend and while I was setting up, one of the TVs had some plastic surgery show on where they were actually showing the surgery (it was a tummy tuck) and then showed the big pieces of fat they took out. Totally disgusting. Do we really need to watch that at the bar?
I walked over and turned off the TV. Within five minutes, the waitress had turned it back on.
Oh yeah! Rhythm, Blues and tummy fat
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Upright Bill
Great pictures!! That's a really nice looking bass your playing -- reminds me of the German Bass I have.
I also have "Mutt" bass -- an Englehart that I bought when I was in High school around 1971 (not too many years after Kay basses sold out to Englehardt). It's had extensive re-working (new fingerboard, etc.) done by Dan Seboldt -- a luthier up in Big Rapids, MI when I lived up there. The Englehardt has become my main bass - really great sound and action!!
Are you using a Fishman pick-up? What kind of amplification are you using?
I use an Underwood with an acoustic image amp -- really love my acoustic image amp for small group stuff but it's not loud enough for the Big Band I play with unless I run it through the P.A.
The bass is from Steven Reiley in Grand Rapids, MI. Its a Christopher that Steven modifies. The top is regradulated and the ribs are thinned. I like it very much. I'm using a Fishman Full Circle pickup to an AI Coda.
I also have an Eminence, which travels well and sounds pretty good amplified.
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At least they let you turn off the big screen tv.
No they didn't, I blacked it out in Photoshop!
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Thanks Jim, I still pop in now and again. "Stuff" getting in the way, you know how it is.
I stopped playing other gigs to play just Jazz and just Double Bass a couple of years ago and basically the net result has been that I've stopped playing out completely. I got a call last night to do a classical guitar gig, passed on it, and its been bugging me all day.
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Not quite solo, that's Uncle Skid on the far right playing guitar! Guitarist extraordinaire Rick Hicks in the middle.
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Teaching jazz is like fattening frogs for snakes. I don't teach, but I tell kids at clinics what I'd do if I did teach at a University. I'd put them on a bus and paint the windows black, give them ugly uniforms and 400 pieces of music out of order that need all sorts of doubling (clarinet, oboe, flugelhorn). I'd drive them around campus for 30 hours in circles, going nowhere. Then I'd stop, [drop] everybody off, put on the plastic uniforms, set up on a dark stage with no sound system or sound man, tune up, call out a number 1479!...[They'd have to] scramble to put their music in order "All right, now put it all away, hang up your uniform, get back on the bus and drive around in circles for another 30 hours." After a few days, I'd ask them, "Now, who wants to make this their life?" You can save people a whole lot of trouble, because this is what the music business is. It's not about the music. The music is easy! It's all that other stuff. To play with young energy is simple, but to sustain a career in music takes a lot of dedication. You may major in Coltrane, but you gotta play Britney Spears on tour for a living.
- Phil Woods (in Downbeat magazine)
Made me feel better about the place I'm in musically right now.
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Me:
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I love all spices with one exception. Cilantro tastes like soap on a good day and like dirt most of the time. The problem is that the people that like it like it ALOT and put too much of it in/on. I think the most common salsa recipe that includes Cilantro goes:
Finely dice one grape tomato, add one bushel of coarsely chopped Cilantro
Salad with Cilantro:
Gently tear one Bibb lettuce leaf, add 3 pounds of coarsely chopped Cilantro
If people could just back off a little I'd be fine with it.
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Rick Simerly and a very nice person as well.
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Ginger Baker's "Falling Off The Roof" is IMO quite interesting.
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I'm Slippin Killa.
unless I use Upright Bill and then is Drunken Kelp Licker.
George Bush is Masta Crack Baby
Dick Chaney is Rotten Dick
John Kerry is Sweet Skull Cruncha
John Edwards is Phat Bitch
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hope it's not too late to offer my birthday wishes!
Happy Birthday!!!
You beat my mom, so there must still be time.
for the record, i have never met upright bill's mom (let alone "beat" her!)
Thanks, I spit coffee on my monitor.
On the other hand, she is available and resonably wealthy. You'll have to find out about the beating on your own.
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AAHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
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Happy Birthday!
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hope it's not too late to offer my birthday wishes!
Happy Birthday!!!
You beat my mom, so there must still be time.
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Happy Birthday Upright Bill!
Glad to hear you're not "Lonesome Cowboy" Bill anymore...as long as that waitress cooperates!
B-) The waitress gave me a big hug, free lunch and a big cake, ice cream, carmel, pecan, hot fudge thing. Tasty... not exactly the same as that dream last night but fine anyway.
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Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!
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Well...I've always heard that people with big instruments make more music, so I guess you'll have a happy birthday whether I say so or not. But happy birthday anyway!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
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I guess I should have let your Michigan pals start this thread but what the hell.....
Happy Birthday to a fellow bass-cleffer!
Always a treat to find someone older than me around here!
Hope you do something fun for your 51st.
Thank you!
Lets see, fun stuff today. First I have to buy donuts for the guys at work, then see a vendor, meeting with a group of guys that screwed up a simple assignment. Lunch at one of my favorite restaurants because my favorite waitress said that if I come in on my birthday she'll have something special for me (I bet its not what I drempt it was last night
). Then tonight I teach from 5:00 to 9:30.Yep, its going to be a good day.
Who here has been on a record?
in Musician's Forum
Posted
I played classical guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drum machine on a Book On Tape. I played a Fernado Sor piece on classical guitar, an electric blues piece on electric guitar, bass, keyboard and drum machine and finally a heavy metal thing on guitar, bass and drum machine. The blues and metal things constructed on the fly.
Three hours in the studio and they used about 30 seconds of each to make it sound like a radio being tuned first by a lady in her kitchen then by the leader of a gang that broke into the her house and finally to the metal thing when they raped and killed her.
Not a Jazz album but it was fun.