Now here is a curious idea, from Ritter, makers of some seriously funky looking basses: Bass Omakase. What’s that? You say…  Omakase is a Japanese term meaning “I’ll leave it to you” (or I’ll entrust you). Rather than ordering something specific from the menu, you leave it up to the chef to surprise (and delight) you with their best offering – it also helps the restaurant manage their food costs, as they can draw from the ingredient they have to hand and love…

Ritter says this:

Just provide some basic instructions regarding your taste ** (e.g. model, number of strings, fretted or not, …), and Chef Jens will take care of the rest.
Your hand made instrument will be personally and creatively built by Jens Ritter.
Throughout the process you will receive some “hint pictures”, to give you a small taste of what’s to come, discovering the full instrument only at the very end.
When finished, your instrument will get its own name and enter the exclusive Royal family.

You place the order, you get some teaser pictures, and then you get (knowing Ritter) and amazing bass.

So, what do you think?

Cardiff born bassist Pino Palladino is definitely something of a legend (he is on MusicRadar’s 60 greatest bassists of all Time). His fretless bass line on Paul Young‘s  “Wherever I lay my hat”  is almost undoubtedly responsible for the song’s success, and for shaping an era of bass playing. In this short video, Carrie Grant talks to Pino  about that bass line. Pino gives a hat tip to Stravinsky’s “Rite Of Spring” (there is a transcription and comparison on Tom Kenrick’s blog and the connection to Jaco). As well as demonstrating what a humble player he is, it also shows the critical ear that drove him to success. He might not read music, but he has played with a list of legendary musicians and influenced a generation of bassists.

You can listen to the track here, those opening bass notes, on Pino’s 1970s fretless Music Man StingRay,  define it:

This made me chuckle when I read it on The Huffington Post: Things You Will NEVER Hear at a Band Sound Check:

…

From the guitarist

• Of course I can play quieter.
• Turn up the singer’s mic. She’s our real focal point.
• The drums need to be louder. MUCH louder.
• No thanks. I don’t drink.

From the drummer

• Yeah, that was me speeding up. Sorry.
• Wait. I need to check my charts.
• No thanks. I don’t drink.

From the bass player

• Thanks for adjusting the amp while I was gone. It sounds way better now.
• Hey, can someone get these groupies outta here?
• No thanks. I don’t drink.

From the sound crew:

• The sound plot you emailed last month? I have it right here.
• We’ll be happy to help you load in.
• Wow, thanks. I could really use your help running the board.
• Take as long as you like to get your guitar sound perfect
• Go ahead and move the mic’s wherever you want them.
• No thanks. I don’t drink.

You can read the full post here – yes, there is more :). How the lip we get as bass players! But more seriously, what have been your best and worst sound check experiences, and what makes a sound check go more smoothly?

This is from a year ago, but it’s a great interview with Mark King, talking about playing bass and singing. Quick take aways:

• Tap your foot – learn to keep time from day one.
• Sing – even if you aren’t a singer, you have a voice.
• Auto pilot – get your bass lines into muscle memory, so you don’t have to over think your playing on stage

Have a watch – 24 minutes of great discussion.

Oh, go on then… Have a Mark King slap bass solo too…

Well look what just arrived! I’m calling the bassbuds Earphones rather than Headphones, a) because they go in your ears, rather than round your head and b) because, quite frankly, I’m very confused about what we call these gadgets these days, as you’ll see there’s a lot more to them than tiny speakers and wire.

The first thing I noticed – appart from the name, which is obviosuly a heart warmer for any bass player – was the very attractive packaging. The really nice presentation box makes them a great as a gift, which is handy for this time of year. Opening the box up revealed a generous range of buds to go with these in-ear phones. There are multiple  silicone and memory foam ear buds, with three sizes of each – so you should be able to get a good fit, whatever size your ears are, which is key to getting a good sound. I found the memory foam inserts particularly good.

The connector doesn’t look like a normal headphone connector. That’s because it isn’t! Don’t worry, it’ll work fine in a normal headphone socket on any of your audio gear, but it is also a mic built in. If you have a smartphone (iPhone, Nokia, etc..) or even a mac, then you can do hand’s free calls as well as listening to rehersal material, or even recording. There is also a control button built in where the cables meet, so you can click to answer a call, or pause, or whatever your device does!

Being able to plug the bassbuds in to the Mac and use them as a Skype headset was a very nice bonus – I seem to use Skype more than the phone for talking to other musicians these days. Also, having hands free on the phone for calls, when not listening to music, is quite liberating. Speaking of listening… The bassbuds have a pretty solid and warm low end response, clear midrange, and a top end that isn’t too sharp. An annoyance with a number of other earphones I’ve tried recently is that they were overly bright. The bassbuds don’t fall into that trap. Another nice touch is the gold-plated metal jack plug

There’s a HUGE range of colours available. The ones in my hands are are ‘platinum‘ and the ones above are (quite clearly!) red – I’m pretty sure you can find a set that match your outfit or your bass! There’s also a hand carry pouch. Yes, it says “bass bag” on it, but it’s for the ear-phones, you’re not going to fit your actual bass guitar in there, ok? 🙂

Anyway, thanks to the folks at bassbuds, here’s an offer for readers of  The Bass Guitar Blog, get five pounds off. Just use this code when you check out: BB38463 – enjoy: http://www.bassbuds.co.uk/

This is a rather lovely and melodic solo bass piece (via Steve Lawson and the Solo Bassists Facebook page). Matt Bissonette (bassist for artists including Elton John, Joe Satriani, Steve Via and may others!) plays through his Markbass rig (and tells us why he loves it!) – Thank you Mark Bass for the video – check out the Markbass YouTube Channel!

or click to watch the video.