Photo's
 

Ronson, do you have any photo's of your new bass at this time?

No Tim, no photos yet. And I just talked to Ken, and they're in the middle of a bad ice storm! :( He told me they're just waiting on my bridge (although they've already done the setup on my bass using another bridge).

As soon as they get it (praying for Monday or Tuesday), then it's shipping to me! :cool:

Ice storm...
 

Ken uses UPS, it's a 3 day shipping turn-around from there to here. I'll bet you get it in time. You needed it by the 25th., right?

I use to live in that part of the country. I love the Fall weather up there, and even the Winter (but to a point). They have just been hammered this year with bad weather!

Well, I think Ken should just move his shop to Texas, what do you think? :D

Man, wouldn't that be somethin' else? If that ever happened, I'd feel obligated to purchase a Smith at least once a year, huh?

Tim, when you get a chance, tell me what kind of music you're playing with your church groups right now, and what the choirs are singing (Traditional? Contemporary?).

Music......
 

Just one Group, no Choir (we do have a 3pc. vocal team though).

Currently, I play and lead Worship with Tom Davis (former Platinum award winning Producer for Vineyard Music). While we do many of the tunes that Tom has written and published, we mainly live in the "Contemporary Worship" realm and that would include Artist to numerous to mention. If you have access to CCLI, you can get all that info there.

As a group, we also lead Worship at other Churches and/or Church sponsored Conferences. The last couple of weeks have been really busy as we played at a very large Conference and completed studio work on the latest CD.

Well, that's it in a nutshell.

Style of Playing
 

Bottom lovers, I'd like to know your personal preferences when it comes to playing the bass within the gospel realm, do you find yourself playing more slap style, or traditional fingering style, or muted palm style in your respective worship services? Personally I find myself using all three of these techniques as the music seems to be incorporating more R&B rhythms. I use more traditional fingering when I'm playing quartet style gospel music.

No limits....
 

"Bottom lovers"?.....we are talking about bass here, right? LOL! :D

All of them Albert; for me, mainly fingering but no limitations! I also like to incorporate harmonics, and, depending on the tune, some effects. While I'm not a huge fan of effects on bass, I find at times a tune does call for them and they can add another dimension. ;)

Your so bad, yes I'm referring to a Bass Guitar Low "B" bottom (this is a Gospel thread) I to like the harmonics incorporated into the bass line as well, it adds a certain flavor if performed with accuracy (referring back to one of your responses on another thread) sloppy playing just dosen't cut it when trying to lay down a groove and then stick it with a harmonic stop or slide.;)

Sorry....
 

Sorry Albert, the flesh got the best of me: You served it up and I couldn't resist the return! :rolleyes:

By the way, the "sloppy playing" I was referring to was related to using effects with bass. ;)

Granted but I'm sure we can all relate back to a time where our playing was not at a level we were proud of (sloppy playing) it takes dedication and perseverance to force our fingers to react to the information our heart and brain are attempting to convey to them.:rolleyes:

Yes but.....
 

Yes, but making the mistakes "live" or falling into a "sloppy" moment are all a part of growth (past or present). There is no escaping it! ;)

My Brother you have spoken the truth yet again!!!!!!!!:rolleyes:

hello Gents,

i play at my church here in good ole england, they have a church bass that i would use (yamaha 5 string) there is 3 bass players, so we usually rotate....at times i get in the rut where i want to give up playing because i feel like i'm not progressing...i'm sure everyone's been through that stage....thats not really the reason why i'm selling my bass because i am actually in the process of getting a 5 string to continue my playing... I don't think i have the ability right now to maximize the abilities it takes to use the Smith to its full potential. I did however buy the bass before i left the states because i knew it was the best bass out there and that it would be much cheaper to buy in the states than in england... I come across loads of people that don't want to share knowledge or even help out in the learning process...so it seems like its a one man kind of learning process....and it can become frustrating...how did you guys get out of that rut, if ya ever been in that position?

I'm disturb to hear that, in my demographic area I must say that Bass players are only to happy to get together and share wood shedding techniques. The majority of Bass players are the most cognitive people on the earth, they truly enjoy thier gift, and yes at times we can feel a bit stagnated with our abilities, but that in itself shows growth. Bass players for the longest have always been held in the back ground, told to stay in the pocket and let the lead/rhytym guitatist hold down the flow, but of late the Bass has taken the lead spot allowing the bassist to express him/her self like never before, so hang in there and if your fellow bassist in your congregation are stingy with sharing the knowledge, pray for them, then lock your self in the shed and create, allow what your feeling to be manifested through your axe.
God bless.
Al:rolleyes:

lovely...thats what i've been doing of late is just puttiing in some shed time.......i think i asked the same question in the private message you sent but no worries...

thanks again


d

Hmmmm...
 

"Held in the background???? Hmmm, not in my book! Drums and bass are the core; the foundation. It is from this everything else is built. Anyone saying that any other instrument is to "hold down the flow", is either clueless or probably the instrumentalist other than the bass or drums. ;)

Hey my brother I feel ya, but in the days of old the bass player not only stood in the background, he/she was considered the background. I'm glad that in this day in age the contributions of bass players old and new are now being recognized. :D

Hmmmm....
 

They may have stood or been considered the background, but the reality of it was and is, they were anything but that! The beauty of this is knowing now what we didn't choose to recognize then. Those players were and are the reason and influence's of why we do what we do today.

For me personally, you could place me in the back room, give me the mix I need in my ears and in the house, let me play and I would be perfectly ok with that. I promise you this, there would be no question as to whether or not you had a bass player in the house; that is, until you removed it. ;)

I can DIG-IT, stand up and feel the rumble. :cool:

Texas Style
 

Tim/Ronson, you both live in Texas, would you say that amoung the bassist in your area the Bass of choice is a Smith? if not then what type of bass do you most commonly see when you venture out on your engagements?