The Bass Geek

The bass guitar has only been around for fifty or so years (pause to remember Leo Fender, please), and it doesn’t look like anybody has hashed out a standard and accepted playing technique for it yet (like the Simandl method for the upright bass). Folks keep tinkering with the body and necks, too - something I’m sure those who work on classical instruments would find abhorrent. Most of the time, though, it’s differences in body shapes or electronics. This thing takes an ergonomic look at the neck, and the results leave me interested, if a bit seasick. The only pain I’ve ever experienced while playing usually came in conjunction with doing a lot of typing at work, and leaving that job seemed to make a lot of difference (both mentally and physically). I did notice that switching to a trackball mouse made a lot of difference, especially on the “clicking” finger. I had that lock up once while playing, and it was a scary experience. Stretching, warming up, and washing your hands briefly in warm water before playing (helps keep the strings clean, too) are great ideas.

This story pains me on so many levels. First, I can’t believe a hard drive from a musician is worthy of Homeland Security scrutiny. Since these drives are usually used by professionals only to store musical data and not normal system processes, it seems extremely unlikely that there’s anything incriminating on there (the name “Field Manual” aside).

It further saddens me that Walla has to go back to the original tapes to recreate the mix and master of the album. It’s so easy to back up and copy a data drive, and having to send one through a potentially ham-handed delivery service (over the border, no less) seems like a great time to create a backup drive.

So now I’ve joined the choir of those begging you to back up your data by any means necessary. It’s a big choir, and we have more than our share of disgruntled looks at problem users and slow shakes of the head when faced with a crashed drive that’s taken every bit recorded to its gleaming, spinning platter with it. I’ll promise not to be too loud or nagging; just get an external or internal drive and do it, especially if it means you’re going to redo a lot of work in case the data dies. And remember that ALL HARD DRIVES WILL DIE - it’s just a question of when. Here’s what you should have, in my experience:

• Backup of all data on your computer on an external hard drive
• Especially important files on optical media (DVD or CD)
• Be sure you copy your profile (under Documents and Settings in Windows, under username in Mac) information
• Include all of your devices in this backup routine, including PDAs, phones, and personal media players
• Some musical recording programs (like Garageband) store their files in one big package, while others (like Sonar) use a separate folder for audio clips that are arranged by the file’s attributes. Make sure you collect EVERYTHING necessary for your recording.

Lifehacker has some good and user-friendly tips for this.

Okay, sorry for the PSA. More bass wankery to follow.

There are a couple shows coming up in Illinois that I may have to make spectacular work and driving arrangements to catch. Unfortunately, they’re both on the same day, so that narrows it down quite a bit. November 13th has both Meshell NDegeocello playing at the Chicago House of Blues and the non-animated, touring version of Dethklok playing in Carbondale. I wouldn’t normally be too impressed at the latter, except that the touring version features Mike Keanelly and Bryan Beller, two EXTREMELY impressive musicians that will no doubt have all kinds of fun playing big metal song instead of their usual highly technical, Zappa-esque fare.

The Ndegeocello show promises to be a little different than the last one I saw in Chicago, in that she probably won’t leave the stage when confronted with fans expecting her more funky vocal tunes instead of the fusion jazz she was touring at the time. So that’s a must-see.

In any case, they’re both on a Tuesday, which means at least a day-and-a-half of travel time, ’cause I can’t make that drive, come back, and still be functional in the morning. Feh.

First, a great deal of thanks to Dawn at earEverything for her quick and professional turnaround on my new earplugs. These things are lifesavers, and I missed having them at some of the louder shows I’ve been to inbetween the time I lost them and the time I got the new ones (foam plugs just don’t cut it anymore). These custom-molded plugs cut down volume without chopping out any frequencies, so it’s just like turning down the volume knob on the world for a bit. She was able to use the old molds of my ears and send me a new set pronto. Musicians, you need these in your life - contact Dawn to make it happen.

I was going to start picking some stuff from my bass book to blog about, but I’ve been unable to find a copy in any of the bookstores. Since I’ve seen copies there before (and I’ve given out the copies I had), I suppose that’s good news. I would like to encourage Border’s and Barnes and Noble to restock, though. Guess I’ll be making a stop at Amazon soon.

It’s not like I’ll be driving anywhere anytime soon, anyway - my car was hit Sunday, so I’m trying to sort out the insurance stuff right now while my Corolla (with new crumpled front passenger side!) waits in the garage for the claim to be processed. I’m hoping for word today, but nothing so far. I did have a nice conversation with one of the guys in the SUV that hit me about music, though.

I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank the drunken gentleman who made his presence known quite forcefully at last night’s Locals Only show. Never before have I seen a person so possessed by the music being played that he rubbed his butt on the monitors. That, sir, was a first. He later proclaimed that “Nobody’s going to kick me out of this bar!” (a sure sign that he’s getting ready to be kicked out) and left quietly.

Otherwise, the show went fine. The new bass (still in need of a name) sounded wonderful, although the rough neck threw me at times. Aside from this little ding that seems to happen on the exact some spot of the back of the neck on every bass I own (I don’t cause in intentionally, but this going beyond random happenstance and it annoys me slightly), all of my instruments retain their original satin finish. This neck, appropriate for its existence, has lost some of that finish and gloss. I’m not holding it against it, though. I’m as old as it, and I most certainly have lost finish and gloss in my years on this earth. Maybe it was lack of sleep (’cause I’m dumb and don’t sleep enough). I dunno. In any case, we made it through with aplomb. Thanks to those who came out.

I don’t think I’ve played in Locals Only since the Bass Appreciation Day back in March for the release of my book, and I just realized that I have a spare recording of this little thing Rob G. and I put together. It’s our attempt to pay tribute to some of the best bass lines and play at being the Breakestra at the same time. Feel free to download and enjoy.

I should also note that I did receive my Radiohead free download - I just had to search through my junk mail filter to get it. Infer from that what you will. I applaud them for both their ambitious undertaking and their sense of irony, unintentional or not.