For those that care and/or noticed, I took this WordPress version of my blog down about a month ago thinking that using LiveJournal would be better. I was mistaken. So here I am back to running the show myself. It’s much better this way, even if I only post once a month. This was a classic example of not knowing what you’ve got until it’s gone.
All of the following domains point here:
flux42.net, jamesrsutton.com, jamesrsutton.net, spaceballsthedomain.com and spaceballsthedomain.net.
So with a little of my tax return I’ve purchased the rest of what I needed to get rolling with my bass. But before I mention what, I think I’ll back up a bit…
Most know me as a drummer and I’ve been so for over 20 years now. Way back in 1991 (I was about 20 years old) I worked at a music store as a salesman and head of the drum department. During that time I developed an interest in playing bass, which I’m sure all the Level 42 and Rush I was listening to at the time had a lot to do with. Whenever I had the chance I would head over to the bass section of the store, pick up a shiny bass that I could never afford, and slowly teach myself how to play. There was always some sort of instructional video playing in the store so I picked up little tid-bits of knowledge from either the videos or one of the actual bass players working at the store. Since then I’ve been sort of a closet bassist that never really learned many of the basic fundamentals needed to actually play a bass with others in a live situation. Up to this point I’ve played entirely by ear and fortunately for me and others around me, I have good pitch. I’ve been told that my technique is very good and being a decent drummer helps with having solid time and groove. So what I’m left with is a lack of the basic understanding of music theory.
Since the days of having expensive instruments at my disposal 40 hours a week, I’ve owned a variety basses. Some were better than others, most of which were sold in order to feed myself or pay the rent. The only exception was my last bass (a late 80′s/early 90′s Mexican Fender Jazz bass that was in need of a lot of electrical work) which was stolen from my U-Haul trailer when I moved out to Baltimore in February of 2003. I was bummed that I was no longer in possesion of a bass, but because I traded an old 19″ computer monitor for it originally, it wasn’t that big of a loss financially. I went without up until my birthday in 2004.
A close friend and fellow musician who at the time worked at Line 6, gave me one of the most amazing birthday presents ever; a Line 6 Variax Bass 700. I was astounded that he was giving me a bass that retailed for $1200 and was such an amazing instrument! (Mr. G, if you’re reading this, you rock in such an unbelievable way, you have no idea.) Because it’s an electric with extensive modeling built into it, not having an amp or at least a headphone amp made it tough to really enjoy it. It’s taken me over a year to finally buy what I needed. Up until last week, the only time I was able to actually hear the bass was at the Line 6 headquarters in California when I received it.
Because of the tax return I mentioned earlier, I now own a Tascam CD-BT1mkII bass trainer which I’m very happy with. I can now use the trainer as a headphone amp and more importantly, get to practicing all the stuff that really matters like what notes I’m actually playing. Being that I have a pretty solid understanding of how to physically play the bass, I didn’t feel that I needed to pay for private lessons (at least for now anyway) and thus opted for one of the many DVDs available on the subject of learning bass. I got a copy of Beaver Felton’s (yes, that’s his actual name) “Bass Basics, Vol.1″ which has turned out to be exactly what I needed. It’s a great video indeed and proves doing your research on something like this ahead of time really pays off.
Someday I’ll get myself a nice pro rig (an AL-MK500 with a 410 cabinet of some kind comes to mind) but until then I’ll most likely purchase a little practice amp or something. But because the Variax bass sounds so good straight through the board, it may be a while before I even do that.
Whew! That was a lot more than I planned on saying originally. But I am pretty excited and wanted to share.
