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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
It is wild. As some guitar forward music has gone out of fashion in the mainstream the P&W market has just boomed. I listen to quite a few guitar podcasts and I feel like that comes up constantly. I would be interested to see some numbers but P&W has to be just behind Metal and Country when it comes to guitar sales. I know too much about the P&W world from growing up in church in the South.
I grew up and still live in the south. Lol I do turn on the gain side of my B7K and have used fuzz at church. I’m sure I probably get some looks for it, but I don’t care. I guess I’m atypical in this and the P&W crowd. Lol I’m pretty cool with that though.
Bwahahaha. As an atheist who views the bible and Marvel in the same light; I might actually sit through a sermon to watch that. Too great. I'm not saying I'd be familiar with it, but what song would you use them on?
I had no idea the P+W crowd existed until I signed up here - but then again, I was only vaguely aware of the blues jam and cover band crowds until I signed up here, either. So, I may just not be very worldly. I got kind of an inkling of what the folks were like by the people running the local recycled music store liking my playing when I tried stuff out, but giving off an odd Jesus-y vibe at the same time.
But, I actually got to meet a bunch of them when they decided to form a "company band" for an event at work. I work for a large corp., and my location is pretty good sized. Everyone who volunteered besides myself all played at church. Great guys, all of them played well, learned the songs quickly and were willing to have a beer and such. The band was cover band gulag, though. I was not fond of the songs, and for the first time in my life I dreaded rehearsal. It wasn't the P+W crowd that drove me off, those guys were fine. It was the cover band repertoire that made me say "Umm, I bet X can play those songs better than I. He was the band director for us, but I know he plays bass." when they wanted to get together again. I think they might have been happy to be playing rock songs instead of their normal sets. I can't fathom what trying to be a member of what amounts to a christian contemporary cover band would be like for me, other than going to visit the dentist and staying there for years while dentists work on me in shifts. If I never hear Oasis again, it will be too soon.
I mean, I had hopes of doing covers like this:
Boy, was I wrong.
^^^^
This is about as P&W as I get personally
I use the drive on quite a few songs, but the fuzz came out in the chorus of this song:
Last beer I had was Sunday after church lol. I would be about the same if I listened to P&W music much more than a song or two a week. It’s all cookie cutter stuff to me. Kind of like Nashville with tight rolled jeans and hipster haircuts.
My buddy and I were going to the Wovenhand show next month in Nashville. I had to pass of my ticket because of some prior obligations. Really would like to see them live.
Oooof. I made it to the chorus, and I see where it would fit. Folks who look at you sideways for doing that have the problem.
I may have to rescind my offer, though. I'm going to need something like mushrooms to get up early on a Sunday and make it through an entire service of that - and that's not going to be a good scene for anyone involved. Nobody wants that.
They don't let you play anything fun? Like say, "May the Circle Be Unbroken", maybe let you get a little wild in a bridge they throw into "Amazing Grace"? I dunno. I always wanted church to be more exciting. When my grandma took me to the black Baptist church across the street from her house in Tyler when I was around 4 years old, it was a little terrifying in comparison to the staid Presbyterian church I was used to. Those folks were into it and loud about it. It was probably the loudest crowd for a musical event I had experienced at the time, and I didn't experience a group of folks anywhere close to being that enthused about something until I saw Metallica open for Ozzy when I was a kid. Dammit, you could describe either event as the most exciting church I've ever been to at that point.
And of course, on the day I say that. I find out that I would have no problem being a member of Brittany Howard's praise band. Yeah, the opening line of "I don't go to church anymore", might disqualify it from most praise band's repertoire, but the subject is similar, and she's rocking a 4-pickup Teisco guitar and a gloriously nasty fuzz on the solo.
ETA, and yeah, she has the balls to detune a Japanese guitar that's older than I am at the end of the solo. Yeah, she tunes it again while a sample is running, but I own more than one cheap guitar from the era, and I wouldn't try it.
Who knows, I might believe in heaven, someday.
And to add my 2 cents to the "S/DBT" is the best! chorus: I generally like TB a lot, but yeah, you guys are pretty much my warm, fuzzy, wet spot on the internet. It's pretty much the only place besides the "Angry Scotsmen who are Methamphetamine Enthusiasts" message boards where I wouldn't get ridiculed for thinking this is one of the best pop songs, ever:
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Dude it’s tough making it through listening to those songs for me. I’m cool with what they are saying, but that song is better than probably 90% of the genre. That’s not a high bar to hit really. IMHO
Amazing Grace and Circle would work I guess, but I’d get pissed and have to learn the Vic Wooten version and completely
butcher the hell out of it. Lmao Hell out of it. Lol Well, you get my point. Regardless, the old people would hate it and the younger ones wouldn’t get it.
At least we don’t practice anymore. That’s a plus for me.
Wow, yeah. Same planet, different worlds. If I don't want to play a song anymore, it doesn't matter if it's an original or a cover, I can just say I don't want to play it. Nobody's turning a real profit, and I've lost sleep to play with some of my better bands. If you want to find another bass player who will work with you, fire me and have at it, or convince me to play the song. My bandmates often have comments about my tone or pedal choice, but I get to say "you're wrong", or "you're right" and move on, or have the argument that has to be had. It's a completely collaborative process, and with 4 folks, you end up with deadlocks. So, you also learn to soldier on when you can't figure out which side is "right". No one has quit or been thrown out in about 5 years, despite grumbles at times, and we seem to keep getting better bookings.
In short, when the rubber meets the road, who decides what's going to happen with a P+W band? If someone declares "Thou shalt not use fuzz pedal on bass" (I'm not kidding, I've recently heard the equivalent from folks who call themselves punk rockers), who's gonna enforce it?
I have family that play in p+w but they're paid for it. Not sure if they'd go otherwise, never asked. However it's at a lively almost rowdy gospel church and they seem to enjoy playing.
I don't think it would be a stretch that close to 80% of the folks on TB are in either cover bands, p+w, or both. Never realized how many people play in cover bands before coming on here.
I don't think it would be a stretch that close to 80% of the folks on TB are in either cover bands, p+w, or both. Never realized how many people play in cover bands before coming on here.
On a side note, doom seems like it would fit the somber attitude at some churches and stoner would likely help enhance the religious experience.
Nobody would really say much. It might be suggested, but I’ve never had that happen either. One time I was asked to not play 16th notes in a part of one song. I obliged, but nothing more has been asked. I guess if they don’t like it they can turn me down on the board. I’m running direct anyway. Lol
After a lot of head scratching and internet researching, I ordered a new bass today. Ibanez SRMS805 (brown topaz burst). I'm hoping this and my five-string Mikro will keep me satisfied for a while. 
I have found that most people, including "musicians", have no interest in exploring new music. the vast majority just want to hear and play the familiar.
This was me for a long time! Some new stuff I just can’t get into. I do like digging through classics, and I do like discovering stuff. I just find myself digging more than discovering...
After a lot of head scratching and internet researching, I ordered a new bass today. Ibanez SRMS805 (brown topaz burst). I'm hoping this and my five-string Mikro will keep me satisfied for a while.
Nice! Thats a pretty bass!
Hey doomers, it's been a while since I rapped at ya.
Been playing in a surf trio lately....haven't played that stuff since the '90s and playing this style definitely improves the chops, it's a total 180 from the usual, but the other two guys are good players and it's a cool hang.
That '76 rescue Jazz bass I got has turned into a total sh!t show. The original neck was too far gone to be salvageable. The guitarist in the surf trio works at his family's guitar repair business, so I got a new Fender block inlay neck at cost, and they did some other work on it. All said and done I think they overcharged me IMO, and I still had to fix one of their F-up's when I got it back. Now it turns out that one of the pickups is open (but not dead), so that's another $50 to get it fixed (not by that shop, I'm sending to Sentell). I have a feeling that it got messed up while they were working on it, the pickups were glued in place because the foam had melted and hardened. It's going to be a nice bass when it's finally done, but at this point I wish I had just left it to rot on craigslist.
This MF'er is collecting dust so I'm letting a doom worthy setup go if anyone knows peeps in the SF bay area looking for a killer 400 watt tube head and 2x15 cab. Or this would make you the talk of the town at your praise Jesus gigs.
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Been playing in a surf trio lately....haven't played that stuff since the '90s and playing this style definitely improves the chops, it's a total 180 from the usual, but the other two guys are good players and it's a cool hang.
That '76 rescue Jazz bass I got has turned into a total sh!t show. The original neck was too far gone to be salvageable. The guitarist in the surf trio works at his family's guitar repair business, so I got a new Fender block inlay neck at cost, and they did some other work on it. All said and done I think they overcharged me IMO, and I still had to fix one of their F-up's when I got it back. Now it turns out that one of the pickups is open (but not dead), so that's another $50 to get it fixed (not by that shop, I'm sending to Sentell). I have a feeling that it got messed up while they were working on it, the pickups were glued in place because the foam had melted and hardened. It's going to be a nice bass when it's finally done, but at this point I wish I had just left it to rot on craigslist.
This MF'er is collecting dust so I'm letting a doom worthy setup go if anyone knows peeps in the SF bay area looking for a killer 400 watt tube head and 2x15 cab. Or this would make you the talk of the town at your praise Jesus gigs.
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I'm sure the first thing out of my mouth playing thru that bad boy would be "JEEEESUS!"
