Playing the Buttercream in the bands

I finally had the opportunity to play the butter bass at band rehearsals this past week. With my indie rock power trio, I plugged through my pedal board, which features a compressor as well as a Tone Hammer 500 (AGS off). That all fed into an Orange Terror Bass v2, which powered a 2x10 + 1x15 stack. I wear earplugs when I play, so any audio I got was filtered through that as well.

Overall, compared to my usual basses, G&L L-1000s, both with rosewood boards, I felt the butter bass with its maple board sounded fuller on the upper registers. I don't spend a lot of time up there, as I always feel like my basses just lose a little body and vibrance when I do so, but the butter bass didn't seem to do that. Call it honeymoon phase or whatever, the butter P felt stout and strong when I played up high. The notes felt like they were singing; I can't really explain it.

I play with a pick in that band and everything felt and sounded great. I would flick the tone down on some of the more mellow tunes, and then dime it when going hard. The butter bass performed admirably.

Fast forward to last night, with yacht rock band rehearsal. We use IEMs and one guy does use a monitor speaker. I play through a Zoom B2Four multi-effects pedal and call up whatever patch I need for whatever song we do.

Much the same as with my indie rock band, the butter bass was wonderful to play. Everything sounded full and clear in my IEMs, and also sounded super tasty when I noodled around with them out (listening via my mate's monitor speaker). The bass sounded great in nearly all the songs we played, except for the brief (yikes) slapping I do in the song "Somebody's Baby." I may need to choose a different patch or hit a boost button or something. I felt like all the bottom end dropped out when I slapped.

I did raise the saddles a tiny bit prior to practice. Mainly because I'm a super heavy striker and I found I was getting a lot of noise. Even though I do play lighter with IEMs, eventually, I will go for it, so having a little more clearance works for me. I thought it played great, even better than the last rehearsal.

In between rehearsals, I did some more light recording. I took an old song that I played a '93 G&L SB-2 on, used fadr.com to create stems, imported it all into Audacity, and then used my Trace-Elliot GP12 Series 6 to feed my Scarlett Focusrite. Using the line out from the TE into the input jack of the Focusrite was a bit of a revelation. I turned OFF the "instrument" button on the Focusrite, thereby removing the boost it would otherwise give to the instrument's signal. This gave me room to increase the input gain on the Focusrite without blowing out my signal.

Overall, the TE performed great and feeding the butter bass signal into my PC was a lot of fun. I did compare the butter bass (Mojotone 70's clone PUPs) with my black bass (62 Custom Shop PUPs) again, and the reality is, they sound very similar to my untrained ears. The signal coming off the butter bass is hotter for sure, but adjusting my input when playing the black bass seemed to address that.

When I adjusted each bass track I recorded in the confines of the song, either one sounded really awesome, even with my super limited engineering skills. Both basses have rounds on them and both were full, aggressive and a pleasure to listen to.

Ultimately, it seems that it took me approximately $900 to realize that I already had a $400 P bass that would be really great for me. I was already starting to fall for the black bass, yes. But the butter bass had some upgrades, as well as that maple neck, that pushed it over the edge for me. I have no regrets in buying it. It is really making me appreciate the black bass though.

NBD: 2020 Fender Player Precision bass, buttercream flavor

I've been saving up gig money since December and had about $800 or so ready to go. I'd had my eye on a Nate Mendel P bass that was in Bellingham. I was planning on going with that but started looking on Reverb at other P's in a lower price range.

I happened upon a P bass in the Player model range. Those went for $699 to $799 or so, depending on finish and/or where you got it. I can't tell you the specs or what constitutes a Player, other than certain colors. A few weeks ago, I played an Ocean Turquoise one for a few minutes at Guitar Center and was pretty impressed with it. There was one on Reverb with some upgrades that I liked and may have pulled on the trigger on, but it was gone when I checked it later that day.

In April, I was asked to play on 4 sub gigs and as a result, got a quick $400 that went into my bass fund. So, rather than waiting for more $$ to get that Nate bass, I switched my target to one of the Player basses. They offer a bunch of color and neck combos. Traditionally, I've been a rosewood neck guy; I just prefer how the darker wood looks on a neck.

But since I already have my 99 P with a rosewood neck, I figured I'd pursue the maple neck route. The turquoise one had a maple neck and I liked the color enough. However, I am too vain; I saw another local dude playing one and that was that, no go for me on the turquoise.

I kept looking at Reverb but took a quick tour on the TalkBass classifieds. It was there that I saw a guy selling a buttercream Player P. The stock version comes with a white pickguard, but that didn't do much for me. However, this one, the previous owner had put on a black pickguard, which just hits differently.

Seller's picture

He had also upgraded the stock bridge with a Hipshot vintage one, as well as pickups from stock to Mojotone 70s clone. The pots were also upgraded, for what benefit, I don't know; I'm no bass tech. Anyway, I liked the value-adds to this bass. He was also selling the pictured case, but since I have a bunch of cases, I reached out and asked if he'd be willing to lower the price if he didn't include the case. He said yes, so after a few more gigs, I agreed to buy that bass.

Shipping was relatively quick and I was able to pick it up at UPS last week. The bass was quite pretty in person and when I got it home and plugged it in, I liked how it sounded, but it was very zingy, with what felt like fairly new strings on it. I did a comparison with my 99 P and initially, I liked that sound better.

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Both basses sound pretty similar, and to the regular listener, there may be no discernable difference. But to someone with refined ears like mine (yeah, right), there was a slight difference. Whatever the differences, I do like both in the non-band setting.

Now, fast forward a few days. I had to pick Riley up from school and drive home for a few days. I did an actual DAW recording to eliminate outside sounds from the phone microphone. And confirmed again that the tones are very similar between both basses. The butter bass is a little hotter and fuller sounding (maybe the combo of the pups and the pots?) and the maple neck seems to make the notes sing a little prouder. The black bass gives up a little on the bottom end, but has a nice growl to it still.

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I may do another video with picking, who knows. I am excited to play it in practice this week, PITO should be getting together, and then SGs on Sunday as we prep for our June shows. In the meantime, here are a few pics of this beautiful bass.

5/11/2024, Sunset Grooves at Tim's Tavern

Every once in a while you play a bad gig, and though we didn't play poorly, it was a rough gig. But I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, it's a gig and I love to play out. It's why we rehearse, it's why I practice, it's why I search for cool stage wear, it's why I buy gear to enable playing out. On the other hand, when things out of your control don't go the way you want them to, well, it can make what's usually a great experience into something not as great.

After struggling with COVID this week, I was a little concerned about how I'd perform at this show. Additionally, it was to be the hottest day of the year, likely hitting mid-80s or higher. And though this venue's stage is outdoors, with shade, it is also walled up somewhat, causing a bit of a greenhouse effect. Luckily, one thing that did go right was the venue had a couple big fans they let us put on stage, so that helped.

Anyway, I have been feeling better and started a steroid treatment yesterday, which had me feeling really great today. I am still a little short of breath, but figured I'd be able to perform fine (spoiler alert: I did perform fine, happy with that). I packed up and headed out to White Center at just around 2pm for a 2:30 load in/soundcheck.

After our soundcheck debacle last week, which left us with no time to really check our levels, let alone get in the zone, I wanted plenty of time this time around. Which I got, as I showed up at about 2:20. I loaded in my basses, pedal bag and clothes and waited. Dusty was able to get his drums set up in record time, and Eric had his keys set up shortly after. Still no sound guy, but he literally rolled in (on a long board) just as Dennis showed up.

Because sound guy Tim had STAG sounding great last week, I figured we'd be OK this week. As it turns out, I was quite wrong. I don't know the whole gist of things, but it seemed he only had 4 auxiliary channels to pipe out monitor feeds, which meant two of us (me and Dennis) were going to have to use the same feed. And that also meant one of us (me) was going to have to use a floor wedge.

He also had the wrong or not enough cabling and there was a bunch of him running back and forth from the stage to the sound booth. It was weird and a little unprofessional. Not being a sound guy, however, I could only empathize with him as he was one guy trying to dial in a bunch of stuff. Weirdly, I did fill out a stage plot form earlier today (was only asked to do it then) and after the gig, I found out from Tim that he never saw or got that. Sounds like there was a lack of communication from booker to sound guy (just like last week!).

We were supposed to start playing at 4 and had prepped about 30 songs to go through. 4pm came and went and we didn't hit our first note until about 4:45. By then, we were pretty grumpy, and we were playing for free, but we didn't make too much of a stink; there was nowhere to hide and we are not so big that we can afford to burn any bridges.

We pretty much played all 15 songs of our first set. There were maybe 15-20 people in the outdoor area where we were. It was pretty sparse and most people just sat and listened. We did get nice applause after each song. I felt pretty good. I had my gold bass going into my B2Four FX pedal and I think the FOH sounded pretty decent. It sounded fairly crappy through the wedge, that also carried Jen's vox super loud, as well as Dennis' guitar. I could hear myself enough, but used my head voice to carry me; I think it was OK.

Performance-wise, I think we played way better than at the High Dive last week. Maybe it was because of no pressure and/or no people. Or maybe we were all annoyed by the time we played that we didn't care. I don't know.

Overall, I can think of worse ways to spend 5 hours on the nicest day of the year. If I wasn't gigging, I would've probably mowed the lawn. As it is, Marci and I mowed the front and side (she actually did most of it), as well as set up the deck. We'll do the rest of the yard tomorrow on Mother's Day (it's what she wants to do) and Hay is supposed to come visit as well.

COVID and me

Four years in, I finally got COVID. Luckily, 3 days after testing, I feel pretty good. I think it's morphed into a sinus infection, actually.

After my last two weeks of gigs and get-togethers, I guess something got to me. I played a show on Friday with Del Vox, and then on Saturday, made a last-minute decision to go to Tim's to see Craptastica and STAG with Marci.

That ended up being a lot of fun, seeing a lot of friends and musicians, feeling like part of the crowd for a change. I saw Andy, the guy I bought my P bass from a few years ago. He was there to see his guitarist playing for Craptastica. Saw a bunch of other folks as well (Steve/Salena R., Ric, Max, Andi W., Billy M., Chris/Kim, Pete N, Steve M, Stu M), which was cool.

The Mighty STAG

That night, going to bed, I felt a little bit of a sore throat. When I woke up on Sunday, I definitely wasn't feeling great, thinking I had a cold or something. Enough to keep from having adult time with Marci, which was a bummer, but in hindsight, probably the right call.

I went through my day chillin' and thinking about calling off SG practice, but ended up taking some meds and feeling OK enough to go. During practice, we played pretty well, which was good (our last show at the High Dive was not great; videos showed that we were quite rough). I felt pretty good for the most part, kept a mask on, could play and sing well enough. Finished up and headed home and took an expired COVID test and, boom. Two red lines almost immediately.

That test was way expired, though. So I took another test, which was less expired, which also came back positive. I felt like a jerk for not testing earlier and therefore keeping my bandmates from being exposed, but we pretty much stayed apart from each other (despite a quick hug from Jen as I left).

I woke Marci up and she tested at midnight and that was thankfully negative. I've been sleeping in Riley's room since then, holing up downstairs during the day. Work told me to stay at home through Thursday, so that's what I've been doing. Playing Division 2, watching Fallout, resting and trying to feel better.

My symptoms haven't been too terrible. Fever (slight), sore throat (that's gone), stuffy nose (still there). I had a tough night sleeping the first night, but it's been fine the past few nights. Occasionally I feel short of breath, which triggers some light coughing, but overall, it's been no worse than a bad cold. I've had flus that were worse.

I will take a test today and if I'm negative, one more day at home and then work on Friday, probably with a mask on. In the meantime, it's Division 2 time.

5/3/2024 Del Vox at the Blue Moon

After one-hour long rehearsal with the full band and a few hours on my own at home, it was time to play with Del Vox at the Blue Moon. Sherri had given me a Dropbox with 10 or songs in it and I'd been working on them since Sunday, after my shows with Greg and Dave from last week had finished up.

By Tuesday, when we met, I had notes and general feel for the songs based off of her recordings. It was not without mistakes, but rehearsal went pretty well. Sherri and her husband, Michael (guitar and vocals), had a nice thing going. Sherri handled most of the rhythm and Michael did the leads, but Sherri did take some nice solos as well. On drums was Aimee, who also sang some BGVs. She couldn't stay long as she had another rehearsal to get to, being the drummer in something like 8 bands!

Friday rolled up and it was off to the Blue Moon again. I parked in the same spot and brought along the Hog for the ride. Coincidentally, Sherri also owns an Ampeg BA115, so they brought that and that's what I used. We did a quick soundcheck, and then it was time to sit and wait for our turn.

The first band was called Fun Parents, and ironically enough, I was old enough to be any of their parents. They looked like college kids and may have been playing their first gig, but they brought a lot of people and fun energy to the club. I spoke to the bassist afterwards, who was super nice, and he said he loved jumping around a lot and knew he wasn't hitting all his notes. He had a nice looking red/red tortoiseshell Fender P/J. It didn't sound all that great, but neither did my basses in my early 20s. He'll learn.

Fun Parents

After the FP, we jumped on. For the first time in a while, I didn't have to sing, so it was all bass, all the time. Though Del Vox isn't country, it definitely has some alt-country vibes, so a red plaid shirt and some boots-type shoes were in order. I brought the Hog as well, since it's my most vintage bass (1984). No bass pic, but here's my setup and the band.

Pedals and boots/shoes

good ol' BA115

Michael, Sherri and Aimee

The set was pretty good, if you ask me. The crowd stuck around and were much appreciative of the music, that was pretty cool. There is one song that DV does that is simple enough, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't get it ironed out. Mainly due to the structure, which isn't even that tough. I have no idea what the problem was, lack of reps or a case of the yips, I don't know.

The rest of the set was pretty good. Not perfect, but definitely passable and I was happy with it at the end.

Following us was a group of mid to late 20-year-olds playing some sort of funk rock. It reminded me of the kind of stuff I played in the 90s. Some RHCP, some RATM, bands you'd hear on 107.7 FM back in the day. Their bassist was a handsome lad, playing a white Stingray by Sterling, neon strings, black shirt unbuttoned to mid-chest. He had a 90s type sound, fairly clanky and noisy, but ultimately, he played well. The whole band had a lot of energy, bouncing around and really working the crowd. The singer, especially, was very emcee-like and kept the crowd engaged. The music wasn't my thing, but I was very entertained and marveled at their youthful energy and stamina.

Crooked Path

My friend Jeff, from @drawitinone, was there as I had done a quick FB post before the show. He came down to draw the bands in one song. I took a quick selfie when he stepped away.

don't sue me, Jeff

I finished the evening talking with my Del Vox bandmates, Aimee and Sherry, and then caught up with Jeff some more outside. For now, my run of shows is over, until next Saturday, and it was a lot of fun for me. Looking forward to playing more!

5/2/2024 Sunset Grooves at the High Dive

1:20. That's how long it took me to get from work to the High Dive, a meager 17 or so miles away in Fremont. Sadly, I left work at 5:15 or so and despite taking the "toll road" at the cost of $6.50, traffic was insane.

Nevertheless, I showed up when I showed up and had a couple tacos next door at Red Star.

Carne asada taco, good. Carnitas taco, so-so.

I have not played the High Dive for maybe 5 years? Embers played there and that was a good crowd on a Saturday night. With Sunset Grooves and the Aqua-Nets going on a Thursday, no idea how the turnout would be.

Upon arrival, Jen had some old yacht rock clothes from the previous bassist: a couple pairs of jeans and a pair of shoes. There were women's white jeans (if I wrote "white women's jeans," it would look weird) and though they fit my waist and legs, they were cut weird and I took 'em off pretty fast. Dusty commented that it was always weird when Drew (former bassist) would wear them. There were some blue bell bottoms that fit me as well, along with a pair of green loafers of some sort. A size 9.5, so a little roomy for me, but workable. So, instead of the white pants/shoe combo, I wore the blue pants and green shoes.

Shoes had a lift, felt weird.

Eventually we got up for sound check and that was a bit of an event. The sound guy was nice enough, and competent, but he had to check the Aqua-Nets first, which comprised of 2 guitars, bass, drums, 2 keyboards, trumpet, sax and lead singer. They took a while. And with us, three of us used IEMs and that sort of made things a little more complicated for him. He indicated he was more mad at the booker (didn't tell him about the first huge band?) than frustrated with us (he was a little spicy), but ultimately, he did his job and got us dialed in eventually.

We changed into our costumes and realized that instead of the 100 minutes we planned for, we were getting 60, so we did some set editing on the fly. We kept the between song banter down and, not purposefully, started many of our songs several BPM faster than we should have.

I'm trying to institute a new way of communicating rushed tempos when playing a song. Last week, Dave told me to lean my body back as a way of telling him to slow down. I mentioned that to Dusty at rehearsal but didn't remind him at the gig. I don't know if it would have helped, but we started the set really fast. A two-song mashup of Styx's "Too Much Time on my Hands" followed by "My Life" by Billy Joel. Both a little too quick, if you ask me.

We haven't been on stage for 3 months and it showed a bit. Also, I may have to resort to stage volume/monitors instead of IEMs at clubs. I just can't get a great mix for my IEMs it feels like. I had some challenges hearing myself or too much of other things and it made for some sloppiness. Also, I do love wearing sunglasses on stage, but maybe not on the darker stages, like the High Dive. I couldn't see my notes at times and that also added to the mess.

Looks like this was during "Last Train to London"

But, I wasn't alone! Each of us made errors that were pretty audacious. But we made it through, cut some songs in the process and then got off to the stage to our adoring fans.

I actually had a couple people from work come out, as well as Sherri from Del Vox, who I'm playing with tonight for the first time. One guy was really effusive in his compliments. Usually I get a, "good show!" or a, "nice job," or something like that. This guy I think was fueled by maybe one or two too many beverages and was complimenting me like I was some sort of bass god. It went something like this (his name was Jason):

Jason: you were great!

Me: Thanks!

Jason: no, seriously, I'm in a band, my buddy over there is the drummer, and we could tell that you were awesome. You were the best person on stage and

Me (interrupting): Well, there are 4 others on sta--

Jason (interrupting): no, I know, but you were so good. Where do you play?

Me: I play around town, I'm playing tomorrow at the Bl--

Jason (interrupting): do you have a card? You were just so good...

And on and on. We had a couple handshakes and I was finally able to get off the stage to the greenroom, where I put my stuff away and got back into my normal clothes. I headed out to the bar a few minutes later and felt a tap on my shoulder:

Jason: are you that bass player? You are that bass player!

Me (chagrined): yup, that's me.

Jason: oh, man you were so great. Me and my friend over there...

Only this time, he had his companion take pictures of he and I, as well as some not so discreet selfies of her, with he and I behind. It was all sort of weird and comical at the same time.

Anyway, soon afterward, the Aqua-Nets jumped on stage, all 9 or so of them. I know Ric (trumpet) and Max (saxes) a little and mainly chatted with Ric before the show. Both of them had contributed on horns on one of our early Planets songs that Robb wrote. Ric is very friendly and always makes time to chat with me.

Having never seen the Aquas before, I had heard of them as a popular cover band around town. Dennis, the SG guitarist, used to play with them for years. They play hits from all over and generally were pretty good. In particular, Gretchen, the front woman, was excellent. She had excellent pitch and tone, and great stage presence. Apparently ehe'd recently had hip surgery (or something with her legs) and was a little hobbled, but otherwise, you'd never know if she didn't say anything.

Songs such as "September" by EWF, and "Don't Stop Believin'" were really elevated by Gretchen's vocals. I really loved what she brought to the band. Ric and Max are awesome too, especially since I never get to hear horns at any of our gigs, so it was fun.

The Aqua-Nets

After the set, I chatted some more with Ric, then packed up and headed home. 7+ hours away, apparently $50 generated ($250 total), taking away $6.50 for 520 toll and $15-ish for dinner. Don't want to think about the hourly rate (let alone buying gas this morning for $51.50), but I can't wait to do it all again tonight with Del Vox.