BBC 4 Guitar, Drums and Bass

p90fool

It obviously misses a lot out, but I see it more as one player's personal journey than an accurate history. 

Tbh, if it was a linear history of the bass guitar in one hour I doubt I would've learned anything I didn't know, whereas the personal slant of one particular player I know very little about was far more interesting.

ourmaninthenorth

Any programme about Bass that doesn't mention Ron Carter is aimed at a different level, and I judge it as such. 

MattBanshee

The drums one was great, the bass one was shit. Hopefully guitar will be better.

MattBanshee

Philtre said:

No Jaco on the Bass episode?

No fucking Leo Fender on the bass episode.

mudslide73

The guitar episode will cop some flack on here no doubt. I've enjoyed the first two so I'm hopeful

Hattigol

mudslide73 said:

The guitar episode will cop some flack on here no doubt.

And then some!

mart

In the programme they mentioned the story of Paul McCartney using a bass speaker as a mic to record the sound from his bass amp. I remember hearing that story before, in Ian McDonald’s book if I recall correctly.

But here it was presented as a way of getting a big bass sound, beefier than ever before. Is there any truth in that? I’d always assumed it was just the Beatles being bored so trying something different just for the sake of it. Is this more myth-making, or is there any reason to think this approach would capture the sound better?

Blueingreen

mart said:

In the programme they mentioned the story of Paul McCartney using a bass speaker as a mic to record the sound from his bass amp. I remember hearing that story before, in Ian McDonald’s book if I recall correctly.

But here it was presented as a way of getting a big bass sound, beefier than ever before. Is there any truth in that? I’d always assumed it was just the Beatles being bored so trying something different just for the sake of it. Is this more myth-making, or is there any reason to think this approach would capture the sound better?

I don't know about this but I do remember reading there was some technical reason why the bass on American record labels like Atlantic in this period (pre and early Beatles) sounded bigger than the bass on British records. So it was very much part of the mindset of British artists, producers etc that they had to find ways of making the bass sound bigger.  It wasn't just The Beatles.

mart

Oh yeah, I don’t doubt that the desire was there to get a bigger bass sound. I’m just dubious about whether the speaker-as-mic approach would achieve that, or even whether anybody ever thought it would.

HAL9000

PhilW1 said:

...really impressed with the amount of people just jamming on the street//beach or in the park.
can’t ever see it happening in Brum tho’!

To be fair, the weather in Louisiana and California is probably a bit more conducive to playing outdoors than it is in the West Midlands

bobblehat

Enjoyed both so far. Thought the level of detail was just about right.

Lodious

mudslide73 said:

The guitar episode will cop some flack on here no doubt. I've enjoyed the first two so I'm hopeful

Maybe they should have got The Fretboard membership on the advisory team? We could have had Guthrie Govan interviewing Greg Howe about what thickness plectrum he uses and then bitch about why there wasn't more than 20 minutes devoted to Frank Gambale's forth album :-)

english_bob

Lodious said:

mudslide73 said:

The guitar episode will cop some flack on here no doubt. I've enjoyed the first two so I'm hopeful

Maybe they should have got The Fretboard membership on the advisory team? We could have had Guthrie Govan interviewing Greg Howe about what thickness plectrum he uses and then bitch about why there wasn't more than 20 minutes devoted to Frank Gambale's forth album :-)

Or they could screen exactly that and have just as many complaints that they spent so long on those "soulless" meedlers.

ArchtopDave

I enjoyed both programmes, but felt there was a bit too much chat in the Bass one. The Drum one covered a lot of ground well, and, as others have mentioned, Sheena E just stood out even from what was really just a short blast on her drum kit.

Rocker

I did not see the Drums episode but the Bass program was pretty good as those programs go.  It tried, and succeeded fairly well, to give non musicians an insight into what a bass brings to music. And how music evolved because of adding bass instruments to the mix.  The showing and explanations  of the playing on a few well known songs was well thought out. And beneficial to non musicians who listen to and enjoy music.

steveledzep

I enjoyed it too.  Stand-out moment was Herbie Flowers demonstrating how he developed the bass line for Walk on the Wild Side, so simple, but hugely effective.

Funkfingers

ArchtopDave said:

Sheena E

On reflection, I think that I would rather hear Sheila E sing than hear Sheena Easton play drums.

mudslide73

Ep3 was on last night. I'll stick my neck out and say I enjoyed it. A bit too much on slide guitar imo but good on the whole. 

rolls1392

I enjoyed it but I do like slide.
Surprisingly OH enjoyed it too. Most unlike her!

scrumhalf

I thought last night's episode was really good, very entertaining.

There is so much guitar stuff they had to pick from that any programme would be found wanting by someone or other. This one may picked some bits, and picked them well.