goodbye amadeus

ciao!

its been a reflective time here at the Hills. we recently parted ways with our first ever bass, the Musicman Ray 34.  it was sadly inevitable.  we just weren’t playing “Amadeus” at all and he was just taking up space. our 2 other basses we taking up our playing time both at home and abroad.  since Amadeus was a more expensive bass, he wasn’t seeing the stage either. we’d only taken him out of the bag once in the past 6 months.

though we know and take solace in the fact that we will now reinvest the money into a new bass that we like more and will use more, it was still tough to say goodbye.  u always remember your first love.

thanks for the memories Amadeus!

Presenting….. Early Presents!

some early presents came in…omg, the surprise!

fender vs d'addario time!

first came a pack of medium light long scale (code 9050ML) Fender Flatwounds.  already using the ECB81 D’addario regular light gauge on the MusicMan bass.  sometime in the near future, will change over the EB3 to the Fender Flats for a comparison and also future review here. the back of the pack says they “offer warm, rich tones with reduced finger noise and long life“.  can’t wait to give them a go!

also, as we were shopping for someone else, we came across this hilarious book that we JUST could NOT pick up as a gift to ourselves:

the couch potato bass workout

only cracked it open and have yet to do any of the exercises but lookin’ fwd to it!  somehow, this book and its title just seemed like a good fit and  also the cheap price made it irresistible.  stay tuned….

recordings partie deux

so 2 days after our first ever recording session avec les sweats, we were off to record basslines with TOONICE.  great studio up in barrie.  nice digs and top notch equipment.

"amadeus" takes a recording brk

we brought out our fave bass, the Musicman Ray34 which hasn’t been used much of late. not on purpose, just so happens its been sitting nice and cozy in its case for awhile as we rocked out on our other 2 basses.  the ray34 has a nice set of flatwounds on it for the warm reggae vibe we were looking for.  the setup was similar to the Sweats one, just on a slightly bigger budget (ie: there is a budget).  we recorded bass, drums and guitar together live off the floor and went back and punched in any mishaps.  we got 2 songs into the can quite nicely but then the bass started to go wonky.  it was then we realized it needed a setup and that slowed down the first nights recording speed.  without a backup bass to use, we just had to struggle thru it all.

lessons learnt: bring more than one bass, try out basses before entering studio so u know all is well with them (even though u remember all being well-one has to wonder what goes on in those cases once the lid shuts?), be prepared for anything.

the essentials: bass, amp, notes, headphones, timmy's!