"Ridin' the Wind" play-along on Framus 5/149 Star-Bass
These are videos of me playing along with some pre-recorded tunes, showing how I typically practice material for one of my bands when I'm at home. Click below on SHOW MORE for technical details and song-specific information. The bass is a Framus 5/149 Star-Bass (1965) with Optima RB flatwound strings. It's very comfortable to play and is probably my main go-to bass for practicing at home. The acoustic sound from the body coupled with the amplified sound of the little computer speaker system it's plugged into sounds really nice in person. ------------------------------------- This Tornados tune is one that I asked if we could cover when I first joined the band. Being that "Telstar" was a tune that they had played with their previous bassist and that they still wanted to do (but which I had yet to learn), and this tune is sort of "Son of Telstar" in a way, my request was cheerfully agreed to, and I learned how to play it before I learned "Telstar". Keep in mind that the sound mix in these video recordings isn't great, it's not very balanced, I'm not using any compression or effects or tone shaping... When I play this song (or any song) with the band, I shape the sound to fit in better with the overall mix. In these videos, I have no idea what it's gonna sound like until I play the video back and listen. Also, as you can hear, I missed the first few notes as it took time for me to get from my laptop back to my bass... I must admit that the fact that Heinz Burt played a Framus Star-Bass (albeit a slightly older and different variant) is part of the reason why I decided to acquire one myself for use in this band as a backup bass for my Harmony H22 (which is currently my main bass for playing live). Of course who knows exactly what's on the original studio recordings for these tunes? Maybe there are Joe Meek studio notes for these sessions detailing exactly what was played (I'm guessing a double bass plus a bass guitar) ------------------------------------- Technical details are as follows: Music track - Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, Windows Media Player with the lows rolled off on the app's graphic equalizer, played through a Vizio soundbar system. Bass - Plugged directly into an Altec Lansing VS2421 mini speaker system aux input with the help of a 1/4-inch to 1/8-inch adapter Video/microphone - BlackBerry Key2 balanced precariously on a desk, using its native camera app and built-in microphones It might not be "ideal," but it works just fine for now. And actually, when I am just practicing and not recording these dumb videos, I just use my Blackberry to play the music through the main input of the Altec Lansing speakers, with the bass plugged into the aux input. But being that I am using the phone to record videos, please keep in mind that these are recorded at low-level "bedroom" volume, so the phone's microphones pick up a lot of stray acoustic noise from fingers hitting the strings, strings hitting the frets, etc.
These are videos of me playing along with some pre-recorded tunes, showing how I typically practice material for one of my bands when I'm at home. Click below on SHOW MORE for technical details and song-specific information. The bass is a Framus 5/149 Star-Bass (1965) with Optima RB flatwound strings. It's very comfortable to play and is probably my main go-to bass for practicing at home. The acoustic sound from the body coupled with the amplified sound of the little computer speaker system it's plugged into sounds really nice in person. ------------------------------------- This Tornados tune is one that I asked if we could cover when I first joined the band. Being that "Telstar" was a tune that they had played with their previous bassist and that they still wanted to do (but which I had yet to learn), and this tune is sort of "Son of Telstar" in a way, my request was cheerfully agreed to, and I learned how to play it before I learned "Telstar". Keep in mind that the sound mix in these video recordings isn't great, it's not very balanced, I'm not using any compression or effects or tone shaping... When I play this song (or any song) with the band, I shape the sound to fit in better with the overall mix. In these videos, I have no idea what it's gonna sound like until I play the video back and listen. Also, as you can hear, I missed the first few notes as it took time for me to get from my laptop back to my bass... I must admit that the fact that Heinz Burt played a Framus Star-Bass (albeit a slightly older and different variant) is part of the reason why I decided to acquire one myself for use in this band as a backup bass for my Harmony H22 (which is currently my main bass for playing live). Of course who knows exactly what's on the original studio recordings for these tunes? Maybe there are Joe Meek studio notes for these sessions detailing exactly what was played (I'm guessing a double bass plus a bass guitar) ------------------------------------- Technical details are as follows: Music track - Lenovo ThinkPad laptop, Windows Media Player with the lows rolled off on the app's graphic equalizer, played through a Vizio soundbar system. Bass - Plugged directly into an Altec Lansing VS2421 mini speaker system aux input with the help of a 1/4-inch to 1/8-inch adapter Video/microphone - BlackBerry Key2 balanced precariously on a desk, using its native camera app and built-in microphones It might not be "ideal," but it works just fine for now. And actually, when I am just practicing and not recording these dumb videos, I just use my Blackberry to play the music through the main input of the Altec Lansing speakers, with the bass plugged into the aux input. But being that I am using the phone to record videos, please keep in mind that these are recorded at low-level "bedroom" volume, so the phone's microphones pick up a lot of stray acoustic noise from fingers hitting the strings, strings hitting the frets, etc.