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fretless + Africa = ++goodness...


chris-dax

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Got to take my fretless out to a great gig this weekend....

 

A few months ago I got a call for an African praise band....but then the bass guy turned out he could make it so that was that....

 

Last week I got another call and this one worked out....

 

I removed the flatwounds from my fretless DSC00879-1.jpg

 

and dropped on a set lightly used D'Addario rounds....45-100 I think....

 

:eek: Sweetness..!!

 

I've got a set of D'Add half-round chromes in a light gauge on the way but will leave these stings on for awhile. I'm thinking the lighter gauge will allow me to lower the action a little for more mwah-power and the 1/2rounds will give me the flat feel with a round sound....we'll see....

 

but if I had had these strings on before I ordered the 1/2s I wouldn't have bothered....they sound great.

 

So it was also the first time I got to gig my fretless with my Presonus preamp and Stewart amp combo...

 

Also :eek: Sweetness..!!

 

I was able to punch those mids up a little and roll off the highs for most of the songs....keep it up on the A and D strings for the most part and dial in just a touch of drive....Ooooo La La....baby....

 

I was running that through my Avatar 210 delta and it never sounded so sweet...

 

The other players were from Senegal and Uganda and a couple of other Denver cats....

 

We played for 2 services and really had a ball....

 

Most fun I've had in a long time....with the combo of really starting to dial in on my fretless tone and chops....and getting to play some authentic Afrcian music with Africans....

 

I tried to play it off like :cool:...but inside I was like :love:

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You got a call for a what???
:confused:

 

Sorry - I'm a Christian and besides playing out at bars and such, I do a lot of Sunday morning.

 

This particular situation was a few musicians from Africa doing a fund-raiser for a Christian social serive agency in Uganda....

 

So we do music that has the same lyrical content as what might hear in your typical Lutheran church on a Sunday (this event was in a Lutheran church near Vail) but the arrangements are African (rhythms, instrumentation, form) and many of the songs are in Swahili or Lugandan or some other common African dialect.

 

We had a percussionist with two huge drums made out of animal hide (the sides still had the fur on), we had the 3 tone bell thing, djimbe, guitar player who sounded like something off of Paul Simon's Graceland, fretless bass, drum set, and sax player.

 

Also the drummer stepped out from behind his drums and did the style of dancing common to his tribe while we jammed....

 

But the songs were about typical Christian themes of Jesus, grace, hope, and like that.

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Sorry - I'm a Christian and besides playing out at bars and such, I do a lot of Sunday morning.


This particular situation was a few musicians from Africa doing a fund-raiser for a Christian social serive agency in Uganda....


So we do music that has the same lyrical content as what might hear in your typical Lutheran church on a Sunday (this event was in a Lutheran church near Vail) but the arrangements are African (rhythms, instrumentation, form) and many of the songs are in Swahili or Lugandan or some other common African dialect.


We had a percussionist with two huge drums made out of animal hide (the sides still had the fur on), we had the 3 tone bell thing, djimbe, guitar player who sounded like something off of Paul Simon's Graceland, fretless bass, drum set, and sax player.


Also the drummer stepped out from behind his drums and did the style of dancing common to his tribe while we jammed....


But the songs were about typical Christian themes of Jesus, grace, hope, and like that.

Did they do the vocal harmony arrangements? Ladysmith style?

 

I lived in South Africa when I was little. I still have dreams about seeing the groups sing.

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