For the bassists

[MOONDOGGY]

Michael Manring is coming to Reading, PA on March 10th and Wyomissing, PA on March 11-13. I would love to go see this guy. I thought it would be cool to get a group of bassists from around here to go. I am just throwing this up in the air. I am not even sure if my schedule permits this yet. Heck, I am not even sure exactly where Reading and Wyomissing are! Also, I would love to know if there are any other good bassists touring around here.

[bassist_25]

I'm convinced that Michael Manring is from another planet. A race of super musicians migrated to the blue planet some 300 years ago after a large genocide wiped out the majority of their people. Now, they're dying out in relative obscurity while crappy artists like Jessica Simpson and Fred Durst make millions of dollars. Originally, the race was densely populated with people such as Franz Liszt, Pagannini, and Andres Segovia, but without procreation, the species is predicted to die out within the the next 125 years. It's imperative that people like Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stu Hamm, and Jeff Beck make whoopie with Jennifer Batten and The Great Kat, immediatley.

Actually, I've spoken a few times with Manring over the net. He's a super cool guy and answered my questions about groove-based soloing. Reading sounds very familiar, but I've never heard of Wyomissing. I don't know if my schedule would permit seeing this show, but I would definatley be interested.

[ToonaRockGuy]

Pardon the drummer intrusion...

Wyomissing is east of Harrisburg, just West of Philly, right by Reading.

You can get directions here: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps.py?&addr=&csz=Wyomissing,PA

[f.sciarrillo]

Manring is sick. He is one of the best along with Flea and Les Claypol .. When I listen to some of his stuff I have a hard time determining if he is playing a regular guitar or bass .. He is amazing ..

I used to read articles on him where he said he would lock himself in a room and practice 12 hours a day. Play until his fingers bleed, that is dedication ..

[CMOR]

Don't get me wrong, I love Flea and Les. Manring is on a whole different plane of exsistence. I heard a rumor of an album of him and Victor Wooten together. That makes me want to chop my fingers off double time.

[DMFJ03]

I've heard Wooten and it blew my mind. Now I am real interested in hearing Manring, anyone have any sound clips from him?

[bassist_25]

I think there use to be a clip of him at the SWR website (along with Adam Nitti, another amazing player). Manring uses a lot of alternate tunings and even has a special bass made by Zon to accomondate on the fly retunings (kind of like a hip-shot but more intricate, I guess). I believe he even studied with Jaco for a while.

[bassist_25]

Yes, here's the link to a Manring clip. Check out Nitti while you're at it. Frode Berg does some tasteful melodic stuff with a flamenco guitarist, and P-Nut is awesome as always.

http://www.swrsound.com/artists/downloads.html

BTW: I forgot to add: the whole song is created by Manring playing a riff, then looping it while he plays something new over it. It's some of the most innovative fretless playing I've heard in a while; especially considering just about every fretless player for the past 20 years has been trying to recreate Word of Mouth instead of finding their own voices. If you dig his stuff, Steve Lawson is another player you should check out.

[MOONDOGGY]

Just bringing this back to the top. The new dates are March 11-14 and they are all in Wyomissing, not in Reading. That is a Fri - Mon. Any idea on how to start a formal sign-up list?

Also, is anybody goin to Pitt or Philli to catch Vai and Sardinas?

[red]

Also, I would love to know if there are any other good bassists touring around here.

Come see us play!!

[esa]

::is half afraid to ask who these guys are since the whole Lemmi incident...: