{"id":1680,"date":"2022-11-06T23:34:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T23:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2022-11-27T23:43:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T23:43:23","slug":"can-i-play-my-old-riffs-repeat-by-small-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/2022\/can-i-play-my-old-riffs-repeat-by-small-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimbo Guitar &#8211; Can I Play My Old Riffs? \u201cRepeat\u201d by Small Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is another video where I see if I can still play one of my old riffs. In 2009 I joined a very loud rock band called Small Machine, and I played the bass. I heard them on MySpace and I became a massive fan, so it was really exciting to get the chance to join the band.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z5s5EFCAkxs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In the video I play along with a Small Machine song called &#8220;Repeat&#8221;. Now actually the whole bassline for this song was already written when I joined the band. So it&#8217;s really Rob&#8217;s riff, but I always liked playing it and I think it&#8217;s a great melodic bassline which works in conjunction with the drumming to provide a really interesting foundation for the guitars and vocals.<\/p>\n<p>Repeat was one of the original songs I first heard back from their first demo when I was just a fan of the group, and back then they were just a duo. But this version is from 2010 after Sam our singer and rhythm guitarist and I joined, so this has new guitar parts, new vocals, and my version of Rob&#8217;s original bassline.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"img\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-rotated.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1681\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-768x1365.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175724-rotated.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m playing my Dean Evo XM bass. This is a 30&#8243; short-scale bass which I modified by adding an active tone circuit called a Stinger, which you&#8217;d be right in guessing is a clone of the circuit found in a well-known bass from the 70&#8217;s. I used to play a 34&#8243; long scale Westone Superheadless bass for much of my time in Small Machine, but I ended up getting tendonitis in my left arm from the very vigorous basslines I used to play, combined with the intense rehearsals we did and the many gigs we played. So getting a smaller bass where I didn&#8217;t have to stretch my arm out so far really helped me out.<\/p>\n<p>The amp is a 200 watt Peavey Mark III 400 series from the late 70&#8217;s. It is actually my brother&#8217;s amp, but he left it behind years ago when he moved to another country, and I&#8217;ve kept it alive in the intervening years. It&#8217;s going into two Fender bass cabinets, a 2&#215;10 and a 1&#215;15. This was the amplification rig I used in Small Machine and those 200 watts were handy as I had to keep up sonically with two Marshall half-stacks and a drummer with a foot like a traction engine.<a class=\"img\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221105_175128.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But, you don&#8217;t hear the whole rig in the video, as I recorded it using the line output which is that yellow lead coming out of the front panel. That&#8217;s going into my trusty and dusty old DAW which is capturing everything in Audacity.<\/p>\n<p>As with the Vehicle Derek track I panned my bass playing to one side and the band to the other for a bit of separation. This sounds best on nice headphones or decent speakers, and it might struggle to come across on a phone with just a single tiny speaker. But &#8211; I have no idea where or how you are listening so just let it roll and see what you think.<\/p>\n<p>I know it&#8217;s not perfect, but it&#8217;s not bad for something I haven&#8217;t really played in over a decade. As I rehearsed it I was surprised which parts seemed to be in my muscle-memory without even thinking about them, and which parts I needed to really transcribe and teach myself again from listening to the song. It&#8217;s a tough bassline to follow sometimes as it&#8217;s a far cry from 8th notes following the root of the chords &#8211; instead literally every note in each phrase is used in different melodic and rhythmic combinations according to which part of the song we&#8217;re playing.<\/p>\n<p>I had a lot of fun playing in Small Machine and I think we&#8217;d still have been going to this day had life not changed for some of the guys and split us apart geographically. We still get together to play every once in a while and I usually take ear defenders as we are just always so loud.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some links to some other Small Machine stuff &#8211; normally I&#8217;d just say &#8220;Google it&#8221;, but if you Google Small Machine you just get miniature sewing machines and drill presses and so on.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\" spellcheck=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SmallMachineOfficial\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SmallMachine<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\" spellcheck=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?event=video_description&amp;redir_token=QUFFLUhqbVp1NDRpZ3VwbzFCQ1VnY3M4N1dkVXRKWHZuZ3xBQ3Jtc0tuRlREaHF0eVRoTXRUc3NvOF9fQWJWb2FNR0FlWXlGTWVaMGdzYmdDWjVuLV9kU3Q5Q1NZT2tQSE5wQ1h1YjZQb3J1UWViVk94aFZoLWp2eHVtWjkzMkRnV2NKbFEyMG5BS1hUYWtoWUxPLXFrVW9RWQ&amp;q=https%3A%2F%2Fbigmachine.bandcamp.com%2F&amp;v=z5s5EFCAkxs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/bigmachine.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string\" dir=\"auto\" spellcheck=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?event=video_description&amp;redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW9yRW9odEZPQmlWclJDT0RNLWRmZWZFYTh3QXxBQ3Jtc0tsckVtd254ZE82aDB5V2ctS3dGWjhHTXUwbTNJMkNsT21NelozTTlTT3p5ZVdjaFljSXZmdUw0UEgxTkZjbmJCSDNSVnJXQzFzNFZPQ2FwckJyYktIcGROOUR4MEZBRGZXbkpzXzY1RWVhWjJpcG9wOA&amp;q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsmallmachine&amp;v=z5s5EFCAkxs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smallmachine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is another video where I see if I can still play one of my old riffs. In 2009 I joined a very loud rock band called Small Machine, and I played the bass. I heard them on MySpace and I became a massive fan, so it was really exciting to get the chance to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,55],"tags":[219,306,312,308,309,4,307,311,310,21],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-music-technology","tag-amp","tag-bass","tag-bass-amplifier","tag-can-i-play-my-old-riffs","tag-dean-evo-xm","tag-guitar","tag-jimbo-guitar","tag-mark-iii","tag-peavey","tag-small-machine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1684,"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/1684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zogue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}