St. Patrick's Day with Running With Desire (x2!)

 With St. Patrick's Day here, we rose to the supreme challenge of being Running With Desire, a band of dual identities: 1 part Van Halen (Running With...) & 1 part U2 (Desire).  Being an Irish themed holiday, we of course, were hired initially as a U2 tribute act for the Buckhead Saloon St. Patrick's Day party.  I had never visited the BS before this day, and was rather confused about its location.  Nonetheless, I found it soon enough & got there with plenty of load-in time.  Even had anorder of chicken fingers to wolf down before the big hit.  We had a few sound issues.  One of them centered around the bass amp I was privileged to use on the gig.  It turned out to be Shane's, and it suffered from a faulty DI/XLR output.  The sound men scrambled on the 3rd tune to remedy the situation and mic up the Ampeg combo.  They later complained that my NS/Stick had a badly distorted signal.  Um, well, I don't think it was badly distorted coming through the amp, so we were most likely hearing the same thing since the DI wasn't functioning.  Not sure what to make of those cats, other than that they fit the "If it ain't a Fender then I don't wanna have nuthin' to do with it" stereotype.  They didn't know much of what to make of my Mesa top end signal either.  Too bad. 

I thought we did a decent job.  We had a rough start with "Streets".  I think the only way this one will be smooth is to use some recorded tracks for the intro, which my buddy Walt has done but we didin't get a chance to practice with the tracks.  To have the guitar play the intro only to drop out for the delayed line is a bit confusing.  I was ultimately hoping to learn the intro on the NS/Stick, and perhaps I still will get that under my fingers.  Once we're into the song we seem to find our groove.  I always like "Mysterious Ways", "Get on Your Boots", and "Vertigo".  These being more recent tunes of theirs, I think we do them justice and bring a certain swagger to the table.  I will go on record here as saying that in general, this type of band would excel in playing some deeper (read: much deeper) cuts.  At the very least, I was really pulling for "One" & "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".  Ultimately, as a fan myself, I like most everything on "The Unforgettable Fire", in particular I would love to feature "A Sort of Homecoming", "Wire" & "Bad".  I'm also partial to "The Three Sunrises", "Angel of Harlem", "The Fly", well, the list could go on and on.  I'm just saying that "New Year's Day" & "Sunday Bloody Sunday" have had their day and I used to play them years and years ago.  Time for an update.

Here are some pics from the Buckhead Saloon.

Shortly after we finished in Buckhead, we transported ourselves up to Buford to the club entitled 37 Main.  This turned out to be a great venue for us and we enjoyed a crowd that came to party and dance the night away.  We wisely chose this time to start with some Van Halen numbers and then go down the U2 list after the crowd was warmed up.  It worked well.  We had a birthday party crowd that was really into it, and the birthday girl joined us on stage for "Ice Cream Man" - is that a dirty song, I wonder?  I felt much better about my parts and my mix.  A good sound man can really ease one's mind on these matters.  I felt over all that the 2nd set was a wee bit short and that we played a more rewarding 1st set, which I probably should have foreseen.  Soon enough, we were packing it up and heading out to get home before it got too late in the game.  Shane took care of us and the club wasn't too bad either, considering.  I look forward to returning one day.  The band is most likely on a hiatus for now.

 

All set up and finding my happy place!

Changing my NS/Stick Strings

I've had this instrument for how long now?  Over a year now, and I still haven't changed the strings.  Decided it was time.  It's a big procedure, since it's 8 strings and being a Steinberger instrument, it is a little different than my other instruments.  A pack of strings isn't that bad, considering - around $35 plus shipping, only available from Stick Enterprises.  They are certainly custom strings and not just any ol' bass or guitar string can be substituted.  I recently ordered a second pack, so I do have backups after changing them.  I took them all off and polished the neck and body, nothin' fancy, bit it needed some tlc.  To put them on, the ball end goes into the bridge slot and then the string is fed up over the "headstock" through an opening where a hex screw is tightened to hold the string in place.  It must be pulled tight so that a minimal amount of tuning is required to get it up to pitch, thus leaving leeway to go up or down in pitch.  I need to have room to go down a 1/2 step for Running With Desire, who tunes down to properly cover Van Halen & U2.  I'm also spending this day working on my patches for my Boss pedalboards: the ME-50B for the bass side and the GT-8 for the guitar side.

Spencer & Praline helped me on this, of course.

Platinum at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot

We were contracted to play the Bean/Spinnelli wedding reception and that's what reunited us - hey, it was a very slow February.  The big news is that Winterhalter is leaving the band after being with us for about a year and getting a ll of the tunes together!  Rats!  Well, his wife has a very nice job offer in the Tampa/Clearwater area and he must follow her down there, where they ultimately wanted to end up anyways.  We played in this great Freight Room where I've played and worked many other functions.  The Freight Depot is certainly one of the oldest buildings where one can entertain, going back to 1869, I do believe.  It's quite a long room but it actually has decent sound considering it's all concrete and glass.  Kevin took some interesting shots with his iPhone while we were sound checking/rehearsing.  We learned "You Send Me" plus Cee-Lo's "Forget You", which actually sounded good, thanks to Glen handling all those vocals.

For me, the big news really was that, knock on wood, my Hartke amp is fixed!  I used it with my Golight cabinet and it sounded loud and proud, with no distorted nasty noises like I've been experiencing this past year.  Ouch, right?  Anybody who's been with me on a gig with that going on can relate - sounded really ugly.  I hate to say it, but I guess it was the pre-amp 12AX7 tube.  Such an easy fix.  The tech at Northwest Speakers & Equipment told me the tube was microphonic and would generate a loud harsh noise when he tapped it.  Sounds like what I was getting at intermittent intervals.  What threw me was that I had thought it could be the tube, so I would turn the tube preamp level all of the way off and I would still get that noise.  Well, it seems to be fixed so I'm going to have to say that it was the tube and we can move on.  James really went over everything and even cleaned the graphic eq switches and faders.  He made a custom Speakon cable with a 1/4" phono plug on 1 end so that I can use it with my head.  I feel that with all of that taken care of, I should have some well deserved karma with this rig.  It should last a while - let's hope. 

I played my Ibenez 6-string with freshly boiled strings.  Got a new pack of strings at Krazy Al's but I thought I might get a bit more life out of these with a good boiling.  It worked and they sounded nice and bright, almost too bright.  I also had my NS/Stick since I'm using it St. Patty's day with RWD.  It sounds good but the strings sure need to be finessed on that thing.  Also brought along the NS Wav EUB for the dinner set and first dances.  I think I've had the toggle switch in the pizzicato mode (down) the past several times I've used it.  It actually sounds much better in the arco (up) mode, and with a lot fewer squealing feedback issues as well.

The crowd was great and they were dancing from our first tune in the second set (Haven't Met You Yet).  They really seemed to enjoy it.  It was weird to be at the end of such a long room yet not have an elevated stage.  I guess we always expect to have one, but that's certainly a cost cutting move to not have one.  Our dinner was boxed lunches from Jason's Deli, which was a sandwich & chips with a pickle & a big cookie.  Fortunately, the wedding coordinator was sympathetic to our having to move our cars from the loading zone driveway and offered us a free round of mixed drinks after the show as we were packing up.  Gus and I enjoyed a Jack 'n Coke and all was well with the world.  My big screw up was going to the 1 in the last A section of "The Nearness of You" when it should go to the 3 - Norah's version.  Too bad, 'cause I really enjoyed that tune and wanted to play on it.  All also really blew it playing F# on the top of the bridge in "Jenny Jenny" - as many times as I've done that song you'd think I could get it right anytime.  I wish we had done "Give It To Me Baby" since I had worked on it - I used to stick in a few too many grace notes, robbing it of its funky on-the -beat charm.  Never realized it was recorded in the key of Db, always thought of it being in D (minor).  Glen sings it in C to make it a little easier.  We grooved well and sounded tight considering it's been a while for us.  We play again this Saturday at the Ritz.  Read about it here first.

More pics from my camera...




Cool floral arrangement above the table.



The horns of Winterhalter.



Virginia in the wings.



Gus is the driving force.



Kevin is a little bit country.



Thank you all for coming to the show...



You can tell from this shot that the time was approximately 11:01 PM - Glen makes like a tree and leaves.



Running With Desire Rehearsal

We are prepping for our St. Patrick's Day fiesta.  Got together last night at Mark's with JT & Martay to go over the U2 and some VH as well.  I have recently decided that I will play my NS/Stick on this to catch some other parts, like for instance, the bell sound in the chorus of "Get On Your Boots" or some string sounds in "Beautiful Day".  It's a hard job and I got severely confused during rehearsal with my 2 pedalboards.  Glad to have that happen at Mark's house and not on the gig.  I think I will opt to place the bass effects on the left and the upper range effects on the right since that's how I mixed it up last night.  I have my work cut out for me as I want to keep this configuration and add something that the fellas actually want to have me play.  My vocals sounded decent at least.  I dropped the ball on DOA but I was there for On Fire as far as the VH went.  It's a challenge to keep all of this in my head.  I will work on it all - not a bad start since I just got around to programming the sounds the night before last!

Sonny Rollins Tribute with the Adrian Ash Group March 3, 2011

Back at Java Monkey for another round of straight ahead, funk, originals, and on this night, a fine tribute in song to one of our favorite saxophonists, Sonny Rollins.  Sonny is still at it at 80 years young and we honored his muisc with some of our renditions.  I brought my NS Wav since I like trying to play these on upright but I had brought the upright last time and wanted to have a slightly easier load in and gig endurance wise.  I tried my new Fishman Platinum Bass EQ Preamp DI with the EUB and it helped dial in a more bottom heavy tone.  I like the box but I need to try it with the upright since that will be the main use for it.  All in all, I felt a little bit better about nailing my intonation without always looking at the neck.

We played Blues for Philly Joe, Doxy, No Moe, Oleo, Pent Up House, St. Thomas, & Tenor Madness.  We also did some originals, including Jason's Gentle Breeze and Guy's Le Mirror Noir.  We ended the night with a raucous version of Voodoo Chile, which might have been a bit unsettling for the latecomers expecting some patio jazz.  Another highlight was, believe it or not, So What.  It got more applause than all of the others for some reason.  Maybe that's not saying much for our Sonny set.  So What is of course from Kind of Blue, which is one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, so that could be the reason that it still is a nice modal exercise for the players as well as the audience.  This band has a lot of potential that I don't think we've realized just yet.  If we could find some more modern material that we could wrap our instumentation around, then we would be on our way to playing to some more receptive crowds.  Here are some camera shots taken from my side of the stage, actually in mid song for most of them, including the one of me.

Brian's Sister's Wedding in Charlotte

Sweetwater Junction made our way up to Charlotte last Saturday to play at a cozy little restaurant/bar called Bonterra.  It was located close to the downtown area where we had rooms at the Aloft Hotel.  Nice.  We were the 4 piece band with Brian, Walt, and a now rare appearance by Seth.  Walt and I met him at Krazy Al's Mega Music store in Commerce, which I had visited before back when I would do the Commerce run for MMS, where we all bought something - I got a pack of strings for my 6-string bass.  Great to play with Seth.  He seems to doing really well with his coffee house/bar Hendershots, which is getting a name for being a hip live music venue.  We were also joined by another guitarist, Keith Hicks, who works with Brian at Maple Street Guitars.  Keith has a massive pedalboard and played some very tasty licks that were welcome in our band.  This enabled Brian to come and go, sometimes in mid song!  Well, we all got paid well so it was nice to be along for this one.  We didn't have to learn any tunes for it, and the bride was so laid back that I almost never saw her.  We played well but nothing was remarkable.  Perhaps the best was Soul Shakedown, one we can only do with Seth singing.  The load out was tough, since we had to load Walt's van and the trailor appropriately to accomodate Seth's drums plus all of our gear.  The hotel was really nice and somehow we all had our own room.  We met in the lobby bar for drinks after checking in.  Then we wandered off to some other bars in search of Brian's sister.  Never found her, and I headed back to my room since I was beat from Spencer's sleep study the night before.  Here a few shots of the hotel and the morning after.

 They restaurant had a patio off the side but not well advertised.  It was great weather and had full sun, so I hung out there for much of the break.  Here we are eating form the buffet with Walt, Keith, and the photographer.

 A parting shot of the patio after the sun had moved away.

 My room with a nice LG flat screen on the wall and windows overlooking the main drag - it was loud for a while.

 Fancy bathroom sink and shower area.

 Getting coffees and bagel sandwiches the next morning.  Nice complimentary expresso machine.

The front of the hotel that we must have passed 3 times when we first arrived to pick up the trailor, which I had to drive to the venue.

Saturday February 19th in Amelia Island with Sweetwater Junction

The big news on this gig was the return of Chris Gunther of Quoz fame on lead vocals.  So little was said about it, so I guess it wasn't that big of a deal.  He's back in the fold and sounding great.  Nice to have some occasional acoustic rhythm guitar in the mix for us.  The ceremony was outdoors and it was nice 70 degree beach weather - beautiful day for a wedding.  We had to meet at the unkind hour of 7:30 at the storage space - this after my night before with Martay at Padriac's.  I was toast, but I had some pep later in the day. 

Took these pics before the ceremony with my Sansung Intercept Android phone.  Binnie and I got new phones last October and it's nice to have a half decent camera to grab shots with.  Unfortunately, it has the typcial delay and shakiness associated with any cheap digital camera.  Still, these landscape shots came out nice enough.  I always try to wander down to the shore if I've travelled this far.

Shot of the Ritz from the beach.

The sun has set for the most part.

Another view of the hotel from the beach.

Here is a shot of the bride and groom dancing with their guests while we played.  The crowd was really into it all night long.  It made for an enjoyable gig, naturally.  As usual, we drove back afterwards, which was a horrible experience although we got back safely (Thanks Mark!).  I always swear never again!

Padriac's - back after 2 months

We have gone to an every other month schedule for Padriac's in Vinings.  Not a great omen.  I would have thought that we would have put on more of a show for this grand reunion.  Always a weird start there since people are occupying tables right in front and next to us.  We didn't know where to put the PA cabinets.  Plus, MartaY had a guy shooting video for us.  I could tell he was antsy to get going so he could leave.  Another wrinkle was that the box/bag/case of speaker cables et al was left at home.  We made it work with what I brought.  I inadvertently left with one of Martay's 1/4 inch cables.  However, now I'm missing my mic stand.  I was on fumes to say the least.  Red bull got me there and I played well.  Playing with Martay has become like riding a bike.  I have done my homework for the most part and he doesn't throw out too many surprises anymore.  Not even the Billy Idol stuff, which can wear me out - 6 minutes of non-stop rapid fire plectrum downstrokes!  We started a little late and played a good solid 70 minute set.  Then we took a break and things fell apart as they can during a long break.  The good news was that Cliff was there with his wife!  Yay for Cliff!  Great to see him and they had a date night to come hear us.  The bad news was that even with Bill to sing lead vocals we only played maybe a 35 minute set.  Weird that Martay wanted to end so early.  Good "Whole Lotta Love" and "Every Rose Has It's Thorn".  Ended with "Round and Round" and that was it!  My only good pic was of the fabulous Brent, who sang many a great song that night - "PYT", "Lovin Touchin Squeezin", "Don't Stop Believin'"!

Dig my special effects lighting!

The Adrian Ash Group Presents A Tribute to Monk

Thursday February 17 I was back at Java Monkey with the Adrain Ash Group to celebrate the music of Thelonious Sphere Monk.  We had publicized it faily well and the crowd was there, although they were outside of the plastic since the weather was warmer for a change.  The group featured Taylor Kennedy on tenor sax, as Jason was working through the first set.  The music was very challenging for us.  Hard to conjour up the spirit of Monk on the spot, which is more important than it sounds.  Monk's music is quirky, humorous, syncopated, and bluesy.  There were several blues tunes and we tried to put a few together, grouping more by tempo than by key.  Here is what our set lists looked like:

Set 1

Straight, No Chaser
Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are
Bemsha Swing
Raise Four
North of the Sunset
Ruby, My Dear
In Walked Bud
Blues Five Spot
Rhythm-a-ning
'Round Midnight

Set 2
Blue Monk
Evidence
Humph
Crepuscule With Nellie
I Mean You
Played Twice
San Francisco Holiday
Shuffle Boil
Think of One
We See

There were many we didn't get to play, and I hadn't worked on Evidence, so I'm still not sure whether the bass walks on the head or catches the hits with the band.  Shuffle Boil was a great tune I had never heard of before.  I bought the mp3 on Amazon so now I am in the know.  We closed the night with 'Round Midnight and all along I had thought that should be the finale.  We did the correct changes and that makes all of the difference.  It would be great to really get this one down, with the intro and coda too.  It's one of those songs that nobody wants to call because everybody ended up playing the wrong changes due to the Real Book.  This band could do it some justice.  Maybe we'll try some of these again at some point.  The next themed night will be Sonny Rollins, so stay tuned.

We had bassist extraordinaire Evan Hodges show up with his beastly upright to sit in on a few.  He really has some wonderful technique and tone!  I have a lot to learn.  It was a treat to sit back and listen to them.  I hope I was swinging half as hard as he was.

Among the jazz fans in the crowd was another tremendous bassist, Billy Burke.  I've known Bill through Randy Chapman's various ensembles and he's always been a strong and solid player who keeps his flashiness in reserve.  I got to see some of his chops as he picked up my bass after our show.  He gave me some good pointers and got me thinking about getting it set up - I can see it needs more than I can do.  It turns out that I have always had it elavated too high for my stature.  I should have it so the nut is at eyebrow level.  Very well.

It's been a slow February

I really need to try to find some other musical friends to keep me busy during these slow periods.  Life is hell when I'm not busy.  This week I'm looking forward to Adrian Ash Group on Thursday, Martay & The Partay on Friday (we only play every other month at Padriac's now, so we haven't been there since December), and then back to Amelia Island with Sweetwater Junction on Saturday.  I am practicing my NS/Stick for Running With Desire.  I want to try to cover some of the "other parts" that Eno or The Edge would typically throw in the mix on these U2 songs we're playing for St. Patty's Day.  I worked on "Get On Your Boots" the other night and there's a cool high bell riff that happens during the pre-chorus, so that's about the speed and difficulty I'm thinking of.  I haven't given my NS/Stick much attention so i'm looking forward to getting better acquainted with it.  I keep it in the straight 4th's tuning, which gives it BEADGCFBb, strange to tune a string to Bb but that seems like the most logical to me.  I'm not going to be playing guitar parts on it - I don't think.  More on this as I learn some other songs on it.

Playing Mingus & Originals in Decatur

I recently got a new pickup for my upright.  Yes, a chance to blog once again about my Fishman Full Circle.  I'm thinking of inverting it to get more bottom and fewer highs.  It seems too bright, but I may wait till I pick up the Pro EQ preamp that seems to go along with this pickup.  Well, I got it after playing my upright over in Decatur at Java Monkey for my every-other-week gig with Adrian Ash Group.  We are still more often than not consisting of Adrian on drums, Guy Fenocchi on guitar, and Jason Passmore on saxophone.  We recently held a Mingus tribute night where we played a few of his tunes for the lucky few who came to listen.  It's tough times out there in the winter on this patio.  If I were management, I would try a bit more to make it a comfortable and fashionable place to hang out there - ie space heaters!  I wish they could improve the decor as well.  The place is not living up to its potential, but then what do I know?  I want them to succeed.  They serve great wine (we play on the wine tasting nights), excellent hoppy beers (yum!), hearty sandwiches, delicious desserts, and bold coffee drinks!!  Well, Mingus night went well and I tried to convey some of his authoritative style, but I'm not half the strong player and leader that Charles Mingus was.  I love Peggy's Blue Skylight and would like to keep that one in a combo.  We also played a great Jump Monk but never got around to Porkpie Hat, which I thought was a bit odd.  The big news on this gig has been that my tune "All Hallows Leave" has been played two times now.  Very cool to have an original of mine getting played in public.  I still need to work on it some more.  I will so it will get a new reading this next time.  Actually, this Thursday we will be paying tribute to Monk, so mine may take a back seat.

These pics were "lifted" from Adrian's facebook site.  I didn't ask to use them but I know he is always up for any extra publicity.  These were actually taken in December when we played an evening of Christmas tunes, featuring Emile Worthy on vocals.  A real treat that I think was the highlight of the year for this group.

Still Catching Up

Now that it's February, I'm still catching up with posts about January gigs.  Had one with Sweetwater Junction that took us all the way to Amelia Island for a coorporate food vendor party.  NFL playoffs were going on, so monitors were set up in the ballroom for the crowd to enjoy while they ate and drank.  They also listened to our instrumental music - no vocals on this gig.  It worked for the most part, although they wanted us so quiet they should've not even had a band.  That's okay, that's the way it is a lot.  We were out of our element somewhat and had to play actually quite a long time since the break was early and we were encouraged to play until the people left.  Well, who wants to leave free food and liquor?  The event went as long as it could have.  Then I made my way over to get some leftovers before everything was thrown out.  Sometimes band leaders don't think of these things like when does the band eat?  We loaded back up, actually I did a lot of the loading, then we headed back to Atlanta.  This was the night that poor Mark found his van with a flat tire.  This would be around 3:30 am.  I stayed with him as we wrestled with Walt's jack and put the spare on.  Always interesting how those spares are secured in the first place.  Well, that one went flat as he drove a few feet!  Uggh!  So he had some competing version of AAA and called them to tow his car up to the Acworth area mechanic who had worked on it last.  I drove him up the road and then back once he got that figured out so that he could meet with the towing company.  Good times indeed.  Finally got the check in the bank, since it was an agency who takes their time to pay us.  Also had a nice wedding reception with Platinum over yonder in Birmingham, AL.  The country club was at the top of a grand hill overlooking the neighboring terrain.  The crowd was nice and the people were there to have fun, but it wasn't exceptional.  It seemed to be a little sparse in numbers and many of the dancers were older, so they left before the end of the night and we played to the mighty core partiers.  My EUB did the trick for the first set.  I got up to sing Honky Tonk Women, leaving Glen to play the bass - go Glen!  He was having fun, I believe.  I did too, but I think I was better on NYE.  It was a tough drive home but I managed to stay awake and before I knew it I was crawling into bed.  Nice of V to call and check up on me as I was in the vicinity of 285.  That's all for now...

A New Year: 2011

It's 2011!  Exciting times and inspiration to improve myself in many ways.  Looking forward to making some new contacts and writing some this year, for a change.  NYE was celebrated on Jekyll Island with Platinum.  We were actually hired to play a wedding reception, but of course, it morphed into a NYE celebration as well.  The room was smallish, so that meant trouble for this band.  They brought the smaller Platinum owned PA system, which meant that the instruments were not going to run through the mains (other than keys & sax) and so we had a louder stage volume than normal.  This made everything louder than if we had brought the full PA!  It also meant I wasn't as loud since I only had my 12" combo.  That is never loud enough on these events!  Ugh!  Oh well, we had fun and played well.  Plus, we got to drink as part of the package.  And we did.  The groom had the largest bottle of Grand Marnier I've ever seen.  That stuff is potent.  The police were out in full force and stopped many people as we had to make our way over to St. Simons to the hotel accomodations.  I was fortunate to be riding with DW, who got us there safely as he is the sole teetotaler of the group.  I truly admire him for that.  He really has his act together in many ways and it's good for me to have people like him in my life.  Ah, well, needless to say, I didn't abstain, but hey, it was New Year's Eve and I had a DD...  The first gig of the year was with MartaY way up in Suwanee.  We played at Cinco's After 5 on PIB.  Thursday (during the big Snowpocalypse of early 2011) we were a duo (with drum machine) and then Friday Brent joined us to make it a trio.  Friday was much better and we had some partying married couples up front with us to make it a rock show.  I thought we did really well and this band has a lot to offer for a 3 piece.  We even broke out "Deacon Blues" late in the evening.  They served us the tasty salmon entre that MartaY has claimed to be the best thing on the menu, so I can't argue there.

JT emailed me about getting back with Running With Desire to play on St. Patrick's Day.  I am looking forward to being a solid Adam Clayton presence once again with the fellas.  This time it's Mark from Hologram on drums.  I tried to get Brent in on it, but his practice dates were set in stone and JT couldn't make them work.  I didn't think they would for me either, but I've since learned otherwise.  Binnie is trying to help out to minimize conflicts with her OT at nights.  Anyways, new tunes we are putting in as an all-U2 set will be I Still Haven't Found & Bullet the Blue Sky.  They should be worthwhile additions.

Got a new pickup for my upright - a Fishman Full Circle.  I love it, even though my bridge is non-adjustable now.  I found that I had holes drilled all the way through my bridge feet anyway, so I cut, sanded, and glued pieces from a paint stirrer stick to the bottoms of the feet.  That gave enough of a raise that I should be able to live with it as far as action goes.  The sound is loud and clear as a bell - actually a bit too much top end, but you can always take it away.  You can't add it, as the Realist just didn't have any highs, only hollow upper mids that were unusable.  The bottom is nice and fat too.  It seems good to roll off 1k & 4k on my Hartke head, so that's where I'm at for the moment.  A nice extra would be to grab the Bass Platinum EQ for sound sculpting.  I'll look into it...