Shedua511

Considering he is a zombie, it ain't that bad

You got to separate the man and the artist. A an example, James Brown was a misogynist a-hole, Miles Davis was a pimp in the true sense of the word at one point, I proably wouldn't want to meet either of them, but I love the music!!!

Thank you for making me aware of this! wow, do I miss Mick Karn... he does an amazing rendition of sledgehammer (among other highlights), he really ownes that great bassline!

A picture from a few years ago of my little girl getting it down on my P-bass. Her twin brother is arguably more musical, but the other day she tried bowing the upright bass for the first time and after one stroke decided that this was her instrument. A steep hill, as she is only a few centimeters taller then the bow, but I'm a proud father

This is mine... at the moment only a slab of concrete, but in the next few months it will be a studio! For the moment, everything is crammed up in a smallish room

I really like mine: I like to check the tuning before going on stage and I normally don't leave my bass or stick on stage, had one too many encounters with drunken fools... I used to have a Pandora for that purpose, but the clip is so much more convenient! I don't leave it on the headstock though, hate the look of clip-n tuners on stage... as soon as I'm on stage I will put ti in my pocket and use the polytune pedal in my pedalboard. I found the clip also very convenient for practicing intonation on upright bass, I just clip it to the bridge (yes, that does alter the tone very slightly).

I love a good electronic drum kit: the really good one sound great, take up less space, are very easy to move, soundcheck takes a minute and volume is never a problem. OK, an acoustic kit looks cooler, but so does an upright bass

I submit my Grove Guitars bass (www.groveguitars.com): the top is made from a vintage Moosehead beer crate, the neck is by Status Graphite.

The happy graphite family [attachment=196828:Statii.jpg]

I have four basses with Status necks (two J 4 string and two MM 5 string, both couples fretted and fretless), a Moses made Chapman Stick and a Steinberger L-2. Living in Norway, I favor graphite for its stability with temperature changes: going from -25 Celsius snow storm outside to +40 under the stage light can be punishing for a wooden neck, while graphite necks don't move at all. I also like the sound: very precise, punchy and with a very defined bottom end. I find it cuts through very well both live and in the studio. You can hear what the fretless MM clone and the Stick sound like here: https://vimeo.com/125635683 The opening and closing track are not me (its fellow stick player Filippo De Laura), but the live track are all graphite

That was quite possibly the worst version I've ever heard of bohemian rhapsody, including a very drunk guy I saw once in Japan. How somebody that tone deaf can call himself a musical genius is completely incomprehensible for me...

Since nobody has done so yet, I'd like to chime in with the answer to the question: the correct amount is zero.

so a frustrated guitarist would take an electric bass (I prefer that to bass guitar) and go... lower?!? Honestly... One of my favourite bassists is Tony Levin: for a beautiful bassline with chords, listen to "Don't give up" then tell me TL is a frustrated guitarist

I've been playing 5-string almost exclusively since 1996: the only time I use a four string is when I need my fur strings (so much better then gut! ) or an instrument that has a unique sound and doesn't exist with 5-strings, namely a pre-EB Stingray. I don't really understand the controversy over the number of strings: even the most conservative musical genre in the world, classical music, has embraced the 5-strings upright bass. You will find two or more in most orchestras. For a practical example, to answer to that particular challenge, look up "Diavolo in me" by Zucchero: the bassline is played on the B string only, for range and timbre. Some instruments do have a floppy, undefined B-string (I have tried some Fenders that were truly bad!), but others have a very well integrated low register. I also have a 36" 6-string bass, the definition of the low end on the B string is amazing! I haven't tried a Dingwall with a 37" low B, I'm sure it's even better sounding. I find the Eb and D very useful, Db, C and B less so, but still useful when used in the right spot, in my personal experience. When working out arrangements with artists, most of the time they will prefer low D and Eb to their octave up equivalents, because they fill up more the bottom end and there is no range conflict with other instruments. I also dig playing up the neck on the B string, it's a very interesting alternate sound to the same notes on the first frets, exactly like the same register on the E string. Besides, it's nice to give my fretting hand a rest at long rehearsals by playing where the frets are closer together. Another obvious advantage is that I can play chords that simply aren't playable on a 4-string. The only downside is that you have to be more careful with muting: I put my thumb perpendicular over the strings to stop the B and E from resonating, something I didn't have to do before I played a 5... but it's a good thing, because it has freed me from playing only over the pickups, where I used to anchor my right thumb! I have nothing against people who prefer to play 4-string, but denying the musical validity of a member of the bass family does seem a bit silly...

I find the six string a very different animal, while the fiver required minimal adaptation from fur strings. It is true that they are not fashionable nowadays, at least you would get that impression watching tv: old, beat up four string is the required accessory this minute