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I got this for Xmas. Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson I'll try to work my way through the music when I get home. Made the schoolboy error of not bringing a bass to the in-laws

Stretching is not the right way to play bass. Don't use one finger per fret until you are above the 8th fret at least. Use the 1,2,4 finger method. Don't stretch your fingers, just move your hand so that your fingers naturally fall over the fret yo want to play.

pic at last here is the the squier, which for me personally as a gigging bass, has outshone the US deluxe J i bought earlier in the year new gotoh 201 bridge, wizard thumper , new cts pots and an orange drop , last little remaining job to be done is a trip to the local luthier https://www.81guitarworks.co.uk (thoroughly recommend for anybody in the maidstone area) to get the nut slots sorted out which are a bit high - looks great for gigs too as our guitarist has a late 70s strat in same colour config (except rosewood board) so they make a good pair

Bigmuff has had serious family issues. has now been in touch. Thank you for all your comments on this subject. Mike

Please PM me with the details and I'll see if I can find you someone to expedite if that actually makes sense. I'm just a bit too far away, the last time I shipped something out of Seattle that needed a CITES clearance inspection it was a 13 hour day after a nearly three month wait for the permits. But I know the manager at AM and have a few friends who live in that general area.

Sweet Caroline and Footloose (Please don't have a go at me. I'm in a function band - which I think says it all)

There's threats there may be a jam on the horizon- so I've been given "everlong" to learn. Even though I've been an owner / noodler of bass for 15 years, I never really progressed- so this is a challenge! fingers aren't quite up to full speed so half noting the first bit at the mo. I doubt my learning at this level will inspire anyone on here!

Don't forget to use your thumb as a pivot - you can extend your span by several frets.

your handspan does increase with practice and time. If anyone doubts this , hold your hands together, palms touching, thumbs and fingers touching their opposite one. Now fan out your fingers as wide as you can. Your fretting hand should have a wider span. In my case it is the width of my pinky. Don't fret (geddit?) the one finger one fret thing, Using index middle and pinky works really well, and further up the neck one finger one fret is easier .

In the vain of the what are you listening to thread, what are we all learning / working on right now? I’m looking for some inspiration?

thanks all. very kind words- and very encouraging for me, appreciate it. Great for me to hear what you guys are learning- awesome thread! 😎

😂 My advice, as always, is: Love many, trust few, but always paddle your own canoe. Not got a clue what it means, but it sounds clever 🤓

Not true! There's all levels of ability on here, and however acomplished (or not so much, in my case), there's always something to learn. Enjoy your playing & jam

Another suggestion is don't anchor your thumb. Your thumb should not be fixed to any point at any time when you are playing. Your thumb is there to support your hand and fingers so it should be exactly where it needs to be. Move it for every note if you have to.

I read this really interesting article a year or so ago that was talking about Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush and how more individual singing styles if you are a man, and you can be a musical genius with one (Eg Dylan) but with women with individual singing styles they will always be written about a quirky, odd etc

What... wait - you can tune a bass guitar? Who knew

A Zon Sonus Standard 4 string bass and 6 Dunlop Ultex 2mm picks :-) I had a pair of lounge pyjama bottoms and a new scratchplate for my Precision on my list but it went a bit wonky........

Nordy's & Labella flats! 🙂

Well after 40 years of playing, Mrs JPJ bought me a beginners book of reading the dots and an introductory lesson with a local music school. This is something I’ve wanted to do for years, especially as I’m working with ‘proper’ musicians these days. So yes, this 54 year old is going back to school and I couldn’t be more excited 😎

My luthier friend dropped this in my lap last week. Part gift, part barter for preamp design work I've done for him. Purpleheart fingerboard, custom neo sidewinder pickups optimized for slide bass. The bottom knobs are a temporary set I put on so I could get started on the electronics package. I'll probably go with something blond to complement the pickup covers and headstock.

Oh, ok 🙂 ...

Thanks to @Bassman666 I'm soon going to the owner of a 6 string bass perfect for a project which has got my creative juices flowing....... I'm probably going to go one of two ways using a nice Poplar burl drop top I've seen, either using my Quincy as a template and make my own take on a Wick Corvette or just strip the body and top it but I'm not overly excited about the original body shape!

Okay, Chic right? Not your hard core funk I know but an example that serves; The late Bernard Edwards and the current bassist, Jerry Barnes, play very different lines to each other. There are many polar opinions about this. Me? I like each bassist for what they bring to the song rather than being a stickler for nostalgia. I loved Bernard Edwards' lines. I practice a couple of them regularly. I sometimes flip to Barnes' lines and back, despite learning the original music from a reputable score. I am not an accomplished player but it strikes me that you need to be comfortable with what you are playing in order to be on it consistently. It is therefore your call.

I've also been considering this as a 'longer-term' piece to get started on...

Two songs I'm currently working on are: Jamirioquai - Too Young Too Due Vulfpeck - Wait for the Moment I really like both of these bass lines. In addition to that I'm working on general jamming / improvising basslines on the fly skills.

On the contrary, it can be more inspiring to hear from people who are getting started and stepping up for the first time, than from the old hands with years of experience. (No offence intended to the old hands!) On my list - Stormy Monday - already one of my better basslines, to the point where the band are muttering ominously about a bass solo. Aaarrgghh. Women Be Wise (Sippie Wallace / Bonnie Rait) and As You Are (Rag 'n' Bone Man). Both adequate but not particularly interesting at the moment. A bit of slide on Women Be Wise I think. Fun. And this one, which we've been working on for what feels like forever and just won't click. I don't know why, it shouldn't be hard, but I still can't get the phrasing right. 😞

I've just watched it, comedy gold. Some unintentionally hilarious lines that Guest would kill for. Pseudo-intellectual twaddle from the hard-of-thinking twins. Ken was well out of it. Think my favourite part was the almost total absence of any Bros songs. "Luckily, there were bubbles" "You can't play conkers in England". "I can live with that" 😂

Main thing is that you enjoy it. Sometimes i enjoy playing really simple bass lines as i can relax and enjoy the set a bit more. Especially true in a new band or gigging with a new set for the first time. I like to get to a point where i don't need to think too much about what i'm playing and it comes naturally. Pretty sure you'll nail this song and have a blast. Let us all know how you get on. Dave

I tried that with all of mine but to no avail unfortunately. My classic was a beautiful instrument but the G string was inaudible when played in a full band setting which drove me nuts,my band mates noticed it too. Don't have this problem with any other bass.

So your advice is "don't take anybody's advice"?? 🤔🤔 Just kidding...Merry Xmas....

If you're new to bass, the best advice I can give is NOT to use the shortcuts and work arounds that everyone has advocated. Don't be lazy at this stage. Develop as sound a technique as you possibly can, it will serve you well later as you start to play more demanding music. Don't try to run before you can walk, the span will come, but only if you work at it. Once you have that capability you can choose when to use it...

Living in the Past and Bouree, both by Jethto Tull. I like the rhythmic and melodic lines in both songs and by coincidence they are both in 5/4 time.

That's a cool looking bass, and you've gone down a very similar route to me. I had a VM Precision and upgraded it with a Gotoh 201 initially, and then a 203 for a more 'vintage' look. I also had a 'Thumper', CTS pots, Switchcraft jack, Orange Drop cap, cloth-covered wiring, full 3M copper shielding to all cavities and back of pickguard and a set of silky-smooth Grover 142 tuners. It was a lovely bass and sounded great but I wanted to try something else so built a Mk II. This has a Squier VM Jaguar neck on a Westfield P-copy body and is fitted with a Bare Knuckle '58 pattern pickup and a Tusq nut. Otherwise all the hardware and electrics were transplanted from the Mk I. The body and neck were stripped down and refinished in genuine nitrocellulose lacquer, and I fitted Fender reissue bridge and pickup covers and a 'tug bar' for a totally vintage vibe. I modelled it on a Fender Custom Shop '62 reissue (photo 1) and it represents five years of teaching myself guitar building on possibly a dozen different instruments. It plays as good as any bass I've ever tried (including Custom Shops) and for a total cost of about £400! With regard to your too-high nut (they all have them) my solution was to gently tap the nut out sideways and then run the bottom face across some #400 wet & dry, being careful to keep it level and apply even pressure. I just did a bit at a time and checked progress by slipping the nut back into the slot and retuning until it was just right. A couple of drops of superglue to finish and the playability was transformed, more so than by fret-levelling or any other mod I've made. It's an easy DIY job and if you fit a new nut and f*** it up you can always try again with another one or revert to the original... they're cheap as chips. You may find my FB page useful: https://www.facebook.com/howtoruinaperfectlygoodguitar/

Incidentally, I do know how to construct a sentence that doesn't include the word "really". Really I do ...

I've owned 3 stingrays over the years (a 2 band,a 3 band & a classic ) & all of them had a weak G string which no amount of eq or setup work could fix,including a Nordstrand pickup. I never ever had that problem with any other bass I've owned in the last 40 years,it's no myth the 4 string single pickup stingrays do have a weak G string issue.

The show starts on Wednesday 23rd January. If you've never done (i) a really big music show, (ii) Southern California, (iii) a mid-winter break to somewhere really warm & pleasant, then you really should consider doing this. Silvie and I had a really great time, saw some amazing stuff, met some lovely people, and came away with a bunch of memories that aren't going away any time soon. To get our money's worth out of the flights we started by doing a road-trip to Las Vegas before the show, and then another road trip up the coast to San Francisco afterwards. We were helped (a lot!) by the fact that my sister lives in Pasadena, but chances are we'd have done it anyway. The show can be bloody hard work, of course, but it's good work! It's fun and it's cool and you are in no way 'tied to the stand' for day after day ... there's plenty of time to roam the show and see what's there. Feedback = 5 stars

Rufus philpot gives some good advice here

I get this a lot but I wouldn't call it a problem... Oh, didn't see you had put finger. My bad!

It's been a tough call for me to name my best purchase. I went a bit mad and bought six basses this year. I've done my bit to keep the Basschat marketplace moving. My just about best purchase was a Fender Japan '75 Jazz RI, but it was a close run thing with the American Pro Precision which I also picked up here from the classifieds. Not being a fan of the Mexican 70's version, the rosewood/pearloid block combo is rare (harder to find than the maple version), and to find that married to a black body (as opposed to 3TSB) was very unusual. To find it with a matching black headstock takes it into hens teeth territory. It's almost a ringer for my first decent bass, which I had to sell over twenty years ago, and it feels very familiar in my hands. The icing on the cake was the throaty Hepcat '62 pickups that came with it. I treated it to a nice Ki0gon S/P loom and some TI Jazz flats. Lovely. The worst purchase was a Hercules multi-guitar stand. I correctly assumed that I needed to save on space, and it does that job superbly, but what I didn't realise was that only one edge of my collection would be on display. I mean, I did realise but, I didn't know how much I'd miss looking at my instruments face on! I bought one tripod stand, (to replace the three that I gave away when I bought the Hercules), and rotate the bass it holds as and when I feel like. I mean, you can only play one bass at a time, right? The multi stand now sits redundant, propped up next to my desk and taking up yet more space. Stupid.

It’s something that will come with practice. It’s a new movement for muscles that don’t often move on that way otherwise. As an example, you decide that you want to be able to do the splits. On day one you can’t get your legs anywhere near that wide apart but after months of practice and repetition you can do it. The same applies to your hands. Enjoy your bass journey!

A Zoom B1on for me, love it to bits, awesome little thing!

Someone got me a book on Guitar Family Trees but its more about guitars. Got some new stagegear for our Glam Rock covers band from the guy who made The Glitter Band outfits. Our drummer was in the band during the 90's and managed to get us a great deal, enough so that i ended up with one full matching purple jacket and trousers and one blue jacket. I'll see about getting the trousers to match after the festive period has settled down. Lots of satin and sequins Dave

The preamp shouldn't define the sound of the bass unless it is defective. With a perfect preamp should sound identical between passive and active going through a very short cable to a high impedance amplifier. Obviously it won't sound the same because you don't generally use a really short cable or a perfect high impedance amplifier (although a valve preamp is often better for this). Most people use a cable that is quite long, so there are capacitive and resistant losses in the cable, giving a softer tone which is what I think people often define as a passive sound. However, you can turn bass and treble up on the preamp, but that shouldn't change the sound. Pickups on the other hand do make a fair bit of a difference. But then they don't have to cost the earth, although the nords are nice.

I'm claiming my Jack Casady was a three-weeks-early Christmas present to myself and not just another result of random GAS 🙂

Got nothing bass related today so pulled the trigger on an Orange 4 Stroke 500 as a gift from me to me 😂 Arrives Friday

Smooth Hound wireless. Not used it at rehearsal/gig yet but after a couple of hours noodling around at home I'm already thinking of getting a second set just for the house!

Twin Aria Pro II Super Basses, both made in 1981. Passive Fretless SB900 & Active Fretted SB1000

I used to go to open nights when I lived in Chelmsford in the late 90's. I had some fun nights there, getting up to play on a few numbers. Then one night, Guthrie Govan turned up and joined in. I hid in the bog for half an hour until he went away.