bassist_lewis

I played a couple of house tunes on Friday for a gig with a soul choir and the bass lines were both pretty good. Not as hooky as that one but grooving nonetheless.

I don't of an online resource but the Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro is an excellent book, both for sight reading and learning the idiosyncrasies of the style. Pricey though :S

If roots is what your comfortable with do that for the time being. From what I can tell an examiner isn't necessarily looking for you to tap out altered scales in quintuplets (not on every performance anyway) they're after a strong MUSICAL performance. Keep shedding all your arpeggios and scales and eventually they'll start to feel 'right'. As Bilbo says improvising, and music generally, is a lifetime's work.

I separate performing and practicing in my mind which seems to translate directly to your convergent and divergent. Practice, so I read in "Talent Is Overrated: What Really Seperates World Class Performers From Everybody Else", should be an effort , you should be working hard and being aware of everything you're doing and adjusting. It should be exhausting! Performing on the other hand should be completely unconscious, it should be easy. Studies on improvising musicians found that when improvising there was hardly any activity in their frontal cortex - where conscious thought occurs. Equally you could practice that skill as well at home by jamming to a tune or a loop or playing any old bollocks while watching TV.

Having recently began (begun?) teach I've found that being aware of the little things that make playing easier is very important. One of my students is a complete novice so her technique is in constant need of tweaking, another has some experience playing guitar and even has a decent amount of harmonic knowledge but again being able to break down technique and harmonic concepts for him has been very productive. With learning I prefer baby steps. I do find them frustrating at times but by being thorough you avoid making bad habits.

They do come highly recommended - not just by jazzers, I've read some very positive reviews by self-proclaimed 'normal' bass players - so if you know exactly what you want you're likely to come away with an amazing instrument you'll play forevermore. And Foderas have good resale value so if you don't like it you'd get a good price for it (if you're patient) and you can buy something else or go with your second plan of a combination of Fenders and Musicmans.

6 strings are a bit of a marmite thing. And someone who isn't sure is more likely to buy second hand rather than potentially waste money on a brand new one

I've done some experiments with my fretless 6 string, capo-ing it 4 inches from the nut and the B-string sounded good and probably only needed a slight raise in action to be realistically playable. But because that has a 5 piece thru-neck I also did the same with my lakland - sort of, it's fretted and 35" scale - and similar results.

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1381310952' post='2237229'] Having heard Owain's stuff, the low B on his basses certainly sounds amazing, would be inetersted to see what it feels like! The OBS model is insanely expesnive though, but Callowhill are doing a cheaper bass based on some of the same principals, a kinda P Bass style thing called the MPB, they start at $1950 with a passive jobby with a single pickup, with upcharges from there. There's more details on the Facebox page, the Callowhill website is always behind the times a bit... [/quote] The first picture of a complete MPB is up on the CallowHill FB page, looks pretty cool. I'd still like to know how the neck is made and get some recordings though!

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1385411224' post='2288025'] Which gentlemen have claimed this and what kind of music and bass lines do they claim are simpler these days? Seems to be an awful lot of generalisations here. My opinion -there were less monster players around back then, but the electric bass was at an earlier stage of its evolution as an instrument and therefore said exponents had a bigger impact upon the listener. [/quote] I was generalising to be concise, I know quite a bit of modern music with great bass playing - Lettuce, PSP, The Aristocrats, The Roots - but those are all quite obscure. As for the gentlemen in question there have been several I've met and a few people on this forum, and tbh they're not even necessarily older than me, plenty of guys my age or younger moan about current music.

I'm talking about the Korean cross-dressing kind, I feel sorry for previous generations who maybe only had one or two experiences of such players. We really do live in a golden era...

Hmmm... say both. Keep all variables the same except the era

So these days, as I've heard many a more experienced gentleman claim, music is a bit simpler and the bass lines aren't as good, and back in the 60s, 70s and 80s (people aren't quite nostalgic about the 90s yet) bass lines were - or could be - more interesting and a more prominent part of the song. Yet, these days there seem to be legions of bass players shredding through changes and slapping the s@@t out of there basses, and back in said nostalgic decades there seem to have only been a few such monster players. Now, I'm only 24 so maybe it's just how it seems looking back now... but why is it that in an era where music is predominantly dead simple and focused entirely on the singer there are lots of super techy shreddy bass players, and back when basslines were more prominent and generally more interesting there were comparatively few mental slippers? Discuss slappers... not into slippers...

Reverb and groove are completely unrelated. Ignorant singer bulls@&t

That's what I like about the 5, once on a gig the singer called Living on a Prayer, then a moment later said, in D, I jumped straight in. Ignoring the fact that the song is actually in G starting on Em, this would have been a total headf##k on a 4 drop tuning... but I love playing my 4!! I need something as comfortable as my 4 but with a low B, the only solution I can think of is a 5 string shorty like a callowhill OBS or MPB, or a custom build.

I have a 5 string - a good one too, a Lakland Darryl Jones - which I use for functions and for reading gigs when they come my way (musicals love low B strings apparently). However, I much prefer a 4 string (feel, sound) so have been thinking about ditching the 5 and getting a Hipshot Xtender with the double stop lever (I'd have it to D and C). Would I be limiting myself or making life unnecessarily difficult, given that I sometimes play with unfamiliar singers and occasionally sit in the pit? If this has been discussed already (I'd be surprised if it hasn't) please post a link. L

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1384255141' post='2274423'] "White Wedding"---as much as I like it---is an [i]interesting[/i] choice for a wedding. See also "every breath you take" and "The One I Love". [/quote] On that note we play Go Your Own Way at most of our wedding gigs these days, we we're a little nature for awhile but it goes down a storm every time, regardless of the fact that it's about a break up, and a well publicised one at that.

Not a good experience at nice n sleazy's last time, the whole selling tickets for our first ever gig in Glasgow where we have no following thing grinded our gears, the usual paradox. The box is a good shout though, our keyboard player spoke to them when we played nice n sleazy's but never followed it up.

Looking at smaller venues tbh, we're most definately not indie rock in the slightest at all ever. I've emailed 13th note and (I think) pivo pivo to no response. We're just happy to gig, having people there is a bonus!

Can any Glasgow based BCers tell me which venues to contact about gigs? One of my bands is looking to start gigging there but I don't know what venues to start with (maybe leave the O2 Academy for next year ), the kind that put on anyone. we're an eclectic mix of DnB, jazz, funk, punk, rock, reggae and electronica.

If ur going to use it onstage I highly recommend getting the Hercules iPad stand and it attaches to most mic stands. If I'm not singing I take the head off a music stand and attach it to that. http://www.stringbusters.com/Ko-Bespoke/productlist.asp?cat=1/BITS%20-%20PIECES/BITS%20-%20PIECES%20GADGETS

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1382719411' post='2255955'] I have a Mono M80 which is a great case, but not a very good gig bag. I find it uncomfortable to wear for on longer journeys (anything over 5 minutes). Other less expensive (and unfortunately also less robust) cases are far more pleasant to wear. IMO if you are not going to actually use it as a gig bag (and wear it on your back for more than just the trip between your vehicle and the venue) then it's a bit pointless as a Hiscox Lite Flight case is cheaper and only marginally larger and heavier. [/quote] I do a mix of everything: walking a few miles with it on my back, driving, on the bus, in the back of a van. Think that rules out the mono, so now its between the Harvest and the Reunion Blues :S

Damn, also a very impressive list of endorsers! I can 't find any UK prices - retailers but one doesn't have a website and the other is GB Guitars which doesn't have them on the site. They're almost twice what I was wanting to spend in Euros so probably won't be buying one in the near future. Thanks though

I've been using a protec contego for over a year but a few weeks ago the zip broke. Luckily Protec has a 5 year warranty for parts so I contacted Thomann who paid for return postage and replaced it with a new one which looked to be a slight improvement anyway (heavier zippers, different rubber feet, firmer looking attachments). But the first time I took it out of the house last night the strap stitching came out rendering the right strap useless. Immediately emailed Thomann who repeated their excellent customer service. however I'm very disappointed with Protec, there's lots of people who swear but them on here and mine was great up until last month (apart from having such great storage that it was often too laden with my crap). So I'm on the lookout for a new case. I'm considering either a Reunion Blues Continental (they've been around a long time and are used by Damian Erskine and Justin Meldahl-Johnson - very trustworthy endorsement IMO) or a Mono (either Vertigo or M80). Only about £20 difference in price so I'm asking if anyone has experience of either. Cheers!

[quote name='eude' timestamp='1381310952' post='2237229'] I spoke to a guy at length who has a Nordstrand 6 string 30" Bass with a low B, a one off. He said that the break angle at the nut was the most important thing, so the headstock angle on his bass was steeper than normal, the construction was also through neck with a lot of Ebony in the neck to keep the wood under the "speaking length" of the string as stuff as possible. [/quote] I've seen the MPBs, very interesting. How steep is the headstock angle on an ACG ?