Roland Rock

To start with the very basics, are you are using your middle finger to play the root, the index to play the second, and the pinkie to play the fifth? Are you fretting right behind the frets? You don't want to give yourself more work than you have to by starting further away. Moving the hand slightly is quicker (and healthier) than stretching the hand when going for that fifth. It can be tricky down at the end of the neck. This is where I think getting into the habit of running over your major scales and chord tones for a while every practice helps to make your technique get more fluid. TBH since getting a five string, I just tend to play up around the seventh fret instead - much easier, unless I want the snappier tone that playing down at the lower frets brings.

I can see your entire thumb over the top of the neck. Have a look at the following two pictures.... 1: Hold your hand so that the thumb and fingers pointing straight up 2: Keep this position with the neck between thumb and fingers. note the thumb pad is in the centre of the neck, not way up over the top.

You are playing with the neck really far back into the centre of the palm. Also, it's hard to tell, but are you playing the bass really low down? Sit down with the bass on your lap, then, place the pad of your thumb on the centre of the back of the neck, with fingers straight up over the strings. Try not to let the neck touch the palm at all. Any better?

I find this hard to picture. My hands are on the small/medium side, so I've just picked up my bass and placed my fingers over the fingerboard around the fifth fret. Just loosely placed, no stretching. You can see that the pinkie goes right over four strings and almost reaches the fifth. The wrist is bent, but not much. Whan you look at these pictures, are there any big differences in the way you are fretting? Is your thumb resting on the back of the neck?

Hi Nick, welcome to Basschat

Welcome, and good luck with the gig!

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1400177771' post='2451551'] Same as the record: I Shot the Sheriff. Just realised the title is not in the post, just the tags. D'oh! Err... No. Sorry. I can hear what's going on but I have trouble making it come out of my fingers. [/quote] Ah, yes, I should have recognised it - it's that bit in the bridge. Aston FM is great at this pulsing feel, and it's really difficult to put into words. It's a kind of slightly-behind-the-beat throbbing. Try to delay each note ever so slightly. A couple of other examples to practice to are 'Old Marcus Garvey' by Burning Spear, and 'Natural Mystic' by Bob M Interestingly, it's the studio versions of these songs that really nails this feel - the live versions always seem more 'straight'

I fell ill with a bad cold when I was 19, and spent a couple of days in bed with nothing but medicine, a best of Muddy Waters cassette and The Alien Trilogy book. Every time I hear Muddy Waters now, I get images of the dark, eerie spaceship corridors and the chilling feeling of impending doom.

[quote name='marcus bell' timestamp='1394469249' post='2391640'] Ill come and bring my status Kingbass and gb4? [/quote] We missed you Marcus, but in hindsight, it might be a good thing, as I'm trying to keep my Kingbass GAS in check :-)

What sort of tempo are you playing it at?

Yeah, that rhythm guitar is pretty overbearing, and then the lead has to be even bigger to cut through! But that's good balls-to-the-wall Cult-style rock. I like it.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1400094558' post='2450743'] oh. 9 pages and it looks the same. [/quote] What do you want? Disco lights and go-faster stripes? :-D Seriously though, I feel your disappointment. I was hoping that the resonator would look like a badass Cosworth spoiler

William Laverne Robbins? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Big_Stuff_(album)

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1400093843' post='2450731'] Ah, now I see why you wanted the input and output on one side and went custom! That's a great idea for most boards to get yourself out of trouble if a cable or pedal dies mid gig. [/quote] Thanks for the link to Vein Tap - the chap was really great :-)

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1400089378' post='2450673'] you lot still at it? anyone seen a photo of these new cabs yet. Or would that get in the way of the thread?? [/quote] There was one of the 610 on FB a while back, looks just like the '69er Edit: here you go, '69ers on the left, and Retro 610 on the right:

Get a flight case for your cab, then use it as a stand at gigs

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1400021856' post='2450062'] if you buy a well made instrument then you don't have to be as concernd about scale lengths. [/quote] Word

When it can only be bought on the black market, and you need sunglasses just to look at it: http://youtu.be/sMRNP3-p9wo

I really liked playing this bass. It was very easy to play, and it has a really authoritative voice, very clear and punchy. Thanks for coming to the Bass Bash :-)

[quote name='intime-nick' timestamp='1400001263' post='2449799'] Cool - nice board btw. It reminds me I need to start investigating wah pedals (even though I assume that one on your board is a volume pedal) [/quote] Cheers. it's an expression pedal. Basically it controls the cutoff frequency on the LPF. With just the LPF on, it does sound quite wah-like, but with gated fuzz before the LPF, it gets some really synthy wobble type stuff.

Hi Nick, It's a single bypass looper. When off, the signal goes straight from bass to amp. When engaged, it routes the signal through the tuner>fuzz>LPF and back again. I like a combination of fuzz and filter, so I just leave them both on, and pressing on 'The Noose' brings them both into play instantly.

And here it is. it works a treat, and no pops when switching. Now you can see why I wanted the input/output on the right hand side

I've made a little pedal board which had to satisfy two main criteria: 1: It had to fit in my 12"x12" protective case 2: I needed to be able to swap from dry tone to filtered fuzz very quickly I had previously tried to do it so that i could stomp the two effects at the same time, but it didn't work too well

If you were prescribed some cholesterol medicine, you'd be surprised if the doctor pronounced it 'state-ins'. ;-) When using the 'current situation' meaning of the word, I say 'state-us', but for some reason, the string/bass has always been 'stah-tus' to me. Well, I'm consoled that at least three others are the same :-D