sime17

It’s hard to know what to add here that doesn’t seem cut and paste from the consistently great feedback above…. but just bought a tribute 2500 off Mike and couldn’t have been a better experience. Great guy.

This is why I played a five string for years -and never played open strings, it was then always just a case of moving the whole shebang as 'pattern' up or down a fret. Same for our guitard who'd just slap on a capo, and our keyboard player employs his 'transpose' function a lot! Our singer is very good once she finds her key in any song, but playing gigs through this 'summer' whilst heavily up the duff she had to knock a few songs down a semitone, no problem really unless I was starting the number .... Dunno if anyone else has experienced this but I wish I had a quid for everytime a singer (and I'm not referring to anyone I currently work with!) has complained of the key being difficult, only to be taken around in a big circle of other keys back to the original one and then going - 'yeah that's it - perfect!' . Well it would be about five quid, but not to be sniffed at.

[quote name='musophilr' timestamp='1348000599' post='1808029'] It even goes further than that. For a sequence of notes to be recognisable as a tune there must be repeating patterns within its structure. For a sound to be recognised as a musical note, its waveform must have a repeating structure. Otherwise you get noise. Repetition is everything. Even for bum notes, then you can claim you meant it, when otherwise you might get done for deviation. Hesitation (holding back on the beat) also works sometimes [/quote] - TBH, I'm more of an ISIHAC man meself.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1347904434' post='1806474'] Reggae can be very repetitive and samey etc. It's not all about the bass. [/quote] Reggae bass may be repetitive but surely bass is all about repetitive. I'll go further - most music is about repetitive! Dance is about repetitive! Repeating riffs are usually at the basis of a song's hook, appeal, danceability. Dammit, if you don't have a bit of repetitive then you have freeform jazz and THEN where would we be? (I might need to borrow that flame proof suit...)

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1347823173' post='1805512'] What's the problrm with the current Mike? Is he an Athiest or something? [/quote] I luvs the English language me.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1347810453' post='1805292'] Whoever buys a reliced instrument should be made to justify the extra expence to their mum, wife or girlfriend. [/quote] In some people's cases, all three (though not mine honest...) Couldn't agree more tho! Relic it yerself over years of gigging! Don't pay extra for the priveledge of some Herbert knocking seven bells out of it with a bunch of belt buckles. Absurd.

HOUSE!

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1347800777' post='1805108'] I have to say that I never bother too much with learning a song by the original note-for-note bass line (unless it's really basic of course). First off, I generally practice playing just the root notes until I'm comfortable with the structure and feel of the song. With this song, for example, just playing root notes to the 'dum dum-dum, dum-dum-dum' rhythm might be a good start. Then add in a few passing notes and that's probably all you actually need to create the feel of the song that most of the audience will recognise. As steve-bbb rightly says, that'll be enough to have the audience dancing along oblivious and is probably a better bet all round than attempting to play the original and not quite pulling it off. I guess this sort of thing goes to the heart of the cover-vs-tribute debate. [/quote] This, and in fact: 'forget the specific part as it isn't a definitive bassline, IMO.' This. It's one of those things that relies on energy more than anything, and the Monkees version gets it through loadsa passing notes but IIRC thy're all pretty obvious root-3-4 or 5th that you can throw in as you see fit. 'Groove it' first and the detail will come organically I'd say

I got a Squier CV60s Precision last year and loved it, then having fallen for P basses big time I saw a sunburst highway one p in a shop window whilst out in Cardiff with our drummer and keyboardist, and fickle sod that I am I fell in love with that one too, so our drummer said he'd give me £200 for the Squier cos he liked it and was dabbling in bass. A year later and he's not been playing it so he sold it back to me for the same price! Honestly, I think the cv60 was better out of the box than the US assembled Highway 1, but adding a black s/plate, a Kent Armstrong alnico pup and a bit of fettling and the Highway edges ahead in the 'which one would you rescue from a burning building' scenario. It's got some magic in it somehow, and I love the matt finish and gorgeous rich three tone burst. They're both light though (compared with my Ray 5 most things are!) and there's nothing in it in fit and finish. In terms of bang for buck the Squier's a no brainer.