6stringbassist

Compressors can be usefull in the studio, but I personally think that you end up losing the dynamics of your playing. Much better to just practice to improve your right hand, (assuming you're right handed), technique.

A custom bass should be partnership between the luthier and the person placing the order. Before I ordered my Sei I'd spoken to Martin at length explaining what I wanted, both in looks and sound. Consequently, what I got, is what I wanted. You have to know what you want, that's the most vital thing. It has no dead spots, I've never actually had a bass that's had any, looks brilliant, and sounds fantastic.

Go for the 6, it only takes a while to get used to it. Regarding strings, I find the C doesn't need changing so often, or the B really, and I do use them, especially the B string. So you can get away with buying a 4 string set every now and again, and just change the E-G.

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='228539' date='Jun 28 2008, 01:00 PM']I rang Endsleigh last week who quoted me £125 for 10k cover on a new for old basis.[/quote] Thanks, I'll give them a try too. I basically want to pick someone who's not going to mess about if I have to make a claim, I'm very careful with my gear, but you never know.

This is probably something most people neglect, I know I certainly have. I used to use Musicguard but fell out with them a couple of years ago. Last night I was lying listening to some music, and it occurred to me how much my gear is worth, it get's taken out 3 or 4 times a week, and well it's not insured. Who do you recommend. A quick search found these two [url="http://www.victorcknight.co.uk/"]http://www.victorcknight.co.uk/[/url] [url="http://www.allianzmusicalinsurance.co.uk/default.asp"]http://www.allianzmusicalinsurance.co.uk/default.asp[/url] Both offer really good quotes, but has anyone ever dealt with them, and been unfortunate to make a claim, did you encounter any problems ?.

If you fancy something different, I should soon have a pair of Q-tuner 6 string pickups. It's a long, long story, but they were for my Sei, and were ordered in January, I was told they would take four weeks to build. In April I was told they had shipped, only to be told two hours later that they'd sent the wrong ones, they were way bigger than I'd ordered, but I could keep them, and they'd send me another set, they are supposed to ship this week. They seem to have had a long run of bad luck, beset with production problems. I now have my Sei and couldn't be happier with the sound she produces.

Martin Petersen.

[quote name='E_MaN' post='226579' date='Jun 25 2008, 11:38 AM']Michel Camilo 100% [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXT07AnkYRE"]From Within[/url][/quote] Anthony Jackson !.

I have Barts on my Sei, I don't have that problem, maybe it's just a fault on your particular pickup.

DR's don't have any silk binding, so that counts them out, possibly Rotosound ?.

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='226290' date='Jun 24 2008, 10:42 PM']any clue on which gauge I should get for a tight low B?[/quote] 125.

No, I just saw him play live, and was interested to find out more about his setup. I've been an admirer of his playing for years.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='226299' date='Jun 24 2008, 10:50 PM']OK you can help me carry my non-neo EBS 4x10 up and down the stairs at my next gigs! I'm getting something lighter as soon as I can.[/quote] I had one of those a few years ago, that is one seriously heavy cab, and I can honestly say that it didn't sound any better than a light weight cab.

I'm rehearsing on the 4th floor at Birmingham school of music on Thursday evening, I've no idea where you park around there, I don't think that you can. My 4x10 isn't the easiest thing to carry around, size wise, but it is thankfully fairly light. And my 1800 watt head only weighs 16lbs. My 4x10 and the head together weigh less than the Bergantino IP12 that I used to own.

I play some latin with my one jazz set-up, it's not a genre that I actually particularly like. I always get a vision of people wearing bright puffy slevved shirts, shaking castanets, like that seen from the mask. Michael Camilo is pretty good, especially with Anthony Jackson, that's about it for me

I think this is his best album to date. Anyone read his book ?. That's really good, at the start of each chapter there's a short bit of notation, if you add it all up it forms one of the tunes on Palmystery. He's at the Jazz cafe on July 5th.

Papillon, great track, a really good album too. I totally agree on the single cut, I mentioned it earlier, and it definitely improves the stability, and I think the sound is bigger, having more wood there definitely effects the sound, you really notice it when playing acoustically. I know a lot of people find the singlecut design ugly, but I love mine .

[quote name='mcgraham' post='225667' date='Jun 24 2008, 09:54 AM']I personally wouldn't go so far as to say Matt's tone is thin, it is a generally more 'open' sound, with a defined crisp attack, and much more treble than the average typical bass sound, almost like the way classical/acoustic guitars sound. Very crisp, clean, full sounding on each note. Regarding lack of buzz, good construction plays a part i.e. if the fret job is good, and the neck, body and coupling is rigid (ideally does not move at all) then buzzing should be minimal. We've touched on the topic of having a unique voice/sound. As an aside, I hate pretentiousness; therefore I have to be honest about the whole 'unique voice' thing. Whilst I do not deny that certain musicians are easily identifiable on any instrument, and that they have developed their own distinct sound (encompassing note choices, feel, phrasing, specific tonal attributes, etc), I do not agree that other people cannot ever sound [i]like[/i] them. I will acknowledge that sounding exactly like someone may require a great amount of work (and that to sound EXACTLY like them may be impossible; see note below), but these people are only human, and so are we. As such, if we've heard something, we [i]can[/i] learn to replicate/approximate it to a good degree. I truly believe that if you have even an iota of talent, and the discipline to put in hard work and time on your instrument, you can accomplish and approximate virtually anything you set your mind to. Again, just my opinion Mark NOTE: As the average listener cannot accurately discern the difference between two completely different musicians (Dave Grohl and Joe Satriani being a quotable example), then sounding 'exactly' like someone is too subjective purely from the perspective of human ears. I therefore propose that to sound 'exactly' like someone means that if the waveform of a recording of an imitated piece is inverted, and played over the recording of the original then the signals totally cancel each other out. Whilst having a machine effectively decide how close an imitation sounds to an original may appear to be completely absurd, it at least provides for an objective comparison of an imitated piece.[/quote] Mark, I think you've described Matts sound perfectly. I was listening to his first album this morning, and that's exactly how his bass sounds.

Yeah, my copy is signed too.

Michael Manring and Matt Garrison.

[quote name='mcgraham' post='225063' date='Jun 23 2008, 02:47 PM']I agree about the future2future clips. I've only seen bits on Youtube, but his sound even on those not-so-great quality vids is great. Although saying that I agree with XB to a certain extent, as a bass player his sound on certain albums and certain songs lacks, and really doesn't do it's job. I don't want/intend to belittle bass as an expressive instrument, but it's called a 'bass' for a reason. That doesn't mean you have to stick to root notes, avoid chords, use two fingers, only play down low, and only eq to have low mids and bass, but it's important to have the bass function fulfilled in a group. Whilst that role doesn't necessarily need to be filled by the bass player, it does make quite a bit of sense to do it that way round. Just my opinion Mark[/quote] Check out the DVD, it's really worth seeing. He's got an excellent live CD/DVD out as well, it's only available from his website and features Jojo Mayer on drums. I can think of several other players with a worse bass tone than Matts, Marcus Millers for instance, I was listening to his live album earlier, now he really could do with a bass player.