Grangur

[quote name='Jack' timestamp='1369670143' post='2091400'] I haven't. How do you mean? [/quote] Mrs G has used Endsleigh in the past to.... they don't pay out. or they argue until you die of boredom waiting.

I just got a quote from Allianz. £1000 of cover inc, £800 for the bass and £200 for the amp, including cover when in and unattended vehicle. This came to under £2.70/month - £29/year. [url="http://www.allianzmusicalinsurance.co.uk/find-the-right-policy/power-play.asp"]http://www.allianzmusicalinsurance.co.uk/find-the-right-policy/power-play.asp[/url] You can also get liability insurance too for, what seems to me to be good rates. I'd be interested to hear what others think of them?

[quote name='Jabba_the_gut' timestamp='1369668568' post='2091384'] Cheers for all the advice. The tung oil I have been using hasn't hardened (if that's the correct term) - if I handle the body, I end up with oily hands. This is about 10 days after applying it and wiping it off etc. Hopefully it will soak in or the excess rub off. The sample I tried was fine but the actual body, looks pretty good but is just oily to the touch. What I'm finding is building basses is fine in terms of wood work, but getting that quality finish is proving a bit more tricky!! [/quote] This sounds like the wood you have is already sealed with lacquer. Oil needs to soak in. The advantage of an oil finish IMO is the repairablity of it. If you scratch or dent it you can repair it with a lot less fuss than having to re-spray it with lacquer. That said; if yours is lacquered, then if you want to go to oil you have a lot of hard work on your hands. If you want to stick with lacquer and remove the oil, you can do this by wiping it over with white spirit. After the oil has gone you can bees-wax it. Don't use spray polish under ANY circumstances.

Many thanks guys. The tweek I'd done on the neck was to release it to get rid of fret buzz. So I have already given the strings more room to move. I've now lowered the pups and it sounds better again. I'm still not sure about the strings. They sound good now and look fine. I'm clearly on BC too much and not "giving my strings hell" enough.

Hi there Lowvoice, The Bass Gallery in Camden will do a great set up for a far price. Or you can do it yourself. The first thing to do is see if the buzz happens on all strings. If it does, then you can be fairly sure the truss-rod needs adjusting. Here's a vid on how to do the truss rod adjustment: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te44eWXd9pc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te44eWXd9pc[/url] For left and right hand technique, take a look at the videos on www.scottsbasslessons.com Another good site for other stuff is www.studybass.com - but you might be past that level Good luck

[quote name='lowvoice' timestamp='1369422254' post='2089207'] Here it is, I went for the faded SG! All lovely, a bit buzzy unplugged but you can't hear it when amped. But check out that rosewood on the neck, is that colour tinted to look like that or just super red in colour naturally? Thanks to everyone who helped me in [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/208050-first-bass-gibson-sg-faded-vs-squier-mustang-vm/"]this thread[/url]! [/quote] Hey! Welcome to BC and congrats. You say it's a bit buzzy, maybe you can tell us more and we can help you fix it up with a small tweek? My guess is a small turn of the truss rod and you'll be happier still

Does anyone have a curly wurly bar from the 1970's? Damn I miss them

Do you still have this box? Has it done Mrs Boy's head in yet?

Good morning and thanks for the feedback guys. The string I changed was the "E". I'll change all of them tonight and lower the pups a bit and see what happens. I think the existing strings could be the original Warwicks, so they could be quite old. They're still a good bright colour, but my fingers do get grey when playing. I've got a set of Elite strings, I'll give them a go. Maybe their less bright? You've all been a great help.

Hi All, Sorry if this is a noob question... but when I bought my Warwick Streamer Stage 1, to me it sounded like a nice deep growl. It was all I wanted, I called Mrs G and told her I was in love with a beautiful blonde. Move on 6 months or so, an a tweek or 2 on the set up, and now to me the instrument sounds more "metallic", some might say punchy. In any case the "woody" growl has scared its self off and gone. The pups, for those don't know the instrument is a P-J set up, with 3 band EQ. From day 1 I preferred the neck P-pup and I tend to play it in passive mode. So, in theory, nothing's changed. But I may have raised the pups a bit and tweeked the neck relief. I've not changed the strings, but I tried changing one yesterday to a Rotosound and it got worse. Any ideas? BTW the amp is the same one; Roland 100w Cube Thanks Rich

If it's not yet worn out, I'd like to join the list please

OK, I stand corrected

[quote name='DorsetBlue' timestamp='1369051730' post='2084229'] I took the girls into Harrods earlier in the year and couldn't find the music department. [/quote] Me thinks the girls found it straight away. They made sure YOU didn't.... you forget, women have an instinct for these places.

Not a bad life is it where GAS will ALWAYS give you a profit margin like that? We shouldn't forget, however, Harrods will be taking a good% cut in profit.

Liked that a lot, so did Mrs G. Great rhythm, the vocals were nice. Good band you've got there.

Hey! Good morning to you. What kept you?

Just another thought... something else i practice is Root, 3rd, 5th, octave of various chords and playing around the circle of 5ths, taking note of the notes I'm playing, not just playing "the box". Thanks again Rich

Hi Cloudburst and Coilte, Thanks, Coilte for reminding me about the Studybass web site, I used to use that some time back but something must have distracted me from it. I'll get back there. Playing stuff other than bass lines: I've been doing this as a way of forcing me to learn the FB. If you have a score you know the tune of, then read it (on the bass clef) and have to find the notes, then you learn the FB.... job done now I guess. Now move on. Cloudburst, yes I realise we rarely play chords on the bass. I drive a lot and listen to music all the time, listening to the bass line, or inventing variations on what I hear, for what I'd play to the track. (If my skill was such as to find the right notes.) WRT teachers, I've been looking for one in my area. We don't appear to have many. One I tried seemed to centre on teaching me to slap n pop and in my inability to keep each of my fingers 10mm above each of the strings on frets 1, 2, 3 & 4 all the time., whilst keeping my thumb no higher than 1/2way up the width of the neck. I tried it and started pulling things in the back of my hand. I'll keep looking. Inversions: thanks for that. I didn't realise that's what that was called. I'll go back and study the studybass site some more. Also I'd probably do well to go back to the book "Crash Course Bass", by Stuart Clayton. Thanks again Rich

Coilte, many thanks for your really full answer and your questions. [size=3][i]The practice itself, i.e. what you actually practice. Can you give us some general idea as to what your practice has consisted of ?[/i][/size] What I consider to be good practice is 1. Practicing scales. Generaly I stick to major scales, (I know, I'm bad) 2. Playing a piece, reading the score and finding the notes on the fretboard 3. Playing a backing track from CD from the Trinity College books and playing the lines from the books that go with it. (I wish they didn't use Tabs!) 4 . I find scores for pieces and type them up in Musescore; creating them in bass clef and transposing to a suitable key. [size=3][i]For example, are you familar with scales and just as importantly, how chords are derived from them ?[/i][/size] Err.. I know Major and Minor scales and pentatonic. Chords are, i believe, the route(1), 3rd, 5th, 7th notes of a scale.... but then again I may be wrong. [size=3][i]Do you know what inversions are ? [/i][/size] Going up the scale, from the route to the octave, then going back down again to the route [i][size=3]Do you know why some chords are major, some minor and some diminished etc ?[/size][/i] These all have different intervals. The Major is Tone, Tone, Semi-tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-tone. The Minor is Tone, Semi-tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-tone, Tone, Tone. After that I get confused with all the Phygorian, Locrian, Harmonic Minor etc. I know they all have different intervals to give different flavours to the music; blues, jazz, etc. [i][size=3]Do you know where all the notes on the fretboard are ?[/size][/i] Yes, some I can find faster than others. The answer to this is start playing the scores I have on different pars of the FB [i][size=3]Are you familiar with intervals ? For example with of G major chord, would you know where the sixth of the chord is on the FB ?[/size][/i] I've not been playing chords, but I could tell you where the 6th in the scale is in relation to the route or octave. Thanks for some great questions.

Thanks all for your feedback. Faithless, I'm confused about your coments on Trinity. Are we talking about the same thing; [url="https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&sclient=psy-ab&q=trinity+college+london:+rock+%26+pop+bass+guitar&oq=Trinity&gs_l=hp.1.0.35i39l2j0l2.1538.5852.0.8379.17.12.5.0.0.0.562.2011.7j3j0j1j0j1.12.0...0.0...1c.1.14.psy-ab.ueCwSMEcdbY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.46751780,d.d2k&fp=91c159786e7c7909"]Trinity College London[/url] ? [quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1368873163' post='2082470'] ...One more thing I'd like to comment on is you remark... "would like to get there faster". "There".. is an abstract idea. Learning an instrument is a process. Be patient, take things in small steps and enjoy the learning process. [/quote] I agree. I know it's abstract, but what I'm aiming for is the stage where making up riffs to go with a band/rhythm all comes naturally to be entertaining... or is this a eutopia that we all dream of but only comes to the few? That said, even when/if that stage comes, one is still on a process of learning to do more with improved technique etc.

Hi All, I don't really want this thread to centre round "me" but I'm learning and wondering if I would move on faster if I had a teacher, even if on an irregular "consultancy" basis. I've been self taught for the past 3 years. I'm progressing slowly, but would like to get there faster. I suspect, however, the answer is simply "practice more" rather than be on BC so much. I'm not young so, much as I'd love to deny it, things probably don't come as fast as they used to especially with RL being a distraction. Never been in a band yet, but right now playing scores like "Star Spangled Banner" and "The Sound of Silence" by sight reading. (Tunes may not be a bass thing really, but unless you use a backing track normal bass riffs can get a bit tedious) A teacher I went to once got me to buy the Trinity school books Grades 1&2 and I'm learning some in there. I don't know if I'm really interested in exams, but it's a sign of progress I guess. "Where do you want to get to?" I hear you ask. I don't really know. Maybe that's my problem. I'd like to be playing jazzy bass lines in a band but probably don't have the time to commit. Aside from getting rid of bad habits, from this info, do you think someone in my position would benefit from need a teacher? Would a teacher help me progress faster? What key benfits would a teacher bring?

I don't have scores from shows, but I do have some short "tunes" that can be played and sound like real pieces when played in solo: Amazing Grace Star Spangled Banner La_Marseillaise - French National Anthem Silent Night Ok it's basic stuff, but some may find it more interesting than dry "learn to read" books. They'real so out of copyright

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1368692906' post='2080154'] Google Sketchup is free and more user friendly than AutoCad, which I found quite laborious. I do all my sketches on GS now. [/quote] +1 I used GS in a previous job to design furniture and send the 3D drawings to a factory in Poland for them to make the products for us. There's some useful tutorial vids on Youtube too. Here's an example of a drawing [url="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=82c05d361ff3c09a54feda409512bbb5"]http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=82c05d361ff3c09a54feda409512bbb5[/url]

How about this one? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBANEZ-SR505-5-STRING-BASS-GUITAR-/140964204906?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item20d21f116a"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item20d21f116a[/url] It needs some attention to the body, IMHO, but it's do-able. BTW, welcome back. It's good to see you around again