Bilbo

Let the teacher watch you play and see what your strengths ans weaknesses are. You list looks like fluff to me. If you have never had a lesson, you may find you work on basics. Ron Carter started his first double-bass lesson with Victor Bailey with 'play an F in first position'.

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1386024366' post='2294871'] So are frets but nobody complains about them. [/quote] I meant fretlines are ugly. Frets are ok; fretlines are just vandalism

But they are ugly

I am about to start work on my studio. It is to be housed in a purpose built 8 x 10 cabin the garden. Power is to be installed next Tuesday and then it is a case of re-assembling the hardware! Can't wait to be noisy again!

You are clearly not confortable with the form or with improvising in general. You just need to practice more. I have been working on this for 30 years and still feel like a beginner. The best approach to improvising is to sing what you want to play and play it (listen to George Benson playing his guitar/voice unison solos, you will get the gist). The important thing is not to sing what you are playing but to play what you are singing. The difference is massive. As for phrasing - listen to other players REALLY closely and learn their solos (by ear, in the first instance - playing them is easy after that). You need to find players who are in the ball-park idiomatically with what you want to do (a country player's phrasing would be different from a jazz player etc). That's about 20 years work. When you are done, let me know and I can give you another exercise

I voted days ago (first, IIRC) without comment and went for Spoombung. I love his stuff generally anyway but this was, for me, the one that spoke to me the most. Hope to get to rebuilding my studio next weekend (7/8th Dec) so maybe next month (not another Santa picture, purleeeese!).

Yes - a 5-string will allow you to play more lines in one position although I suspect, in the long term, it won't be a massively important 'short cut' to playing. THe neck will be marginally wider and the physical demands of playing wider neck will offer challenges developmentally but, in the long term, this will make minimal difference. A 5-string certainly offers options that a 4-string doesn't so it is worth going for it. My advice is forget stressing about those kinds of details and get playing. There are no real short cuts, just the illusion of short-cuts; the fact is that you just have to do it.

You can flounder about in the dark if you want. I find turning the light on reduces the likelihood of mishaps

Been waiting to see this for a while and it has just appeared. http://www.arsc-audio.org/awards/awards.html

Not going to get anything in this month. Studio still in boxes and no time. Just about making my gigs!!

The whole shebang! Thumbs, hands, arms, feet, legs, back, eyelids, teeth....

[quote name='ChickenKiev' timestamp='1384777422' post='2280509'] I've done a gig where we didn't get a sound check and were first on. [/quote] I get about one soundcheck a year. Never did my any harm

Can people label their video links? 'Try this....' is no good for those who have a work computer that won't recognise yourtube videos. I can listen to Spotify etc on my Kindle and can load links but only if I know what the tunes/bands are.

'We have a noise limiter'

I want to like Caron but he does nothing for me. Same as Jeff Berlin. Great players but emotionally barren.

I wouldn't bother if I were you. Keep your money for something more useful

I did a gig on Saturday with a bunch of musicians I didn't know (got a call out of the blue - always a little risky). Great singer, great trumpet player and fair alto saxophonist and piano players. The drummer, however, whilst setting up, said 'I am normally the other side of the footlights doing the p.a. I haven't done a gig for about a year'.... (not hadn't done a Jazz gig, he hadn't done ANY gigs) Thud - (the sound of my heart dropping like stone) It was bizarre: he couldn't swing and played it absolutely straight - no tension and release, no dynamics, no interplay, nothing; like a cheap drum machine without the time. Ironically, his ballad playing and Latin grooves were fine but he just couldn't swing. The rest of the band carried the gig off and the audience liked it but you just don't want to hear that before you start to play Nice guy, jsut no swing in his DNA.

I had three gigs this weekend, a Bazilian gig on electric, a jazz gig with Polly Gibbons and a 5-piece on Saturday follwed by a gig with saxophonist Julian Nicholas on Sunday. Today, I feel like I have been shifting bricks all weekend - it hurts to type Not muscles or blisters, just 'wear' and fatigue!! The Nicholas gig was a monster but I knew when we started that my 50-year old body would be complaining by the end of the night!!

UZEB always felt like me to be proof of the idea that technique without passion, flair and creativity was a pointless endeavour. They can play their asses off but I hear no beauty or warmth in it. Fusion for mathematicians.

http://www.dennylaine.com/

I didn't know they made them. Seems pointless to me

Whilst that is true, I was referring to the fact that the sound gets better as I improve as a player.

Listen to 'Caustic' on my Soundcloud page; that's the Gedo. Personally, I think it sounds remarkably like a double bass. Maybe not the best sound ever, I accept, but what do you expect for £1500? Ironically, it sounds better now that I have been playing it a year longer!!

I bought my Gedo 5-string new and it sounds and plays great. I have spent a lot of time listening to bass players sounds and have concluded that the variables are pretty wide. Agonising over buying basses is inevitable but essentially futile. Buy a Gedo that fits your budget and get on with playing the damn thing. Everything else comes from that, not from agonising over catalogues!

I recommend The Inner game of Music by Barry Green. Your intonation is not that bad. Just needs a little thought.