queenofthedepths

[quote name='OldGit' post='94342' date='Nov 25 2007, 11:38 PM']+1 Most people on here who frequent other forums say we are friendly and helpful by comparison (which I believe we are). If by old fashioned you mean we use normal English prose and no text speak, respect people's views and try to help as much as possible then I'm all for that. This particular thread does seem to have got a little unruly in certain areas but most of the forum is not like that. As Dood says: "I'm having a bass built by Jon Shuker" is just a very, very small part of the overall forum and you don't have to read it.[/quote] +1 [quote name='BeLow' post='94282' date='Nov 25 2007, 08:12 PM']The big questions for me are how long the debate can be prolonged and whether this or the smoking thread will produce anything useful whilst I am still breathing?[/quote] I think there are plenty of valuable opinions expressed in both of the threads, regardless of how badly some of them have been put forth - it's certainly opened my mind a bit and I've seen a few cool videos! As for prolonging the debate, I honestly don't think there ever was a debate... the ERB question, like all things musical, has always been and always will be a matter of opinion

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='90920' date='Nov 19 2007, 04:18 PM']thanks for that. Might get me self one as soon as i've payed for the other £30k worth of stuff i want to get with my £105 a month income i was looking at this actually: just under €2,000. looks good tho.[/quote] Just under €2,000?!?!? I know someone who has that exact bass, and I don't think it cost him that much... I can't honestly say I recommend it either... he seems to like it and apparently he barely plays his other basses, buttt he does play a lot of widdly upper fret stuff and he moved on from a 4 to a 5 to a 6 beforehand, so in other words, get yourself into ERBs before you go crazy

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='93570' date='Nov 23 2007, 10:49 PM']*cough* surely 1979?[/quote] I used to keep thinking of them as DFA1987... very very easy to get confused

My lo-fi solo work is on the link in my sig... I'm afraid I removed my beautiful bass solo some time ago though As for a band of mine worth listening to: www.myspace.com/dassein

I'd rather not think of the expansion being determined by the music - it's the other way around, really... I understand that just doing it for the sake of looking different would be stupid, but personally I'm extending my musical boundaries one string at a time (and working on my technique and theory, of course), so eventually my imagination will be the limit!

When I joined my 2nd band I got a bit of an ego trip coz they thought I was amazing (or maybe they were just saying that coz they'd auditioned loads of crap bassists or coz they desperately didn't want me to quit...) sooo I went completely crazy, adding my own special touch to everything... using the 24th fret on the G, a bit of cross-tapping, acoustic bass for no good reason, general absurdities - I'd only been playing for half a year so in retrospect, I wasn't particularly good at any of it anyway... whilst this may not have been hugely appropriate to the music we were playing, it certainly improved my confidence no end, and whilst I was at it I actually improved a lot and I forced myself to learn plenty of theory to back up what I was doing, all of which has come in a lot of use later on! Basically what I'm saying is that pushing yourself to do whatever you can will improve you as a bassist, even if it's not ideal for the band - ask them for feedback though, and work with them to find something cool you can play - if you play lots of difficult stuff, you're bound to come up with one or two interesting things to actually include in a song - if you don't play anything exciting at all, you're not doing much to contribute to the song, are you? If you can't make a decision about whether to include a particular bit, ask your bandmates what they think of it! You're bound to get some valuable feedback, and useful advice

That's really cool! I want a bass clef uniform thingy...

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='92235' date='Nov 21 2007, 05:22 PM']What is progressive about playing metal an octave down? I said as much about the Death Metal that ARGH posted - metal riffs just down an octave.[/quote] Personally I love the sound of a low F# on a guitar, so I have a bass to match it... I tune down a step and a half as well

[quote name='dood' post='92218' date='Nov 21 2007, 04:32 PM']My personal choice was that I am really into progressive metal, where as you are probably aware, the guitar tunings are getting lower and lower, thus the bass is going doooooooown too![/quote] Me too, but even if you're not playing with 8-string guitarists, it helps to have a string more than an octave below the 7-string guitar's low B... same principle as with 5-string compared to a 6-string guitar

[quote name='cheddatom' post='91538' date='Nov 20 2007, 03:17 PM']I don't want to take this off topic, but I think you have the wrong idea about muscle memory. I had a discussion about it on another message board, and it turns out there's a very informative Wiki about it somewhere.[/quote] Playing a bass line without having to think about it, leaving you free to concentrate on the vocals... is that not what muscle memory is about? I used to sing lead and backing in my first band, although we weren't very good and I've pretty much avoided singing live since then - I suppose I'm a half-decent vocalist coz I used to sing before I played bass

I've been using a HCM160B for the past 2 and half years - I used to have some strange issues with the gain distorting everything for some reason, but not any more... it's gonna be really hard to upgrade when I eventually need something bigger!

[quote name='Alpha-Dave' post='91110' date='Nov 19 2007, 09:19 PM']I can't see the point of a dedicated forum unless all the FX, amps, basses, theory etc. are duplicated[/quote] I'd be in favour of an ERB sub-forum in the gear section, just like the double bass one...

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='90254' date='Nov 18 2007, 02:08 PM']I must admit I haven't tried all that hard, just looked in a couple of obvious places but if anyone can find one online could you give me shout. btw I like your awesome cool one (looks comfy) and I like the metal spikey one too - it would be handy to slap hecklers round the head with when they call your clear one gay. [/quote] Hahaha! The awesome cool one is indeed comfy - part of the reason I described it so - the metal spikey one is also surprisingly comfy, except when you accidentally put it on backwards with your heaviest bass (I have it on my 7-string, which is definitely the most "metal" of all my basses) attached and all the spikes dig into your back... I've also caught my hair in the spikes many times, but that risk goes along with tuning pegs, strings and stuff... I was in Gamlins on Saturday and had a look out for clear straps but it seems they don't have them any more

Can't we just pin this? [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8172"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8172[/url] Then people will realise we've covered the debate already

I just use a guitar one... it certainly doesn't sound good at all, but that would just be impossible...

Before I vote, I really must insist on another poll question: "What is the minimum number of strings for an ERB?" You could call a 5-string ERB if you wanted to - it has an extra string, after all... but for me, a 7 is quite normal... so where do we draw the line? I'm pretty much in favour of the forum, but not if we're going to be all vague about it...

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='89386' date='Nov 16 2007, 01:45 PM']I seem to see them all the time in Gamlins, Cardiff (not that that's any help to you...) but I can't find 'em online at all You a Cardiff boy, QOTD (or a girl??)? Actually, I just went onto your profile and it says Cwmbran - guess where I am from originally - the Valley of the Crow (Llanyravon). Croesy Comp 1974 -1980! I left there in 1987 - that'll be before you were born![/quote] Ahaha I'm a boy... Cardiff's just the nearest city that isn't Newport My dad went to Croesy, but that'll be before your time!

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='88944' date='Nov 15 2007, 02:04 PM']I've been using a 2" wide, clear plastic one for that last 5-6 years. I like that it looks invisible even though it is just a tad too short for my liking. It offers no comfort whatsoever but it is cool, so hey. In all the time I've been using it I can't recall anyone ever mentioning it until a couple of weeks ago I got a heckler who felt the need to share with us all how "gay" he thought it was as I put it on at the start of our set. It's actually approaching the end of it's useful life now as the pressure point (where the thin bit loops into the thick bit) has started to tear and you can see layers of plastic where it was once solid but I can't seem to find a new one and putting "clear strap" into an eBay search comes up with lots of new fangled lady-bump-baskets.[/quote] That looks awesome! Have you really not been able to find new ones?! I seem to see them all the time in Gamlins, Cardiff (not that that's any help to you...) but I can't find 'em online at all Anyway, having been given an appropriate excuse to take a pic, here are all of mine! Cheap flamey one, acoustic one, better flamey one, metal spikey one, awesome cool one, brown leather one, Egyptian one (can't really see the design on that too well, sadly )

That's why I said "subtract 5 frets for each string you skip (e.g. major sixth = 1 string and 4 frets)" - I'm afraid I couldn't think of a simpler way to put it...

[quote name='Wikipedia']The historical record shows that O.K. appeared as an abbreviation for "oll korrect" (a conscious misspelling of "all correct") in Boston newspapers in 1839[/quote] So yeees, it is an acronym, but if we want to spell oll korrectly, it should be AC BUMP also stands for "bring up my post", for the reasons already explained

Ah yeah, gotcha... I was for some obscure reason referring to horizontal as perpendicular to the string and vertical as parallel - not sure where I got that strange idea from, since I don't play upright or anything... but yeah, perpendicular for the lowest string and parallel for the others

I recently told someone who was trying to learn scales that they should know where the notes are on the fretboard before they start learning scales - after all, how can you play C major without being able to find C? You need to know where to find every note on every single string, all up and down the fretboard It's also pretty much essential to know what those intervals are - for reference: half tone = one fret whole tone = two frets minor third = three frets major third = four frets perfect fourth = five frets flattened fifth/sharpened fourth = six frets perfect fifth = seven frets minor sixth = eight frets major sixth = nine frets minor seventh = ten frets major seventh = eleven frets octave = twelve frets eleventh is a fourth plus one octave and a thirteenth is a sixth plus one octave - that's a bit more complicated but you get the hang of it eventually... Then subtract 5 frets for each string you skip (e.g. major sixth = 1 string and 4 frets) and you're sorted - also learn the chromatic scale to get used to practising the intervals, coz it uses all of them There's really nothing wrong with playing drop D - in fact I'd say you were making a mistake if you never played in dropped tuning! After all, the top 3 strings are still tuned normally, so as long as you use them too... personally I like to use a low B a lot (what do you mean about it slowing you down..?), but I sometimes tune to the same as the guitarists if they're in dropped tuning - usually I just tune down all the strings though, but that's coz I'm not sure how I'd drop tune a 7-string anyway... so yeah, using lots of different tunings is a good idea As for having started the band, they still wanted to play with you! So they must think you're alright

Shavo Odadjian from System of a Down... I think

[quote name='Alun' post='89084' date='Nov 15 2007, 07:11 PM']Only thing I'd say with diagonal is that you need to be be careful that the tip of your thumb doesn't catch adjacent strings accidentally.[/quote] This also applies to horizontal, right? I prefer to play horizontally on the lowest string, where I've got plenty of space, but to avoid catching adjacent strings, I can't really do this on higher strings (especially when I've got a low B string), so I play vertically then

[quote name='7string' post='89068' date='Nov 15 2007, 06:36 PM']As for the "there's something a bit 'look at me' about those wide necked monsters..." from David Nimrod I can fully understand that !! However, for me personally, that's not the case at all because I can't go out and play gigs (I don't even stand in front of the mirror with it...... OK, but only once or twice !!).[/quote] That's a tragic shame - I've only played 2 gigs with a 4-string... If having an ERB is going to make me look a bit more interesting for the crowd, why not?! Anything I can do which is a bit different should add to their experience