tauzero

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1432547355' post='2782440'] Amazing how the context of a desert island can turn a simple 'what's your favourite bass' thread into a fevered erotic reverie - Drew Barrymore's bongos, "[i]Lez[/i] Zeppelin" ... [/quote] You [i]have[/i] heard of Lez Zeppelin, haven't you? [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCZVOSr6_J8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCZVOSr6_J8[/url]

I have a rug in the back of the car which is frequently deployed for drummers (I think it's a little too small for hitchhikers).

Warwick Thumb NT

My Sei Original everythingless 5. Can I take a few fellow musicians, such as all of Lez Zeppelin without the bassist?

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1432455665' post='2781520'] We don't play anything that caters to 21 year olds, We can't control who wanders in to these bars. We play 70's style rock and some blues. The smart 20 somethings walk in and see what were playing and leave immediately. That's what I actually prefer. I prefer it to those that stay don't buy drinks and act stupid. [/quote] On Friday night, we played to an audience that through the first half consisted of upwards of fifty 18 year olds in fancy dress who'd been drinking since lunch time. They loved it, including songs like "I saw her standing there", "Pretty woman", and "Shakin' all over". All very well behaved - right up in front of us dancing (no stage, we were at floor level) but respecting the line of the monitors as their boundary. Quite surreal watching Shrek, Princess Fiona, Sleeping Beauty, and all sorts of others leaping up and down to "One Way or Another". Your 20-year-olds are obviously defective and you should return them for a refund.

You've taken the first step - next, get along to a bass bash if there's one local to you and try everything out, and see if that gets you started with GAS.

How much more cool can you get than this:

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1432246026' post='2779764'] I find I play my acoustic 6 string like that whenever I'm not fingerpicking. Still use a pick on the bass though. [/quote] If I've just picked up the guitar for a strum for some reason, I use my nail, if I'm playing guitar at a gig then I use a plectrum. I find a pick a slightly clumsy tool for guitar.

The bridge is a Wilkinson 4+1. I have one, as it happens. And no, it's not a strap pin too. Aren't those those recessed strap things that you stick a prongy straplock into? IIRC, some Warwicks had them. Ah yes, these things: [url="http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/flush-mount"]http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/flush-mount[/url]

What bass? I'd like a pair of camouflage trousers, but I just can't find a pair anywhere.

It's up now.

There are one or two shops that cater comparatively well for bassists - PMT in Birmingham has a reasonable selection across a good range of prices. A couple of years ago, I was able to compare four or five different Peavey 5-strings, from the budget Millennium to the rather less budget USA Cirrus. They'd got a range of manufacturers in too. One thing that has been killed off by the internet is the second-hand instrument shop. While there are places like Bass Direct selling higher-end gear second-hand, places like Musical Exchange in Birmingham have gone now, the ones that had instruments in second-hand for £75 in the late 80s (about £200 now apparently). That's all moved online now.

[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1432156220' post='2778772'] As to where I'm based, I am down in Essex and I plan to visit PMT Southend as my first port of call, however there are a few others places within a reasonable distance I can also try. Alas I don't actually know any bass-playing friends that are local as I've only moved here in the past month or so, having previously lived up in North Yorkshire. The buddy that lent me the Jazz is back up there. If anyone is about down this way and fancies a gander in PMT with me that would be great, but just the advice in this post has been very very helpful. [/quote] If your PMT is similar to the Birmingham one, they'll have a reasonable selection of basses across price ranges. Try everything, regardless of price, to give you an idea of what feels best for you and what you can expect. The relationship between price and quality is only very very approximate, and the difference between a £50 bass and a £150 bass will be greater than the difference between a £500 bass and a £1500 bass. [quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1432156220' post='2778772'] One final question is regarding active/passive electronics. The Jazz I am practicing on has passive electronics. Is there an advantage of one over the other at my price-point? Should I avoid active on the grounds that they will be bad in cheap instruments or is it simply a case of listiening the tones and seeing what appeals the most? [/quote] Actives in cheap basses aren't bad. Use your ears as a guide. Personally, I like active basses. If you get one with an active/passive switch (reasonably common), you can satisfy your inner Luddite. Playability is key. If there's something lacking in the sound, you can either use EQ to compensate or upgrade components (assuming there isn't something about the actual pickup placement that causes the sound issues).

[quote name='anaxcrosswords' timestamp='1432204573' post='2779090'] OK, a 4th but that's my final offer The technique I've been trying to use - and it's the only one that brings any semblance of success, though still not great - is having middle and index finger in parallel, my hand pointing almost directly up the fretboard. It's not as uncomfortable as it sounds, but still a touch unnatural, especially if I have to move quickly to a more conventional position. [/quote] What about using your middle finger to fret the notes and laying your forefinger across the strings to damp any open ones?

Rapid alternation of first and second fingers - someone broke my hand several decades ago and so my right forefinger is a little shorter and lower than it should be, and I've never been able to compensate properly for that. I don't have any problems playing classical guitar style though. Slap bass - I've got as far as hitting strings with my thumb (mostly accurately) and haven't progressed any further in the last 25 years.

I saw him a good few years ago at the NEC - 1989 it was, at the gig which was filmed for 'Trashes the World'. That was the era of 'Poison' - he played quite a few from the early albums.

I put the Status ones on the Status (which is now with its next new owner after bassgurumonster). I did try to put them onto the Sei headless but the slots at the unheadstock weren't quite wide enough to take them so it finished up with Status flats on. I like them, have got a set on the (headed) Antoniotsai too.

[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1431638546' post='2773607'] I love Alice Cooper, seen him many times and he never fails to deliver. But there is something about those early albums that make me wish I could have seen the Alice Cooper band live. From the Inside, and Billion Dollar Babies, are still 2 of my fave albums. [/quote] To be pedantic, From the Inside wasn't the original Alice Cooper band, Muscle of Love was their last album. I really liked Glen Buxton's effective and economical lead guitar style, and Dennis Dunaway's melodic basslines - not dissimilar to Trevor Bolder in an era when bassists didn't stick with chugging out quavers on root.

The loathsome Mike Huckabee.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1431879398' post='2775821'] This keeps coming up, but unless you always play sitting down including at gigs doesn't it make more sense to always practice sanding up? [/quote] I think the general opposition to relics on here means you should never practice sanding up.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1431734994' post='2774566'] I am told that he expects a bid in the high hundreds or something over a thousand quid for this. [/quote] And when does he expect this bid?

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1431618818' post='2773297'] Surely they have to calculate stuff like that against minimum wage? So if you don't make enough deliveries you will still get minimum wage? [/quote] No, most of the couriers won't be employees but sub-contractors which probably means they're not subject to minimum wage. When I worked as a motorcycle courier around the turn of a century, we got paid a rate per mile - the actual profit from that was 10p or less a mile, so unless I was going at 70mph I wasn't making minimum wage. Sitting in the office waiting for jobs to come in doesn't earn you anything (although if you get to the pickup and have to wait for them, you do get waiting time which is IIRC well below minimum wage).

From a thread in the "Amps and cabs" section I have learnt that my Berg AE112s are dreadfully inferior to the CN112, which apparently is also quite a rubbish sound. So I've decided that as I'm happy with the sound that they produce, and I have actually had complimentary remarks on the sound (not something I have had very often in the past) I have no cab (or amp, the Tecamp Puma does the job very well) GAS. My two main basses are now almost identical and very conservative, a Sei Original headless fretless and a Warwick Buzzard notlob. I also have another near-identical bass, a Hohner B2AV, as a backup. I would rather like a Sei Flamboyant but other than that, I have no current bass GAS.

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1431180385' post='2768543'] Not a bad idea. I could even make a small bit of wood to fit in the whole pedalboard area, attached by Velcro, raising it all by 1/4" or so. There would still be more than enough clearance for the pedals when the case is shut. You have to wonder then why they didn't do this in the first place. [/quote] I've got my Zoom B3 in a Stagg case and that's how I've done it - used [url="http://www.pedalstuff.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=158"]those chain link shaped brackets[/url] to mount the B3 and swell pedal to the ply and then velcroed the ply into the case.

Ashdown Superfly front end. The EQ is accessible via the editor to give you a parametric EQ with Q, frequency, and cut/boost level editable.