bassbloke

I remember borrowing a Hondo P bass from my wife's cousin back in the early 90s. It weighed a tonne, was made of ply and the neck could have been used to launch arrows.

Get it lacquered by an auto shop. Probably cost you about £50 for a couple of coats of automotive lacqeur, which will be baked hard. Very very durable.

[quote name='WalMan' post='761781' date='Mar 2 2010, 01:41 PM']As above if you are getting to that stage it really is worth getting a partnership agreement set up sooner rather than later. If not you will end up covered by legislation that is over 100 years old. I'm sure everyone has heard of royalties cases like The Smiths, and more recently for A Whiter Shade of Pale, that have rumbled on for years and where probably the only winners are the lawyers. Get everything agreed now while you're all talking, 'cos a few years down the line when the singer has been through the rest of the bands g/f's, the guitarist says he wrote all the songs when everyone elses recollection is that is was a group effort, and none of you are talking except through lawyers a bit of paper that covers the business aspects and was agreed in the good times will be a godsend.[/quote] Check out our myspace page. I would dearly love to see our singer get in on with some of our wives/girlfriends No, no, that's sexist.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='761626' date='Mar 2 2010, 10:59 AM']Are you anticipating trouble or have you just had trouble??[/quote] Not really. However, band is gaining profile - bigger gigs, endorsements, etc... but still at the stage where investment is required from individual band members (merchandise, backdrops, photoshoots, web hosting) so we're considering a formal agreement setting out expectations, etc...

Do any of you have formal, written band agreements covering royalties, investment, disputes? If so, how have they worked for you? Have ou ever needed to involve the MU or similar to assist with settling disputes? If so, were they helpful?

I would have packed up my stuff and left after a quarter of an hour or so.

[quote name='valere24' post='755968' date='Feb 24 2010, 12:01 PM']I never understood the point of the IMRM technique. The middle finger does as much work as IM so it defies the objective. I can understand the advantages of IMR, RMI, or adding the thumb TIMR. I personally use IM, RMI, and RMIT. That said, unless you're into fusion / virtuoso style bass playing, I cannot see myself recommending 3/4 finger techniques to somebody still starting on the instrument, better stick to IM to start with. And maybe learn to use a pick.[/quote] I agree that people sometimes get too hung up on advanced 3 or 4 finger techniques as a way of achieving very fast picking speeds when, in reality, a pick would provide plenty of speed and note defintion. However, 3 finger techniques work very well for more efficient string crossing, muting and a generally more relaxed feel and if somebody is starting out, they may as well learn to develop a tecnhique using as many as possible. It's not as if you learn to ride a bicycle using one leg at a time.

[quote name='Jamesemt' post='754988' date='Feb 23 2010, 01:31 PM']I can't get on with the neck size on a 5...dropping the e would be the answer but then I would have to relearn 27 songs...[/quote] Half our set was in standard tuning and half in Drop D. Retuning bottom string from E to D takes around 5 seconds. Try using a pick on the drop D numbers - that'll give you less thump.

[quote name='silddx' post='754201' date='Feb 22 2010, 06:44 PM'] Actually, you said piss off and practice or [b]something[/b]. I have just put the laundry on and am now about to do the recycling, wash up, cook dinner, record a bass track for a mate's album, and start rehearsing for Saturday's gig. Does any of that count? [/quote] There's such a fine line between attention to detail and pedantry.

Andertons music do 9 and 12 months interest free and are sizeable fender stockists, so would order one in for you. Your big problem with a special order and getting one on finance is that there's zero opportunity to bargain/haggle. List prices on the US Deluxe Fenders is high - well over a grand, whereas second hand values are 2/3 of that.

i said go and practice.

[quote name='silddx' post='752014' date='Feb 20 2010, 06:20 PM']I've just read the Gus G3 review in this month's Bass Guitar Magazine. I simply can not understand that its aesthetics and the minor advances in ergonomics, build quality, and tonal quality and variety is worth spending about THREE AND A HALF THOUSAND QUID extra than your average high end Warwick or some such. I understand how much it costs to build it, but that does not justify its "core worth" as a bass. If you have money to burn, no problem, I still think you would be totally wasting it on something providing so little extra benefit, and with two chrome saveloys attached to it. I'm sure it's fabulous, but it is certainly not £4,000 more fabulous than my Corvette $$. How is it possible to justify that spend on a new bass? And how in the name of Enid Blyton can BGM give it four out of five stars for Value For Money? Bloody ridiculous.[/quote] Your Warwick is mass produced by a machine. Warwick buy in huge quantities of wood, bung it through a cnc machine to produce the body blanks or wings. The economies of scale and minimal human involvement allow costs to be kept low. I can guarantee that once you step away from mass produced instruments and start choosing custom options the costs increase dramatically. You have no idea how many hours goes into a Gus guitar, how much R&D has gone into the building techniques and, most importantly, you've never picked up a Gus guitar and played it so you don't have the slightest clue of it's 'core worth'. The core worth of a Klimt or Van Gogh is what, a bit of canvas, some oil or watercolours and a bit of wood for the frame. That must be, what, £25. Like others have commented, this is an utterly futile discussion topic, so let's all piss off and practice or something. No wonder other musicians think bassists are a bit of a joke.

I'm glad I started off a worthwhile discussion. For an instrument like bass, it's knowing when to shift position that has the most impact on fluency, rather than the ability to play 1fpf. Like I said, if you can play 1fpf then great - you have nice large hands. Those people that can't should not feel pressured into doing so and certainly shouldn't force themselves into a playing style that might cause them injury.

Thank you for the excellent information. I didn't think the lacquered board would affect tone, but for someone used to fender fingerboards, it looks a little odd. I'll get him to take some pictures. He may be more inclined to keep hold of it given its semi-collectible status.

A friend of fine was moaning about the bass sound on one of his recordings and saying his bass was an ancient rickenbacker copy with dead strings. I saw it on Sunday and it's a natural finish CMI Rickenbacker copy. The bass is in good condition and is very light and playable. The only odd thing is the overly lacquered fingerboard. The dead strings were flatwounds, hence the total lack of zing. It's the perfect bass for a beatles fan though. I seem to remember them being quite sought after. Is it worth much?

If it were me, i'd stick a gotoh bridge on, maybe a new pickup (kent armstrong or wizard would be fine) and get the frets stoned and the bass setup nicely. Last of all, I'd swap out pots, rewire and lookou'd have a very , very nice bass after that.

This morning, I picked up the squier vintage modified fretless jazz i bought off him last week. It's a lovely instrument in great condition. The transaction was polite, friendly and efficient - you couldn't ask for anything more. Thanks.

I had to do something similar to an old Vigier bass I owned. I bought it from new, but there was a minor ding in the body, so i got it discounted. After a couple of months the body literally split right where control cavity was. I got it repaired by the shop and they used the same method. Very good fix and yes, the repaired area was stringer than the body. BUT, the repaired showed up as a different colour under strong light. So, bear this is mind when choosing how you're going to get it refinished. When I got my basses refinished, they got about 4 black base coats, then the candy coats and then several coats of automotive lacquer. I'd definitely recommend several white or black base coats to properly mask the repair. I'll put you in touch with the guy who did my respray if you like - he did a fantastic job.

[quote name='Paul_C' post='744149' date='Feb 13 2010, 05:04 PM']that looks like left hand stuff to me [/quote] Not only is it left hand stuff, but i would add that it is bad advice. If your hands are large enough to facilitate 1 finger per fret, then great, but otherwise, you run the risk of causing yourself permanent injury for no good reason. Double bass players don't force themselves to play one finger per fret/note. Be careful with your fingernails. Keep them quite short, but not too short - they protect your fingers (so speaks someone currently unable to play because of a finger infection caused partly by having nails too short.

I'm currently rendered pretty much unable to play due to a nasty infection in my right index finger that's needed two courses of antibiotics to deal with it. My fingertip is incredibly tender, so fingerstyle is out of the question. I've switched to using a pick, but even that's too painful when I grip and, especially, when the edge of my index finger inevitably hit against a string. Has this happened to any other members? I have a few big gigs in a few weeks so whilst i would probably be well advised to simply leave the instrument alone, I feel obliged to do some practicising. Can you get spray on replacement skin or similar to cover up affected area? EDIT: I'm now trying the Eddie Van Halen approach and gripping pick between thumb and middle finger. Feels very weird.

Someone needs to exhume Gar Samuelson and drag Chris Poland back from jazz hell so Megadeth can play Peace Sells in entirety live too. Sorry if that seems in bad taste, but Peace sells is still the ultimate megadeth album for me. The Conjuring, Devil's Island, Bad Omen/Black Friday.. ..and how can the title track can not have gotten a mention yet - it has one of the most memorable bass lines in rock and metal. I am so chuffed Dave Ellefson is back. Megadeth were always my favourite of the big four, closely followed by Anthrax then slayer with metallica trailing somwhere behind.

I've had a staphylococus infection in my right index finger for some weeks so, out of neccessity, had to start playing with a pick again (i did 2 gigs playing my usual fingerstyle with an infected finger and it was v unpleasant). I play guitar as well and have also settled on 1mm nylon picks. They're stiff enough to produce a decent attack. The nylon gives a cleaner less scrapy tone and they're a little bit of flex in there to enable faster picking without too much attack or a knackered wrist. They biggest problem with them is that they're quite slippery. My pet hate with pick style playing is striking the strings at an angle because it produces a nasty scraping sound. I also think it's important to keep muting with the right hand. So, I pick with the fleshy part of my wrist over the bridge, but with the pick over the rear pickup more a more defined attack. It takes some getting used to, but I can mute the string for fast triplets and 16th notes. The ability to play fingerstyle, thumb style, pick style, slap are all essential for the rounded bass player. The key is to develop an effective style for each. I'm tempted to try some dunlop tortex sharps again. Years ago I used the green (0.88) so I might try them again.

That neck looks pristine for a 36 year old instrument.