Silvia Bluejay

[quote name='fretlessguy' timestamp='1331952409' post='1581448'] One thing for sure: They make you use your ears much much more. Playing in tune requires much more attention. [/quote] I agree. And I'll go even further: playing a fretless - or even an upright - seems to make it slightly easier for me to pick the basslines I set out to find by ear, than when I'm working them out using a fretted. I don't know why that happens. Perhaps having to make sure that I fret the correct pitch - as well as making sure it's the same pitch I'm hearing in the song - makes my brain engage my musical ear to the max, and makes me more receptive than when I'm using the "lazy" fretted.

Welcome, Convair! Like you, I kept being directed to threads on this site when I googled bass-related questions, so in the end I said, what the hell, and jumped in!

I think Bassace is making a pun on your way of spelling the present continuous form of verbs. I'll get me Grammar Geek anorak and leave now PS Sorry but I can't help you with your actual question. I hope someone more experienced will take the time to reply to you.

Welcome, John, and watch out for more and more GAS

Welcome, Inti! Great videos, thanks for sharing.

Mine are located exactly where the fret would be, so, for instance, you press the string at the second dot and you get a low D, or a G etc. Edit; yes, my fretless is unlined.

Oh, and also DiMarzio (Deemartsio)!

LOL! You're right but D'Addario was originally simply a surname, not a brand name.

I've always pronounced Aria and D'Addario the Italian way ("arry-er" and "daddario") and been perfectly understood...

All the best, A - you'll be fine. Remind your drummer he's not in a Motley Crue tribute band for this gig Let us know your impressions of the new baby - in fact, the new babies!

LOL @Bassace! Awesome vids, even for a resolute non-slapper (insert your favourite puns here). And the guy is a lefty!

[quote name='apa' timestamp='1331372615' post='1571943'] Call me nieve but couldnt you just turn the bridge 180deg or is the front contour asymetric too? A [/quote] I did that on my upright, but had to file the inside of the grooves a tiny little bit, because they were sloping in what was now the wrong direction. I only felt bold enough to do that because the bass is cheap, and I wanted to experiment - I would get a pro to do everything properly if I bought an expensive non-lefty intrument. However, I'm happy to see that Thomann do sell left-handed double basses.

LOL some of us may even be failed right-handed guitarists! (no, We. Are. NOT!) Welcome LGM!

I remember seeing a masterclass/gig by Michael Angelo Batio at one of the London Music Shows in Wembley a few years ago. He plays with both hands, and often at the same time, on a V-shaped double guitar. Mental.

I think I've seen a couple of second hand instruments (advertised as such) for sale at a stand this year. Can't remember which stand though.

Further comment on your idea of stubborness: if all of us lefties were stubborn enough, and played lefty as opposed to so often accepting to be forced into something uncomfortable, there would be plenty of lefty instruments around, they wouldn't be considered unusual, and this debate would not exist.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1331206963' post='1569322'] That seems like a pretty fair definition of stubbornness, I should think..?[/quote] Hm. I'm just being practical here. If you have that much time to spend doing that sort of displacement activity, I guess you should go ahead. I'm not saying that's impossible - I'm a lefty who was taught to write with my right hand - but I do believe it'd be a bit pointless, when you could get a good instrument with the orientation already known to you and, y'know, get down to making music... Edit: my handwriting is near-illegible.

I see everybody's point. All I was trying to say is: when you have learned to play bass in a certain way - righty or lefty - and played like that for years or even decades, you will NOT find it easy,or even possible, to learn to play double bass the other way round. It's NOT a different instrument, and if your brain knows the chords, and you muscles know the movements, in a lefty way, that's what you're going to try and apply to the DB.

And Rafa Nadal plays tennis as a lefty but isn't one... but playing bass is different, at least in my experience. I can do most things with either hand, but not bass playing. Also, I didn't find learning to play the upright the same as learning a new instrument, at all. The key is in the name - upright [b]bass[/b]...it's still bass

Having played the upright a bit when it was right-handed, just to try how it felt, I'm afraid I couldn't disagree more.

I've turned my upright left-handed, and since it was my first time I bought the cheapest I could find. It can be done, especially as EUBs are more or less symmetrical, but the results, both in terms of ergonomics and intonation, will never be as good as if the bass was created left-handed. I have no experience of double basses, but I imagine the same applies to them - you can turn things around, but they will be optimised for use by a left fretting hand and a right plucking/bowing hand, and for standing at your left side, in many subtle ways, as well as being slightly different inside. However, I was once told that ready-made left-handed DBs simply don't exist? And that you either have to have one built especially for you by a luthier, or get a right-handed one modified professionally. Is that info correct?

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1330986053' post='1565999'] Point one. Don't f*** with the Warwick neck. They are that thickness for a reason and they have shallowed recently due to some sort of technological advance they say. I have the very neck you describe and it is a little thick, but I think thicker necks are generally more ergonomic. There are some VERY small women who play bass, and upright bass, although, played properly, upright is more ergonomic due to the reduced flexion of the wrist, and less ulnar deviation. The thing is, as I posted much earlier, you don't appear to have considered that other activities may be the root cause of your problem and any diagnosis on here will be completely hit or miss, which means if you are relying on it, or you own, you are putting yourself at risk of making the problem worse. Go an see a bloody doctor! x [/quote] I agree completely. I'm tiny (5'2", with hands in proportion!), I play not one but three Warwicks, two of which are 5 string, and an upright. I have no problem at all in the wrist of my fretting hand. As I mentioned before, I did have pain in my left (plucking) wrist, and that turned out to be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and to be unrelated to bass playing. So yes, go see a doctor.

Make sure you don't have to pay VAT or whatever the tax is on imported goods, when you come back to this country.

As a heavy metal fan, I like black instruments a lot, and my first student bass was indeed black, as is my new fretless and my upright. However, I also love natural and blue.

That sounds great! (Apart from the scaring off Dood bit!!)