bass_dinger

To lose one string is unfortunate. To lose two strings is carelessness. And as for winding one on backwards, and managing to snap strings from a 130 set ....

I have a rather nice Washburn XB925 gigging base in a case behind the sofa, which is a struggle to extract when I practice. So I use the Washburn XB500 which is sitting on the stand. Every time I play the XB925, I am reminded how much easier it is to play, and how much better I sound. But I can't be bothered to get behind the sofa....

I'd be all over that, if it was a three-string....

Thanks for the good advice on in-ears. I will probably share the recommendation with the leader. If he passes it on to the group, and if others buy the kit themselves, then I will too. However, if nobody makes a move to buy in ears, then I won't bother either. I still think that the church should contribute or supplement the purchase. But that's just me being grumpy

How does that work? Do you all buy your own IEMs? Share them? Which brand do you use? I ask because we have been told that is the aim of the band at church - buy your own in ears, so we no longer need to use the monitors -the aim is to reduce stage volume. Predictably, people are confusing IEMs with the £10 earphones used with their phones, and nobody has made a move to buy even those. I am not sure that I want to buy in-ears - I would only need them for church, and feel that they should be supplied (or at least, funded). Otherwise, it feels like I am paying to play (having already invested in my instruments). Instead, I tried a set of big headphones on Sunday, just to show willing, and I could turn down the stage volume a lot. However, others didn't - monitors up too loud, guitar amps set to 'stun'. At one point, the leader said "just drums and bass!" and turned to us to say it. Unfortunately, this meant that he was off-mic, and I didn't hear him. However, I guessed what he was saying, but..... ....the congregation were not miced up, so I didn't know whether they were singing the chorus or the verse. So, a successful experiment, if only to show what could go wrong.

I am intrigued, so I did a search, and found "Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar". Would you recommend it to someone who wants to understand and play jazz guitar?

Great band name there!

Can you tell us more about the stubby little tuner, that is missing a footswitch? I am guessing that it is always on, and has no mute function.

3/3? Is that a time signature, or a typo?! As for "How deep the fathers love", being in 5/4 (and a few bars in 3/4), I had no idea, beyond knowing that it was odd to play.

I was self taught, and my teacher was a numpty. Still, he didn't cost me anything...

Here, an example of theory, distilled. Jake from Signals Music took 10 years to learn all the chords- working them out for himself. He created a video, lasting 18 minutes and 33 seconds, teaching viewers all the chords. It is full of theory, but it is all practical knowledge 10 years. Or just under 19 minutes.... Here's another example. On a keyboard, I accidentally played an A flat chord with a B flat in the bass. Technically, it was wrong but I had happened upon the opening chord of The Long And Winding Road. 20 years later, I understood that the chord was an extended chord, and had a name (A flat 11th). Had I learned chord theory, I could have understood it in an afternoon, rather than 20 years. I am a big fan of understanding theory, because it gets me playing music, without having to go through trial and error.

I tried! I failed! But I failed well, and will try again. I managed to strum the songs at home, and plugged into an amp via a tuner and chorus pedal, to get used to the sound and work out how to set up the kit. On the day during the practice, we couldn't find a channel to plug into, and I couldn't hear myself in the foldback. Sound levels were painfully loud as the band played on, and it was easier to step down from that morning's service. However..... I learnt that I could still play guitar; that it was fun; that it was hard work and very physical - and my fingertips hurt! I will play again with the guitarist and his tame pianist and am comfortable that I will hold my own. But for now, I remain a bassist.

I bought it from someone on basschat.co.uk so it is not something that I designed. However, I should still have the circuit, unused, and looking for a bass to be installed into. Contact me, if you wish, and I can share details.

I tend to replace batteries once a year, regardless. Now, however, I have a battery tester, and use that once every few months. I have had a working active bass on 7 volts, and less. But that was my bass (Washburn XB500), which doesn't help you. There is a circuit that I have, but never fitted*, which lights an LED when the voltage drops below a certain predetermined level. You might set such a circuit to 7.5v, so that it never reaches the 7.2v that tripped you up. * one of my old basses would run off of 5v, and my spare (same model) had a 10 year old battery in it that still worked! I then bought a new bass that had an active/passive switch, so I no longer needed it.

Like @bassbiscuits, I also learnt theory by absorption and example. Song with G a C in it? Maybe a D is also likely to appear. Or an F? I picked up Scales; chord scales. Key signatures. The thing is, it took me 30 years to get there, and I watched my 7 year old daughter make the same journey in 3 years, with formal music theory lessons. For myself, I don't want to rediscover what already exists, when I can spend an hour learning it from a teacher or YouTube video. Modes? Chord substitutions? It's all out there. I must say, I have a cloth ear, so, I struggle to hear and remember chord changes. For that reason, I now find it easier to find the music manuscript on YouTube, and site read it.

That seems to be the model that Hobgoblin has adopted. Online presence, and shops selling niche products. Gypsy jazz guitars, Chinese violins, African thumb pianos, accordions, low whistles - folk instruments that other shops wouldn't stock, and lots of spare parts. Nothing high-end, but if you are looking for a particularly obscure instrument, then they are your best bet. https://hobgoblin.com/

Again, from the article, it seems that nobody knows why the round back existed. "In 1961 the basses had solid spruce tops and flat backs, so it was not what we expected. Later, at the end of the year, the tops became laminated plywood, so maybe this is an experimental bass? A prototype? It was a transitional year, so I can imagine Paul going into the Steinway shop, they phone Höfner and ask for a left handed bass, Höfner agrees and maybe they thought: “What can we use? Maybe this prototype? Oh well, it’s only for a kid in Hamburg.” We’ll never know, but it would be typical Höfner. In the end it’s very interesting to know all the replicas are wrong, even the ones we made, ha ha!’ "

A quote from the article: "So the reissue you made was better? No, it was wrong, because we discovered something no one knew. And if they say they knew, they lie. When we turned it around, we discovered Paul’s bass has a domed, rounded back, not a flat one, while all the ‘61 reissues including the copies we made - and some other people made - have flat backs. We were very surprised" So the surprise appears to be that it has a rounded back - everyone (even Hofner) expected it to be flat.

https://www.paulmccartney.com/news/statement-on-hofner-bass

There was an interview this morning on the Radio 4 Today programme, with the journalist who tracked it down. In brief, in 1972, the Wings roadie parked the van outside his house on Ladbroke Grove. Local squatter broke into the van, stole a bass. A few days later, he realised that it belonged to McCartney, and asked his friend (a local pub landlord) to look after it for him. 50 years later, the bass was inherited by a decendant of the same landlord, having spent the intervening period in the loft. The benefactor heard the story of the missing bass in the news, made contact with the McCartney estate, and it is now back with its rightful owner. The investigation was helped when a relative of the thief contacted the journalist, and was able to identify the pub.

Is this the model that goes down to minus 11?

Rather than something to play, I would get somewhere to play. So, would $4k be enough to fit out a basement room with soundproofing, a few mics, PA, drumkit? Then, you can invite your friends round for a jam session, and the $4k would buy you a rehearsal space. For me, playing with others is what has made me a better musician*, rather than buying additional kit. It is the hours invested in playing that gave me the skill to appreciate those better instruments. * better, when measured from a very low basepoint . . . .

For people on the Abstinence Thread the correct answer is "A bass, and double lessons"

A child drummer in the church asked me to learn Come Together by the Beatles, and Mr Brightside (because it has a "great bassline"). Happy to learn these new songs, if it encourages her to play drums in a band. I am still trying to think of songs for her to learn, for which I already know the bassline. Maybe Good Times by Chic, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, or I Wish.

Spoken like a true musician!