Doddy

I've got a mid '90s Japanese Jazz Bass, and I'm pretty sure it's got a nitro finish looking at how the finish is crazing and wearing. It could be over a poly base but if it is, it's very thin. I don't know much about finishes so I could be wrong, I just know that it's wearing differently than my poly finished basses.

As you insist on saying in every thread vaguely relating to jazz.

That bassline is doing a lot more than subtly matching the keys. It guides through the chords with chromatic leading notes, and adds rhythmic motion. It's a great part.

That's about right. Scale length for a 3/4 is generally around 41.3", but it can vary a bit either way Full size is around 43.3", but a 3/4 size bass is pretty much the standard now.

Is that just because you are more familiar with the patches on the Zoom? I'm the other way around. I've got a few multi effects but I much prefer all of my dedicated pedals, especially for the pedals I use most (which are filters, octave, and drive).

At least you got there eventually. Pentatonics are great. If you understand how they work there is so much you can do with them. Janek Gwizdala has a great book based on Pentatonics, and Gary Willis has a couple of killer lessons on them.

I've heard about that too. If it's true, it probably won't work out too well for Mesa. Look at what Gibson did to Trace Elliot. With Aguilar, I think they are still generally seen as being more of a boutique amp, and the deal with Korg will probably get them to more dealers and may give them enough money to not have to shift production. I guess we'll wait and see.

Fender bought SWR and then stopped production ( they later did the same with Genz Benz), and Marshall bought Eden. I don't see any reason why Korg would screw over Aguilar. It's not like they have any other bass amp brands, unlike a company like Fender.

I'm really enjoying playing with the Seamoon, but it's a very specific sound. If you've read the review in Bass Magazine, it sums the pedal up pretty well. It's not the most intuitive pedal but if you spend some time with it, it's one of the coolest sounding filters. I'll certainly be using it a lot when shows start happening again, probably alongside the DiscumBOBulator for a couple of different filter sounds.

I've heard people recommend playing with a tuner, but I'm not a big fan of that because it becomes wasy to rely on watching it rather than using your ears. I'd suggest finding a way to hold a chord and play scales and arpeggios over it. That way you can hear when you are slipping out of tune. I'd also recommend using open strings as a way to reorientate yourself, as you know they will be in tune. Double Bass players do this all the time.

In my old Skoda Roomster, I dropped one half of the split rear seat which let the bass go in at a slight angle with the head going between the front seats. That left half of the boot and half of the back seats free for my other gear. Someone could even sit in the front if they didn't mind leaning slightly to the left. This was with my bass in a rigid case, which is massive. The same way in a soft bag seemed like I had loads of room. It looks like you've got a Berlingo? You've got tons of room. I'd have the bass like you've got it in the 1st picture and put the rest of the gear around it. If you're worried and feel like you need to drop the front seat, just don't take the bari player with you .

If you are arpeggiating the chords then you probably will play them an octave up but otherwise you can play them anywhere depending on context. They are all just scale notes anyway, just going up in 3rds.

If you've ever read The Jazz Theory Book, when it talks about scales it refers to them as their extensions. So rather than 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, it views them as 1 9 3 11 5 13 7. I always found that pretty handy especially when I'm playing jazz.

Basically, if you run long cables or lots of pedals you increase capacitance and lose high end which obviously affects tone. A decent buffer will lower the impedance, making the signal stronger and restoring some of the high end. They are handy to have if all your pedals are true bypass. Boss pedals have buffers so you can just put one or two of them in your chain, and it will do pretty much the same as a seperate buffer.

For kids around that age, I like to introduce them early, to a basic 12 bar pattern using just root notes at first, then root/5th. I'd also recommend showing him the names of the open strings and where they sit on the stave. For songs, it might make sense to show him some simplified versions of whatever music he's in to. Even if it's just root notes rather than the actual line, it will give him a sense of playing songs that he likes, and if he sticks with it he will learn the proper bassline later. Alternatively, just show him Smells Like Teen Spirit.

I'm really liking the Seamoon Funk Machine. It's a downward only filter sweep and has a ton of low end available- it has a mega sub bass sound. It's also very instrument sensitive- it triggers very differently with a Precision that with a Jazz. It's definitely a unique filter, that you wouldn't confuse with something like a MuTron. Best of all, it nails that Brecker Brothers 'Sponge' sound, unsurprisingly.

Can't you just take the strap off at one end rather than lifting the bass over your head?

I wouldn't be too worried about the Wenge/Ovangkol neck difference. I think that the fingerboard has a bigger effect on the sound than the actual neck, so you'll still get that Warwick growl as long as it's got a Wenge fingerboard. Unless you want to get something new and specific, you need to look at the secondhand market for Warwicks. They don't always hold their value, so you can find a bargain if you look. I picked up my late 90s, German, Streamer LX for super cheap a few years ago. I put a Bartolini preamp in mine after the MEC broke, and it sounds awesome. It's more aggressive sounding than some of my other basses and really cuts through the mix.

Mine arrived this morning. It's a unique filter. Very different to my others, but it's got some really cool sounds in it.

What it really comes down to, is having the right instrument for the gig. A lot of modern shows have parts that are written in the lower range, so you need a 5 string to play what's written. Even in a lot of function band situations, you'll probably covering tunes that were played on 5 strings or synths. Could you get away with playing up an octave? Probably, but it depends on the bandleader. Some specifically ask for a 5 string, others don't care as long as you play well. I usually take a 5 string out as standard, but one band that I've been playing with stipulate that I use a Precision bass, so the 5's will stay at home. If you play in you're own band, you can do whatever you want and it's cool. But if you're playing lot's of different gigs you need to do what's asked of you, and in those cases you probably will need a 5 string at some point.

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Exactly- straight with a feel marking at the top. Although it's not uncommon to see them written as dotted quaver/semiquaver patterns.

I've seen tab with rhythm stems (I don't like tablature, but I'm not getting in to that now). I think if you're listening to the track and hearing something different to the written part, that's cool, but you've moved in to learning by ear and away from reading. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you're focusing on reading though, either for practice or in a gig situation, you sometimes just need to count and play what is written. There's a way of writing something like a shuffle, that a semi decent reader will know how to play it and be able to feel it.

Obviously tab alone won't give you any hint to the rhythmic feel but if the rhythms are notated, any syncopation should be pretty clear as long as you can read it and count the subdivisions, so you don't have to repeatedly listen.

When I was younger it was literally turning on the radio (usually the Top 40) and trying to play every song that came on, most of which I didn't know. It was a big help in being able to busk songs on gigs years later. It's great for your ear training, and you start to recognise chord progressions, and common bass patterns. It's great for your repertoire too- you never know when someone might call a certain song and if you have at least a rough idea of how it goes, you can get through it even if you've never sat down to learn it properly.