uk_lefty

My uncle loved music and I think I inherited my love of music from him. One birthday he didn't know what to get me so he bought me the best of sting and the police. I wasn't too impressed at the time but grew to absolutely love the song writing and of course the baselines. My brother then bought me a police box set some years later and I love it. Such great song writing.

Am sure there's loads of these but here goes... I'm trying very hard to improve on my funk and this includes slap. There is a song we dropped from our set because I wasn't happy with the slap part, found it too difficult to sound good while slapping. With my band we play a 90s dance track but with a bit of an edge to it. Here's one of our early rehearsal efforts on soundcloud (link copied below). I would welcome any feedback on the slap sections of the song. It's not a technique I claim to be anywhere near proficient at and though I think some of this is passable I'd like some constructive feedback on note choice and timing, or anything else! I do find note choice hard beyond octaves and dead notes to be honest... All views welcome. https://m.soundcloud.com/white-collar-fraud/step-it-up-best-ver

The 48 looks amazing. There's a great video on YouTube with a thorough review, apparently it's a great all rounder and even a good slap bass if that's your thing. Certainly one I would consider if I was in the market at that price point.

[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1476802742' post='3157381'] Yes, I loved his bassline on Poison Arrow. If it actually was him, it might've been Trevor Horn. [/quote] Quality song and baseline!!

[quote name='Bonin-in-the boneyard' timestamp='1476712840' post='3156527'] [b] Ibanez ATK 300[/b] www.zikinf.com/annonces/dispannonce.php?annonce=1340123 [/quote] Wtf?!??! I didn't even know those existed

On my precision it's on full except the rare occasion I play a song or section with a pick, then it gets turned down a touch.

Very good price. I had the same one but with flame maple body. Excellent instrument and wish I'd had more patience with it. This one also seems to have gold hardware which is a nice touch. Warwick black label strings sound great on these

Love playing with my band,it makes me nervous, excited, happy, feeling accomplished and feeling like I have created something when we work out our own version of a cover song. It has only ever felt stale when I had no band and learning new songs or playing old ones for no purpose.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1476452795' post='3154468'] As one of those "Random Players" I can confirm that the "interview" is simply a set of questions that they email to you and you send them back the replies, hence the cut-and-paste nature of the section and the somewhat silted replies. I thought carefully about what I was going to say and then got Mr Venom to spice my answers up a bit before sending them back, but it still came out somewhat stilted. [/quote] Don't get me wrong, I would love to be invited for such a thing (it will never happen) but without context of knowing the band or music style it's hard to read and enjoy. It has never once made think of looking up a band because some has said something interesting there and that probably does the interviewee some disservice. Or I'm a miserable stuck in the mud (yes I am).

[quote name='Bonin-in-the boneyard' timestamp='1476452269' post='3154458'] Jaco Bass http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/left_guitars_detail.asp?stock=160308295924002 [/quote] When I win the lottery I'll not only buy it but invest the same amount of money in lessons to do it justice...

I'm not renewing my subscription this time round because I find it a bit weak really. I think it used to be every second month instead of monthly and the content was better. But now I find the interviews with the most random players at the front of the mag annoying "I don't slap cos it sucks" "I play with my heart man, I don't even know where E is!" And other such nonsense really annoying. The main interview is usually good, but the reviews are pretty much copy pasted, but there's a lot of repetition. Some of the features like showing a bass that was on eBay for a good price are just weird. Will probably get the odd copy for a long train journey but sadly I don't find it engaging enough to commit to buying for a whole year.

Invite local bass chat members round to help you sort it and trust them to offer fair prices for what they want

Gorgeous! And guaranteed supreme quality

Everything goes through my Hartke bass attack to add some subtle grit to the sound. Would love to have a trace Elliot rig available all the time but had to sell it ages ago so I get the core tone from my pedals and basses only. I play my p bass with flats and tone wide open for a deliberate clanky sound, but it's a damn good bass and retains the mid presence well even with clank and grit in the sound. For some songs I'll pull out the jazz and I have the bridge pickup fully up and neck pickup only on a touch, tone wide open, same pedal settings so I get a much more dry and snappy sound for some ham-fisted slap and finger funk. when changing basses in a set I'll rarely adjust my pedals or amps, just use the tone and pickup controls on the bass. Then the sound guy puts you through the pa as a deep sub rumble and none of it was worthwhile anyway...

One day I promise myself I will learn theory. I know it will make me a beeter player, however I have to put my dedicated music time in to learning new songs for the set and keeping my technique up. I think learning more theory will help me learn new songs more quickly and pick up by ear songs I hear on the radio more effectively. I just haven't had time to do it yet even though I know there's return on investment. I think it's like learning a new language. You need to know and understand the grammar (which is complicated and boring) because without it you can stumble through just learning translations of individual words but if you don't understand the grammar you will always make mistakes and not always see the patterns in what other people are saying. However with music, like a language, no matter how competent you are there is nothing quite like throwing yourself in and seeing how you get on

Any plans for a lefty with a maple fretboard....?

Like it

Luckily not had this pleasure at a gig yet but I would try to judge whether it's someone interested in basses, interested in showing off to their drunk mates, or someone trying to steal from me. Recently had my nephews round and got paranoid about my basses but then thought the other way, how crappy it would be if I didn't let them play my instruments so I set up an amp just in case. They were on best behaviour and ignored the guitars. When my child comes along (soon) I really want him or her to show an interest and I will indulge that, even if it does lead to a few dings in basses.

Started with a cheap bass and a cheap "learn to play" book that included tab but no cd. That was hard. My uncle got me a heavy metal book to learn to play songs like iron man (not actually iron man, but something that sounded like it) and so on. I did ok jamming along to tapes in my room but the real breakthrough was playing in a band. Massive egotistical guitarist wanted a bass player who would just play the riffs so I got in the band straight away, but playing with him and a fantastic drummer I learned about timing and feel and grew in confidence to try things. Went from playing along with sixty mins worth of cassette songs to playing five string fretless in a power blues three piece within a year. I was a teenager, I had the time

Japanese Fender. I have a Japanese Fender 1970 reissue (Sid vicious white with black pickguard) alder bodied, rosewood board. Mine has a Steve Harris Sig pickup and its the perfect live bass for me. I am toying with the idea of adding a big mm pickup at the bridge but that would just be showing off.

Can buy 1x15 cabs really cheap second hand, get an old peavey or something equally indestructible

I'm probably below average. Can't read music, can't play more than one Beatles song, but I am happy playing what my band needs in the way that I feel fits best. I'm not a great bass player but I'm the right one for my band. I would like to be better but I can't spend hours practicing unfortunately. Its funny though because I don't see it as competition. If I was a golf player I'd want to be "the best" but as a bass player I just want to be appreciated. Take Flea for example, to some people he's untouchable and the best and greatest bassist ever, others don't rate him. Leads me to think that in the arts there's no such thing as "best" overall

Have had some very intimidating punks walk up mid guitar solo and ask us if we can play some Nirvana... Didn't really fit with our blues set. We didn't eject them because they were a lot bigger than us. But then the guitarist looks at me and goes "want to sing anarchy in the UK?" Which made their eyes light up and filled me with dread having never seriously rehearsed it. I firmly refused.

A wah pedal or "bass drum" type effect for an acoustic soloist that produces the electricity to power itself. A bit of a re hash of the dynamo powered bicycle light?