JapanAxe

I will be playing Plug In Baby this Saturday and I will just switch to the P pickup and max the bass's treble control. My amp is always set for a bit of grit. Job done. The only people who will notice if you nail the sound are you and any Muse-loving bass players in the audience. I'm not saying you shouldn't shoot for a sound that is appropriate, but the effort of duplicating the original sound may be better expended elsewhere e.g. playing the song correctly!

How the blood and stomach pills would you hold the thing?

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1386759369' post='2304044'] Fret Line width 0.05 mm, width of finger 14mm. You still need your ears, guys!! The line just gets you in the ball park with probably little more accuracy than habit. [/quote] Although I have fret lines, once I've been paying a while and I'm 'in the zone', I stop looking - or I look less often. So I agree

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1386783911' post='2304519'] Geezer Butler was one of my main formative influences on the bass. I regard him as one of the greatest rock players of all time...superb! [/quote] Just been listening to my Sabbath compilation in the car. I concur!

[quote name='Hector' timestamp='1386761304' post='2304081'] It's a double bass thing, but if you're interested, you'd want to try to find out as much as you can about Francois Rabbath. The basic idea is, if your fingers 124 cover frets 567, you can also pivot your hand (with the thumb in the same place) to reach for frets 4 and 8. Using this pivoting, he then subdivides the bass' neck into fewer positions (relative to the other dominant school of double bass left hand tehnique, Simandl). Personally, I think it's dead useful (particularly on upright), although I am primarily a Simandl (124 strictly without pivot) player, and tend to see Rabbath style technique as an exension of Simandl rather than an addition to it. This series of videos features one of Rabbath's students teaching the basics: [media]http://youtu.be/54pMdTCmo8g[/media] Here's another one of Rabbath's more accomplished students absolutely tearing it up: [media]http://youtu.be/VXt6htVi3C4[/media] [/quote] Thanks, that's very useful. I'm familiar with finger-per-fret position playing, which I brought over from the guitar. I'll check this out further. BTW I am strictly BG not DB or EUB - the right-hand approach is so different, it's almost another instrument! Also I know andyonbass (of this parish), who has made a success of his DB/EUB playing - it doesn't half look like hard work. /end of thread hijack

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1386681998' post='2303003'] If you use a thumb pivot with 1234 or 124 and restrict your thumb positions to 3 or 4 (say F#, G, A and B relative to E string), you won't need lines at all. Side markers on the thumb positions will see you right every time. It's a phenomenally accurate method for intonation because you need make very few position shifts, and those you do make are to a limited number of destinations. I took to this method for learning the upright, but it's produced an amazing improvement in my intonation for fretless bg. [/quote] Where can I find out more about this approach?

Gorgeous bass. Don't normally go for natural wood but this is splendid. +1 for GuitarGuitar - they replaced a dead TC amp for me within a week.

Brilliant!

Disappointed. Thought this was going to be an in-depth discussion of the merits of a floating thumb technique

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[quote name='Les' timestamp='1386675928' post='2302870'] Don't know if you'd consider the Squier range but a few months ago I went to PMT to look for a cheaper version of my old Mustang to take the less salubrious gigs we do and I tried the Squier Mustangs which were ok, then I tried the Mikey Way signature and was seriously impressed. Head and shoulders above the others. I nearly bought it as it was less than 250 quid but I decided I would never be able to live with the sparkly silver finish so didn't. Good bass though if you like the look of it. Les [/quote] Looks dreadful to me! [quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1386676129' post='2302873'] I tried one out a while ago. £550 new. Always fancied one. Ughhh..... ! Hope it was a one off :OL ! [/quote] One man's meat etc. Where was it? £550 is pretty keen!

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1386627654' post='2302482'] Thanks very much dude! Unlikely to be around that way unfortunately though. How do you find that setup? [/quote] Very flexible, and never short of... anything! As I have posted elsewhere on this forum, it's like 3 rigs in 1: Head + Midget = home practice, rehearsals, quiet/acoustic gigs Head + Compact = larger gigs e.g. functions, C&W Head + Compact + Midget = loud rock gigs

[quote name='TRBboy' timestamp='1386626211' post='2302467'] Hmmmm..... I just wish I could try one out! [/quote] If you are ever in the vicinity of Swindon you are welcome to try out any part of my Streamliner/Barefaced rig.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1386615388' post='2302238'] I also should have said that i have a Squier Bronco that i paid £88 (brand new and including postage!) for about 5 years ago which in my opinion is better than a couple of 70s Musicmasters that i've played. I do think though that the Bronos at the price they were when i bought mine were a steal. [/quote] Yes I tried a Bronco once that belonged to one of my Rockschool students. I was quite impressed but currently they are overpriced compared to what a few quid more can get you in the way of Squier Classic Vibes etc. These days I am aiming a bit higher and going for something that will cut the mustard at gigs.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1386606542' post='2302074'] Compared with more modern basses the Musicmaster may not be great... [/quote] And there it is. I think the Mustang [i]is[/i] great, at least among short scale basses.

Tenacious D - 'F*** Her Gently'

The more I think about this, the more I think the PS Mustang is the bass I really want, and all I am doing with the Musicmaster is imagining how I can turn it into a substitute for the Mustang, but with a bit of near-vintage mojo! Also it seems the original Musicmaster finishes were black (most common) or white, or more rarely 'surf' red or blue. The Bass direct one therefore appears to be a refin, which immediately reduces its desirability and the reasonableness of the asking price. Although some of the Mms (as opposed to MMs) on YooToob sound nice, that means nothing. (I refer you to the Pro Guitar Shop demos, where absolutely every item they demo is mad to sound wonderful.) Whatever I did to the pickup, it is never going to match the one in the PSM. I found [url="http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0172.html"]this interesting article[/url] about someone making a pickup to overcome the deficiencies of the original [i]guitar [/i]pickup. So for that reason I'm out - out on a GAS-indulging road trip at the weekend with one of my mates in tow as a second pair of ears.

[url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/collections/saddles-for-bass/products/wilkinson-swivel-bass-bridge-barrels-2-brass"]Wilkinson swivel brass saddles[/url] located but at a price!

Been doing a bit of research on the Musicmaster. The pickup looks to be a Strat pickup, as on the Bronco, so if hum was a real problem then a hum-cancelling Strat pickup would fix it. I'm actually more concerned about the intonation on the 2-saddle bridge. Of course I could just try it out and plug it into my Korg Pitchblack. I feel a plan coming on...

I've never bust a bass string, and only once broke an electric guitar string (at a rehearsal). I have had a couple of guitars fail mid-rehearsal - one a bad solder joint came undone; the other the pickup selector switch died. IMO the most likely failure mode is for the electronics to die, so both my active basses have a passive mode. I always take two electric guitars to a gig, but have generally winged (wung?) it with one bass. The requirement for a 'spare' is my justification for the GAS referred to below.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1386537339' post='2301274'] I've just seen that, even in a cheap machine, 1 Litre of "snow fluid" only gives about 7 minutes of snow [/quote] 'Snow fluid'... Isn't that called water?