thisnameistaken

FWIW I paid £500 for a used bass from a guy I know, came with all the accoutrements, needed no more money spending on it whatsoever, plays great, sounds huge. It's a bit battered but I don't honestly care, I've banged it on every door jamb in the house since I got it so it doesn't make any difference. Anyway that's why I would advise picking up a (well-) used bass as a first bass. Then you'll know it was at least playable for someone once.

1cm action at the fifth fret sounds more like a broken bass than a setup choice. I set mine up a little higher than most I think - maybe 3mm to 4mm around the 12th fret depending on the strings and what the bass can cope with. I basically set them up so I get no string buzz or very, very little. My Warwick I set up a bit lower but it's a much better bass than most.

Sorry but that looks like someone spent an afternoon with a jigsaw and a sheet of MDF.

I just listened to the clip in Clarky's post and his timing is a bit rough. Quite often when slappers try to fit in triplets or other adornments they end up late into the next bar and this guy does the same thing. In the middle of the clip he seems to lose the beat completely.

I live quite close to G4M so I went to their showroom a couple of months back to see what DBs they had on the floor. Those cheap ones are awful, you would have to spend as much again to get it up to snuff. Even the £800 one was a dog. It had potential but again, you would have to spend a lot, and you would not add any value to the bass, and it would be a gamble anyway - it might still be a rubbish bass when you're done. My advice would be to look for used instruments that have actually been played. There's often stuff around the £500 mark on eBay.

[quote name='crez5150' post='1263589' date='Jun 10 2011, 08:43 AM']Can I just ask.... Is Slap bass in the upright world frowned upon as much as it is in the Electric world? Genuine question[/quote] Nah. Sometimes you need to do it to get more volume (playing in noisy places unamplified (bar with chatty people, the high street, etc.), or with a loud guitarist), or to provide a backbeat if there's no drummer. It's not often done in a 'look-at-me' way, except by the psychobilly guys.

I'm not used to people agreeing with me. I haven't changed my posting style and all of a sudden I'm not outrageous any more. I've lost it. Same goes for 'Thriller' BTW.

Nice feel.

Massive improvement, well done you.

[quote name='risingson' post='1262190' date='Jun 9 2011, 01:16 AM']the best thing for a bass player to be able to on gigs like the one you describe is to play something that resembles the bass line but is essentially your own, all without overplaying or it sounding wrong. Unless the bass line in a song is integral and has to be played note for note, e.g. Billie Jean off the top of my head[/quote] Bass players who have heard Billie Jean should be able to play Billie Jean. It's one of those 'You obviously play it like this' songs. Anyone who can't play that song at the drop of a hat probably can't play anything without getting a tab off the internet.

Bass guitar and double bass, and harmony vocals. 36, no gut but going thin on top, quality gear like all the other middle-aged people have but nothing ostentatious and nothing with more than 4 strings. 20 years or so playing bass, very competent. Definitely don't want a cover/tribute band, would like anything fresh-sounding, currently on my way out of a reggae/punk band (Copasetics - check their MySpace to hear the stuff I did with them) and I like that stuff but it's the only reggae/punk band I've ever done, I do other stuff. Ideally would like something hip-hop influenced, or souly, or reggae, something you can dance to, not rock music. Oh and my name is Kev. It's not my fault.

I'm not in a covers band but there are hundreds of other peoples' songs I can play and hundreds of others I could busk easily, and I suppose hundreds more I could manage with charts. The more you play the more obvious songs become. I was jamming some Simon & Garfunkel and Beach Boys songs on double bass tonight after a few glasses of wine and they were good fun. I could've gigged those without practicing them. If you have a decent ear you don't need to memorise much.

Say what you like about Jaco but he was a total one-off, he had an original sound, he dropped jaws without resorting to gimmicks, novelty techniques and party pieces, he had a musicality that very few players ever get near. He really carved his own niche and I have massive respect for him for that. I don't dig everything he did but even the stuff I don't like is often compelling because he puts so much of himself into it.

I only really notice other bass players if they're contributing a lot to the band's sound, or they have a good tone, or they over-play. I don't really bother talking about bass guitar to other bass players at gigs. I sometimes do have a natter about effects because that tends to be more of a talking point. Typically that conversation involves them going 'How did you get that sound in that tune that goes...' and I point to the single Boss pedal on my pedal board and go 'It's just that one, on its own'. I'm going to stop bothering with fancy boutique effects...

I would recommend the EHX BMS too, if you've never had one before. But get the older steel-cased 24v model and mod it for true bypass - the newer 9v box sounds pretty weedy by comparison, the older one sounds beastly.

L2000? The body is more Precision shaped, and it can get more Stingray-like sounds. It doesn't look as cool as either a Precision or a Stingray though unfortunately. You could also look at the Sandbergs with a J-position MM pickup, see if that does it for you.

Ah man, don't sell it, you won't get what it's worth. You'll be lucky if it goes for much over £700.

[quote name='ZMech' post='1259435' date='Jun 7 2011, 10:48 AM']and TNiT, noone makes you squeeze it fully. Have been doing so up to just a slightly stronger grip than I need to stop the buzzing when fretting with my little finger. Even with the correct technique I was taught it seems to happen, and whilst practise would indeed be the more ideal trainer, this will at least help in the meantime.[/quote] Well, be careful, poorly tendons are no fun.

I always thought those things would just develop your tendon problems faster. You have to use a lot more force with one of those than you do to stop a note on a bass, surely?

Black pickguard, put a white cover on the neck pickup, replace the knobs with chrome domes.

[quote name='GarethFlatlands' post='1258611' date='Jun 6 2011, 04:58 PM']You need one tasteful filter sound. Bin the rest.[/quote] Hmm. FWIW I had four filters on my board for a while, in the end I got a O.S. and gradually sold all the other filters. I also don't have a fuzz on my board any more, I just use the O.S. I wish it did treadle control though, that's the one feature it's missing. But TBH it needs to go near the start of your chain if you're going to use the oscillator sounds, so maybe two filters is actually the ideal - having a second treadle-operated filter for manual sweeps.

[quote name='Ross' post='1258129' date='Jun 6 2011, 10:14 AM']I love wearing your girlfriends pants. And for the record, don't put on a girls leggings while she's out of the room and pose, she'll get really angry while you laugh like a schoolgirl.[/quote] Also avoid your girlfriend's mini dresses if you're 6'3" and she's 5'4". Doesn't work.

The binding looks like a terrible mess especially at the heel joint end, and why is there what looks like smoke damage on the front of the headstock but not anywhere else, and not on the decals? I would avoid, personally.