thisnameistaken

[quote name='Faithless' post='877317' date='Jun 25 2010, 12:42 PM']Get hold of Ed Friedland's - 'Creating Walking Basslines". Or PM me I doubt, if you will learn good walking just by rushing through standards - there's a bit of basics to learn, and it will become a lot easier 'to walk' in the future..[/quote] That's good advice but I've been playing bass for a long time and I have a good idea of the kind of skills I am missing. What I need - most of all - is plenty of practice material with changes that are more challenging than the modern pop music I usually get to play. So I can learn my way around and develop more freedom on the instrument. It's not just about wanting to "play jazz", I'm trying to break out of some bad habits and broaden my knowledge too. [quote name='jakesbass' post='877353' date='Jun 25 2010, 01:22 PM']To add another little contrary note to the advice thus far. Music is an aural medium so [b]listen first[/b]. Let the books consolidate what is flowing through your ears.[/quote] That's all well and good but a lot of the harmony in jazz is really alien to me, my ears can't tell what it is half the time. I'm alright with cycling fourths and fifths and simple stuff like that because you get that in pop music but I struggle with anything beyond that. I've also noticed I'm especially bad at recognising chords that don't have the root note in the bass (having struggled to work out some Beach Boys tunes from recordings recently). This is one of the skills I'm trying to improve.

Oh that's a shame. Tasteful player with a lovely thumpy sound.

Yeah a few people have used them on bass before. Just give it a go, see what you get, you won't damage anything. There's an effects sub-forum, by the way.

[quote name='fatback' post='876565' date='Jun 24 2010, 04:28 PM']Is there anything you can do with a glossy painted neck to reduce friction and speed things up a bit?[/quote]

Is he wearing a girls tank top and lilac satin panties? [quote name='Colledge' post='876528' date='Jun 24 2010, 03:52 PM'] okay, he doesnt qualify as a bassist. horrible.[/quote]

[quote name='Wil' post='875524' date='Jun 23 2010, 03:59 PM']I'm weedy. Hence, I wont even consider heavy stuff these days. I even find carting my Schroeder about a pain in the arse, so I'd hate to think how much I'd resent a big Trace cab.[/quote] I'm surprised at how many people are actively pursuing that awful, blubby, bloated Small Rock Venue Bass Sound(tm). I always thought it was the sound guy's fault that all bass players in small bands sounded like sh*t, I didn't realise it was an aspiration.

Am I going to find these tough going? Reading dots is a struggle for me. I know I should be learning to read anyway but when I tried that years ago I never had a single occasion where anyone required me to read anything, so the only time I was using that skill was when I was at home learning it. Seemed a waste of time, ultimately. But I suppose the main reason I'm learning double bass is so I can continue to get interesting gigs in my 40s when I'm too old for the gigs I'm doing now. So learning to read might be handy by then. Hmm.

I hadn't, but will look. Didn't know where to look really.

I'm currently practicing some walking stuff, I wondered if anyone knows of some recordings of standards that are in the original key so I can look them up on Spotify and follow along with them using the Real Book charts. Bloody horn soloists can't leave the key alone it seems and I'm struggling to find recordings in the right key and would rather not spend half my time transposing when I could be playing. Thanks!

Oh and also: Don't gliss up/down to notes - this can quickly become a crutch to help you intonate. Similarly don't wang tonnes of vibrato at higher notes, again you will end up doing this to cover up poor intonation. By all means do these things when you're first gigging it and crapping yourself, but don't do it when practicing at home or you'll just be sidestepping important stuff you should be learning.

Put the tuner away and use your ears. Practice every day. Occasionally record yourself and listen back - see if it's as in-tune as you thought it was when you were playing it.

OMG Fragile Canada, they're one of my favourite bands too!

That's the best price I've seen. Bloody hell though...

HOW MUCH? There must be some special place you all go to buy strings where you wink at someone or touch their special place or whatever and you get the strings a bit cheaper. £170 for a set of evah pirazzis? I wasn't born yesterday!

[quote name='steve-soar' post='871077' date='Jun 18 2010, 07:44 PM']delay pedal for some outer space stuff[/quote] Boss RE-20

I think they're especially useful for beginners, so you can experiment a bit and see what sort of action you like and how it affects the sound. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about adjustable bridges but I suppose the argument would be that the bridge doesn't conduct the string vibration to the body as well.

[quote name='Platypus' post='871512' date='Jun 19 2010, 09:15 AM']Working ok for me: [url="http://www.bassmerchant.com/index.php"]http://www.bassmerchant.com/index.php[/url][/quote] I'm getting occasional DNS errors through Virgin. Their homepage just popped up now but on the last two requests I got a DNS error. Odd.

In that case I highly recommend you go ahead with shopping for genuine vintage Fenders and put that Japanese reissue back on the market ASAP.

You mean like [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=88086"]this beauty[/url] that we were all fawning over last month?

[quote name='Bassnut62' post='871138' date='Jun 18 2010, 09:22 PM']i agree great electronics on the L2000; but the Asat Bass is very interesting looking - check my avatar for one. it has same pups and electrics as L2000. Very versatile and good sounding all-round Fender sounds with plenty of heat in those ups[/quote] Yeah I've seen the ASATs before but I've never liked the look of them. Even without the humungous dugong-like upper bout that is the current fashion I think single-cutaway basses don't look right.

[quote name='deathpanda' post='871025' date='Jun 18 2010, 06:33 PM'] this won't be new to anyone, but listen to that production and tone... especially at 1:47, probably one of the best rock recordings ever.[/quote] I've never heard it before. I don't like prog rock, I don't think I would recognise a single Rush song and I couldn't listen to that for longer than about 30 seconds (I skipped ahead and heard his voice and then I turned it off) so it will still sound new the next time someone plays it to me! I really like the bass sound on [url="http://vimeo.com/201778"]this[/url]. It's compressed to destruction but strangely... good.

[quote name='fatback' post='870776' date='Jun 18 2010, 01:41 PM']Sounds like if I got a better instrument in time, i could pimp the old one with a rockabilly setup and feel happy throwing it around.[/quote] Exactly. Now go buy one, they are amazingly rewarding to play.

Mine's all ply. Like I said I'm no expert, I've never owned a carved bass, I don't know whether they genuinely have to be babied or if I've just heard exaggerated stories. To be honest I would like to try a quality fully carved bass now that I can almost play though, just to see what I'm missing tone-wise.

He comes across as a very humble bloke. Good interview.

I'm often attracted by the look and feel of old Fenders. It's nice isn't it? A bit of history and maturity, it's romantic. But it's important to remember that the words "old" and "classic" have very different meanings. And I don't think the age of an instrument should dictate its price unless it's a genuine museum piece and not a battered old pub band relic like 99.9% of them are. What I like about the reissues is that there's a few of them about so you have a better chance of finding a nice one, and they're available for sensible money rather than sentimental money.