thisnameistaken

Well I still have a gig on bass guitar playing ska/punk originals (but we don't sound how you might imagine - we're often more reggae or hip-hop than we are ska or "punk" [that word's fairly meaningless these days isn't it]) so I do still play BG and I enjoy it, I just don't bother at home. Funnily enough the gig I'm rehearsing for on DB is what the above guitarist and drummer originally hired me for over a year ago on bass guitar - doing a lot of old '60s Jamaican pop tunes mixed with the occasional bits of British '70s crossover stuff. So I already know most of the Maytals tunes, Desmond Dekker, Alton Ellis etc. we just never gigged them because we got writing our own stuff for the electric band instead and got in brass players and so on. But now the plan is to go out and busk those old tunes and many of them need 3-piece vocals because they're all influenced by American soul vocal bands. As for playing DB and singing - sometimes one of them is out of tune. I can do it on bass guitar and did a band in my teens where I played fretless and sang harmony comfortably enough, but doing it on DB is a struggle at the moment, maybe explained a bit by my "String advice" thread - I can't hear my pitch very well at the moment, things are a bit thumpy. Still loving it though, wish I'd got into DB properly decades ago. And I think if I didn't sing while playing bass I'd probably over-play a lot of the time. I don't have a great voice (my pitch is good, my voice not-so-much) but at least it keeps me out of trouble.

[quote name='Greydad' post='860509' date='Jun 7 2010, 11:13 PM']My main problem is that recently I've rarely practiced as such and haven't had time to get back to Greg for another lesson, I'm just playing live all the time (every night this week) so it's all at breakneck speed LOL.[/quote] Haha you star! That is awesome. [quote name='Greydad' post='860509' date='Jun 7 2010, 11:13 PM']Great fun this double bass stuff, though! I love it[/quote] Same here I pretty much never pick up a BG at home any more. I still haven't gigged it though. I need to sort out my amplified sound before I gig indoors, and I need to make sure my intonation is effortless when I play outdoors because I'm singing harmony at the same time as playing reggae parts. I think next week we'll start busking, got a rehearsal tomorrow to finalise the set we'll be working from.

I've just spent the evening with a nice bottle of Rioja, jamming over [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyXmp-FiPJo"]Lisa Hannigan[/url]'s album on Spotify, some Duran Duran, Beach Boys (Good Vibrations has some forays into thumb position for the verses and a thump-a-long chorus that exercises intonation quite nicely on the E, A and D through several positions), some of OK Computer, bow practise with some ELO (call me every name under the sun I don't care I love ELO I also got the bow out for some of the OK Computer stuff), and finished off with a bunch of Jamaican-ish tunes (Take It Easy - Hopeton Lewis, Can't You See - Ken Boothe, Once Upon A Time - Delroy Wilson, Stupid Marriage - The Specials, Man At C&A - The Specials, Bed's Too Big Without You - The Police, It's Hard To Confess - The Gaylads, Drop The Ratchet - Stranger Cole & The Conquerors). I can't get enough of DB now. I only pick up a bass guitar when I'm required to really. I still enjoy playing BG in the band but if I wasn't doing a band I probably wouldn't pick it up at all.

[quote name='Hector' post='860144' date='Jun 7 2010, 06:00 PM']This is reportedly what happens after about a year with the pirazzis.[/quote] Oh don't say that man I really like them apart from the bass string super-thumpiness. Are there any other hybrid strings that sound this loud and stay healthy a bit longer?

Well mine don't have a lot of sustain on the E it is very thumpy, so maybe they do need replacing? I am mostly playing pizz, but currently learning to use a bow and enjoying it so I think I do want to keep using hybrid strings like these. To be honest I'd quite like to have the bass given the once-over by a boffin - I'm noticing a few little jobs it could benefit from - it's just bad timing since the missus quit her job last month.

[quote name='Wud' post='859144' date='Jun 6 2010, 06:41 PM']Just thought I should point out that the MIM Fender 70's necks are not bound... it is paint.[/quote] Wow really? Weird.

[quote name='endorka' post='859379' date='Jun 6 2010, 10:02 PM']It can be done, but it is difficult to explain in words - but Ray Brown can do so with moving pictures; [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QazNAZjhM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QazNAZjhM[/url][/quote] Oh these look great, thanks! [quote name='endorka' post='859379' date='Jun 6 2010, 10:02 PM']I find that as the tempos get very fast, the hand gets less side on and more perpendicular to the strings, i.e. it gets more like playing a bass guitar. At slow/medium tempos I use both fingers combined into one megafinger to get a real good tone.[/quote] OK well that's along the lines of what I'm doing so I suppose I wasn't too far wrong. I was just trying to stick with the sides of my fingers today while picking some faster stuff and found I was hurting the joints of my index finger I think trying to curl it out of the way when it was my middle finger's turn. I'll watch all the full series of those Ray Brown clips tomorrow. I love his sound.

I'm told I'm supposed to pluck with the side of my finger rather than the tip, but then how do I pluck faster things with alternate fingers if I'm plucking with the side of my finger? My index finger is going to be on its way back past my middle finger when my middle finger wants to pluck and it will get in the bloody way. Humans can't do this unless we have index fingers which retract out of the way when the other finger wants to pluck, I have to turn my hand around and pluck it more like a bass guitar - how else can I do it?!? Can anyone explain how this is supposed to work?

[quote name='OldGit' post='859010' date='Jun 6 2010, 04:25 PM']+1 Shame the P pup seems to be only available in a poo brown hoodie ...[/quote] There are some more [url="http://bassic.spreadshirt.de/en/hoody-pickup-A7534067/customize/color/120/customize/color"]hoodie colours[/url]. Shame there's no different colours on the [url="http://bassic.spreadshirt.de/en/preci-pickup-I5251106"]T-shirts[/url] though. Spreadshirt is a cool site, I've ordered a bunch of stuff from them in the past. Also if you go to their main site you can customise the crap out of stuff, but it seems this store's designs aren't available there.

I've got a set of Evah Pirazzi (orch) on my beater L-plate ply bass at the moment, no idea how old they are (I've had the bass 5 months and they were on it when I got it) but the E and A sound a bit indistinct intonation-wise and extremely thumpy and bassy when plucked, bowed they're a bit livelier but still very deep compared to the G. I like a deep tone and I like the volume, but I do sometimes wish it wasn't quite so boomy. It can make it difficult to hear whether I'm playing in tune and I sometimes find myself craning over the front of the bass for a listen, especially when accompanying other instruments/voices. I wondered if anyone else using these strings could tell me whether it might be an idea to replace them? Would new ones be clearer but still deep and loud? And would you say these the most appropriate strings for this kind of old-school sound with plenty of volume?

You lot are always getting angry at the telly. Just don't watch the telly!

[quote name='Clarky' post='858449' date='Jun 5 2010, 08:37 PM']I still find the whole tug bar concept strange as, if you hit the strings with the meat of your thumb that way, they are very loose and it makes anything other than 4-4 quite difficult. Its not as if it even replicates the way you play a double bass[/quote] It's a lot easier to use a thumb rest down there than to anchor a finger or two under the front pickup, trust me... I think it's more about getting that sound than it is replicating double bass technique.

[quote name='drewk_ie' post='856317' date='Jun 3 2010, 05:27 PM']Ah yes, the 'ol bass breaking string... I do remember back in the early ninties I used to break an E or A string at every gig... and my figures used to blister and bleed... God that was an expensive and sore time !! But I put that down having in adequate amplification and trying to keep up with the volume of the guitarists. These days though only once in a very very blue moon! [/quote] Same here.

[quote name='Doddy' post='856777' date='Jun 4 2010, 01:46 AM']Right then...my turn 1- I've have lessons with Janek Gwizdala 2- Janek plays with Mike Stern 3-Mike Stern played with Miles Davis 4-Miles Davis played on Charles Mingus' early dates.[/quote] Substitute #1 with "I've heard of Janek Gwizdala on this forum". Actually substitute all of them with "I've heard some of Charles Mingus' records".

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='856765' date='Jun 4 2010, 01:15 AM']Bakithi Kumalo ... Flea[/quote] Actually I think Kumalo is a bigger influence on me than I realise. I've only really heard him on that one massively hit record, but when he breaks out of the groove and does those funky African fills, that stuck with me and I still attempt those! Flea on BSSM - again it only takes on definitive album where a player is at his peak - well I've never approached the sort of singularity with the instrument that he had on that album. I think this stuff is more important to me than "career skilful bassists". People who turned up on one definitive record and just ****ing rocked it beyond belief and in doing so cemented their place in history, those are the people I've always looked up to. Stuart Zender is still a big influence on me even though I can't abide JK.

[quote name='funkypenguin' post='856733' date='Jun 4 2010, 12:25 AM']These guys all influence me for different reasons. In no particular order..... John Myung John Patitucci Mark King Hadrien Feraud Matthew Garrison Anthony Jackson[/quote] Y'know it's interesting to note that some of us have completely opposite influences. I've heard of all of them - but many of them only in this forum it has to be said - but as far as I'm aware I've only actually heard Mark King play a bass. I understand Anthony Jackson has played on some popular records but I don't know which ones. The rest of them I'm fairly certain I've never heard at all.

[quote name='lojo' post='856581' date='Jun 3 2010, 09:34 PM']Fender must have had something like this in mind when they developed the jazz neck, I've gigged jazzes but not that much, perhaps if I did it for sometime I may find myself growing quicker than on my fat necks? Oh no now I have to buy another Jazz![/quote] Haha. Stick to what you know is my advice. Although TBH the best neck I've ever played - for my hands - is the one I've got in my lap now, a '91 Warwick Thumb. It tapers towards the nut like a Jazz but it feels much rounder and chunkier at the back. I still get on with Jazz necks but when I pick this up I'm immediately reminded of why I bought it. [quote name='Johnston' post='856636' date='Jun 3 2010, 10:28 PM']As I have said before I have problems and shouldn't be playing, this means I am really sensitive to necks. I love my T-bird but its too thin depth wise. On Saturday I went out window shopping. A MIM P felt quite good I could play it with no major problems, the squier jazz beside it felt nicer up around the 5th-7th frets but as soon as I tried playing down near the nut it felt like someone was sticking a knife through my wrist. I also tried a 50's road worn P I liked it but my hand started getting tight within a few minutes. Then the shop assistant suggested an Ibanez I don't know why because I said I was looking something chunkier, it was like a match stick my hands wouldn't contort into the shapes needed to fret the bugger !!!!![/quote] My Thumb bass would probably interest you, although to be fair on the strap the lowest positions can feel a long way away. Probably not good for you unless you extended the front strap point a couple of inches.

[quote name='lojo' post='856537' date='Jun 3 2010, 08:42 PM']Is it just me or does a neck make no real difference to anyone else? If I can play a line, I can play it on a fat or slim neck, If something is beyond what is physically possible for me then no amount of neck tech is going to help If you are cutting songs so fine that a 1/4 on the neck will be the difference between a stunning line and falling on ya face at a gig, then your living on the edge, fair play![/quote] I'm certainly not pushing the physical limits of what's humanly possible on a bass, but I still need to have a comfortable neck to play. If you're playing for any decent length of time, or in less than ideal circumstances (maybe a little niggling hand/wrist injury or you're sick or whatever) it's good to have a bass that isn't going to make things worse. I don't think I could play Precisions or Stingrays on a regular basis, it doesn't feel like I grip them right, I think I'd hurt myself eventually. I also get hand cramps playing Ibanez necks, either they're too thin or too flat or something, they feel very weird to me.

They wouldn't have much of an opportunity to say anything, because our performance would involve executing them, the audience, the production crew and hopefully some viewers at home.

[quote name='Stingray5' post='856291' date='Jun 3 2010, 05:06 PM']Please sir, could I have both? Flame front, Birdseye back,[/quote] Translucent turquoise, gold hardware, LED fret markers, wooden knobs and pickup covers, extra strap button for hanging a bag to be sick into...

[quote name='paul h' post='855841' date='Jun 3 2010, 11:01 AM']One half is played au naturel and the other wearing some woolly gloves from Next. See if you can tell which is which.[/quote] Class! Anyway we seem to be skirting around the important issue that this Etienne Mmmbop is an African/French geezer who can probably wear whatever he likes and still be cool. I'm from Wakefield - if I did it, I would look like a twat.

Yeah I would quite like to be running 2 of them, but then I'd struggle to get all my other gear in my car so really I'm better off with a 4ohm cab.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='855710' date='Jun 3 2010, 09:26 AM']Are you having lessons at the moment? If not, I can always pop up to York and help you out for an hour - I'm dropping into York for some consultancy work quite a bit at the moment.[/quote] No, the guy I was hoping would give me some lessons seems to be too busy. And to be honest so am I at the moment. I do need lessons though and I may send you a PM next month some time though if things slow down a bit. Cheers.

Figured maple looks a bit 'lottery winner' to me. I'll have mine plain, ta.