thisnameistaken

I'd quit tbh.

All bass solos sound like that to me.

I like the way his hand is still counting 2 and 4 when he's playing 1 and 3, he's feeling it even when he's just playing on his own. I'd never heard of him until I bought my first DB but he has influenced my playing. I don't think I understood economy until I went back to square one with DB, but since I started appreciating that approach I think my musicality has improved a ton. I don't play a lot of notes any more and it gives me more time to think about which ones I am playing and where and how. Guys like him are a gold mine.

[quote name='danhkr' timestamp='1352561925' post='1864657'] I guess when people think McCartney they think great singer, great songwriter. Very few realise he was a virtuoso on bass as well. [/quote] I don't know if 'virtuoso' is the right word. Certainly he's very clever and worked hard to add hooks with the bass, which is what we should all aspire to do. I suppose it comes down to him being so musical, generally, that he got a lot out of the bass.

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1352556132' post='1864570'] [url="http://www.mooeraudio.com/en/ProductInfo.asp?id=60"]http://www.mooeraudi...tInfo.asp?id=60[/url] ^ should do the trick! [/quote] One of those after a Boss OC-2 would give some very interesting sounds. Not authentic SID chip stuff by any means but a similar vibe. A bit of reverb afterwards helps too.

Yeah I resisted the temptation to put any markers on the board. I know from gigging fretless bass, even if you've got an unlined board you can get used to looking at the side dots for reference and then you never quite feel fully confident when you're on a stage in blackout... :/

There is something to be said for having some cut/boost available on the bass and treble (at least) on your guitar though. I do like passive electronics and I've got a Jazz where I experimented a bit with the pots and the tone cap and came up with a combination that gave me an ideal range of sounds without much more tweaking being required, but I did have to change everything in the control cavity to get that happening. Yes you could argue I could've done it on the amp but I'd rather not have to go back to the amp every time I want to change the EQ.

If it wasn't for the almost constant evangelism of P-bass players, I would never have known what I'm missing. I know now though, so any time you want to stop is OK.

[quote name='BassYerbouti' timestamp='1352214430' post='1860213'] I've had an aching right shoulder for best part of this year which I am fairly sure is down to the hefty precision I am wielding. Now my fingers are starting to ache too and it's starting to reduce my fluidity and making me play safe instead of trying to introduce some flair into my playing.[/quote] Refer yourself for physiotherapy. I had a gradually worsening problem in my right arm earlier this year, went to see a physio and he diagnosed a shoulder problem - I've been busy exercising to fix it for nearly three months now and it's getting better but taking a while. Glad I decided to go see a professional though, rather than let it get worse.

[quote name='Ruck' timestamp='1352087345' post='1858573'] [url="http://www.godlyke.com/totally-wycked-audio-effects-pedals/great-divide"]http://www.godlyke.c...ls/great-divide[/url] this also looks interesting however I tend to stay away from effects that do the whole 100 sounds in one box one stomp thing. [/quote] TWA do have some interesting products but they always seem expensive to me.

I can imagine in the right hands that would sound amazing. Give one to Bill Laswell and see what he does with it.

Yes of course you can. There are plenty of examples on Youtube.

[quote name='thunderbird13' timestamp='1351783007' post='1855346'] I wasnt really thinking of using a bow but I do know that there is an argument that it gives a purer note - a silly question maybe but would a violin bow work OK on a DB . I have an old violin lying around somewhere[/quote] It's not so much 'purity' of the note but the sustain and even tuning - often a note will sound slightly sharp when you pluck it and then flatten, so you get a more accurate pitch when using the bow. Also you get more time to hear the pitch thanks to the sustain - many basses and many types of strings lack sustain when plucked. I've got a spare French bow you can have if you like, it's cheap but it works. You'd still need to get a cake of rosin (I don't have a spare one of those). [quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1351787110' post='1855414']Play a C on the A string in half position with your left hand little/third finger. Without looking at the neck and focussing your mind on where the finger is positioned, shift position and play [i]the same[/i] C using the first finger of your left hand. Your first (fretting) finger is now occupying exactly the same space previously occupied by your little finger. Now reverse the process.[/quote] When I had a couple of lessons last year this was one exercise which was recommended to me. I mostly went for the lessons because I felt really under-confident about intonation when changing positions, and exercises like this really do help. Especially if you pick notes that you can compare with an open string.

My advise would be to make sure the bass is at a comfortable height (most recommend the nut around your eyebrow level, this certainly works for me), and make sure you're not fighting to keep the thing balanced - any struggling to hold the thing comfortably will introduce more variables into your hand positions and make intonation more of a gamble. How long have you been playing? It takes a while to get intonation right most of the time, from what I've seen I don't think anyone ever gets it right all the time. If you pick up the bass for ten or fifteen minutes a day you will notice a steady improvement, but you must practise things you can't do, not things that already sound good. Try practising scales on one string, I guess the G would be the best place to start. If you play the whole scale on one string then you are forced to change position every two (or three if you pivot) notes, at least until you get your thumb over. This gives you lots of opportunity to practise changing position, and so you'll quickly learn to do it more accurately. Like TheRev said, try to use the point where the neck heel as a reference point for your hand so you only have to move through a couple of positions before you hit a familiar marker with your thumb. Honestly though I see bassists who've been playing ten years or more and gig regularly and still play out of tune sometimes. Maybe they can't hear themselves properly or maybe they get fatigued or maybe they're just being a bit lazy on some gigs I don't know, but I've heard a lot of out of tune playing from even very good bassists.

I would like to see all of these videos with the bass guitar channel muted. The guy in the first post would be particularly hilarious.

[quote name='Jigster' timestamp='1351692404' post='1854248']I guess I'm most curious as to how much control you have over these various effects in a sound mixed situation - are they monitored into a front of house mix and therefore at a sound man/woman's discretion/mercy?[/quote] My signal goes bass->fx->amp->DI (pre-EQ) so the sound man can EQ my signal however he sees fit but the effects mix is controlled by my right foot.

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1351618436' post='1853340'] if you're on a tight budget and you want to get playing like, now, and you don't know anyone with enough knowledge to help you buy a good second hand bass, then you could do a lot worse than buying one of the cheap Gear4Music or Thomann basses and a set of Superior Bassworks strings. [/quote] One thing I would say is that G4M basses are practically unplayable out of the box, they desperately need a setup and of course that's going to add more to the cost, whereas I've heard (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that Thomann do a reasonable setup job on every bass they ship. Also worth a look: Gedo Musik currently have a few laminates on special offer for EUR500, so approx. £400. I bought a bass from them earlier this year and I'm still using it with the factory setup, haven't felt the need to get it fettled they did such a good job. I would happily recommend them to a beginner.

You don't really need that nice-sounding a bass to play rockabilly style slap, especially not if you're going to be playing with drums and electric guitar - most likely once you're amplified to a level where you can mix it with those instruments you won't hear much of the character of your bass anyway. So yes, the cheaper Thomann ply basses would probably do the job just fine. You will need to replace the strings though - expect to spend about £80 if you want more traditional-sounding hybrid strings (think '50s rock n' roll - you'd probably want Innovation Silver Slap strings) or £130-ish if you want more of a psychobilly steel sound (you'd probably want Spirocore solo tuning so you can tune them down to E-A-D-G for lower tension). Also factor in the cost of a pickup. There are a lot of options ranging from piezo bridge wing pickups (plus perhaps a fingerboard percussive pickup and a 2-channel mixer to blend the two signals), maybe look at the K&K range, or maybe a magnetic pickup like the Schaller or Kent Armstrong if you're using steel strings (but bear in mind a mag pup won't work on hybrid strings like the Innovations).

And Entwistle most of the time sounds like he's bored stiff and desperately trying to entertain himself.

I don't really play bass guitar at home any more but I do pick up the double bass pretty much every day. There are days when I'm not home for long enough to play it but otherwise it always gets picked up even if it's just for 15 minutes while I'm cooking dinner or something. Can't resist it.

I suppose the essentials would be an analogue octaver, a ring modulator and a low-pass filter. I'd also like a gated fuzz, phaser, pitch shifter and a 2-channel mixer if we're allowed more.

Hendrix was just something else, a real pioneer. Larry Graham is a hell of a player and has a voice like God, but you can't compare him to Hendrix.