ambient

It’s not something that they seem to sell. Quite odd really. I’ve looked several times.

Anthony Jackson is a genius. I’m sure I read recently that he was ill. I saw Hernandez playing with Matt Garrison in London a few years ago.

You're right about non-musicians not being bothered what instrument is doing what. It’s particularly strange the way musicians are obsessed with what other musicians are doing, especially if it’s not in the traditional way. I think it depends on how prominent a particular instrument is. I was reading recently how in experiments non-musicians and singers were asked to sing a song. They were incredibly accurate with regard to both the tempo, and the key and pitch of the notes. Even though they couldn’t actually sing the pitches, they knew mentally where the pitch was. They were remarkably accurate with the tempo. I think most people who know Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean for instance, would be able to sing; however badly, the opening riff. The same probably with Lou Reed’s walk on the wild side. A non-musician probably wouldn’t know what’s going on in the bass line, but they’d probably have a good go at singing the ascending/descending tenth figure. It’s possibly the same with My Girl by the Temptations, Walking on the moon by the Police maybe too?

This is something that dawned on me midway through my second year at uni, studying bass of all things. It suddenly occurred to me following a tutorial with my composition tutor, that what I was being asked to do, ie all the technical stuff, the slapping, grooving etc, really hadn’t much attraction for me. It was something she had noticed, I think I’d tried to ignore it. I’m actually just writing a piece for my blog site about it. Funk and groove mean nothing to me, I’m really not interested in them. I see bass as an instrument, a very beautiful instrument, to be played however you want to play it. If that means ignoring tradition, then so be it.

Another benefit with the Dunlop, you can use a normal strap with them. Useful if you forget to take your strap with you and need to borrow one.

I’ve never liked fitting the body part, I worry about the screw splitting the wood. It’s probably very unlikely, but I’m rubbish at anything involving tools, so prefer to get it done for me.

Yep. I stopped using them and switched to the Dunlop, they’re a lot better. Someone said you should check them each time, but you really shouldn’t have to, at least in my opinion.

I’ve always preferred the Dunlop. I had the screw on thing fall off a Schaller strap lock once. It had been on really tight to begin with, but had loosened over time.

Weird solo stuff.

Yep!

Bass direct near Warwick. They have an excellent selection, they’re really helpful, and their instruments are usually well set-up, unlike a great many non-specialist shops.

It’s not, it really was 😂. I did a gig with it in Paris and got lost trying to find the venue, after trudging over the same bridge for the fourth time in twenty minutes, I came so close to taking it off my back, and throwing it in to the river 😆.

There’s a nice looking 5 string in the sales section at the moment.

One of my tutors at uni has an Overwater signature model that’s based on a jazz bass. The first one they built for him caused him to have back problems, he let me hold it the once, it was ridiculously heavy, though my 7 string was something like 15kg.

They’re incredible instruments. I had a 7 string at one point 😁. They mostly seem to come in 35” or 36” scale though, I’ve gotten used to the 33” scale of my W&T.

I’d still go. I don’t know who any of the bands are, still might be a good weekend though, and the scenery around there is spectacular, it’s worth going just for that.

There’s already a thread going.

I think white basses in general are quieter than other colours. Maybe it’s a tone thing? You’re hearing one as being louder?

I’ve got the TC Unitune. It’s very accurate and reads a low B extremely well. My only gripe with it, which is quite minor really, it doesn’t stay switched on for very long, if you’re tuning from scratch, say after putting new strings on, you’ll need to switch it on a couple of times before you’ve finished.

I think there are adverts, at least there’s a little box that says advert. I use Adblock so don’t see the content.

As a buyer? I bought stuff online and had money refunded by my bank. The first time I’d paid through PayPal as a guest too.

Did it briefly experiment with one? I advertised a bass on there last year. Someone contacted me who turned out to be a total pain in the donkey, he was also extremely rude. He was on here briefly too, a friend of mine had an experience with him. When I looked on Gumtree he had feedback for being abusive and a time waster.