FinnDave

My head can never really understand what my hands have just done. I have to record our rehearsals so I can work out the bass parts I played!

I've had good service from PMT Oxford and have been there many times. I have bought quite a few basses there, though!

I have a Fender Japanese 60s P bass but prefer the modern US Standard, so it's up for sale.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475542557' post='3146830'] Dave, are you like 6' 4"? Blue [/quote] No, Blue, just a standard 6ft. The hat probably makes me look taller (and Ms Haan is surprisingly short, always a shock when that powerful voice comes from a small body).

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1475518231' post='3146577'] I know I can tap much better time with my right than my left. Just feels more natural. [/quote] Is the the cold tap or the hot tap?

[quote name='ricksterphil' timestamp='1475510666' post='3146504'] I aim for somewhere between dog rough and just about acceptable [/quote] I'd happily settle for rough and acceptable to dogs (we seem to have far too many songs about dogs in our current set list!)

I have several...US standard is the best I have (never tried anything more rarified/expensive) but the standard (mexican) basses are pretty good and half the price of the US ones.

[quote name='fleabag' timestamp='1475499094' post='3146379'] Pray tell Dave ... [/quote] PM'd

There's a great vintage guitar shop in Oxfordshire. When a guitarist friend and myself went in there (both looking a bit scruffy, I admit, but carrying enough cash to buy what we were looking at) we were treated like a pair of cheeky schoolboys. As we are both in our fifties, we had a bit of a laugh about it on our way to another shop which was prepared to let my friend try the Gibson Les Paul and valve amp he had in mind before buying them (which he did).

[quote name='Marc S' timestamp='1475487898' post='3146218'] But both hands have to work "in time", and as Michael J points out in his post above - the left hand has to work in time with the right - but more fine and precise motor movement is required of the left hand, in anticipation of the music and what the right hand is doing.... I say this as a left hander, who has always played a right handed bass. There is another thread on here somewhere which talks about this very subject. I thought I was a bit unique in being a lefty who plays right handed - but in fact, it's more common than you'd think... Left handers have to adapt more frequently; e.g. I have to use Right handed scissors, as I've never even seen a left handed pair But Right handers do odd things too e.g. when eating, they feed themselves with their left hand when using a fork - but when using a spoon, they feed themselves with their right hand - what's that all about? lol It's all a question of degrees though, isn't it? Most people use their left hands or their right hands for some things. As I've had to adapt to a right hand dominant world, I'm quite adept at some right handed tasks, as I'm sure other lefties are.... EDIT: Sorry to hear you damaged your wrist btw [/quote] Thanks. One positive outcome of my accident was that I had to learn to use my left hand for all sorts of things (no! Not that!) such as eating & drinking, using tools as much as I could with one hand, and even though my right hand is around 50% recovered now, I still find myself almost ambidextrous and pick things up with either hand, depending mostly on which is closer.

Pushy and aggressive.

I don't let people play my bass, nor would I ask for a go on theirs unless they trying to sell it to me.

I think I gigged a Framus Jazz Bass around 1978/9. That'd be my last non-Fender gig.

I'm right handed and play right handed basses. I've always thought that the right hand, being responsible for timing, is the most important. When I screwed up my right wrist in a bike accident ten months ago, this became even more apparent.

Literally cannot remember how long ago it is since I gigged with anything other than a Fender bass.

The first bass I actually owned rather than borrowed came from the Rhythm House. No idea what make it was but I do remember stripping and re-spraying it. I think small shops like that were the backbone of the retail music business in the late 60s and most of the 70s.

I have three Ashdown amps and none of them are in the least bit wooly.

No musicians in my family, nearest we ever got to that was my dad's stereo, on which he played dreadful crap now and then. When I bought my first guitar from Woolworths, it was seen as a fad, when I came home with a borrowed bass I don't think they noticed the difference. Both long gone now, no one in my family ever saw me play. My daughters come to gigs when they are in the area, though.

I'm trying to convince myself that I really only need two basses, and these are the two. Can't bring myself to part with my white US Precision, though, just sounds and feels so good.

[quote name='Trueno' timestamp='1475258532' post='3144563'] I hate black Fenders... unless they have a black scratchplate, which transforms them into things of beauty. Maple board is the icing on the cake. Lovely pair of basses. [/quote] Aww..cheers! The Jazz was totally transformed when I switched the white scratchplate for a black one.

Quite an eye opener, this thread, I didn't know you could get books about playing bass. I've never seen one (probably because I never looked for one!)

[quote name='landwomble' timestamp='1475229454' post='3144157'] Possibly this proves that there's no such thing as tonewood and that most hardware doesn't make too much of a difference to the sound...? [/quote] I'd agree with that, I have four Precisions (US standard, Mex standard, CiJ 60s, Squier VM) and to my mind the only differences in sound are due to the pick ups. All have that classic P bass sound though.

Learnt by doing, Never had a lesson and doing alright.