TKenrick

Apologies if this has been covered many times before, but does anyone have any suggestions for non-coated strings for a 5-string, 36" scale bass? I currently have a set of D'Addario EXLs on, nothing particularly wrong with them but I can't help feeling like I could do better... Not a fan of elixirs, saw some suggestions of overwater strings in other threads, are there any others that I'm missing?

Being an Anthony Jackson fanboy, I'd recommend checking out all the albums he did with Chaka Khan (Chaka, What 'Cha Gonna Do For Me, Naughty). Naughty in particular has some incredible lines on most of the tracks, which is probably due to the fact that Jackson spent a number of months composing his bass lines after the other parts had already been tracked. Regarding the Ain't Nobody part, it took me many hours of trying to get those octaves consistent in terms of volume, attack and note length before the part sounded remotely correct in a band context. It's a deceptively easy sounding tune, but trying to recreate parts produced by machines takes a lot of work - especially for drummers!

[quote]Ultimately music is music and if people listened more with their ears and less with their eyes, the instrument would probably be more widely received.[/quote] For me this sums it all up perfectly. I don't think the quantity of strings is an issue - the vast majority of guitarists have 6 strings, and therefore all have the same opportunity to create art or self-indulgent w*nkery as they see fit. For me the issue is distinguishing the concept of 'solo bass' from that of the 'bass solo'. I tend to regard 'solo bass' as a format through which bass players can create their own music without the need for other band members, which shifts their role into that of [i]musician[/i] rather than 'just' bass player. I don't believe that solo bass playing has to necessarily be equated with a vast quantity of notes-per-second, although this is entirely dependent on the player. When I hear Michael Manring, I hear music, not chops: Conversely, when I hear Wooten or Adam Nitti, I hear technique, not music. My personal preference, regardless of the instrument, is to be intrigued by melody and harmony, not be intimidated by technique.

I'm using a comfort strapp, which is the best I've found so far. The Bacchus weighs 5kg (11lbs), am I just being pathetic or is this fairly weighty? Both of my basses hang in a similar way, I just seem to notice the weight of the Bacchus far more than my Fender, which weighs about 4kg and I can play for hours without noticing and discomfort.

A while ago I traded my stingray with a fellow BCer for a [url="http://www.gakki.com/catalog30/bacchus_ext36.jpg"]Bacchus Strong 5-ext36[/url], which is great except for the fact that it weighs a ton, especially compared to my jazz bass. I don't want to get rid of the bass but on long gigs it's killing my shoulder, so I was thinking about ways to make it lighter. The body of the bass is pretty thick, so I was wondering if it would be possible to remove some of the weight by sanding down the back of the bass to make the body a few mm thinner? Obviously this will affect the tone of the bass as there'll be less wood, but would it make a massive difference to the sound? This is potentially a really stupid idea, so I thought I'd try and get some opinions before I ring up luthiers and get laughed at.

Many thanks for posting this Bilbo, it'll be great for my ledger line reading!

I've got a radial bassbone, not cheap but does the job rather well, plus has a good DI. I bought mine from Thomann and it came with a euro plug, but it all seems to work fine with a travel adapter from boots!

I've had a bunch of problems from playing bass, I found the Dr. Kertz book (mentioned earlier) really useful. I also found doctors absolutely useless, but have you tried [url="http://www.bapam.org.uk"]BAPAM[/url]? I went to one of their physios to treat my shoulder tendonitis and for once I was treated by someone who actually understood the problem and how to treat it while still allowing me to keep playing. If you're still against seeking any kind of treatment then I'd give the same advice as everyone else here: switch to lighter gauge strings, lower your action, consider looking for a short scale bass, and try to keep as relaxed as possible when playing. Also don't play for too long in one go, I practice in 15 minute slots with a 5 minute break between which helps to keep any problems at bay. Good luck!

Got Fender 8250s on my jazz, for me they're the best all-round strings that I've played- good tension, not too bright and fairly long lasting.

Bought an Aguilar AG500 head from chris a couple of days ago, really great guy to deal with, makes a good cup of tea as well! Highly recommended.

I spent 3 years at ACM and got a lot out of it, the facilities are good and the tutors in the bass department know their stuff. Like WalMan said, there are likely to be far less bass players than guitarists on most courses so plenty of gigs should come your way. As for BIMM and ICMP I can't really comment as I haven't experienced them.

I did a transcription of Runaway a while back, i'll dig it out and post it soon.

Great link Bilbo, saves me hours of transcribing in search of decent vocabulary and provides plenty of treble clef reading practice! And it's nice to see a thread here that isn't remotely related to tapping or double thumbing...

My two cents: - Rickenbackers of any description - Gripmasters - Fretboard LEDs - Elixirs - The Laney Nexus Head. Awful, just awful. How can an amp with so many knobs produce so few useable tones?? - Fender USA build quality

Try 'The Latin Bass Book' by Oscar Stagnaro, that should keep you entertained for a while.... I've recently started Horacio Hernadez - 'Conversations in Clave', not a bass book but it definitely helps to understand how the different rhythmic elements of Latin music relate to each other. As for improvising/soloing, try 'Concepts for Bass Soloing' (Marc Johnson and Chuck Sher) or Hal Crook's 'How to Improvise' or 'Ready, Aim, Improvise'. Actually, anything by Hal Crook is worth getting hold of - he's pretty much the daddy when it comes to instructional material.

I saw him last week in London playing with Metheny and Gary Burton, I was really impressed by his tone, he's clearly still one of the top guys out there but his playing isn't really to my taste.

They're great, best strap I've ever used by a mile and extremely comfortable. I seem to remember paying £20-25 from the bass gallery in camden.

Thanks for that, never realised he was home schooled... He's a great guy and a phenomenal player, I've been to a couple of his clinics and always have to scrape my jaw off the floor by the end of them. If you've not checked these out then I'd recommend them, some are a bit self-serving but there's some good stuff in there - [url="http://gwizmon.podbean.com/"]Janek Gwizdala Basscast[/url]

Lovely work as always Mike, big thumbs up for doing it at tempo as well! Is the backing track an Aebersold one?