cytania

Been reviewing some of our songs tonight and noticed that I've been playing 'I Saw Her Standing There' wrong. I've been spanning the riff over a bar when actually to be McCartney correct I should be playing it twice every bar. I can just about manage this speed but it struck me that at present I carefully work behind what is a bit of a group thrash. If I double up to Paul's flurry of notes then I may just get carried away and the group sound could degenerate into a furious blur. Not sure what you'd call this dilemma? Any advice? Less is more? Or more is more?

Am I imagining that the black plastic nut (graphite?) on my bass has gotten lower? I think the strings have gotten deeper/looser in their slots over the last few years. It's the one I play 99% of the time. How can I tell if it's graphtech or just plastic?

If you are a punk/thrash band your singer may never get to utter the cheesy words "and now we come to the part of the evening when we change the pace and slow things down a bit"... Start with a surefire stormer, the one that never goes wrong in rehearsals, then keep the pace mid-tempo. When you do slow things look for songs the audience doesn't actually think are slow ballads. Leave the 'throat ripper' songs that kill the singer to last. If every song in our set has the audience dancing I'll be very, very happy. It's the nirvana we aim for.

There's a dichotomy in music between the short punchy dance and the long blissful melody. In the 50s jazz split into the Trad and Bebop camps, there was even a fight at Beaulieu over it. So the prog/punk thing isn't new. Prog itself was a retrenchment of psychedelia (many psych bands morphed into prog outfits) and the psychedelic breakout was about bringing jazz forms into the rock format. Truth is bands can take their audience on a journey, a storming starter, a mid-tempo piece, a slower melodic workout and then back to a fast pace etc. Punk bands deprived themselves of the change of pace, that's all.

Two horned guitars are graceful like a bird of pray or a spaceship. This goes with the ethereal, soaring sound that electric guitars make. Bass on the other hand is earthy, primitive, butch stuff. Basses embrace the ugly because they are about dirty groove, the primal beat. What would you think to a drummer that wanted a curvy kit in fiesta red to match the lead player's strat? Each instrument has it's own identity. Accept that you are playing bass. <<Me on Spear S2w singlecut. I played it for a two hour set in front of 250 people on Saturday. Still looking for the next step up from it but haven't found a P or J neck that seduces me the same way. The singlecut is almost incidental but the shape feels just right against my body (yours may vary).

What I don't get is how the control knobs are all pitted, like it's been left face down sans-gigbag against other gear alot, but the tuners are new looking? Are the tuners replacements or the knobs relics?

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Lawrence_Instruments"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Lawrence_Instruments[/url] "One of the advantages of this design is that the fingerboard and neck is kept rigidly flat and true from the 12th fret up, the neck relieves between the nut and 12th fret only, making it easy to achieve to correct setup." [url="http://www.shukerguitars.co.uk/sc.htm"]http://www.shukerguitars.co.uk/sc.htm[/url] << Me playing Spear S2 singlecut (a twentieth of the price).

This is a carpal tunnel post. For the last year or so I've recognised the tell-tale pain and worked on my technique with the bass. Good news is that I am able to practice daily and rehearse/gig with the band no problem. I keep my right arm off the body of the bass and don't kink my wrist over the bout. Bad news is I can't play ordinary acoustic guitar without provoking my forearm. It seems to be the higher position needed and the strumming/fingerpicking action. Very soon find myself longing for two finger bass playing. Any thoughts, or am I over the bass 'event horizon' never to return to other instruments?

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1979-VINTAGE-USA-FENDER-PRECISION-BASS-NATURAL-BEAUTY_W0QQitemZ280643814576QQcategoryZ4713QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m8QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DMW%26its%3DC%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D6%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7864362372705617633#ht_1336wt_936"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1979-VINTAGE-USA-FEN...3#ht_1336wt_936[/url] After so many dodgy ones surely this is the real mcoy?

Our lead guitarist played bass for a one-off surprise project and he was actually pretty OK. His technique on the other hand looked agonising. Hooking strings and making alot of wild jumps to get notes. I was ready to take him to one side and try and explain proper fingerstyle (afterall someone once showed me how) but it isn't something he's gone back to since.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='1164917' date='Mar 16 2011, 08:18 PM']What, the one that's linked to a couple of posts up? [/quote] Aargh... I'm not sure I'm smart enough for this Internet thingie..

[b]On 16-Mar-11 at 09:41:03 GMT, seller added the following information: Due to the huge number of questions about this item, please be aware of the following additional info: there are two areas of routing under the pick guard - a small channel for the lipstick pickup to sit in and a further area near the base of the guard to accomodate the battery for the active pickup. This was done when the bass was new, in the early 70's. Considering this is a working bass that would otherwise be worth several thousand pounds and can be carefully restored by any prospective purchaser, it is a total bargain and will sell for much, much more than the £200 starting price. Please look on ebay for a similar age body only (no neck, plate, electronics) at @£1200!!! - Please, no more questions about the routing / pickups and bid before you miss out on a fantastic bass. Good luck and God bless...[/b] Posting here I've lost the other thread again.

First thing to remember is that there are two missing notes Bsharp and Esharp (or rather they aren't missing they're C and F). If basses had 14 frets there's be a sharp or flat for each of the 7 notes. But there are 12 which is what makes music interesting. Knowing this helps you get the note sequence right. On the bass every note has an octave two strings down and two frets up. There's another of the same note one string down and five frets behind (cos it's a fifths instrument), this note also has an octave. On a practical front most of us learn songs in common keys. One game I've just found is to key a song name into Spotify and work out which covers are in which key. Simple way to find a key is to run your finger up the E string till it tallies. This works best for simple 3 chord blues derived pop/rock'n'roll numbers. The spooky thing is when bandmates are just fooling around and your fingers go for the notes. I think that's the 'by ear' thing but it helps to know what to call the notes so you can rethink your choices and patterns.

Sorry chaps just seen the other, thread. Doh!

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Fender-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ290543831892QQcategoryZ4713QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp5197.m8QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DMW%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D14%26po%3DLCA%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7758042790265518757#ht_872wt_104"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Fender-Bass-...57#ht_872wt_104[/url] As you can immediately someone has routed out above and below the usual pickup spot and added a lipstick? pickup and a humbucker. Big ugly home-made pickguard covering a multitude of sins if you ask me. I've asked a question and the seller says they'll put another photo up of the routing underneath. Problem for anyone wanting to restore is keeping the natural finish is out if you want to go back to the a proper Fender pickguard and split coil. Lots of filler or wood inserts needed before going for a solid colour.

I know I was shilled in an auction for an Avalon acoustic. This was in August so it had picked up very few bids. I put in a low one before going to rehearsal. When I got back the item had been 'won' by someone bidding a fraction above me. Then the next day I was contact to say that I could have the item as the 'winning' bid had dropped out. I could have had a bargain but I walked away. Why? Not because of any high stance on shills. I just got to thinking if the seller could play tricks like shilling then how are they going to act when I go to pick the item up? All snarky and charge me extra for the gig bag? Loosen the truss rod, scratch the top? Add a few dents with their boot, cos I can't complain at that price? The auction is the start of a contract and a relationship. If you get obvious bad faith right at the beginning then it's best to save your travelling time and stress.

The strange thing about that board is you would think the varnish would stay clean under the string and wear away inbetween the strings and frets where you fingers actually rub. Instead he has a light coloured board except for dirty marks midways between frets and under the string. It's more like guitar wear than a bassist fretting right. Also if the wear is even across all frets why does he have a dirt shadow on the back of the neck suggesting he never played beyond sixth fret? A refret maybe but unstated. Seller hasn't a clue. Thanks for the reasoning for invisible bids on a private sale WH. I may be paranoid about Shills but I know they're out to get me :-) £720 with one hour to go.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Ibanez-MIJ-70s-Jazz-bass-guitar-project-rare_W0QQitemZ220750169687QQcategoryZ4713QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m8QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DMW%26its%3DC%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D6%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7658313381881865345#ht_500wt_951"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Ibanez-MIJ-7...45#ht_500wt_951[/url] [b]"The truss rod has been done up very tight and will need some work to loosen it abit."[/b] Already at £205 for a bass that may need a new neck before the relief can be tweaked?

Can anyone tell me why in a private listing eBay don't show seller identities? It's just gone to £510 in a couple of big £100 jumps. Am I a suspicious old codger?

Last hour of the auction and it's up to £256 but look in bid history and one seller has bid it up six times with no one competing taking it up from £180. What is going on? Am I seeing shill's under the bed? Is there a logical explanation?

I think the seller is bouncing off a Watkins/Wilson page which warns of the finishes suffering if let up in a loft. Which then makes you wonder how it really has been stored but the finish looks fine. The interesting bit is an additional guard piece where your right hand palm would go which all the other Watkins/Wilson/WEM pictures don't have. I like it but I notice in the bidding history one seller bidding on top of themselves several times, were they trying to find the reserve or was this the seller's shill? Very suspicious as they do it again later.

One way to think about reggae is that in rock music the drums lay down the beat and the bass is a more musical and tempo varied front to it. In reggae the bass IS the solid beat and the drums often skat around it in fantastic ways, listen to 'Funky Kingston' by Toots and the Maytals, even as a hardened bassist you finding yourself wanting to do those wonderful fills. Part of this is early reggae drummers often working from a big conga set with one drum stick and they really put in some great skiddly-diddly type beats. The other thing I notice with reggae (it's like a mystery novel I keep returning to - a few weeks ago BBC 4 did a whole season that revived my interest) is that in alot of the Rockers lines the bass leads to the 3. The melodic/rhythmic push takes yours ears to the 3 no matter what the drummer is playing to behind. There are lots of exceptions though, my least favourite are the fast steppers which have an almost a military snare roll going on. Too fast.

Nice dissected red acer in the background.

Quite simple the original 'touring' basses had an alder body, the new 'street' basses have a basswood body and more conservative colours. Clearly an attempt for wider appeal at a lower price point.

Alot of top bass players used to play brass instruments before they picked up electric bass. You can often hear this in the way they form their notes like a blown note. Brass players call it an 'embouchure', the rest of us call it blowing raspberries. Once I've got a bassline learnt I often go around razzy-ing it out to myself, it's a sort of practice - although out on the road it gets looks from other drivers. With a piece you're trying to construct a bassline for try to find that beat in you lips or your throat. It should help you get a basic groove even before you think of the notes.