cytania

Caring about your sound is IMHO the key thing to improving your playing. When I started out I'm pretty sure I was twanging the strings and thumping the frets. Now I'm trying to hold and shape each note. If I didn't listen to my bass I'd still be plinking and plunking horribly. GAS and incessant gear tweaking can be a real distraction from concentrating on the fundamentals but there are some wildly un-bassy sounding basses out there. I own one - an Ibanez SRX 400. I plugged it in at soundcheck last night and the tone struck me as 'oboe'. Suddenly it seems an unlikely backup instrument. Key thing with groups is getting you bass low in the mix whilst not being so subliminal you can't hear it. Again soundcheck last night I was persuaded to drop all my usual settings and go for a rather flat sound but I had to admit it sounded better out in the hall (sound chap played my bass to me). It became a proper group sound not a group with a bassist attached.

I think TB is one of those albums that's impact act the time is greater than it's actual musical worth. Part of it was the myth that Oldfield recorded the whole album solo and unaided. Somehow tied in with solo saling the world and a whole slew of artists recorded 'I play all the instruments' albums in the wake of TB. Now I find Oldfield had plenty of musical collaborators on the project. Musically I don't find the album as flowing and unified as I once thought but it was a breath of fresh air at the time.

Passive basses are how things were originally. Just a pickup, a volume, a tone pot and a capacitor. This gives a weaker signal that but one that can be subtle and warm. At some point in the seventies people noticed a battery powered pedal helped boost the signal in long leads. Why not build a tiny 9v powered preamp into the bass? This is an active bass, with it you get proper tone controls for bass/mid/treble and the instrument signal is boosted. So much so that many amps have a special active input. The active sound is more forward, more in your face. Pros of passive, no battery to go flat on you, moody old school sound. Pros of active, instant oomph.

1) Heft, neither filled with helium nor screwed to the floor. 2) Neck, frets don't cause any bleeding. 3) Thumb finds a resting place, palm rests on the bout. 4) Earthy no nonsense finish. 5) Rests on knee seated, no hands. 6) Thud, pluck a string it's alive.

Fingers but I keep a plectrum around for songs that require it. I often find that after working out how to do a song with a pick I can make a much more convincing stab at it with fingers, which is just as well as I always drop the pick at some point.

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sly_and_Robbie"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sly_and_Robbie[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-dAZrBlGOY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-dAZrBlGOY[/url]

Fender's website lists the Roger Water's sig precision as a 'thick C' profile 44.45 nut width. He must have big hands!

A different take here; [url="http://brandy_and.tripod.com/oo/maxmail.html"]http://brandy_and.tripod.com/oo/maxmail.html[/url] "Maxine realised just how desperate the band had become when, in their vain attempts to appear young, she witnessed them dying their hair in a hotel bathroom sink. She said: 'Both John and Keith (Moon) died their hair black. That was one of the things I stopped when we got together. I made John go to his real grey. It was more dignified.' "

Anyone here routinely removed paint finishes? Reason I ask is that in my highly unscientific researches I've got the impression that natural finishes cost more, presumably because cosmeticly nice wood is favoured? So when a solid paint job is stripped back do you find horrors like knot holes, mismatched woods? I'm thinking modern mass market basses not vintage Fullerton stuff here. Does any of it make a difference tonally or should that filler be laddled in?

What's the difference? The Detroit bass is about fifty quid more but is that extra just for a natty paint job? Or is this just an older line overlappying the new line?

You know the score, the guitar shop is vast, loads of stock and at the back a couple of basses and that's it. So where's the place to try out alot of bass guitars? Bass Direct in Warwickshire? Bass Merchant in Colchester? Get travel to London and get an Oyster card? Or does your local town have an unusual number of great guitar shops? Planning a Spring campaign to find a cheap P bass type.

So there I was watching the Herman's Hermits doco on Sky Arts. Lots of 60s concert footage with little interruption. Keith Hopwood of the Hermits playing a 335 type bass, an upside down Precision, a proper leftie Precision and amongst all this a Fenderbird. Yep it had the classic Fender neck (big open gear elephant ear tuners) but sprayed black and a Firebird body but being another right hander it was played upside down. Who'd have thought? So early in the 60s too...

Way I figure it is drums and bass are there to keep each other's timing straight. There is a way of playing 'up' just a tiny bit to indicate things should be faster and a decent drummer should get the hint eventually. Likewise one of our drummers is known to shout "c'mon more energy" a real incentive to dig in and go for it. The original poster's drummer sounds like he's oblivious to the vibe of the song. The feeling the drums should be creating. Just trying talking to him about what the song's about. Ask for emotion. The light bass kick pedal can be a problem on certain 'dead' stages or when your miked for the PA and it doesn't come over iffy monitors. Try to get a look at the drummers pedal or the light on the front of the drum skin. Listen to the snares and hi-hats, they should be filling the gaps between your bass notes. Drummers also tend to let sticks fly or break sticks quite regularly. Providing you don't have the drum stick embedded in your head the bass can be the only thing keeping everything on track whilst the drummer fishes out a new stick. Also check you are actually paying the drummer enough attention. It's all too easy to get drawn up front talking keys etc. Are you one of those bassists that stands stock still? Sometimes rocking back and forth, using the bass neck to indicate the beat gets the point across. If they can see your beat and see the energy you are putting across a good drummer will respond.

My band do 'Town Called Malice'. It is indeed a challenge, the riff is very Motown but never resolves and it has that punk upfront aggressive quality. Last gig all the audience shouted for us to play it as our encore, which we did. Must have sweated off a few pounds playing that one twice...

Just bouncing off my own ill-thought out thread on the Rickenbacker stripe (seems that by some fluke all the Rick's I've seen in the flesh had a 'skunk stripe' when actually it's not that common at all). Got me thinking about all the Ricks I see for resale. Ricks seem to hold their value and pass from careful owner to careful owner. Why aren't there similar markets of elderly Fenders or Burns Bisons out there? Are there legions of bands doing a Simonon on their instruments at every performance? More likely the super-collectors out there are hoovering up vast swathes of instruments. Or does every bed in the nation have a tweed case under it? Have you ever binned an instrument? Set fire to one? Cut one in half with a chainsaw?

I've been educated this afternoon. Which means the Rickenbacker I played in Cardiff was a 4001. ta

Hmm, I'm seeing other blonde ones now on the Bay with similar stripeless necks. Awfully low starting price, still I guess it does immediately grab the attention amongst all the 4 figure pricings.

I'm no Rickenbacker expert but this ebay item seems strange. The neck in particular, shouldn't it be striped and show through the body? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-Bass-Guitar-Mapleglo-/260641838998?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3caf76d796"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-Ba...=item3caf76d796[/url] Low bidding too...

Way I figure it is that bass is the primal, earthy low end so the instruments are woody, metallic and dark. Leave the light and airy to electric guitars in silver and fiesta red.

Not sure that 'Tool - Sober' clip is even typical of pick playing. Very direct transfer of guitar chord type playing. Now I know how you get that 'approaching menace' sound...

BN you are looking to get inside the top part of the amp. The tricky bit is that Laney probably don't expect you to ever do this so it may not be easy. Is there a back or front panel that comes off? If you can see across the circuit board look for the metal clips of the sockets and the one with your lead in it. You may be able to push it out with a stick/pencil or similar. Beware pranging the circuit board and make sure it's unplugged.

Strings seem to be taking a while to settle in, buzzy A and D. Found myself walking round Music Inn this morning. They have a very likeable Mexican precision (clear signs of the nut having been lowered as part of their setup) that plays nice and a bargain Peavey, only £99 with nice action too. Oh when will my 'Spea' bass settle down and get back to it's old reliable self? Keep playing it to get the strings loose and yet... Could it be the heat and humidity? I'm contemplating loosening the truss rod but first I need to find a phillips that will actually grip on the cover screws. Could be easier to pick a Peavey ;-)

Just changed my strings after breaking the A. Restrung with D'Addario Nickels again but I'd forgotten how taut and overbright they start out. Can't wait for them to get slack and properly dull. With my acoustic guitar strings lasted 2-4 months and cost £6-9ish. Clearly a bass player is going to take alot longer to try out even the limited range of makes with strings lasting a year plus and costing £20-£30. One reason I like the D'Addarios is no silk windings. I found these a weak point on Thomastiks which I managed to break after only a few months. Must go play in the new strings now...

Best Car Manual Ever! How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive Written in fluent 70s hippie speak with cartoon illustrations. Utterly brilliant! Sneak peak here: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step---step/dp/1566913101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279267386&sr=1-1#noop"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keep-Volkswagen-Al...amp;sr=1-1#noop[/url]