XB26354

That's a lovely streamer, same config as my SS1

[quote name='Kongo' post='525022' date='Jun 26 2009, 05:11 PM']Carl Thompson basses take years to arrive and they are handbuilt...so above basses must be heavily tool based! What IS handbuilt this leads to question...12 hours is too quick man... Or is it 12 hours over a few days / weeks to let things set?[/quote] Have you seen the videos? In it he says that everything is hand carved (apart from basic blank routing and pin routing for chambered instruments). He also mentions that it takes 12 [i]physical[/i] (not consecutive) hours to build the instrument - which is about normal in the industry. Wood is precut to blanks then rough cut to dimension. The hand carving on MTD's isn't amazingly ornate so it wouldn't take that long. You also mention Carl Thompson basses taking years to arrive - perhaps this is an order backlog? There isn't a bass made that takes years to finish. Even Fodera will be able to knock you up a bass in a similar timeframe to MTD - it is just the order book that dictates the wait. Having (briefly) owned a 635 I can vouch for the perfect finish and amazing feel and tone - they really do feel hand made.

He's been playing since he was a toddler and looks more natural playing the bass than anyone I've ever seen. Some of the older Flecktones stuff is quite nice and when he plays groove he's really got it, but I've never really liked his way of playing, or his sound and reliance on slap/pop/tap without making it particularly musical. Hate to say it being a bass player but there are very, very few albums out there by bass players that I can listen to. It's funny that he goes on about saying something with your instrument when I can't work out what [i]he's[/i] trying to say. With the YT videos posted it's all a little busy, but then the last two don't really have a song so any monster player is naturally going to overplay - VW, Steve Smith and Carter Beauford are all well capable of playing what the song needs. So I don't really care for his playing but you can't deny the talent and the technique.

Now a two Warwick family. 09 Corvette $$ 6-string in Natural w/gold hardware - arrived last Friday, wicked combination of beautiful woods and ballsy tone. 05 Streamer Stage One 6-string in Nirvana Black w/Seymour Duncan Basslines - an absolute monster with sustain for days. Mat

A string with a capo at the 12th fret is half as long, so will obviously have less tension with a string of the same gauge tuned to the same pitch as an open string. Rick Turner, longtime repair guru and Alembic doyen has this to say about string tension. "A string at fixed pitch, fixed scale length and fixed mass has fixed tension." It is possible to change the feel of the string by having long lengths pass the witness point but don't confuse more tension with a stronger witness point giving the string a tighter sound. If you have a string tuned to low B, and the scale is 34" the only way to increase the tension is to tune the string sharp. To my ears the only thing that through body stringing does is increase the sustain (because the end of the string is halfway through the body rather than at the bridge). I've owned or played Lakland and Fender basses with thru body stringing and did not notice any difference in string tension at all with the same brand of strings at the same gauge. I've been playing 5's and 6's for 20 years and tried just about every type of bass and string out there - it is possible to get a great sounding B on a 33" scale, but a custom build is probably the most successful route as a bog standard factory built bass (if Fender made a 33" 5-string jazz for example) would be more hit and miss. My current favourites are Warwicks - the B is just so fat yet defined, and they are 34". If the OP does not mind a very slight decrease in string tension (unless he uses higher gauge strings) it should be OK.

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='518915' date='Jun 19 2009, 10:25 PM']You can do it man. It's never too late to start...[/quote] +1 - absolutely - get out there and play. There is nothing more rewarding!

I think the above addresses some of the key elements of harmony (especially Jazz harmony) - tension and release, and the tritone (which some consider to be the most important interval or tension in music). When talking about 11th chords, or sus chords and minor ninths, it is of course possible to play a chord with a major 3rd and perfect 4th (same as a perfect 11th an octave lower). In my explorations on piano I find that if you voice the chord with the 4th below the 3rd you get a lovely rich sound, and remove one of the most dissonant clashes when 3rd is below 4th. There is a great version of "Caravan" on Michel Camilo's "Rendezvous" Where Anthony Jackson plays a root-minor 9th double stop against the prevailing 7b9 harmony - daring but fit perfectly. I don't see any problem in looking at harmony in a number of different ways. Going back to the question, and borrowing a bit from classical harmony a bassist could do worse than look at the melody and work out ways to play contrapuntal (i.e. moving in opposite direction to the change in pitch of each melody note). I remember a very short Scott Henderson column in Guitar Player where he looked at reharmonisation. Take any melody note then build a chord that fits on each of the 12 possible bass notes (e.g., if the melody note is C, then you could have C, DbMaj7, D7/Dm7m Eb6/9, E7+5, Any F, any Gb7#11, G7sus, Ab, A7#9, BbMaj9, B7b9 - these are just one possible sequence). This opens your ears up to the possibility of on-the-fly reharmonisation, from which, if you're not careful, you could end up with harmolodics! Topically, Ornette Coleman is chairing this year's Meltdown festival in London...

Doing a gig for this Elvis Costello soundalike who obviously wasn't going to do anything so I never called him back... who happened to be called David Arnold. B*llocks, Mr Bond! Also selling an AAAAA maple Warwick Streamer 6 for less than I paid for it on a whim, and also a lovely Sadowsky MV5 for silly money. That's what you get for being fickle! Oh and buying and selling no less than three Chapman Sticks!

That's true when talking about forming chords, but the 5th is one of the strongest notes a bass player can play on (non flat 5/sharp 11) chords. It is the 2nd harmonic in the overtone series (I think after the fundamental and the octave) and also implies V-I root movement, giving a line movement as well as tension and release. Most experienced walking bassists prefer to play smoother linear lines (think of a bouncing rubber ball!) without too many intervallic leaps, though this is sometimes good to break up or build an idea collectively.

[quote name='silddx' post='517281' date='Jun 18 2009, 11:55 AM']Something has really bothered me about what someone said about only deviating from the [b]walk [/b]once for every ten years you've been playing. I kind of found that objectionable. What's the thinking behind that "rule"?[/quote] I posted that, and I didn't say it - the class teacher did! As Bilbo mentioned, it is not a rule or even a guideline. We weren't really supposed to play one skip for every 10 years' experience. The idea was to get beginning jazz learners to walk properly by focussing on being able to swing and make solid note choices. As the course was for electric bass, I've found that it is that bit harder to naturally swing - double bass has a depth of tone that lends itself to a walking line very well. A lot of electric "jazz" and "fusion" bass players over-egg a walking line and break things up too much without retaining the swing. I don't play double bass but even after 25 years I still aim for the tone that players like Paul Chambers, Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, Ray Brown and NHOP on electric. In my experience, once someone has the basics down pat and a solid time feel they can mix things up a little. This "simple" approach applies outside of jazz too - I've played a lot of cuban and south american music and most bands and players want the solid tumbao and percussive feel with very little variation.

[quote name='bubinga5' post='513391' date='Jun 14 2009, 04:20 PM']Just spotted the 'Meshell's' Celinder for sale in the Gallery for wait for it...... £5000.......Now i know Celinders are expensive but 5 grand??? Even if it was Meshell's.. The bass Gallery seem to really overprice there basses... And why do they think they can charge £150 more for a Sadowsky UV than Guitar Guitar..?? Surely they should be a bit more competitive, especially in today's climate[/quote] The Gallery, like any other retailer that deals face to face, advertises a guide price (which is often the manufacturer's RRP) and negotiates from there. This Celinder might be a commission sale, and therefore the guide price is decided primarily by the seller. It's supply and demand - if no-one is interested in the next few months maybe the seller will drop the price. Then again someone (maybe you if you were very rich and really wanted Meshell's bass?) may snap it up for the mojo value. A bit like Basschat's for sale section... Guitar Guitar is free to advertise whatever price they think will get them a sale - but I believe it says on the Gallery's site that they will match any legitimate price (i.e. in stock and for sale). If you haven't been there perhaps you could take a look and maybe it will revise your assumptions

I've had three Fender fives over the years: 1 - American Deluxe ash in cherry sunburst. Lovely sound, really aggressive and ballsy and recorded well... except the B which sounded totally different to the other strings (with either a tapered or normal B ). Kept if for a year or so and moved it on. 2 - American Standard in 3TS (not the new ones) - again a lovely bass, made in 1995, great tone and a decent B-string, but the five in a line headstock made balance a bit dodgy as it was a particularly light B-string. 3 - American Deluxe in 3TS with maple board - sounded OK but tbh none of the recent deluxes I've played sound that good or look very well made. Light, but 3-piece body with sunburst finish, one badly-fitted and bent tuner and a nut 2-3mm too high. On a £1300 bass? B string was very poor, dark and ill-defined even with Fender's stock tapered B (although I don't rate Fender's strings anyway). Each of these basses would have been fantastic as a four. The fact is that [i]some[/i] Fender fives may well have a decent B but if you've played a Lakland, Sadowsky, , hell even a Stingray, then Fender are left wanting. If you find one that does it for you, good luck. I get to see a lot of basses through the Gallery and there are any number of five strings out there that work as a five, rather than feeling like a four string made a bit wider. I'd really like Fender to make a killer 5 (the Korean Jazz 24 was the closest I've tried in terms of a balanced B ) as paying the extra for a clone doesn't make sense to me, but if you're picky about the B and even balance of tone across the strings then I don't think you'll be satisfied with a Fender. Then again, as you're only playing it for a gig or two you'd hardly notice I expect

I don't really rate the basic passive model - only get one if it is a s/h bargain (bear in mind active MEC 2-band circuit will set you back €269!!). Out of all the models I'd choose the $$ for the higher output and the versatility with the coil taps. One of my students has just got a fiver from the Gallery and it's so nice I'm tempted to get one to add the the SS1 I too would choose an ash version as the bubinga ones I've tried sound a bit dark and lacking in growl, whereas the (active) ash ones sound great.

Similar to the early 70's shape but probably even thicker. Build quality was OK on the two that I tried although both would have needed fretstones to get a decent low action adn the nut was cut too high. Sound was appropriate for the era but tried a 1971 side by side and it was different class. They look great though, esp in sunburst!

[quote name='Rich' post='497995' date='May 26 2009, 02:09 PM']'Men In Black', Will Smith. Sampled (i.e. utterly stolen) from 'Forget Me Nots', which is infinitely the better tune.[/quote] I believe Freddie Washington recreated the song with Will Smith's "rapping" over the top and some lovely tasteless modern sequencing (and doubtless got a nice big fat royalty in the process!)...

Dave swings, whether on upright or electric. Nice fat tone from of all things an ultra-modern Bongo. Well done!

Stick with is 51m0n, I have to say that playing a walking line through changes and making it swing is one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had with bass... believe it or not I was exposed to jazz and actually liked (some of) it before I even played any instruments (Dad played, amongst other things, classical violin, keyboards and jazz guitar), so liking it made learning it easier! BBC4 reran some episodes from Jazz 625 and in one of them Stan Getz was playing with his quartet at the LSE in London in (I think) 1959. My girlfriend and I just stopped what we were doing and listened - the music was simply stated, very melodic and just beautiful to listen to. I wasn't even thinking "is this jazz?" or "what is he playing?", so like any other style of music jazz does have the power to touch the listener, even if it isn't in the mainstream or played on commercial radio.

+1, at Basstech 15 years ago Paul Scott (a very fine electric and upright bass player) told us to play straight quarter notes and only allowed one deviation for every 5 years we'd been playing. It took me 10 years to realise what he was on about! Also playing "4" walking bass lines with just one plucking finger (usually index) helps to sound more even - try it on an electric bass - unless you have amazingly even technique it makes your lines bounce better. Finally do your practising with a metronome on beats 2 and 4 - swings much better!