Dood

Thank you! Yes absolutely, I can tilt it a little - my bass has a pretty heavy low string on it that needs a little space to move but the bass is designed with tap style in mind so the action is pretty low too. With that, yes, playing lighter means less chance of buzz, but not too much that the tone suffers. There's a balance to be had. Absolutely the same here. I can definitely feel a slight height adjustment in the ramp the same as I can if the action has changed. There's definitely a sweet spot that feels right for me. - I have a couple of PJ basses with active EMG's in and I use the P style as a ramp when needed too, so the height of those are decided by feel rather than the optimal height of a standard passive P pickup (Active EMGs are interesting as they are best set as high as possible versus passive pickups that should have around 1/4" between the poles and strings).

I appreciate it is less than helpful for those who might not hang on to their bass and want to retain a re-sale value; my ramps on my two Shuker basses (That Jon Shuker and I designed together) drop all the way in to the body, thus it is routed like a pickup. We chose really strong springs so the ramp doesnt flex and it can be adjusted for height and angle. I'm not sure what it is, but the wood itself doesnt sound clacky and hollow when you tap it either.

That's a fault with the teacher not 'reading the room'. Plenty of great musicians out there who are supplementing their income with "a bit of teaching", but have no teaching experience. I'm not surprised you were put off, where's the fun in endless exercises?

As a teacher of many years (and successful students) I can offer the other side of the discussion. Now, I am very passionate (really Dan, Reeeeaaaallllly?) about eveything bass. I've made it my career and it is my life. Not one of my students has ever come away from lessons feeling that I have taken anything, anything away from them. That's not how teaching works. As Bilbo has so brilliantly put it, "A teacher gives you tools. How you use them is up to you." On the subject of feeling that you can't be taught, well that can be down to your experiences of being taught. I have been very lucky to work in a wide range of settings including SEND students, ADHD, Autistic, behavioural 'needs', those suffering from Dementia and those 'incarcerated', mainstream school and private studio lessons. There's a difference between being an experienced teacher and an experienced musician. A good friend of mine is an A list, top-tier guitarist, but in his own words, he hates teaching 1-2-1 lessons and finds it frustrating and difficult. You can be "taught" by someone who isn't a best fit and if this happens on more than one occasion for example, this can embed a confirmation bias based on previous experiences. You might not have met the right teacher yet to suit you and, let's face it, we are all very different!

They are brilliant, I'm a big fan of D'Addario and use these mostly too. All of my guitars have D'Addario strings, I really rate the XS coated for electrics. (I do however grab the '2-pack' versions of the standard bass XL's as they are often cheaper, but prefer these and Pro Steels.)

Here's a review I shot a year or so ago for the Aguilar DB599 Compressor Good lord, who picked that thumbnail ... lol.. I look possessed!

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I totally understand the "why" bit. I guess I have a "why must it be this way / how do we improve on this" mindset with pretty much everything. You should see the pile of product designs I've scribbed out on paper, never to see the light of day 🤣😂.

I learned my very first bass line from start to finish on a bass that wasn't a bass:- As a kid, we didn't have lots of money and, generally we had to figure out how to overcome problems without finanical support. I built my first bass effect pedals because I couldn't afford to buy them. My first "distortion preamp" for my bass and indeed later a whole bass head and cabinet I built from scratch. A massive 400W beast and a single 15" bass cab. An impressive sound for a teenager! Anyway, there is reason for this preamble, honest. I really wanted a bass, I needed one, it actually pained me not having one, the draw to the instrument was pretty extraordinary when it took hold and let's face it, 35+ years later the obsession hasn't dwindled one bit. So, I took a hacksaw to my student-sized acoustic guitar and cut the nut for 4 strings. Unfortunately I was unable to drill the bridge to suit the spacing of four strings at that end, but still I had to conquer and overcome lol.. I learned Another One Bites The Dust by Queen as my first full song, start to finish, note perfect on an acoustic guitar with four wonky strings. I still have the guitar with it's battle scars!

- unpopular opinion: I've always thought that plain pickups on basses aren't that elegant. Beautiful bass tops with eye catching curves only to have a pair of plain black rectangles front and centre. But, that is what we have gotten used to seeing and that's what we are mostly stuck with. I do like to see pickup covers that have been colour matched, or with matching wood shells for example. I even like to see pickups hidden in ramps, but then we have the same problem again where most ramps are big squares with no thought to the instrument aesthetic. Originally, I'd planned to completely encase the pickups on my Shuker basses with a (flip-paint) colour matched shell, not unlike the bonnet of a car, hiding away the innards but still looking like it belongs. Maybe the next one... Oh and don;t get me started on pickup tangs lol.. I like that EMG (and Dimarzio) offer split coil models with no tang offering a flat surface for those who like to perch their thumb on "top".

I SO want this too. I want a split coil pickup in a radiused shell, encompassing the full width of a standard spilt-coil arrangement. The radius would match the radius of the neck by design and would totally do away with the need for a separate ramp in my case. Even Billy Sheehan used* epoxy and lots of sanding to create a ramped top to his split coil pickups, whereas I feel sure that a wide radiused ramp with the P coils encolded in it would be a great solution and, far more elegant. *Yup, I am aware of the Dimarzio Relentless pickups, they do look smart.

Then and now.. So many laughs.