josie

Yes, it depends on what else is going on. My usual duo partner is a rhythm guitar player and if there's any interesting detail in the music it has to come from me. The most versatile bass player I know from this point of view is Dave Pegg, Fairport Convention. On one song he'll be playing a stripped-down classic anchor bassline, on the next he's playing the melody line while the fiddle and mandolin shimmer over it. (He's also the only musician I've ever seen gigging a 5-string fan-fretted bass - an Ibanez SDG.)

I'm thinking of re-stringing one of my 5s with E A D G C. Some of my band's originals work well with a high bassline in parts, so I'm playing, for example, a verse above the 12th fret on the G string and then a chorus around the third and fifth frets on the E and A - it would be nice to have those higher notes easier to reach. My Jazz Plus V has quite a floppy bottom B string - if I re-string it, is it likely that will just become a floppy E string? It's a really good bass apart from that, but I almost never play it, and this would be a way of giving it a new purpose in life, if it would work. Any advice very welcome!

Not sure, sorry. They look like it, and the Plus was overall a high-spec design. Stability is pretty good.

Oh so true. I've never yet "flipped" - I have two basses I'd sell if I could be bothered, but only because I now have similar better. But I'm so horribly aware that any time I buy a new bass (which isn't that often - oh well to be honest, three in the last 12 months) I somehow still believe I'll immediately be able to play it as well as in my dreams. When what I need to do is spend far more time with the wonderful basses I already have literally in arm's reach.

What sound do you want? I go for lyrical basslines with a lot of sustain, which my GMRs and my Jazz do well. My son, when I offered to help him buy any bass in Nashville, went for a new MIA Fender P. He needs that punchy sound for his music. I just find it frustrating to play - it doesn't have the expressive range I'm used to. I do have a decent P-clone at work, and appreciate the different sound, it works for after-work jams murdering cheesy pop covers. But it's not something you need to like to be a good bass player!

Acoustic:

Respect! Thanks for the pics - I've always hankered to know what it looks like from there. As they say in the theatre, "break a leg" :-)

Reminds me of a comment I can't remember where I heard about, from someone in a shop saying "We almost never hear anyone trying out a guitar actually playing a song". It wasn't about me but it could have been - I run through my favourite 12-bar blues walking lines, (1) because that's what I'm going to mostly play on it, and (2) because (as said above) I'm nervous in that environment and feel the need to do something I'm completely solid with.

Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden. Always appreciated the subtle but cutting political comment, but this is the first time I've listened with good headphones and actually heard the basslines. Simple, perfect.

My first thought when I went in to Promenade Music in Morecambe a few years ago to buy my first bass was, don't play anything until I'm sure no-one can hear me! I couldn't even play a major triad, let alone a riff anyone might vaguely recognise. Just picked out notes along the fretboard to check the tone and the action. I can still feel intimidated by young guitar shredders showing off... Gruhn's in Nashville, where I last bought a bass (sorry for bragging :-) have a couple of sound-proofed cubicles where you can try out an instrument if they believe you're serious about possibly buying it. Excellent idea, but the shop needs enough space (and money) to do it - Gruhn's has both, but few places in the UK I suspect.

Oh pity! I'll be away. Really sorry to miss it :-(

There's some discussion here (and a couple of other threads if you search):

Oh yes :-)

Not sure why I just went back to Dire Straits with good headphones, but I've been blown away by the sparseness of John Illsley's * bassline on "Ride Across the River". It's a dark broody song, and one can easily see a heavy bassline working well, but there's nothing at times, and then two notes on an off-beat, and then three notes where your ear fills in the next three that should be there but aren't. Perfect "play the rests as well as the notes", and "less is more". Any other suggestions for perfect minimal bass? * or maybe someone else according to one of the posts below

Much as I love my GMRs, the headstock design is a bit weedy. (Mind you I have a tattoo based on it :-) But my pet hate - given that I prefer a 5 - is 5-string headstocks with four tuners on top and one on the bottom (like the standard Jazz 5). It makes it look as if the fifth string is an afterthought that hasn't been thought through properly. Should be either balanced (GMR) or all on one side (Jazz Plus 5, which uses much smaller tuners to fit all five on one side). Imho :-)

I'm surprised how many good guitar players are impressed when I play even a simple bassline, and think playing bass is harder than playing guitar. I don't have to hold down chords, and they do! Yes we need a strong sense of groove, but so do they. And we just need to hold the groove, they mostly seem to need to show off. On the other hand I'm no longer surprised, but utterly fed up with how many peeps are "impressed" by a woman playing bass at all. I've had so much disbelief and condescension I'll bite some man's head off one day soon. Or better just let my bass speak for me.

:-) He won't have it - we've tried! He has a good ukelele which he won't touch. Even a standard guitar is definitely second best - given the choice he always says "I want the big one!" For now he's happy just playing open strings :-) (Sorry, this is well OT now...)

With tone it can be hard to tell whether it's the original quality or the effects of aging that make an older one better. Build quality is easier to judge - my 1992 is superb however closely you look, the 2002 just had signs of sloppiness here and there in the fit and finish. Haven't seen a new one, so can't comment on that. Each one is different too! Last summer I tried two 1966 EB2s, same condition (to look at), same price. One was dead wood. The other was pure joy and is now mine :-)

The blues jams I've played in (Matt & Phred's in Manchester several times, Bourbon Street Blues Bar in Nashville twice, Carlisle Blues Festival once) the lead guitarists have almost always have been young smart-a****s who assumed that the bass player would know whatever "song" they fancied playing, and sometimes were annoyed at me asking what key it was in. (In fact one didn't know what key he was playing in and had to show me where his fingers were on his fretboard.) (Carlisle was an exception, as the singers were internationally recognised and used to working with musicians who really did know the full standard repertoire. I was well out of my depth and it showed - but I didn't make a total fool of myself, and oh boy am I glad I was able to do it.) On the other hand, in the band I'm in (I don't think of it as "my band"), I'm the only one who takes any real initiative in suggesting ways of developing and arranging the songs. Even the guy who put the band together to play his originals seems to just be grateful and accept anything I suggest. So it's almost always me developing an expressive bassline (as best I can) and telling the others to listen and pick up on what I'm doing with the phrasing and dynamics - which they sometimes sort of do, a bit. Equally frustrating in a completely different way :-(

Why? A few peeps have such short arms that they really can't play long scale. For most, it just takes persistent practice stretching your left arm until your shoulder and arm loosen up. I still feel a bit of a stretch on the first one or two frets on my beloved 35" basses, but it's getting easier all the time. Same as stretching your fingers over more than a couple of frets rather than moving your hand, work on it and it will happen. As for the Aerodyne - I'm slightly surprised that they're so much more expensive new than a standard Jazz, but they are a bit special! I don't know what the build and tone quality are like on the new ones. Mine is a 1992 and it's superb on both counts. (£550 a couple of years ago.) I tried a 2002 a while back and was not at all impressed. (Johnny Roadhouse tried it on at £850 and I believe after quite a long time sold it for £600.) You'll prise mine out of my dead hands, unless you happen to be my 4yo grandson :-)

Just a bit. I got caught out last summer when I unexpectedly had the chance to play in the jam at Carlisle Blues Festival with some absolutely top musicians and was handed a Jazz with tape-wound strings and a very high action. Highest profile gig of my life so far and I could barely get a note out of the d@mned thing. I'd have taken my own bass up on the train from Manchester if I'd even suspected it might happen. Imho if someone knows they're in a "house" band and might have other people playing their bass, they have some sort of responsibility for it to be a fairly standard set-up, even if within the band they play something unusual. I imagine handing a five-string bass to all comers would not be universally popular.

"Complicit" gets to the heart of it for me. If I listen to this music, am I somehow endorsing the views of the musicians? If I buy (for example) eggs laid by caged hens, I am absolutely complicit in the cruelty to those hens, because my money is going back to the people who inflict that cruelty. (That example comes to mind because I've been dealing with it this weekend.) If I listen to Motown, am I complicit in their exploitation of black musicians? I now know that my most ever favourite blues rock guitarist is a Trump supporter - should I let that ruin my intense delight in his guitar playing? Those two are actually different - one is historical and one is now - that seems to matter, but should it? If the music promoted the nastiness, then no. I would never play in a UKIP band, or buy their cds even if I liked the sound. Personal connections are different - I'm lucky that I only have music I wouldn't otherwise like, made by friends, so I go with it for the sake of friendship. If I had negative personal associations with a particular musician, I probably would reject their music too - but that's about emotional resonance, not complicity.

Just back from a blues tuition weekend where we were talking about exactly that. If your favourite bass / guitar is in a "music room" or in a case, you have to make an effort decision to go there / take it out and play. If it's in reach of your favourite chair you just reach out for it. That's one reason I have one at work as well. Any time I have even a five minute break I can just noodle a scale or a riff. It adds up fast.

Living alone in a very small one-bedroom flat, I keep my gear exactly where I want it, which is more or less everywhere. Most of it fills one large corner, with my favourite bass in comfortable arm's reach from my work chair. A couple of basses have escaped to the other side of the room and guitar cases to the foot of the bed. Oh and also two basses at work and one with my son in Nashville.