wintoid

40 years ago, younger and more arrogant than I am now (or so I like to think), I had this amazing violin teacher. Some teachers you remember for the rest of your life, and she was one of those. If I turned up feeling good about my week's practice, confident I was playing it well, she'd often be full of criticism. If I turned up full of self-criticism, she would often remark how much progress I had made. I don't think she was doing it to keep my confidence in check. We discussed it at the time, and both concluded that my critical ear and actual progress were always out of sync. Over the year, this has helped me masses. When I'm frustrated, and feeling like I'm making no progress, I remember this amazing lady, and I remember that it probably means the opposite of what it feels! Dunno if that can help you at all, but I hope it does.

Nothing BassBros works for me via email. I never get a response. I've switched to Whatsapp and that works fine.

Like many people, I've really appreciated having companies like BassBros and Bass Direct around to buy/sell/trade basses with. I wondered if anyone knows of any similar shops for synthesizers/rack effects/studio gear. Perhaps an opening for SynthSisters?

Thanks everyone, and especially @JazzyJ because it will give me some confidence to know I'm using the right tool (which I will order!).

Thanks JazzyJ. So you're talking about the two holes on the top of the saddle block, and those secure the block in some way? What does 1/6th AF mean? Sorry, I'm not strong on this stuff!

Thanks Michael!

I wonder if the right thing is to tag @Sheldon Dingwall

Thanks for responding @Lozz196 I really appreciate it. I think that's a trick of the light. So far as I can see the block is just a solid lump on that plane. Another pic attached. The only things I can see that might be adjustable seem to be on the top of the block. The whole thing seems very weird to me. I guess it's held in place by the strings, but that seems quite insecure.

I do my own setups on my basses, but the one bass I've never attempted to set up is my Dingwall, because I don't understand how the bridge works. I did approach Dingwall through their website but have never received a response. I wondered if someone here would know. I've attached a picture of how my bridge looks. I understand that the strings sit on top of screws, which can obviously be adjusted to change the string height. What I don't understand is how the saddle is moved forward/backwards. It looks like each saddle is a metal block, and each has two little holes in the top, which I presume contain some sort of screw. Am I supposed to loosen those screws/bolts and then move the blocks forwards/backwards to adjust? It seems a bit error-prone if so. I can't work out how the screw/bolt (if there even is such a thing) is going to secure the block to stop it moving forwards/backwards. Could anyone enlighten me? I'm pretty crap with physical things like this.

Thanks @jazzyvee I'll take a look.

Thanks, so you guys are switching between rest strokes and free strokes depending on the line then?

So when (if) the time comes to play octaves at any kind of speed, how are you coping? I don't see how it's possible without curling my fingers, which blows the whole rest stroke thing for me.

Rest strokes are when you play through the string, so that your right hand fingers come to rest on the string below. Free strokes are more like spanish guitar, where your fingers end up in free space (or on your palm).

I've been playing bass on and off for 45 years, yikes. Before bass, I had been mostly playing violin, and I guess what was my pizzicato technique on the violin got transplanted into my bass playing. I play free strokes, basically. Recently, I've been trying to practice rest strokes, with a view to potentially trying to adopt them more or even completely. When I play with rest strokes, my right hand fingers are almost completely straight. There's something incredibly satisfying about the motion of plucking this way, I love it, but I've got a lot to learn. One of the hardest things seems to be crossing 2 strings to play octaves. I wondered from more seasoned rest-strokers (ooer) whether you switch to free strokes for octaves? I feel like I need to curl my fingers and change my hand position to miss the string in between the octaves. Or is there a trick to make this easier?