Killed_by_Death

The most renowned instructor in the area is guitar-specific, but I took some lessons with him & he didn't even notice that I was tone-deaf. IIRC I called it quits after about 6 weeks, it seemed like I was just wasting money. It's me however, because other guys in the area would come back from lessons beaming so brightly that they'd be posting about it on FB & exclaiming their lessons are going so well. Bass instructors are almost non-existent around here, unless you want to play washtub bass in a Bluegrass band, LOL! Anyway, after years of going it alone I realized I simply cannot keep up with the tempo most of the time. I had this same problem with being slow when I was learning Martial Arts as a child. I'd get my behind handed to me in every match, because I just don't have the reflexes. You'd think it wouldn't matter with bass, if you know the arrangement, but even still, too slow! When I had the epiphany again it was an old Black Sabbath song, I thought if I can't play basic Heavy Metal, what good am I? In between all that was the physical limitations, tennis-elbow & back pain. I finally got The Most Comfortable instrument I ever owned & that's when I finally realized I'm just not cut out for playing bass. There were no more excuses for not spending time playing, & the more time I spent trying, the more frustrated I became. That's the thing, I don't believe I ever enjoyed playing like you folks do. I read about people playing for hours in a day & I'm a wee bit gobsmacked. I played for 3 hours one time, after overcoming tennis-elbow. Twenty minutes was my 'enjoying it' limit most of the time, but it can stretch for 45 minutes when we do kara-okay.

This is why I dislike the 'buy it' mentality that goes along with any discussion of gear. I fell into that with the Rickenbacker 4004 & IIRC only ONE person commented not to buy it "just because it's there" There's no changing that 'culture' however, some people just have to justify collecting large amounts of gear. Here's where I moan about it.

Now if I could get back the 5 years I wasted on talkbASS & all the driving around to find The One.

I realized several months ago that it's more fun to play with live vocals, but having a $1k USD+ instrument around for that was such overkill. Doing a few riffs now & again, same thing. With the u-bass I can step out onto the back porch & run through a medley of riffs & then just put it back, which is exactly what I did with the full-on electric bass & amp, but it's just more difficult dragging the amp out there & getting power to it. Having that expensive bass was akin to a new driver in a Porsche. The great thing about Rocksmith is that it shows me the riff & it shows the vocalist the lyrics: not my bass or playing It's like paint-by-numbers for stringed-instruments.

I can never play along to anything by ear, which is part of the reason I quit. Maybe the largest part. I kept the u-bass & was playing a few arrangements on it last night, just for fun, no amp. All my instruments were hanged in the living-room, now the u-bass is just above the TV directly across from me. We used to do kara-okay bass, me on bass, someone else on vocals, but haven't in a while. Reading takes up the space I that used to be occupied by fumbling on the bass. I was just reading on the back porch.

To comment that more expensive is always better would be daft. The importances lies in how it plays & sounds, if it's uncomfortable, get something better, is my advice.

to clarify my point, I started looking for something better, because I had money lying around, Rickenbacker 4004 heavy, neck too thick - sold it! little by little I kept upgrading to the next more comfortable instrument & ironically ended up at the same price-point as that Rickenbacker, but in a much lighter & more comfortable Ibanez headless It was The Most Comfortable instrument I ever owned, & that's when I realized I'm not cut out for playing, because I still had arm issues playing that, but another irony it switched to my strumming arm. My issues were the weight of the instrument & just general comfort of playing, but of course I wanted a better sound as well, & the Nordstrand pickups do that.

A 10 lb. bass that hurts your back, neck & shoulder isn't a minute detail.

I'm sorry, but the answer is people w/o the means to buy something that they like better.

It might inhibit moisture ingress or loss if you take it into a different humidity level for a short period of time, but not hanging on the wall 23 hours/day.

re: fret sprout IF the oil protected the wood, as so many claim, then it wouldn't develop fret-sprout over Winter

That's my issue, I can't seem to. So, I'll just apologize for the mess & see myself out. I mean this for everyone when I comment: Have a good weekend!

I've fallen into some alternate dimension where facts mean nothing, folks cannot discern between a neck & a fretboard, & then get snarky about it when it's pointed out. Adios!

I suppose, if knowing the difference between a neck & a fretboard is pedantic. 😀

I want to make an early (Mustaine-era) Metallic reference to Metal, but I will refrain. Those who know, know what I mean, LOL!

It would probably also be the size of a human fist, LOL!

If you want Buzz, just fret it closer to the nut-side of the fret-space, & lower the action. 😀

I'm let down that Fender won't let people custom-order a P/P bass:

Exactly, DiMarzio's own specs suggest it's dark: https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/standard-bass/dimarzio-model-p

A Magic Eraser might work even better: it's a mild abrasive

exactly, here's another video:

still clearing stuff out, I have a few parts I've been trying to give away for days I know 1 guy who will likely want them, but he's incommunicado since the weekend. Unsubscribing from eMails that remind me today. Here's how bad it is to try to sell gear or gear accessories in my area. I sold it all over the weekend, but yesterday I got two responses from ads I mistakenly left up. So it takes DAYS to get a single interested party on a deeply discounted item. Amazing! I figure it's best I go out on my own terms here, instead of being a sarcastic knob to all & sundry like I did you-know-where, LOL!

A P-style split-coil pickups means the world is your oyster for replacements. If there's not enough output, geta G&L MFD SB1 pickup, or a DiMarzio Split-P. Another choice is Nordstrand, they're not high-output, but they are rather unique:

If you don't think it's bright enough, you can wire it in parallel, one of a few split-coil pickups that can be wired in parallel w/o becoming anemic. note: you will lose 33% of the output Power, however

TBH there are only a few here, but their toxicity is like a bad egg, it spoils the lot. I'm not leaving because of that, I made the mistake of hanging on at talkbASS after quitting playing & then I couldn't help myself. The constant bass chatter made me want to play again. This was the thread where I started up again, & now I'm back there, my bass is a toy now: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/having-a-bass-amp-as-a-toy.1272365