silverfoxnik

[quote name='The Admiral' post='378587' date='Jan 13 2009, 07:21 AM']In the midst of some BC surfing the other day, I came across a forum member offering an old Jap bass for sale - which was the exact model I first bought for £118 in 1982 from Russell Acott's in Oxford - a Satellite through neck precision copy. Mine had a factory sticker on it, which pointed out the pick ups were DiMarzio's, and looked lovely when it was polished up, and I wish I'd kept it, as it sounded nice too. Bloody heavy though. This made me think about how the price of instruments has changed over time - so I had a look for a UK inflation calculator, to work out what £118 would be worth today - and the answer : £311.52. If you want to do the same - here is the calculator link : [url="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/historic-inflation-calculator"]http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/historic-inflation-calculator[/url] If I then think about the quality of the instruments available today as beginners basses - Yamaha RBX 170 for instance @ £120 on the internet - there is just no comparison, they are so much better and easier to play. Also, not only are the basses better, but the breadth and availability of teaching aids is astounding now : MP3 bass trainers, internet video lessons and even school music grades on rock instruments (unheard of in the 80s) etc. Yet a friend who teaches guitar and bass, regularly moans about the inability of his students to stick at the instrument through the basic 'pain' stage of scales and building up their hand strength, and their attention span seems so short too. He gets paid irrepective of course, but his main beef is that so many of them don't do any work between lessons, the progress is painful for both he and the kids, and they seem to want to be Jaco, without doing any work! He also finds plenty of kids, guitar players particularly, who can't pick up anything by listening, and have no idea where to start unless it's Tab, and whilst they can play any amount of widdly widdly solos, have no idea how to play chords and the rhythm guitar parts. That said, if I was 15 now - I would probably be pretty much the same - so it's not a serious rant about the youth of today, and perhaps it would be more interesting to build a thread on 'first bass, what was it, where from, and how much in today's terms?' Anyone fancy filling in the gaps here? First bass was : From : It cost : Which today is : Cheers A[/quote] Great thread! Mine would be: First bass was : Kay short-scale From : Woolworths in 1975 It cost : £22 Which today is : £0 Sad but true....

[quote name='beerdragon' post='378290' date='Jan 12 2009, 09:36 PM']Do you do a tune in your set strictly for your own playing pleasure, rather than thinking this would go down well with the punters. the reason i'm asking is that i have managed to pursade the band to do Use somebody by Kings of Leon. well they did'nt take much pursuading really as they all like it. its a really simple bass thats going on but the sound Jared folowill gets makes the track i think. really looking forward to doing this one[/quote] Completely unhelpful answer is, 'a bit of both'.. Depends on the mood of the band members, what kind of gigs we've got coming up etc, etc.. We hope all the songs we cover will please sombody - and there's enough variety of gig type and audience type to be fairly sure about that - but about half a dozen songs we do are thrown in mainly because we like them! Songs like 'Trouble' by Ray LaMontagne, 'When You Were Young' by the Killers or 'Rasberry Beret' by Prince aren't that well known or those artists have more well-known tunes, but we prefer them so we've put them in the set. And I think because we like them in particular it shows in the performance and touchwood, they've always gone down well..

[quote name='alexclaber' post='378276' date='Jan 12 2009, 09:23 PM']Something that's always bugged me is how theory and technique is such a mislabelled backwater - "for those who like to push the boundaries"??? "For those who'd like to learn" would be a much better statement. A sub-forum that is really centred on developing your bass playing would be a great thing and maybe a 'beginner/learning' rebranding would be a good move for pushing more traffic towards "theory and technique". It may appear that I spend all my time talking about gear but I'm a big advocate of really getting deep into what bass playing is about and I spent much of my early time on the web and forums hunting for the hows and whys of being a bassist. Alex[/quote] +1 Again, wise words Alex!

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='376874' date='Jan 11 2009, 04:15 PM']Dark and disturbingly beautiful [/quote] +1

[quote name='Prosebass' post='376736' date='Jan 11 2009, 01:04 PM']Witchcraft......[/quote] That confirms it then!! I always thought that the luthier's craft was somewhat close to being a practitioner of the black arts!!

[quote name='Merton' post='376711' date='Jan 11 2009, 12:27 PM']Er, yes, a bit... [/quote] Thought it might... It's what the Buddhists call 'The Mire of Options'!!

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='376777' date='Jan 11 2009, 02:02 PM']* To skirt the terminological minefield ('noob', beginner, born-again etc), * To acknowledge the view that most of us are still on the journey * To optimise 'signposting' for new arrivals May I suggest any new forum, resource, Wiki or whatever be titled 'Learning'[/quote] That's quite a nice idea... Given the polarisation of opinion on this topic, I think a Poll would be useful to get a sense of how a larger number of different people think, not just those who are actively joining in with this debate.

[quote name='Brother Jones' post='377090' date='Jan 11 2009, 08:04 PM']It's a bit of a private language isn't it? . They've been pretty crap since Mark 'sacked' (ie assaulted) the band in New York in 1998 and Steve and the other decided they'd had enough. I used to have a massive discrepancy between the music I enjoyed listening to (Wire, the Fall, Talking Heads, Gang of Four, etc) and the music I enjoyed playing on my bass (the usual Jaco/Stanley fusion/funk stuff). The people who put the two together - ie played lines that I really enjoyed covering - were Norman Watt-Roy, Colin Moulding, Foxton, Dave Allen and Bruce Adamson. It's hard to take Graham Lewis from Wire too seriously because he was so pompous. And I'm not convinced that Tina Weymouth actually wrote many of the Heads lines, but could be wrong. Oh and the bloke from the Bunnymen was pretty good. I used to love playing 'Rescue' which had some funky little moments in it.[/quote] I've heard of most of those but what band was Dave Allen in?

[quote name='Hamster' post='376587' date='Jan 11 2009, 07:37 AM']Some fine basses there - I feel your pain![/quote] +1 That Moon 5 looks pretty nice as well!

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='376526' date='Jan 10 2009, 11:43 PM']There's a lot of old farts with bad backs playing bass these days![/quote] +2

[quote name='mewsie' post='376557' date='Jan 11 2009, 12:48 AM']eight - you speak wise words.[/quote] +1

That's one very versatile bass Peter! No wonder you're happy.... In particular, I thought the bridge p/up tone was fabulous...

Great review Mert! Thanks for sharing that... Apart from you now being in Alex's probably ever growing queue of customers, has the test made you rethink selling the V-Type?

Absolutely fascinating!! (he said in a Mr Spock like voice...)

[quote name='Merton' post='375802' date='Jan 10 2009, 12:11 AM']The extra knob is standing in front of it playing a Status bass [/quote] So how does it sound then Mert?

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='375942' date='Jan 10 2009, 09:49 AM']Just a query... I've been offered a Fender Mark King Signature Jazz (#02 of 42) with sims laser leds as a trade for one of my basses. What're these worth (especially in a depressed market?) Rich.[/quote] I wouldn't have thought they were worth much because MK is so indelibly etched in people's minds as using/endorsing Staus & JD basses....

[quote name='nig' post='375871' date='Jan 10 2009, 02:01 AM']If its a cover song, sometimes just playing it in the car and to yourself until you get to know the song/ arrangement from a listner view point and once familiar with the tune you can go back with a more subconcious feel for the song and jam along with it finding meters and passes and keys etc then hone the finer points. I never use tab, playing by ear has been my chosen style to roughly learn a song then put my own interpretation on it. regards, nig.[/quote] +1 That's been my approach in the main with a little bit of help from TABs if I feel I need it.. It's been said a lot of times on Basschat before but there's really nothing better than playing along to lots of different music to improve your playing and your ability to grasp different playing styles.. As for songs that leave me stumped, there are too many to mention probably but after two years off trying and some brilliant help from mr_russ, I still struggle with 'Loves Foolosophy'. It's partly my own ineptitude and partly because I hate everything JK has ever written and recorded so much that I can't bear to listen to it even to practice... Not a very professional attitude I know but thankfully, we've dropped it from the set now, much to my relief! Hope you're well by the way, nig!

[quote name='johnnylager' post='375060' date='Jan 9 2009, 01:21 PM']Recently got a lend of the fabled Demitriades 1x15 with which to annoy me council scum neighbours and Nik organised a spur of the moment micro-bash with him, Walman & me, saving me from the indignity of wasting the courier charge on Wayne's BC 5'er! Nice one fella![/quote] Happy to help out John and the very least I could do after your free contribution of the control knobs for my Fender Jazz 5 and your help at the SE Bash back in September.. So how's the Hartke helping your 'fostering more neighbourly love project' then?

[quote name='Tee' post='374868' date='Jan 9 2009, 10:32 AM']Dave Allen of 'Gang of Four'. Check out "Entertainment"[/quote] +1 I loved that album but lost my vinyl copy years ago.. Time to check out YouTube and Limewire I think...

[quote name='BassManKev' post='375285' date='Jan 9 2009, 03:33 PM']multi effect pedals in general, alot of boutique pedal snobs wouldnt even consider buyin digital multi effects, but some are in fact fantastic, the best value one imo is the zoom b2.1u, fantastic for the money. and from what iv heard from Ped the V-Bass is brilliant![/quote] +1 Isn't Basschat the most underated piece of Bass Kit.. And it's free!