PatrickJ

Thanks for the tips so far guys. This afternoon I created a track that just plays the chords from the C Major scale and I'm playing the arpeggio's over them, slowly. Happily I'm able to tell when I'm sharp / flat better than I thought I would be able too. I've also strated to play them over an Autumn Leaves backing track - a nice little work out. Up to about fret 10 I'm doing OK. Beyond that I'm struggling with the finger placements. @Bunion that TrueFire course looks pretty good. It's only $16 at the moment so I may give it a go.

Love this!

For 2021 I've decided I want to go fretless, it's something I've been thinking about for a while and I figured I'd give it a go. I'm currently borrowing a unlined fretless from another member of this here forum and had a play with it last night - actually finding the notes wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be, but I say that after only playing some relatively easy things down in the money zone. I've not started to get up in the register or playing any thing complex. My main worry with playing fretless is not having a strong enough ear to be able to hear that I'm marginally sharp or flat on a note. Does anyone have any tips / exercises for improving intonation and getting to grips with fretless in general? Slides, vibrato, harmonics etc. will all come later for now I just went to get a really good feel for fretting the right pitches.

@TheGreek has kindly lent me a long scale fretless to try. After having a bit of play last night I think jumping into a shorter scale would be a mistake - since I'm comfortable with 34" scale already I have a bit of a feel for where the notes should be. Changing scale I suspect will present more challenges.

Thank you sir. It has a hell of a tone to it, and actually I'm getting on better with fretless than I thought I would.

I can't say enough good things about Mick. Long story short, I'd been toying with the idea of getting a fretless and put a post up on this forum. Mick read my post and sent me a DM offering to lend me his fretless bass for a while to see how I got on with it. He allowed me to collect on the same and even spent time with me outside on a cold winters evening to run through the guitar and give me a few tips on fretless playing. Thanks a ton Mick, it's folks like you that make BC a great forum!.

Not hard set, shorter scale and fretless were both on my mind to try so if it was possible to get them both in a single package then it seemed like a cute idea. I'm now looking at 34" scale fretless basses, still not as much of a range as I thought . They must be out of fashion.

I've been toying with giving fretless a go for a while now I also fancy trying a 32" scale bass so I figured why not try and combine those into a single bass for 2021. I'm really struggling to find anything other than a Warwick. Are shorter scale fretless basses just not a thing?

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So are Bass Direct and the Bass Gallery the only dedicated bass guitar stores left in England ?

Wow, that seemed easy - what's the expected delivery date?

I had a pretty dry year in 2020, I didn't play much so didn't have a yearning for much gear. However my 2021 wish list is coming on quite nicely and I'd really like to get back into some sort of band if this Covid thing ever ends. Basses @FinnDave's Panther Special keeps calling to me from the Classifieds as does the Anaconda Ultra J4. I'm also very tempted by a Yamaha BB734 , I keep reading such great things on here about the BBs. Amps & Cabs 2* Ashdown Pro-Neo 112 cabs and maybe a CTM 100 head. Pedals Boss OC-5 Boss SY-1000 Other I'd like some dual coil pickups for my Shuker J bass, Nords or Barts probably.

I was trying to get hold of Stuart Clayton's BNF transcriptions book - it's out of print , if anyone has a copy to sell please DM me.

He's probably got a SA C4 synth and a Boss OC-5 at the bottom of his sack on their way back to the north pole as they didn't end up in my stocking.

He didn't bring me a single bass related gift, the bastard

What a collection!!

I've been waiting all day for these

How are you using a Freeze pedal ? I couldn't think of a practical use case for bass.

What upset me about the post from theGreek was the implication that ADHD is simply a label used as an excuse for bad parenting. This is what parents of kids with ADHD / ASD face all the time by people who like to put quotes around the word "conditions". Trust me , we spend enough time feeling like we're failing and not doing a good enough job - we don't need to be told we're shitty parents by those who have no experience living with it day in day out.

As a parent with a kid with ADHD and ASD comments like this make me incredible angry. The OP wasn't talking about behavioural problems - more exploring why he has found learning and other aspects of life challenging and sharing some information about that. 50 years ago I very much doubt ADHD would have been picked up on and if the OP had these sorts of challengers at school was probably labelled a disruptive or under achieving kid. Exploring nuero-diversity wouldn't have been a thing back then. I think it's great @Grangurthat you are exploring it now. Since my son's diagnosis I have been recognising his traits in myself and understanding him helps me understand me, it answers questions from my youth as to why I struggled, was unhappy and volatile that I could never previously understand. It's helped me understand and accept myself more. Poor / inadequate parenting and lack of boundaries is going to cause many kids to follow undesirable paths, whether they have ADHD or not. I have multiple kids, all brought up in the same house with the same values. Only one can be challenging from behavioural perspective - this is not because of lack of boundaries it's driven by sensory overload and overwhelming anxiety that can't be regulated. All this bursts out in explosive anger. Teachers in schools these days do get training on ADHD and ASD and support is available for them though some are better at understanding and adapting than others. The school environment can be a huge factor in how well a child can cope - we had to move my kid into a different school because his didn't and the difference that made to him has been incredible - IT'S NOT ALL THE PARENTS!!! We are still tryif to repair the damage that school has done to him in terms of accepting himself, crippling low self-esteem as a result of how they treated him. Charts and information you share are great. School teachers do get training on this stuff. Private music teachers DO NOT. My kids drum teacher had never taught a kid with ADHD / ASD before and had no idea on how to approach it. He was amazing, he went and did a bunch of research but I bet most don't or wouldn't know what signs to look out for.