PatrickJ

Cheers for the advice Dave. I can comfortably get down to two basses but when it came to it this morning I couldn't contemplate parting with the Sandberg VT4 - so I guess that one is a keeper. The 2 electric guitars I have never play and they aren't expensive instruments, a mexican strat and fairly cheap Gretsch hollowbody - easily replacable if I ever missed them. I want to keep an acoustic 6 string though and upgrade my current one, funded by the bass cull perhaps.

I stumbled across this thread this evening just as I was thinking about my modest collection of 4x basses, 2x amps, 3x guitars etc. contemplating what to do with them. I received my custom J bass earlier this year, quit my band in 2019 and have no intention of joining anything serious again in the near future. So I ask myself why do I need more than the one custom instrument? I really like the idea of just focusing on the Shuker and letting go of all my GAS to spend more time playing and less time browsing the for sale section for a Sadowsky I can't afford and don't need. Experimenting with different pickups, string choices etc. Is more than enough to keep me occupied. The Shuker plays as well, if not better, than the other basses in my collection and it really covers a lot of ground tonally with the passive tone control and active bass / treble onboard EQ. I don't play metal and I can't see a Jazz style bass, even one with an elaborate wood finish and tweaked body styling, being out of place in any funk, jazz, blues or rock setting. I believe I've just talked myself into selling off all my other gear.

Me too, love these strings on my P. I've tried loads of different brands and gauge of flat wound string, including some other La Bella offerings, but these have been my favourite for that old school sound. My second favourite were Ernie Ball Group III's in 45-100. For my more modern sounding PJ it was Ernie Ball Cobalt flats 45-100, however I've switched back to rounds and La Bella RX in the same gauge. I've tried 105's a few times and I didn't get on with them, just too stiff under the fingers for me.

I exclusively use my VS4 in passive mode and swapped the stock large pole pick up out for a vintage voiced nordstrand - absolutely love how it it sounds now. thinking of doing the same with my vt4

Evening Chaps, rather than start a new band name thread I figured I'd jack this one that Bubinga5 started last year. I've been missing playing with a band in recent months and earlier this week I had an idea for a new project I'm really excited about. I came up with a name for it this evening that I really like and think works well for this thing but when researching it I found a band up north formed last year with the same name. What are the collective thoughts on just going with it anyway? After all they are up North and I'm in the South East, musically we'dbbe reasonably different and I'm not looking to start the next big thing touring the UK and Europe, low key and local is really all I'm looking for.

Apparently my local studio has reopening in the last week, with appropriate social distancing and cleaning routines introduced. Maybe some where near you is doing the same! Out of interest where are you looking for guitarists, JoinMyBand or some where else?

I'm still in, though sadly that's because I've barely touched the bass or logged on to basschat in the past few months. Lockdown seems to have dulled my enthusiam

My first bass amp was an Eden EC10 combo. I really loved it, well made and sounded great but I found it lacked power and features for jamming with a band so moved it on to fund a GK MB500. Now I have a few proper gigging rigs I kind of wish i still had it as a living room practice amp. Rather than the GK head I'd rather have got the Eden WTX 500 but it was a little out of my price range at the time. For some reason the Terra Nova range never really appealed to me (looked bulky and heavy), I don't know much about World Tour Pro range.

That's a relief, I feared I may have blown it in month 1 by ordering one of those Sesssion Cakes.

@Dad3353 posted a really great link for you. I agree with his advice that spending a bit of time reading up on basic theory is going to answer all your questions (and more). I just took a look st the website he recommended and it's perfect for you, reading these chapters will give you the knowledge you seek:

No problem, although I fear I have confused you more than helped. You wouldn't use the terms major or minor to describe the notes in the scale in the way you are implying, just the associated chords to those degrees in the scale. In a major scale, the II chord is always minor. For example in C major that is D minor, but in G major it would be A minor.

I'd recommend checking out some basic theory material, Joe Hubbard and Scott Devine have some great stuff if you don't mind paying to access it but there's a ton of free stuff on the web too. Very simply each degree of the scale has an associated chord to it, these are major, minor or diminished (ignoring the 7 for now). For the C major scale this is how the chords line up, the chord number to major / minor relationship is true for any key, only the note values change. I Chord - C - is major Ii Chord - D - is minor III Chord - E - is minor IV Chord - F - is Major V Chord - G - is Major Vi Chord A - is minor ViI Chord B - is diminished You could play the C major scale over these chords and it will (mostly) sound fine, but in the same way a rhythm guitarist or keyboardist plays chords as bass players we need to do the same. As the bridge between harmony and rhythm our job is to outline the chord progression by playing the chord tones / arpeggios - this is especially true with jazz where you could well be asked to play walking bass lines. Do.some research on intervals and chord tones, those concrpts should really help you understand this. Also since you seem to be into Jazz Learning Walking Bass is a great way to really understand this and where it all sits on the fretboard, or so I'm told. I'm still trying to perfect it myself.

That song does have a nice bass tone to it doesn't it. I was always a Alex Katunich fan, he popped up on my YouTube feed a couple of days ago promoting his new band (Eadt of June). Surprised to hear this was recorded with a 60s Jazz, I always assumed it was recorded with one of his Warwick Streamers.

I believe you are right, I think it was a 5 string Coda

Flea's tone on the BSSM album was incredible! i believe he was using his Wal bass and his GK Amps at the time - this album was the reason my first proper bass rig was a GK head & cab. Marcus Miller's slap tone on Renaissance is what I'm striving to get close to. I've spent quite a lot of time with my Helix trying to get the right levels of compression and EQ to get near it. And finally the drummer I play with loves some prog metal, in fact we are due to go see Steven Wilson in September but who knows if that will happen given the current situation, but Nick Beggs kind of nails that genre's bass tone for me. Again I've been working with the Helix to get close..

Another happy YSC user. I received mine a couple of days ago but I didn't have any AA batteries to hand (the kids had used them all in the xbox controllers) so I didn't get to actually use it until last night. I've previously had the VOX amplug and an EHX headphone amp. The VOX had some great features with built in drum loops and Aux in but the sound and build quality were pants. The EHX was a better built but lacked an Aux In which really limited it's usefulness for me. At 1/2 the price of either of the aforementioned items the Session Cake is far far superior. The sound quality is very good, no hiss even with treble maxed. I like you have a level control for the Aux in which made tweaking volumes quick and easy when playing along to different apps on my phone. Since my guitars are all active lack of EQ like you'd get on Ashdown's tone pocket wasn't an issue. Very grateful to the OP for sharing this!

I really enjoyed that !

That's a tasty looking VM4. Would love to hear what the black label pickups sound like.