chris_b

I'd suggest your right hand technique might also need tidying up. It could be that you are not plucking the strings accurately enough, ie you're hitting other strings when you play a note.

I didn't find any noticeable difference between through body and top loading stringing on my Lakland. After that discovery I always strung through the bridge. I'd make 2 suggestions; put your 4 string basses away and don't get them out for at least 6 months. Then, learn one thing at a time. Trying to master two new concepts, floating thumb and 5 strings, simultaneously has the potential to derail the whole project. Most of us easily adapted out 4 string thumb positions to a 5 string. Muting an extra string isn't a big deal. You just have to be careful and tidy in your playing style. In reality you still have a 4 string bass under your fingers, so just play how you would normally play. The B string can be introduced little by little over time.

Don't analyse. If a bass feels good play it. I've not had this problem. If I'm selling a bass it's because I've already bought he replacement and the replacement is definitely staying.

The guitar solo is in 4/4 because Dave Gilmore couldn't solo in 7/4! Time signatures are patterns. Like words and grammar, after practice and repetition they become second nature. I played with John Mealing, the keyboard player with 70's band If. They were legendary for using impossible time signatures, and he told us he didn't count anything. He just came up with a pattern and followed it.

I saw ToP first in Boston in 1973 and several times since in London. Cracking band and a unique bass style. I seem to have picked up some of Rocco's preference for hand movement, rather than finger movement, in my fretting hand style, but I can't play 16ths anywhere near as fast as he could. What a great player.

I de fretted my first bass, a Framus Star bass. I wanted to make it more double bass sounding. It worked, after a fashion, but I wouldn't do it again. I took a kitchen knife and slid it under the frets. They just lifted out. I used Polyfiller to fill the gaps. That was a good move because the white finish enabled me to see the fret marking on dark stages. Something I hadn't even thought about before hand! I wouldn't use super glue. IMO you need a process that can be reversed without causing too much damage, if you should change your mind later. These days I'd just buy a fretless bass.

I prefer anonymous black cabs at the back of the stage.

Interesting. I had a JJ Cale project that got rained off by the first Covid lockdown.

The Band, The Meters and Little Feat were fantastic "ensemble" players. You could probably include every Funk band in that list. Funk is a team genre. Also the studio bands like the Funk Brothers, the Swampers and Booket T and the MG's with Isaac Hayes at Stax.

I record a lot of Sky Arts. Recently watched programs on Chess Records, Joe Cocker, Aretha Franklin, Blues in Chicago and Chuck Berry. Mumford and Sons is on at the moment. Great channel.

I was making allowances for the recording. I like his style, it's just slap solos don't do it for me. I still loved that drummer.

Dozens of basses feature in the styles of music you listed in your first post. Don't limit yourself. Try as many as you can find. Don't get tied up with the minutiae of particular sounds. Find a bass that you like to play, put a good set of strings on it, get a good sound out of it, then off you go.

LJ is one of the better purveyors of slap, in my book, but I'm not so sure about this video. Even LJ in a solo gets me yawning. Loved that drummer, though.

Here we go again. If these cabs sound as good as they almost certainly will, then who gives at rats derrière about the logo!!

Get a box from a cycle shop. You'll have to trim it to size, but they are very strong.

That's DSP. All big touring PA's use it, so why not bass.

If it helps, I once knew a bass player called Robert.

If someone dies of Covid they are a Covid death. If they die of something else, even having tested positive for Covid, they are not a Covid death! And why is there a time limit?

Put the strap over your right shoulder, like some guitarists, Albert Collins etc, do,

I've been in very few bands that didn't play at least one original song. That includes the cover bands. If I get a vote in a band, I'll judge the song not who wrote it. Labels are a pointless distraction, unfortunately, too many originals bands aren't original at all. The better bands (of any style) play songs that are interesting. IMO a good covers band beats a bad originals band every time, and vice versa.

If your tendons hurt when you play, try warming up before you start. If you want to play with a straighter wrist then get a longer strap and lower your bass. If your hand is hurting because of an acute wrist angle, develop a lighter touch. Do all three before you spend a fortune on another bass.

You are right, but at the start of new product lines there are always teething problems. I think we are only talking about one bass. If so, that's not the end of the world. How the issues are managed and resolved that will affect the reputation of these Sadowsky basses, not one bass with a problem.

Just talking!!

I don't have anything to do with the Army and I'm absolutely certain we don't need a nuclear deterrent, let along a totally modernised one, but I'm still paying for those. . . . and don't get me started on how much our Politicians are costing us!! IMO the cost of the BBC is insignificant in comparison.

Like it. The "rough edges" compliment the feel of the song.