Baloney Balderdash

Exactly. With Nylon you do get that specific snappy emphasis of the attack only possible to achieve by using a pick, but without the click sound, which you may or may not like, that comes with harder and stiffer materials like Tortex for instance. Nylon has a slightly rounder tone to it, but without loosing that very specific signature emphasis of the attack that for me at least is one of the absolute main reason for using a pick rather than my fingers, which you would loose using something like a rubber, leather or filt pick, making those seem a bit pointless to me.

The thumb "strumming" thing is called "double thumb". Victor Wooten uses that technique a lot (comes more naturally and also sound wise goes well with slapping).

As the title says, does anyone else make regular use, that is as an integrated part of your regular playing, of the flamenco inspired index and/or middle finger flicking picking technique? I personally started systematically practicing it somewhere around last year, personally using either index or middle finger interchangeably, then kind of forgot to keep up at it, but then recently I went to mainly using my fingers rather than a pick for plucking the strings of my bass, so I took up starting using this technique again, and for some strange reason I have gotten better at it in the meantime without really practicing it. I still don't exactly master this technique, pretty far from in fact, but I do feel like I am actually fairly decent at it already. Doing it with precision, so that you only hit one string and doesn't bump into the one above or bellow the one you intend to pick, and only hitting the string with the outmost edge of you finger tip/nail on both up and down strokes, without frequently missing it entirely, as well as the fact that you actually need to relax in your hands, and with guarantee will fail if your hands/fingers are too tense, does make it rather tricky when you first start out deciding to learn this technique, but I actually can do this pretty consistently now, my main issue currently really just being a matter of hitting a speed limit before I mess up, not being able to do it consistently at the kind of speed I ideally would want to, and then not having quite as much control over my index finger as my middle finger yet, but I totally feel like I am actually slowly getting there, and that I actually got it pretty decently down, to a point where it is actually practically applicable for me, at least at relatively moderate speed. But when one does master this technique it makes it possible to obtain quite high speeds of picking/strumming strings, as well as it is perfect or strumming several strings at a time (kind of a variation of this technique, sort of raking index+middle+ring finger successively flicking across the strings), otherwise only really possible by using a pick, but in fact even actually more effortlessly so, and while also still really having it's totally own thing going that allows for some types of expression unique to this specific way of playing. Mind I don't use it as the only picking technique but combine it with regular 2 finger plucking (regular 3 finger plucking, that is index+middle+ring I only really exclusively use for Steve Harris style galloping stuff), classical guitar style finger picking, double thumbing, as well as faux, thumb + index finger pressed together, pick style (the two former techniques, regular 2 finger plucking and classical guitar style finger picking, being what I predominantly utilizes, and the remaining 3, double thumb, faux finger pick, and flamenco finger flicking, being utilized to a somewhat lesser degree, which one of those depending, mainly in situations where you would otherwise probably had preferred using a pick over the traditional 2 finger plucking technique). Using your fingers this way, combining several different finger picking techniques to play the bass, rather than just a pick, really opens up for a lot more variety of expression. I couldn't find the video I wanted to link to, by someone who really masters this technique, playing a crazily fast picked solo, using his index and middle finger interchangeably with a lot of string crossing involved, and in general I had a hard time finding really good examples of this technique demonstrated, however I did find this quite decent demonstration of the technique, this guy using index and middle finger in tandem, starts at about the 1:38 mark of the video: This cover gives a bit better idea of how it can sound and how high picking speeds it allows for (and yes it does sound great without distorted bass too, I just couldn't find any great examples of it on YouTube): I know Geddy Lee adopted this technique, allegedly from Les Claypool, and started making wide use of.

The Elixir Nanoweb coated roundwound stainless steel strings will be brighter sounding with more edge to them, generally sounding and feeling more similar to fresh regular uncoated nickel-plated roundwounds, whereas the Nanoweb coated nickel-plated roundwound Elixir strings will sound rounder and warmer, less bright and feel smoother than regular uncoated nickel-plated roundwound strings. From Elixir's homepage : Mind the description of the feel of the strings on these packages, under the sound description, respectively "Smooth" and "Natural", really should have been the other way around, that is "Natural" for the stainless steel strings and "Smooth" for the nickel-plated ones.

I consider swapping out the standard bend steel plate vintage style bridge with mono rail bridge pieces instead, so would like to know if anyone got experience with this, and if I should expect any change in tone and if so in what way? I realize that it in any case would be a rather subtle change, but in my experience relatively subtle changes can actually make a quite significant and essential difference when talking tone. My guess would be that mono rail bridge pieces might improve definition, articulation, sustain and resonance slightly, because of the more direct contact with the body of the bass as well as less vibrations transferred across strings. If it makes any difference if I am going through with this it will be mono rail bridge pieces each milled from one piece of solid brass, rather than molded ones.

In my experience high mass bridges in general smooth/round out/off the tone and in a way makes the bass sound more polite and uniform, I'd even claim lacking character and sounding kind of bland, in comparison to a traditional bend steel plate vintage style bridge.

Though how would I go about making myself a Geddy Poo?

"The only one who could ever reach me Was the son of a pizza man The only boy who could ever teach me Was the son of a pizza man Yes, he was, he was, ooh, yes, he was"

I have no personal experience with it, but these guys get nothing but no less than absolutely amazing tones out of it: However as far as i understood from what I read about it it is quite sensitive to input impedance and doesn't cope well with being placed after buffered pedals (or, I assume, active basses), as is actually pretty commonly the case with fuzz pedals.

Thomann sells the 5 string Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro Bass (mind at the moment it says 5-7 weeks before they got them back in stock): https://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_gsrm25_bk.htm

Because the amount that the strings are shifted by the nut doesn't add up for how much the strings are shifted overall. My best bet is that the neck is slightly shifted in the pocket as well, likely less than you can determine by simply looking at it, but enough to add up to that string shift towards the low E string together with the shifted nut slots. It's actually a fairly common phenomena, and easily fixed by loosening the neck bolts, giving the neck a nudge, then tightening the bolts again. You would however still have to get a new nut cut as well to fix the issue entirely.

For the better though as far as I am concerned. Both in terms of the colors being more subtle/mellow pastel color like, the yellow one looks awesome in this video, probably even my favorite out of these finishes, which wasn't the case when judging from the pictures, and also in terms of the bridge pickup not being quite as far back in reality. I agree though that it is unfortunate and seems really strange and unprofessional.

DiMarzio Model P

String spacing is fine, but it is shifted towards the low E strings. Definitely not okay.

I don't know if I'd call that easy, sounds rather circumstantial to me, and kind of expensive as well (unless one got the tools needed and know how to do so themself, which I am pretty certain most people don't), and like one might as well buy a different bass that fits their preferences better.

Damn! That's no short of fantastically amazing!

And this is exponentially true to how awful you play.

Well, I invented a pickup that only amplifies the pauses in between songs. Just wait till I get it on the market, I am confident it is going to be a huge success. Can't believe no one else ever thought about that.

Looks great. Though I do wonder if they have decided where exactly to place that bridge pickup, or if that is supposed to be a random surprise feature, different on all units. And that tiny piece of pickguard to me kind of looks a bit random and misplaced. Also this, in my opinion, looks even greater, and also seems to have a slightly more narrow neck, which for me is a plus too: In any case the really poor upper frets access and the far neck position mudbucker pickup makes it an absolute no go for me.

I don't know where you are getting all this from, not anything I wrote at least. I just want someone with ears who knows how to adjust properly accordingly to what they actually hear and what they otherwise have been told is your tonal goals, with at least a minimum of knowledge and understanding about/of different genres of music/types of musical expressions, is that really too much to ask from someone who is supposed to be responsible for the sound of the bands playing? One would think that actually being a pretty essential and vital "detail" of a live performance. As said I have always been fortunate, also when playing at open air festivals, so is actually totally possible, just not my general impression from what I've read that this is as common as one (or well, obviously not you) would perhaps otherwise expect.

Probably Scott Devine of Scott’s Bass Lessons.

The perfect way to amplify finger noises for that coveted authentic acoustically played electric bass sound, and as a bonus it mutes your low E and high G string in a lovely unmusical way. A must have tool for the experimental bass player. A new clever way to prepare your bass for new musical frontiers, to dare go where no man has gone before!

I don't see how that could possibly be the logical conclusion of my point, perhaps in fact rather the contrary. Though to answer you question, I have personally always mostly been unfortunately whenever PA support was needed at gigs with happening to have a competent sound guy behind the mixing console, and in terms of recording it has always either been a case of one of my bandmates who happened to also be a competent sound engineer (and yes, some of this was on a real record label, with the same guy engineering/producing for other artists on the same label as well. And yes, he would usually mic up the bass cabs, and with several different mics too), or in later years myself. What I wrote in my initial reply though is based on reading countless, hundreds, if you need numbers, reports throughout the years from different musicians on various musician forums being unhappy with the treatment they have received from sound engineers at gigs as well as in studio recording situations (and most of these musicians also pointing this out as being a general recurrent experience with different sound guys), and, compared to above described personal experience, what I wrote seems to be what all those reports really come down to: incompetent people who call themself sound engineers who are not working with the musicians, but rather insisting on cramping their one size fit all solutions down over musician's heads (be it out of lazy selfish convenience or genuine incompetence), or said in another way, insisting on getting their one "magic" square block down through just about any shape of hole they meet, and following this analogy, and I guess this is where the genuine imcompetence comes in, perhaps not even recognizing the hole actually being a different shape.