Cantdosleepy

Brill - thanks for all the advice! It's going to be a good month until I can afford this - time to put some serious thought in!

Is a blend control a good idea on a passive? I've only ever seen them on actives. So what would that be, then? 'volume / blend / tone' ? Which one of those babies would be most sensible for coil tapping?

Yeah - I played a deluxe P a few years ago. I really enjoyed it, but I'm just not an active electronics person. Would it make sense just to have the classic jazz 'volume neck / volume bridge / tone' pot combo on a bass with this pickup combo?

The P/J is common, and so is J/MM. Have you guys ever seen a P/MM? What do you think it would be good for? I'm planning on getting some new pickups at Xmas for my MIJ jazz, and I've been tempted by the talk surrounding Wizard. Would a P/MM combo be an insane switchup from J/J?

That's no doubt true. But a lot of teachers don't have the wherewithall to refuse paying customers, and if the customer want to give you money to teach them something specific, then you should probably try to teach them that (even if it is of little or no pertinence in terms of their development as a player). And either way, swearing at the little mites is probably not the best way to broaden their minds.

I ate a hippy once. Tasted like hemp.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='98019' date='Dec 3 2007, 11:39 AM']Tell them to 'f*** off' and get a life..... [/quote] Boo! If they want to shred and can pay the teacher and ask to be taught that then why shouldn't the teacher help them to shred? It's not for you, but it's what they want. They'd probably say the same thing about someone who went to a teacher and said 'Teach me to play jazz.' Also, the majority of students go into any kind of course not knowing exactly what they really want to learn, or wanting to learn something that in the end they realise isn't for them. A good teacher nurtures and broadens horizons. Or, y'know, swears at them to f*** off. This whole 'tolerating other's musical tastes and desires' is a two-way-street, you know...

Virtuosos or people who are naturally gifted at something are rarely good at teaching that thing. I had a maths teacher who was a real maths whizz. He was a dreadful teacher because he couldn't understand why we didn't 'get it'. He couldn't understadn our troubles, our inability to grasp because it came so easily to him. Jeff Berlin's metronome advice strikes me as similar. Metronomes are not so important for people with naturaly good timing, or people who have a host of excellent drummers at their disposal. I don't think that Jeff has sat down with an absolute beginner with no appreciable talent for a long time. For those people a metronome (and I count drum machines in the same category - a computer device that makes a noise every n seconds against which a student can guage their timing) is invaluable. Just picked up their ffirst Squier P bass from cash converters and want to begin to start playing in time? How can a metronome be a bad thing? Last band I was in, the timing was pretty sketchy so we tried a couple of times putting the metronome through the PA so we could all hear it. The guitarist objected, saying that he played to the drummer, not the metro. If you can't follow a metro, you can't follow your drummer.

The least attractive thing to me about bass, bassists and bass forums (this one included to a certain extent, but not this one specifically) is the insecurities of the players across all genre and technique lines. Back-to-basics bassists and punk ethos bassists are always making jabs towards the techy ERB players. ERB players are always sniping at the simple play of the basic-types. ERBs and basic-types together are always taking cheap shots at guitar players (even asterisking the word or coming up with witless substitutes). We're all on the same team, guys. Personally, I do get tired of the number of times that Jaco and Wooten and Claypool and Sheehan and Miller and King are bought up on this site (and the bass areas generally) as a stick with which to beat other players, or as a yardstick of personal progression. I also get tired of the root note reactionaries, or team Jamerson and the groove-is-all,-but-only-the-kind-of-groove-I-condone gang responding with the argument that fast tapping multi string polyrhythm stuff is a betrayal of true 'bassiness'. 'The bass is a young instrument and people should still be pushing the boundaries of what it can do' is a very valid and sensible position. 'ERB nights only really draw a crowd of other ERB players' is also truer than most of the ERB gang would like to admit. As PC as I would like to keep this post, I know that every one of my non-bass playing friends would be bored off their chairs by a clever slap interpretation of Norwegian Wood. Why does this continue to cause such friction? I like simple bass lines. I play simple bass lines. I listen to simple bass lines. This doesn't mean I should begrudge the eight-string virtuosos. There are a lot of cool cats on this forum who play things I never could. The fact that I wouldn't want to play those pieces doesn't detract from the awesomeness of their skills. We're on the same team, guys!

[quote name='theosd' post='95843' date='Nov 28 2007, 10:22 PM']This is clearly gonna become a full blown 'guilty pleasures' thread [/quote] Ain't nothing guilty about CYHSY. They smell great.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Been listening to their first album for about a month now. The bass lines are all nice and simple but interesting with a good groove and a nice tone that sits well in the mix and is sweet with a touch of muscle. The drummer plays nice tight lines as well, an they go really well together. Anyone else like CYHSY?

I use the line 6 PODxt live, and I have one blank patch in each bank (1C, 2C, 3C, 4C etc) so that it's always a simple tap to bypass. The tuner is a bit more of a hassle.

fun fun fun! They've taken over London.

Welcome to the forum! Hooray, a new bass player! I agree with most of the chat here. Go try stuff out! Avoid Denmark Street! Sound control's got lots of stuff! You can get a bass that plays lovely for £250! Don't forget - it's important that your bass is nice and friendly to play and feels goo in your hands, but it's also important that it makes you feel like a rockstar when you hold it. It's no good getting a bass that sounds great and feels great but looks ugly in your eyes. When you see your bass on the stand, you should want to pick it up and play it. What's right for you and what's right for the shop assistant and what has the best 'spec' aren't always the same thing. Play basses until you find one that feels good and right, even if you can't tell yourself why. Welcome!

I hadn't thought of that. I've got a Peavey Milestone P copy I could lend him...

Humans are evolving thumbs that can't do slap technique to protect us from it. Remember: every time you play slap bass, Jesus sheds a tiny tear.

Silence, Trotskyite!

[quote name='paul, the' post='94084' date='Nov 25 2007, 12:03 PM']A good Literature teacher will straighten anyone out.[/quote] I thought book-readin' was for homosexuals and the like?

[quote name='Beedster' post='93746' date='Nov 24 2007, 01:16 PM']One thing that stands out is that g*it*rists and singers seem to be somewhat placebo-responsive.[/quote] You also have to bear in mind that those two groups tend to be the two groups that get a beating here in most categories. In the same way that any story about massive idiocy always happened 'in America' (and in America those same anecdotes exist but are attributed to Mexico or Canada) guitarists are kind of this forum's 'similar other'.

I prefer whiskey. That cool? We're all good here, folks. ERBs are cool. EADGs are cool. ARGH's cool. Mods are cool. Cool cool cool.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='91566' date='Nov 20 2007, 04:02 PM']I think this is a macho thing. Hard cases for hard blokes who eat hard food like hot curries and watch hard films with Steven Segal in and grow hard plants like cactii and drive hard cars like 4wds and have hard 9 string basses and play hard music like metal and wear hard leather and ride hard bikes like Harleys and do hard sports like snowboarding and tombstoning and stuff and beat you up for looking at them and drink hard drinks like Stella and cider and wear black. Thing.[/quote] Okay then.

[quote name='OldGit' post='91469' date='Nov 20 2007, 01:41 PM']Hey look, I know this is a friendly forum etc, but if you ask that sort of question without at least bunging "name of person" + Bass into google and/or youtube you are going to get a reaction as if you were being funny ... You can at least do a bit of ground work yourself if you don't want to appear like a numpty... This is Mark King's funniest youtube apperance by far [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAY-zURlGA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAY-zURlGA[/url][/quote] A fair point indeed. I could have googled him, or wiki'd him. But then again 90% of the info on this site is available through google. I wanted to hear who he was from basschatters, in the same way that when you're chatting with mates down the pub about a film a mate just saw you ask him what it's about, and don't google the synopsis on your mobile. Sense of community and all that. Thanks for the youtube! Something that I would not have found on my own through Google! Hooray for the community!

What were you doing with a car on the stage?

[quote name='Jase' post='89725' date='Nov 17 2007, 12:41 AM']Don't mean to be ignorant chaps ...but why don't you use a hard case, any particular reason? Just wondering why you opt for a gig bag rather than the more protective hard case.[/quote] I don't have a car, so I lug my bass, head and cab to practice with me on the bus. This is just about do-able with a rucksack bass (although I always get to the studio sweating like a bear).

Yeah. Something-something Brookes, I think?