TheLowDown

I buy my gear based on whatever gives me the best value for money. Where it's made is irrelevant in my decision, but I doubt any will be British. I would have to look. I notice that there is no Eastern made gear listed there, which is odd given the overwhelming prevalence in modern day times. Any reason why?

The damage is being done when the fingers are moving quickly, forcefully, repetitively while the wrist is bent at an uncomfortable angle. Light pressure and less finger movement will be less damaging than fast and furious finger movement with a bent wrist. A bent wrist with no finger movement does not cause any damage. I would hazard a guess that punk, metal, and rock players would be far more susceptible to carpel tunnel syndrome than country or jazz musicians, for instance. Those fast and repetitive 16th note rhythms, while trying to look cool with their low strung bass, is a ticking timebomb that will inevitably take its toll.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just quoting what someone else said earlier in the thread. It was meant to be 4-5, not 4-6 fwiw. Whatever the number happens to be, then that's the only accuracy that's needed.

If the human ear is only accurate to 4-6 cents then that's all that's needed. I tune every day before playing, first by ear and then by tuner to within +/- 3. I generally fuss about far more important things.

Took me a long time to warm to rap/hip-hop because of all the mentions of Ns and Hs and Bs, which I didn't want to hear in music especially. It wasn't until I started playing the bass that I tuned out the lyrics and focused on the beat. I prefer the independent non-commercial hip hop.

Wow! Nice bass. If I didn't already have a 5 string fretted I would have bought the blue version in a heartbeat, assuming it's relatively lightweight.

That's interesting! A theory about tinnitus is that the frequencies that we hear are the brain's way of compensating for those frequencies that we hear the least well We typically hear higher pitched frequencies in our tinnitus because they're usually the first ones to not be heard so well. But if yours are lower pitched, then perhaps that may have some impact on you as a bassist.

Every day for the last year and a bit during my warm up exercises, I've been practising permutations to the metronome at a current 200bpm, keeping each finger as close to the fingerboard as is possible while applying the absolute minimum pressure before fret buzz occurs. I think a lot of the technique for this transfers into other areas of the bass. As rightly stated by DiMarco, it really helps to make the flying finger disappear (within 6-12 months it will). The less the fingers have to travel, the less fatigue over time. It trains the fingers to develop equal strength (there is a tendency for people to concentrate on their strengths rather than developing their weaknesses, so often this means that people will avoid doing things that use their little finger, preferring to use the simandl technique instead)

Mine is like background noise so I'm unaware of it most of the time. Like breathing, as one person has said. It may or may not be directly as a result of diet, but diet affects stress levels and mood, of which definitely has an effect on the intensity of the ringing. High stress, loud ringing. So best to stay from sugary things and to reduce caffeine intake. Jaw issues can also make it worse.

I'm using them now, and not found any reason not to recommend them. Price is reasonable when they're on sale. I don't know what they're like for slap because I've no intention of ever finding out

My heaviest is a 6 string HB at 9.9lb. The HB 4 strings were somewhere between 7 and 8lb. Not sure about the 5 string. Being lightweight is important, but balance is importanter.

Nah don't worry. I would only have been offended if you'd said they were Fenders.

They're all Harley Bentons from the progressive range. Cheap Inexpensive and cheerful but they do me. The one on the left is this.

The white one. If I gave up bass but later decided to return, I would be less likely to want to pick up a fretless, a 5 string or a 6 string.

I would keep the precision and sell all of the jazzes given that's your favourite. What can the jazz do that the precision can't that you absolutely need? Probably nothing, so there's your answer. Doing a Marie Kondo with basses is always empowering because you'll be down to what you need rather than having lots of baggage around the house which could be sold and spent on something genuinely more useful. Before I sell something I always have a twinge of "What if I regret it later?", "But it's so attractive looking though", "What if it will comes in useful later on?", "What if....?", but experience has told me that I never miss anything I sell, and once it's out the door it's forgotten. Life goes on and the world keeps turning. I've mentioned elsewhere in a similar thread, I always ask myself "if this bass was the only one I had, would I be contented?" If the answer is not "yes", then it gets sold. It's often an illusion to believe that we really need something, and it's often the case that we keep things because we just want to own them. In my case, every one of my 5 basses is functional for my uses at this time - 4 string fretted, 4 string fretless, 5 string fretted, 6 string fretted and fretless. If I gave up bass, then all but one would be sold. They're good enough and each serves a specific purpose, and that's fine with me.

The difference in actual quality between inexpensive and expensive is usually minimal nowadays because of the costs of labour and high level of machining, so you really don't have to spend much to get a decent quality bass on a budget. What you could do if you're undecided between fretted and fretless is get 2 basses identical to each other, but one is fretted and one is fretless. Both of these are quite lightweight around 8lb or under.

Just listening to it now and really quite like it. The track 'No other feeling' reminds slightly of Rainy Milo. Thanks for the recommendation.

Just sell what you don't need. Lots of people get GAS and end up with about 200 basses, most being bought because they liked the colour that day or they had a crap day at the office and wanted something to cheer them up. I find it's refreshing to have a clear out, but beforehand I always have the feeling that I will miss them for one reason or another, but I never do. It's an illusion. And once they're sold I never give them a second thought. For each bass you should ask yourself if this was the only bass you had, would you be content? If the answer is NO, get rid. For the OP. I would put it to one side for a while.

You've cut down your range of choice by a significant percentage then. I doubt that there is many, if any, company that has an unblemished human rights record when you dig down through the supply chains, whatever BS they give you about their corporate ethics. I would go for a Harley Benton because they're inexpensive and I've never found a reason not to recommend one.

This? https://apps.apple.com/us/app/notes-sight-reading-trainer/id874386416

Money saved, unless you're a collector.

Still a big fan of Joy Division.

One exercise I do is to set the metronome to something like 13/4, but have it so that only the 1st beat is audible. Start off at a tempo of 90 and play a note when you think the 1st beat is, so you have to train your internal sense of rhythm to guess where each pulse is. In another exercise you can try guessing the 3rd and 12th beat. Or decrease the tempo. You can also try playing each of the standard basic building-block sudivisions such as these, but play the same one on each beat for several measures. After you've learnt them and got the timing right, play each one randomly when you're jamming. Hope it helps.

Incredible value for money, so I bought the B650 and B450 too.

If you can't hear intervals that well, so what. People aren't born knowing them, and it often takes work to become good. It's something that you can gradually improve upon. Think baby steps, then there's no mountain to climb. Personally I don't aim to be the best bassist there is because it's never going to happen and it's not important anyway, I just aim to become the best that I can and to enjoy myself along the way. The problem with a lot of people is that it's always tempting to compare with someone else (don't take too much notice of social media, kids. Full of fake and carefully pruned lives), and they feel demotivated because there is always someone 'better'.You may see people who seem to be good, but you won't see all the hard work and pain that they've gone through to get there, and it can give the impression as if it's come naturally to them. Good luck.