Beedster

Many genres, far from being less biased against older performers, are biased against the younger. Who wants to see an 18-year old singing real blues, even Jazz. There is a sense that, even if the performance is outstanding, the emotion and experience underlying it is lacking, that the performer is going through the motions. Of course, this isn't always the case, plenty of 18-year olds have had enough emotional upheaval to last most of us a lifetime, and there's probably a few rugged and rusty old blues performers who've actually had very little, but either way there is a perceived authenticity that come with age and the absence of youth and beauty in some genres. I am currently working very hard on losing my youth and beauty, and am going to take the blues world by storm in about 7 years. Watch this space 👍

Yes, all good points. Another problem with 4ths is that you lose so much of the range of the cello, and that's one of the things that makes the cello such an extraordinary instrument. So if you're tuning an 8ve up from DB you're losing most of the lowest pitch string in standard cello tuning, which would be an odd decision if you're looking for it to play a bass-like role? Will it sound good? There's plenty of stuff about the more common use of violin tuning on viola and vice versa, and the jury is very much out, the idea being the dimensions/volume of the body is optimised for the normal range of the instrument and moving too far away from that reduces tonal quality. Looking forward to hearing how it goes 👍

It's funny, I was taught music practice and theory on the violin, so learned 5th tuning. I moved to guitar in my mid-teens, then bass, then double bass, and picked up 4th tuning easily. I started playing mandolin 10 or so years ago and really struggled with 5th tuning, really struggled. Then I picked up a fiddle again about 6 years back having not played to 30 odd years, and surprisingly 5ths felt completely natural on that instrument. But importantly for me at the time, my learning on mandolin was accelerated in large part by my playing more fiddle, thinking harder about positions, shapes and progressions as I did. What has been great is that I was classically trained on fiddle so very much orchestral in style, but having transferred my understanding of 5th tuning from violin to mandolin, as I started to learn bluegrass on the latter I took that back to fiddle. I'm no bluegrass fiddle player in real terms (I can prove it), but I'm able for the first time in my life to play music I actually like on the fiddle, e.g., Old Crow Medicine Show style bluegrass. But dare I say it, I think we could all learn a lot from guitarists also. As bass players we tend to be quite rigid around tuning but most of the guitarists I play with play comfortable in a range of different open tunings depending on the song, and while some use different instruments, some simply retune really quickly. Perhaps - and I don't know - part of the problem is that bass strings respond less well to being tuned away from their intended pitch than guitar strings, but either way, varying open tunings often allows guitarists to play stuff they couldn't play on standard tuning, and also aids the creative process by subverting their expectations of what a certain shape or progression is going to sound like. I guess I'm saying to the OP that I think it's good to mess with tuning, and that learning a new instrument in its standard tuning might send you on a journey that learning it in a tuning you're already familiar with might not. Good luck either way 👍 PS Owen, I've just remembered I still owe you a P-Retro.......!!!!!!!!

I have played violin/viola (properly), cello (semi-properly) and DB (badly). To me, despite being upright, cello feels more like violin and viola in terms of playing and required precision of both hands. Gareth is spot on re the bow, a DB would be like trying to mow the front lawn with a combined harvester. I know I'm going to regret asking, but if you want DB range from an upright stringed instrument, why the hell not just play a DB? If you are after an easier to play instrument, get a smaller DB! A cello with an octaver probably won't get you close unless you are looking for a specific and likely quite synthetic effect (i.e., you'll loose a lot of the character of the cello itself). I saw a vid a while back of a hipster band in which the bass was played on cello (in the video) and remember thinking, "that's not what he played on the track"

Well, about 18 months ago I sold an Ampeg Portaflex unit to Jeff (the PF50 15" flip-top unit). The list of factors that stopped the transaction happening (all my end by the way) included Covid, a housefire, international travel bans and unreliable singers (long story), but I'm delighted to say that Jeff finally has his Ampeg. Lovely bloke, and as might be suggested above, very patient! Highly recommended Basschatter. Chris

Love it 👍

Folks I need to sense check a few things ahead of some upcoming gigs: 1. Are people generally asking their band-mates about vaccination status? 2. Are people generally asking their band-mate to take rapid flow tests ahead of rehearsals and gigs? 3. What precautions are bands taking at gigs? I'd guess that these issues have been covered in topics elsewhere on BC, but i started reading a couple of threads and there's a whole lot of politics and rhetoric making it hard to get to the simple stuff. I'd really appreciate the honest opinions of Basschatters as fellow musicians on these things and politely request that we keep politics etc out of it. Thanks in advance Chris

I hope folks on the internet are arguing about me when I'm 80

Well there you go, get into OT, talk some bollocks and get into some arguments, and you'll be unbanned

Haven't gigged in two years, four gigs in a week coming up, two outdoors which is nice

This probably comes down to ............ could do it but probably wouldn't be as good as ............?

I auditioned about four of them a few years back when I was switching to fiddle

Yep, there are drummers out there can play Rush parts and make them sound great but couldn't play Stones, just as there are bassists out there who can play Jaco's first album note for note but can't hold down a Root-Fifth with any feel. Horses for courses, technical genius doesn't cover all basses by any means

Nice playing guys

She’s been detuned

Absolutely, she has a well-trained and well rehearsed voice, it takes skill to be so consistently out of tune. To quote Withnail and I (badly), even a broken clock is right two times a day

Or I'm completely missing the point

Or promotion for the 3rd vid in the OP