EssentialTension

I use luggage scales. They work fine and very cheap.

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1371296948' post='2112248'] Marco Mendoza once gave me some great advice about achieving a solid tone in the studio but sadly I forgot every word almost immediately (damn you Jack Daniels!!!!) [/quote] He told me the same - 'Stay sober'.

He's a member here - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/user/16564-jauqo-iii-x/"]http://basschat.co.uk/user/16564-jauqo-iii-x/[/url]

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1371286888' post='2112061'] I bet Flea could make a Squier 50s P sound like Flea. [/quote] Strange that because I reckon Entwistle/Jamerson/Burnell/deleteasapplicable would have made it sound quite different.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1371279822' post='2111981'] It's the songs. They performed are pre-Trevor Horn versions of "Relax" and "Two Tribes" on The Tube (which is how Paul Morley and Trevor Horn discovered them) and while they don't have the polish of the final recorded items, all the basic elements are there. Apart from the 4 singles and their cover of "Born To Run" the rest of the first album is pretty much filler. No amount of production or session musician playing can disguise that. [/quote] I agree with this and Born To Run is a very good example of a cover that is not merely a cover.

Get some Rotosound Trubass Black Nylons, or some La Bella Black Nylons, or some Pyramid Black Nylons, or the GHS Black Nylons - no coating coming off any of those.

I can't remember who said it but he told me 'Don't give up your day job'.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1371223738' post='2111429'] Granted. [/quote] Though I'd grant that much of it may be unconscious to the person.

Since Bassworld but I don't remember how I got there. I guess I was googling something bass related.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1371137756' post='2110380'] ... When people say fingers, they really mean BRAIN ... [/quote] I'd say that when people say 'fingers' they ought not to mean 'brain', but they should really mean 'person'. My brain alone doesn't play bass any more than my fingers alone do; I play bass.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1371139199' post='2110413'] I like the shape but that hole looks totally arse. [/quote] Me too, it looked good till I saw the pickups.

If you have no amplification then an acoustic bass guitar will not be heard above any other instruments. It's a fact. With an unamplified double bass you might just manage to be loud enough if you are an experienced and strong player.

I saw him at Hammersmith Apollo a few years ago - expensive but worth it and also up close.

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1371020696' post='2108619'] And a quick google later... It seems it was invented in 1980 to sell records by Bam Caruso. [url="http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/music/coventry-freakbeat-still-being-celebrated-4029682"]http://www.coventryt...ebrated-4029682[/url] [/quote] I didn't know that but I was in a band thinking of itself as kind of freakbeat revival in 1983ish.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1370992714' post='2108529'] Of course i know when the term Freak Beat was first used but it annoyed me than and continues to annoy me. If you'd have used this term to describe a type of music in the 60s or 70s in your local record shop the men in white coats would have come to take you away. To me it's a re writing of history and the term should be banished forever. [/quote] Historical periodization is always after the fact and looking back.

It's not a term that was used at the time but I understood it now to mean that tight period around 1966-1967 when what had been [u][b]beat[/b][/u] groups, often influenced by US soul and R&B, became purveyors of psychedelia (that's the [b][u]freak[/u][/b] part). Mind altering substances may have been involved.

It's not at all uncommon with flats for the strings to start to sound (even) better after a few weeks on the bass. So persevere with them.

Acoustic basses are not a waste of time although many are rather worse than others. In terms of sound the ideal acoustic bass is an upright bass. Amongst the acoustic bass guitars there are several that will do the job amplified (which is completely reasonable when even the acoustic guitars are amplified) and without sounding like an electric bass. I use a Takamine B10. But, in the circumstances described by the OP, using an electric bass preferably fretless and preferably with flats would also look and sound fine.

[quote name='mart' timestamp='1370871341' post='2106616'] I've got TI flats tuned DGCF on almost all of my basses. It works for me! [/quote] Is that E tuned down to D or B tuned up to D?

[quote name='thodrik' timestamp='1370865679' post='2106474'] I wouldn't try to tune a BEAD set of strings to anything higher than C standard due to the rise in string tension. [/quote] Yes, but the point of trying it with TI Jazz Flats is that they are very low tension.

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1370847551' post='2106130'] How did that go? It's something that has crossed my mind more than once to try out on my 35" scale fretless (for the tension). [/quote] BEAD on a 4-string worked fine except I found I needed it so rarely. I certainly found it preferable to 5-strings but I use a D-tuner now.

SPL = Sue Pub Landlord

[quote name='tedmanzie' timestamp='1370804660' post='2105824'] My Precision is strung with JF344 TI Flats, standard tuning. I've recently been listening to Pino Palladino's bass playing with D'Angleo and other 'nu soul' RnB type stuff where apparently he's tuning down to D or C# and using heavy gauge LaBella strings. TI strings are already lower tension than usual and not very thick gauge so they don't really work tuned down. Thomastik don't offer different gauges for some reason, the four string set is only available as 043, 056, 070, 100. Out of curiosity, do you reckon I could put the bottom strings from a Thomastik 5-String set on? This would be 056, 070, 100, 136. Tuned down a whole step or more maybe it would work?? Or would it be TOO thick?! I just wondered if anyone had already tried it. [/quote] I've used the BEAD of a TI Flats 5-string set on a 4 string bass, tuned BEAD. They are low tension just like a 4-string set and you could certainly give them a try at CFGbEb or maybe higher. No guarantee though. I did have to slightly file the nut slots.

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1370787448' post='2105493'] Off topic if for arguing. [/quote] 'Sometimes it isn't really arguing, it's just contradiction.' 'Oh no it's not.' 'Oh yes it is.'

On one bass, I used TI Jazz Flats through-body for a couple of years. I did have an A string break at the bridge but it was once in probably about 50 gigs and associated rehearsals.