EssentialTension

[quote name='Stingray5' post='590596' date='Sep 5 2009, 01:10 PM']...in which case, can I be tri-stringual? [/quote] What? You've only got three strings?

[quote name='charic' post='590589' date='Sep 5 2009, 01:03 PM']I really have to admit even with my 4 string I use the entire neck with songs I write.[/quote] Hmmm... I tend to have a a rather dusty area that begins around the seventh fret. And next to the first five frets I have written the word 'money'.

[quote name='largo' post='589996' date='Sep 4 2009, 06:33 PM']What about "If you dinnae ask, you dinnae get" ... I learned that pretty early in my teenage years [/quote] What about the one that's in the For Sale forum now?

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='590538' date='Sep 5 2009, 12:09 PM']To be honest i hear a lot about this idea that playing a bass with more than 4 strings somehow makes you less of a player[/quote] It's usually the other way around in my experience - 'five strings makes you more of a player'. It's b******s either way. At a gig, drummer introduces me to his old bass-playing friend. We chat a little and friend leaves. Drummer says 'He's a proper bass player, five string and everything'. Yawn.

[quote name='XxBassMastaXx' post='590531' date='Sep 5 2009, 11:59 AM']welcome fellow 4 string fans![/quote] Thanks for the welcome ... but why?

[quote name='fatgoogle' post='590197' date='Sep 4 2009, 10:20 PM']So for my leaving cert i have to play 8 pieces, 4 on trumpet and 4 on bass or 6 on one instrument but ive been told your bound to get more marks straight away by playing 2 instruments. So i pretty much know what im playing on trumpet. But as Ive mostly spent the last 3 years of my time playing bass rockin' out, Im not sure what to play for all 4 pieces i have two ideas so far. But first, all the pieces have to different to get most marks, and i can be backed up by anything really, but my main ones and preferred are piano and drums, i would like a guitar and could... get one, but it takes so long to get any of my friends to learn anything that its more hassle then its really worth so.... The first two pieces that i have thought of are The awakened by The Reddings Suite no 1 in G major by bach. Ive got plenty of time to learn all pieces and have started both of the above. But are these any good, [u][b]do you think they'll get me the marks [/b][/u]and what do you think would be two other pieces of varying genres, or 4 pieces altogether. Im fairly clueless at what else to pick a jazz piece, rock,metal eh. Also they have to be too quite a high standard, but the main marks are the performance really. Any help? Thanks Sam H[/quote] I don't really have any advice for you except that when you ask 'do you think they'll get me the marks[?]' you should be asking your teacher(s) that question. They know what the examiners are looking for.

A freakish event: End of the first song, first set. Guitarist says to me 'You are extremely loud'. I say 'Shall I turn down?'. Guitarist says 'No, it sounds great'.

It can be risky testing an expensive bass through an expensive amp because you end up buying the bass and the amp.

[quote name='chris_b' post='590431' date='Sep 5 2009, 10:06 AM']I never plug a bass in when I'm trying one in a shop. If I still like the feel of it after 10 mins I'll ask for an amp then. I probably have less than a 10% "plug in" rate. I wish more players didn't make such a racket in shops!![/quote] I'd say that's a very good approach. If it's no good to you unplugged it's probably no good at all.

This is what the Gary Willis intonation guide says: [quote]It's important to realize that to play in tune on a fretless you have to adjust your finger placement depending on which part of the neck you'r playing. It's common for people to set fretless intonation so that a note is in tune when the line is directly in the middle of the finger. If this is done for the 12th fret, it forces you to play very sharp (past the line) in the lower registers.[/quote] There are pics as well on [url="http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/intonation4.html"]this page[/url]. Can anyone give any further info on this?

[quote name='RichB' post='590361' date='Sep 5 2009, 06:02 AM']I used to have a Hohner B2A (Steinberger copy), over 10 years ago, that the previous person had defretted. Having read this thread I realise that I was playing it completely wrong. No wonder I sounded dreadful. [/quote] How were you playing it?

[quote name='RichB' post='590362' date='Sep 5 2009, 06:11 AM']Still off on the tangent. I swear the guy out of the Doves has a right handed bass set up for right hand, and he is left handed.[/quote] I see that is true also.

[quote name='witterth' post='590329' date='Sep 5 2009, 01:36 AM'] Well that was Dave from Brighton who walks away with £500,000......and were going to a break just now!! when we come back, fastest fingers(?) who has them?.....ads...[/quote] Looks like I can afford that terrible £100,000 bass in the porn forum. Oh well...

I'll unstrap the bass first.

[quote name='witterth' post='590322' date='Sep 5 2009, 01:21 AM']that Dave ,is the correct answer! you have, £500,000 and 3 life-lines. do you want to play the next question? [/quote] Thanks, but no thanks, because I'm going for a lie down now.

[quote name='radansey' post='587772' date='Sep 2 2009, 06:07 PM']Check out Andy McCluskey of OMD - he is right-handed, but originally learned to play bass guitar on a left-handed model. As a result, he plays with the strings "upside down".[/quote] I've never noticed that but I checked some pics on Google and I could see it was so.

I favour what I'd call a medium length. The bass ought to stay in roughly the same place sitting or standing.

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='590267' date='Sep 4 2009, 11:40 PM']Oh, and I've always found D'Addario flats to be quite lively as flats go![/quote] +1

[url="http://www.rockschool.co.uk/rsl/sites/6/promotional/BassDay_08_Poster.pdf"]This was the poster for last year's bass day[/url]. I couldn't find this year's.

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='590227' date='Sep 4 2009, 10:59 PM']OK, just to test this "intonation changes as you move up the board" idea, I've just spent 45 minutes setting up my fretless EBMM SR5 to intonate bang on the lines, to the highest accuracy I can muster with the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-200 (which is ±a gnat's sperm -- something silly like 0.02 cents). I set it up so that 12th-fretline harmonic = 12th-fretline fingered with the middle of my finger on the line. I've then checked up and down the neck to see how the intonation is at the low and high ends. It's as spot-on as I can measure. No intonation drift at all. If the middle of my finger's on a line, it's in tune. No questions asked. It's surely just a matter of how accurately the lines are positioned in the board? My SR5's a bit of a freak-job: the original pau ferro board's been replaced with a polyester-coated ebony board with maple lines, and I'm pretty sure the new board was handmade to high standards. The maker might have taken the time and effort to position the lines so the intonation's spot-on, rather than just copying the lines from standard fret positions. If I get the chance over the weekend, I'll try the same thing with my Squier. That could be a whole different kettle of apes. Or not. And then the can's open, worms everywhere... Of course, I agree wholeheartedly with the general sentiment that the lines and dots are merely guides. Ears, ears, ears. It's just that this whole intonation thing is getting interesting now.[/quote] Well, as I said, I don't know the physics of it and I'm playing an unlined fretless now but my experience on a lined fretless Jazz was that my finger's relationship to the line varied up and down the neck. Which it seems to me is what Gary Willis is saying on the website you posted. However, I don't dispute your experience with your bass.

[quote name='Spyke' post='590210' date='Sep 4 2009, 10:31 PM']don't know what make or gauge the retail strings are on my Ibanez SR500 .... ... I need to know the gauge of the retail strings first of all.[/quote] Buy a [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6in-Caliper-Micrometer-Tool-LCD-Digital-Vernier-150mm_W0QQitemZ170379374842QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Measuring_Tools_Levels?hash=item27ab66f0fa&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]micrometer[/url]. You can measure the strings.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='590154' date='Sep 4 2009, 09:08 PM']Yup[/quote] Thought so. I might go if I can make it if only to see Stewart (Dave's Drummer) who I used to be in a band with and haven't seen for ages.

So, if Gary Willis and I are correct - this poll is spurious. The line is merely a clue, your ear is what matters.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='589997' date='Sep 4 2009, 06:34 PM']Bass Players day at the Portland at Hove. 1st Nov[/quote] Is that Dave Barnard's do?

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='590040' date='Sep 4 2009, 07:12 PM']I've absolutely no need to doubt you but would you mind explaining why this should be. I've been playing unlined fretless on and off since the late 70s - there are the occasional dots in the side and I've just checked they are in exactly the place a fret would be and I can't say I've had any problem with intonation. I'm simply interested in what the explanation (in terms of physics) is that when frets are removed the point changes.[/quote] I don't know the physics of it but to my ear that's how it works and [url="http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/intonation4.html"]Gary Willis agrees[/url].