EssentialTension

[quote name='steviedee' post='584422' date='Aug 29 2009, 12:44 PM']Check these guys out ! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzmyTn_PfE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzmyTn_PfE[/url][/quote] That is great.

[quote name='steviedee' post='584422' date='Aug 29 2009, 12:44 PM']They have the Lucida in CC in Glasgow bizarrely the are distributed by an Italian bloke in Glasgow which was a bit odd.... It's chinese but seems quite well put together. Tho I have to say it's a bitch to play in the traditional manner tuned too A D G C E A you play octaves plucking 2 notes at once it has a lovely mellow sound but not easy. I'm going to make an admission since I bought the upright I haven't played it too much but I am now going to to try an get a couple of hours in a week. Anyway the main man in the Guitarron world is Natividad de Santiago he developed the plucking thing and I have a few books and stuff so if you want any info give me a shout. Check these guys out ! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzmyTn_PfE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRzmyTn_PfE[/url][/quote] Thanks for responding. You say 'bitch to play in the traditional manner [etc.]'. Did you try playing in some other manner?

[quote name='Mickeyboro' post='584789' date='Aug 29 2009, 09:46 PM']Is the second one known as a 'five-year'? [/quote] You made me look for a word for a 'five year period' but I couldn't find one so I made up 'Quintade'. Or is that a real word?

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='584781' date='Aug 29 2009, 09:28 PM']I want one - I want one - I want one.[/quote] Me too, strung with TIJF324s of course. I could also be tempted by a short scale version of the hollow body. Then it might be 2+2 headstock as well. A Bass VI version of the Decade would be cool too.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='584282' date='Aug 29 2009, 08:05 AM']Cool, Thanks for posting that. I hope though they change the headstock on the short scale version to something less clumsy looking on the final production model. Maybe a 2+2 design.[/quote] You're welcome. I don't think that's likely and anyway they are going to be about $4400 list price until there's enough call for a Skyline version so not many of us will be buying one.

There's a mariachi thread [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26170&hl=guitarron"]here[/url] - including a pic of steviedee with his.

[quote name='Clarky' post='584199' date='Aug 29 2009, 12:01 AM']I did look at the Lucida one but the woodwork was pretty plain looking. The one in the mariachi band I saw had a gorgeous figured dark wood (mahogany?)bowl that was highly polished. A real thing of beauty.[/quote] And possibly a bit pricier and generally better I guess.

The GAK website is showing a [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/75590"]Lucida Guitarron[/url] at the moment - £289.

[quote name='steviedee' post='241430' date='Jul 17 2008, 12:45 AM']I think I've found someone selling them. Definitely gonna buy one, keep you guys posted! [/quote] And how are you getting on with that after a year? I'd like to know because I'm tempted by one myself.

Found this site too: [url="http://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/index.htm"]Atlas of Plucked Instruments[/url] It has an [url="http://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/middle_east.htm#iran"]Iran Page[/url]

[url="http://www.gearwire.com/lakland-decade-walkthrough.html"]Dan Lakin demos the Decade and the forthcoming Short Decade[/url]

[quote name='JBassist' post='583766' date='Aug 28 2009, 04:58 PM']A couple of months agos i got a B grade For performing new born on the bass for a practical exam and was wondering what song i would do to get an A next time examiners are quite inpresed by slapping and tapping so that could come in handy and btw im not in the year that has just finished their gcses im in the year that has done half of them[/quote] I don't think the examiners will be impressed by slapping or tapping as such. They will award higher marks for showing a greater range of skills as long as those skills are performed at an appropriate level. I guess that if you are playing bass only then use of more than one style of bass playing may well help with your mark. My son did the same practical exam and got a very high mark - he was playing guitar, harmonica, and singing a Neil Young song, so fairly straightforward but showing a variety of skills. But my main advice would be listen to your teachers, they are the experts in what the examination requires.

[url="http://www.dastanarts.com/images/SETAR.M3U"]Listen to a sihtar[/url] [url="http://www.dastanarts.com/images/TAR.M3U"]Listen to a tar[/url] [url="http://www.dastanarts.com/html/instruments2.html"]From this page[/url].

Persian Sihtar: Persian Tars:

[quote name='Fraktal' post='583141' date='Aug 28 2009, 02:29 AM']I mean, come on, its XXI century, time to move on, maybe?[/quote] Why are you using outdated roman numerals? I mean, come on, it's the 21st century, time to move on, maybe?

[quote name='Fraktal' post='583440' date='Aug 28 2009, 12:21 PM']I dont want to start a flame war here, but I think that wasnt an opinion, more like a common sense fact. Lets go back to 1960, when the Jazz Bass was released. Now think about the clothing people used to wear back in those days. Think about 1960 furniture, cars, electrodomestics or anything else. [b]Would you say those designs arent outdated?[/b] Would you prefer to use "old-fashioned" as the word here? The designs of that age (late 50's-early 60's) are outdated from a technical/design/engineering point of view. On the aesthetics side, they are old-fashioned. Some of us may like old stuff, but that doesnt transform it magically into contemporary/new/modern stuff. Again, please try to understand that is not my aim to bash Fender, Im just saying its a late 50's design.[/quote] No flaming intended but.... Not 'outdated' or 'old-fashioned' at all but 'classic'. The Shuker cited by the OP is, like most modern bass designs (in fact like most contemporary design in whatever field), IMHO, ugly and in fifty years no one will remember it. 'New' can't beat 'old' merely because it is 'new' (and vice versa) but anyway the Fender designs are not merely 'old' they are 'classic' and will remain so. Your view would seem to imply that, for example, Oasis are better than the Beatles because they are newer and less old-fashioned. It makes no sense at all, let alone common sense.

The neck looks out of alignment with the bridge. Horrible.

[quote name='Sibob' post='581157' date='Aug 26 2009, 11:21 AM']I enquired, but at 26 I'm passed it....even though I regularly get mistaken for 19-21 lol Si[/quote] [quote name='alexharvay' post='581428' date='Aug 26 2009, 02:36 PM']At 25 I'm also past it, even though I look 21 and play with guys younger than me.[/quote] You both need to learn how to lie about your age - just like you did when you were 15. I've been lying about my age for so long that I can't remember how old I am.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='582455' date='Aug 27 2009, 02:04 PM']It'll hurt to see it go, but apparently I 'have too many basses'. Whatever that means. My lovely 1997 Shell Pink Squier Vista musicmaster bass isn't getting much use since I got my mustang, so its up on eBay. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270447923050"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=270447923050[/url] [/quote] That is cute.

Twenty-five years ago I used a pair of Electrovoice PA 1x15 bins driven by HH amps for bass backline. Sounded great out front (apparently) but I used to have trouble hearing myself on stage.

[quote name='leftybassman392' post='582679' date='Aug 27 2009, 05:23 PM']A little something to get the collective little grey cells working: India has the Sitar originating from the thirteenth century (technically a member of the lute family); Persia has the Setar, dating from about the birth of Islam (i.e. around 7th/8th century and also a type of lute) Ancient Greece had the Cithara (Latin spelling) or Kithara (no 'c' in the Greek alphabet) - a type of lyre; Italy has a traditional folk instrument called a Chitarra that dates back several hundred years at least - somewhat similar to a modern classical guitar; We have the guitar. What, if any, is the connection? Not a trick question or one I know the answer to, but the etymology is striking. Problem is - all these instruments are lute based or lute derived, except the Kithara... the Greeks had a lute - but it had a completely different name (Pandoura)[/quote] All those words - [i]sitar[/i], [i]setar[/i], [i]kithara[/i], [i]cithara[/i], [i]chitarra[/i], [i]guitar[/i] (as well as probably several others such as [i]zither[/i] and [i]cittern[/i]) - will be cognates in various members of the Indo-European language family. So they are all originally the same word but over time their pronunciations have changed and their meanings have drifted from each other but not totally away from meaning a stringed instrument of one kind or another. [quote][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar"]Wikipedia says[/url]: Precursors of the guitar can be traced back as much as 4000 years to an Indo-European origin of stringed instruments once known in central Asia and India. For this reason guitars are distantly related to contemporary instruments from these regions, including the tanbur, setar and sitar, among others. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying the essential features of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a Hittite bard. The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from Spanish guitarra (German Gitarre, French Guitare), loaned from the medieval Andalusian Arabic qitara, itself derived from the Latin cithara, which in turn came from the earlier Greek word kithara, a descendant of Old Persian sihtar (Tar means string in Persian).[/quote] There will be other groups of cognates relating to instruments such as (I'm guessing now) [i]violin[/i], [i]vihuela[/i], and [i]veena[/i]. Not much of an answer to the question asked though.

[quote name='leftybassman392' post='582444' date='Aug 27 2009, 01:58 PM']And replied.[/quote] Thank you.

[quote name='Clarky' post='582984' date='Aug 27 2009, 10:32 PM']I prefer the gold Jazz underneath![/quote] Yep.