EssentialTension

It's all in the compressor fingers. There you go. 😣

Thanks Mart, I feel better now.

Thank you. But I expect someone will be along soon to explain why I am wrong.

General rule number one: all other things being equal, a 30" scale bass will be lower tension than a 34" scale bass (i.e. if at same pitch, and same string mass per unit length). But, general rule number two: all other things being equal, the shorter the string you are plucking the less compliant it will be - especially if you get nearer to the bridge - even though tension on a string remains the same all along its length. Hence, a 30" scale bass might be lower tension than the 34" scale yet be experienced as less compliant.

I'v played that song but never heard two basses. And by the look of the video one fretted, one fretless.

If I remember correctly, it has two Jazz pickups refitted at an angle to cover E-A strings separately from D-G strings; so likely bi-amped thus explaining the extra control knobs.

That bass was being used in later stages of The Move and early ELO as well as Wizzard.

The early 1970s version of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band had a dedicated bassist, Roy Estrada (named Orejon by Captain Beefheart, i.e. Don Van Vliet) and also an occasional second bassist Mark Boston (named Rockette Morton - who also played guitar and was sometimes credited as 'rhythm bass'). The rest of the band were Art Tripp III, (Ed Marimba - drums), Eliot Ingber (Winged Eel Fingerling - guitar), and Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo - guitar). Plus the Captain himself, of course. There's sometimes two basses here. It may not be to everyone's taste:

And in the 1950s and 1960s Fender had a marketing guy called Don Randall who was very good at his job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Randall_(Fender)

You can drop a Precision bass down the stairs and quite possibly pick it up and play it. It may not be in tune but the headstock will still be attached.

If only! But someone here is 23, I'm sure.

Hazard a guess, go on.

Could you see the wood for the trees?

Do you remember when it was woodland?

It's a mystery.

+1 +1 +1 Is he back?

Apologies for being pedantic but ... the 1951 P bass with a single coil pickup was different to the 1957 and after P bass with a humbucking split coil pickup. Hence, the benchmark P bass you seem to refer to, if it is such , was 1957 not 1951, and that 1957 P bass was not the first. And, I suspect, not everyone will agree about 'grand-daddy' or even 'most recognisable'.

Just been listening to that - it's great, whoever it is. Did Carole Kaye play upright? Blimey, quoted from 2009! That's even before the BigBeefChief was banned! Double bass on These Boots are Made for Walkin' was Chuck Berghofer, I believe.

I've used black nylons, Roto and La Bella, with an under bridge piezo without separate saddles, with no problem. I can't see why under separated saddles should make a difference unless separated saddles sit more or less firmly on the piezo depending on if they are lifted or lowered. Metal not nylon, but I have found La Bella Deep Talkin' Flats 760FS standard gauge work well for 'acoustic bassy' tone.

It's good to improve technique ... but you don't need to listen to many isolated bass tracks to realise that what sounds good in the song and good in the mix may not be technically perfect.

When you say 'sitting beside the guitar' do you mean tuning via the tuner's microphone and not plugged in with a lead? If so, then the clip-on tuner will be more effective. But the 'use the harmonic' advice is good.

Thumb on the pickup is fine, either P or J ... but remember also that you can alter tone and attack by moving right hand nearer to neck or to bridge. Playing over the end of the fretboard feels and sounds different to anchoring on the J pickup near the bridge. On the P is somewhere in the middle. Different songs, different sections of songs, might call for a different approach. But whatever works for you.

I think reggae and other earlier Jamaican genres, e.g. ska, are more but not solely influenced, especially in the bass, from New Orleans early R&B, e.g. Fats Domino, but also from upright jazz players, as many of the original ska bassists were themselves upright players, as was Jamerson. They would certainly have been hearing Motown etc on the radio and I expect were playing some of it. Of course, mento, the Jamaican variant of 'calypso' would also be an influence. As for metal, I really know pretty much nothing about it.

Also, if you listen to JPJ before Led Zeppelin, when he was a session player, he often sounds like an LA bassist such as Kaye or Osborn. When asked about the influence of Motown, JPJ is quoted as saying: "Yeah we [JPJ and Bonham] were both huge Motown and Stax fans and general soul music fans, James Brown fans. Which is one of the reasons why I've always said that Zeppelin was one of the few bands to 'swing'. We actually had a groove in those days. People used to come to our shows and dance, which was great. To see all the women dancing, it was really brilliant. You didn't necessarily see that at a Black Sabbath show or whatever. So we were different in that way. We were a groovy band. We used all our black pop music influences as a key to the rock that went over the top. I mean rock 'n' roll comes from black music anyway, it's a mixture of rhythm 'n' blues and country." http://www.globalbass.com/archives/mar2002/john_paul_jones.htm Of course, Led Zeppelin, as a whole, were also strongly influenced by American blues, by British folk, and by world music more generally.