EssentialTension

My first three basses were: 1972 second hand [u]Hofner Artist[/u] £25 - now £243.75 1974 new [u]Hayman 4040[/u] £150 - now £1249.50 1975 new [u]Fender Precision[/u] £315 - now £2261.70

Introductory and very friendly (or so I thought): [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Music-Musicians-Composition-Improvisation/dp/0879305711/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231714560&sr=1-2"]Dave Stewart, Inside the Music[/url] [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Musicians-Guide-Reading-Writing-Music/dp/0879305703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231714560&sr=1-1"]Dave Stewart, The Musician's Guide to Reading and Writing Music[/url] Neither are specific to bass but it's all relevant to any instrument and there is some stuff on bass.

[quote name='HarryPotter' post='376895' date='Jan 11 2009, 04:39 PM']I noticed today just how microphonic the pup is on this bass (and how weedy output voltage wise). Basically it needs replacing - the bass is great, pup aside. So does anybody have any ideas for a drop in replacement? Electronics and soldering etc. I am good at, I just don't fancy cutting wood. I've contacted Brandoni to see if they have anything and Andy at Wizard to see if he is able to help. Best price I can get a Dimarzio model one for is about £75 from Thomman. So what do you guys know / think. TIA[/quote] Expensive but ..... Dark Star

If you liked the look of that you can read about it [url="http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=627.0"]here[/url].

[quote name='Delberthot' post='369898' date='Jan 4 2009, 01:21 PM']If you're interested in the Darkstar mod there's a guy on talkbs did the mod with his one. I can't remember his name. Something like Chef or maybe that was someone else.[/quote] The thread about it is [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275848&highlight=telecaster+dark+star"]here[/url]. And you can hear it at [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BMk6Z5Dxxxk"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BMk6Z5Dxxxk[/url].

[quote name='The Burpster' post='368443' date='Jan 2 2009, 01:34 PM']Did you try flats? I have 'that' sound on my basses now with flatwounds and wondered if I could get g'tar faximilie of it with flatwounds and down tuned to A Something like these bad boys..... [url="http://www.daddario.com/DADProdDetail.aspx?CodaID=557&ID=1&Class=AADA"]http://www.daddario.com/DADProdDetail.aspx...&Class=AADA[/url] Waddya reckon.... worth a try?[/quote] My son has those heavy flatwound D'Addario Chromes guitar strings in his Epiphone Casino but in standard tuning, not tuned down . He uses it in his school jazz band. They do have a great sound but you couldn't bend them to save your life. (He's got a Gibson with 9-42 Bright Wires on for bending.) The Chromes are heavy enough to cope with a lower tuning but I don't know whether they'd be long enough for a 28" scale baritone guitar though.

[quote name='YouMa' post='367964' date='Jan 1 2009, 07:05 PM'][b]Come back tony hancock and bring rik mayall with you.[/b][/quote] Off-topic but... Is it just me or, allowing for what you can say and do on TV in the nineties rather than the early sixties, are Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmundson in [i]Bottom[/i] strongly indebted to Tony Hancock and Sid James in [i]Hancock's Half Hour[/i]?

I only saw about 30 minutes of it and found Holland and the so-called celebrities extremely annoying. I liked the look of the Hold Steadys more than the music. Martha Reeves was a disappointment. The Ting Tings were not quite as awful as I expected. I don't get Duffy but I liked her band. Of the bit that I saw I was surprised that I thought Lily Allen was easily the best.

[quote name='ARGH' post='366514' date='Dec 30 2008, 07:06 PM']BOR-ING Its a Bass guitar..you dont like it,you dont f***ing buy it...You like it,your sell a kidney for it.[/quote] What? Only a kidney? Not your soul?

[quote name='Sercet' post='366423' date='Dec 30 2008, 05:27 PM']I always thought relic basses were really dumb. "Why oh why" I would think. Played a Pino Relic Precision in New York City and it followed me home. My favourite bass of all time. Steve[/quote] The Pino relic I played was also quite fantastic. I'm not keen on the idea of pre-relicing (is that a word?) but if I'd have had the money I would not have quibbled over buying the Pino.

[quote name='fatrabbit' post='366395' date='Dec 30 2008, 04:54 PM']Usually they end up making the person look like they've crapped themselves due to discoloured patches on the back of the legs![/quote] So I didn't need to take the Immodium after all?

[quote name='BigRedX' post='366380' date='Dec 30 2008, 04:43 PM']No but you'd want the instrument reduced to cover the cost of a re-finish![/quote]

[quote name='budget bassist' post='366296' date='Dec 30 2008, 03:07 PM']No offence to anybody who owns a relic'd guitar/bass on here... But i really think a relic'd guitar is possibly the most pretentious thing money can buy.[/quote] I agree with you. I played a Fender Pino Palladino Relic Precision at GAK in Brighton. It would not have been impossible for the staff to have relieved me of in excess of 2000 quid if it hadn't been a relic. Well, if I'd actually had £2000 as well. Mind you, would rejecting a relic that felt perfect and sounded perfect for you also be a mistake?

[quote name='HarryPotter' post='365964' date='Dec 30 2008, 03:24 AM']Thanks guys, I am very much a rock player, no jazz stuff from me I'm afraid [/quote] I'm not sure what you mean there but if you're referring to the Jazz Flats I don't think anyone was suggesting you play jazz. TI Jazz Flats is just the name of the string. As a reviewer at Stringsdirect says: 'Don't be fooled by the name! I use these 'jazz' strings to play hard punk rock - and nothing beats 'em! Worth every penny.'

I'd be tempted to try TI Jazz Flats (TIJF324 set) on that as well.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='363894' date='Dec 26 2008, 08:51 PM'][/quote] :ph34r:

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='363874' date='Dec 26 2008, 08:18 PM']But my best Christmas present was the Christmas Eve news that my Paul Chambers biography book proposal has been accepted by a legit publisher!! Early days yet, in terms of the thing appearing in print, but, nevertheless, what an affirmation and what timing!!!![/quote] Congrats on that Bilbo. I'm already looking forward to reading it.

[quote name='2wheeler' post='363737' date='Dec 26 2008, 03:34 PM']The Jazz Theory Book - by Mark Levine (it's immense! - not sure where to begin with this one)[/quote] I got that too - immense is correct.

[quote name='Starvolt' post='363700' date='Dec 26 2008, 02:38 PM']Which album? Got them both, and I have to say, he efinitely has improved for the Fabled City, though One Man Revolution is awesome too![/quote] One Man Revolution but only managed to give it a cursory listen so far. I thought it sounded good though and it's definitely going to get played a few times. It's my son's and he was a bit surprised when he first heard it (maybe expecting something a bit more Rage like) but he seems to be into it too.

I had great presents. I got three music theory books: Dave Stewart's [i]The Musicians Guide to Reading and Writing Music[/i] and [i]Inside the Music: The Musician's Guide to Composition, Improvisation and the Mechanics of Music[/i] (he was the keyboardist in National Health and not the guy from the Eurythmics) and Mark Levine's [i]The Jazz Theory Book[/i] The Stewart books are short and straightforward introductions to theory by a 'rock' musician for 'rock' musicians and although I already know a little theory I can tell I will still learn things from them. The Levine book is more of a meisterwerk at over 500 pages - the BPM review says it 'could be the single finest music book of any type I've ever seen'. My parents-in-law (well, I call them that but I'm not actually married) bought us a Roberts MP Sound-23 digital radio/CD player/iPod dock which will be blasting it out later when we are cooking. I also got an iTunes voucher. So far I downloaded Donald Byrd [i]Mustang[/i], Count Basie [i]The Complete Atomic Basie[/i]. Also appearing in my household for Christmas (and sneaked onto my iPod late last night) are CDs by Chic, Laverne Baker, Primal Scream, Biffy Clyro, Cold War Kids, The Nightwatchman (i.e. Tom Morello), Kings of Leon, The Cure, Frightened Rabbit, and Pendulum. So pretty successful all things considered.

[quote name='Josh' post='363084' date='Dec 24 2008, 08:50 PM']The Christian Praise & Worship Club!! So talented but ohhh so pious and delluded. It's a damn shame.[/quote] Sometimes I have imagined trying to set up the TB 'Agnostics, Atheists, and other [s]Troublemakers[/s]Sceptics Club'. Or even the 'I Own a Bass Club'. Of course [s]we are[/s] I am never pious and deluded.

[quote name='Barjeelik' post='363055' date='Dec 24 2008, 07:41 PM']Hi and Merry Christmas, Looking ahead to January already, I'm hoping to buy a Yam RBX4 A2 bass as I own the guitar version and it's just right for me. They've now introduced a 5 string version, which isn't my thing, and a medium-scale (32) one to go with the existing (34) long-scale model. Does anyone have any experience of a medium-scale basses to know what sort of difference tonally and otherwise this will make and if it will be substantial. I hope to try both in a local shop but so far I've only seen the 34 model in all local dealers and the medium-scale may seem too exotic for dealers to risk stocking. The only info. I could find suggested longer-scale provided a lower tone and Yam UK's site "The RBX4A2M features a 32 ½” ‘medium scale’ neck and provides a tone which is punchier than its 34” brothers but still offers the same full sound, light weight and great looks", which is helpful but just a little. Thanks Bar.[/quote] I've no idea about the Yamaha you refer to but having had a 32" Aria TSB-550 for many years (now gone to another grateful owner) I'd say that a 32" scale is fine if it suits you. It will mean that, if you use the same gauge of strings, you will have less tension in them to get to pitch so you might want a slightly heavier gauge string to allow for that. Medium scale strings are less available than long scale and it can limit what strings you can choose from. The slightly shorter fret spacing makes 32" fast to play. However, I'd say the other characteristics of the bass will be more important in terms of sound. For example, my Aria sounded like a early 80s Aria - general construction e.g. neck through, same pickups etc - rather than sounding specifically like a 32" scale bass. Some Japanese Fender Jazzes are, I believe, available in 32" scale because the slightly shorter scale was popular with the Japanese of smaller stature (or so I've heard; sounds a bit dubious really) and if that's true it might explain why there's a Yamaha in 32" too. My Aria too was a 32" bass in an Aria range of mostly 34" basses. You might want to consider that it's resale value might be affected by it's unusualness.

[quote name='Machines' post='362536' date='Dec 24 2008, 09:12 AM'].. tighter than a really tight thing.[/quote] Nice.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='362941' date='Dec 24 2008, 04:37 PM']They do like their clubs, I think there is a club for nearly every facet of bass, all good fun though.[/quote] Strange that in the supposed 'land of the free' everyone is so keen to get their membership number. I frequent the place but only when i'm looking for some specific information. I'd never go off topic or risk making a joke. I did get a telling off for doing a religious post, i.e. questioning the existence of God when everyone else was assuming his existence - I'm not sure they got told off too.

As long as it looks as if it was designed before 1961 and has four strings I'm probably happy - except for Rickenbackers they're out as well. Definitely out is 1 Anything pointy 2 Anything boutiquey; 3 Anything spalty; 4 Anything that looks like it was once a major part of a tree; 5 Anything with five strings; 6 Anything with six or more strings; 7 Anything with a quilted top (the Michael Kelly was an accident guvnor, honest); 8 I've said enough.