EssentialTension

[quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1481119346' post='3189845'] Aha! I'm normally pretty good at reading threads before I reply to them, but I'd missed your comment on finding them substantially different. I wasn't trying to contradict you, and I don't think you took it the wrong way anyway, but I've seen wars start over on TalkBass for less! [/quote] I didn't take it as contradiction - not that contrdiction would be a problem anyway - but just that [i]sometimes[/i] there is a subjective element to things.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1480763011' post='3186934'] The FS are substantially more tense or less compliant than the FL, in my experience. [/quote] [quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1480842817' post='3187394'] I've since put FSs on my jazz and can't really tell any difference to the FLs. [/quote] ... and that's why it's necessary to try them and decide for oneself.

[quote name='mike 110' timestamp='1480758038' post='3186892'] Thanks bb , am I right in assuming that the L in 760FL stands for Long ( scale ) ? [/quote] The L in FL stands for ‘light gauge’ compared with FM ‘medium gauge’, FS ‘standard gauge’ and FX ‘extra light gauge’ etc. The FS are substantially more tense or less compliant than the FL, in my experience.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1473205561' post='3128042'] Because that's the way this bass playing stuff works. There's a certain licks you should know. It's not art. Blue [/quote] Sounds to me that the rock 'n' roll police are out again, telling people what they should and shouldn't know. But actually there is no special reason for knowing those lines. I don't even know half of the songs let alone the basslines.

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1473159554' post='3127448'] ... just songs I think every player whatever style should be able to play ... [/quote] Why should 'every player whatever style' be able to play them?

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1473143814' post='3127239'] Where was that? As I've rehearsed at most of the places in Brighton. [/quote] I can't remember what it was called but in an industrial block just off New England.

This used to happen at a place in Brighton. We were never accused of theft but one time the guy asked 'er ... did you move the piano ... someone moved the piano ... was it you?'. It wasn't us. Another time we arrived and all was locked up and no one there. We phoned the guy and he sent a taxi with the keys to let ourselves in, He turned up an hour later. Then there was the time the ceiling fell on the drummer.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1473083086' post='3126692'] ...They were a bunch of young [s]scallies[/s] brummies ...[/quote] Corrected it for you. The rest was already correct.

I have never played with two drummers with full kits. However I have played with three drummers. One with full but small kit and two as percussionists. One percussionist using timbales, plus claves, maraccas, tambourine, guiro etc. and second percussionist with congas, etc. Alongside guitar, piano, bass, and male and female vocals it sounded very big indeed. But you need people who haven't come to compete but come to play great music.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1472920720' post='3125376'] I know where we can buy 4string sets of piccolo strings, bug does anyone know of any 5 string sets? [/quote] Newtone will probably make you some.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1472920352' post='3125371'] Here's a really beautiful example of piccolo bass. A fretless this time. This guy is amazingly talented. [url="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OzVNGz6Bx2A"]https://m.youtube.co...h?v=OzVNGz6Bx2A[/url] [/quote] Very nice but surely that was a fretted instrument?

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1472847255' post='3124831'] Thanks for the info ET - the Bruce and Entwistle ref was a real surprise. [/quote]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1472890992' post='3125040'] If it was tuned piccolo it would be a guitar. [/quote] Ha ha yes, 30" scale standard tuned guitar. I expect someone has done it and to twangy effect.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1472832234' post='3124647'] Thanks guys - I remember thinking at the time that it was 'dead cool' and how perfectly the songs, bass parts and instrument complemented each other - which is, I guess, the ultimate achievement for any bass player. [/quote] Jack Bruce also used a Bass VI with the Graham Bond Organisation and then with early Cream, Entwistle with early Who, and Lennon and Harrison both used one when McCartney was playing piano. Plus plenty of others too. But it is tuned normal bass pitch, not piccolo.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1472808953' post='3124389'] OK, here's a question for the (other) oldies on here: when I were a lad and the Hollies were at their peak, Eric Haydock's bass had 6 strings on it. Generically speaking, what was it? [/quote] As BRX said ...

Jackson 5

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1472116958' post='3118598'] Instrument manufacturers don't make strings anyway. They have them made/branded by the likes of D'Addario. [/quote] See post #34.

Fender strings are made by D'Addario. Most bass manufacturers do not make their own strings. They buy them in from string manufacturers. Lakland from GHS. Sadowsky from La Bella. Etc. There was a long thread about this some years ago. Here we go: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/171152-who-makes-which-strings"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/171152-who-makes-which-strings[/url] Of course, even if a string manufacturer is making strings for your bass manufacturer, the bass manufacturer will have asked for a string with certain characteristics. Hence, a Fender string is made by D'Addario to Fender's specification.

I was once on a bus in Birmingham on my way to the Cannon Hill Arts Centre. An older guy got off the bus with me and asked: 'Do you know the way to the Arts Centre?' 'Yes, I'm going there, walk with me.' I replied. So we fell into chatting and he said: 'I'm going to see a jazz big band rehearsal; I have an audition with them next week.' Turned out he was a saxophonist. Not having done much playing for about a year at that time, I foolishly said: 'I used to be a musician.' 'Oh' he responded, 'do you still have your instrument?' 'Yes, I do' I said. 'Then' he said, 'you're still a musician, it's just that you are not getting any better.'

Very interesting interview; always liked Visconti's playing on that album.

[quote name='Panamonte' timestamp='1471422644' post='3112896'] ... he stuck a Tele p/up on his P bass ... [/quote] Presumably one of these ...

[quote name='xroads' timestamp='1471436437' post='3113026'] ... I have removed the preceived stiffness of strings a few times by just adjusting the truss rod.... [/quote] Another way to remove or reduce perceived stiffness, or lack of compliance, is to pluck nearer to the 12th fret. While the tension on a string is the same all along its length, the apparent compliance on a string is greatest near its centre (i.e. 12th fret) and lesser near the bridge and so, unlike tension, varies along the length of the string.

You can't tell tension from gauge alone or flat/round alone. It's mass per unit length of string that matters (plus scale length plus pitch). Hence the internal construction of the string makes a difference because it makes a difference to the mass per unit length. The same internal construction with a larger gauge will mean higher tension (at same scale length and pitch) but if the internal construction changes then there is no straightforward telling of the effect on tension from a different gauge. This is complicated by the fact that tension ought not to be confused with compliance or elasticity which is not the tension of the string at pitch but its feel (or perception) under the fingers. Like tension, compliance is affected by internal string construction - e.g. hexcore/roundcore - but possibly by other factors that have no effect on tension such as break angle at the nut. [url="http://www.liutaiomottola.com/myth/perception.htm"]http://www.liutaiomottola.com/myth/perception.htm[/url]

http://youtu.be/GIAtE6ywgwA