EssentialTension

[quote name='DanEly' timestamp='1448306413' post='2914340'] [/quote] I like the colour.

I think Graham Simpson is only on the first album. It was John Gustafson for about three albums up to and including [i]Siren[/i].

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1448040277' post='2912643'] Here's my tip ... buy this book: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Art-Country-Bass-Electric/dp/0793569923/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448040241&sr=8-1&keywords=Lost+Art+of+Country+Bass"]http://www.amazon.co...of+Country+Bass[/url] Excellent piece of work. [/quote] I also recommend that book.

[quote name='zawinul' timestamp='1447789546' post='2910440'] I mean in terms of styles we've had finger style, funk, slap, reggae, fretless, metal, tapping (which I hate!!) to be honest I'm not hearing much innovation around but maybe that's just the inherent limitation of a 4 stringed instrument. .. Stuff done on 6,7,8 strings also doesn't interest me it just sounds like bassists may as well play guitar whats the future? are we just doomed to play the great bass lines of the past? Personally for me the only answer is to make the bass sound as unlike a bass as possible or play a synth! Am I just bored of the bass? [/quote] There's a great deal of 'innovative' (whatever that even means, I don't really even know what it means) music, often including bass instruments, from all around the world. How much of it have you actually listened to? Have you fully familiarized yourself with Congolese funk, with Ethiopian jazz, with the clave rhythms of Cuba, with the dancing melodies of Jewish klezmer, with the developments in nueva flamenca, and so on and so forth? Put on a CD or an mp3 of a music with which you are wholly unfamiliar. Play along and for yourself at least you will be innovating. There's a whole world waiting for you.

[quote name='CyberBass' timestamp='1447927655' post='2911479'] The good news is I was refunded the full amount. The bass did not need to be returned, so I will be posting on the forum in for sale section the fender tuners, bad ass 2 bridge, pick ups and the body. [/quote] I'm pleased you got a refund, and I don't mean to make a personal criticism here, and I do understand that's the ebay position; but it seems to me somehow not quite right not to return the goods. I can see that one might argue the seller deserves it or that there is the problem of the cost of return but nonetheless I remain uncomfortable about it. Maybe because I've heard stories of others losing the goods and the payment when they are on the selling side of the fence, so to speak.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1447599857' post='2908780'] ... switched to Firefox, which, to be fair, is far better but still regularly throws up "Firefox has prevented an outdated thingamajig from working....etc" ... [/quote] I have always used Firefox and I have never had this problem. What am I doing wrong?

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1447870104' post='2911136'] Just in case it saves you a few quid... I'm a long-time user of the LaBella FLs. They're fab, but to me they're interchangeable with the significantly cheaper GHS Precision Flats. Both great strings. [/quote] Agreed and also the GHS Precisions are suitable for through body stringing.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1447872887' post='2911166'] Always were the same string anyway. [/quote] Yes, that was the point of what I said - same string repackaged and resilked and no longer repackaged and resilked.

Rotosound Flats have red silk but so do La Bella 760FL and also Thomastik Jazz Flats and probably some others. Some flatwound strings don't like the break angle at the bridge when strung through the body. GHS Precisions and Thomastiks are both fine in my experience. Given that La Bella actually label a set as suitable for string through body, I have always strung La Bellas through the bridge. The oddity in this is of course that the original Precision bass was string through body only and used flats.

[quote name='Basszilla' timestamp='1447857751' post='2910985'] So...I think it's a toss up between Labellas and TI, leaning toward the Labellas. My bass is a string through body 04 US Pb. With that said, is there a particular set I should go for? [/quote] With ordinary La Bella Deep Talking 760 flats do NOT string through the body. La Bella do make a string through version but I have no idea what they sound like.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1447807064' post='2910661'] ... most sound like you're using rope or something, plenty of thud and nothing else. [/quote] That's like saying most rounds sound like barbed wire .... which of course they do.

[quote name='Lo-E' timestamp='1447814245' post='2910671'] For flexibility, you can't beat TI flats ... [/quote] True enough but the GHS Precision flats are not very high in tension.

Having had bad experiences with DPD and several others, I always use Parcelforce with whom I have only had one poor experience of lateness and then they refunded. I never waste money on 'probably will never pay out' insurance. Others will tell you how useless Parcelforce are. Oh well.

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1447796135' post='2910561'] Seven string ukulele is the way forwards [/quote] ... clears throat ...

I always use the VT into the amp input. It's just another preamp so the amp sees it as an 'active' bass. Having said that I usually remain switched to 'passive' but listen out for clipping. But whatever works for you.

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1447793274' post='2910508'] Alright, alright! Point taken. [/quote] ... and there I was waiting to mention the ukulele

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1447794330' post='2910535'] Also, the extra distance through the body sometimes requires longer strings e.g. my 30in scale Mustang needs 32in scale strings - otherwise the silk would not be clear of the speaking length of the string. [/quote] THe GHS 3050M are long enough for through-body on 34" scale.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1447794409' post='2910537'] ^^^ these. About £21 shipped from Lakland. (My boring stock answer - sorry) [/quote] Are the Lakland ones now just GHS in a GHS packet? Purple silk not black silk and not repackaged?

GHS Precision Flats 3050M are OK strung through-body. But through-body is not always a good idea with (some) flats.

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1447790697' post='2910466'] If we all stuck to playing bass lines on a four string then nothing would happen. Mind you, having said that, Michael Mannring does do quite a lot with a four string. Open your horizons. And as JapanAxe said. [/quote] No future for the cello, viola or violin then. I don't suppose much can happen with pianos until they get more than 88 keys.

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1447702273' post='2909669'] This page from Eltham Jones' site (a renowned luthier around this way) may be of interest to people following this topic, in particular with regards to every fret other than the 12th being a compromise: [url="http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/scheitenballs/"]http://www.edgeguita.../scheitenballs/[/url] [/quote] Thanks for that. I can see Buzz has definitely got some history problems. I've never had tuning problems myself. EADG and off we go.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1447679530' post='2909431'] He may have a point about the ubiquity of recorded music as a sort of aural wallpaper, I'm not keen on that either. ... [/quote] That was my main point. [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1447679530' post='2909431'] ... But I heartily dislike his contention that a song with few notes in the melody must be of low quality. When I was a teenager, I couldn't stand hip-hop and rap, and I tended to make similar judgements. Lately I've heard some of those records again and it occurs to me that they were actually doing something bold and interesting by largely ignoring conventional tonality. [/quote] I agree wholeheartedly that Scruton makes some bizarre judgments but I do also think he makes some good points. I particularly liked the line about our fear of silence: [color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=4]'[/size][/font][/color]Silence must be excluded at all cost, since it awakens you to the emptiness that looms on the edge of modern life, threatening to confront you with the dreadful truth, that you have nothing whatever to say.'

[media]http://youtu.be/0rR9IaXH1M0[/media]

Here's the transcript ... [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34801885"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34801885[/url]