DocTrucker

@MichaelDean 😁 I'm in a covers band and trying to drag up my standards while I learn the songs. Fair bit of development to do before I'm doing original stuff!

This genre has come into my awareness via an unmentioned group. https://shreddibnah.bandcamp.com/ It appears I have lots of catching up to do! Don't get out to anywhere near enough gigs. Hopefully that'll change as the kids (7 & 3) get a little older.

How often do you guys meet? Missed the may meet, but to be fair may was busy anyhow!

@tretim great to hear the feedback. I was hoping the "Pro Series" may have ment a notch up on the QC. I've got the six string H650 (lighter than the squire!) which was ok, just had little niggles around the inonation and neck setup. Latter I wouldn't have known about, the Luither who I oaid for a setup told me about it. Sorry to hear you're not getting along with yours. Understandable though, I do feel the effects of long practice sessions with the Squire (reweighed at 4.6kg sans strap). Must start core exercises again soon!

I'm seriously tempted by one of them. My Squire Vintage Modified Jazz 4 string is already 4.8kg, so think the weight won't feel too bad. Having said that I do normally need a bass back in the stand break during practice/rehearsal! Have you weighed it? Edit: Beg your pardon, you've already said your guitar weighed 5kg, and later that you had the MJ-5MN. Found the thread by seach and hit page 2.

Afternoon all, I'm struggling to maintain enthusiasm for learning scales. What are the favorite books to follow for a guided method for leaning? I'm rehearsing in a covers band and slowly improving my technique, but unable to go off piste at all. Looking to start building blocks to be able to play in a jam environment. Thanks.

Thanks. At the moment my strategy would be as siple as looking at which models are a similar price new to the Squire VM and then looking for them or better second hand to try! Happy to hear Cort is a trusted mark though. Edit; missed Yamaha & Warwick off original list.

Morning all, I've got a stock Squire Vintage Modified Jazz Bass which is currently the best quality in my small selection of 3 basses. In addition to this I have a hacked about Harley Benton P Bass that was originally a short scale and is now long scale with a 24 fret neck, and a Harley Benton six string with different pick ups and electrics. I rehearse with a cover band and frequently find the B string on the six useful to cover drop tunings, and rather pickup the six and keep patterns the same than drop tuning on my jazz. I'm now considering moving on my Squire and seeking a similar quality 5 string. This would I assume give slightly larger spaced strings. I'm mighty confused in the £300-400 territory. We've Squire (although there appear to be a few duffs), Cort, Harley Benton Delux, Vintage, & Ibanez to mention a few. There doesn't appear to be many places with a large second hand selection in the northwest, so I think I need to familerise myself with which models are the minimums to go for from these, or other makes. ZI'd consider single coil jazz, HH, or PJ pickup setups. Does a new Harley Benton BZ 5000 make more sense than one of the others second hand or do I just need to get out to try whenever I see something come up nearby? I fear this is likely to result in a huge range of options, but interested to listen!

I've also stumbled across some folk suggesting through body stringing being preferred for mainly fingerstyle players. Does that make a great difference to the feel too? None of mine are through body strung. Edit: Scrub this question. Found a good chat on it via a web search and synopsis on the balace seems to be negligible difference. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/thoughts-on-thru-body-vs-bridge-stringing-on-same-bass.1484499/page-2

It was a short scale! I bought it off ebay (only £60!) as I wanted a PBass in the fold and then realised it may be short scale before it arrived, which it was. I had already planned to swap over the pickups and hardware from my older project Warlock, but then decided to swap the neck too. Neck fit like a glove, scale from nut to bridge checked out, and was able to get intonation set ok. It's very light, but perhaps having a light one in the group isn't a bad thing for when my back's having an off day!

Thanks all. It never occurred to me that the nut width may be different on the two basses. I'm going to keep playing them all and look really close at setup soon. I wanted to know what to look for soon as I still want to build up a dual humbucker five string at some point, and would rather that sat in my sweet spot!

I suspect that this is likely to be a uniquely personal preference but thought I'd ask any way to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious! I've got two 4 string basses; a Squire Jazz Vintage modified, and a project pbass made from a short scale Harley Benton that's now sporting the neck from a bronze series BC Rich Warlock, which I never got along with the body. I really like both, but for some reason tunes seem easier to play on the PBass. Is it common to find a specific neck shape makes playing easier or is it more likely that I need to take a closer look at action etc?

Thanks. Appreciate the reminder about a set turn on the pickup height screws having more tonal effect when the pick up is close to the strings compare to a pickup further away. My neck pickup was far too close after I initially put it back together. I was getting some strange harmonics.

Morning all, I appreciate pickup height is subjective, but can fould suggest a good starting point please? My bass is HH configuration 6 string Harley Benton. The pickups have been changed to Warman MM6s. These are spec'ed as: 16 kOhm 12 Henries https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product/mm-double-6-6-string-bass-bucker-16kohm-pickup/ I've seen suggestions that the standard ~3mm neck and ~2.5mm bridge with top frets pressed maybe too close for generic Musicman style pickups? My hearing isn't great, so conformation of a good starting point is appreciated. Thanks.

Finally finished the basics today. One of my Warman pickups was DOA. Returned it to them and they replaced and returned it arriving one day after I left for a 9 day break with the family! Hoping to sort pickup height this evening but so far the effect of the pickup selector is very interesting. Single coil not sounding far off my Jazz bass and series and parallel sounding subtlety different on all but volume! Recently been making an effort to finish some open ended projects and it's thankfully decimating the head Squirrel population! Can't see me completeing them all any time soon, but hopefully scratch off a few more soon. I'll class adding a master volume for this as a new project for another time! Edit: Pickup height sorted. Happy with it!

That's interesting. I've an irritating harmonic on my project bass which I had thought may have been due to technique, but now wonder if it's an artifact of my wiring!

Deleted double post...

Appreciate this read, thanks for posting. I'm a number of steps down the skill ladder from yourself but play monthly rehearsal sessions with three others. Two of these I know play bass, but as others have said we're the one with the bass in hand in our respective bands. Played one gig a couple of years back (with a previous band put together in the music school I used to take lessons at) and the head squirrels really kicked off after, but on the upside resulted in me getting my cheap 6 string project bass! Having been there once before I'm working towards a much more enjoyable next outing and have a bit more of an idea about what to expect!

Both: http://www.scott-whitley.com ...and: http://scottwhitleybasslessons.com/ Not live any more? I'm just following the free version of studybass.com at the moment, but second eyes/guidance on my playing would help on occasion! Just casually researching at the moment, not ready to call for a tutor right now. Edit: He seems to have been going through a very rough time recently and posted a heart felt message on his youtube page. Alas the sites being down doesn't seem to be a simple admin slip: https://www.youtube.com/@ScottWhitley/community

Cheers all. Thanks for the comments, it appears I may be being a bit heavy fingered!

Left loads of tail on the pickup wires to be tidied up another time after I am happy with the results. Will likely tidy up at the same time as adding a master volume.

Pictures didn't add on first attempt:

The project was shelved for a long time but it finally made it through to test last night! Making a concious effort to finish some projects at the moment! I went for the Warman music man pickups which ment a little cutting out was required. I reused the pots which I think are an audio taper for tone, and an 250MN taper for blend. For both pickups there is a series/single/parallel switch, and for the mean while there is no master volume. Maybe I'll add thst another time! As you can see I'm missing one pickup! Alas when I went to check resistance on ghe jack lead for all switch positions and pot positions one pickup wasn't behaving right. Removed it and checked and one coil appears to be open. Sending that back for checkup. First impressions are the selector switch has far less effect on tone and volume than I expected. Certinally not on the same level of magnitude as tweaking the tone pot, or indeed maybe even shifting the plucking position on the bass. That said you can hear subtleties. Single sounds clearer, more like my Jaz bass, and I guess more acoustic like. Both series and parallel are slightly more fuzzy as you would expect, and there are differences. I need to listen more though! Pickup height is currently 3mm under the strings. It was initially 2mm but the floppy B string was regularly sucked onto the pickup! Look forward to getting the bridge pickup back!

Morning all, I am trying to develop the plucking technique where your fingers come to rest on the next string after a pluck. To date I have largely plucked and followed through into free space. Tring to develop this resting technique is resulting in a lot of percussive sound and occasional harmonics. I'm without access to an in-person tutor at the moment who'd be able to see what I need to work on, and it's near impoosible to film on my own! And hints that might help me develop this? While a four string is my current main work horse I do aspire to playing the six string and have one in my stable. I appreciate muting is more critical (I guess 50% more so 😉 ) on 6 string. Finally is this technique supposedly the 'right' way to pluck, or is it more anboptional variant? Thanks.