dlloyd

What sort of a band are you after? It might be an idea to put your own advert up, saying you're looking for musicians for a new project. Be fairly specific, but realistic about what you can expect. If you put up an advert asking for blues guitarists aged between 30 and 50 (or beyond), you should get loads of responses... some will be from people who can actually play.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='467447' date='Apr 20 2009, 01:50 PM']We all do it. There is a list of bass lines that seem to be essential learning for bass players; 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick', 'Teen Town', 'Amazing Grace' by Wooten, that thing by Stu Hamm - you know the stuff I am talking about. It's all over YouTube. So we all go learn it and what? We only ever play it to impress people who aren't musicians (if it looks harder than it is) or to impress other musicians (if it is harder than it looks). We waste hours of study time learning a chunk of Stanley Clarke, or a wodge of Les Claypool, a modicum of Mark King or a pinch of Jaco or Flea. We should be studying music not musicians licks. These are just party tricks not core skills.[/quote] I learned Rhythm Stick from scratch a couple of months ago, because I was playing a wedding and the bridegroom requested it.

[quote name='Hot Tub' post='467726' date='Apr 20 2009, 06:34 PM']My heart sank when I read this. Then I checked my calculations. Currently at 320, so a way to go yet, but not as bad as I initially thought! <[i]PHEW![/i]>[/quote] Speed it up a couple of bpm each day and you'll be there in no time... make sure you can get through the verse before speeding it up. The song is actually quite forgiving... believe it or not. If you can pick up the bassline quickly after making a mistake, nobody will be any the wiser.

[quote name='Hot Tub' post='467058' date='Apr 19 2009, 10:12 PM']The score I have is [i]VERY [/i]similar to the one posted by Stickman (many thanks!) in this thread. There are a few very subtle differences, and actually Stickman's score is a tad easier. I estimate the NOTE SPEED (not bpm) to be around 220 notes per minute - does that sound about right? I'm currently playing the whole thing at 180 NOTES per minute (got my drum machine playing a click track), and gradually pushing the speed up.[/quote] It's at 108 bpm, which (ignoring rests) is 432 notes per minute.

That one looks good! If you're having difficulty with the right hand in specific bits of the song, try leading with different fingers.

[quote name='ezbass' post='465651' date='Apr 17 2009, 11:27 PM']I have the original bass line music/tab from the single done by Guitarist mag in Spring 2001, but the last time I saw Norman playing "Stick" he doesn't play it that way anymore, specifically he now plays a simpler, less busy version of the chorus that makes it more punchy. Great song, great workout.[/quote] The Guitarist transcription was wrong, as was the Bassist transcription.

[quote name='Hot Tub' post='462406' date='Apr 14 2009, 07:27 PM']Although I can hardly believe it myself, I'm in the process of learning Norman Watt-Roy's original bassline to "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick." I "acquired" the musical score for the part some time ago, and have been following that very, very, slowly, and actually reading the notes rather than counting frets from a tab chart. It's a challenge I deliberately set for myself, and it's paying off! Part of the verse is gonna take me another while to get down, but the intro, chorus, instrumental, are all nailed.[/quote] Stop right there. Which 'score' do you have? There is some horrendous crap out there that has been published in magazines, and the verse is the worst bit in most transcriptions. Do you have to learn this for a gig? The biggest piece of advice I can give (apart from learning the correct version in the first place) is to make sure you're able to pick the line up at the next bar if you trip over your fingers. Build up the speed slowly from 90 bpm to 108 bpm (IIRC?) and use a drum machine, making sure you can get through the whole verse before you bump up the speed.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='461750' date='Apr 14 2009, 12:55 AM']Since the 1950's our tool of choice has been a guitar-like stringed, tuned instrument with magnetic pick-ups. The main innovations have been adding a couple of strings, more pick-ups and active circuitry, taking the headstock off, changing the construction materials from wood to metal or carbon-fibre.[/quote] And in most cases, changing back again because we didn't like/need it.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='423042' date='Mar 2 2009, 12:49 PM']EUR15 each!!!!! You'd be gutted if you lost one. Do you use those Gypsy ones for bass then?[/quote] I've never lost one. I've given one away while drunk though. I use them on guitar and uke. They are absolutely amazing and, if I lost one, I'd replace it. I tend not to use picks of any sort when playing bass. Not because I don't like the idea, but somewhere along the line I just got more used to using fingers.

There's only [i]so far[/i] you can redesign a guitar without losing functionality. I bought a firebird a good few years back... it looked great, sounded fantastic, and it was different... Then I got it home and realised I should have tested it in the shop with a strap... and, oh... it's a pain in the arse to prop up against anything. The fact is that most electric guitarists are looking to make one of a few sounds that were defined more than forty years ago, and have only undergone minor tweaking since then. Body shape is a compromise between style and comfort... and most comfortable designs are going to be variants of stuff we've seen a million times before.

[quote name='Spoombung' post='461005' date='Apr 13 2009, 08:37 AM']Well the shop had flying V's, and and crazy axes covered in flames - compared to a giant wall of Fenders for the humble, conservative © bass player. Oh, hang on a minute ... that [i]does[/i] sound conservative on behalf of the guitarists![/quote] Flying Vs came out in the 1950s, and the crazier spiky BC Rich designs aren't that new, several of them going back to the 1970s (there's a picture of Roy Orbison rocking out on a BC Rich Mockingbird somewhere).

Over twenty years of playing, that works out at less than an hour and a half playing a day... I've easily put in more than 10,000 hours... but I'm by no means a virtuoso. Sounds like BS to me.

The Sabre is very nice. They're not quite as iconic as Musicman Stingrays, and don't quite get the prices that Stingrays get, but you've got what looks like a fairly early, pre-EB model from around 1979-1984 which should bump up the value a bit. 1979 models are worth the most. The only way to be entirely sure of the date is to take the neck off and have a look at the dates in the neck pocket and on the neck heel. But I wouldn't do this unless you were sure you knew what you were doing. The serial number (the number under the bridge saddles) can give you a clue as they were assigned in roughly chronological order. [url="http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/TOWN8019/mycustompage0011.htm"]http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/TOWN8019/mycustompage0011.htm[/url] I think you're looking at around £1,200 - £1,400 for it, depending on whether you can find a buyer in the current financial climate.

[quote name='Paul_C' post='442821' date='Mar 23 2009, 06:25 PM']though as it only has four strings, not eight, is it really a mando or more an electro uke ?[/quote] Being a solid body, most of the distinctions are irrelevant with this thing... just the tuning. No reason it couldn't be set up as a uke.

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle Simple to learn

[quote name='tobesvw' post='438614' date='Mar 18 2009, 08:07 PM']The second item that I will be helping to sell is a Vanden bass guitar which was made for Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention.[/quote] I remember Vanden guitars being reviewed in Guitarist magazine in the late 80s/early 90s. Very high quality, hand made instruments... usually in the Gibson-style arch top jazz or semi mould. Gorgeous looking things. Do you have any photos of it? Value wise, I would imagine it would be similar to other top UK luthier-made instruments, although it's not necessarily as recognisable a name as some who concentrate on bass guitars. I doubt the provenance will add too much to the value.

Does too.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='436253' date='Mar 16 2009, 04:26 PM']It's not irrelevant, but it matters more to the player than the audience. There's nothing wrong with that. I like my bass to sound a certain way, and I tell myself that it compliments the song. The truth is, when we play live, very few people would notice if I swapped my £700 bass for a £100 bass.[/quote] The one person that would notice would be you, and that might well influence how well you play.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='436214' date='Mar 16 2009, 03:40 PM']I'm not bored of the argument though! Personally, I find most talk about tone to be a load of rubbish. In a live band scenario, a bass just sounds like a bass to me, especially when going through the PA.[/quote] Of course it's rubbish. When you're playing live 99.5% of the audience don't even notice that there is a bass there unless you stop playing. They could't care less about the tone. If I have two basses, one which is slightly brighter than another but no different in any other way, the only time I'll care is for about a second while I turn the treble down a little.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='436156' date='Mar 16 2009, 02:53 PM']Oh good grief..... I wish I hadn't said anything. Ok.... so your local shop has an ash and bubinga P-bass sat next to each other on the shelf do they. In the same colour too I suppose. I'm going now [/quote] My local shop has very little of anything sat next to each other. People regularly replace pickups and bridges trying to 'improve' the tone on their basses... why not swap a body? Is there something inherently dumb in this question?

[quote name='ARGH' post='436146' date='Mar 16 2009, 02:49 PM']Oh god,here we go again...another convo about wood,and all the whys and wherefor....then it degenerates into pro wood vs Paint..."COZ I DONT WANT MY BASS TO LOOK LIKE A TABLE" type posts.... Its dull,its like arguing over fretwire.....[/quote] Well, why are you reading it?

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='436104' date='Mar 16 2009, 02:03 PM']I think the counter-argument is that although this is true it is mostly irrelevant "pub talk". Unless you are having a bass built from scratch the instrument is a sum of its parts and in most cases you don't have a choice. So you wouldn't choose an Ash Fender over a Bubinga Warwick (for example) just because of the wood - probably.[/quote] What about a bubinga Fender? There's no particular reason why you couldn't get a bubinga body made for a Fender and keep all other things equal.

[quote name='ARGH' post='435751' date='Mar 16 2009, 07:30 AM']Wood and it being the cause of tone is rubbish...[/quote] I wouldn't go that far. It certainly has an affect on tone, although its overall influence is often overstated. All things being equal, a bass with a mahogany body sounds less bright than a bass with a maple body. But, yeah, it has less influence than string type (flat/round, stainless/nickle), pickup type, pickup placement, etc. Differences in fingerboard material are mostly cosmetic, except on fretless necks.

[quote name='Dan_Nailed' post='434990' date='Mar 15 2009, 01:23 AM']Cheers for all the advice, I was thinking about a timer for the dehumidifier...maybe run it 8 hours a day instead of 24 hours a day? It's only if we leave it OFF that after a week we notice the start of damp. Also on the doing a runner front, he doesn't actually have any way to trace us! Obviously that's a last resort as we need to rehearse. And he did agree two years ago to start bringing us quarterly bills...he just never bothered and has admitted that as his fault.[/quote] You could probably get away with having them on less than that. What you really need to be doing is concentrating on preventing condensation rather than just removing water from the atmosphere. Humidity isn't a problem per se. You said that the problem of moisture on your gear was weather dependent. I'm guessing the place isn't heated particularly well or consistantly. You might want to set the dehumidifier to come on several times a day, particularly when the temperature drops at night.... and especially for a couple of hours after you have a rehearsal (when the amount of water in the air is at its highest and the temperature is going to drop the most). It might be a good idea to invest in a decent hygrometer, one that records relative humidity levels throughout the day, so you know if you're doing enough to stop the relative humidity getting to 100%, where condensation forms. Relative humidity is temperature dependent (which is why dew or frost forms overnight outside) so you can't rely on a single measurement in a 24 hour period.