JellyKnees

Hi Bob, I've spent the last couple of years trying out various half wound type strings on my piezo Tunebass fretless with much the same aim in mind. My conclusions so far are... D'Addario half rounds - a great sounding string with loads of oomph - I did stick with these for quite a while, but ultimately I found them to be too stiff for my tastes, even with the lightest guage. Status Hotwire Half wound - quite a good string feelwise, but I thought they lacked a little presence. Elite ground wound - too dull for me, almost as dull as a flatwound. Rotosound pressure wound - not bad, but not overwhelming either. Still not as good tonewise as the D'Addarios. Status tapewound - a nice sound and great feel but just not 'loud' enough - however they were quite a light gauge as far as tapewound strings go, and there are quite few other makes of tapewounds, so maybe some of the thicker gauge ones would work better. DR Sunbeams - I'd never tried DR strings before, partly due to the cost, but I really like these. They are really smooth to play and have a great tone. I tried the 40-60-80-100s first and they were a little bit too loose (they have a round core rather than a hex core), so I'm currently using a set of 45-65-85-105 and they're great. Plenty of tone, just the right flexibility and easy to slide your fingers on. Maybe a tad on the bright side but that's easily eq'd out - you can't add it, but you can take it away! String choice a very personal thing - there are so many factors that come into play, your bass, your technique, the kind of music you play etc etc, so ultimately the only way to find out is trial and error. If you are interested, I was thinking of selling some of these strings on - apart from the D'Addarios they are all hardly used, so if you want to try some out without some of the expense of buying new, let me know. Cheers, Neil

There's some rather odious muso snobbery going on in this thread. I saw her with Jeff Beck 2 years ago and I though she was fantastic. I'm not particularly into jazz fusion, I don't know how she compares to this player and that player, I don't study other player's techniques in detail and to be honest I find that whole style of playing general rather boring - great technical ability does not necessarily make for exciting music. Maybe Jeff Beck is wrong, but I'd be inclined to trust his judgement over most of the musicians on here.

Up to a point. I can think of a couple of drummers I've played in the past with who had obviously practiced loads, had some lessons, brought a great kit etc...but they never really [i]grooved[/i].

Who is this guy? He sounds like a muso fool to me. But then I don't go in for all this over analysis of musical technique - it tends to miss the point to my mind.

Bumped for tomorrow... Also, change in venue from the Ship Inn to the Blue Anchor...something to do with the music license apparently.

The status ones are pretty good too, probably a bit cheaper than the d'addarios....

Never heard that Pixies song before, but god is it boring...tedious predictable indie rock IMHO Got nothing against good simple bass lines though - I think she has a point about some bass players (and musicians in general) who can't/won't keep things simple. I find myself over elaborating sometimes, especially on songs we've been playing for a long time or played very frequently. That's why it's good to rest songs for a while and them come back to them fresh, and try and get back to the original basic idea that made it work in the first place. Slap bass is like chilli sauce I guess, good in moderation on certain foods, but add too much and you'll completely ruin the dish.

As organised by John Gorman of The Scaffold fame... yeah you know, they had a hit with Lilly the Pink in the late 60's. What, you don't remember Lilly the Pink - how old are you exactly? Oh, never mind... Anyhow, for more info, full listings etc [url="http://www.festivaloffirsts.co.uk/"]http://www.festivaloffirsts.co.uk/[/url] My own band is playing at the Ship Inn in Hoylake on Saturday 9th July at 2.00 pm [url="http://www.handsetbongo.com"]http://www.handsetbongo.com[/url]

+1 for the EBS pedal...good and punchy with minimal sound colouration

Another +1 for Tina Weymouth...not particularly fancy or technical but always very good at playing the right notes in the right places...which is [i]much[/i] more important IMHO

Hello from jerkinbed...

[quote name='Mark Dyer' post='1243554' date='May 24 2011, 10:01 PM']Ah, Birkenhead?[/quote] Indeed, or Jerkinbed...depends what you prefer really...

Drums - Vinnie Colaiuta Rhythm Guitar - David Rhodes Percussion - Ruth Underwood Miscellaneous Extra Guitar, Keyboards, Vocal, Percussion, Electronics etc as required - Matt Johnson Piano and Lead vox - my bandmate Jo, cos we'd be performing our songs and I couldn't really do them without her... Bass - Me, n'est pas?

Octaver for bowel shaking lows

4 other band on before us... FTI 9:15 The Outdoor Types 9:45 ABC For Giants 10:15 Choker 10:45 Should be a good night!

No More Heroes - The Stranglers...mind you, loads of their songs started with really good bass parts.

Like i said, 'buy'??? The 'version' I had of cubase at the time was a bit unstable, the version of nuendo wasn't...I know they are basically the same thing, although I still think nuendo looks more business like, even though I now have a working version of cubase 5 too...

It's always a good morning to kill in London....I'll get my coat.

Buy? Mmmmmm...if I was making any real money out of this music thing I might.... Nuendo is good...I've used variants of cubase for years and never seen the point in changing tbh.

[quote name='ZMech' post='1243169' date='May 24 2011, 05:21 PM']Here in is the difference. Learning something by analysing and understanding the rules, even if they're only a framework as with music, is normally much quicker than simply randomly experimenting with the options and slowly accomodating the rules into your intuition. After all, it's due to this point that teachers exist.[/quote] The problem is that always working within the rules, or even being led by them, doesn't always lead the most interesting creative results, IMHO. Like I said, it rather depends on whether you are trying to learn a bass part verbatim (i.e. as a session player etc), or are trying to come up with your own ideas. In the later case, speed is not really the objective of the exercise. [quote]I think the use of the word 'rules' causes a lot of problems. Theory isn't about rules...it's about facts. A major chord is made up of scale tones 1,3,5. You can't change or break that,in the same way that 1+1=2.[/quote] Yes, that is certainly a fact, however as to whether certain chord progressions or particular combinations of notes sound good together is merely conjecture. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, look at the harmonic combinations using in eastern music, which sound unfamiliar and 'unmusical'(whatever that means) to the average western ear. I'm not dismissing theory by any means, I'm just saying that not all of us need to have a huge knowledge of it to be musically accomplished. Horses for courses I guess...

I think the extent to which you need to learn theory is entirely dependant on the context in which you play. Jazzers, classical musos, session players etc. all no doubt need to know a lot of theory to do what they do, the rest of us mere mortals generally less so... Most rock/pop/funk/reggae etc. is really not that difficult to write/play/learn by ear. I have some knowledge of scales, chords and harmony but only at a fairly rudimentary level, however like many other people on here, what I do have is a pretty good ear which I've developed over the last 30 years of playing, and this has always been more than adequate within the confines of what I have done. On the subject of 'wrong notes', I think it depends entirely on your ears and pre-conceptions of what 'good' notes should be. As an example, I was putting some programmed synth parts on a new song of ours the other day - I accidentally copied a part to the 'wong' place in the song, however I thought one of the notes sounded really good, so I left it in (it was a G over a stop, straight after an F#min chord). I played it to our guitarist and he thought it was a mistake and didn't like it, I then played it to our pianist/singer - she thought it sounded great, so we kept it in! The way I look at it is, music theory is a set of rules that someone devised because they thought it should work/sound that way. Like all rules, they can be useful but can also be inappropriate in some circumstances. Trust your ears - if its sounds good to you, go with it.

Hello from Brokenhead

As a concept, they fundamentally suck. Music is not a competition.

I had a rotator cuff tear on my right shoulder last year (a screwdriver injury ffs!), so it was less problematic than the left would have been, but was still not great... My GP referred me to a good physio who gave me some exercises and also did some accupuncture, which definitely helped it settle down pretty quickly (within a few weeks). Of course it depends how bad your injury is, but I think the key is getting the balance between rest and mobility right. Some gentle swimming perhaps? But definitely try and see a physio and get their advice. On a more general 'bass playing' health related note, I took up yoga 6 months ago as I had been having some problems with my back for a couple of years. I work in IT and all the years sat at a desk were beginning to take their toll - this was also having a negative effect on my ability to play bass, particularly when standing. I would highly recommend this to anyone who plays bass - it has made a huge difference to my overall levels of physical strength, stamina, balance and co-ordination. I wouldn't say my back is completely cured - I still get the odd niggle, but the frequency is a lot less (and diminishing over time) and my ability to deal with it is a lot better.