Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Paolo85

⭐Supporting Member⭐
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    565

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Paolo85

  1. Paolo85
    I am not an expert but to me your wrist looks fairly straight. The problem though is that in order to achieve that you keep the bass very much on your side. Not sure there is anything wrong with that per se but a big problem I'd see is that if you play standing with a strap the difference in terms of where the bass stands relative to you is must be huge. As for not resting the arm.. well, if I do not follow "the rules" and bend my wrist and rest the arm, I get pain. The way to avoid it is to lift the arm a bit. Hard work at first, but apparently not as damaging. If you do not have room to lift the arm as your shoulder gets all weird, then maybe that's another downside of keeping the bass on the side. Maybe try to have it pointing more toward your left
  2. Paolo85
    Yes good point here. Granted, I do think that musicians famous for their chops (including famous bass players) often overindulge in solos that are boring. Unfortunately that's good business for them and I imagine irresistible for their egos. But at the opposite end of the spectrum, famous sessionmen that are celebrated for "serving the song" often overindulge in dull bass lines for cheesy dull songs, which are very good business for all parties involved. This whole idea of serving the song, while correct in principle, pushed to the extreme, to me, is the death of music. The problem is, what is the song? If the song is a simple pop song, I appreciate that serving it means doing certain simple things. If the song is of a different nature - god forbid maybe an instrumental song - serving it may mean, at the right time, enriching it with some more complex bass lines. And it may even mean, at the right time, that the bass should take the lead.
  3. Paolo85
    Pino Palladino.
  4. Paolo85
    I have had a SS Squier Jaguar for a few weeks. I see what you mean. Neck dive depends on design and relative weigh of neck and body. And I must say on the personal opinion of what level neck dive is annoying. So there is no simple answer to the question but in general, yes, lightweigh tuners help. My bass was a massive neck diver. I have put hipshot licensed ultralight on, car wheel balance weighs at the back, and I have used Dunlop straplocks to "extend" the top horn. The bass is still neck heavy - which I don't like. But it is not a neck diver. As for the general feeling of awkwardness, I have realised that, if I try to keep the headstock pretty much at the same height as it would be on a long-scale, the body remains much higher, so my plucking hand is all crimped. Also, the headstock is closer, so even my fretting hand is a bit crimped. Because of that, I am experimenting with just keeping the strap longer and it helps. It turns out that, while my SS bass is undoubtedly easier on the fretting hand, overall I am not so sure it is more comfortable than my long-scale perfectly balanced P bitsa. But I don't have arthritis. With that, the SS would win. I'd just shop for one with better balance (or better hopes of balancing with a few adjustments)
  5. Paolo85
    Well, they advertised their strings as being unusual, with thick core and high tension. I wasn't sure what to make of it tbh. Also, I didn't know gauge would be so important for me (I use 40-100 on long scale). In fact, maybe gauge is not that important. It just becomes an issue with the Newtone, which they describe as "bright and punchy" - and they are, I would say very high-mid focused the nickels, but quite at the expense of thump. Still, this time I am not up for experimenting.
  6. Paolo85
    Please someone correct me if any of this is wrong as I am fairly new to that myself. Daw is a software that you install in your computer. It can read the signal coming from musical instruments/microphones, and record it. In order for this signal to reach the software, the sound from your instrument should be converted into a digital signal. For this, you buy an Audio Interface. It is essentially a box, connected to the computer, where you plug the bass or other stuff in and does does the conversion. A DI to my understanding is used to send the signal from a bass to a mixer, if you want to go through that. A highly reccommended not super expensive AI is the Scarlett Focusrite, which gives you also free access to a basic version fo DAW software Ableton.
  7. Paolo85
    Probably Jerry Jemmott in Albert King's My Feelings For The Blues
  8. Paolo85
    Well, that' the typical objection. Subjectively, fair enough. Question though: would you chose to listen to this album? Or is there many recordings of one instrument alone (piano, cello, whatever) that you tend to listen to? I see what you mean. A lot of tapping stuff (including a lot Berthoud's stuff) is just showing off and entertainment. This, IMO, is different. It is a musician pouring his soul on a classic song. I don't see it as short-term entertainment - unlike many bands that apparently are shortlisted this year for the R'N'R hall of fame.
  9. Paolo85
    Right, so that's absolutely magnificent Admittedly, I spend a lot of time lately listening to solo fingerstyle guitar recordings so I may be more open to this than many bass player. This is all magnificent but what stands out is how expressive his tapping is. I believe he is on another level compared to all the other youtube show-offs I am aware of. Not because of his chops, but because even at the frantic pace he has to publish videos in his line of business, he still often makes some great music. The objection to youtubers is often that their chops won't account for much in a band context. Well I'd rather take this than the mediocre stuff that 99% of bands record.
  10. Paolo85
    You're right actually. That could also be a minor chord in a melodic minor scale
  11. Paolo85
    Yes same, except in the first two the third is played only once. In the last one, however, there is no alteration now. If D is root, A is 5th and C# is major 7th. So it would be a Major 7 with the 3rd omitted.
  12. Paolo85
    A couple of side notes: these could likely be seen as inversions of something else, depending on context, but I am not good enough to figure those out. Also, in the first two chords what might have been confusing was that the 5th was missing. But that's pretty common on bass as you don't want to play too many notes as it gets muddy and you focus most on the nores that best define the chords. So mostly you play the 5th only when it is a diminish fifth, else it is implied. Indeed, those 4-string chords played down the neck would easily sound muddy already on most basses with typical eq IMO
  13. Paolo85
    ...the third one is a tricky one as C# and D are a minor second so I'd see that as an alteration of a C chord (as G# is the fifth could be maj or min). I think you'd spell it as C# flat 9 or something like that
  14. Paolo85
    First two I'd say A major 7 and A major
  15. Paolo85
    I don't understand how that sliding harmonic thing works!
  16. Paolo85
    For 30" scale I had to cut the E all the way to the thick part. I was getting a rattle which incredibly seemed to come from the string itself. I am not 100% sure but I did some reading and it seems it is a possibility when strings are cut too short. The rattle is gone with the new strings
  17. Paolo85
    Hi all, Has anybody tried multiple sets of 45-105 rounds for short scale? I had cut some D'Addario nickels long scale 45-105 to fit my short scale bass. I really loved the sound but they were giving me issues so I decided to buy proper short scale strings. I have replaced them with Newtone shorties 44-100. While I totally get what they are trying to achieve with these strings, that's not what I am looking for and I miss the big short-scale thump I was getting with the D'Addarios I see there are not a lot of options available for 45-150. Just Dunlop performance+, EB slinkies, and then I could just get some standard Newtone (I was thinking platinum nickel or diamond nickel). Who knows these and would reccommend for a thumpy (but still more growly than flats') sound, and hopefully some durability? Thanks
  18. Paolo85
    When I was around 18, alongsde my main band I decided to put together a hard rock/glam band with two dear friends. It was 100% to have fun with friends and we were not planning to become an amazing band. We needed a singer though and we put an advert out. A guy calls me, very confident, he says he sings pretty much like early days Bach (the Skid Row guy, at the time possibly my favourite singer). Oh god.. I was just hoping to get somebody with a decent voice who's not tone deaf.. maybe with this guy we we could start thinking a bit bigger? He comes to reharsal, we start with Youth Gone Wild, there's a pretty iconic scream from Bach there just at the beginning. The singer stops headbanging for the scream... ...well, I had to immediately turn my back to him. I could not stop laughing. I spent the full hour (yes, an hour and he had learnt all the songs unfortunately) looking at my drummer and trying not to laugh. Poor guy, it wasn't the bad singing per se. It's the fact that he had no clue he wasn't great
  19. Paolo85
    After buying a short scale recently I think I may end up in a similar situation. I have built the perfect (for me) P bitsa. It took me a while to settle on everything. But short scale is so comfortable..
  20. Paolo85
    Thanks. The neck has become significantly lighter. Note however that the new tuners are also smaller and much lighter than the original. As you can see I have not drilled much into the body. It has made a difference but not huge. At the moment the bass is slightly more body heavy than neck heavy. The plan was to drill more holes but I kind of lost enthusiasm as, truth to be told, the bass is lighter bit still a fairly heavy bass. There is no changing that. The neck is a sturdy P neck and thick back to front. Very stable but needs some substantial body weigh to avoid neck dive. In hindsight it was fun but a waste of energy. The rare occasions I want to play fretless I play sitting down
  21. Paolo85
  22. Paolo85
    So, the bottom line: this bass looks horrible and rattles, but it sounds good, it has a good fingerboard and it's cheap, so if you want to check if fretless may be for you for the cost of a set of strings, this could be a good option. It's pickup only from Bromley so if you you'd be able to try it. Strings are great LaBella tapewounds that cost more than the bass. This is (was) Fazley PJ fretless. Those are decent basses, you can read commentary here Mine cost me £85. It was good but superheavy. I play standing exclusively and hate heavy basses. At some point Fazley cut the price to £50. I was not smart enough to realise it was because they were going to discontinue them. So I thought "ok, resale price is zero, let's try to make it lighter, it may be fun". So I chopped the headstock and started drilling holes in the body (this was inspired by somebody else in BC, when THEY did it, it looked neat..) To fit the smaller 2+2 headstock, I fit tuners from an Ibanez. Now there is a rattle around the hesdstock. I doubt it is because of the neck break angle as it continues even if I hold the strings past the nut with my hands. My impression is that something is wrong with the tuners. Still, the rattle does not get amplified, maybe just faintly on a bad day. Other issues to note are that there is alluminum tape under the bridge (the grounding is still there working fine) which I put there to lift thr bridge as the pickups were too close to the strings. There are bits of painters tape on the body that got a bit sticky, I'll try to clean before the sale. One of the neck screws is not the original one. There are some screrches. And there is a black metal plate drilled in at the back which I used to hold the bass as an upright for a few days (long story). Also, I sanded and refinished the neck with tru oil and ot was a sloppy job. I am aware I should be ashamed of putting this on BC but I need space, I have given up on fretless and don't see this changing anytime soon as I now play guitar more than bass. And I don't want to deal with nutters on eBay Pics in the next post
  23. Paolo85
    I bought it, I would say it's probably good if you are already a good player and do it on the side of other stuff. It is very old school. I think most teachers or courses nowdays would take a standard, learn stuff through that and build knowledge through songs. The Micky Baker's book is more "now spend a month working on these hand-crushing chords" (for which by the way it does not suggest finger positions). For me, a beginner, it was a bit frustrating and boring so I gave up. Also, people more in the knowledge than me say a lot of the theory is not explained.
  24. Paolo85
    ...btw, I thought guitar was easier, at least easier on the hand, for the first few weeks. Then I started seeing stuff like this ...and then all that bending... 😱
  25. Paolo85
    Well, it is used quite a bit in jazz Plenty of maj7 here! Enjoy the guitar!
×
×
  • Create New...