Paolo85

Still in but I won't be in for long, I am afraid. I have started playing guitar as well, and after experiencing the joy if noodling for hours without any trace of pain, I think I am going to sell my EUB and buy a short scale bass. Still, I may not buy for a while as I do not like the looks of most cheap short scale basses. It may take a while to chose.

I stand corrected. What more than doubled was average earnings, as per point 3 here https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/december2023#:~:text=Average weekly earnings (AWE) were,increased over the long term. With growing inequality, median wages would have grown less. Still, without having read the footnotes, from the table here it looks to me growth for those was 87% (85% for full time employees) https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/ashe1997to2015selectedestimates

A few things that may or may not be if interest here. UK median wages have more than doubled since 2000. Adjusting for that, a £2000 bass in November last year would have been equivalent to paying £915 in January 2000. That is, if my calculations are right, which they may not be. I was not in this country in 2000 but I understand inequalities have increased since. Still, £2000 basses are not aimed at those left behind given that probably 98% of the people who spend £2000 for a bass are not professionals and even most professionals would not be able to tell the difference between an expensive bass and my cheap PJ bitsa in the mix. If we look at inflation, a £2000 bass in 2023 was equivalent to a £1100 bass in 2000, a £490 bass in 1980 and a £150 bass in 1970. According to this website https://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/fender/bass/Precision_timeline_1970s.php a Fender Precision in 1970 would cost around 300 dollars Which I believe would have been around £120, though actual prices in the UK might have been way different from the US. So I guess basses may not be extraordinarily expensive now even if we do not consider how good a £350 Squier can be these days. Obviously, if somebody wants to buy a bass from 1970 or from a dead luthier that is not in production anymore instead of buying the current-day equivalent basses, then it becomes a matter of vintage erc.. we are basically talking luxury goods which like most luxury goods do not make much sense to me and the sky is the limit in terms of prices. I personally do not understand the market for luxury goods very well. But I agree with those that say it is not a great investment. Fads come and go, ome may end up having to sell in a decade when people go back to thinking new=cool old=uncool. I mean, they may be a good investment as a very small part of a diversified portfolio, if one has resources. I don't know. Not sure they are good as in "let's put half of our savings in suspiciously expensive basses instead ofpension funds or a mortgage downpayments." That is not to say that buying a fancy used bass thinking it may keep its value is not a good idea. I'd do it if I was longing for the bass and if the price was such that some losses would not put me into troule. IMHO and all

I did the six-hour + thing for a couple of years. I ended up with tendinitis and stopped playing. Arguably there would have been clever ways to do that and avoid tendinitis. If I knew then what I know now. Which I didn't. Still, I did that because I felt like doing it. It came natural. If it hadn't, playing hours every day would have felt like a chore and I would have stopped playing anyway. Either way, if you have been playing continuously for 37 years, you certainly got more out of music than I did.

Mi daughter got a suprano Ukulele as a present. I started noodling with it and had lots of fun playing chords. The problem was that I play at night when everybody is asleep. My wife made it clear that it was too noisy. I started looking online for cheap electric solid body ukukeles. I saw the Harley Benton one, but from online reviews I really was not impressed with the sound. Plus it was cheap but not exactly for free. Long story short I ended up buying a guitar instead. Still, the ukulele is great. I found a couple of good ukulele recordings in the process https://youtu.be/VCMWIXADJj0?si=-lddoWJMiWv-Xd28

Ibhad a couple of instances in which it was the machine heads themselves that were rattling. Try touching/holding the machin heads in various ways and see if it changes. It may not be the one attached to the A

That's fair😁

I am ashamed to say it will be guitar lessons!

Right, I have got another one for you then An audio interface. Bought for the purpose of online lessons. Tier 1 failure? Tier 2 failure? Does it change if it is used for something else?

Strangely, I do not really have bass players of which I like/want to have every recording. Still, my favourite work is from -Jaco, Gary Willis, Mark Egan -Jamerson/Tommy Cogbill/Jerry Jemmott -Stu Hamm, though I have found album of his that I love only recently, and it may be too early to say if he's one of my favourites -George Porter Jr -I agree Berthoud is truly amazing and has written some great songs, but I get lost with youtubers. Hope at some point he will take a break and work on a few albums -If we extend to doublebass, probably Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, Scott Lafaro, Ray Brown. Those might be my favourite in general

Thought I'd share a nice post from a guy on another forum (for people who play extra-short scale six-string piccolo bass) "Back in my bar band, weekend warrior days, I finally realized buying another piece of gear wasn't going to improve my playing. So when I needed some retail therapy, I would buy a book or video lesson instead. Over time I collected a decent library of materials. Trying to decipher the information laid out in some of the 'must have' tomes [...] I thought I would never get much out of a lot of the material, save for a few basic concepts and ideas that I already understood. But perserverance has won out. Nowadays, I will often realize a concept has worked it's way into my playing "

Well, there is one, it's called "Basschat" And looking at success rates on past abstinence challenges, this thread should also work well for us

EDIT: on second read, the question is different than I thought

Sorry to hear that. I can imagine recording originals, promoting them and sharing stage with bands you live and admire could be nerve wrecking. Could it make sense to change band, join one that is less busy, less good, playing music you care less about (maybe simple covers), all just for fun? That could be a temporary thing or a permanent thing, depending what you'll find makes you happiest

I am in. No doubt I'll fail but I don't "need" anything so no harm in trying!

Technically the best purchase was a Squier VM Jazz bought for a very good price. But for as playable as it was, it seems I am not a J person and I have sold it already. Of the four bass guitars bought this year, three have been sold already. The remaining one is a Fazley fretless PJ paid £85 new which I guess was the most useful (best?) purchase. I feel bad I have butchered it as I was experimenting on it. Excluding basses, the best purchase was a Gruvgear Duostrap. Worst purchase may be my Stagg EUB, but it is too early to say. Ideally I would love to work toward playing the doublebass. I have bought a used Stagg for cheap but I was struggling. So I have spent more than the cost of the EUB in a professional fingerboard shooting. I am still struggling. It seems I will either have to spend even more money - in lessons, low tension strings, or both - or cut my losses and sell.

Tonerider for lots of bottom end, Wilkinson (thr alnico one) for a brighter ("normal" bright, not oddly bright) sound

That's comparatively better IMO

I think the GB5 is interesting. The lower horn does not look that prominent in that one. The Z series I guess is a good idea in principle. But that horn..

I can't say I am done forever, but I think I am done for a while with electric basses. I have a PJ bitsa with a magnificent Tonerider P pickup and a comfortable neck. I have a Cort musicman-inspired bass, which I bought when I was around 18, which is extremely funky with low-gauge stainless rounds. I have a butchered Fazley fretless which, with LaBella tapes, does the fretless thing surprisingly well. For as much as I have enjoyed GAS, after going through 15 basses in two years I can't think of anything else I may need, and that has been the case for a bit, other basses have come and goine, but the first two have stayed. More importantly I have recently concluded that I want to be a couch player for another while. So the chances of "needing" something are flimsy. Dangers now come from other fronts. I have bought a Stagg EUB and, ehm... a guitar 😳 (..actually, two cheap guitars, at once.. the sort of accidents that can happen to basschatters.. one will be sold at some point)

Maybe it's just a matter of creating a new habit? Maybe you could put something like painter tape on the bass body and around your wrist, lose enough that you can move around the P pickup but no more. Just for a few days until you get the new habit. If then you want to play over the bridge because your sound gets out more or because it is easier to play fast it's all good, but it would be a conscious decision. In an ideal world one would mive the plucking hand around all the time to get the best sound for each song/part. I think Jaco once asked about his signature sound of playing over the bridge said that aming other things it helped him go faster. I personally always found the increased tension at the bridge to be just hard work. But I play with a soft touch so it's not like the strings bounce up and down toi much. Maybe you could try that?

Now, the simple answer is yes, it does make sense sometimes to deviate from striclty alternating. But, in my limited experience, it is best to make a decision about what style you want to use at least to start with. This, for me, helps prevent situations where my fingers just get entangled. I cannot "think" about my right hand when I play. I just need to have the patterns automated in my brain. Now, it seems the two main options if you don't want to mix and match are strictly raking or strictly alternating. With strictly raking you "rake" any time you go to a lower string - but everything else is stricly alternated. When I was playing as a teenager I was strictly alternating. As I restarted a couple of years ago I discovered raking and I just love it. I love the economy of movement, I get a better, cleaner sound out of it, I can play passages for which in alternating I would not be fast enough. I imagine the perfect musician would just chose the best technique each time depending on context. But fot me that's too much to think about.

Cheers. I hate heavy basses myself. From that point of view though, some Harley Bentons would not solve the problem... certainly not the two HB boat anchors I had

Ah yes, strings, forgot that! I'd much rather play a very cheap P with decent neck and strings of my liking (actually, that's what I do!) than an expensive Fender precision with strings not of my liking. Now that's a rabbit hole and not a cheap one. But worth considering that as well in terms of priorities. Old strings are fine if you like them, depending what do you want to achieve. But some age more gracefully than others. Some are known to last forever, some people tend to change them every few months. Some strings may just be described as dead and changing them is like buying a fresh new bass. Plus there's the tension issue. Some are very hard work to play, stiff, high tension. Some are effortless - though they tend to create other problems.