EMG456

Ha- guilty as charged- I was too lazy to look it up! Didn’t mean to take it off course- I just gave it a listen and heard a guy doing a passable approximation of the original part. I can’t imagine that if you’ve been playing the song, you’re so far away from that version that you need to completely start afresh but you’re the one who knows. I think I’d only be likely to go back to scratch if I was taking the song into another genre for the cover or sometimes for key changes if the original involves a lot of open strings? Also remember that we are often our own harshest critics.

Not being a naysayer here- the guy can certainly play- but that’s not note for note what the great Dion Estuss played on the record. IMO if you’re looking for accuracy, you’d be better listening to the source and then putting your *own* twist on it for any of the parts which don’t easily fall under your fingers.

Thanks for posting this - had me laughing out loud several times. Very, very clever and impeccably executed.

@FlatEric, I remember we spoke about these a while ago but I can't remember if you said whether your other one has the chequered body binding or not - I would love to find one of those!

The album is indeed a classic. As well as Clapton, Chaka Kahn provided a couple of surprise stand out moments on it. Still do On and On with one of my bands- audiences love it!

Dee Murray - one of my all time bass heroes and influences - the music just seemed to flow out of his fingers automatically. Many great parts with non standard note choices but never gave the impression that it was anything other than spontaneous.

Feel free to be irritated then- I do it most gigs and occasionally it’s really useful- how else might you change a broken string out mid-song??!

Never heard Arthur before so thanks - truly excellent. Keep well and take it easy.

Anyone know where the mashers get the raw material for these - isolated vocal tracks etc?

Is it just me - where's the chromatic run in this?

Of course you can - it's a bass!

Great basses - I love my Sub!

@MoJo, you were probably just having an off night. If you've been playing fours exclusively for a while, having the five could feel odd and it probably threw you even when you went back to the four. As with all things music, practise and familiarity is the key. A good five is handy to have around in my opinion but it obviously depends on your priorities and what you want to do. It's not an age thing - I just got delivery of my 60th Birthday bass and it's a 6 string, 32 inch scale fretless. Now I've never played fretless while singing lead vocals before but the temptation to take it to the gig was too much. The playing was fine but the excess of strings and lack of frets apparently causes you to completely forget all your words - who knew! By all means, stick to the fours if that's what you want but for me at least, variety is the spice etc...

The terrific fretless line on Bergerac was the work of Mr Foster also.

Well, just watched the first two of these and have to say like a few others, preferred the drum one. I think essentially the difference between the two is the influence of the presenter. In Stuart Copeland, you have someone who has lived and breathed music and drums from a very early age and has worked at the highest levels both in terms of sales/ popularity and all round musical credibility. In Tina Weymouth, you have someone who was handed a bass at the age of 24 and told to learn it. I'm not belittling her talent here- she has sustained a music biz career for many years so she's obviously doing something right- but more pointing out that her musical experiences seem to me to be much more limited than the likes of Copeland and I think the choices of who/ what to feature reflected that. A programme about bass that misses out Squire, Entwhistle, JPJ? No Stanley Clarke, Jaco, Mick Karnes, Pino? No Larry Graham/ Louis Johnson? No Tony Levin/ Lee sklar? But wastes a few minutes on Dizee Rascal...mmm? On the plus side, she was very personable and had a nice easy way in front of the camera - just needed a more widely informed editorial direction. Anyone know who's doing the guitar one? Hopefully someone like Dave Grohl.

ACG will actually do set necks or bolt on - your choice. The set neck being a separate neck permanently glued in to a tight pocket. Status now call a set neck a through neck, even though it only goes as far as the bridge pickup route. I believe there is a difference tonally and also appearance wise but I have to say that bolt on joints have come a long way since the basic Fender type. I like both but chose bolt on for my recent ACG build because the sort of sound I was looking for it to provide has in the past most regularly been produced by bolt on basses as far as I can tell. I would suggest you buy what you want, after all, it'll just sound like you playing anyway! 😀 (runs for cover)

That's a great idea and would give you a valid reason to use one of those old Schaller bridges with the fine tuners fitted! Oh, and to answer the original question, high to low for me and then again to correct any errors.

@Al Krow I have an Ibanez Studio 8 which I bought new in 1980. Here's the thing- it has never really found a musical home with me. I have noodled on it in the house and I once in a blue moon take it to a gig and let it rip but the sound is so different to a standard bass that I find it's all but impossible to slip it into the usual situations. By comparison with almost any other bass it sounds loud and brash if you're using it to play the standard basslines. So I think you would be looking at using it in certain situations, with parts written specifically to suit an 8 string. For me it would be too much to play it all night. It's such a big sound that much like what happens when I play Chapman Stick on some songs, the rest of the band would likely have to adjust what they play to take account of the new sonic landscape. I play finger style, so it's always both strings at once for me and I can't imagine how you could cleanly and solidly select just the lower string whilst still playing fluently but no doubt someone with a better facility than myself might be able to do it! I have only ever recorded once with it and the song never made it past the demo stage, so I'm afraid I have no evidence for the court! This thread has however minded me to dig it out and take it to a rehearsal. The folky band I'm playing with just now would probably be a good setting for it and in any event I will enjoy the looks on their faces as I once again bring something odd to the party! In terms of recorded 8 strings, Chris Squire played one occasionally and I remember Greg Lake had a beautiful Alembic 8 although whether he recorded with it, I have no idea.

I'm assuming I'm correct (LOL which is what I always do!) in that clip B is the actual 8 string bass. I found it immediately obvious but then again, I've been a 8 string owner since 1980 so I'm very familiar with the sound. I heard a lot more dirt and general fuzziness in clip A which presumably is the pedal trying to disguise its limitations. To be honest, I think you could probably do a better emulation yourself using most multi-fx units these days - the Roland V-bass does quite a passable 8-string. For live performance though, I would just use the real thing if you have one. You'll get the proper sound and the punters will get the visual clues. Make sure you have a front of house soundman who will not mangle it out of all recognition trying to make it sound like a Fender Precision!

Thanks for that- I'm already very much loving it!

It’s another ACG special birthday bass. The first of a new model- the Krell Kompakt. Black Limba body with ART top. Wenge and maple neck with ebony board. Multi coil pickups with Dual filter preamp. Thanks to Alan Cringean (ACG) who not only builds great basses but also takes great pictures of them!! A full build diary is in this thread if you're interested in what the process is for having a bass built from scratch.

Thanks for listening all. I’m going to pop up a NBD thread over in bass guitars so some more BC’ers can see another example of Alan’s skill.

So here we go... ACG Krell Kompakt Fretless 6 String, Uber Spec, multicoil pickups, DFM preamp, 32" scale. These are Alan's pics - way better than I could do and it sounds and feels as good as they look! I'll try and get some sound clips together over the next few days. It's been worth the wait! 😀

In life, as in music, timing is all. I just picked it up, it's beautiful and now I have to go out and be sociable for the evening! Arghhhhh! Will post the pics up later on... much later on. 😬