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I got a Dean Edge five-string unlined fretless not too long ago. Due to the fact that I was used to a fretted four, it has been quite a jump! I'll be playing at a big college jazz festival in two weeks, and I hope this bass will go over well. My school owns a vintage 50 watt Fender Bassman that gets a gorgeous tone. I've had a bit of a hard time getting the bass to bring out that distinctive fretless "mwah" sound. It sounds great in the upper register, but I've been struggling to find settings and playing styles to get that in the lower positions. Could it have something to do with the setup, the EQ, or just a picky bass? It has fairly new roundwounds on it which I thought would make that tone come out better.
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Apr 6, 2010 08:10
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Kynetx posted:Try dialing out some of the low-end and use the bridge pickup maybe? I had been doing a bit of that already, and it's the only way I've gotten it to sound like a fretless at all without messing with the setup. Scarf posted:I've found the mwah has more to do with your bass's setup and your technique. You want pretty low relief in the neck, almost completely flat. I'll give that a shot. Right now, the action is pretty high and the relief is moderate - I think the previous owner was trying to get more sustain out of it? With some luck, tightening the trussrod might move the deadspot on the G-string enough that I can play a C that doesn't die on me.
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Apr 6, 2010 19:39
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Narwhale posted:35 pounds At my college, we have a small room in the instrument cages that is dedicated for student-owned uprights. A month or so ago, an student taking electric lessons decided to store his Ampeg SVT 6x10 rig in the room, taking up about half of the space that was previously mine.  Since it was so accessible, I decided to give it a spin with my fretless 5. I was disappointed - it had a noticeable amount of distortion to it, but after checking the settings I am pretty sure it wasn't due to having too much gain or anything like that. I know that isn't much to go by, but I'm curious if anyone might know what could be wrong with the amp.
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Apr 9, 2010 15:27
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thequiethero posted:I'm currently trying to learn 'Portrait of Tracy' by Jaco Pastorius. It's way out out my skill level, but it's so fun to play. Anyone know of any other music like this? I don't know if there is anything out there like this piece - it's certainly one of a kind. One of my good friends knows how to play it, an can ACTUALLY play it halfway decent for the most part. As far as similar-esque songs, you could always work on Teen Town, which is a bitch to learn but it'll improve your ability to play quick runs of notes. That same bassist and I are both comfortable on electric and upright, with him a bit stronger on upright and me better on electric. There is a concert coming up in December where we would have a chance to perform something, so I threw together a duet of upright and fretless bass playing 'Crazy Train.' I exported the Finale part to an .mp3, so I apologize for the crappy MIDI sounds. Any thoughts or criticism would be appreciated. Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?m4ya1ztipgt96t9
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Nov 13, 2010 09:18
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Demon Seed posted:OK guys.. I have really been getting into jazz and bebop music the last few weeks, I've always appreciated it but I'm in love with the upright acoustic bass now. I can't really recall seeing any upright players in this thread and I'm too lazy to read through the whole thing again. I hope this doesn't discourage you, but finding a cheap upright that doesn't suck takes time, effort, and luck. I have two uprights myself, and I paid about $1500 for both of them. The first one basically fell into my lap - if it wasn't held together by crack-repairing resin, it would be worth 5k easily. It plays wonderfully, but it's extremely sensitive to the environment, so it is staying in my parent's house until I get out of school. The other bass I have cost me the same, but it is a very inferior instrument. I can't wait until I can get rid of it and go back to my frankenbass! For a reasonable beginner bass, buying new, DO NOT order from big-box stores like musiciansfriend.com - their basses are complete poo poo for jazz and bebop stuff. Find a luthier or string specialty place to get it from. If you go the used route, you have a better chance of scoring a deal, but at the same time there is always the chance of getting a crappy one that just won't take a good setup, or has a warped bridge, or open seams that won't stay closed. I went used for both of mine, the first through a teacher at my high school and the second through Craigslist. Here's the site for the guy I go to for repairs - his basses for sale reflect the prices that you will find. http://doublebassworkshop.com/basses-for-sale If you can go to a shop similar to this one, the luthier will be able to help you quite a bit - they love to do what they do, and they are very knowledgeable.
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Nov 28, 2010 05:37
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The Will posted:Is there a method for practising a song that I should know? I'm incredibly new to this and the majority of my practise thus far has been along with Hal Leonard CD which is great fun, and I've tried to find a groove on a few other songs - but now I'm playing things which are pretty complex to my retard hands. If I am trying to learn a song and I can't quite keep up or figure out the part, I like to use Audacity to slow it down. As I get more familiar with it, I can bump it back to full speed. When I mess up, I try to keep going, since you can't really push the "redo" button during a gig. If you want to work on a specific phrase, you can use Audacity to just select that bit of the song and repeat it as needed. The percussion professor who leads my jazz combo swears by Audacity to learn songs or transcribe solos.
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Nov 29, 2010 16:30
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After receiving a decent chunk of Christmas money, I decided that it's time to upgrade from my ampeg BA210. I like the look (and price) of Carvin's stuff. I can get their 500 watt head and 4x10 cab for under $800 including shipping. The only thing holding me back is that I haven't heard or played a Carvin amp, and I don't know of any way to test it out beforehand. Does anybody have any experience with Carvin amps?
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Dec 27, 2010 23:56
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Achtane posted:So... pretty... want one... Nice work. I got some new (to me) strings to put on my cheap upright. These strings were given to me by a guy who mainly plays orchestral music, and the strings have lost their nice arco tone, but they still sound great with pizz! I finally got to remove the 5-year-old-plus strings on that beast, and it opened up the tone quite a bit. The strings sounded great at Chicago jazz fest last month considering they had been put on four days before, and they are now properly settling in to this bass.
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Mar 16, 2011 13:19
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Walked posted:Can anyone suggest some more-contemporary styles of country/country-rock basslines? Seconding the previous replies. As a jazz player, I have noticed that knowledge of walking technique has really given me more ability to dink around with bass lines. If I think a bass line in a cover song is too repetitive or not busy enough for the situation, I find myself throwing in patterns or motifs that I found through walking. I'm also in a swing band with fairly simple, often cheesy, music for the most part. If I'm feeling too lazy to properly walk a line, or if the song is particularly cheesy, I usually fall into a simple pattern of code:I hope that all makes sense when viewed from outside my twisted mind...
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Mar 21, 2011 21:16
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I'm going in to one of the local tattoo shops to get this done: I found a guitar tattoo on GIS, tweaked a bunch of stuff with it, and now it's getting permanently installed on the inside of my left bicep  My Dean fretless-5 has something loose inside it. Whenever I'm plugged in and I either tap the pickup, or knock on the body or anything like that, I can hear a metallic ringing sound through the amp. It sounds somewhat like the sound a lightbulb with a busted filament does when you shake it, but not that high-pitched. I'm hoping to open her up and poke around a bit, but I have no idea where to start and I need the bass for a concert in less than two weeks...
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Mar 24, 2011 17:57
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Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:So my first bass just arrived (SX Ursa 2) and I just realized. I don't have any picks, so I'll have to learn how to play with my fingers first instead. When I do go for a pick though what should I look for? Is it just personal preference or are there different types for doing different things? You want it THICK. A standard guitar pick is practically unusable on bass in my experience. Most of my picks are in a gig bag on campus, and the only pick I found in my room is a Dunlop 1.0 mm. I think my main collection is a set of Tortex 1.14 mm. You can probably get away with something a little under 1.0 mm if you like your picks flaccid. Note: I mainly play fingerstyle, so feel free to override my ramblings.
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Apr 6, 2011 19:51
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DrDraxium posted:Upright/Double Bass – Starting Out I have never rented, but a non-lovely instrument helps A LOT. It really depends on your budget. I would recommend you spend AT LEAST 2 grand (US dollars) on an upright, but it would be better if you could get past 3,000. If you can't afford that, renting may be a better option. I would recommend that you don't go to MusiciansFriend.com or something like that for a new instrument - from my experience they aren't worth what you have to pay for them. Try to find a bass luthier in your area. They know far more than me and can give you good advice on what to look for, plus they usually have a decent inventory of uprights. My personal opinion on electric uprights, or EUBs, is that they are the spawn of Satan and should disappear. The scale length is wrong, so your intonation will be terrible. If you want a portable bass with upright qualities, either get a fretless or make do with a real upright. From my experience, doubling on both styles is quite common, as is doubling on electric and upright. I do jazz and classical, but I lean quite a bit towards jazz. If you do play classical, you will need a decent bow. I use a carbon fiber bow myself, which are not too much more expensive than a decent beginner bow. I saw a violin playing friend snap his $1400 bow's tip after dropping it from an inch off the ground, so carbon fiber looks quite attractive due to the fact that it can't do that. I paid about $325 for mine, but my luthier increased prices since then. Your mileage may vary. You will need to practice at least 50% more to work on both styles, maybe up to double the practice time, but it is quite common to play multiple styles.
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Apr 8, 2011 05:34
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DrDraxium posted:I checked it out http://www.uptonbass.com/SB80-SHEN-BASS-Samuel-Shen-Double-Bass/ which looks perfect. Pricey of course, but I see the slapping down of $1500USD as a meagre amount considering the emotional/mental investment I’m making for my future. That looks to be better quality than the basses that I have found in that range, that should suit you well for a starter instrument. DrDraxium posted:I assume in a band/ensemble situation the acoustic bass would be amplified by a simple mic -> amplifier setup so it wasn’t drowned out by all the other instruments? In an ideal world, the bass is probably using a dual input of pickup and microphone. In most cases, bassists just use a pickup. My bass instructor, luthier, and high school orchestra teacher all recommended me the Fishman Full Circle pickup, which is roughly 200 bucks. The David Gage Realist is also an excellent pickup for a similar price. There are cheaper pickups out there, but from my experience they have abysmal tone. I have A/B'ed my Full Circle against another guy's budget pickup through my Ampeg BA210 combo (which is surprisingly good for upright) and I could not get anything good out of his bass, while mine was reproduced accurately and clearly. A quality bow is quite expensive. You can probably find a used bow for cheaper. I think of my bow as an investment - my bow will never need to be replaced, just have to rehair every once in a while. Your luthier or instructor can probably point you in the right direction to find something in your budget range. Seconding that you look into a bow before a pickup. You will find a lot of use from the bow before your skills develop to the point where you can use a pickup. The Science Goy fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Apr 8, 2011 |
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Apr 8, 2011 15:56
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Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:Here is a question so basic that no FAQ I've run across even mentions it. How do you turn on/off a plain combo amp/speaker like a practice amp without making it pop? Some of it is unavoidable. The best that you can possibly do is to turn down the volume knob on the bass and the volume knob on the amp. If you have two volume knobs (volume and level or something like that) try turning down one or the other, or both. Some amps are just made in a way that the pop happens no matter what.
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Apr 10, 2011 20:56
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ObsidianBeast posted:Any other 5-string players here? Got a cheap fretless 5 (like buttah) and there's a decent chance that this might get dropped into my lap soon: http://www.clementbass.com/web/Gallery/Bassgallery/tabid/55/Default.aspx?path=SingleCuts%2FClement+087 I got my first upright from my high school orchestra director for a steal at $1500. Because of humidity issues and the lack of solid structural integrity with that ancient beast, I got another dirt-cheap upright ($1400) to protect the other bass. The director wants his old upright back, but doesn't have the cash to buy it, so he is really tempted to trade me that Clement. I hope it goes through - I could really use a good fretted 5 that beats the pants off my Schecter Elite 4.
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Apr 14, 2011 16:38
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Trombone Shorty came to my uni as the featured artist for our tiny jazz fest. After reading his program notes and chatting with him for a minute after his show, I discovered that I saw him in 2003 or something in Milwaukee when he was touring with Lenny Kravitz - how 'bout that. Next year's jazz fest featured performance is the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra So I'm stuck in limbo with Tom Clement's #87. The P.O. is trying to decide if he wants to finalize this trade between the Clement and his old upright that I bought from him 4 years ago... but I fell in love with the Clement. It's got gorgeous tone, amazing looks, great playability, a B-string tighter than a tick's rear end, and so much sustain I thought it was feeding back. It just needs a bit of saddle adjustment, a quarter turn or so on the trussrod, maybe raise the pickup height a tad on the treble side, and it's perfect.
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May 3, 2011 15:01
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Unless they've really improved from the models from 5 years ago, the Bassman isn't what you're looking for. I had one for my first amp, and it was disappointing. The Markbass combos are good, but awfully expensive. For pure portability and back-friendliness, the Markbass would be best, but it would be a lot more cost-effective to grab a 2x10, or maybe a 1x12, depending on what kind of music you primarily play. DrChu's suggestion looks like it would give you maximum flexibility. I'm hoping to save up some money over the summer to find something to replace my Ampeg 2x10 220watt combo amp. I know Carvin makes great instruments and affordable amplification, but I haven't been able to play through any of their amps or cabs yet, so I am a bit hesitant to blindly drop 800 bucks for a 500w 4x10 setup. A few days ago I finalized a deal to trade my upright back to the previous owner in exchange for a beautiful Tom Clement bass.  The Clement (center) is an amazing upgrade from my Schecter (right). The bass on the left, a Global, was given to me by an old bandmate. It's been inexpertly defretted, had the neck painted over, and the electronics are falling apart. I keep it around for self defense. Not pictured is my entry-level Dean Edge fretless-5. I may sell the Dean and Schecter to pay for a decent fretless-4, but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to sell the Schecter.
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May 12, 2011 19:22
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Morter posted:TL;DR: I'm cheap/poor, and I'd like a new bass guitar (and amp) for $250 (/$350 w/ amp) Craigslist is your friend. If you keep your eye open, you might find someone selling their whole rig at once to pay for school or something. As long as you try the gear out before money exchanges hands, you can potentially find some decent used stuff for cheap.
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May 12, 2011 21:37
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I just ordered the components and hardware to build one of these bad boys: I am building a Bill FitzMaurice Omni 15 TallBoy full range speaker cabinet, which can be found here: http://billfitzmaurice.com/Omni15.html I am using an alternate setup that Bill includes in the plans, with two Eminence Basslite S2012 woofers in addition to the midrange and tweeter. I am also modifying the design slightly, just enough to accommodate two casters and a handle to roll it like an 8x10. I just need to find the best place in my area to get the wood, track down the components for the crossovers and front grill, and decide which color to order the Dura-Tex, and this project will be underway. I don't know if it's just my local store or nationwide, but Musician's Friend is holding a promotion with increased discounts after gear trade-ins, so I'm taking in my old basses and combo amp to trade for a MarkBass LM3 to power the new cabinet.
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Jul 15, 2011 02:04
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Bazanga posted:I've been learning how to sight read fairly well but I still have some issues mapping notes to the fretboard. Something isn't clicking and it seems like it's really holding me back. I don't have an electric tuner yet Where on the fretboard are you having issues mapping notes? Is it a certain part of the fretboard that's giving you trouble? Bazanga posted:If you don't mind me asking, about how much were the materials for that beast? I'm guessing it would be around ~$700 US all together? That thing looks like it will be just nasty. The speakers are an upgrade from the baseline models suggested, which brought the cost up. The handles, wheels, corner protectors, and other various things like that added $80 to the cost, which was quite a bit more than I expected. One of the issues with a project like this is that a whole bunch of little things show up that you need to buy, which brings the cost up a surprising amount. Even so, with the upgraded speakers, case hardware, wood, screws, adhesive, DuraTex, crossover components, and the plans from the website, I'll be spending just under $600. EDIT: the plans and website say that a barebones cab can be built for under $400. I have spent a lot of time researching what speakers to buy and where to get them for the best price, what modifications to make to the cabinet, how to make sure those modifications don't detract from the tone or volume, and I've read through the build plans cover to cover three times so far. The time investment is pretty large if you want to build the best cabinet that you can. With luck, I'll be able to do the assembly of the cab on the 30th, paint the 31st, and finish it completely a few days after that. I sold basically all of the old gear I had laying around and ordered the MarkBass Little Mark 3, now I just have to wait for it to ship... then I have to wait for a chance to build my cab... the anticipation is killing me! The Science Goy fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Jul 16, 2011 |
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Jul 16, 2011 02:35
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I spent last night and a large portion of this afternoon putzing around with my cabinet build. I probably could have gotten further, but there were some cool shows on Discovery and the History channel, so I got sidetracked often.
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Jul 24, 2011 02:25
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This is what happens when a bassist is given lots of spare time, some power tools and a few hundred bucks: It's not entirely finished yet - I need to beef up the crossover mounting bracket, and the mid driver's crossover doesn't seem to be cutting out enough of the low frequencies, but it's finally making noise. I brought it to a rehearsal, and it worked wonderfully. For those who are interested, my (unorganized) build odyssey can be found here
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Aug 8, 2011 03:08
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Juaguocio posted:Where can you find the plans for the 212? I looked on BFM's website but it only seems to have the single 12 variations. I bought plans for the Omni 15 TallBoy, and it describes the cuts for both the 15 and the 2x12 versions. I'm pretty sure the standard Omni 15 also details the 2x12 cuts, and the Omni 12 includes the info for a 2x10 build. Overall, there really wasn't much difference between the 15 and 2x12 builds - the lowpass crossover was altered, the brace in the woofer horn is moved slightly, and there are two big holes in the front instead of just one. Today I'm going to attempt to figure out what the hell is buzzing inside my cab. I'm hoping it's just the mid driver's grill and the zipties on the crossover. If not... this could be a bitch.
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Aug 9, 2011 20:41
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Rifter17 posted:custom rig Daaang, makes my project look bad. Nice work. Rifter17 posted:I think my next project is getting something like a Line6 M5 and creating an expression pedal built into the bass in the form of a whammy bar. That'd be a lot of fun for the pitch shifting effects. That would make a lot of people very happy, myself included. Once again, you blow away my plan of performing surgery to diagnose the electronics issues in my fretless.
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Aug 10, 2011 22:13
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All right, I think I'll be done whoring out Bill Fitzmaurice's awesome cabinet designs after this, at least for a little while... Finished. With music run through my Little Mark III, this thing is ludicrously loud, and sounds great. With my bass hooked up, it pounds, but it seems to clip sooner than it should... gotta tweak it a bit.
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Aug 23, 2011 21:40
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NarkyBark posted:So if I used a 500w head, I'd be running each cab at half power? Yes, 250 each. I'm assuming that you would have these cabs in parallel, so they would present a 4ohm load to the amp.
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Sep 9, 2011 04:13
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With my amp, at least, I've noticed that I can't really run at full power due to transients. If I play with an aggressive attack, or if my equipment is especially sensitive to the initial attack of the note, it can use a lot of power to reproduce that. Having extra wattage in reserve gives you more room for that sort of stuff. My cab also has exceptional low-end response, which sounds (and feels) fantastic but requires more juice. My setup has a cab that handles ~400 watts, with a 500 watt head to give a bit of headroom. In my travels through other music forums, I have seen players with heads capable of delivering 4x the power that their cab can handle in an effort to keep things from distorting and help the amps run cooler. This is also done with PA and other pro sound applications. TL/DR solid state amps are like cars - it's better to let a powerful engine pull you down the road at 2000RPM instead of a little engine screaming along at 7000RPM. It runs better and lasts longer.
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Sep 9, 2011 14:20
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NarkyBark posted:I was actually asking more about the dual setup than the rest, but it's all good. I think I've changed my mind anyway- I'll likely go with a single 1000w 8-ohm cab (because I'm getting it cheap) but instead will try to find a power amp that's a good fit for it. (and if you guys have any suggestions on THAT, I'm all ears!) What kind of sound are you looking for? What types of music do you play? I got a call from a flute player in Orlando looking for a bassist for a gig at my school to play a jazz combo gig for a conference this Friday. He asked me if I was a straight-up cat  I also talked to the local PD about a block party gig possibility at the end of the month. They said my band Grandpa's Headache (classic rock covers) is more than welcome to play, but that gig is also Friday. If we confirm both gigs, the keys player an myself would have two gigs to play in a four hour span... Busy day.EDIT: I was just browsing through combo pre/power head units recently, spaced out on that bit. The Science Goy fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Sep 14, 2011 |
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Sep 14, 2011 15:08
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DrChu posted:Bought myself an early Christmas present:  Whatup, custom cabinet buddy    What speakers do you plan on putting in that bad boy, and what are you going to do for a finish?
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Dec 9, 2011 04:19
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DrChu posted:I'm going with the recommended Eminence 3015LF and 18Sound 6NM410 combo. I plan on trying a Duratex finish, though I'm not sure what I want to do for a grill yet. I've got four Eminence speakers in my cab, I like them. I want to make another Bill FitzMaurice cab in the next few years and throw a 3015LF in - they look awesome. DuraTex is a fantastic finish, totally worth the price. I'm really tempted to coat my wooden futon in DuraTex just because I can. For the grill, I would recommend something like this or this. I used it for my cabinet, and I am very happy with it. It's a bit on the expensive side for grill cloth, but it looks simply fantastic. Metal grills look stunning also, but a good one can be a bit on the expensive side also. However, with metal grills, you can see the speakers vibrate as they shake the walls down, which is pretty cool.
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Dec 10, 2011 07:14
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ibntumart posted:My wife wants to try learning the bass, but she hates the fret size on mine (I have one of these). Fretless. Only kind of kidding, if she's got experience with a violin or cello or something like that, she would already have a basic understanding of the added challenge of fretless. If your local shop has a fretless in stock see if she wants to try it. I personally love my fretless, but I've got an upright bass background. Could the fret issue be due to your bass's action? My first thought would be to try an Ibanez Soundgear series bass. I don't know where they are price-wise, but their playability is really friendly to beginners. An acoustic bass, in my opinion, isn't really friendly to beginners. From my experience, they have higher string tension and take more strength than a standard electric bass. Your mileage may vary. The simplest thing to do would just be to try out a variety of instruments and see what tickles her fancy.
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Dec 11, 2011 06:48
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DrChu posted:I'd like to do a cloth grill, but I lack the means to make the frame right now. I'm probably gonna end up with something like http://www.reliablehardware.com/customspeakergrill-532diastaggered.aspx for this. It'll probably cost me about $50 when all is said and done which is more than I'd want to spend, but its the easiest choice. Frames are a bitch - I'm still not happy with mine. I stretched the cloth super-duper tight to give it good tension. I spent over two hours making my speaker grill, with most of that time applying the grill cloth. It's very tedious, and it was difficult to line it up to my satisfaction. When I finally finished, the long sides of the frame had been pulled inwards by the tension, and I had to build and fit a brace in the middle to make it look halfway correct. The metal mesh is easy - in a relative sense - more rugged, and you will be able to add a logo to it easier than with a cloth one if that floats your boat. I think it's worth the extra cash, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
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Dec 11, 2011 06:55
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Vira posted:So my friend gave me his bass a few years ago before he joined the navy and I got pretty good at it but he wanted it back a year ago... Anyways, I now have enough spare money to get one probably in January but I decided I want to be different and go fretless, it's not going to be like starting over with a new instrument is it? If you've already got the bass background, you shouldn't have too much trouble. If you have a choice, I would recommend getting a lined neck so you have some sort of reference. Mine is unlined, so it took a bit more time for me to be able to play in tune (but it looks so fantastic) When you're practicing with fretless, especially when you're new to it, it's important to have reference pitches in the background so you can learn to fix your intonation on the fly. If scales is your thing (and it is, isn't it? Because scales are important) every so often practice super-slow with a tuner, and try to do full octaves with the needle dead-center for each note. It's tough, but an achievable goal. I also have a drone CD that I got for upright that just plays a reference pitch drone for like a minute per pitch. Just go to whatever pitch is your root note, and you can teach your ear the right intervals at the same time you're learning self-intonation. If you like jamming along with songs, set the song's volume and your bass's volume so you can tell if your intonation is off. Also, it's good to know that the band was actually tuned to a reference pitch when they recorded. I'm looking at you, Van Halen. It's a bit more work than a fretted bass overall, but I think it's more than worth it in the end. With a properly set-up instrument, and the right tone and playing style, the tone I get when I throw some vibrato down makes me go  EDIT: Holy wall of text, batman. Don't think that all of this stuff needs to be practiced every day to sound anything above mediocre - this is pretty much everything that I've done ever to adjust to fretless. The same methods *should* be done with fretted also, just to train your ear. I switched entirely to fretless in jazz band 3 times a week, and I only play my fretted bass for pep band. The extra time on fretless developed my ear to the point where I can intonate my fretted bass on the fly by pressing extra on the frets or bending a bit - wouldn't be necessary if the pep band would tune to me or a tuner instead of to lead trumpet's cold horn The Science Goy fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Dec 22, 2011 |
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Dec 22, 2011 14:00
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Dyna Soar posted:why is slapping the first thing a guitarist wants to do with a bass? this happens every time a guitarist wants to play my bass. I've been playing bass as my main instrument for about twelve years now, and I still don't consider myself able to slap. It's one of the most difficult techniques to properly learn on bass, yet every guitar player who's tried my bass (and non-bassist, for that matter) think it's easy to do.
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Jan 12, 2012 19:47
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Scarf posted:Problem is, most people will try and learn it off the bat and neglect much more important things like timing and phrasing. Exactly. Having a good internal metronome and the ability to play melodic, interesting lines, in addition to the ability to follow the form of a song or chart through the most ridiculous sax solo for example, are a far more important base to build your skills upon than quick flashy slap playing in my view. Also, the way I am approaching it, I will consider myself proficient at slapping when I can do it as cleanly and unconciously as I can when I pizz, so the way I think of "being able to slap" might be a bit more complex than that of others.
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Jan 12, 2012 22:15
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I got a GoPro on Woot.com for half price just before Christmas. The trails around here can't be ridden due to snow, and I wanted to test out the camera, so I mounted it on my bass. I had a gig today sightreading some music with my uni's percussion instructor and two other students, so I brought the camera along and gave it a whirl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50IntBiatT0&hd=1
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Feb 5, 2012 12:03
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I'm looking around for some new strings for my Clement Bass: I haven't had anything on it but roundwounds so far, and I was probably going to go with flats for this set, but while on tour with my uni's Jazz I ensemble I met a student who had a 25 year old Peavey  with what he said were "rubber coated srings."He didn't tell me what brand of string that he had, but they were black strings that seemed to hide the scratchy sound when you slide your fretting hand along the strings. The only thing I've seen online like this would be DR Black Beauties or something like that, but they don't specify a rubber coating. Does anyone have experience with coated strings like this? Do they live up to the claims of longer life?
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Mar 3, 2012 23:46
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Scarf posted:I've got some nylon tapewounds on my fretless. Yeah, definitely much smoother and more mellow than even regular flats. Not everyone's cup of tea, but they have their uses. This bass has an extremely bright tone, so I think it will take well to tapewounds. I've heard of LaBella flats and how amazing they are - might spring for the LaBella tapewounds and I basically wouldn't have to replace them until I was too old to hold a bass.
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Mar 4, 2012 07:21
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You *can* run a bass through a solid-state guitar amp, but you just need to be careful about the low frequencies and how much the speaker can handle. I've used my tiny crappy guitar amp plenty of times when my bass amp was at our practice space with no problems. As long as you keep volume under 3/4 of what you would use with guitar and you don't try to get a bass-amp-like tone out of it, it won't explode or anything. Pedals-wise, digital pedals won't give a drat about if it's a guitar or a bass. As was said before, it won't sound as good as a pedal designed for bass frequencies but it'll work. Analog pedals like a true tube overdrive or something like that might be damage-able from the low-end of the bass. I'm not entirely sure, but I would play it safe and not push the limits of a fragile analog pedal. I follow the same rules with tube guitar amps - as wonderful as it sounds when a tube amp breaks up, I don't push guitar tubes to distortion when I'm using my bass just to be safe.
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Mar 4, 2012 21:59
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Scarf posted:How exactly would a bass damage an analog guitar pedal? It's just circuitry, it may sound like poo poo, but the input signal from your bass isn't going to damage anything. I don't have any official claims or anything to back it up, but my reasoning is that tubes used in a guitar pedal might not be designed to handle the low-frequency signal that a bass can provide. I know that there are lots of bass preamps and such that use tubes to create a buttery eargasm, but I'm not sure if they use tubes with different or higher tolerances than those included in similar guitar equipment. With non-tube analog pedals, the same basic idea *may* apply. Any pots or resistors in the circuit might not have enough power handling when you combine high-power low frequencies and the boosted signal from active electronics. Again, I'm not certain of any of this - it's just conjecture and I could be completely wrong - but I don't want to take any chances with equipment that isn't mine. I don't want to significantly shorten the life of a tube or overheat some resistors to the point where something could melt or short or something.
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Mar 5, 2012 03:02
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