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Well, it looks like I'll be playing bass in a band now, so it's time to sell some guitar gear. I've nearly finished lining up a trade for a used MIM P-Bass with a gig bag and hard case. Which brings me to this: PenguinBob posted:A lot of people also swap out the stock bridge. Many will recommend the Leo Quan Badass II, which is a lot more massive than the stock bridge and apparently leaves a lot more high harmonics in the sound. You would have to file the saddles yourself. There's also the Gotoh 201, which is also heavier but is mechanically the same as a stock Fender bridge, and will sound similar. I've still got the stock bridge on my old Jazz, FWIW. I was thinking about doing this, and I was wondering what you meant by "filing the saddles yourself." Is the Badass II not fully set up from the factory? EDIT: Might as well just add my next question to this post: I'm selling my old Tokai Strat to get money for bass gear, and someone wants to trade me for a Larrivee bass from the 80's. Assuming it's in decent shape, would this be a good deal? Juaguocio fucked around with this message at 10:44 on Feb 18, 2008 |
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Feb 18, 2008 01:31
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Stop Motion Dong posted:Is this bass any good for starting out? For rock/metal you'll definitely want something with a longer scale length. 34' is the industry standard.
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Apr 15, 2008 04:31
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PoorPeteBest posted:God drat I'd love to see me a 34 foot scale length bass. Haha, I take it inches are indicated with a quotation mark then?
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Apr 16, 2008 01:38
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Akur0 posted:nope I'm saving my money for other things I think that tabs are almost completely useless except for the most basic songs. I recommend trying to learn songs by ear. It will be very difficult at first, and you probably won't understand the relationships between the notes, but eventually you'll start to recognize patterns and how they fit together, especially if you read up on Jan posted:fundamental octaves and scales
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Oct 30, 2008 21:45
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Many Gibson EB basses are short scale, and I don't think anyone would make fun of Jack Bruce, Felix Pappalardi or Allen Woody.
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Feb 28, 2009 23:52
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Seventh Arrow posted:I guess stuff that would be in the "not too advanced" area would be: The slower stuff, sure, but some of his hard funk is just nuts, especially the stuff with Bootsy. Excellent endurance practice, though. I like to throw on "Love Power Peace" and play along until my fingers can't take it anymore. Lately I've been checking out a lot more funk and soul, and the Bar-Kays album "Soul Finger" would be a good bet for some simple, groovy bass lines. I like the Free suggestion; other classic blues rock bands with fairly easy bass parts that I can think of off the top of my head are Leaf Hound and Blue Cheer. You also might want to try learning some reggae lines - they're generally fairly simple and repetitive, so you can really work on getting the syncopation down.
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Jul 22, 2009 02:32
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Laserface posted:Tunneling - for example, playing 3rd fret on E and 1st on A - the finger on E is making a tunnel over the A string. Its probably called something else but thats what I was told it was called. You're the first person I've heard use that term. If you're really struggling with your fretting hand, try adjusting the height of your bass; a change in the angle of the neck in relation to my hand solved most of my fretting problems.
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Jul 22, 2009 21:04
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Oddly enough, I've come to realize that P-basses don't work for me at all. I'm getting a luthier friend of mine to help me Frankenstein an SX five string into a configuration that will hopefully work better.
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Dec 19, 2009 01:54
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gotly posted:Might be picking up an Avatar 212 on the cheap. It's the 8 ohm version. The way I understand it, is I want a bass head that's rated as close to 500 watts (the cabs limit) as possible at 8 ohm. Does anyone have any suggestions on a bass head to put on top of this avatar? I use a GK 1001RB-II with mine. It's supposed to put out 480 watts at 8 ohms so it's just about perfect.
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Jan 8, 2010 23:46
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Dyna Soar posted:I ended up getting a 5-string set, heaviest is 125. God drat my fingers are sore after 3 hours of playing I think .125 is a good gauge for C. I used a D'addario Chromes 5-string set for a while, but the tension was too much for me on the higher strings. I swapped those out for a lighter set, but now the .132 low C is unbalanced with the rest of the strings. I think I'm going to try Labellas next, since the tension and gauge of their 5-string flats seems a bit more in line with my needs.
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May 6, 2010 01:36
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baka kaba posted:What's been you guys' experience with learning basslines by ear? I'm pretty bad at hearing notes and intervals and so on, but with guitar work I can generally hear the sound at least - it's usually way less distinct with bass, because of the mixing and maybe because the frequencies are closer together? I was just wondering if other people had this problem and what you did to get around it. I have got better, but it's still a bit of a struggle with some songs It helps to be able to mess around with the EQ of a song to get the bass to pop out a bit better. I can usually get good results with Winamp - just turn down the treble and boost the low mids and the bass usually becomes much more audible.
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Jun 5, 2010 22:16
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I'm a Sabbath devotee, and I especially love Geezer's lines on their earlier stuff like War Pigs, Fairies Wear Boots, Sweet Leaf, Lord Of This World and Into The Void. Their later albums are too cheesy for me, but tracks like Johnny Blade and Children Of The Sea have excellent bass lines that are a ton of fun to play.
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Jul 26, 2010 01:26
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AlphaDog posted:Another stupid question - how do I arrange things on an Ibanez GSR200 so the E string isn't quite so "boomy"? It's got a distinctly different sound from the other strings, to the point where it's really noticeable. Turning down the 'Phat II EQ' knob fixes the E string, but the rest of the strings sound really washed out. Anything I can do, or do I need to play more gently? Try adjusting the height of the pickups or changing the height of the strings via the bridge to even things out. You might have to experiment a bit. While on the subject of great riffs, check out these two from Bootsy Collins. The guy who plays in those videos has an excellent channel where he demonstrates all kinds of classic bass lines from Jamerson and others. Juaguocio fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Jul 27, 2010 |
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Jul 27, 2010 10:32
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You're probably gonna want to run that sucker through as many speakers as possible to get the most out of it. I've heard that the AD200 works well with 15s, which makes sense since Orange also makes a TL606 style cab. Also, people break bass strings? I didn't even know that was possible. I've been using the same flats for over a year now.
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Aug 16, 2010 05:49
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baka kaba posted:I'm learning the Cake version of I Will Survive and it's mostly a lot of roots, octaves, minor sevenths and fifths - when you're playing this kind of thing do you tend to keep a bar going with your first finger (for the roots and 7ths) or just fret the notes as they come? It's fairly fast and my tendency is to fret them individually, I'm just wondering if I'm making it harder on myself by not keeping my finger in one place I have honestly never heard of anyone using a barring technique on bass. I thought that was strictly a guitar thing.
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Sep 20, 2010 02:21
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Manky posted:I bar sometimes when I play - off the top of my head, I can think of a few songs where I always bar. Don't worry about it. If it helps you, do it. No one's gonna call you out on it. I did it before I learned to play guitar at all, too. Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that barring isn't practical, or that it might not work for you- I have just personally never felt the need to, and I haven't seen many players do so either.
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Sep 22, 2010 05:32
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Roflsaurus Wrecks posted:I have a question about practicing. What are some good technique exercises? I know this is very dependent on what one is trying to improve, but I'm looking for two or three general technique exercises to do for 5-10 minutes each once or twice a day that, combined, will touch on finger dexterity and speed and all that jazz. This one is pretty good for developing independence for each finger as well as accuracy while string skipping. Try to use one finger per fret (ie. index on the 5, pinky on the 8) and avoid changing hand positions. Start off nice and slow with the first one, then move on to the really stretchy ones. G----7--8--7--8-- D--5--6--5--6---- A----------------- E----------------- G----7--8--7--8-- D----------------- A--5--6--5--6---- E----------------- G----7--8--7--8-- D----------------- A----------------- E--5--6--5--6---- Try it out with different picking patterns- I find it works very well for practicing alternate picking. You can move the pattern to any other position as well. Juaguocio fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Sep 26, 2010 |
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Sep 25, 2010 22:55
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Scarf posted:Chromes are good too, but they're definitely among the brightest flatwounds you'll find. Chromes are unpleasantly bright right out of the package, but after you break 'em in a bit they have a wonderful warmth that lasts for a very long time. I've recently started using GHS Precision Flats and I like them quite a bit too.
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Oct 4, 2010 01:22
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gotly posted:Bottom line, I like to get a lot of different sounds out of my amp. Forget about the 1001RB-II then. I've been using one for a while with my Avatar 2x12 and it takes a lot of fiddling to get it to sound decent, and even then it only really works for clean sounds since the drive is buzzy and horrible. I would recommend the 800RB over any of GK's newer amps if you're looking to stay with that company- it sounds much warmer and fatter, the gain is much more musical and therefore usable, and although its rated power is less than what you have now, it would absolutely roar through a setup like your 2x10 + 2x12. As for me, I'm ditching GK in favour of Genz-Benz. I was impressed by the Shuttle 6.0 that I played in a local store, and when I saw a 9.0 for a very reasonable price on eBay I couldn't resist.
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Nov 12, 2010 08:19
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Scarf posted:Honestly if you're going to spring for the 9.0, you should really look at the ShuttleMAX 12.0. So much more versatile. I thought about that too, but it's more power than I would ever need. Plus, I'm really not into the channel-switching double-speaker-load thing- gimme one channel that sounds good and I'm happy.
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Nov 14, 2010 05:36
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Anyone have any experience with Speakon connectors? I bought a used Speakon to 1/4" adapter after I realized my new Shuttle 9 doesn't have 1/4" jacks, and it's giving me nothing but grief. I got no sound out of the Shuttle, and now the drat thing is stuck in the jack. I Googled "stuck speakon" and there's not a lot of advice out there. Several people mentioned that it's easy to insert it the wrong way around and get it stuck, but mine's the right way up, and it locks and unlocks without any difficulty, just doesn't want to come out of the socket. Did I gently caress something up or did I get a bad cable?
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Nov 16, 2010 04:00
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DrChu posted:You are twisting the cable after you unlock it, right? Yes, isn't that how the locking mechanism works?
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Nov 16, 2010 05:22
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DrChu posted:On one of my cables, there's a collar around the jack that you have to pull up, then you can twist the cable out. My other cable is similar, but instead of a full collar there's just a switch you move then twist. I think mine is the "collar" variety. The collar moves and the cable twists, but it ain't budging. I don't want to mess the jack up so I'm just gonna take the whole amp to the store where I bought the cable, plunk it down and say "what gives?"
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Nov 16, 2010 06:07
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Got my Speakon problem sorted- turns out the cable had a bad end so they took it apart and put on a new one. Long and Mcquade may be a big box store but their customer service is excellent. In other news, this thing rules. Absolutely destroys my GK on all fronts.
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Nov 16, 2010 23:29
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scuz posted:
The 800RB is a really nice amp, and I actually like it a lot better than the 1001RB-II and its ilk. Keep it!
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Nov 17, 2010 06:59
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I'll never give up my 800RB unless it dies then I'm just getting a new one.
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Flats are just lovely. I can't see myself going back rounds ever. It's pretty hard to find a decent flatwound B string though.
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Nov 18, 2010 02:29
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Ferrous Wheel posted:As for flatwound B strings, I've heard good things about La Bella, D'Addario, Thomastik, and even Sadowsky. I'm sure you've tried some of those and I know it's very much a matter of individual taste but plenty of players seem quite happy with the available crop of five string flat sets. Have you had bad experiences with any particular brand? I tune to C and use a pick 99% of the time so my needs are probably different than most people. I like D'addario Chromes for standard tuning but their B string has too much tension for me, and it "clanks" excessively. The TI B string probably won't work for me because the gauge is too big, but I am definitely going to try a set of their flats since low tension is what I look for. I'm currently using a GHS Precision Flat B, and while it's better than the D'addario it's nothing spectacular. I'll probably try a Labella next.
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Nov 18, 2010 04:31
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I've always heard that the ideal hand position is the thumb at the back of the neck aligned with the middle finger, and while this works well for most positions it makes playing some things very difficult, especially on the lower strings on a 5-string bass. In those situations I move my thumb more to the side to allow a more "diagonal" approach for my fretting hand, and while this may not be the greatest technique it works just fine, and I figure as long as I can reach the notes comfortably it doesn't really matter.
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Nov 26, 2010 03:06
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DEUCE SLUICE posted:If you like the 800RB, what about the 1001RB? DEUCE SLUICE posted:Honestly man, with a loud band 300 solid state watts just isn't going to cut it.
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Dec 20, 2010 06:20
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scuz posted:These are two reasons why I don't wanna bail on my 800RB. It used to be that looking for new amps was sorta fun, but it's such a chore now. 8x10s actually aren't as hard to move as you might think. It takes a couple people to lift one but if it has a good set of tilt-back casters one person can roll it around with ease. I like the way Traynor does their 8x10s - they have a set of handles on the bottom as well as the top so two people can easily carry one up a flight of stairs.
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Dec 21, 2010 02:31
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Vino posted:Haha, sorry. I'm not much of an audiophile, just calling it like it is. That's not the way it is. Vino posted:In my experience in live situations all of that quality high end just leaves and all you can hear is the note so as long as that note is there I'm happy. As NarkyBark said, if you take the time to tweak your band's EQ and levels this should not be a problem. Guitars, bass and drums should ideally occupy their own frequency ranges within the mix and not compete for the same sonic space. I've found that using a bass amp with a parametric mid in the preamp is very useful for dialing in the exact tonal "center" that enables me to cut through a dense mix.
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Dec 30, 2010 04:49
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Squibbles posted:My wife got me a snazzy Rondo SX bass for Christmas, woo! I had many of the same problems with my SX 5er- they're obviously using very cheap parts to keep costs down. I ended up replacing the bridge on mine with a Schaller roller bridge, and I'll probably swap that out for a Badass V in the future. String trees are often necessary on Fender style basses because the distance the strings have to travel to the tuners means that they break over the nut at a shallow angle. The trees/retainers make the angle steeper to improve tuning stability and eliminate buzzing. The problem with SX string retainers is that they're garbage- I replaced mine with a nice Hipshot: http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=236 Juaguocio fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Jan 6, 2011 |
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Jan 6, 2011 01:08
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But, now to actually learn!
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I should have mentioned that all the actual work was done by my luthier friend. All I do is pester him with endless changes and modifications. I should also note that the Schaller roller bridge is actually a fairly poor design; the saddles are so long that I can't intonate my low C string properly and the rollers themselves are prone to slipping out of position. This is two strikes against Schaller for me, as I also found their straplocks to be inferior to Dunlop's. The Badass on my other bass seems to be a much simpler, more solid design so I'm eager to try the 5-string version.
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Jan 6, 2011 06:52
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These Loving Eyes posted:By the way, are the cheap Kustom heads and cabs just pure crap? I can't speak from experience, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say "yes." I actually had no idea that the Kustom brand had been revived.
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Jan 30, 2011 01:10
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Scarf posted:I'm pretty dead set on jumping ship to go to Genz Benz though Joinnnnn ussssss... Speaking of Genz, I dig the concept behind their Uber cabs but the form factor doesn't really do it for me. I wish they could somehow take the Uber 410 with its massive excursion and turn it into a more vertically aligned cab like their Neo line.
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Feb 18, 2011 23:51
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You really don't need much distortion to get a gnarly, aggressive bass sound. Even if you use a bass-oriented overdrive pedal, it's very easy to dial in too much fuzz and disappear entirely from a mix, especially if it's a dense multi-instrument one. I wouldn't want to use anything more than a light overdrive for bass unless I was in a sludge doom band where fuzz is the desired result. In fact, I play in a loud two-guitar rock band running straight into a Genz Benz Shuttle 9 with just a slight bit of tube grit from the preamp, and I have no problems cutting through. As BBW Fever said, the most important thing is always technique. I've been developing my fingerstyle lately since it's always nice to have that option, and it's also a good backup to have in case I drop a pick and don't have a spare. Been trying out some Billy Sheehan three-finger stuff just for the hell of it and it's pretty fun. Getting my ring finger up to speed with the other two is pretty tricky, though, specially since I never used it when I was a guitar player.
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Mar 30, 2011 08:38
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Cumfartcocktails posted:I normally leave all three tone knobs cranked on the bass with the pickups about 60% bridge 40% neck. Wait, you have a bass with a 3-band EQ and you're diming all three controls? I'd say that's your problem right there.
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Mar 31, 2011 00:26
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It's taken me a long time to figure out how to get the sound I want while playing pickstyle. I actually prefer the sound of a bass played fingerstyle, but I prefer the technique of using a pick. The solution that worked for me was to switch to flatwound strings, which cut a lot of the excessive brightness of rounds played pickstyle, and change my EQ settings so I'm cutting bass and adding low mids to compensate for the inherent bassiness of flats. I play in a loud 4 piece rock band and I can get pretty close to the Geezer Butler "WHOMP" sound from Master of Reality, which fits perfectly between the kick drum and guitars.
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Apr 8, 2011 02:13
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These Loving Eyes posted:Could somebody give me a quick rundown or a link to some brief, layman-oriented site about bass amplification? Even though I've played bass for a while, I didn't start playing in a band until last summer. So, this far I've been using some 100 watt Fender solid-state amp from the 90s that happened to be lying around at the rehearsal place but would want to upgrade now. My budget is around 600 euros / dollars and I'm looking for something that would be loud enough for both bar and bigger gigs. I know that amps are often micced and thus played through PAs but I don't think a 300 - 400 watt amp would hurt. Check out the Amps FAQ on Talkbass, and if you need specific information that's not contained in there, just do a search of their forums. I would actually recommend putting some Talkbass FAQ links in the OP because they're much more comprehensive than anything we could come up with.
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Apr 8, 2011 23:22
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ObsidianBeast posted:I just bought an Ibanez SR305 last night, since it was the most comfortable one I tried at the store. Any other 5-string players here? I'm loving having the lower D available without messing with the tuning. Yep, but I actually tune my 5 to standard D/drop C with a high A#. I like being able to go a full two octaves without having to change my hand position much.
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Apr 13, 2011 23:21
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