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Perhaps I can end this long-running topic by posting my transcription of what I played on Fool For Your Loving. Bilbo's transcription is pretty good, but having used the software/websites that separate recordings into bass, drums, vocals and 'other', it doesn't give a hifi separation of the bass part (though it's helpful) so is not to be relied upon 100%. I promise a video will follow - yes I know I've been promising that for years! More likely a play-through rather than a lesson where different sections are explained slowly. I have never claimed to be a virtuoso that can play 'perfect' lines at 1,000 mph so please look elsewhere for that. I try to play parts that suit the song, according to my own taste, if there is any freedom to do so. Fool For Your Loving NM tab.pdf

Here's my transcription of what I played on Fool For Your Loving, as accurately as I'm able. I hope it's useful! Fool For Your Loving NM tab.pdf

I missed out on a bargain sansamp from some bloke called Mick on Facebook.

Top glued and frets trimmed: Other than the cut at the rear to give finger room access to the tuner knobs, the next major task is working on the back wings - working out the weight relief chambers, the cable runs, the control chamber before routing them before they are glued into place - so a few days on the drawing board rather than cutting or gluing wood. The adage of 'check 3 14 times before you cut or glue anything' springs to mind

Did this wee bass cover of Daft Punk - Around the World this morning

A mistake, which in a way proves that it's a partly improvised part.

Looks better.

Isn't this just the most amazing thing, @neilmurraybass himself posts a transcription. It really doesn't get much better than that. One of the 3 ultimate bass heros of my youth - Neil Murray, Mars Cowling (sadly deceased) and Glenn Hughes.

Not immediately!!!

“Do YOU need a 5 string?” Five string basses are funny things. A lot of guys I know who played them felt it made things ‘easier’ in the sense that a player could remain in the one position on the neck and have access to many notes all within that position. An example - If you consider playing in the key of C off the E string 8th fret you’d rarely have to move from that general area to find all the notes for the song. The point those players were making was they felt things could get ‘boring’ as it could be easy to get comfortable in these one position zones but it was also quite handy as some songs could be quite easy to play and require little shifting about. One of my mates is a singer/bassist so he loved the 5er for these reasons - minimal position shifting when singing. I played with a 5 exclusively for about 5yrs on a gig where most songs were transcribed into different keys (it was with a choir thing) and having the 5 string was great in keeping the bass lines sounding like the originals and being able to keep things ‘low’ and not playing way up the neck to keep the patterns playable! I also experimented with BEAD on a four string and really liked that too. I’m back on a standard tunes four string now and don’t miss the 5’er but that’s not to say I’d never own one again...I might just go BEAD first rather than the classic BC excuse of “I’m in a new band which NEEDS a five string so sell me your bass!” A tip I learned when moving to the 5er was to play it exclusively and don’t think of it as a four sting with a few extra low notes. Take songs you already know well and shift the starting notes/patterns to the B string or higher up the E string i.e like I mentioned above if the song is in C play from the 8th fret E string and incorporate the B string and the notes in that position. It’s a great way to get familiar with the fretboard as we can sometimes ignore this area up about the 7-12 frets. You might find that having all the notes available in ‘one position’ really opens up the fret board in a way a four string didn’t before rather than it feel like things are boring. Just don’t fall into the trap of just throwing notes onto the low C and D “just because”... there’s always a time and a place and good tasteful playing will always sound better over “lower because I can”. Another place where a 5er really shines is the slow ballad or going low on a key change when the rest of the band modulates up. That’s where a good player can really make the 5er fit in and work in the band.

This happened while I was away from here. The top is a beautiful piece of camphor burl, the body is walnut. It’s an incredible instrument to play. It features W&T’s moveable pickup system, the wonderfully figured ebony covers for it were crafted by Robin at Manton Customs, who I highly recommended if you want modifications carried out on an instrument.

As I understand it (and I could well be talking out of my fundament)... If you’re going up to the fifth you’ll be playing the major 3rd, 4th, flat 5th (the “blue note”) and 5th which will work nicely in a rock blues setting so long as the flat fifth is just a passing tone. If you’re going to the root you’re playing the 6th, flat 7, major 7 and root. Again, that flat 7/major 7 in a rock/blues context works nicely as passing tones before resolving to the root. In both cases, you’re introducing a note that clashes slightly before resolving it on the fifth or the root. Theres probably a better explanation but that’s how I’ve explained it to myself....

One of the above posters suggested one to one lessons. It will make lessons more interactive for you, providing instant feedback, and most importantly of all they will provide some direction, inspiration, and hand holding which is important when you reach a plateau. I probably wouldn't recommend this method forever because of the prices, but they're a good way of getting you out of a rut so that you have a clear direction of where you want to go next.

Investigating the bass a bit further, a guy on TB said that Grover Jackson used an improved poly with improved UV additives which means the white doesn't yellow and the neck stays quite a pale colour, whereas some earlier basses end up with quite amber coloured necks like on my SB1. Makes sense... Might as well add another pic whilst I'm here though (sorry, but I'm really taken with this bass!)

Totally agree. This "deal" is a rush-job. BJ was banking on a deal with Trump, until Biden put a wrecking ball in the mix for them. So the past month has seen BJ on his knees for a deal, any deal!

I've never played music for a living, pocket money yes, so I've never just focused on one instrument, flipping between bass, fingerstyle acoustic, electric guitar, drum kit and assorted hand and stick drums. I've never believed in formal music education, being of the view it's something that should be instinctive. I prefer to learn tunes not drills. I've heard many great musicians from developing countries in African and Latin America etc who learnt to play from family members or others in their communities. No such equivalent as Berklee in Cameroon.

Over the last 6 months or so I've been creating a little home studio is the tiniest of rooms (about 8 times as long as the lower bout of a concert sized acoustic body and about 4 times as wide, so its small!!) It currently houses 16 guitars/basses, 3 amps, a drumkit, a full Cubase recording set up with midi keyboard, monitors, vocal mics, ukuleles, various percussion items, a Helix LT etc etc. So everything one needs to record almost anything! And a fair bit of my Lego collection! Just for funzies, has anyone else shoe-horned this much into a tiny room? Everything, including the drumkit is direct into DAW, so the sound quality of the end product is actually surprisingly good! I mean, its not quite Abbey Road quality, but it's far from terrible!

Wombling Free - The Wombles

Shh. That doesn’t fit the argument.

Not all goods coming into the UK are consumer goods. You need to think about the wider picture. My employer, a electrical equipment manufacturer based in Leeds, buys components from China and the East, but they get shipped in, in containers from the EU. The other issue is many UK manufacturers and suppliers of UK made/grown goods will be depending on EU carriers coming to UK to take their goods over to Europe - this is because carriers don't only take goods one way. They bring goods and collect British goods to take back with them to make the trip worth doing. Sure you can buy a different brand of tea. Have you tried finding an alternative source of electronic assemblies that needs to be of a given design and size as well as fitting a budget?

There's a guy in Leicester who has stockpiled Sansamps...

Looks quite good satin black but I think I’ll do the high gloss clear coat.

Currently I have a corner of a small living room, so I’ll be able to dance and stuff... having to do it piecemeal because of funds and time. Hopefully, summer will be the finished article

I most definitely will. Not have an amp in the house won’t stop me playing 😂

Let me give you 2 examples (pre and post Brexit) Private purchase Pre You pay £1000 on the BC forum to a seller in Germany. They send you the bass and that's it. Post You pay £1000 to the seller and you then get a bill for VAT on the 1000 + delivery cost + the £10 handling fee. Let's say delivery was £30 - you end up paying £1216 (£206 VAT plus the admin). Business purchase (not Thomann for this purpose) Pre You pay £1190 + £30 delivery (yes, German VAT was 16% for 6 months but that's not important for this illustration). The total is £1220. Post You pay £1000 (the net value) + delivery + handling. The cost is as above £1216 The net effect is that the purchase through BC now costs you a lot more.

Or maybe you just need to think bigger That would be an FNA Jazzman, not a Corvette - even though they look the same. For some reason, they named it differently. It was originally called Altus, but they had to change the name because there was already a violin manufacturer by that name. Legend has it FNA stands for "Formerly Named Altus" or even "F***ing Not Altus".

Get the new neck. Then get a new body, bridge, pickup, pickguard and other bits & bobs to add to the neck you removed.

Checks youtube. <refresh> <refresh>.. well?

So, will you be selling any good stuff? (Well someone had to ask!). Actually I'm in a similar position to yourself. Barely picked up a bass in the last 6 months. Playing concertina (Anglo) more than anything these days.

I can throw some light on the Decimax subject.I designed these amps after leaving my post as Technical director of Trace Elliot.I designed the original Trace Elliots and all subsequent ones up to the mk 5 series. Decimax amps had programmable graphic eq and levels plus a midi interface to control and memorise any external effects along with your chosen eq and level.A separate smaller manual graphic allowed for tweaking to compensate for room acoustics without needing to re programme your settings.Main models were D300 and D600 which were 300 and 600 watts respectively. Speaker cabs were either 1x 15 or 4x10.Both featured rear porting.These amps had no connection with Carlsbro at all and were built at our factory in Essex.

I asked the teacher, a full time quality musician and bassist, specifically about expanding my creation of bass lines beyond major and minor scales. I said I have books with all the modes etc and I could parrot fashion learn them but I want to know how and when to deploy them. I sent him recordings of recent gigs so he could hear my playing and so the lesson was geared instead around how I can create more within those songs, study what the original player was playing, get out of bad habits, rather than learn a load of scales and modes and then be more confused about what to play. I've really benefitted from just one hour with a much better bassist, but luckily he is a great communicator too who can quickly understand what I really want to know and how to get there. I don't think a prescribed course would do that for me.

I have bitten the bullet, and I hope you don't mind, Bilbo, but I've used your transcription as a basis to adjust to something that's as correct as I can make it - unfortunately it's a steep learning curve regarding the notation software I'm using, and frankly it's much easier for me to play it than notate it! Bearing in mind that I have played Fool For Your Loving perhaps a couple of hundred times in the last 20 years, in my mind it is played in a definite way, sticking close to what's on the record, as I've had to play every note as strongly as possible given the volume that other band members play at! So I have to eat humble pie a little when listening to the original over and over, as some parts could indeed be classed as 'clinkers', in that they're not executed 100% perfectly as I would hope to do these days. However, the hunt for 'perfect' execution means that one plays safe, whereas when Fool was recorded I was 'going for it' (and trying to put some Jack Bruce influence into the bass part) so it was better to have a one- or two-take partly improvised performance rather than a part which was worked out note by note from beginning to end. On Live In The Heart Of The City, I go overboard trying to go one better than what I did on Ready An' Willing, and while some parts are impressive, a lot of it sounds too 'over the top' to me nowadays - very unrelaxed. It'll take some time to produce finished notation to my satisfaction, but I'll put it up on Basschat when it's done.

As much as I’d like to say that I’ll put videos, notation and tab up right away, here are the various reasons why it’s more complicated than that: To varying degrees, my parts are not written, and aren’t exactly the same every time I play them; Ain’t No Love will be slightly different each time, and playing it with a different band might require quite a different feel or groove, quite apart from changing parts around to keep it interesting for myself. So although I’ve played well-known Whitesnake songs over the years with different bands, the parts slowly change over time and I get used to the way I’ve played them recently rather than how they were in the late ’70s. Similarly, I would be unlikely to play Fool For Your Loving note-for-note every time, though I do tend these days to try to stay fairly close to the original. The point is, to reproduce exactly what I played 40+ years ago, with the same tone, with no mistakes, while videoing myself, is quite a tall order. If I am pernickety about other bassists doing not-totally-accurate covers, then I need to be totally accurate myself. If I play along to the original, it’s quite possible that YouTube will block the video for copyright reasons. If I reduce the level of the bass on the original, as it’s quite high in the mix, by technically reducing the volume of sounds that are in the centre of the stereo image, then the drums (and vocals) are reduced too, which makes it harder to play along too - very unnatural. There is a way of ‘remixing’ tracks to play to, but if they get blocked, there’s no point. Although I read music a bit, to transcribe the bass parts completely perfectly will be a laborious task, and even more so when it comes to tab, which I’m not a big fan of. It’s better to use your ears! Furthermore, if you said to me “play exactly what you did on Live In The Heart Of The City”, for example, I probably wouldn’t be physically able to. Apart from being 40 years older, I would need to have been in a touring situation beforehand, with my chops at peak level, instead of sitting around unable to play with anyone because of lockdown. Even back then, I’d had to have a hand operation just after Ready An’ Willing because of subjecting them to over-exertion, so there’s zero chance I’m going to attack the parts with the same energy I had back in 1980. [I think I was often over-busy on Live In The Heart Of The City - trying too hard to impress!] Playing and chatting to the camera may come naturally to Lee Sklar and Guy Pratt but it certainly doesn’t to me, let alone jumping around as if I’m on stage; if I think what I’ve done isn’t up to scratch or embarrassing to watch, I’m not going to put it out. I have done a few collaboration videos but I haven’t been happy with how I came across - my fault, no-one else’s. Shooting and editing videos to a good standard are whole extra skills to master in addition to high quality home recording which I’ve spent many years slowly getting better at. I’d still far prefer to be in a studio with experts taking care of the sound and vision. The living situation I’ve had to be in because of lockdown also doesn’t lend itself to being on top form or producing good work. Not saying I’m not going to, but it has to be good or I’m not putting it out. Same goes for a book!

Have you a source for that statement..? I'm no expert, but have read this (and maybe got it wrong, of course...)... Changes to VAT treatment of overseas goods sold to customers from 1 January 2021 ...

This will also include items coming from around the world that may come VIA the EU, not always FROM the EU. UK based manufacturers may not have a great number of options available when buying components. In short, the UK has shrunk it's access to the world's market, not expanded it as promised.

But but but... blue passports

Somewhere in rural middle England a nice local cycling shop is having a brown trousers moment now that the brands discussed above aren't supplying to the UK any more. Local music stores are going to find it much harder to stay open when they are hit with higher costs of import (from the suppliers that will still supply to them) at the same time as losing many of their brands (as some suppliers stop supplying to them).

It would be interesting to hear Mark's view on the challenges that Bass Direct currently. The words I saw him utter on Facebook with regard to all of this was - - not the words of a man that seems comfortable with the situation. Hot Rox, Bass Direct, Bass Gallery can't really be grouped in with the rest of the vendors you mention. Their stock levels are much lower, more niche and not of the mainstream brands unlike larger vendors who cover more areas of music - PA, guitars, bass, drums, studio keys... and who's primary business is shifting boxes in large numbers. The type of goods at Bas Direct and Bass Gallery aren't really found many places else within the UK. I don't think we are agreeing in the true sense of the word. Whilst we both agree monopolies are bad, I am of the impression you think there is going to be MORE choice. I think it will be LESS choice. The NHS is an interesting example. It's not really a monopoly in the true sense of the word. Many areas of the NHS are run privately and have either been gifted to the lowest bidder... or friends of friends in high places (but that's probably a different discussion). Having close experiences of some niche treatments in the NHS, not all boroughs are equal!

You do realise that choice is a good thing? Without choice, you get monopolies.

Brian Ferry? He probably has a yacht but you won't fit a lorry on it.

Yep - NI in literally Limbo, they're now closer to the EU and (much to the annoyance of the DUP) the Irish Republic.

Choosing an inappropriate moment to derail this thread, I scrolled to the bottom of your quote image and all I could think of was.... I’m sorry 😂🤣

Indeed! For goods sent from overseas and sold directly to UK consumers without OMP involvement, the overseas seller will be required to register and account for the VAT to HMRC. In other words, non-online marketplace sellers (eg Thomann, or Jerzy Droyd, or that little boutique guitar seller you used to use in Aachen) have to register for UK VAT and charge that VAT on any sales to UK buyers, In other words, if a shop wants to trade with Britain it needs to go through all the rigmarole of submitting a VAT return to HMRC every 3 months... That's why our garden centre no longer trades with 3 of our Lovely Little Things suppliers in Europe - they didn't want the extra grief!

I seem to remember when researching what strings would be best on my Hofner, Pyramid and LaBella seemed to be favourites. All subjective of course.

An unorthodox, but costwise solution is to leave the preamp out and put that money to a better pickup. 1 bad + 1 bad = not good. 1 better = same price, isn't it? I have one bass without any adjustments and it is my main bass at the moment. I know the price of the pickup was steep, but I can control the sound through my bass amp, or the pedalboard when in need. https://www.q-tuner.com/product/transparent-q-tuner-q2-0-bass-5-string-pickups/

I'm seeing an opportunity here.... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BIG-BUTT-004-BASS-made-in-USA-/174546578948?hash=item28a3c96e04%3Ag%3AP2cAAOSw9iNbVddm&nma=true&si=1eTn5ugYrGxJiVF%2F59%2BQWYsMNJs%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557