velvetkevorkian

That's about right (possibly slightly generous) for a Zeller IME.

I think the one player who's most influenced me would be Billy Sheehan, although mainly in a technical sense- I know none of his lines/songs but he inspired me to work on my three finger right hand technique.

[quote name='flyfisher' post='833381' date='May 10 2010, 06:23 PM']It's an interesting idea - I'd not heard of applying different effects to different frequencies and mixing the result back. I wonder if anyone has ever bothered to wire each string pick-up separately, which would allow different effects to be applied to each string. Not sure I could get my head around all the options and possibilities that would allow. Mind you, I don't use any effects anyway so a single pedal would probably confuse me. [/quote] RMC do a splitter box for use with their piezo pickups which can do this, as can things like the Axxon (sp?) midi converters and the Roland V-Bass. All of these require specially wired piezos or a split pickup like a Roland GK-3B.

Nah, if you want ghetto straplocks the rubber bits from Grolsch bottles are the way to go.

She cannae fire while cloaked, cap'n!

Short answer? Yes.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='832136' date='May 9 2010, 01:06 PM']I've always thought the Big Al to be another great piece of design from EBMM. I don't want one personally, but I can definitely see the appeal. Luckily, all basses don't have to look like they were designed in the late 50's - early 60's. More players should dare to be a little different & try playing something striking, cool and fresh today! [/quote] To me the Big Al looks exactly like it was designed in the late 50s/early 60s! It looks like it ought to be stuck to a Cadillac, and not in a good way IMHO. I guess YMMV...

BCer 7string has a one string bass...

Thanks for the replies folks. I think what happened was actually due to my RH thumb being tense from playing a week's worth of double bass in a show- I'm a bit out of practice with the bow and that left my arm with a bit of tension. Been practising since and not had any problems. Moral of the story- stay relaxed! Cheers Kyle

I was gifted a subscription for my birthday last month- enjoying it so far (and I flogged the free strings on here!). There are some horrendous typos though- markbasssuperprodibox (sic ) being the worst one I noticed.

Just to verify, I read Dood's advert (wishfully ) and have just checked again and some has gone missing. Very odd.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='826842' date='May 3 2010, 09:14 PM']Chris, my opine FWIW is that if the idea of splitting the wire or disturbing the solder is likely to bring you out in hive because you are devaluing it then dont do it. If its not that, then de-solder it and get on with the job - as prospective owner buying a '64 of someone that claimed it was original I'd be well p!ssed off if I found out that you'd put a pre in it anyway (and it doesn't matter how good you are disguising, it would be pretty easy to see if most of the electrics have been disturbed). So to me you have 2 options only i) get on with or ii) leave it well alone. Deceiving a future purchaser (or even trying) further down the line isn't worth your reputation (or worse). Bob.[/quote] My thoughts precisely.

Good point, I forgot what a pain it is to get the spike into the middle.

+1- I gave all my fretted basses a rough and ready fret levelling myself and it really does make a big difference to playability.

How about something like [url="http://www.vivaceviolin.com/pp/Accessories/Bass/65AB.html"]this[/url]?

Here's a pic of my old Mark IV: I appear to have the only broken one of these- my sister's friend switched it on with no speaker attached and apparently fried it. Just smelled like burning. Good solid amp though, I really liked the mix of active and passive tone controls.

OK- These points are obviously all IMHO, and based on what I consider good technique and musicality. As ever, YMMV... First thing is that posture you're sitting in will give you a lot of pain if you do it a lot- you don't really want to be hunched over like that if you can avoid it. Left hand- are you aware you don't use your pinky on your left hand at all? I would try and rectify that. Also, I would recommend not letting the thumb come over the top of the neck- ideally you want it sitting in the middle of the neck roughly opposite your index finger. Right hand- It looks like you're resting your thumb quite heavily on the strings- you want to be applying as little pressure as possible. I would recommend having a look at some floating thumb videos on youtube, or at least trying to ease off the pressure there. Its hard to tell as the music is quite hard to make out, but your timing seemed a wee bit rocky in places- I would recommend some metronome or drum machine practice with single notes to get your fingers playing evenly and consistently, then maybe try the tune without all the fills and get it as tight as possible. The other thing is that the strumming is way, way louder than the fingerstyle stuff- not really an issue here but something you would need to be aware of in a band situation, for example. I'm assuming you're doing your own take on the bass line as the way you play it is quite different from the recorded version- which is obviously fine, as long as you're aware of it! Hope that helps, and doesn't sound too patronising!

I'd recommend Stuart Clayton's Ultimate Slap Bass book.

...Hello?

Hi folks, I've been working on the Willis technique (thumb + 3 fingers) on and off for a while now, but when I do it for any extended period or at high speed I find I get a bit of pain towards the base of the thumb. For those of you who have been playing this way for a while, is this normal? Should the movement be coming from the base of the thumb, or somewhere else? I can't see any other way of doing it effectively. Thanks Kyle

Should be fine, as long as the covers aren't magnetic; plastic or wood are both widely used as they don't affect the magnetic field that makes the pickups work.