velvetkevorkian

I use 3 fingers in the Billy Sheehan style, with strict alternation. I also play with the lightest touch possible, and use a floating thumb technique whereas a lot of extreme metal players like to dig in a lot. I prefer a clean punchy sound which I can get without rattle- if you want that more standard death metal sound you do have to dig in a bit more but in that case I think you have to accept that its going to be much harder to get to the same kind of speed.

[quote name='JackLondon' post='563939' date='Aug 9 2009, 12:59 AM']The main 2 areas are on the palm of my hand, one just below the tumb and the other one is just on the opposite just abowe the inside of the wrist. With regards to my thumb I always thought you are supposed to keep it around middle of the hand so maybe this is where I'm going wron I've been playing it for about 8 months now, when we practice it we run through it 4 times at practice about 3 times every week plus I'm playing it at home as well and it's the only song that gives me the pain[/quote] You want to try and minimise the amount of tension in your hand- might be worth trying to see f it makes a difference. I came to bass guitar from double bass, where the thumb is held directly behind the second finger, and this caused me no end of trouble with my fretting technique. Moving the thumb slightly solved it for me.

Ha! Quality Full Metal Jacket samplage! And the other samples are well done too. Overall I'd say pretty good for a home effort- the kick trigger doesn't really sit with the reset of the kit that well, but the overall production reminds me of [i]Morbid Visions[/i]-era Sepultura, and I like where you're going with the overall feel. The bass is nice and punchy considering how low it is (I assume you're down in B or C?) but the guitars seem a bit "fizzy"- how were they recorded? Mic'd cabs or DI'd with effects? Will be keeping an eye out for the name locally

Where are you getting pain? The only thing I could see from there was that possibly the position of your thumb relative to your other fingers was changing as you moved position- I'd advise to try and make sure it stays roughly behind your first finger at all times. Kindahard to say without seeing you play in person I think.

I seem to have had the world's only broken Peavey head- 5 minutes being lent to my sister's friend and I couldn't turn my Mark IV on without smelling smoke. Talk about RTFM I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Peavey amp though, and many of the rehearsal studios I've used have had them. 3/4 of my basses are also "budget" Peaveys- can you say "value for money"?

If the action is playable but buzzy a fret dress may make all the difference- I did a "home-brew" fret job on my 5 string (and I'm in the process of doing it on my 7 too) with very basic tools and the difference was dramatic- I like a very low action as well and before this, couldn't achieve it without some notes choking, and that was with my limited tools and ability.

Pliers have always worked fine for me.

[quote name='mrcrow' post='563390' date='Aug 8 2009, 11:38 AM']i have noticed if i take off the strings for any work on the bass they sound brighter for a bit when i put them back on this leads me to think that coiling and coiling them several times with the application of a string cleaner may help to ease out dirt, sweat and skin cells string coatings imho are a step forward but i have seen elixirs exhibiting breakdown in the coating on the well rubbed fretted section maybe trapping sweat etc in[/quote] There was a remark to this effect in the DB section recently

[quote name='ped' post='563076' date='Aug 7 2009, 09:12 PM']I have had the same set of Elixirs on for over a year and I love them - they still sound brand new (swapped them for some new ones and then swapped back!) I guess I just don't sweat at all!![/quote] +1 I love them.

That's uncomfortably accurate...

I'm currently in the process of stripping and cleaning my Conklin- the previous owner(s) appears to have played with fairly heavy palm muting on the bridge with two results: 1) The gold finish is quite worn (almost totally away in places). 2) The entire bridge assembly is filthy with hand gunk. Is there any special care that needs to be taken when cleaning gold hardware? I don't want to tarnish it any more than it already is- will the old bath of coke method work here? Thinking about it I'm inclined to believe it will as brass players I know have used it on their instruments. If I was to take the tuners off, could I do the same with them? Or would the moving parts and plastic rings (Gotoh GB7 style) affect it? They're not quite as grubby but are pretty tarnished. Shopping list at the moment- Switch cleaner Lighter fluid (to clean the fretboard) (purpleheart). Some lemon oil or something similar, to use on the fretboard Some coke. Any ideas/comments?

Awesome. Are the Hipshots bass guitar tuners or are they "proper" DB tuners? Very cool none the less.

[quote name='peted' post='559643' date='Aug 3 2009, 08:55 PM']Makes me think of a Status Streamline crossed with a Musicman Bongo. I likey Top job![/quote] Exactly what I thought.

It will work but any gain pedals (OD, distortion, etc) or delay (and possibly others) will increase the chance of feedback with an acoustic instrument- the other night I put my girlfriend's acoustic guitar through distortion/delay to sound like a cranked 5150 amp and it just fed back constantly, through nothing more than my hi-fi speakers.

Worth contacting Peavey directly through their website- they got back to me promptly with a query I had about a 30 odd year old amp.

If I recall correctly its 4 different "classic" fuzz circuits in one box that can be patched together in any order.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='558530' date='Aug 2 2009, 02:54 PM']...WAF...[/quote] Wife acceptance factor?

I'm not quite clear what the problem is to be honest- are you having issues because you're not used to playing a 5 string, or not used to playing a headed bass? Or is it to do with the strap? My personal recommendation would be to stick with the 5 until you're more comfortable as it gives you the most options; seems more economical than buying another bass for drop D (which is what I think you're implying). Any other issues should be fixable with practice IMO.

"Honey, I shrunk my amps!"

FWIW I just compared a D'Addario acoustic guitar string with the bass in question and there was room to spare, so possible cause for optimism there.

Smart thinking Batman. Have sent them an email just now so we'll see what they say.

The bass is 34" and has about an inch between the nut and the machine head, but I tend to find that guitar strings have a bit more excess length than bass strings, plus on a 3+3 guitar headstock, the D string machine is furthest away from the nut so needs to have greater length anyway- just not sure if it will be enough. Other people have talked about using guitar strings (Dean Markley were mentioned) so its possible in theory at least...