JohnSlade07

Thanks for that, that explains a lot. I'll have to remortgage the house and take the plunge with a set of TIs then.

I've tried fitting flatwounds to my Fender MIM P, however, I could have driven a bus through the action after I'd fitted them. They were Rotosounds incidently. If changing to flatwounds do you need to adjust the neck on most basses, or does it depend on the bass and brand of strings?

I put some Wizard Thumpers in my Fender MIM Precision. They've made a big difference to the sound. The bass manages to sound both deeper and more focused. Recommend them. Unfortunately, the neck, body, tuners, bridge and my playing are still crap.

Yeah good luck mate. It's always good to push yourself. Sure you will be great.

Great advice and ideas guys. Keep it coming. Thanks

I'm starting to teach bass to a 14 yr old lad who's a complete beginner. It's a favour for a friend so should be fairly relaxed. Just wondering what you think I should try and cover in the lessons? It's trying to strike a balance between songs, theory, technique etc I suppose. Obviously I've also got to keep a 14 yr old motivated and interested. Any tips and ideas greatly appreciated therefore. Cheers.

Don't worry Bilbo I've got no intention of performing this stuff in public, purely for my own entertainment. I'd be far too scared to try and play with proper jazz musicians, unless they've got a strange desire to play Daydream Believer or Brown Eyed Girl that is! Once you start scratching even the surface of this the variations seem endless. At the moment I've been listening to players such as Sam Jones and Doug Watkins who seemed/seem to have a lot of feel and bounce in their playing. Great stuff. Thanks again for all the advice and input.

You're quite right. Ooops missed that one!!

I'd start by doing a lot of listening to the "greats" e.g. the 3 Kings, Chicago, Texas legends etc. I'd also invest in a decent blues bass book e.g. the one by Ed Friedland. This will give you a good overview of the main types of lines and riffs, as well as chord progressions and arrangements e.g. 8 bar blues, slow blues, Stormy Monday etc. I'd then apply the ideas from the books and play along to the CDs and try to pick up fresh ideas along the way from your listening. I'm no expert obvioulsy, but I did used to play in a blues band and play it a lot as a means of escape from my function band.

4,5 and 6 certainly give me some other ideas. I assume that double bass players use a lot of open strings to move around the neck and shift position. That's something I'm very poor at. Cheers.

Has anyone got any good tips for approaching walking bass lines? I'm aware of the following ideas (although I've only touched on the first few so far): 1. Root. 2. Root and fifth. 3. Root, 3rd, fifth. 4. Arpeggios. 5. Chromatic approach notes. 6. Mixture of the above obviously. Apart from these I realise the swing and feel is foremost, just looking for a few more ideas to get my teeth into. I'm odd admittedly, but I find all this stuff fascinating (God I feel ashamed saying that!). Cheers John.

Thanks for the advice guys. I've tried fiddling with the EQ and seem to have lessened the "clunk" quite a bit. Acid test will be when I try gigging with it on Friday.

Would nickel strings remove some of the clang and brightness?

Has anyone got any useful tips on how to tame an aggressive, twangy, "midrangy" bass? Great neck and brilliant to play, but too in your face for my liking. It's a Dean Edge Pro btw. Any suggestions gratefully received as I'm a complete woodentop when it comes to technology! Cheers John.

Fair point 51mOn, but I'd still be playing the same lines, licks etc I reckon. Playing in a function band doesn't always give me a huge amount of room to experiment, or improvise. Perhaps a boutique bass would inspire me to study more and learn a new style.