mcgraham

I wouldn't say the metaphor is lousy, whether or not you study it seriously will certainly have an effect on how quickly you learn and how wide your vocabulary is. However whether or not you apply what you learn will determine how 'eloquent' your speech is. I prefer to avoid metaphors as they can come across quite pretentious unless they are clear and obvious. I found that learning scales, practicing them, and listening to them [i]in context[/i] really unlocked my ear, my technique and the neck in general. That's how you get the most benefit out of them. By doing this you start to discern what the function of chords, scales, intervals, the modes etc all are over any key. Eventually they stop becoming what could be seen as restrictive patterns and slowly the various note choices that are available are revealed to you. By the way, what I mean by available note choices is that you are able to choose what you want to play, you can play any note you want, you just need to justify it in your playing. Mark

Hi all, Straight to the point, from wikipedia, the definition of Veblen goods: [quote]Veblen goods are commodities for which peoples' preference for buying them increases as a direct function of their price.[/quote] There's more to it than just that so please type in Veblen goods on wiki for a more in depth explanation. In short, my question (or mission statement) is to find out how different do uber cheap basses such as SX/Wesley/Squier [i][b]sound[/b][/i] in comparison to their uber expensive counterparts such as Sadowsky/Celinder/Fender CS. Near impossible to do with more unique basses such as Roscoe or Fbass hence why i'm sticking to J's, P's and perhaps Stingray copies. (NB: I know that 'how different' is very subjective, hence why sound clips would be the best reference so i/you/we can make up my/your/our own mind(s).) My inspiration from this comes from listening to basstasters site, I personally think that the Fender clips are the best sounding clips on there, not because they're Fender (that sort of bias would defeat the purpose of this experiement), but because I think they sounded the best, even over the Sadowsky(s) (though they weren't far behind). I tried numerous Sadowskys in the summer, great sound, but not a massively better than a well constructed Jazz (IMO). Also, recent sound clips on TB of a Godin vs a Sadowsky (US one I believe) played flat in a mix; for half of each clip I couldn't tell the difference, then the nuances started to shine through, and I actually preferred the Godin (blindfold test). If you have input, clips, experience with such things please chime in, I'm hoping to do some tests in the months to come with some standard basses, just el cheapos from ebay or friend's gear and eventually moving up the spectrum. If you have any of the more expensive names mentioned, if you could perhaps record some direct [i]flat[/i] clips that'd be smashing. I hope to eventually get round to doing them myself to keep this a fair test. Mark

[quote]Thing is, I have only used 2 basses for the past 4 years, and 2 amps. All this stuff is flight cased, is the stuff I call on day in and day out, and is the only stuff I will ever use (until it breaks/gets stolen). I know this but I still can't help clicking bids on Alembics, Ampegs, Hiwatts, Gibsons and many more items that just sit around the house and do sweet f""k all until they get sold on again (admittedly for a profit). Is this just me?[/quote] It's not just you bud, lets be honest we can only 'really' play one at a time. Same situation with me and my bass, despite the posted/discussed neck 'issues' that it has, it does everything so well. Somehow I'm on this irritational search for something else, "I want something different but that sounds almost the same.... " that should be an indicator that I don't need something different, that I only WANT something else. [quote]As a rock/funk bass I love it! Only complaint is a loss of output on the G-string, but that could be how I've got it set up. It's a fantastically fast bass to play & has a general sound that I can only liken to that of God shouting!!![/quote] How do you find the ovangkol neck? I'm a big fan of maple and I find that of all the warwick's I've tried, it's been the ones with traditional wood combos (i.e. ash/maple) that I like the most. Mark

[quote]I'm aware that RIC are entirely within their rights to up their prices dramatically, and given the demand this is entirely rational.[/quote] +1 I'm not an economist, nor do I have any decent appreciation of business. But from what little I do know, the above is all that really matters from their stand point. I'm [i]sure[/i] they realised that there would be a number of customers and potential customers that wouldn't like the price increase, and that a fraction of them would decide not to buy, or at the least put it off til a later date... Correct me if I'm wrong (I could very well be, I'm going out on a limb here) does that not fit with the concept of supply and demand? Raise the price, orders drop (for the reason above, amongst others), your supply can meet demand. It makes sense that the amount they increase the price should be somewhat related to how much they hope to drive down the number of orders in order to meet demand. That's my tentative thoughts on it, I'm sure that's somewhat oversimplified, and probably erroneous in some way, but it seems to make sense from a simpleton's viewpoint. Mark

Personally, I like the fact there are upper range models that feels the same as the instrument I'm most comfortable on. They look 'the same', they feel 'the same', they sound somewhat similar but are their own sound. However I'm of the mind that you can get a great bass for next to nothing. I got to play several Sadowskys up in Glasgow in August time, they sounded wonderful, felt great, clarity was excellent, weight and construction felt just so... however... so does my Geddy, in fact, so does any decently put together AND setup jazz I've played. Mark P.S. Whilst talking about 'is the sound worth it?' if you guys haven't done so already, I recommend checking out the blindfold tests on Talkbass on various basses, there's one of a Sadowsky vs a Godin, it was recorded in a mix, but was loud enough to hear it's nuances. There were differences but they weren't that prominent (IMO), I couldn't hear them until a little bit into the song. And at the end of the day, I preferred the Godin by quite a significant margin! Go figure.

Good video there, good to see someone else who uses it! Floating thumb affords you so much freedom because there is literally nothing fixed that would restrict your movement as with a normal anchor. The muting is almost an added bonus! I'd naturally gravitated towards using a movable anchor (in a manner similar to floating thumb) in the beginning, my thumb was always one string behind the string I was plucking. However it wasn't anchored hard at all, in fact the only thing that qualified it as being anchored was that my thumb was inserted into the imaginary surface that the strings lie on/form. I learned about floating thumb and it made me lighten my touch and helped me to see the inefficiency in any form of anchoring. I'm afraid I can't post a video as of yet, however I would add that, like learning any technique, you have to find what is most ergonomic (note I didn't use the word comfortable) for you. For instance, Tom's use of floating thumb is verrry similar to how Todd Johnson looks when using floating thumb, the hand slightly angled backwards towards the bridge (fingertips closer to the bridge and wrist closer to the neck). His thumb is also alongside his index finger. My hand (on the other hand ) is angled slightly forwards towards the headstock end (fingertips closer to the neck and wrist closer to the bridge), and once my index finger has plucked it falls back into the tip of my thumb, my thumb is actually behind the index, in fact the index is further out to the left than the thumb. All these things are minute but they are the most ergonomic and the slightest thing makes all the difference when practicing and developing technique. I'll try and take some pictures at some point, they'd have to be a camera phone as well tho. Mark

OTPJ, hows that double buck working out for you? I've been looking at trying/getting a warwick (preferably second hand) since I was able to try a streamer double buck on the weekend. I was astounded by how versatile it was, copped a VERY good 70's J tone from the single-single setting. A lot of warwick's marketing (IMO) comes across as hype, and the double buck configuration struck me as that initially, two big humbuckers, big deal... Oh my goodness how wrong I was, that thing can nail so many tones it's unreal. AND it's at a stupidly low price, about 200-300 off what it should be even on GAK. I may bite sometime next year, we'll see. Mark

Had an interesting thought this morning, I wonder where people tend to be drawn with regards their GAS or their need for a new instrument. I tend to be drawn towards basses more than anything else as for the last few years I've only been able to play through a pandora, so looking at amps or cabs seemed pointless. I also like simplicity, so effects and serious upgrades never did anything for me. That also extends to what I feel is reasonable to pay for something, I look at an instrument and think 'hmmm 1200, doable', but point at an amp for 500 and I think 'woah, bit pricey!' That's starting to change at present as I have a bass I'm happy with and now I'd like to explore some amplification options. What about you guys? Do you find that you're drawn to buying amp after amp/bass after bass/cabinet after cabinet/effect after effect/brand after brand? Mark

[quote]+1 and keep them short - I cut mine once a week - I hate having long nails![/quote] +1 Keep them long enough to provide strong support for your finger tip but not so long they catch on the strings. Mark

So much food for thought! I don't mind a bit of movement, I'm not looking for something that doesn't move at all, as nice as that may be. It'd just be an improvement to not have to worry about wearing out the screw heads on the bolt on region Mark

Cables perhaps? Mark

That's great info Bloodaxe, thanks a lot! I'll get in touch with Jon Shuker in the New Year, silly trying to get it sorted a week before Christmas. Mark

Hmm, that is a good suggestion SJA. If it costs around that (250 according to a previous poster) that would be very argeeable. I'd prefer to stick with a pure maple neck if I can, with graphite only if necessary, just to keep the feel and sound as similar as possible to what it is at present. I'd rather just have a stable version of what I've got! However, saying that, a graphite neck does appeal to me to. I'll have a gander at the options and price each out. Mark

Yea I'm still umming and ahhing over the right course of action. I think a new neck IS needed, just gotta decide what sort. Mark

Don't have a drill and the rented apartment has a glass kitchen table Mark

I don't have the tools nor workspace to do it. So I'll send the body off to Rob come next year, if I decide to go with a graphite neck. I may get him to stick some lightweight machines on the headstock as well just to make it worth the effort. Mark