bassist_lewis

I forgot how much love this album! and you're right, from the first track it makes so much more sense!

I bought mine from Strings Direct. I looked into their refund policy but because my bass is short scale I had unwound the E to make it fit, which invalidates any right to return I had. I have subsequently put the old strings back on (i'm in the middle of a run of shows for the Fringe so not a good time to be without my bass!) and discovered that D'Addario do short scale sets in the gauge I like made from both steel and nickel!

Just got a new set of DR Lo-Riders and the E string has no brightness and has a strange white noise rattle whenever/wherever I play it, not the kind of rattle from low action/high fret. Is it possible to get a dead string fresh out the pack?

Interesting that everyone is coming at it from a very practical "in case something goes wrong" perspective. I can't say I've ever experienced an amp dying onstage and requiring a DI as back up. I have done a few gigs going straight into the desk and it would've been good in that situation to have something like a Tonehammer and a Basswitch. The friend mentioned in the OP prefers an external DI for sonic reasons, he says they just sound better than the built-in ones.

I had this conversation a few months back at an Edinburgh Bass hang. A friend (a member here) who plays big gigs in Europe was describing his preference for using an external DI box rather than the one built-in to the amp. Its not something I've ever thought about while playing to 100-200 people at wedding venues but I've seen guys like Tim Lefebvre using a Nobleamps DI live instead of the DI on the amp (as far as I can tell), and it made me wonder what other people's thoughts were.

All Mono cases are solid and provide great protection. However, the velcro on the cable tie/strap thing wore out in the first year. Currently I use the Sleeve, which is slimmer than the M80 but it still gives great protection. The pocket isn't as big but I manage to get two cables, a fold up stand, earplugs, clip-on tuner and an ipad in it.

I love this technique, especially if you've got the right amount of top-end, just enough to get the attack. It can be very subtle (ie. the John Mayer video) but you can get super funky with it especially when combined with your 1sy and 2nd fingers, and there's tons (tonnes?) of dynamic range to play with: you can morph to full on Victor Wooten style thumb-as-a-pick type playing. Damian Erskine also uses this technique a lot and has taken it further than most (from what I've seen). He uses a lot of banjo techniques apparently.

Music is a BIG topic! Referring to the OP, you say you've been putting in hours for 3-4 months, which is exactly what you should be doing and much respect for putting in the time. But I'll put it like this: you've ONLY been putting in a few hours a day for 3-4 months! To learn a complex skill like playing a piece of wood with strings on it takes years of repetition, focus and reflection. You say you're struggling to 'understand' the information, I think you are understanding it just fine. As you say, you understand how chords and scales are built. The problem occurs when you play with other people. This is the difference between being able to understand a complex word/phrase and using that phrase/word in a conversation. You have not integrated what you are learning into your 'vocabulary' as it were. To make the theory stuff really useful you have to get it into your subconscious, so you're not thinking about notes and intervals or even licks, you're thinking sound. This takes YEARS of dedicated, conscious practice. Another thing I picked up on was your comparing yourself to others. This is a guaranteed technique to make you feel s**t and demotivate yourself. Separate the person from the behaviour: the guitarists who play so well and know their fretboard inside out without knowing a drop of theory (I know guys like this also) is not a better person than you, he's just focused on things that you haven't for longer. And remember this: you're playing with these guys!!! If they thought you were crap they wouldn't play with you! Being the worst player in the band is the best place to be because you get to learn the most. Being the best player is boring and frustrating (I teach kids, I know this to be true!). Stick with what you're doing, vary how you practice, break it down into smaller chunks, reflect on the result (without judgement) and most importantly, stick with it. Good books on learning and music: The Music Lesson (Victor Wooten); Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else (Geoff Colvin); Make it Stick (Peter C. Brown);The War of Art (Steven Pressfield); Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Musician With (Kenny Werner); Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Daniel H. Pink); The Talent Code: Greatness isn't Born. It's Grown (Daniel Coyle); Inner Game of Music (don't know but it's out there somewhere). Good luck!

If there's a PA needing set-up then I do my gear first - for the reason mentioned above, though this often results in PA cables being trailed all over my cables meaning I have to unplug and replug them, but them's the breaks - then I do PA stuff. I work quicker if I know the band and their set-up (or if, regrettably, I happen to know more about plugging in PAs than they do!). I avoid doing lights because I don't know what I'm doing and I have the arrogant opinion that I'm a musician not a stage hand!

I'm getting a very high pitched hum (like 15k+) from my pedalboard. I have two loops. Loop 1: octave and overdrive. Loop 2: Moog Low pass filter. I've narrowed it down to the Moog, it's centre positive (opposite to everything else) so the plug (part of a daisy chain powered by a 1spot) has an adaptor to reverse the polarity. When I unplug the Moog the hum goes away, problem solved but i want to keep using the Moog! Is there a way to get rid of the hum? would a better quality adaptor make a difference? Lewis

I placed an order back in January and the same story as those above: they money left my Paypal account and when it didn't arrive I got no response when I enquired as to why. I read murmurings on the interweb that they had gone into administration but nothing concrete. in the end I raised Paypal dispute and got my money back in a couple of weeks.