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[quote name='blue' timestamp='1422213713' post='2669945'] Guys, I would say my comments were merely my honest opinion and not meant to be disrespectful. To be brutally honest again, I think the guy in the YouTube clip has a outstanding chops and ability. But for an old timer like me, I see no style or soul, only speed and accuracy. Guys, I come from the school of Paul McCartney the Willy Weeks and Duck Dunns. The guy is certainly interesting but I don't even consider it true traditional bass playing and not the target to shoot for, for any young bass player.Learn the basic from the old masters first. IMHO While my comments do not directly address the OPs concern, I get that. My advice don't worry about others players tone and unless your already an advanced player and unless your a bedroom player stay away from these nontraditional styles that at the end of the day not many people are interested in. Respect Blue [/quote] i get what you mean, it just came off a little aggressive i don't think we should have to stick to convention and should be allowed to expand and do something different we don't forget whats been done before (Paul McCartney etc) but for me to limit myself to just that seems counter intuitive and I'm still going to hunt for this tone, I'm not looking to please the masses and doing something traditional as I've done that before in multiple bands and can do it again, this is how I see myself becoming better by becoming quicker and more accurate (with or without this tone per say) again this my opinion also and no disrespect is ever intended

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1422172021' post='2669360'] Guys that play fast with no soul and all the chops and technique in the world have never impressed me. I think it's a waste of time for young bass players to use these sort of guys as bench marks. Chances are you'll never sound like him or have the ability to play like that. Blue [/quote] wow let's keep it upbeat i personally think its impressive as a bassist and a style but hey each to their own as i was asking, i was curious as to how he got this tone, particularly with fingers, i find that fingers usually sound a little smoother but i know everyone is different but ikuo seems to have great definition and clang without the flubbyness of the low b (which i suppose is another issue I am facing haha) can I play to that level? no do I aim to have that accuracy and speed? yes [quote name='barneyg42' timestamp='1422195942' post='2669705'] The OP has asked a reasonable question to work out how to sound like one of his heroes. I have no answer, it's not my style but how useful is it to come on his thread and slag the style of his hero and tell him he's unlikely to be able to play like that!! I know plenty of players who can play like that and better!! It's possible the OP can play like that to a certain extent and just needs some finer points to help him. Sorry to be blunt Blue, I think your post is very disrespectful and uncalled for. I don't know the OP but if he was fairly new to the site comments like yours could push him elsewhere. Rant over!! [/quote] thanks very much Barney for support I'm fairly use to forum warriors so I won't be disuaded by him, just probably won't invite him round for a brew haha

Hey there so I've been a fan of Ikuo he's not the most popular guy but if you listen to much japanese rock or metal or even jazz then chances are you've heard this guy somewhere along the way here's an example of this guys chops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8SmEjz_eG8 so my question really is how to get such a great tone?? something super clear and heavy but without that low end flub even when using his fingers any advice would be great if it helps gear wise I'm using a bass with an ash body maple neck with ceramic mm by duncans thanks also people should just check out this guy anyway and his signature series with esp japan

I personally really like the look of these basses the thing that caught my attention was the darkglass EQ which could be very cool given Nollys destructive tone they seem to be selling them separate here: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Darkglass_Preamps.html

heavier gauge strings would be the way to go, I don't know if a 5 string set would be the exact ones you should get as that may be too heavy and would need to recut the nut quite extremely but heavier strings will definitely help

Hi Interwebz so new bass day was a couple of days ago, but with work and band stuff piling on at the moment I've not really had much time to post/take photos so here it is: [URL=http://s1102.photobucket.com/user/Kristian_taylor1/media/2012-02-17115541.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g448/Kristian_taylor1/2012-02-17115541.jpg[/IMG][/URL] This was built by my good friend Steven Hart (I have also had a 7 string made by him as well as mods done by him to my other guitars and basses), he's a UK builder based in Manchester (which I am too) his page can be found here: [url]https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harts-Wood-Crafts/149381271794044?fref=ts[/url] Before I get into the Specs I will just talk about Pricing, so with the inclusion of the pickups this bass cost me around £1100. Steven works in a great way in that you pay in sections, so when you pay the first deposit of x amount he'll work on the body and neck, then the next deposit he'll do a little more etc and that'll continue till its done and you take the instrument home. I personally prefer this since I can raise the funds over time and get the bass I really want in the end. No project is ever scrapped with him so if you're struggling to pay then tell him and you can work something out with him (he's very easy to talk too and always stays in contact) Stevens work varies from simple designs to some quite outrageous shapes (if you look on his page you'll see what I mean), I tend to lean more to simple designs, I've done the "metulz" shapes before and for me I kinda wanted to move to a bass that I can use in any genre and not look more like a muppet than i already do haha so with this bass I wanted to kinda base it on my fender bronco bass (which was my first bass ever) but add more style and a string I guess, so it was simple but still stylish, I also took inspiration from Ikuo's ESP Long Way bass (check that out here http://www.espguitars.co.jp/artist/ikuo/index.html). I love his tone and some of his ideas on this bass were taken from his such as the fretless part and the pickup choices Spec wise we went with an ash body with a Ziricote body top wood, and then we had a short scale birdseye maple neck, I personally like the ash maple combo as it gives a great mid tone and feels really smooth playing wise too now the fretless part of the neck is from Ikuo's bass, I thought I could implement it to use for techniques such as slap and double thumb etc, it lets me do both techniques comfortably and it almost gives me a guide for where I should be going haha the pickups I decided to go with 2 seymour duncan SMB 5D pickups (thanks Ikuo), many of you know that most basses have a singular music man pickup and sound amazing, so I decided to go with two (because why not lol) and this sounds huge, partnered with a Seymour Duncan STC 3m3 it sounds big, great lows and the mids to highs sound smooth which was important for me, I have a lot of basses that sounded great on the low strings but as soon as I got to the mid to high territory it became very brittle sounding and could feel very uneven so these were great choice of pickup for my style I still need to calibrate the STC so that the slap mode really kicks in but thats just a matter of messing with the pre amp, all in all its a great bass, more pics and a tech demo will be put up soon I hope, any questions just DM or post, or even ask Steven on his page or his personal page: [url]https://www.facebook.com/steven.hart.1840?fref=ts[/url]