Mornats

I had a friend coming over so I went out to buy some bed linen. However the road to the bed linen place had an awful set of temporary traffic lights on it so I turned round and decided to go buy a music book I was after. Turns out the place I went to has the Overwater by Tanglewood basses in stock so I tried a couple and walked out with a contemporary J

I've been looking for a first class main bass for a while now. I've got a Dean Hillsboro Single but I don't get on with its sound much, despite its really nice playable neck, so I've not recorded much with it. So I've been using my 5 string Bass Collection as my main but that has a 35" scale and a wider neck so it's a little harder to play. My fretless is lovely but not for everyday recording, So I had a gap and always thought it would be filled by a £1000-1500 bass (Fender American Jazz, Musicman Bongo, Warwick Streamer etc.) Anyhoo, I was totally blown away by everything about it. Superb build quality, gorgeous looks, massive range of tone and most of all, it just simply wanted to be played and played. It's the best bass I've played by far and I've played almost every bass in the all of the shops I've been in. I sat there playing this one for around 30-40 mins in the shop and I hate playing a bass in a music shop, especially when it's plugged into an amp!

Plus it looks like it's one of the first batch that came out of the factory so has a high chance of being one of those that Chris May set up. It's certainly set up perfectly. I just can't believe it came in at a little less than £600. I'm now an Overwater convert! If I ever play professionally, then Chris will be building me a bass, I don't want to play any other.

So, here are some pics from a very chuffed Overwater owner.

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I had to get a new nut fitted when I strung my fiver eadgc as the e string was buzzing but try yours and see how it goes before changing the nut.

Quality bass bump... I love the contemporary J that I just splashed out on and this is a bargain for a stunning bass imo.

Well, I went out to buy some bed linen and came back with an Overwater Contemporary J4 in trans black. The neck isn't slim like a Bass Collection's is but by god the playability is all there. It's superb in every department. So there goes my GAS...

I've just treat myself to an Overwater Contemporary J 4 string (trans black - rubbish iphone pic attached) and I too was blown away by the playability, build quality and mostly the tonal range of this beauty. i wasn't intending to buy a new bass but just couldn't put this one down! As people have said before, the £580 price tag must be a mistake, this plays and sounds better than the Fender American Jazz I tried a while ago.

I've just sent a query to Overwater to see if mine was one of the first batch that they set up in Cumbria (just curious more than anything).

Has anyone adjusted their truss rod yet? I need to slacken mine a little as the neck is perfectly straight and there's some slight string buzz (nothing that you don't get on any other bass and easily sorted out). I'm just not sure which way it needs to go to give it a slight bow.

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[quote name='BottomE' post='1368053' date='Sep 9 2011, 08:46 PM']Did you find it really painful at first playing back what you recorded?[/quote]

Hell yeah! But the beauty of it is that only you have to listen to it I still cringe at some bits in the tracks I've put on soundcloud but it's all part of learning...

I struggle to practice sometimes. Most of it is down to not having any feedback (I don't play in a band) and also when I nail a piece, there's no record of it, no witnesses, nothing

So what I did was to start recording stuff. To learn scales I knocked up a bassline based on a scale and recorded it to a drum track (then added some guitar to it which was basically just me playing high up on a 5 string with a high C and adding distortion hehe). I could then listen back to everything I'd played and could spot errors, particularly timing errors which get missed when you're in the middle of playing. It also really makes you get tight in with the drums and you'll possibly learn a bit of theory along the way too. Remember that only you have to listen back to it so it won't be embarrassing!

It can also help reduce frustration a little. If I try to play someone else's song and I don't get it spot on with regards to how they play it then it can be disheartening. So I'll listen to a track and get an idea of doing something similar to it and more often than not it turns out radically different but it's my track, it sounds just how I want it to, I can add other instruments and turn it into a proper track and I can listen back to it and evaluate my playing. I love it.

All of the tracks on my soundcloud link in my signature came about from doing this. Base 12 on Mars came about when I was trying to learn the RHCP version of Higher Ground for example. Reolody was me trying some new techniques. The opening and closing parts are me holding down a bass chord and trying my hand at tapping. The verse bit is normal fingerstyle playing and the chorus bit is a bit of slapping on a basschord (slapping one note, popping two more at the same time). Oh and I chucked on an auto-wah effect as it hid some dodgy sounding technique! The entire track is just the one bassline and drums. When I record I usually record say the verse and take as many takes as I need to in order to nail it. I'll then copy and paste these / loop them and do the next bit. Once I'm familiar with the track I can then turn off the bassline and try and play the entire piece from start to end. The advantage of this is that I know how it should sound and I know that I can physically play it as I wrote it and played each bit in isolation so I know I can do it! You can always go back and rerecord the entire bassline in one go too if you want.

So, does anyone else do this?

I do like the bass tone on this album. A mate at work (who has built around 17 guitars/basses) is an EMG pickup fan and the first thing he mentioned was that the bass tone is an EMG one. No idea what bass it is but 'tis a nice sound.

[quote name='LuvMusic' post='1356971' date='Aug 30 2011, 10:42 PM']I would be very happy with a 1 = 1 conversion.[/quote]

Possibly not... a bass that would cost $500 in the States would cost £500 over here but £500 would cost you $815 at today's exchange rate.

Their honest business model, fair pricing and their dislike of DRM is worth supporting by buying a licence. The $60 fee works out at around £37 or so which is still a bargain. It's handy that the demo still works after 30 days as it's taking me longer than that to give it a good work out. I'm 99% convinced so will be buying it this week.

Musicman, the one I mentioned will record bass. I use my guitar rig session mainly for bass. I don't think it matters which instrument you put through them.

You can try it on both and see which one performs better. The licence will let you do that if you buy it. You just can't use them at the same time. As far as I know the evaluation version doesn't expire so you can trial it at your leisure.

Bass Collections are known for their narrow necks. I've no idea what the string spacing is on mine but here's a pic:

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Heh, good idea! I'm quite new to Bristol though (I'm a Geordie who's strayed a bit far from home) so I couldn't suggest a venue or anything. But I'd definitely come along to either.

Sorry to slightly hijack the thread (but hey, it's a bump!) but a 601 with EMG's in it is right up my street Shantijoe... I'd be well interested in that if you were to sell.

All Bass Collections are beautiful basses, I'd have the one advertised here but I've got a fiver, a fretless and I'm looking for something a bit higher-end than the 301/311 series.

I'm Bristol based and am interested in coming along. I'll keep an eye on this thread...

Is £80 within your budget? That would get you one of these: [url="http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/m-audio-fast-track--68396"]http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/m-a...st-track--68396[/url]. I've not used this one (the one I've got is a Native Instruments Guitar Rig Session which is now discontinued) but this appears to the M-Audio's equivalent to mine and will do the job.

Don't let the mic input put you off... you don't *have* to sing...

[quote name='dc2009' post='1352353' date='Aug 26 2011, 01:14 PM']By who? That's a great price![/quote]

It was done by Stuart from The Guitar Shop in Worcester ([url="http://theguitarshopworcester.co.uk/"]http://theguitarshopworcester.co.uk/[/url]). Top bloke he is. Sadly, I don't live in Worcester anymore so can't use his great services anymore.

I have a Guitar Rig Session interface that allows me to plug in my bass (plus it has another input for guitar/bass and a mic input) and that works in GarageBand and Reaper just fine without lag. It's only USB but as I said, no lag It was only £80 inc. Guitar Rig 4LE software so was an absolute bargain. Sadly, it's discontinued but there are others out there at this price point.

But like you say, there are a lot of guitar amps and settings but only 1 bass amp/cab combination in Guitar Rig which sucks. Check out the Ampeg SVX plugin though as it offers loads of Ampeg amp sounds. I tried the demo and it sounded way better than the settings in Guitar Rig. I used it to find a nice sound then just tried to match the dials in Guitar Rig up to the ones in Ampeg and I got a similar sound. The good news about the Ampeg stuff is that you can buy it on a module by module basis so you could just go for a few heads and cabs (the BA-115 sounds sweet). Having said that, my Bass Collections sound pretty damn good without any amp attached (i.e. straight into Garageband without going through any amp emulation).

I got one of my Bass Collections set up (truss rod, action, cleanout of the electronics bit) for £35 and this included a new custom-made brass nut to fit my string gauges. So it shouldn't be too expensive to get one replaced.

I went for Rotosound Trubass black nylon strings for my fretless. You can get quite a decent double-bass type sound out of them but you can still hear a bit of the growl that flatwounds give you too although they tend to be more double-bassey than fretless-bassey in sound. I used these on a couple of tracks in my soundcloud link in my sig (Dragging Deep, Vampires and Dopey Little Dippy) if you want to check out the sound. They currently on a 1988 Bass Collection SB320 fretless with what I think may be Bartolini pickups (the original owner replaced the SGC electronics).

This is brilliant, thanks for posting it! I particularly like how you've explained what each cut or boost is doing - very helpful.

Nice one Gaz, will keep an eye out for them!

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!

My first thought is to agree that I should ideally look at another Bass Collection. I've been a fan of them since I bought an SB301 new in 1994 (£320 I think it was, pearl white, passive, an absolute beauty but I sold it years ago). I've got a 5 string and a fretless Bass Collection which I love but my "main go-to" bass is my 4 string Dean Hillsboro Single which, despite having a lovely nice flat smooth neck, simply doesn't sound anywhere near as nice as my BCs.

I do quite fancy treating myself to a really nice new bass, somewhere in the £400-900 range. Not that I want to spend that much but if price is an indicator of quality, and I know this isn't always the case, then that's what I'm aiming for.

I think I'll have a go of a few Ibanez's to see what they're like. I've always passed them over when in guitar shops as I think I see them more as a budget brand (as they do some great budget instruments).

I wouldn't mind finding out a bit more about your son's bass Tex Gore. Where are you based incidentally? I'm based in Bristol but can travel if needed.

Being a big fan of Geddy Lee, the Geddy Lee Jazz is tempting but I've never liked Fenders. They're the Ford Focus of the bass world - great at what they do, a genuine industry standard but they're common as muck and nothing about them stands out. I'm not aiming to sound like a session bassist and that's all I think of when I hear them. Truly boring shape too in my opinion! (Apologies to Fender fans! I do actually appreciate their quality though.)

Thanks again!

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='1338269' date='Aug 12 2011, 10:50 PM']Do you play Scrabble?

[/quote]

Not since I got caught cheating... hehe.