Mornats

...when you feel genuine downheartedness upon seeing a road sign proclaiming "Weak Bridge Ahead".

I sometimes don't consider myself a "real" (or more accurately, experienced) bass player because I don't use a pick. I've just not developed my technique with one because it comes harder to me than finger style. I've just had more practice with finger style I guess.

Can't remember if anyone mentioned Scott Devine's bass lessons site. Great lessons, great player and very likeable guy so you can easily sit through all of his videos [url="http://scottsbasslessons.com/"]http://scottsbasslessons.com/[/url]

Glad your bass arrived and don't worry about it being difficult at the moment, it will all just come with practice. Scott did a great video lesson on walking basslines: [url="http://scottsbasslessons.com/walking-bass-lines/walking-bass-beginner-1.html"]http://scottsbasslessons.com/walking-bass-lines/walking-bass-beginner-1.html[/url]. There's a second part too. They were so helpful to me that I bought his backing track pack (should be linked to from the lesson page above). The bit in one of my tracks from 4:20 onwards is a direct result of watching Scott's lesson: [url="http://soundcloud.com/mornats/elude"]http://soundcloud.com/mornats/elude[/url] so it helped me straight away. In fact, I did all of the bassline for this one after watching Scott's lesson and pretty much took in his whole I III V structure advice. So thanks Scott!

Several from me, fortunately all good:

J.G. Windows - Metro Centre, Gateshead: Bought my first bass after not playing for 17 years from them. Guy was really helpful and sympathetic to me explaining that I wanted to try one for feel but could he play it for me so I could hear its sound. Didn't make me feel embarrassed by it at all, gave me a good deal, chucked in some stuff and when I went in next, got a bigger discount on a Uke and gave me a free Dean Guitars keyring. Champion as us Geordies say.

Music Room, Bristol: Bought my Overwater from them. They let me play 3 of them, let me sit there for around 45 mins playing it through an amp. Just left me be, didn't rush me but were there when I needed them for something.

PMT, Bristol: Been in loads of times and must have played every bass in there. Guys were happy for me to tire-kick as I even stated that I wasn't buying but just looking to see what was suited for me in the future. One of them did ask me not to just pull the basses off the walls without asking first. Fair enough, that's around £10k of instruments I'd handled before he wandered over! He was nice about it mind. Never really hovered around too much but weren't far away. When I bought my Ashdown amp they were great. Let me try 4-5 amps/combos, gave me a choice of any bass to try them with (Fender MIM Precision which was distinctly average btw and not a patch on the Squire one...), tried desperately to price match even though they were as cheap as everywhere online anyway and helped me into the car with the amp too. Always been decent chaps to chat to as well.

Absolute Guitars, Backwell (near Bristol - www.absolute-guitars.co.uk): wandered in as they're just down the road from me and Chris let me try out their Spector's, from the £500 to the £1500 ones. Grabbed me some basses that were behind a wall of boxes (they'd just taken a big delivery) and generally just left me to it. I really need to buy some stuff from him as he's a small local retailer trying to compete online with the big guys. Just a shame they didn't have the amp I wanted

Out of them all, Music Room was perhaps the most average in terms of what you'd expect from a shop but they're mainly a sheet music/piano/keyboard/other instrument shop than a guitar shop but still, absolutely no complaints from me.

Oh, DV247. There's a shop in Bristol and the guys have always been pretty decent. Let me try out a few of their active monitors, ordered some headphones in for me to try (which I didn't as they weren't quite what I was after). Ordered online from them too and also had stuff ordered in to the shop.

Thomann: I've ordered a couple of times. Once to buy a set of monitors and again to get my studio headphones. Delivery took 2 days both times, was kept up to date and it all felt like a nice personal service.

So I've been pretty pleased all round.

It may sort itself out once you've got all the strings on (i.e. all of the tension from the strings will be pulling on the neck).

*Edit* - what Truckstop said

Mr. Foxen is spot on, copyright is automatic as soon as you create the work. Enforcing it is another matter. I'm assuming that having the source files in Reaper for my stuff would be enough but for now, I'm just happy if anyone listens to my stuff and chuffed to bits if they like it.

I took a 15 watt Laney RB1 to a band rehearsal to compete against a single guitarist going through a 35w Laney and a loud hard hitting drummer with a double kick drum. I had to put it on 9 on volume, 9 on the gain, scoop the bass out and up the mids and highs all the way and I could just about hear it. I've got an Ashdown 220 Touring (1x12 speaker, not putting out the full 220 through that, perhaps 180? Maybe less?) and that competes just fine on 4-5 on volume and same on gain. A bit too loud at times but no one's complained yet!

I agree with the advice that if you buy something that will last a long time now then it's worth going for. £200 second hand should get you something decent. I borrowed a mate's 100w Laney Linebacker combo and it was good enough for practice. Made in England 1987 and still going strong without any servicing, I'd have bought it off him but he'd originally bought it off Reef's bassist years ago so wants to keep it. Anyway, I digress...

[quote name='PTB' timestamp='1339230258' post='1685519']
Your signature says you already have a "Fender American Jazz Deluxe 5" so not sure why you are considering another?
[/quote]

Because he's a Basschat member and we just can't help ourselves.

Well, Gene Simmonds from Kiss was my favourite band member. He had the coolest makeup at the time. But the players that made me want to play bass are Geddy Lee, Les Claypool, Billy Gould from Faith No More and Flea. Strangely enough, I don't actually like playing slap bass despite these influences.

With such vastly varying QC/setup quality on most basses it's worth trying them out before buying. Even if you tried out a bass in a shop and then ordered it online you could end up with something that played completely differently. It's tough, regardless of whether you buy online or in a shop, to shop for that one special bass you've always wanted.

I really liked that. Didn't notice any mistakes in particular. I think it would sound awesome with a good drum track behind it.

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Komplete Audio 6 from Native Instruments may do it for you. [url="http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/komplete-audio-6/"]http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/komplete-audio-6/[/url] - "4 analog inputs: 2 balanced mic/line/instrument (XLR); plus 2 balanced line (1/4" TRS)"[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Retails at around £180 or so if that's within your budget.[/font][/size]

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1339051815' post='1682807']
I'm not really sure why anyone really cares TBH mate, almost everything can sound like almost anything.
[/quote]

At least 90% of it will be down to Geddy playing it anyway. I always sound like me, regardless of which bass I'm playing.

Would be interesting to see how they compared volume-wise to my Ashdown 220 Touring (dual valve pre-amp). I do love the sound of Ashdown's valve series.

I would love one (partly because I love the name of it) but it still seems a lot of money for a 30w head.

That sucks. Hope you get your bass soon. Whilst you wait, you could pick up a copy of Bass Guitar for Dummies and jump to chapter 5 - Understanding Major and Minor Structures (unless of course you know this stuff already) and get some good solid theory behind you for when your bass arrives. This chapter was the lightbulb moment for me and I'm still learning bits from it now.

Are you guys getting the CD delivered early as part of being in their fan club/mailing list? Just curious as I'll order one now if they're sending it out early to everyone!

Speaking of tone, am I right in thinking that Headlong Flight is played on a jazz? I had someone say it sounded very much like a Rickenbacker but I'm not all that familiar with the Rick sound to say otherwise. It sounds like an excellently played jazz to me.

I play my Overwater and have the rest to make me feel good.

I like this. How do you rate your Roland R-05? I just use my iPhone 4's voice recorder at band practice. This is an example of one where I just popped it on a chair 5-6 metres away from the band: [url="http://soundcloud.com/mornats/money-band-rehearsal-with"]http://soundcloud.com/mornats/money-band-rehearsal-with[/url]. Certainly not bad for a phone! I was just wondering if it was worth investing in a dedicated recorder.

There's a sticky at the top of this section add your stuff there. There's also a basschat group on Soundcloud to share your tracks on.

I do this every now and then. Don't just go through Guitar Rig though. Pop it into a DAW (such as Reaper) and chuck and eq on the bass. Use a high pass filter at around 100hz, and try and kill off anything at 80hz and below. This should take out most of the frequencies that are harmful to your monitors. In effect, the bass you'll be putting through them should be around the same frequency range as a proper recorded and eq'ed bass so if you've done it right it shouldn't be any more harmful than playing music through them. And as others have said, listen for any noises that don't sound right (squelching etc.) and turn down, or eq more low end off it.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1338634004' post='1677386']
AFAIK MusicMan are pretty much unique in the mass-produced bass market in having pre-amps that are designed specifically for the instruments that they go in. Everything else appears to use generic circuits that may or may not suit the basic raw sound of the bass.
[/quote]

The John East pre-amp in the Overwater Aspiration series was specially designed for this range of basses.

Let's face it, if they're laughing at us for reading Basschat we've all got some internet history cleaning-up to do before they see what else we've all been reading/watching...

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1338567157' post='1676558']
I generally run my amp EQ pretty flat and then for the Overwater I use a little bit of bass boost with the p/up sweep biassed towards the neck p/up. My new ACG will have the ACG EQ03 5K system which I'm really looking forward to playing with.
[/quote]

Interesting, I've got the same bass as you and I tend to favour the treble being boosted to help cut through and get a bit of string noise in there. The 5khz boost also helps with that a lot. Mind you, it could be down to the amp as to how much you need to boost what on the bass. I played through a 1987 Laney Linebacker and I didn't need as much high end boost as I do with my Ashdown 220 Touring.

That bass tone. OMG!@!@$