tauzero

[quote name='burray' post='167702' date='Apr 1 2008, 02:28 PM']Where's the best and most reasonable place to get fret lights fitted? And how much? OOORRRR, where is the best place that sells basses already set up with the lights?[/quote]
Get some stick-on ones?

[url="http://fretlord.com/"]fretlord.com/[/url]

[quote name='tauzero' post='167611' date='Apr 1 2008, 12:37 PM']I remember someone on alt.guitar.bass saying that every fretless player ever was influenced by Jaco.
[quote name='bass_ferret' post='167620' date='Apr 1 2008, 12:44 PM']
More bollocks from the Jaco publicity machine. For an esoteric artist they sure worked hard. Jaco did not invent the fretless bass and they were available to buy when he took the pliers to his Jazz. I am afraid the first person who did take the pliers to their frets was bass god (not) Bill Wyman.[/quote]
[/quote]
That was rather my point. I'd been playing fretless for 15 years before I ever heard of the bloke. I've still only heard one of his tracks. He seems OK to me so I might get round to listening to some more some day.

[quote name='OldGit' post='167297' date='Mar 31 2008, 09:53 PM']Well open mic nights can vary but they can be a good place to network for a band or just other people to jam with.[/quote]
I have a wonderful time playing at the Roadhouse on Thursdays. Which brings me on to the regret, a musical and a personal one. I wish I'd known 30 years ago that the future Mrs Zero could sing, as we could have got a band together then, and because it might have bound us close enough together so her dad couldn't split us up.

There have been gaps in my musical life which I shouldn't have let happen, but I was something of a victim of circumstance and rather went with the flow instead of trying to do something more about it.

As a general organisational thing - know exactly where the studio is and where you'll be parking. Make sure you have all the equipment you need and don't go overboard taking lots of extra stuff. You want to have a nice stress-free setup so you're in a calm frame of mind for the actual recording.

Consider refreshments. Non-alcoholic ones... Have somewhere planned for food or take it in with you.

The studio work I've done has been demos similar to what you'll be doing - one was done live straight to master (it was never intended to be more than a demo of us playing live, so that was fine). Everything else followed the formula of whole band playing to lay down drums and guide instrument and vocal tracks, then bass, then keys and guitars in whatever order seemed logical, then vocals and backing vocals. I've always DIed the bass (except for the live one), generally using some flanger or chorus on it.

Enjoy it and try to relax. It's fun...

I remember someone on alt.guitar.bass saying that every fretless player ever was influenced by Jaco.

Who knows, if I ever listen to any of his stuff, perhaps it'll influence me.

Not exactly "couldn't bear to part with" - a g*itarist I used to play with about 25 years ago gave me the remains of a DOD 280 compressor. PCB and jack sockets were there, can't remember if the footswitch was and I took it out to use or if the footswitch wasn't. No back on the case. After having it knocking around the garage for 25 years, I tried it out the other day by soldering the output direct to the output jack socket. Hmmm. Anyone want the remains of a DOD 280 compressor, compresses but is somewhat noisy?

There's a couple of leads of mine that I've had for a long time that have finally succumbed. I like the jack plugs though, so I shall switch them onto newer cable.

Oh, and there's all the dismantled bikes that I really should do something about.

[quote name='Moody' post='166828' date='Mar 31 2008, 12:03 PM']I've been chatting this morning with the dear Mrs Moody - she works in Performing Arts at New College Nottingham (the old Clarendon College) - We can use one of their performance spaces on Saturday 4th May (tbc - system was down)[/quote]
It's always possible that I'm wrong, but isn't the 4th of May a Sunday?

[quote name='TheRev' post='167029' date='Mar 31 2008, 04:34 PM']It's also worth considering the Aria SWB Lite one. Thomann have them for about £750. Whether it's better than the NS Wav is probably down to taste but what I like about it is that it has a body rest and endpin (the Wav uses a cymbal stand type thing I believe) so You're not rooted to the spot.[/quote]
That has its advantages and disadvantages.

My first EUB was a BSX, the predecessor to the Flip range as far as I can tell - 34" scale and tripod stand. From that, I went to a Palatino VE-500 which has an endpin. It was rather heavy though, and the end pin was a bit of an inconvenience as with the overs band I only played it for a few numbers and with the barn dance band there's gaps between the dances while the future Mrs Zero shouts at the putative dancers to bend them to her will, which all meant that a stand would be more convenient. I now have an NS WAV-4 which I like - I briefly had an overlap of instruments so I was able to compare the necks of the WAV-4 and the VE-500 and although they're noticably different, I didn't have a preference for one over the other (I'm very inexperienced on EUB which may be one reason for that).

I would actually like the NS end-pin and stand, but I think it needs the CR tripod, and the total cost of doing it is around £350.

[quote name='eponymous' post='166522' date='Mar 30 2008, 07:31 PM']Thanks for this useful answer. Why are people acting like an EADGBE tuning for a six string bass isn't a legitimate tuning? I know that there are bassists who play it this way.[/quote]

I can see your point of view, but you may discover the logic of tuning in even 4ths for a bass after a while. It means you can move the same pattern across the fretboard any number of strings and you will still be playing the same relative set of notes. Were it not for the fact that a guitar is fundamentally a chording instrument, its tuning would more logically have been in even 4ths or 5ths (cf. double bass for even 4ths, cello, viola and violin for even 5ths).

[quote name='eponymous' post='166522' date='Mar 30 2008, 07:31 PM']My biggest concern is the string I guess, not the guitar. I would like to have the string gauges for the 4 lowest strings the same as on a traditional 4 string bass. Any suggestion of string for the high B and E?[/quote]

You can get single strings in thin gauges from [url="http://saitenkatalog.de/shop1/"]saitenkatalog.de[/url] (you can get them elsewhere but saitenkatalog seems to have a wider range than elsewhere) - as someone else said, Overwater is also worth going to and they may well make you up a 6-string set consisting of the top 6 strings of a 7-string set without you having to throw one away.

Is there a particular reason for starting with a 6-string, rather than with a 4-string (which is, after all, the same tuning as a guitar, just a subset of the strings)? What role do you envision your bass playing taking within a band context, if that's where you'll be using it?

Unexpected arrival: dbx 266XL compressor (from the Bass Bash raffle)

Just arrived: twin neck Atrics 5+4 bass

About to order: straplocks and a couple of straps

[quote name='ped' post='164398' date='Mar 27 2008, 01:08 PM']70's Fender, anyone?

*dons flame suit*[/quote]
By and large I'd agree with you, but it was possible to get a nice 70s Fender - I've actually encountered as many as two. Best was my mate Daydo's natural P, second was my tattyburst P (tattiest Fender in Musical Exchange but the best player).

I bought a combo a while back and finished up with a P "copy" as part of the deal. It was a Chester, very thin body, very light, surprisingly good neck. Had I had any use for it I'd have kept it. I haven't found any other references to Chesters anywhere.

The Warwick JD Thumb, unquestionably, if it had to be just one. However, the Warwick that I had defretted and the fretted Tsai 5-string are also basses that I've bonded with and don't feel any inclination to change.

Add me and the future Mrs Zero (who may be the current Mrs Zero by then) to the interested list.

I was fond of my Gordon Smith (G60 IIRC) biut not enough to keep it as an unused guitar once I'd got the Variax.

I'd sort of like a Parker Fly but the ones I've played haven't been that great to play.

Prototype Korean Squier Strat that someone's dad (IIRC it's Machines's dad) now owns. It's about the only stand-out 6-string electric I've ever played.

So I'm happy with my Variax 300. I'd have liked it in natural though, but I wouldn't like to pay more and have worse playability getting a Variax 700 instead.

Wedding party for the barn dance band. The participants were enthusiastic dancers who'd had a long day so it finished up with us winding up at 10.30, which we didn't mind as we'd done a fair number of dances. The location was a bit of a PITA though, a hotel on Broad Street in Birmingham which is absolutely heaving on a Saturday evening with the sort of people who go to pubs in Broad Street on a Saturday evening - still, we got loaded up and out OK. And a couple of possible future bookings too, which is nice.

Then got back home buzzing, went to bed at 2 which was in fact 3 and got up at 9 to go to the bass bash...

Excellent day. Thanks to The Organisers, Woodenshirt for the sarnies, and to whoever donated the dbx 266 which I've just been playing with...

Was nice to put some faces to names (not that I'll remember them, got a memory like a wossname). High points for me were CK's 5-string fretless Ken Smith, and playing "Mustang Sally" on the Doodlebug. The mix of basses was a little unexpected - more Ligiers than you could shake a stick at, tons of Stauseseses, and only three Warwicks. And the entire membership of the Antoniotsai Owners' Club UK.

The future Mrs Zero also had a good day, which was nice (although she didn't keep saying "you ought to have one of those" to me, which was a bit of a disappointment). Looking forward to the next one...

Hi Folks,

I know there's been a 'gear' thread and a 'lifts' thread already but here's another thread to get a quick list together so we can see who's going to be there tomorrow. To start it off, there's us three coming up from the south:

1. Silverfoxnik
2. WalMan
3. Merton
4. Johngh
5. OBBM
6. G-77
7. Rich (hopefully)
8. Alexclaber
9. Tauzero plus the future Mrs Zero

So, feel free to add your name and help move this along. See you all tomorrow.

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='165533' date='Mar 28 2008, 08:21 PM']Beautiful looking bass at a really good price, shame im skint. I've also got a thumb but its a brand new one so slightly different neck and bridge. The old wenge necks do feel amazing though, I've played a lot of Warwicks with bolt on wenge necks and they are nicer than the newer Ovangkol ones although these do still feel much nicer than the vast majority of mass produce bass necks out there.[/quote]
The difference isn't just between ovankol and wenge. The JD is a vastly different instrument to the current Warwicks. One big regret I have is that a 5-string JD went on ebay a year or two ago, and I decided against putting myself into even more debt to get it. I really should have gone with the bigger debt...

Is that hideous scratchplate actually what they looked like? And that dreadful uncontiguous heel? What a f***ing awful bass. And that's before someone started delicately modifying it.

"Been around the block" - being towed behind a car perhaps? Is there any reason to think that something like this will actually be as good as an instrument which has been cossetted (and regularly played)? I'd be embarrassed to take a bass out that was in that condition.

I intend to take my JD to the Bass Bash so if anyone starts showing signs of love for it, I'll point them at this thread. Bargain at 800, they were 950 twenty years ago.

[quote name='tayste_2000' post='163631' date='Mar 26 2008, 10:57 AM']Tuner before sansamp so you can tune and mute your output to the amp and pa will also mute any hum mcaused by pedals while tuning so this isn't transfered to the pa as well.[/quote]
I'd be inclined to put the tuner first as then you've always got a clean signal from the bass into it, you don't need to switch effects off before using it.

I'm in three, barn dance, covers, acoustic duo. As the future Mrs Zero is the other half of the acoustic duo and the caller for the barn dance band, we don't have a problem with conflicts there. There have been a few times when the covers and the barn dance bands have been booked on the same date, so I've played with the covers band (I'm not quite as essential for the barn dance band).

However, the future Mrs Zero and I would like to expand the duo to a 4-piece and start gigging it more, possibly doing functions, so I think that the covers band may well go by the wayside at that point.

I was recently approached by a guitarist that I'd played with many years ago (which was nice as I'd been wondering how to contact him) who wants to replace the bassist in his band (rather unreliable apparently), but when I considered their gig calendar and everything else that was going on, I had to turn him down.

[quote name='pete.young' post='162717' date='Mar 24 2008, 04:58 PM']Run time will depend on the current drawn by the amp and the size of the battery - if they've used a 12V 10 amp hour battery and the amp draws 2.5a, it'll run for 4 hours on a charge. 12V would be a sensible choice which would allow you to use an external car battery which will run much longer but be a PITA to cart around.[/quote]
As it's 12V, it also allows you to use motorcycle batteries, which are generally smaller and lighter than car batteries. They've got a 7.2Ah battery as the option which gives 1 hour's use. They'll probably cost more, Ah for Ah, than car batteries though.

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='161379' date='Mar 21 2008, 12:39 PM']Since I've just bid on this, does anyone have any idea what it is? A tenor guitar?[/quote]
Looking at the immensely high action and peculiar longitudinal bar running under it, and its lined fretlessness, I would say it's a lap steel guitar of some sort. The machine heads look very wrong for something tuned to bass tuning.