bassbloke

[quote name='silddx' post='752014' date='Feb 20 2010, 06:20 PM']I've just read the Gus G3 review in this month's Bass Guitar Magazine. I simply can not understand that its aesthetics and the minor advances in ergonomics, build quality, and tonal quality and variety is worth spending about THREE AND A HALF THOUSAND QUID extra than your average high end Warwick or some such. I understand how much it costs to build it, but that does not justify its "core worth" as a bass. If you have money to burn, no problem, I still think you would be totally wasting it on something providing so little extra benefit, and with two chrome saveloys attached to it. I'm sure it's fabulous, but it is certainly not £4,000 more fabulous than my Corvette $$. How is it possible to justify that spend on a new bass? And how in the name of Enid Blyton can BGM give it four out of five stars for Value For Money? Bloody ridiculous.[/quote] Your Warwick is mass produced by a machine. Warwick buy in huge quantities of wood, bung it through a cnc machine to produce the body blanks or wings. The economies of scale and minimal human involvement allow costs to be kept low. I can guarantee that once you step away from mass produced instruments and start choosing custom options the costs increase dramatically. You have no idea how many hours goes into a Gus guitar, how much R&D has gone into the building techniques and, most importantly, you've never picked up a Gus guitar and played it so you don't have the slightest clue of it's 'core worth'. The core worth of a Klimt or Van Gogh is what, a bit of canvas, some oil or watercolours and a bit of wood for the frame. That must be, what, £25. Like others have commented, this is an utterly futile discussion topic, so let's all piss off and practice or something. No wonder other musicians think bassists are a bit of a joke.

I'm glad I started off a worthwhile discussion. For an instrument like bass, it's knowing when to shift position that has the most impact on fluency, rather than the ability to play 1fpf. Like I said, if you can play 1fpf then great - you have nice large hands. Those people that can't should not feel pressured into doing so and certainly shouldn't force themselves into a playing style that might cause them injury.

Thank you for the excellent information. I didn't think the lacquered board would affect tone, but for someone used to fender fingerboards, it looks a little odd. I'll get him to take some pictures. He may be more inclined to keep hold of it given its semi-collectible status.

A friend of fine was moaning about the bass sound on one of his recordings and saying his bass was an ancient rickenbacker copy with dead strings. I saw it on Sunday and it's a natural finish CMI Rickenbacker copy. The bass is in good condition and is very light and playable. The only odd thing is the overly lacquered fingerboard. The dead strings were flatwounds, hence the total lack of zing. It's the perfect bass for a beatles fan though. I seem to remember them being quite sought after. Is it worth much?

If it were me, i'd stick a gotoh bridge on, maybe a new pickup (kent armstrong or wizard would be fine) and get the frets stoned and the bass setup nicely. Last of all, I'd swap out pots, rewire and lookou'd have a very , very nice bass after that.

This morning, I picked up the squier vintage modified fretless jazz i bought off him last week. It's a lovely instrument in great condition. The transaction was polite, friendly and efficient - you couldn't ask for anything more. Thanks.

I had to do something similar to an old Vigier bass I owned. I bought it from new, but there was a minor ding in the body, so i got it discounted. After a couple of months the body literally split right where control cavity was. I got it repaired by the shop and they used the same method. Very good fix and yes, the repaired area was stringer than the body. BUT, the repaired showed up as a different colour under strong light. So, bear this is mind when choosing how you're going to get it refinished. When I got my basses refinished, they got about 4 black base coats, then the candy coats and then several coats of automotive lacquer. I'd definitely recommend several white or black base coats to properly mask the repair. I'll put you in touch with the guy who did my respray if you like - he did a fantastic job.

[quote name='Paul_C' post='744149' date='Feb 13 2010, 05:04 PM']that looks like left hand stuff to me [/quote] Not only is it left hand stuff, but i would add that it is bad advice. If your hands are large enough to facilitate 1 finger per fret, then great, but otherwise, you run the risk of causing yourself permanent injury for no good reason. Double bass players don't force themselves to play one finger per fret/note. Be careful with your fingernails. Keep them quite short, but not too short - they protect your fingers (so speaks someone currently unable to play because of a finger infection caused partly by having nails too short.

I'm currently rendered pretty much unable to play due to a nasty infection in my right index finger that's needed two courses of antibiotics to deal with it. My fingertip is incredibly tender, so fingerstyle is out of the question. I've switched to using a pick, but even that's too painful when I grip and, especially, when the edge of my index finger inevitably hit against a string. Has this happened to any other members? I have a few big gigs in a few weeks so whilst i would probably be well advised to simply leave the instrument alone, I feel obliged to do some practicising. Can you get spray on replacement skin or similar to cover up affected area? EDIT: I'm now trying the Eddie Van Halen approach and gripping pick between thumb and middle finger. Feels very weird.

Someone needs to exhume Gar Samuelson and drag Chris Poland back from jazz hell so Megadeth can play Peace Sells in entirety live too. Sorry if that seems in bad taste, but Peace sells is still the ultimate megadeth album for me. The Conjuring, Devil's Island, Bad Omen/Black Friday.. ..and how can the title track can not have gotten a mention yet - it has one of the most memorable bass lines in rock and metal. I am so chuffed Dave Ellefson is back. Megadeth were always my favourite of the big four, closely followed by Anthrax then slayer with metallica trailing somwhere behind.

I've had a staphylococus infection in my right index finger for some weeks so, out of neccessity, had to start playing with a pick again (i did 2 gigs playing my usual fingerstyle with an infected finger and it was v unpleasant). I play guitar as well and have also settled on 1mm nylon picks. They're stiff enough to produce a decent attack. The nylon gives a cleaner less scrapy tone and they're a little bit of flex in there to enable faster picking without too much attack or a knackered wrist. They biggest problem with them is that they're quite slippery. My pet hate with pick style playing is striking the strings at an angle because it produces a nasty scraping sound. I also think it's important to keep muting with the right hand. So, I pick with the fleshy part of my wrist over the bridge, but with the pick over the rear pickup more a more defined attack. It takes some getting used to, but I can mute the string for fast triplets and 16th notes. The ability to play fingerstyle, thumb style, pick style, slap are all essential for the rounded bass player. The key is to develop an effective style for each. I'm tempted to try some dunlop tortex sharps again. Years ago I used the green (0.88) so I might try them again.

That neck looks pristine for a 36 year old instrument.

This gig WILL be a disaster, but it could be a good learning experience for you in a 'let's see just how much of a mess this person can make of organising'. I quite enjoy really, really badly organised gigs. All the bands usually club together to salvage what they can from the event and you never know who might be in attendance and be impressed by your professional attitude. Refuse, politely, to provide a kit. What if the gig does go pear shaped and you can't get a lift back. Recommend she hires a basic kit (probably something around the £50 mark). Her friend can go and collect it. She can recoup it from the costs of putting on the gig.

Does the cab sound any different? I don't know if the Neo cabs have a tweeter protection circuit but the burning sound you describe could be the tweeter diaphram. I owned a peavey 210 cab years ago and used to seriously overdo it on the top end and fried 2 or 3 diaphrams before I learned to rein in the top end. It's a simple enough fix, provided you can get your hands on the part. That's a cab with 600watts power handling. Unless there is some inherent fault with your amp or cab that caused the failure, you need to seriously think about turning down!!!

They have a Peavey Tour 450 at our rehearsal place and it sounds surprisingly good. They're not expensive either. You might also have a bit of fun with the built in octaver. However, I read a lot of owner reviews complaining about the reliability. With that in mind, I'd probably consider the hartke.

Any reason why you want to go the combo route? If you are getting bigger gigs, a head/cab set up would be far more flexible as you'll find yourself being encouraged to share backline on numerous occasions. Of the 6 or so gigs I've played over the last few months I've used my cab once and on the occasion I did use mine, it wasn't necessary as there was a pretty decent house rig. Others may disagree, but 2 x 10 combos aren't that common. A quick scout of this forum shows many complete rigs available well within your price bracket, but 2 x10 combos are a lot rarer, mainly because it's a speaker configuration that's not that popular in combo form. That still wouldn't put me off the SWR Super Redhead as it's a cracking piece of kit. I used to own a Bass 350 head and they sound wonderful. There's no way you could be disappointed with the sound - but you'd probably want to try first.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SWR-Super-Redhead-Bass-Amp_W0QQitemZ330400288150QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL?hash=item4ced644d96#ht_1501wt_1165"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SWR-Super-Redhead-Ba...#ht_1501wt_1165[/url] Possibly the rolls royce of 2x10 combos It's a classic. The parametric EQ is very powerful. It's doesn;t have a tiltback, but cones wiuth a handy front cover that can be used to tilt the ampo back. HAndy 1U rack psace for tuner, compressor.

I'm assuming you're in a rock/metal band. Focus on the drummer and less on the riffs. Whilst you have to complement the guitars, your job is to provide the foundation. You may end up with less interesting parts, but that's the sacrifice of being a bass player. You'll also help your drummer develop.

Lots of things you can try Either cheat and play it an octave down so you're playing it off the open E, play it 12th fret on the E so it's less of a stretch. Which fingers do you use to fret? Pinky or 2nd or 3rd finger. If you use pinky, it should be relatively painless.

just realised this is a 6 month old post that has been resurrected.

Hello and welcome to the forum. Excellent choice of bass. I absolutely love my us deluxe jazz Vs - best playing and sounding basses I have ever owned. I recently got mine resprayed so needed new plates to suit the finish. I got a couple of b/w/b plates throug aurora project and I have to say I was distinctly unimpressed with the quality. The two plates were different sizes, were badly cut - in one case so badly that there's a gaping hole visible between the plate and chrome control cover. I even sent them the original tortoisehsell plate from my bass as a guide. I should have contacted them to voice my displeasure. I have a proposal for you though. I still have the tort plate sitting here unused - tortoisehell and purple and royal blue just don't mix! I would be willing to sell it for £20 inc shipping or swap it for a set of Fender Superbass strings. How does that sound? It's a genuine fender plate in pretty good condition - a few surface scratches, but nothing noticeable. Hans

What makes him 'band leader'? I encounter this phrase all the time but struggle to see how it fits into the grand scheme of things in many bands. Does he own the rights to the band name, logo, etc... Does he own publishing rights for all material, etc... Does he pay the band members a standard salary? If NOTA appliy and he's not some musical genius, then he's not a 'band leader' per se, just someone with more dominating personality than the rest of the band. If it were me, I'd start standing up to him and if he has a problem with it, he can eject you from the band. Chances are, the other bandmates all feel the same way and none of them has the strength of conviction to stand up to him.