Acebassmusic

5 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

But until we hit the stage in front of an audience for the first time, we have no idea if we’re actually up to scratch. It’s a really mindblowing and frankly nerve-wracking sensation.

My band were in a similar situation where after a line up change (me and the drummer) our first gig in 2022 was to headline a local festival in front of 2000+ paying punters! This tends to focus the mind 🤣 Are there any local band jams you can go along to and play 2 or 3 tunes? We did this and because there was no pressure we were able to play, enjoy ourselves and most of all realise that as a group we were ready to do the big gig. A couple of mistakes were made, none of them critical or life threatening and it just helped us focus on a some areas we needed to improve.

You seem to be prepared and rehearsed musically so I dont see that being a problem. As @rushbo says have a think about what can go wrong mechanically eg: your cable fails, string breaks and think of alternatives (but dont overthink the problems 😉). If something does happen on the day you've got a solution already in your head. We played the same festival again this year and 2nd song in my wireless decided not to work. It took me max 30 seconds to unhook the wireless and run a cable I had ready. Minimal disruption and one of the guitarists hadn't noticed until he saw the video several days later!

@Mickyk I'm not sure if this is the same thing but here's a thread on finger / hand positioning ideas that might help - Thumb Position etc.

Some good advice in the previous comments about 1 finger per fret and taking it very slow. If the stretch at the lower G is a lot to start with move up to the C on the 8th fret. Your hand and fingers will be in amore relaxed position there. Once your comfortable doing that then you can start moving the excercise around the bass and increasing speed little by little. Good luck, hope this helps.

22 minutes ago, karlbbb said:

..... what must be the simplest of walking basslines would take me a couple of days to get all the notes down through sheer, brute force trial and error.

 

The conventional wisdom is that one should learn on a 4. Is this really the case?

As you've been playing 5 strings for so long I don't see any advantage to "learning on a 4" unless you plan to move back to 4. You're already familiar with playing a five so its one less thing to think about and confuse yourself whilst learning the new stuff.

Any new bass line is difficult until you've learned it! 🤣 Some tracks do take days or months to get all the notes down, this happens to everyone whatever their level. Even Mr Wooten needs to work on stuff. What speeds up the "brute force trial and error" part of the process is knowing note names and positions on the fretboard, scales modes, arpeggios, intervals etc. This theory stuff might sound boring and it can be a bit of a slog to get through. However when things start to fall into place and you get lightbulb moments where you are able to recongnise what the next note should be (and know why) you'll find yourself grinning and enjoying playing more 👍

Who said you should learn on a 4? I would say its more common because there's more 4 string basses out there. Don't let that stop you playing the 5.

3 hours ago, ziggydolphinboy said:

ill message you , do these work in a rock covers situation ?

 I know silly question but are they more funk than rock , 

 although james newstead and guy from alter bridge use sadowskys.

kindest regards

These Moderns are very versatile and are good for funky stuff. I also use it for blues gigs and I have been using it in my rock covers band......see exhibits A, B & C below. ("Killing In The Name Of" isnt very family or work safe so BE CAREFUL!!)  Not the best sound quality but it gives an idea of the sound fitting in with the band and genre

My wife took the first video on her phone and I dont think it came out too bad. Not sure what happened at 4:12......maybe she was drunk and fell over...lol🤣

9 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Nice...I see a bad case of seller's remorse just over the horizon. 

You may well be correct.....😢😭

For sale (or trade) is my Sadowsky M5-24 Modern 5 string and lightweight “hard” case. This is one of the Japanese Metroline made basses and not Warwick or NYC. I had it up for sale a couple of years ago but withdrew it when I came to my senses...lol 🤣. Lovely bass and I have enjoyed our time together but I’m looking for a change in the gear I have. The following text is taken from the original advert along with my replies to a number of questions. I've also included a couple of videos ( @SzunaP ) as they give a great idea of the versatile sound of the bass as well as the playing being much better than I could muster.

I would give it a 9.5 / 10 for condition with only a couple of small marks that I can see and have added pics. Current Warwick Metroline M5-24 are costing around £3,200. Warwick Sadowsky MetroLine Modern 5-24

Make & Model: Sadowsky M5-24 Modern (Japanese Metroline)

Made: Approx. 2009

Serial Number: M3170

Body & Top: Swamp ash body with a 59’ sunburst gloss polyurethane lacquer on body

Neck: Bolt on, maple, gloss polyester lacquer on neck, graphite rods

Scale Length: 34 inch

Fingerboard: Maple. 24 frets – 2 octave. Side and front dot markers

String Spacing: 19mm

Hardware: Machine heads and bridge in chrome. Strap locks fitted

Truss Rod: Dual action – fully functional

Pick Ups: 2 Sadowsky soap-bar pickups (I have checked but can't confirm who manufactures them eg: Nordstrand / Di Marzio / Basslines / EMG as this was a crossover time with suppliers)

Controls: Sadowsky with VTC – 9 volt active pre-amp. Volume, blend, treble, bass, VTC (variable tone control) with push / pull for active / passive

Strings: Fitted with D'Addario, Chrome Flatwound ECB81-5          

Case: Lightweight foam “hard” case

Weight: 8.8lbs / 4kg

Shipping Weight: Approx. 10kg / 22lb. Shipping will be at cost. Message me with your postcode and I will get a price.

I would prefer a straight sale but I could be interested in trades with a Zon, Overwater, Bogart, Modulus, JCR, Sei etc., 5 string with active electronics, 24 frets, 18 / 19 mm spacing. Try me, you never know! I’ve got good feedback on here, see the link in my signature. Any questions, ask away. 🙂

When I did mine I used a spray can trigger - Here! It made it so much easier to control the spray. 👍

It sounds as if the neck is chunky enough and that you're doing all the right  things. 🤔

For me, 3mm action at the 12th seems on the medium / higher side so that shouldn't be causing the issue at the first 5 frets. I had a look at the Fender manual and it recommends 0.012" to 0.014" neck relief. What are you setting? Depending on how you play (hard / lighter) you may want more gap. I play relatively lightly but have found sometimes if I increase the relief it allows me to lower the action at the bridge a little more. On my Sadowsky (5 string) its recommended releif is 0.012". I've found setting it at 0.016" allows me to get a 1.9mm action on the B string without any buzzing.

Hope you find a solution. 👍

When you say "setting up again" I'm assuming you mean adjust the truss rod? Are you trying to get a really low action? How low? Is it a really thin neck (front to back)? What bass is it?

Maple neck with a rosewood board are pretty standard materials for a neck and and I guess will have been used on  hundreds of thousands of instruments. The fretboard thickness taper does seem a bit strange but a 2mm variation in materials shouldn't make that much of a difference to rigidity and setup stability (unless the rest of the neck is really thin.....I'm thinking 2mm as a % of the overall neck thickness) 🤔

Theres been a few reels come up on Facebook of these guys busking in Edinburgh. Sound pretty good and tight 👍

45 minutes ago, Paolo85 said:

This is absolutely amazing thank you so much! Yes I think the thumb is the issue!

I never thought about it but when I fret, my thumb is not behind the index, as it would normally be in a relaxed grip. It is almost behind the ring finger. I think I may have been taught to do that - something along the lines that it gives equal strenght to all fingers. True or not, the price I pay for it may be quite high. Not just the fact that I end up bending the wrist, but also the fact that the thumb works at an unnatural angle. As I try your position, I feel a somewhat weaker grip with the ring and little fingers. But I feel much much less tension on my thumb. In comparison, in my position it feels like the thumb is working even when I am not fretting any note.

As it happens, my thumb is one of my weakest point, and pain there stopped me for playing for months at the time some 20 years ago, untill I gave up the bass. Had the had tjis conversation then..maybe... !!!!

Phew! Glad I could be of help. It will probably feel different for a while with the ring and little fingers but in reality not much grip strength is required to push the strings onto the fretboard even with a high action. 👍

Paolo, I've taken some photos and compared them to your pics to show how I hold my left hand. For the most part our positions are very similar, just a couple of subtle differences.

My first picture shows my arm & wrist is nearly straight with my palm facing upwards. My fingers are parallel with the frets (just like your photo). The difference I see is the positioning of my thumb on the back of the neck.

In the picture below I've tried to copy your thumb position. We both hold the thumb approx in the centre of the neck but your thumb is flat against it. To get my thumb flat I had to rotate my wrist clockwise which then made my palm approx 45 deg to the bottom of the neck making it more difficult for me to fret notes.

By keeping my palm facing upwards, parallel to the bottom of the neck I find my thumb automatically moves to 45 deg and its more the edge of my thumb in contact. In the video I'm showing how I use my thumb to pivot and can move up and down the fretboard.

There are many different "correct techniques" on the web so mine may / may not be right for you but hopefully it helps a bit.

I think pictures would help us in seeing what you are describing. Bass height and angle on the strap contribute significantly to how your hand interfaces with the neck. Scotts Bass Lessons does a couple of videos covering these areas which may give you ideas. 👍

Strap Height Video

Hand Position Video

3 minutes ago, franzbassist said:

 

If it's like other Demeter kit there will likely be a trim pot on the circuit board.

I'm not sure if there is a trim pot in this amp as I've never seen one mentioned in the manual or on forums before. I never needed one as I just used the active / passive inputs. Worth checking out, thanks 👍

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

Had an HBP-1 years ago, lovely thing, never graduated to running it with an integrated power amp (that was the start of my love affair with Powersoft kit).

 

Puzzled by one thing ... there's a Volume control for the preamp (no Gain) but no separate Volume control for the power amp. How do you increase the Gain without increasing the Volume?

 

Good question and well spotted 😁 The volume control is the master volume, just located on the left of the amp. The gain / volume layout is a little different to many amps nowadays which have input / gain knob / EQ / master vol. On the Demeter the input gain is regulated by either plugging into the active or passive inputs. This supplies a fixed amount of gain for the EQ and master volume to work with. The amp is designed to produce clean headroom as opposed to getting a driven sound.

My weekend gig was on Sunday for the 45th anniversary party of local band "The Bash Street Kids" It started at 2pm through to 9pm and comprised my band Reloaded along with another 4 bands. The headliner was of course "The Bash Street Kids" unfortunately minus their lead singer who was spending time in hospital minus his appendix! Someone had made a huge cake for the party....mmmm!

Unfortunately when we were changing over from the previous band their guitarist dropped his Fractal Audio amp.........onto my Sadowsky! 🤬 I initialy thought it had just knocked the strap (it was on a stand) and quickly checked it over. Didn't see any damage in the low lighting, played the gig, packed away and didn't think any more of it. Unpacked my gear today and you guessed it, I found the impact point. There's now a chunk of finish taken out of the top horn. In the photo it looks an easy repair but it's translucent black and you can see the grain underneath...ah well it could have been worse.

For sale (or trade) is the 2nd of my TC Electronic G Major 2 multi effects unit in excellent condition. Pictures show it in its usual rack home (rack not included). Although most of the reverb and delay effects are aimed at the guitarist I have found the compressor, gate, flanger, phaser and octaver (up and down) etc. to be very useable for bass. I have attached the manual below.

You can use the unit in your DAW as well as with your bass / guitar etc. Patches can be easily selected from the front panel or attach a midi-pedal (I used a MidiMoose). There is also some Vyzor software you can download from the net which allows you to interface your PC with the GMajor to edit and backup your user patches.

For sale (or trade) is my Demeter HBP1-800D 800w tube pre / power amp. Excellent condition and comes full of heft! 🤣 Standard 1U rack unit weighing 11lbs / 5kgs. Currently new ones are $2,099 (approx. £1,650 + shipping +tax).

Passive / Active inputs with treble / mid / bass / presence EQ

Parametric EQ that can be switched in / out

Effects loop that can be switched in / out

Output Power: 800 watt RMS @ 4 ohms, 500 watt RMS @ 8 ohms

Speakon connections

Built in DI output (protected from +48volt phantom power)

Operating voltage: 115V/230V AC switchable

From the Demeter page:

"The HBP-1-800D H Series Tube Bass Pre/Power amplifier by James Demeter integrates an 800 Watt Class D amplifier, driven by Jensen Transformers, into the HBP-1 Preamplifier circuit.

Utilizing the best of both the tube and solid state world, the HBP-1-800D features high voltage (250V) tube front end (providing all of the preamplifier gain and passive tone controls), a two band solid state fully parametric equalizer that is tuned for bass, a fully adjustable active effects loop with controls up front, a tuner output, a full balanced output with switchable mic or line level, both a balanced TRS line level output and an unbalanced line level output for amplifier connections and a mute switch."

Link to the Demeter webpage and manual - Demeter HBP1-800D

For sale is my Tech21 MidiMoose pedal. I have 2 of these and this one is surplus to requirements. In great, fully functional condition with only slight scuffing on a couple of corners. Comes with the original box. The pedal is robust and great for sending midi messages to other midi equipment / synths / DAW / effects etc. I used it with my TC G-Major. Powered by either a wall wart (not supplied) or a single 9v battery.

Here a link to the Tech21 website and operating manual - Tech21. The pedal is simple to use and integrates into any midi system. It has been superceded by the Midi Mongoose a slightly smaller unit with less function switches (£175 at Thomann)

2 minutes ago, dave74200 said:

Thanks so much for your helpful response. I will get to work!!! I'll also look for that app as it sounds great! Thanks again, really appreciate it!!

There is a thread HERE on Basschat which gives a number of options for slowing / looping tracks for learning. I found that you can slow "Amazing Slow Downer" a lot without it getting too distorted. You used to be able to download a free version which was limited to the fist 2 mins of a track (if I remember). I tried it first (for a couple of years!) to see if I was happy then bought it.

Good day @dave74200

For me, learning songs that push me into areas I'm not used to eg: speed / style / genre etc. I slow them down using the likes of "Amazing Slow Downer" This allows my brain and body time to think 🤣 and I split the track down into manageable chunks. Once I've learned the sections I'll start joining them together (still at a slow speed) which helps me remember fingerings and start to build on stamina. Once I can play the whole track through I then start increasing the speed by a few % making sure I'm playing as cleanly and accurately as I can. I also use the likes of Youtube to check out how otheres are playing it, noting both left and right hands.

"are some of us just less able to play in this style?" I don't think it's a case of "we can't" so much as "we've probably not learned the techniques and practiced it much" Mr Harris has been playing in this style for around 40 years so has a bit of a head start on most of us 🤣

2 hours ago, BCH said:

Back to where we started in Bedford ! a genuine music pub...we played there in 1973, same members!!!!!!!!

Well done! My next gig with Reloaded is on the 2nd July at a private party for a local band "The Bash Street Kids" who are celebrating 45 years together so they could be described as comparative newcomers! 🤣

Just sold Paolo some tuners. Easy deal, quick payment. Many thanks.

17 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

Whats the diameter? I may have something in my box'a'bits 😁

I've checked and only have M10's ☹️

Whats the diameter? I may have something in my box'a'bits 😁