Triumph_Rock

6 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

It’s no good preparing pieces to play, you can’t hear anything over the cacophony of everyone playing everything all the time and then you can’t hear anything over the post-prandial burp/fart fest.

Not sure anybody will want to hear a beginner play, that is slow, suffers with the odd fret buzz, and sometimes struggles to mute strings that ring in harmony with the plucked note on another string. 😉

Well gives me more time to learn in prep for meeting everyone. At the moment I've just learned a 12 bar blues lick. I'm struggling to mute strings I'm not playing. So practice practice practice.

I doubt my kit will change. But I did have a look online at the Gibson SG Bass reissue. 

Well today, I have subscribed to Jam Play. Started lessons with David Ellefson. Basic is about the parts of a guitar, tuning the guitar, how to set the position of the guitar up sitting down or standing up, so that wrists are straight as possible.

Then in the lesson after that he gave a basic introduction to the fret board. The lesson I am on now, he's given two exercises to learn and improve left hand coordination and dexterity. As well as plucking the instrument properly with the first two fingers and timing it properly with the left hand. Although I prefer pick.

Good camera angles and can turn the tempo down. Supported by notation and tablature, and even has an interactive feature for the two exercises. So you can play along and learn to play in time.

Looks great to me. 🤘

11 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Watched the 2112 / Moving Pictures documentary couple of nights ago and it was very entertaining with Neil offering quite a fair bit of insight into his lyrics.

Dave

That's interesting, wasn't aware there was a documentary. I shall have to watch it !

On 10/08/2020 at 20:55, ahpook said:

Yay ! That's great.

Do you neighbours know yet ?

 

 

Oh yeah they new, glass vibrating.

Well the new amp turned up today, which is impressive! Already tested it and all is ok. Happy person

Well the new amp is on the way, should be with me mid week the latest. Hopefully this one will work. So then I can get practicing! 

Well what a range of answers, makes for interesting reading, seeing what songs or parts of songs people learned when they where starting out, or out of necessity for a band performance in three weeks time even though they had only just started to learn bass guitar!

I will have to listen to some of the songs. See what I think, I've yet to learn my first song. It might be a Black Sabbath song, I like Geezer Butlers playing style, Maybe even a Megadeth song as David Ellefson uses a bass with humbuckers or maybe Cream. Cream because I like there music and Jack Bruce used an EB Bass guitar. Maybe a Motorhead song as I'm a big fan, what ever I pick will have to be easy.

So I thought this might be an interesting topic for folks to talk about, maybe take some people back. What was the first song you learned to play on bass guitar? Was it the killer tune you just had to learn? Or the bands choice? Or did you learn it just because you digged the bassist who composed the music!?

Lets here the stories!?

The amp has just been packaged for return. Thomann were really good, they asked for some video's of what the amp was doing or wasn't. Saw the video's and have agreed to the return. They have also paid for the return postage.  

9 hours ago, NickA said:

Indeed, Should have auto voltage selection in this day and age  ( my Chinese made American pjb kit does ).  Still, check the fuse. I had a trace combo that often blew it's fuse on startup for no obvious reason. 

If an amp keeps blowing fuses then there is something else wrong with it else where, if the Trace were mine and I bought it new, I'd be sending it back. And ask for a refund or replacement...

By swapping the power leads should of eliminated the fuse, atleast the fuse in the plugs, thats what most people think of when you say check the fuse on electrical household equipment. If there is a fuse else where built into the amp, I certainly am not taking the amp apart as that would void the warranty. 

Thomann included a UK specific plug with the amp, and also it came with the EU plug. I have used both plugs and have the same results with the amp. There is no selector switch for changing power setting, and it has the correct power rating for the UK.

Unfortunately I contacted Thomann yesterday night by email, about a replacement, they have not got back to me today. Which is surprising. I think I will have to phone them. See what they say. If no luck that route, I will contact Warwick directly as I registered for there 4 year warranty on there website lastnight. Rotten luck I'm having.

Yeah so I see there is loads of experience here. I've been researching learning resources tonight, think I will use jamplay.com, it looks like a very well structured website, and loads of famous teachers to boot, and loads of useful features.

Hopefully it will be second time lucky with the amp.

Hi Stew,

I learned Trombone in school long ago, no previous guitar experience. This will be my first adventure into bass guitar playing. Unfortunately keen to get learning, I plugged my amp in and switched it on, and there was a loud pop from the amp ( when it pops the speaker moves very quickly ), it admits a loud humming sound at first, which has now gone, but when connected to the bass, no sound comes from the bass guitar at all. So its looks like the amp is broken. Already sent an email asking for a replacement. I wish I could get a Warwick BC80 locally but I can't...

Hi Guys,

If you want to see photo's of my new bass guitar and amp, head on over to 

Well here it is, photo's of my Westfield EB3 Bass guitar, and my Warwick BC80 amp. 

Now just to start to learn to play the bass! The adventure begins 😀

9 minutes ago, ead said:

Interesting point.  I learned violin at school and went pretty much right through the grades (stopped after VII when I discovered rugby and lady peeps).  What I find most odd is that reading the treble clef is second nature my brain really struggles to read the bass clef.  I have no idea why but it's very annoying.

Good point about the difference, I haven't read music for a very long time, so I'm rusty. Hopefully if I learn the bass clef, my past experience at school wont hinder me.

Quite an interesting read, this ere thread. As somebody that was classically trained in Trombone at school I have a keen interest on this. I've been toying with the idea of which route to go down, debating it in my head, as somebody that has just picked up a bass guitar. Do I go down the play by ear root, or sight reading root? ( rhetorical question ).

I mean being able to sight read, and if you are a good to very good sight reader, you should be able to put the notation of any style of music in front of you and play.

Do I think it will hinder creativity? Yes/No. I think creativity is a very personal thing, and whilst theory might help one person, it might hinder another. I think it all comes down to if the person is an inspired type. And musical theory is huge, its not just being able to read musical notation. Some people might find a theory like playing root notes and 5th notes around the drummers snare drum, symbol or hi-hat , very helpful, other might find it a burden! 

David