LastBass

I know the issue is about hearing yourself in a live situation, but can I borrow this thread to run some thoughts past you much more experienced players? I'm fairly new to fretless (unlined, but the usual side dots) electric bass, but have some cello experience and know that intonation problems will get better with work. So I've been working very hard on the interval exercises in Steve Bailey's fretless bass book, all over the neck, not worrying about speed or even rhythm, but making sure I say the name of each note. Scales in the same way, naming each note out loud. Really concentrating and not letting myself get away with sour notes or intervals. Basically how my cello teacher taught me. Just starting too on the early pages of Ray Brown's DB method (adapting l.h. fingering to one fret per finger), and also trying consciously to read the notes on the page as I play them and say them out loud. I'm making quite pleasing progress, and also finding that when I sight read eg Bach cello pieces that I'm familiar with, in the sense that I know what the next note will sound like but not quite sure yet where it'll be on the bass, my intonation is a lot better than when I'm playing pieces from memory or "improvising" (aka noodling or wasting time!) Also that playing with more treble in the tone than I'd really like shows up sour intonation better, esp on the lower strings. How does this approach strike you? Any comments, hints, tips much appreciated. Sort of simple level though - Jake, I understand what you're saying, but I'm not at that level yet. Though I am finding the truth of the notion that eg an F# in a G major scale is different going up to what it is coming down. Many thanks Geoff

My first trip too and won't be bothering again. Still I saved enough on strings from Promenade and a book from Bassline to pay my fare and the entrance so not grumbling. It was a morning out. The scales and modes book is just what I've been looking for Stuart, especially for a tenner! Thanks.

So pleased to see this thread and to know I'm not alone. I'll shortly be looking at spending a chunk of my retirement/redundancy lump sum on a bass that will exceed my ability by an embarrassing factor and have been dreading that in the shop test. But I've spent 40+ years drooling over quality gear and this will be my one chance to own an Alembic/Wal/Fodera/Zon/Ken Smith. Having said that, I've found that most shop staff couldn't give a monkeys. The contributions here have really helped, both in my resolve to thicken up the skin a bit and also in the really useful practical checklists. Thanks all. Oh, my in-shop party pieces are Bach - the 5th Sarabande and the 2nd Courante for a bit of flash. They're pieces I know inside out and tell me all I want to know about sound and playability of the bass I'm playing.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' post='1375522' date='Sep 16 2011, 01:52 PM']1937, surely this qualifies??? [attachment=89589:oldest_bass.jpg][/quote] Hooray - something to save up for! Paul Tutmarc right? Learnt something today, thanks.

From Doctor J - "Personally, I think there might be a link to the age of the buyer, where having disposable income and a large dose of nostalgia makes owning an instrument older than you are a cool thing." Good point Dr J. Trouble is, apart from presumably a few pre-production Precisions that my disposable pension won't quite stretch to anyway, there are no bass guitars older than me!

Hello Chris You've probably either got one or lost interest by now, but I got mine back from long term loan recently and idly looking for info about it via Google (there's quite a lot now including a couple for sale in the US at around $1300 - I'm not up to speed with prices of MIJ 97 Jazzes, but that sounds a lot.) led me to this site which I'm really pleased to have found. I got it new in Feb 99 from Axe Music in Colchester for £429. Its serial number is in the high 800's of the 1000 made and has NR's autograph and the date 97 on the scratchplate. I'd had a much loved 72 sunburst/rosewood/tortoiseshell Precision stolen and it just called to me. It looks fabulous, perhaps even better now with the nickel hardware gently fading and a minor dinge or two on the body. The wood and the finish was much better than US Fenders of the time I think - the neck maple has a hint of flame and is a lovely honey colour and the body is two pieces of alder not bookmatched, but joined almost invisibly on the centre line. The 3 colour sunburst might be a bit unsubtle maybe? As regards spec, I don't think it's any different from a standard MIJ 97 "65 Vintage" Jazz apart from the signature decal on the headstock, "Special Edition" on the neckplate and the autographed scratchplate. I remember a photo of Noel signing them in Bassist magazine at the time, but have no idea how many are autographed. Maybe the unsigned ones are rare? It makes all the right Jazz noises - I've never owned another Jazz so I'm not an expert, but I've always found it hard to play for some reason. Neck relief, action etc all are OK. I feel it needs the neck shimming slightly, the bridge saddles are right at the bottom of their adjustment. So it's spent most of its life in the cupboard (the youngster who I lent it to just used it for a bit of recording and as a spare to take to gigs. He probably took it out of its bag about 3 times in about 5 years. It has been on the stage at the Shepherds Bush Empire which is more than I have.) Maybe I'm just a precision man, not a jazz man. It can happen I think. I bought a new US Standard Precision from Wapping a year or three before the NR Jazz and though it's bland beyond belief in terms of build and materials and is a pretty vile translucent semi sparkly crimson, the sound and feel for me are spot on. But about 10 years ago I found a 96 Warwick Corvette bubinga/wenge for absolute peanuts and have hardly touched Fenders since. But you have to have a Precision though don't you? And the NR Jazz isn't for sale either. Hope that's of interest. All best wishes LB

Retired from any gigging I ever did years ago now and about to retire from the day job too, so it’s back to being a bedroom bassplayer. (Although it's my flat so I'll play where I damn well like.) Classical guitar is my main music these days, but I still love the bass. Twilight years project is Bach’s Cello Suites on bass. Used to play the G major and D minor, bits of the E flat major and C minor. I’ve blown the dust off them recently, and on fretless too just for a challenge. My main bass now is a Warwick Corvette Standard 5 string either the red stained ash/ovangkol fretless that I bought new on a whim a few years ago and haven’t yet had time to really get to grips with, or the 1996 bubinga/wenge fretted I got from The Gallery last year to match the 4 string version I found really cheap in a local 2nd hand shop years ago. In the cupboard a Precision and a Noel Redding sig Jazz, as well as a Hohner B2AV 5 string that I love, but I wish I could find a way of playing it sitting down. All through a Trace Elliott BLX150. Edgar Meyer is probably the bass player I listen to most now, but Jack Bruce has been my hero since Cream, also Danny Thompson since Pentangle (you can tell my vintage) though the young upstart J Pastorius’s contribution to Joni Mitchell’s In France they kiss on Main Street on Shadows and Light is the greatest bass playing in the world [i]anywhere ever[/i]. And I have tickets for both Primus gigs at the Albert Hall next April hooray!