Nickthebass

Congratulations. I was about to chip in with some advice but it’s moot now! I waited 14 months for my Sei - I picked her up in January 2012 and ever since the wait has been a dim and distant memory.

Not enough Sei love around here so I thought I fire in a couple of pictures. Ordered 1 Dec 2010, collected 12 Jan 2012 and my main squeeze ever since.

This! IMO better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. It’s the same reason I take at least 3 jack cables, 3 speaker cables (for two cabs) and a spare DI box / preamp.

That’s exactly where I was going. I bought the first album on the strength of the ad! To this day it’s still a great “4 people in a room giving it heaps” album.

A big vote for the Mono double gig bag. With a light weight head and Barefaced cabs I can carry two basses and a 900 watt rig on my own in one go. Don’t give up on the double gig bag idea - I only one take a single bag if I’m taking one bass to a jam. (Just make sure you keep two cables and a set of earplugs in all your bags.)

The one who always has spare cables and insists that they are properly wound up and put away.

This ... totally this. The lowest voice controls harmony. Sting put it as “it’s not a C chord unless I play a C”. In terms of “keeping time” that role is often played by the bass but not always. In a classic 60s Motown tune the tune keeping is more in the guitars (chords on 2 and 4 over a driving unwavering drum part) whilst the bass pushes and pulls against this. The bass line typically is the place where harmony and the basic groove come together. You should be able to hear the shape of the tune (both rhythmically and harmonically) by just listening to the bass. I like to think of the drums as the heart, the bass as the skeleton with the rest of the band layered over that shape and powered by the heart.

Ok BassChat hive mind ... I need some advice on how to structure practice time. There are lots of useful things that could be done in each session (transcription, technique, time, scales and harmony etc.) and ideally you should hit them all on a regular basis. Is it more productive to do a little bit of multiple things in each session or to focus on one thing per day in each session? For example ... 15 mins each on technique, scales, shifting between subdivisions and walking through a jazz standard or ... Monday is just technique, Tuesday is just subdivisions, Wednesday is just major scales in broken 3rds, Thursday is walking on Autumn Leaves etc... Thoughts?

Wow - he’s moved. He was in Putney many moons ago.

I just had Chris do some electronics fixes and set ups on 2 basses for me. Both came out well. If you want to get hold of him it’s best to text or call his mobile rather than email. He is pretty busy at the minute.

Welcome aboard Euan - I’m in Edinburgh too.

As a replacement for what? Into what sort of bass? What sort of sound are you going for? 😁

Anyone any reviews or thoughts on these?

No ... you weren’t wrong. There are just many ways of being right. I once heard “there are no wrong notes, only poor choices”.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I’ll do a little more digging.

I’ve got a mid-80s Squire Jazz that I’m going to soup up in a (sort of but not really) copy of Paul Turner’s 1960s Olympic White Jazz. I know it won’t make me sound like him, the tone is in his hands etc. not a daft fan boy - but it’s a well known and well heard reference point. Anyone any thoughts of pick-ups? From what I can see it’s pretty much a coin flip between Nordstrand and Lindy Fralin (pretty similar price points). Any other options to add to the mix? The Fender equivalents seem a bit over priced.

Thanks - they sounded like single coils but wanted to check.

Pierre - you may know this ... what pickups does Paul Turner’s white Stenback have in it? Also - you may remember a Talk Bass Sei bass thread from years back. I was having a through neck Jazz built (cocobollo top, Nordstrand pickups). I think you may have been waiting on one about the same time.

In terms of location on the instrument, assuming you are playing that C with your middle finger - I would call that 2nd position. Your index finger being at the 2nd fret. To me - 1st position would be 1st finger in fret one. Someone with more classic / upright background may correct me. The term “root position” is one I’ve heard from Scott Devine but never before - may just be my ignorance though. This refers I think to where you start the scale from - in this case starting a C scale from the root (C). I don’t think it refers to a particular fingering. I think it is laying the ground for thinking about playing the same scale starting on different notes. For a C major scale starting on the root you get C D E F G A B C start on the 5th you get G A B C D E F G from the 6th you get A B C D E F G A and on - you get the idea. This way of thinking about that major scale unlocks pretty much the whole of diatonic harmony (basically all the harmony you’ll need to play pretty much any rock, pop, blues, funk, folk etc. song). Once you get how the C chord relates to the C major scale and what happens when you start that C major scale on (for example) an A (ABCDEFGA) and that you get an Am chord from that scale ... then the world is your mollusc of choice. All of a sudden you’ll see why going C Am G F sounds natural.

Back to the topic at hand ... I think the answer is “it depends”. Harmonically as the others have said - some sort of chord tone that leads you to the next chord is often nice. You could even go full Chuck Rainey, don’t bother with the root, slide up to a double stopped high E and Bb somewhere up the dusty end of the neck - give it a shake and then slide back down for the next root. For the sake of one beat - you could just sit on the C. Chances are that if it’s only a passing chord then the root movement is important to the structure of the tune. (Maybe hit the root first time around and do something more fruity 2nd or 3rd time.)

As I say - rule of thumb - depends on the situation. Also depends what you mean by “busy”. A bubbly 16s rhythmic part that sits in one register, locks with the hi hat and kick and sits mainly on roots and 5s may sound like it takes up less space than something with fewer notes but is moving through registers and especially with big downward drops across arpeggios. Sitting on a C playing 16s may stay out of the way more than moving from a high E (on the g string) quickly down the C7 arpeggio, whallopping the open E before bouncing back to the C - even if it was rhythmically less “busy”. (Think of a Jameson style rake all the way down.) When I say busy I am thinking “ear grabbing” as much as the actual number of notes.

In terms of context - I’d also think about tempo and how many other people are playing at the time. As a general rule of thumb I was taught that the more bodies on stage the less everyone should play. Also if it’s a fast tempo I’d probably just bang the root and move on to the next chord.