oggiesnr

I've always thought that the beauty of that solo is that the guitar keeps going and the bass still relates to it unlike so may bass solos where instruments stop and there's no relationship to anything else in the piece.

Steve

As the weather gets colder it's not good news for my hands. My broken wrist from two years ago is aching and the arthritis in my thumbs is hurting. I can play for only a limited time without pain and I cannot hold a bow for more than a couple of minutes.

The complicating factor is that my living depends on my hands. Even in my warm workshop I'm finding it more difficult let alone when I'm working on the street..

Regretfully my living comes first so I'm going to have to cut back on other activities that stress my wrist and thumbs and music is one.

It looks as if for the next few months any instrument that requires thumb or wrist pressure is off the agenda so it's going to be moothie and tin whistle and maybe one of the squeeze boxes, double bass is out

Steve

[quote name='Perry' timestamp='1385145231' post='2285050']
Many thanks for your help guys/gals. Would be happy to buy one off here but have to PX in my Spector LX.

It's off to bass gallery for me!

Thanks again
[/quote]

You might well be better off selling your Spector privately. Anyone who takes it on PX is going to want to make a profit on the deal so you'll get anything up to 30% less than its market value (more if they think it's going to hang around for a while).

Steve

[quote name='jackotheclown' timestamp='1385045363' post='2283793']
Well I have decided to look around for other clinics closer to home (in and around Manchester), looks like i will have to go privately though cause the NHS may take too long, (I need the medical complete by beginning of December). Does anyone know of any places to try out in the North West?
[/quote]

Have you got a medical form from the Cruise Line? If you have then it's possible your own GP will do it as a private patient (mine does) HOWEVER you will need the form so they know exactly what has to be covered in the medical.

Steve

Rinat Ibragimov. He was one of my DB tutor's tutors and I just think he's stunning. I've posted his Bottesini elsewhere so here's some Bach.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hEc1fcvVCo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hEc1fcvVCo[/url]

Steve

IMHO there's a difference between a bass "solo" and a bass break in the middle eight. Free's "All right now" springs to mind. The break is short, in keeping with what went before and maintains the rhythm of the song. Same with many drum "solos". Too often a bass solo is used as an excuse for the bass player to gurn to hell and back and play, badly, what a guitarist could do whilst yawning, and bears little relationship to what went before or goes after.

Jazz is, of course, an exception

Steve

As far as mats are concerned, yoga mats rule! Dirt cheap (under a fiver) non slip both sides, bright colours so idjits can see them and roll up easily for storage.

Steve

I've been to too many gigs in the past few years where the only things I could here clearly were the bass and drums

Steve

Take 16 inches of heavy duty electric cabling, slit down the side and remove the inner cables, cut into two inch lengths and ease over the exposed edges. They stay on well enough and are easily removable at a later date. If you want them to look a bit less industrial then apply brown paint.

Steve

[quote name='bobbass4k' timestamp='1384214697' post='2274214']
I find this sort of thing fascinating, people are spitting blood over the government bailing out the banking sector, but we should be supporting businesses which can't compete within their market at the expense of the the ones that are thriving? Why? Because "traditional" pubs are all nice and cuddly and "pubcos" are all evil and heartless? I find it very difficult to believe that a good, well managed "independent" pub can't compete at all with a chain. This sort of things strikes me more as excuses for simply not being able to run a business properly.
[/quote]

Independents can compete, part of the problem is that most of the "independents" aren't actually independent at all but owned by one of the pubcos. If you have to pay 50% over the odds for your booze it puts you at a huge disadvantage before you start. If every improvement you want to make has to be approved and done by your landlord (who is basically broke) then it makes it hard. You can do the improvements yourself (or buy a new cooker for example) but you stand to risk losing your money if the pubco sells out from under you or if they decide that as the premises has been improved then it's worth more rent and price you out (happened to the pub next door until the pubco went bust).

Steve

Part of the answer is for the banks to stop pretending that the big Pubcos are solvent businesses and pull the plug. At that point the properties are up for genuine sale, some will be sold for redevelopment, they're never going to be viable in any form, some will be sold as pubs to small companies and individuals who can (hopefully) make a go of it.

There was a small pubco round here (fourteen pubs) that had this happen to them. About half are now flourishing (the one next door has live music on a regular basis so I regard that as a win/win) the others are now something else.

Pubs have no divine right to succeed or exist just because they've always been there but it should be possible to sort out the wheat from the chaff if the banks would just accept the fact that the two big pubcos are zombie businesses.

steve

You always need more channels than you think so I'd go up a size. I've used both Behringer and Peavey and had no problems with either.

Steve

[quote name='TPJ' timestamp='1383561698' post='2265765']
I picked up my bass yesterday from Peter Hall. He skimmed the fingerboard, knocked the sound post around, and cut the bridge down to allow a fuller range of action, and then dropped the action for me.

It's like a revelation The bass now sounds clearer with very little volume loss. The tone is even across the strings up and down the neck and for once I can play thumb position with ease across the strings. He did a great job for an extremely reasonable price. I couldn't stop playing it last night. On top of it all he is a very nice fellow.

If you need any work done and are in the Yorkshire area give Peter a shout. [url="http://www.peterhallviolins.com/instruments/contact.html"]http://www.peterhall...ts/contact.html[/url]
[/quote]

Glad it worked out so well for you (but then, knowing Peter, I'd expect nothing less).

Happy playing

Steve

Been there, done that.

Invest in a mirror and watch your bowing action. I discovered that I wasn't bowing straight and when I changed strings I skidded the bow.

The other issue is bow speed and weight. A couple of lessons with a tutor who plays arco would be money well spent.

Lastly, the Tarlton books (Sevcik and Scales) are worth their weight in gold.

Steve

If you're in Bradford and have a slightly wider interest in things musical then Salts Mill (Saltaire) and the Early Music Shop are a must. I have spent many hours (and some dosh) in there. Very understanding and knowledgeable staff who don't mind you trying stuff out. The building itself, the Hockney exhibition, the esoteric bookshop are also worth the visit.

Steve

I'm wondering just what the definition of "budget" is

Steve

A lot of the squeezebox players I know (including me) use these guys [url="http://www.newmooninsurance.com/musical/index.php"]http://www.newmooninsurance.com/musical/index.php[/url]

A concertina or a melodeon is hell of a lot more nickable than a double bass and no one seems to have had any issues either with the policies or getting paid in the event of loss (me included, £1700 when a concertina went walkabout )

Steve

Every instrument needs someone like "BassDoc". Someone to who you can say "I want this, this and this" and are then up to making it a reality.

I'm fortunate that in my three main instruments there are guys like that, long may they rule.

Steve

Every [s]bass[/s] instrument player knows some theory, may not know it formally but knows what works or doesn't work on their instrument in a particular situation. It may be knowledge that's been learned practically rather than from books but it's all part of theory.

Now some know a lot more and some have the ability to translate that directly into music in different ways. It's all part of the same continuum as some players being able to use different techniques, some have a bigger palette than others.

Even when noodling, we're all subconsciously using theory, it's a very practical theory that won't get you through music exams but is part of the range of skills we bring to our instruments. Even at the most basic level "what key is it in" is part of theory.

Now I know some formal theory so I can look at a chord chart and work out part of what I could play, but actually that's only a starting point. A musical bass line only really happens when I get to play with the other instruments and we all adjust our ideas to make the whole piece.

Steve

If you want to scare yourself about sending anything then next time you get a delivery from ANY courier sneak a look into the back of their vehicle. The earlier in the day it is the worse it will be but typically it will be piled high with no regard to anything it says on the box ("Fragile" you must be kidding) and it the driver can't find one of the parcels watch the way it all gets thrown about.

Steve

It's the old problem, "define jazz".

Way back I got to see Henry Cow one week and John Steven's "Away" a couple of weeks later and hated them, just couldn't see the point. Then I got to see Grapelli, awesome. Bit later I played in a New Orleans style trad jazz band, amongst the highlights of my musical career (such as it is).

Lumping a whole pile of music together as "jazz" and hating it all seems a bit shallow to me, like lumping music from anywhere that isn't the UK together as "World" and tarring it all with the same brush. The fun is in picking through the diversity and finding the bits that you enjoy.

Steve

[quote name='Hector' timestamp='1382296643' post='2250359']
I was just clumsy - I use a bass buggie ([url="http://www.kcstrings.com/bass-buggie"]http://www.kcstrings.com/bass-buggie[/url]), which allows the bass to stand freely whilst you open doors etc. Obviously, I would never leave it unattended like that, but it can be very briefly freestanding for using both hands for opening a door or similar. I managed to knock it over whilst opening my front door and it landed on the clasp that sits on the shoulder, which made the hole.

Sods law my insurance has just expired and I hadn't got around to renewing it yet. Got a quote from George Martin at around £1000 for the work, so that's an expensive lesson in being organised. It's just money after all, and I'm sure she can be made good as new, but 1/7 of my yearly disposable income is steep.


EDIT - Have renewed with Allianz. This cannot happen again.
[/quote]

Contact Peter in Beverley +44 (0) 7901 591965. I know it's further but he's very good and very reasonable.

Steve

Ouch, every bass players nightmare.

Good luck with the repair.

Steve

A quick explanation of the difference between flat sawn and quarter sawn wood is here [url="http://www.horizon-custom-homes.com/QuarterSawnLumber.html"]http://www.horizon-custom-homes.com/QuarterSawnLumber.html[/url].

Steve

A video is worth a thousand words, an explanation of how it works by one of the best

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrbSL92Kz1Y[/media]

Steve