oggiesnr

Right foot operates a volume pedal (instant change in attack and decay), left foot (and in some cases knee) operates the string pedals which stretch/contract the strings during play. Different pedals will bend different strings (or in some cases groups of strings). Either one or two necks (different tunings therefore possible in one number) and up to fourteen strings per neck! Great fun and fiendishly difficult. Steve

[quote name='SevenSeas' timestamp='1381696453' post='2242589'] Well the two bits of advice I would give are; Determine which bow you prefer German or French. (try both) [i]Find a classical teacher even if its for [size=4]a one off lesson. [/size][/i] [/quote] And buy the style of bow that your teacher uses. Steve

[quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1381694733' post='2242540'] It's the other way for me. It increases my joy! [/quote] +1 When I started learning theory I found that my appreciation of a lot of music (even jazz which I'd always regarded as a closed shop to me) increased. Steve

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1381682323' post='2242240'] Gigging? I doubt I'll be alive. Seriously though, I'm past 70 now and although I still average three a week I've got to face the possibility of stopping soon. I still play OK and knock up an awesome amount of miles up and down the country but I don't want to be 'the old guy in the band' and certainly wouldn't want to be a 90 year old curiosity. [/quote] If you can play well you're never going to be a curiosity, you're just going to be looked at as a good player. Had Charlie Burrell been c**p then he wouldn't be finding people to play with. I suspect the same will go for the rest of us. Steve

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1381609860' post='2241469'] Well this is something we need to help fix! If it helps you to know, the first time I submitted a track I was very unsure of myself musically. A year on and I've had a real shot in arm, confidence-wise, and I have these monthly challenges to thank for that. It's a very friendly community here - especially in the Rec forum - so just go for it Steve! Nothing to lose and everything to gain. [/quote] Thanks for that Steve

As regard to the performance in the OP. I found myself wincing every time the strings squeaked as he moved position and every time the note or chord I knew was coming arrived a fraction too late. I'm afraid it summed up for me just what is wrong with so many bass solos, nice ideas (sometimes) shame about the execution. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Mr P had kept a beat going on the kick drum, would it actually have pulled the performance back into some semblance of time? The thing I love about the DB piece I posted is that it is awesome technique coupled with musicality and structure, not just disjointed bits of technique. Steve

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1381417721' post='2238815'] So how do you justify practising your bass? You'd surely be better off not doing that yourself, but pay to go and watch someone else doing it? I used to be self employed, but used to allow myself some time off without thinking how much I could be earning. [/quote] I also allow myself time off and I'd much rather spend that time practising than setting up a bass badly Steve

Maybe it's because I'm a coward but I've started work on several of the monthly composition challenges. The problem is that by the time I've barely started (and I'm trying to work out how to do what I want to do next) there's always several very professional (and very good) pieces submitted which I listen to and decide I can't compete with. OK it's a failing in me but ... I wonder anyone else feels the same? If so would having an earliest submission date, say the 21st of the month onwards, help? Steve

Unless you really must have the item then I think it's refund time, if you must have it then you'll just have to wait it out. I also agree it's totally unacceptable, if they're not meeting deadlines it's their responsibility to inform you, it shouldn't be your job to hassle. Steve

I suppose it depends on how you see the bass. For me bass players are at their best when they're anchoring the music, supplying depth and timing to the rest of the band, holding that bottom end together and allowing the other instruments to soar. Doesn't have to be staid or boring, can be incredibly ineventive but it's doing a particular job in the ensemble. The point at which I get bored is when a bass player gets to the solo. Most electric bass solos are (to me) just depressing, how fast can you play, how flash can you look and guess what? as everyone else has gone for a fag break it don't matter what you play. So that was meant to be a riff round the 12th fret and you did on 13? Don't matter, nothing else happening, no discords so who's going to know? There are exceptions, you can get the sheet music for this and check his accuracy, I just stand back and gape [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZ_-f7pVk4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZ_-f7pVk4[/url] Steve

The age of the wood doesn't really matter that much, all wood will react to a lesser or greater extent. What does matter is the quality of the wood and the closeness of the grain. Really great instruments (Stradivari etc) are made from very slow growing trees with very even grain which are now hard to find, They also need to be very straight and very clean. There are very few of these trees now left and they only grow properly in a very few regions of Europe. Steve

[quote name='benbastin' timestamp='1381481876' post='2239596'] Obviously the player is a much bigger factor in how a bass will sound. But the thread was about how the bass itself changes over time which is an interesting thing to contemplate. I feel my main bass change throughout the year as the seasons change, so there are consideration to take in. [/quote] If it's seasonal the I would conjecture it's down to the moisture content of the wood which will change seasonally. Steve

Good technique makes a bass open up one hell of a lot more than the age of the wood! On a more serious note, wood is anhidreous, it take up moisture from the atmosphere and also releases it. It's why basses split and come apart at the seams. The fact that wood has been air dried to 8% over thirty years means very little in a humid atmosphere or a bone dry one, that's part of the justification for adjustable bridges is it not? Imho the quality of the wood and of the basic construction of a bass (or any other instrument) is the biggest determinent of how the instrument will sound. Steve

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1380809866' post='2230906'] My folks house was flood damaged a few years back and apparently there is a separate pot of money from the government which insurers can draw against for this. When the bloke came to assess the claim he insisted that we needed every door frame and every bit of work custom made by a relevant craftsman to its exact condition before the flood, bespoke carpets and everything... didn't use a single off the shelf part...presumably they were getting us to spend as much as possible then putting their bit on top to draw from the government pot.... dishonest bas***ds. Rob [/quote] Nope, they were just doing what it said in the policy. We were flooded (along with 10,000 other house in Hull) in 2007. They basically do a one metre strip out, all the plaster and wood work up to a metre gets ripped out, then the house gets dried out (takes months) and then it has to get put back together. In our case not a problem but if you've paid top dollar for a cottage with lots of original features do you really what it replaced by B&Q's cheapest. The money from the government was actually there to top up premiums in at risk areas so that they would be affordable, it wasn't a slush fund for added goodies on the work. It was also to stop the insurance companies pulling existing cover on houses in at risk areas. I have another three years to go before I can insure this house with a general insurer (my insurance was linked to my mortgage, when I paid off the mortgage I needed a new policy which everyone refused because it had flooded with ten years) so I pay through the nose for specialist cover which excludes flooding as and is still three times more expensive than it should be! Steve

If you're gigging then it's worth having a policy with a public liability component. Like all insurance you'll probably never need it but should someone trip over a loose cable, fall against a speaker stack that falls off the stage and paralyses the person it lands on then it will have been money very well spent. If you're using your home insurance to cover the instruments against theft etc from the home then check what the limits for individual items are (in my case a couple of squeeze boxes and one bass are specifically listed on the policy as they have an individual value greater than £1000). Also music related, if you have an LP collection with any valuable records in then make sure you have a list of them somewhere outside the house. A friend of mine lost his collection of jazz records from the fifties and sixties (all the first release Coltrane and Davies stuff amongst others) and got offered a blanket one pound per record because "no-one plays records anymore"! Steve

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1381257202' post='2236623'] I'm not in a position to poke fun at their technique I'm struggling to play without a hat these days. [/quote] I wasn't poking fun, just making an observation. How's the hand coming on? Mine's about to go into winter hibernation Steve

I'm self employed, my time has a cost. It is cheaper in the long run for me to take a bass to someone who knows what they're doing than spend the time learning how to do it (possibly badly) myself. It's the same logic by which I employ an accountant, an insurance broker and a lawyer. Steve

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1381126554' post='2234541'] Has anybody caught any of the shows on this current tour? I was at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge last night and had a great evening. Superb set, great band including a really good bass player whose name I just can't remember atm I'm sorry to say, but he learned the whole set in less than a week including some of the more complex Tull stuff (TAAB). [i]The venue was really good too, intimate with a good PA and the added bonus of a selection of real ales.[/i] What's not to like. [/quote] The Trades Club is one of the great small venues in the country. I don't think I've ever been to a bad gig there and a few classics. Steve

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1380977799' post='2233038'] I'm seeing more and db players all the time, were there more db players than elec players on the show last night? I don't know who he was either but I too liked it [/quote] I'm seeing more DB "players" but a lot of them seem to be playing like they would on their electric, one finger per "fret" and a horizontal pluck just below the neck join using an electric style pluck and relying on the amp to boost the signal. Steve

Plywood rocks! Good quality ply is expensive, stable, consistent and responsive. Solid wood is the most temperamental material there is, it warps, moves with heat and humidity and splits. However it can also deliver great acoustic tone BUT if you then fit a piezo pickup or whatever, you lose it fast. For a pure acoustic instrument then solid wood is undoubtably best but for most applications really good ply is probably a good bet. I've played a Duke and "depending which way my bass career goes) it's on the shortlist of next basses. Steve

I have a cheap Antonini plywood bass which sounds a hell of a lot better, and is easier to play, after Peter worked on it. It's actually saved me money because instead of spending a grand or so on a better bass this one will be fine until I'm ready to step up to a serious money bass. Steve

You'll do fine with Peter, top bloke and a great craftsman. He did all my work and made the bass sound tons better. He also repaired ShergoldSnicker's five string "Matilda". He won't do anything un-neccesary and keeps a close eye on cost in relation to the value of the instrument. Steve

From the sellers point of view, if you collect it then I have the payment, you have agreed it's condition and there's no question of you changing your mind and saying it's not as described, or it's damaged (and taking a screwdriver to the finish) it never arrived ("sorry not my signature") and you raising a complaint with paypal who stop the payment and then not being a*****d to return the goods in a timely (and well packed) manner. Should I ever sell another expensive instrument it will only be done in person and if that rules people out that's my problem. Steve

So this came up elsewhere with a couple of views on it. So, is it reasonable to expect a bass to sound across it's range? Does a dull E string actually matter? From my perspective it does. A lot of my live work is with a North West Morris team so a lot of the tunes are in G or Em, I play un-amplified. When I had my bass fettled one of the big things I needed with the position of the sound post etc was to open up the E and also the fingered low G as these are key notes for me. Anyone else got any thoughts? Steve

I don't make instruments but I have done custom work in my own field. I've also ordered custom instruments. When I quote a price and a delivery date I do so on the basis that I will deliver in that week and to the spec as given me by the customer. Things can go wrong on my part and I would then tell my customer what had happened and agree a new delivery date. If it is absolutely time critical then it's my problem to beg or borrow what I need to get the job done (in one case I bought a new machine as the repair was going to take too long, it cost more than the job but that's my loss). I don't hold with any custom builder quoting a time they know they cannot make, in the squeezebox world I know two builders who are currently not accepting orders because of the length of their order book and no amount of pleading will get you on that list. I know another has, in a businesslike manner, rationalised how he makes boxes (even all his custom ones) and quotes two years as standard and always delivers (and charges top dollar). It is possible for custom builders to be professional and there's no excuse for them not to be, if (and it's one excuse I've had) they are taking on too much repair work to subsidise their building then they they should either put up their prices or give up! However customers can be equally bad, I've had changed specs a week before delivery, changed delivery dates, a total design change when I'd delivered and a refusal to pay the balance. So, customers also need to keep their end of the deal, the fact that you've just heard a killer new pick up or seen a great wood is just tough. When the equivalent now happens to me I say fine "The cost of the work done so far that will be written off is x, after you pay me that we will start a new contract with a new completion date and price". Usually we just proceed as we were. Steve