oggiesnr

I was at Galtres at the weekend and there were lots of double bassists, even met a guy who told me most of the previous owners of my bass . Steve

There is a logic but you do need to buckle down and do the boring bit of learning the theory . My quick and dirty way is to write out two scales worth of piano keyboard from C to C2 and work from there applying the theory, a tone becomes two spaces and a semitone one.. So A major becomes A, B C#, D, E, F#, G#, A, following the tone, tone, semitone, tone etc pattern. Obviously applying it bass does mean that you need to know your fretboard. Steve

I use bronze D'darrios on mine (bet I've spelt that wrong ). If you use another string then I would use light gauge and low tension, an acoustic is a lot less structually forgiving than a solid electric. Steve

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1345326127' post='1776400'] Got it and it fits easily in he passenger side of the car with the front seat reclined. now I just have to learn to play it. :-) Jazzyvee [/quote] Have fun, it's a great learning curve. Steve

On the self-help strategy I seem to recall a book about Alexander Technique and Bass playing which might help. However my basic thought remains the same, see a doctor! Steve

[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1345292293' post='1775935'] There are numerous possible causes of your shoulder problem, which may, or may not, be bass related. I would suggest you visit your GP and ask them to refer you to an experienced physiotherapist for assessment. If the GP resists your request, stress the importance of your wrist and shoulder to your musical career. Oh, just one other thing. Threads like this will bring plenty of good will and advice. [i]While support is valuable and the advice will be well - meant, it's no substitute for a proper assessment by a skilled practitioner. [/i] All the best for a full and speedy recovery T [/quote] +1 It's the only way forward that makes sense. Good luck Steve

Hi, try contacting either of these guys [url="http://www.chapel-allerton.org.uk/"]http://www.chapel-allerton.org.uk/[/url]. I know Peter best (he's my DB luthier) but he's also a violin maker, restorer and dealer. Good guy who will tell you exactly what the score is, good or bad. Steve

In my limited experience ( and hearing how I've gone on after having lessons) if you work on your sound and tone unamplified then the lift you get from being [i]well[/i] amplified is a bonus. GIGO (garbage in, garbage out), a polished turd is still a turd. Have fun Steve

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1344633439' post='1767504'] Wouldn't think so when you hear that old bloke who plays Market St area. He's good mind, I do wait & listen a while though I do wonder with all that he has on the backing tape how much is him. [/quote] It's the same with the pan pipers. Some (not all of them) are miming throughout which is why they can dance and keep going all day. Steve

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1344625087' post='1767376'] The geezer with the autoharp is often outside the Minster with his pair of little Peavey combos - how does he get away with it? To be fair he's never very loud but an amp's an amp and he's got two! [/quote] I'll ask tomorrow, it may be that there are some bits yea and some bits nay, wouldn't surprise me Steve

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1311787720' post='1318513'] Try a different town if Weston is making life hard for you. Here in York you can use amps so long as you're reasonable about your level. The council ask that if any nearby businesses or the police ask you to turn it down or off then you should do so, and that you should move your pitch at least every 2 hours so you don't wind up local businesses, but IME you don't get any trouble if you're sensible about it. The council do have a stupid busking badge system though, there's no charge but you have to be licensed, and it's hard to get a badge because the women in the office that deals with applications are all lazy fat old witches. I think it's a reaction to an army of smackhead beggars with penny whistles playing Annie's Song on every street corner a few years back, and it would work if the council admin heifers weren't so sh*t. [/quote] Slight correction, there are some parts of the centre that you can't use amplification in, St Helen's Square/Davygate and the Minster are two. In all fairness to the council lasses they were working hard today trying to sort out pitches for the overflow of buskers that descended (some en route to Edinburgh) and banged a couple of heads together to get agreement to share pitches. There is some sh*te about though. A couple of weeks back I had the buskers from hell next door to my pitch for five hours, two out of tune guitars, two out of pitch voices and a no sense of music with small amps turned up to eleven. My customers ended up playing "guess the tune", well it did take us two minutes to realise they were playing "Wonderwall". On the other hand, The Y Street Band were playing a few weeks ago, three guitars, DB and djembe, between one and five voices, no amps and were great and got an appreciative crowd who were standing near enough to produce a bit of buzz. Steve PS If you want to sell CDs in York it will cost you £35 a day for a Street Trading Licence, they've also run pretty well all the grifters selling dodgy gear with Pedlers Licences out of town as well.

Double bass is definately like starting again and great fun it is too. I found/find that the hardest part is learning to listen rather than just relying on the frets. I find that I really have to listen all the time and not let my fingers go into autopilot or gravity takes over hand I go progressively sharper! My best training aid is the gstring tuner app on my mobile phone which I set to autotune and make a point of checking as I go along. My bass teacher has also got me doing lots of exercises with big jumps in them (B on the A string to D# on the G is one) to build both pitch and muscle memory, great fun. Steve

Volumne and hoping people buy more than just the guitar. If you work on a retailler's margin of 40% of list then Gibson are getting their money the hit is with the retailler. Part will be from negotiating a bulk deal with Gibson (which also keeps Gibson's costs down), the rst will be on taking a slim margin and being efficient with a good carrier deal to keep delivery costs down. Steve

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1343155204' post='1746290'] I still haven't had a professional fettle the bargain bass I bought from gedo-musik a couple of months back. I keep meaning to do it but I don't want it to go away for however long it would go away for. :/ [/quote] Mine was away for six days, mainly because like most cheap basses it has a painted fingerboard. Steve

[quote name='TPJ' timestamp='1343114368' post='1745264'] Good stuff Where did you have the work done? [/quote] Peter Hall in Beverley, telephone numbers are - [size="4"]Beverley (01482) 888654 (or mobile 07901 591965).[/size] [size="4"]Steve[/size]

Almost the same as new strings day I've just got my bass back from having it set up and I'm amazed. I had the neck shot, bridge reset, the metal tail piece replaced and a new set of strings (spirocore mediums) put on and the difference is stunning. It's really opened up the bottom end and is so much easier to play. OK so this cost me the same as I paid for the bass in the first place (£250) but I think it's well worth it. It also bought home to me the truth of all the comments I've read here about the value of a good set up. Now I'm off to see if my bass tutor agrees! Steve PS I'm also dropping off a "little" quarter size bass which is also stunning, so much volume for a small instrument.

If there's a curfew then there is one, end of argument. If you ignore it then at one point do you decide to turn it off? Five minutes, ten minutes, an hour? Everyone knew the rules and not to be able to work within them is just unprofessional both on the part of the artist and the organiser. Steve

It's down to practice I'm afraid. My technique is to simplify the bassline and get comfortable with doing both together and then gradually up the level of the bassline. As, in most cases, the vocal is more noticeable to an audience than the bassline I would also put that higher in your monitor mix so you can home in on it. Steve

Just to complete the saga, there were long faces and some disappointment when I did not appear at the last two practices (one general, one for the gigging group) added to by the fact that the "leader" read the riot act about the attitude of some of the gigging group members. The upshot is that I've been asked by John (the quasi leader, with whom I have no quarrel) if I'll at least rejoin the general group (who are the ones who missed me most) and then see what happens from there. As I actually enjoyed playing with them, and it stretched me, I probably will but it's not definite yet. Steve

Once roadied at a venue where the three phase had kept blowing so the fuses had been replaced with sections of nails. The lighting guy was up a ladder focussing a genie when it went pear shaped and he got blown twety foot back to earth! Steve

[quote name='sarah thomas' timestamp='1341313917' post='1716708'] I raised the topic on a ukulele forum. Looks like you'd be welcomed with open arms most anywhere else: [url="http://www.ukulelecosmos.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27333"]http://www.ukuleleco...php?f=8&t=27333[/url] [/quote] Thanks Sarah. I'll do some following up. Steve

If you can find one (the firm got bought by Fender who wanted the factory but stopped making the guitars) the Tacoma Thunderchief holds it's own in most acoustic company and sounds good when amplified. They come up every so often on the Tacoma Guitars forum. Steve

At a price of €11,000 I think I'll pass. Steve

Apparently my presence has caused dissension in the ranks between those who think it's great, those who don't see the need for a bass, those who just think they should have been consulted etc etc so I'm going to butt out of it for a while and see what happens. Ain't "politics" fun? Steve

Totally depends on what style you want to play and how you wish to play. If you're using the bottleneck on your pinkie and using for effect/breaks then standard or drop D work well and your other fingers continue to do their normal stuff. If just using the bottleneck then you can use any of the open tunings, I use open C as it suits the range of my voice. Good article here with a pile of info [url="http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/opentunings.pdf"]http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alternatetunings/opentunings.pdf[/url] Steve