Doddy

Like pretty much everyone else said,try a heavier gauge string. I usually go for around a .125-.130. The thing with changing the bridge,as suggested earlier,is it won't change the tension of the string if you continue to use the same gauge strings.

The Behringer BDI21 gets a lot of love-apparently it's very similar to the Sansamp,but dead cheap. I think I'm going to get one,just in case.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='1224969' date='May 9 2011, 12:12 PM']Only downside I've had with mine is simple paranoia, whenever my guitarist goes out of tune (and he does, a lot) I find myself sliding out my perfect intonation, thinking it's probably me. It isn't, and the sequenced synth track lets me know, fairly quickly. [/quote] I've had that problem..... I once did a recording for a singer/songwriter,playing fretless and upright.Anyway, I laid down the bass at the same time as the drums and a scratch guitar/vocal,then went home. I got a call the next day telling me that my tracks were out of tune!! Oh He called me again a couple of hours later to apologise,and that actually it was the intonation on his Strat copy that was out.

[quote name='Thurbs' post='1224917' date='May 9 2011, 11:29 AM']Rather join in the chorus of condemnation, tuning to other instruments around you is fine as long as you all tune to each other. If you all have a good ear you can get to as good a pitch to each other as any other tuning device. Obviously this is problematic with any fixed tuning instruments like Sax or Keys. How many people on this forum could be given a pitch fork in A and tune accurately to that? Happens a lot in many musical genres and any musician worth their salt should be able to do it. Having said all that, if everyone used a electronic tuner with middle C at 440 Hz then that may be the quickest and quietest way of coming to an accurate state of tune between yourselves.[/quote] Obviously tuning by ear is really important-especially if you're on a gig and the piano is out of tune. I'm guessing though,that as the OP uses drop tuning he doesn't have that problem That's not an excuse to not learn and be able to tune by ear though. And just to be pedantic....A is usually at 440 Hz...middle C is around 261 Hz (I know what you mean though)

[quote name='gizmo6789' post='1224884' date='May 9 2011, 11:07 AM']If you're like me, then you tune up before you head off to your gig thinking, that should do it, or at least be close enough that you can tune by ear with your guitarists at the venue.[/quote] I'm not like you I never tune up before I go to a gig. The bass goes in it's gig bag and gets tuned when I get to the gig....then again before we start....sometimes later on in the set.....then before the second set. It's not like I'm being anal about tuning,it's just that your tuning can slip due to things like temperature changes or being pulled too hard or whatever. If you have a pedal tuner plugged in it takes no time at all to check your tuning-even mid song. I don't think you need a hard case though.

[quote name='gjones' post='1224612' date='May 8 2011, 10:33 PM']You know the ones where you were convinced you'd get stabbed before you could get though the last song.[/quote] The only time I've ever had that feeling was with one of my old bands. It was a gig through an 'agent' at an, apparently,ok music venue.Anyway,we turned up at this complete dump of a pub and found people openly doing drugs on the front steps,and in the short time it took us to go in to check the place out(which was tiny and with no stage area or anything),we came out to find a gang of lads eyeing up the cars. So,we got in the cars,nipped around the corner to McDonalds and decided to not go back and picked up a cancellation job near home. We spoke to the 'agent' the next day thinking he'd be pissed off,but he wasn't fussed.Apparently we weren't the first band to refuse to do the gig.

Why not just get a normal Fender Precision with tortoise shell plate and maple 'board instead? It's not like there is anything special about the bass-it's just a stock P-bass.

Yeah that's Elvis' 6 string bass/guitar double neck.Apparently it's on display in Gracelands.

The problem with a lot of fretless players is they put too much vibrato onto the notes and slide in and out of everything. If you play the notes cleanly,and more importantly, in tune,it's highly unlikely that anyone will notice any difference. Don't worry too much about whether or not you want a lined 'board.Either way you will have to rely more on your ears.Even on a lined 'board,if you play right on the line,you will be slightly out of tune.You have to compensate by playing either slightly in front or behind depending on where you are on the neck. I use a lined fretless,not because it makes it easier but because the bass I liked was lined (Ibanez Gary Willis). I also don't use flatwounds on fretless-I think you lose a lot of the tone and 'mwah',so I always use roundwounds.

It's a good pedal at a good price. It's not my most used fuzz pedal,but it's still cool.

I find it uncomfortable to play if my nails are long,so I keep them really short. I can still get the string under it enough to pull out pinched harmonics though.

Allparts

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1222996' date='May 7 2011, 11:19 AM']I saw a couple of bands last night. Both bands using the same amp, and from looking at the changeover, the same settings on the amp. First bassist used a Fender Aerodyne Jazz (basswood), second bassist used a Mex Fender Precision (alder). The Aerodyne was much "middier" with less defined lows, that the Mex. If equating it to a graphic equaliser, it sounded as if someone had bottomed the lowest frequency slider. This could of course be down to the Aerodyne guy using the Jazz pickup as well however.[/quote] I think the fact that it's two different players using two different instruments has a lot more to do with it than what woods they are made from. Under normal playing conditions,I don't think anyone can hear any difference between body woods-it's not like we're talking about an acoustic instrument.Once you've run the signal through whatever pickups,preamps, pedals and amps,the chances of identifying the difference in body woods is pretty much nil. You can take a guess, based on previous knowledge,but that's really it.

I use flats on my main Precision Bass. It sounds great,especially for recording.

[quote name='Heathy' post='1222549' date='May 6 2011, 08:14 PM']A few months back Bilbo said in a different thread that hard work and learning is fun. That's the answer. Also, even if I never gigged the actual songs. I would definitely be gigging what I learned from them.[/quote] I think that there is a lot to be said for learning an album for enjoyment purposes. But,if you choose to learn a whole album or bunch of albums by a particular artist,the learning curve won't be as great. After a couple of tunes you will recognise patterns and licks that the particular player uses often,it doesn't matter if it's Flea,Claypool,Marcus,Victor or whoever-everyone does it-and once you can play their licks and ideas,it becomes easier and you learn less. It's at this point when,I think,you would benefit more from checking out someone else. Rather than getting too deep into one player(we've all done it) and risking becoming a clone,go and learn something else and extend your vocabulary even more,even if it's within a similar style. Bear in mind that I'm separating learning/education and personal enjoyment.

[quote name='chrismuzz' post='1221891' date='May 6 2011, 07:38 AM']lol I don't know whether it's the mixing but it sounds like hes just randomly smacking and popping the strings when he feels like it [/quote] To be fair he probably was. He's got Oscar Alston on Bass,who played on all Rick James' albums,so he didn't need to worry about actually 'playing' anything and could concentrate on being the front man

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1221971' date='May 6 2011, 09:58 AM']Ionian = think Major Aeolian = think Major a minor third tone above Mixolydian = think Major a fourth below or fifth above Phyrigian = think Major a major third below Dorian = think Major a whole tone below Lydian = think Major a fourth above or a fifth below Locrian = think Major a semi tone higher[/quote] I'm pretty up on the modes,but you've managed to confuse me there Bilbo. But,I do agree that you are maybe complicating things by trying to find different terms for the modes. For example,you said 'Mixolydian=think blues',but if you take the blues scale you'll find it is more like the Dorian mode than Mixolydian. If you think that Ionian,Lydian and Mixolydian are basically major scales and the others are minor it makes things a little easier. So using that logic...... Ionian=major Dorian= minor (#6) Phrygian=minor (b2) Lydian =major (#4) Mixolydian =major (b7) Aeolian =minor Locrian =minor (b2,b5)

Some stuff I've been digging lately.... The new Kyle Eastwood album 'Songs from the Chateau', Gerald Veasley 'Live at the Jazz Base', Brian Bromberg 'Choices',Arturo Sandoval 'Flight to Freedom' and some older Yellowjackets stuff. I'm also really liking Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey,especially the album 'The Sameness of Difference'. Their album 'Winterwood' is available as a free download on their website if anyone is interested. I'm liking the Birdland Big Band DVD alot as well.

There are a couple of thing you could try.Something like a simple scale like E and A major is good to get her used to moving up and down the strings with both hands,then you could try either a simple melody like Happy Birthday or something like a simple root-fifth bassline over a 12 bar. If you can,try to get her to associate the notes on the neck with the notes on the stave.That's where a simple 12 bar (in C) helps.I was shown that the first day I picked a bass up and it made things so much easier.

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1221235' date='May 5 2011, 04:35 PM']This is helpful,thanks.When i asked on here about chords i was basically told to go and learn to read music.Faith in Jazzers restored,you are not all tw4ts.[/quote] .....Although that will help as it will allow you to see what notes are in what chord,rather than finding a chord shape and simple moving it around. The thing with playing chords on the bass is note selection. For example,say you wanted to play a C major 7 chord. We know that the notes are C,E,G,B. If we wanted to play the whole chord it would be a complete bitch to play,so we can adapt it. We obviously want to play the root note.The 3rd (E) will define if it's major or minor so you'll want to play that,and the 7th( B ) will also define the tonality,so we'll want that note too. Unless you are playing something like a diminished or augmented chord,the chances are that the 5th will nearly always be perfect so we can actually leave that note out,while still playing the strong,defining chord tones. Now,you can play that 3 note chord in a couple of positions. If you play it with the C root up on the 15th fret of the A string,you can play the 3 notes in order-C,E,B-and it will sound pretty nice. But if you play the same thing starting on the 8th fret of the E string you'll notice that it sounds muddy,especially between the C and E.In this case we can raise the E up an octave and make it the 10th,so we have C,B,E,and it will be much cleaner. After that it's just a matter of understanding chord structures and applying it to the instrument.You hear people talk about 'bass chords',but any book on chords will tell you what notes to play-the only thing that changes is the application. I hope that makes some sense. Edit...because typing B and ) gives that daft sunglasses smiley

[quote name='EddieG' post='1220503' date='May 5 2011, 01:28 AM']I remember reading somewhere (probably in his autobiography), that Jaco changed his strings [i]very[/i] regularly indeed, and always before a gig; apparently it was integral to the ringing harmonics.[/quote] He also apparently liked to eat fried chicken before a gig and wouldn't clean his hands so the strings got covered in chicken grease.

[quote name='chris_b' post='1221009' date='May 5 2011, 01:27 PM']Why would you want to learn an album of songs if you weren't going to gig them? I understand learning and practising a song, a riff or a technique but I'm with Bilbo on this. A whole album, why?[/quote] Exactly