surfinbernard

I dunno, a few I suppose, mistakes don't really matter that much though, more important is the attitude, music is for making people feel something, I would be more likely to berate myself for playing 'not tight enough' or 'not havin it enough' or 'too distracted' than a wrong note. I crack the whip with myself a fair bit but with the things that matter, not mistakes.

I hate them with a passion! Each to their own but I want the full fat signal going into the amp. Every effect I have tried has just degraded the sound. The only one I would consider is a valve preamp, not really an effect but it could be driven harder to dirty it up a bit, I still wouldn't use it at the cost of even a shred of fatness though.

I am a small woman with small hands and I play a jazz bass. It's large, cumbersome, heavy and my hands sometimes struggle to reach but I wouldn't swap, it sounds how a bass should sound to me, and providing I keep my hand in I find I can play how I want to play and it sounds the way I want it to. Can't ask for more from an instrument than that. Make what you will from the various potential innuendos provided

I admit I have hugged my bass guitar and my favourite guitars!

Really, really sad news Another legendary bass player gone.

Yeah I think they look absolutely wicked but, as others have said, they are in the way. The bridge one might be ok on its own but the neck one no way for me. I would try one in a shop if you can find one with the ashtrays on.

No but it used to worry me a lot when we did a lot of trips up and down the motorway with our Fiesta crammed to the roof with amps etc, if we had crashed it would have been nasty. I reckon that if you are doing regular trips with a lot of heavy gear, a bulkhead type dog guard thing might be a good idea.

Sorry to hear this, it's hard not to take it as a personal blow when something like this happens, but more often than not it has to do with their head state at the time more than anything else. I agree with the others, get another guitar player, unlike us bassists they are 10 a penny And keep writing in the meantime!

Fingers for all of those. There is a certain sound and attitude to be had from playing with a pick and some of my favourite bands had pick-using bassists so no disrespect to pickers but there it is. All except the 'more talented' part, you can't gauge someone's talent by their string plucking choices.

apologies Marlowe, Danish.

Yeah! It's great when life shows you you're on a roll! All of that was lovely to hear, thanks for sharing I am similarly enthused at the moment, more on guitar than bass but still both. It's great to have a passion for it, nothing like it in the world. Hope things keep getting better and better for you!

There is a very good bespectacled German guy who does great lessons for non-beginners (he does have some beginner lessons but I'm not sure how 'beginner' they are) which I sometimes have a look at: [media]http://youtu.be/RY0YP_7mE-o[/media] But when I started learning bass it was before the time of Youtube lessons, not by much, but by the time I discovered Youtube I was past the basics. I learned by playing along to Hendrix etc. but I was fortunate to have a trained ear to start with as bass was not my first instrument. I also had a very boring but effective boom about technique which got me off to a good start. There is such a lot of variety on Youtube and some lessons are great while others are worse than useless. I go on there for a few different instruments as well as reviews etc and find I might have to click on a few before finding a good one but they are on there.

I voted electric but it wasn't easy! I have a very nice Larrivee OM50 acoustic worth more than any of my electric guitars but if I could only PLAY electric or acoustic I would have to choose electric- my Tokai strat, cheap to buy but amazing to play. I also have 2 banjos (one is a fretless 'mountain' banjo), 3 ukuleles (one is a gourd banjo uke) and a mandolin. I love playing all of them but at the moment the 'strat' gets the most attention.

nice to know I'm not alone in hating Rotosounds, they have an out of tune piano-like sound to my ears! Some people do like em so perhaps they just don't suit certain basses..?

Following with interest... considering one of these myself one day!

Yeah it's a justified moan! You do get some heaps of cr@p passed off as bass amps in rehearsal rooms unfortunately. I have many times had guitarists look at me like I was mad for lugging my bass rig into places where there 'was already an amp', but those cheapo Laney or Peavey combos they invariably seem to put in those rooms are evil things.

I think that GAS had a different and perhaps more manageable form before the internet. I love your idea of downsizing, I only have one bass and I am completely happy with it, it was my second bass and I was lucky in that I chose the right bass for me and no other bass (other than maybe a vintage version of my lovely Fender Jazz bass) would fit the bill. I paid £475 for it 10 years ago and have recently upgraded the pups to Fralins, it absolutely rocks. I know there are many amazing instruments available now and in many ways they could be argued to be 'superior' to my bass but I love mine so why go mental? I am slightly GASing for an SG bass like Jack Bruce's and an EBS valvedrive to get some tube dirt but I am quite happy really with my one bass and rig. My GAS has only really ever been about getting a certain sound. Guitar wise I am a lot worse, I suppose the different sound you get from different guitars makes it much harder to just have one.. I at least have to have a tele, a strat and a LP, and I wouldn't mind having a hollow body one to play all the Scotty Moore type picking on... and a Tokai Talbo cuz they're cool... and.. and. And I could have at least 5 valve amps given the chance. The internet has certainly fuelled this desire to possess all the beauties but I see it for what it is: materialism. I still think that once I get one guitar and amp sounding the way I want that will do, it worked with the bass so it should work with guitar. Seriously though, if you're not really attached to your basses I say go for it, sell em, try just having one, it's bliss.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1342339837' post='1733300'] I can't see any mojo being lost because you can read, maybe a bit while your reading but unless your sight reading you can put your own mojo back in after you have learnt the piece. [/quote] No I can read music, I meant that I fear some mojo would be lost if I started thinking about the notes I'm playing, intervals, key signatures and scales, all that, while playing. At the moment I play purely instinctively. Obviously the classical training I had in my youth is there in the background somewhere but I wonder if I never, ever think of so much as a note name during my normal playing.

Wow I am a bit rusty! I can generally read music and understand theory pretty well from my piano days though. However, I cannot immediately know the notes on the fretboard. I just never learned that way. My ear training usually tells me which note to play and where it is on the fretboard but I would have to think for a minute to tell you the name of that note. I worry that if I did start applying classical training to my bass playing, it would lose its Mojo! Is that stupid?

Yes absolutely, if you're after lightweight the Micro Terror is amazing and I have never seen a cuter piece of kit. I have heard it in action in the shop and it sounds incredible for what it is, and plugged into a decent cab it makes an amazing amount of noise. Truth be told I was all set to buy one until I realised I could get an actual real valve amp for the money, but I was not so much concerned with the weight. I know they are not the 'original' VHT company but the stuff they make now has a very good reputation.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1342121395' post='1730071'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DJv0rx5g-c[/media] [/quote] Love the 5678s, they are ace!

All the best!

I lean it up the amp/ cab

I only have one bass, it's a Fender USA Jazz from the late 90s. It cost me £450 about 10 years ago but would probably sell for a bit more than that now. I ticked £500-£1000.