Jellyfish

Practice! Seriously though, there's a book from Mel Bay called '50 Two-hand Tapping Workouts for Electric Bass'. I used to use it all the time and it's a brilliant little book, especially for things like hand independence. I remember there being an exercise early on in the book that has you tapping up a major scale in your right hand and the relative minor in your left. Sounds great, but is difficult to do.

What's the condition like?

Low action makes it easier to tap and higher gauge strings (or rather, higher string tension) give the notes more clarity. I think that you'll also find tapping easier on a bass with a flatter radius. Other than that, it may be down to technique as all the basses I've ever owned have been great for tapping. Personally, it took me plenty of practice to get even sounding notes as I found that the differences in strength between fingers made some notes ring out louder than others. You may be best off doing some simple exercises like using your left hand, finger 1 to tap the 'A' on the E string (5th fret), then finger 3 to tap the 'E' on the A string (7th fret). Then you can add in the octaves (12th frets) on those strings with the right hand and just do quarter notes until they sound even.

Sounds like a faulty unit, to me at least. I've just sold mine, but it was completely silent when running on batteries and from mains power.

[quote name='alembic63' timestamp='1381102870' post='2234488'] Check out the Squire 60s classic vibe jazz bass, for just over £300 it beats the pants off basses 2 x the price, you can put the £200 you save on the bass and up your budget for the amp to £600 .. [/quote] [b]I don't know if I'm the only one,[/b] but I've tried a couple of 5 string versions of the Squier stuff and it really doesn't compete with the Yamaha's (both the TRBX and BB stuff)! Their 4 string counterparts are great, however.

[quote name='JazzyYama' timestamp='1381097162' post='2234406'] Great advice on the amp, never thought of getting amp/cab setup - how would a 2x12 compare against say a 1x15 - which would be better for cleanest sounds or is it more about where you are playing etc. [/quote] As I understand it, different speaker sizes won't effect how 'clean' a bass will sound as you get so many different factors going into how the bass will sound coming out the cab (like cab size and drivers and all that stuff I know nothing about ). If you're using it to perform, or even if you use it to monitor yourself, you'd be much better off with a 2x12 as you'll have much more projection from having twice the amount of speakers.

As a fan of Yamaha basses, I'm all for recommended the TRBX 504. It has a fantastic low B, as opposed to the RBXA2 which doesn't. The TRB range in general is probably going to be discontinued at some point, so you'll find a few retailers selling them off cheaply in the near future (I reckon). Other than that, keep your eyes peeled for a second-hand TRB. Outside of Yamaha, there are the [b]Ibanez[/b] 5-strings, although you don't see them for sale very often and they aren't known for being 'jazz' sounding. The [b]G&L L2500 Tribute[/b] would give you that, although it has a chunky neck (which is why I got rid of mine). You could also look for a 5-string [b]Spector[/b]. They are wonderful basses to play and if you look around, you can find the neck-thru models for a very decent amount of money. I've never played the 5-string versions, but I've not heard anything bad about them. And they do have EMGs too but you'll find that they're very versatile. As far as the amp goes, perhaps look for a[b] TC Electronic BH250[/b] and pair it with a nice 2x12 cab. I owned a BH250 and cannot recommend them enough, although they are quite modern. And concerning flexibility, you might be hard pushed to find something suitable for all of those things.

Thought you guys might like this.

Great videos, you make it look rather simple. I'm not sure that is the case though.

If you remove the full stop from the link, it'll work. I've only heard good things about the Sub range, but as it's in that same price bracket as the new Yamaha's, is the 5th string really that good? I ask only because I tried a Yamaha TRBX 505 out and it had a brilliant and more than playable low B.

Here are a couple more pictures of the top... And the headstock that's pretty much complete!

Worn both and can confirm that the Protec is more comfortable, which is why I own one. I don't know if it's the spacing of the straps on the Mono but it hurt almost straight away, right across the shoulders. And despite the Protec basically being a hard case in terms of protection and feel, it's much easier to wear.

I ordered my Alpher Instruments bass without even seeing or touching one in the flesh so it's nice to see people enjoying their experiences with them, but it makes the wait all that more painful! Congratulations on the new bass though, they have a way of using special and fantastic woods without making them sit among the typical 'coffee table' basses. It's wicked. :-)

I thought that Mr. Letts might be one of them. I was extremely close to pulling the trigger on one of his fantastic instruments but that was before I started talking to other luthiers. I saw a great bit of advice on these forums a while back that said one of the most important things when deciding on who you choose to build your bass is to decide based on your experience with the person in question, not completely on the instruments they build. I ended up contacting the guys that would end up building my bass, Alpher Instruments, and have not been any less than extremely happy with their enthusiasm and correspondence. They also have given me a rough time frame and if it's going to be late, I expect it to be a few weeks at most. I do feel sorry for anyone who has delays with their custom orders, and these is rarely a good excuse for them, but I judged my choice based on who seemed to be more enthusiastic and who actually got me more excited about the build as it went along.