DiMarco

Quick update after 4 lessons:

I now understand the chord scales and am jamming along to my looper playing a simple root note groove trying to make the seven modes work well on that, inventing patterns and arpeggio's as I go. Once I have a good feel for that I will attempt to solo over a couple of different chord progressions. Having a looper is really helpful in developing these skills.

In the last lesson we hit my physical limitations in grabbing the minor third quick enough using the left hand pinky (especially when coming back from the higher degrees) so work on a better positioning of the hand is now proving to be an absolute requirement to progress and be able to play more fluidly without resorting to grabbing that third by moving the hand down the neck and doing so with the index finger. I have been taking shortcuts to circumvent this weakness for decades so changing my bad ways will take some time. Pre recorded video courses have never caused me to want to fix this.

I really need a teacher who points these things out and guides me into better technique. Zach is doing an awesome job.

Hi guys,

I have been a gigging bassist since 1991 and I know how to make my instrument sound good.
Creativity in abundance, I have always been able to come up with fitting basslines to the original songs our guitarists would throw at us.

But in the last couple of years, I find myself sounding boring. I keep throwing in the same couple of flavors of licks and styles because... well that's all I know.

So I set some goals for myself, now in my early fifties I am open to more musical styles then before and willing to lift my playing to the next stage.
Up till now I have been completely self taught. A year of Scott's bass lessons did not help me much other then understanding what scales, degrees, triads, 7 chords and modes are... But I still wasn't able to apply that knowledge because there's no incentive to keep practicing and seeing progress. I canceled with SBL because of this.

So what to do? I was wanting to learn bass specific techniques like doublethumbing and plucking triplets on top of getting my theory up to a point where I can apply it without thinking too much.

Out of the sky came an American session/studio musician who is now looking for work in my area since he married a dutch girl and now lives here. What an opportunity! Check out his chops in the video.

Yesterday I had my third lesson and by now I have all of the triads and 7chords down on the major scale. I am moving quicker then ever. Next week I will have to be able to play the scale notes anywhere on the neck up and downwards, and play them from a different starting point to memorize the modes in all the different patterns. I never thought I would be picking up on the material this quick, but I am, even at age 52.

So what I am saying is when you feel stuck, maxxed out on possibilities, bored with your own limitations DO FIND A LOCAL TEACHER who knows his chops specifically on bass.

It helps. Tremendously so. Using just online courses and books is MUCH slower.

Cheers, Marco

I am not using mine at all. Can't get a good sound out of it. Boosting low also boosts lower mids so I needed my MXR 10band EQ for tone shaping. The compressor on it is so-so.  The LWA is absolutely not my piece of cake.

There is a good reason Thomann are dumping these at ridiculous prices. They are not very popular. 

But then I have to admit I am pretty much a valve amp snob and find most class D amps sound like toys.

If you take compression seriously, go for a higher end compressor pedal like the Cali76CB, Diamond, MXR, etc.
I have never heard any onboard compressor improve tone. With the Cali I can make my sound more punchy or blend better in the mix at will and have absolute control over how much of it I want.

Emulated or modelled valves still do not come close enough to the real thing so yes I am still hauling this beauty around.
Its little brother, an RAH600SMX graces the rehearsal room and serves as the backup amp.

I just had it serviced, it now has brand new 6550's, we have added a bias pot and the pre section has JJ ECC83S from Groove Tubes.
This one right here my friends is the best sounding bass amplifier on the planet. There simply is no competition.

😁

All a bit tongue/cheek of course.
Still, most live bands I have seen in the past few years are really not worth leaving the house for. Netflix is just way better entertainment.

On 18/08/2020 at 22:33, HazBeen said:

...my band mates, all a few years my jr, all said they did not do the same and that they in essence felt that hardly any music that was worth their while is being made today...

Makes me wonder what my BC community thinks. Are you still open to “new”?

 

At 52, I have turned negative towards today's 'bands' and not been to any concert in over 5 years now. Rock music is dead. Tragically died with the rise of amp modellers, auto-tuning and no amps but in-ear monitoring on stages. Snowflakes making rock music is just a bad idea I guess. 😁

Sorry if I am making things worse but if you're having a custom built, imho go completely custom!

This is mine. The bridge pup has its front coil at sixties position, rear coil near seventies. I can switch each coil on/off with two of the 'jaguar style' switches and the third switches between series and parallel mode. Neck pickup sits at original Jazz Bass position where it intersects with the E string and is placed diagonal to get a more even tone between the strings.

It is completely passive but has a lot of different tone options as switching between bridge pup modes makes quite a difference. I am really happy with it!

Hehe

Nice! A good friend of mine lives near Bad Bentheim, in Schüttorf. He's one hell of a drummer maybe you know him. Name is Andre.
I should really go and visit him again one of these days.

Nice bass! I have a Pro1 5str.

Free bump for a great guy.

Looks awesome! Mine has become my main axe.

Thing is, the smell was gone completely. Just after 8 days it had returned from the inner depths of the foam stuffing.
But I will get used to my bass smelling like vanilla I guess.

It isn't the quality. That Dolphin has better fretwork and allows lower action then the other two basses I mentioned. I only play the others because of their ability to give me a more oldskool tone.

Warwicks are technically at least equal, maybe even better. They just have a very different character tone wise.

I agree with Phil.

My experience with 15" cabs is they are a nightmare to work with when room acoustics aren't helping. I was using a 115 and later a 215 and I really hated both. The projection is awful I could never predict if I would be able to hear myself on stage. Since I do not really like the character of most 10" cabs (weaker mids unless it's an Ampeg fridge) I went for 12" cabs and never looked back. I do also use an SWR Henry the 8x8 in the rehearsal room which sounds really nice, but those are pretty rare.

So in your place I would flog the 210 and look for a nice 212 or two seperate 112 cabs instead of mixing sizes. 15" speakers are unfasionable nowadays for a good reason.

On 22/06/2020 at 20:35, ntto said:

Music wise,  amongst others Tool, Rush, Queensryche, NIN, Pearl Jam etc etc

The bands you named all have radically different sounding bass guitars frankly.

What you want is a bit of a jack of all trades.

The Warwick that comes to mind for this is one of the Streamer models like SS1, SS2 or possibly the jazzman or a double buck (bolt on models) if you can get hold of one.
Thumb bass sounds more modern and tight, the Dolphin too - they're not fit for oldskool type of sounds. 

I have never owned or played any Mayones so I can't tell you anything about those.

Having played a lot of Warwicks over time, my Dolphin now just sits there in the rack. I mostly play my Zon Sonus and Fodera NYC Empire which both in fact are Jazz Basses on steroids. Their pickup configuration and placement is exactly that of a 70's Fender Jazz but both have excellent active preamps built in and the build quality is just fab.

So I have to agree with some others... All roads lead back to the Jazz Bass. Combining the pickups 50/50 just gives you that spank and upper mids growl that works so well in the mix.

Warwick

Fodera

Zon

Vincent custom build

Little over a week later, the sweet smell of vanilla has fully returned.

I effing give up. My fodera will smell like vanilla. Nothing can stop this.

Back from rehearsal. The RAH600SMX has replaced the Class D Warwick toy, and I brought my Fodera NYC Empire along for the first time to compare it with the Zon Sonus I usually bring.

I cut at 30hz by 6-10db on my Trace amps and boost a tiny little (about 2db) at 40, 60 and 100 hz. Also boosted the highest frequencies some to get some extra spank. The tone I got out of the SWR Henry the 8x8 with this was REALLY good in the sense the bass sound was gelling well with the mix (the one thing class D amps completely suck at) and carrying the guitars. 

Both basses were sounding great! I am SO happy I had my Trace Elliot heads fixed - best choice ever.

The Hexa just sounds bigger then any other clean tone amp I tried. I really love this amp it makes any bass guitar grip better with the mix.

I guess the keyword here is texture.

Funny...

I sold the Mesa amp as the Hexa Valve sounds much better. Still have the Henry though, it is one hell of a cab.

One more thing: The 12band EQ on the Hexa Valve is better then the one on the SMX somehow. It feels more effective on the Valve head then it does on the SMX. Odd.

Learned the seperate GP12XV pre came with a crossover. The one in the Hexa Valve does not and really only has two ECC83's.

Today I mounted the Groove Tubes (JJ) in my Hexa and RAH600SMX, replacing two Tung-Sol in the Hexa and the original early nineties Trace Elliot branded one that was still working fine inside the SMX.

The result while not world shocking is an overall tighter sound with especially cleaner mids and more silky highs. There is also less background noise going on and any 50hz hum is now completely gone. When dialing back and forth between solid state and the JJ on the SMX I can notice the SS side sounding a bit less responsive and lifely but frequency/EQ wise the JJ seems just as neutral, not emphasizing anything in particular..

Happy face.