lownote

Week 4 begins with an opening slide which contains two - TWO! - grocers apostrophe's [sic]. How bad is that? I am sure the important thing is the music but that doesn't mean we should condone a decline in standards. No. This week it's soloing and improv. Once again well thought out material, well presented. A phrase I might as well repeat every week for the next 11. But as always with Scott I'm struggling. He's super brainy and also super work ethic'd and I suspect can't quite realise that some people aren't. S'OK, I'm learning stuff. Still in for the long haul. Plus it's useful for my sax side, which is a bonus.

There is currently a Cort B5 on sale here in Glasgow but he's willing to post. Likely to be around £380 posted. That's if I don't buy it first

Feel free to rub Nigella Lawson on your fingerboard. The easy answer to many of the original OP's concerns is not to use frets, or even lines. Go Kommando with your wood. Just because I say so.

Many thanks... were you lined or unlined fl ?

Over the last two years I have learned myself to play unlined fretless and jolly pleased with it I am too. So are my band mates. Normally no need or desire to return to the tin ladder. However, I'm now doing jazz melody, chords and soloing in Scott's jazz course. Diddly diddly of that sort is ... well, I haven't yet given up but it's very difficult from 'fret' 9 up. What's other people's experience? Do you avoid diddly diddly bits, have you mastered the technique (if so, how?) or did you buy into a fretted or lined fretless for this kind of work? .

Week 3. The workload is building, now into melodic embellishment which I'm not sure I knew was a thing. And chords, which would be great only I'm an unlined fretless player. I suspect someone with perfect pitch would disagree violently, but I'm quite surprised how close to being 'in' I am. I am genuinely impressed with the course and the improvement in my playing so far and I'm not his mum 😉 .

+1 to this. When I first took up bass my local bass experts pointed me towards strainless rounds. Knowing no better I bought into their profit margin and almost gave up bass before I started. YMMVO but I myself me couldn't bear the feel or sound. Fortunately I discovered nickels and my career took off. My current string of choice, the flatwound is a different beast altogether.

We get a steady stream of pub work at between 2 and 3 hundred a throw. It's a well run band with good sales technique and have been doing it since the 60s. I'm very much the wide eyed noob at all this commercialisation. But I've never been able to work out how it pays the pub. We don't bring in that much extra footfall.

Week 2. Two things emerging. One: this course goes right back to the basics of bass playing, so you may need patience if you're more advanced. Two: the subject matter can be accessed for free from Scott's archive of free lessons from years ago, or by taking out a free trial subscription to SBL and accessing his jazz course there. But arguably the accelerator is more thorough and also much more structured using Scott's new technique of topic threading, taking a 360 in depth look at various standards to reinforce core techniques learned.

The nicest rounds I've ever played seem to get little mention, found deep within Bass Direct's catalogue: La Bella’s RX nickel series

Early on you said you bought a cheap set of Gear4Music strings. Like most bits of a bass I find a good or bad string can make a big difference. Rather than buy cheap new I go for decent strings second hand via here. As others have said its not a bad bass (£600 ish new doesn't equal cheap starter instrument in my book) so issues must be in the setup not the manufacture I'd have thought. Nothing in the setup routine should scare you even truss rods if you're careful and follow instructions. Mainly it's be certain you know which way to turn the nut for tighty/loosy, then turn only 1/8-1/4 turn at a time, have patience to let the neck adjust and measure the relief FREQUENTLY. Unless it knack'd it's not going to go twang on you, and if it is knacked well, then, time to go anyway. If as you say you don't mind the cost of upgrading you can't really go wrong with a Sire.

... and we're off. Well, the first week is about developing a bass(ic) line to a Bossa Nova based on roots and fifths and a third if you're feeling brave. Well structured course with good resources so far, delivered in an accessible way for newbs and more experienced folk, although whether you'd need the course if you were really much more than a newb is a moot point. Yeah, it recapitulated most of his jazz lessons from way back when but then it does, so if I said that I'd keep saying it and that would be boring. 10 days to go before we get technical.

This

Ah glasshoppa, a very interesting topic. First if your dots are not precisely on the note life will be much harder unnecessarily. It may be worth paying a good luthier to check and if necessary move the dots. Bass Gallery in London did this for me for a not unreasonable sum. Second you talk of the visuals, but what you're working with is sound. Playing unlined forces you to think of the sound you're making, so learn to orient yourself with your ears, less with the eyes. This doesn't mean sitting in a dark room. Try to visualise 'virtual' lines from the side dots and in the spaces between. Work with these and slowly you'll find the muscle memory does set in and you'll look less and less at your fingerboard. Sometimes you'll be out, but more and more often you'll be in. And remember if your rhythm is spot on, being slightly out of tune occasionally may well not be obvious. For me the massive virtue of unlined and a minimum of markers is that you're encouraged to create sound. I mean like really create it, whether its a subtle slide or a bog standard root A or C. Frets were only introduced by Leo Fender to make it possible for any muppet to pick up his bass and play - frets and even lined fretless are the sound equivalent of paint by numbers. IMHO of course - but I am right 🤠. [Sits back and waits for yet another firestorm of rage].

I cannot believe the BC sanitiser changes the word that sgnifies a girly dog to beach....

Just starting a thread for us cool cats to cuddle, huddle, beach and see where we go

I've just signed up for his jazz accelerator course, which starts Wednesday. Curiously, I think this is first time out for this course, yet his blurb is smothered with 'quotes' from delighted students. Maybe he trialled it on a focus group.

IMO there is a substnatial difference in the sound of amps and really the only person who can say if you like that head through your cabs is....

Well taken 10 weeks of face 2 face lessons, hundreds of hours of online lessons and been practicing several hours a day for three years. Suppose I could ratchet it up a bit...