lownote

Hmmm... the Sound. Fantastic. I've always been a great admirer of Cort styling, although not keen on this zebra effect with the top grain, prefer the grain blander. Seems to be full string spacing too. Optimum prime. I had a GB75. Beware if the pots go as mine did they're proprietary (sp?) and wirerd into a board, so replacing them is a real pain. Otherwise very serious bit of kit for the money.

There are others doing the same and borrowing ideas from SD on other instruments. Classic example is Jay Metcalf's Better Sax.

I see what you did there. neat

I think it said I'd pay about £100 for a year at the moment, but it's currently on the $50 discount which decays very shortly apparently. I can upgrade to lifetime for $497. Seems expensive when I can keep on taking out 2 week free trials to check out the latest lessons.

Especially if you bought a Sire. You only have one or at most two months ownership left.

If you have ever let your email address anywhere near Scott Devine you will no doubt be sick to death of being inundated with promotional emails for his Player's Path. The idea is to give students a path to follow through all the distracting shiny things and study properly in a joined up way. I've taken the free trial and here's my reflection after just a couple of days: If you've already been to Scotts Bass Lessons you will recognise much of the material. If you're a grown up (which I ain't) I can't tell you how much you'll take from his approach. But if you're an outright beginner, fresh to the bass and Scott, I have to be a little gushing and say I think you will find this quite awesomely useful. For the price of three or four lessons with your real life local, and in my experience crap, teacher, you will get a quite astonishing musical education. I know a lot of people don't like Scott's style or his very American marketing techniques, and I've been as rude as most in the past, but this Player's Path thing I would have killed for when I took up bass 10 years ago and was pitched into my first gig without even knowing what a bassist did, let alone how (there were tears).

taht enod

Ah but maybe its like quantum vacuum fluctuations. They flicker in and out of existence in the bass cabinet every few months, but from a macro viewpoint there is always a Sire in his rack. You never step in the same river twice.

Bit of reviewy stuff from SBL 3 years ago. Jump the yada yada to just after 4 minutes in:

I sold 4 after 2-3 months. See my post above. I couldn't hack having the perfect bass, so no more GAS. GAS had to be restored by selling them.

I've had four and sold them them all. Like #patrikmarky I also have no idea why, apart from perpetual GAS. Buying a Sire was the first time I was exposed to the idea that for most intents and purposes I now had the perfect bass. But that would mean an end to GAS. So I sold it, only to have to buy another... and another. Each time facing the same situation. I now have three basses that aren't Sire. They're all wrong in some way, so I happily keep them in the sure knowledge that they'll have to go.

It's got to be one of the most talked about bass in the last 10 years, here and all over. A search should keep you occupied all weekend.

if you five or six someone will say "Four were good enough for Jaco, so they should be good enough for you". Which stumped me the first time someone said it. I am now primed to respond "Yeah, but think what he could have done with five / six (delete where applicable)." String theory raises hackles. At the last but one bass show in London Rich Brown (six) was heckled by some idiot who was persistently incensed anyone should stray from the path of four play. Brown made him look pretty small while ( I thought ) showing remarkable politeness and restraint.

Scott Devine offers useful advice in a post called 'reasons not to play a five string', and then shows you how to do it.

My floor stand was badly sticky, I just binned it after reports that Hercules wouldn't help. Having said that I have one of their sax stands and its jolly good.

Curiously I've never had a rubbish Italian car, but I have had no joy ever finding a reliable German car. I know, my whole life has been lived on the orthogonal.

Jay Metcalf (Better Sax) teaches sax by ear alone and offers similar advice. if you check out some of his free stuff you may find that helpful, transferred to bass. But on sax it's easier as you're looking for the melody line, not the underlying chords or bass line. Over the years I have taught myself to improv bass lines to songs by listening, then applying licks and little tricks to find a bassline of my own that works. That's OK until someone asks me to play the original bassline, at which pint I head for the bar.

He takes you back to day 1

bridge earth?

It's so embarassing. When I was 24 I thought anyone over 30 was compost, no matter how well they scrubbed up. Chance would be a fine thing now I'm 65.

... and?

Here’s an alternative take. Don’t read this thread any further. Make a decision of your own and then learn from it. As I predicted in the beginning all you’re doing is going round and round being led by other people’s thoughts, opinions and prejudices. You’re not gaining or learning anything and will end up paying for owning someone else’s idea of the ideal bass.

Tonerider Next!

Out of my 40 + basses down the years one of the best made, playing and sounding is my fretless Revelation. £199 new. Don't know what their fretted basses are like. There's more room for painful skimping when you've got frets to fettle.