ZMech

Hey all, have recently started a project with a singer-guitarist and we've now knocked out a few recordings. Tis admittedly a work in progress, but any feedback or criticisms would be appreciated http://bluetales.bandcamp.com/

The first few albums by The Black Keys, also The White Stripes. The Pair Extraordinaire also played just as a duo sometimes. Lastly, the bluesy duo I've recently started myself http://bluetales.bandcamp.com/

Why not sell the bass, old head AND the combo and invest all the takings in a lovely new head + cab

No problem, I find relating new things to old knowledge to always be useful. I bought a cheap second hand chinese job for £400 for my first bass (think equivalent to buying a basic squire) and it's dong ok. My teacher was nice enough to come along to test the bass out and reassured me it needed a setup but was otherwise ok, so if you have a kind friend/teacher then I'd recommend doing the same.

As a rough rule of thumb, take what you think would be reasonable for a bass guitar and multiply it by a factor of three. Cheap and cheerful model - £400-£1000 Half decent - £1,000-3,000 Getting serious - £3,000-£8,000 Silly Money - £8,000+ Does that help you at all? (Someone please suggest better price brackets for this if you disagree, I've only ever bought one bass)

Cheers all! Sounds like my interpretation is along the right lines, but I shall definitely book in a session with my teacher when they're back from holiday to ask about this specifically. Have tried modifying the way I stand already based on this advice and that youtube video which has made it a hell of a lot easier on my hand, but there's still a little bit of thumb squeezing left which hopefully a proper lesson will correct.

Cheers for the video fatback. So the suggestion is the lean the bass forwards so that its own weight creates the necessary force? Shall have to have an experiment.

I'm having a major issue with my fretting technique at the moment and am hoping someone can point out where I'm going wrong. I've tried to draw the forces in the attached picture, but at the moment when pressing the string down against the fretboard I don't know how to prevent the bass from pivoting round where it connects with my hip (yellow line and arrow) other than pressing against the back of the neck with my thumb (white arrow pointing with my finger). This causes a large amount of strain in my thumb which gets painful pretty quickly. Could someone please explain how else to apply the opposing torque as I can't work it out. A few places online say something along the lines of 'press the bass in to your body' but these words without any imagery don't make much sense. [attachment=164635:Fretting problem.JPG] (click to enlarge)

Great stuff, cheers guys! Skank, yes I've very much been delving in to the delta blues stuff. It sounded very different to the ear than the usual Chicago stuff so thank you for elaborating on how to get that different feel. Finger picking looks like it'll take a bit of getting used to, but I shall let you know how it goes!

So I have had a very strange and unfamiliar feeling. Having been listening to an excess of old school blues (Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, John Lee Hooker etc), for the first time ever I've felt the urge to join the masses and play that little thing with six strings. It's a bizzare kind of stirring, but one I think I'll try and adress. Conveniently I already have an emergency jamming guitar for visiting friends to play so I have something to strum, but I'm unsure as to how to go about learning. Am up for teaching myself with a little help from my friends, but I thought you guys might know of good resources and how to approach playing at the bluesey end of the spectrum.

By how 'supple' a string is, I'm guessing you mean how stiff it is in resistance to your plucking, and if so then bending the string about isn't likely to change it much. Whilst wires/cables are a bit of a strange one in terms of engineering properties, the stiffness will be determined by the total elastic modulus of the wire, a property that is inherent to the metal and won't be affected by a bit of bending other than if the strands shift around a bit. As ET said above, just play them to break them in.

Just found this topic as I'm considering starting some singing lessons. I've been singing scales whilst practising them on my DB which seems to have already greatly improved my pitch from a dischordant mess to only slightly patchy, so I'm now hoping that a teacher can help me improve properly. In terms of this discussion, my guess would be that many people seem to naturally sing well, but I'd like to think that as with most things that singing is something that can be improved with proper study/practise. After all, it takes practise to hit the notes properly on a fretless, and I haven't yet noticed any brass wires in my throat...

I wanted to find a message from a while back without trawling through lots of pages, but when I use the search bar on the side of the My Conversations page, it just gives me a 405 error. Not sure if there's an alternative method I'm not spotting. (Checked on both Chrome and FF, running W7 just in case it matters.

Hey Scott, I have a small request/suggestions. Whilst I always enjoy your videos, I'd find it very useful to have some type of description or summary of what you are going to discuss in the video. By this I mean something more akin to what you'd find in the front of a text book, not promotional patter. This is just as I'd like to be able to more easily judge which of your videos would be the most useful to me if I only have a limited amount of time. Otherwise, keep up the good work.

Awesome, I'm stewarding at SGP so heading off this afternoon. Will try and check you guys out if it doesn't clash with a shift. If you see a short jewish student with a black backpack dancing like a nutter, it's probably me. Tip: If you have them, a decent pair of walking boots are much more comfortable than wellies to spend a weekend in.

Reminds me of this: Unless of course you post pictures to BC far more frequently than I do.

I think many bassists (read: myself and some bassists I know) seem to go through three stages. 1) Flea is awesome, I wish I could play like him! 2) Wait a second, there all of these guys that just dominate Flea (Miller, Wooten etc). 3) Actually, Flea's bass parts are often superb, I'd much rather listen to them than slap happy tomfoolery. Unfortunately stage 2 can last a long time, and can lead to quite vocal statements of how ___ is better than ____ .

The thread title for this on the front page stopped at 'Oops I think I just formed...' and for some reason I just assumed the final two words were going to be 'a cult'. The actual OP was far better, albeit less amusing as a concept.

I have nothing against someone using a pick, until it's coupled with a left hand with the thumb curled round over against the E string, and the little finger tucked in. Normally a sign of a thinking a bass is just an oversized guitar and should be played as such, or so I've often found.

... you realise dubstep is a load of s*&^.

This reminds me of all those times I asked what I thought was a simple question, and regretted it 10 minutes into the answer.

There was talk a while ago of a Bristol/Cardiff bash, not sure if that would be a bit far for you guys guys or not, or whether the plans have developed at all since.

The short answer: Spend lots of time working on your timing and dynamics. For a more substantial answer, try checking out[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/177684-areas-of-improvement-things-a-bass-player-can-do-to-actually-improve/"] this thread[/url] from the other week. It has many suggestions for ways to work on these kind of aspects of your playing. Welcome to BC