deejayen

I’m working my way through a beginner’s bass exercise which is in the style of James Jamerson. On the tab there are some notes which are shown with an ‘x’ on the E or A string. I presume it means a ‘mute’, but how do you play them? I’ve been deadening the string with my fretting fingers, but I wondered if that style would use a picking hand palm mute or some other technique. I’m not sure how ‘dead’ the note is supposed to be. As an example, one note is a triplet where the first note is picked, and the other two are muted. Thanks.

Errr…Awesome! I still find it difficult to get my head around the fact that it’s possible to craft something like that from some rough timber. The headstock is certainly something else! It took me a wee while, but I think I’ve twigged that a ‘ramp’ is the raised wood between the two pickups – even that is made to perfection. I don’t know how it fits into place, but I imagine it just snicks in very nicely.

Yes, that sounds like the one I tried. I've not come across one since, but I'll keep an eye out for one. And, RK7, your bass looks better all the time - I'm sure it'll play and sound fantastic as well. Keep us posted!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1362322719' post='1998327'] [b] [size=4]If you lived in a different part of the country would it have been "..'lo from the lowlands??" [/size][/b] [/quote] Very likely! Oh, and thanks for the "Hearty welcome from Hertfordshire" - and to Steve-BBB for his double welcome!

Thanks for the tips! I wasn't planning on selling it, but I'm now starting to look for a standard bass guitar as a main bass. I'll keep the Ashbory handy, though, and spend a bit of time learning it - it might fit in okay on some bluegrassy styles etc.

Thanks for that. I had a feeling that would be the advice I'd get. It looks like it's back to my initial plan of looking around on Basschat for a nicely set-up secondhand bass.

I'm just starting to learn bass - just so I can put down a bass line when recording. I've been practising using my guitar until I get a bass. However, I suddenly remembered that I bought an Ashbory bass a couple of years ago, and wondered what the general opinion is of these. I did try recording with it at the time, and seem to recall it sounded as though the strings were kind of…err..rubbery… The other thing I remember is that because the strings were new it was a nightmare to try and keep it in tune, so it was tricky for my fingers to learn the correct note intonation. I dug it out last night and tuned it up, and the strings seem to have settled down, and I was able to play some of the exercises I've been learning. The fretless thing doesn't scare me too much as my ear isn't too bad, and I can scrape out a tune on a fiddle. So, is it a good idea to stick with it, or should I definitely buy a 'proper' bass? I'm planning on playing a variety of styles of music, but probably quite a lot of country. Also, any tips for getting a good sound out of it onto tape?

Thanks again - much appreciated. I'll read and work through the lessons. Thanks also for the tip about hovering the mouse pointer over the notes - clever stuff!

That's brilliant! Thanks for posting that. I'm not sure I'd ever want to play bass in a Johnny Cash tribute band, though!

Thanks for that. I’ll remember the hooky line! What’s that typical Johnny Cash song - Fulsom Prison or something like that? – the guitar is centre-stage, but it’s playing what I think of as a bass line, complete with some simple runs between chords. In that case, the bass probably has to fit around the guitar, rather than the guitar leaving space and filling around a syncopated bass groove. I just wondered if the bass would play something really simple – say the root note of the chord on the 1st and 3rd beat of the bar for example just to underpin the other instruments, or would it play pretty much the same as the guitar including the same runs to reinforce what the guitar is doing, or would it try to really drive things along by playing more of a simple ‘boogie’? I suppose I should buy a copy of the song and try to listen to what the bass is doing, but I’ve always found it difficult to pick out bass lines unless listening on a system that can reproduce them. Most of my listening is done in a Land Rover, and as you can imagine there’s not much bass response!

I'm a very new beginner (I haven't even bought a bass yet), but I've been practising some bass lines from a book using my 6-string guitar. With the guitar, a lot of what I play will include some 'bass lines', and I'm wondering what a bassist would play to fit, and if there'd be any 'conflict' between the two instruments. For example, if I was playing something a bit like Chet Atkins would play on the guitar with a basic alternate bass pattern on the lower guitar strings. Or maybe a Johnny Cash song where Luther Perkins would be doing that boom-chicka thing on a Tele with a slap back echo. Would a bass player play exactly the same thing, or not…? Also, how easy is it to get the two instruments to gel (in terms of levels and frequency ranges) on a recording? I've started to think about this because last night I was learning a very simple Motown bass line, and when I got tired of learning the bass I switched to playing rhythm guitar and found I was automatically adding almost the same bass line as written for the bass guitar with the same groove and feel on the main beats. One thing would be to simplify what I was playing on the guitar, and play strictly rhythm, but sometimes I might want to play what comes naturally, and the 'full range' guitar might be a fundamental part of the song.

I played the fiddle for a year or so after a friend gave me a really cheap (less than £50) one. I knew some other players with the basic Stentor package, and I think theirs were slightly better quality than mine. At the beginning I found it difficult to get a decent tone out of it, and suspected the fiddle may have had everything to do with it! However, it was simply down to me having to learn the ‘feel’ through the bowing elbow. After that I could screech out a tune, and sometimes I’d be quite impressed at what a £50 instrument could do! I took it to a fiddle builder/repairer to see about a setup as the action was pretty high, but she said it just wasn’t worth it – I think there were some splits in the body. I dropped the bow, and the frog shattered, so went to a fiddle dealer/repairer to buy a new one. I ended up buying one for about £170, and that made a big difference to the way the fiddle played and sounded. I felt it was worth paying that sort of amount over a cheaper one after I tested some, and I could always sell it without loss at a later date. The more expensive bows were better, but my heart wasn’t really in fiddle playing so I didn’t want to go too mad. I thought about buying a new fiddle, but never did. From what I tried, the ones at £400 weren’t that great an improvement over what I had, and you had to pay quite a bit more for something old which had decent tone and better playability. However, you really need to be past the beginning stages before you can even start to ‘feel’ how the notes develop, and you can respond to the fiddle. It’s the opposite to my recent banjo purchase where I've started with a top grade instrument. With the fiddle there’s probably little point in doing that, as you can’t even enjoy listening to nice open ringing strings – they’ll all sound awful! So, for a first fiddle I’d probably just go for whatever is available - you just need something with working pegs and a bridge which stays up! If your son wants to continue then it would be worth skipping out the slightly more expensive new ones (around £400) and buying a decent bow and fiddle which he would then be in a better position to appreciate, and which you could easily sell on if he later gave up. I’m not sure if that’s of any help, but I just thought I’d pass on what I discovered. I’m obviously no expert, but I did go through the learning process! In the end I gave up the fiddle – as I said, my heart wasn’t in it, although I do pull it out once or twice a year for a quick screech. It’s funny how just a run up and down a couple of scales and my fingers ‘remember’ things almost where they left off! However, the ‘secret’ really is in that bowing elbow! I’ll add that, in the beginning it was quite frustrating because I’d ask teachers how to get a nice pure note from the fiddle, and they were unable to tell me. Also, in a classroom situation with a number of students screeching away together, I observed that it’s difficult for those with no musical background to take things in their stride. It’s very easy for negative thoughts to creep in, not to mention tears! They think their progress is slow, they struggle to follow the music (either reading or playing by ear), and they think everyone else is doing better than they are. So, a bit of truthful encouragement can go a long way – especially with an instrument like the fiddle which has a fairly steep initial learning curve.

Wow – that’s a stunning instrument! It sounds like Overwater are great to deal with, too. I had the opposite experience when I had a pair of custom guitars made, so it’s nice to see the other side of the coin. I’m just about to start playing bass, so not really sure of who’s who, but that looks like a top-notch job. I have a recollection of seeing a matching pair of Overwater bass and 6 string electric guitar in a music shop about 25 years ago – roughly based on a Gibson Explorer shape. I had a shot on the guitar, and took my parents in to see it, but didn’t buy it. I might be getting mixed up with the maker (it could have been Eccleshall – or something like that). Do you know if Overwater ever made guitars? I hope you enjoy it when you finally get your mitts on it – I’m sure you will!

Thanks, everyone! I'm near Inverness. I started learning the basic Motown tune in the book last night - just using my guitar for now. I'll need to try out a few basses. Although I'll start looking at budget models I suspect I'll end up buying something a bit more expensive as I'm used to playing decent instruments, and can generally tell the difference. I'd rather pay a bit more for something which sounds good, plays well, and encourages me to play it rather than have to think about upgrading after a short while. A nicely set up second hand bass would be great. I popped into a music shop yesterday to have a quick look, and found my eye being drawn from the £110 Ibanez to the Overwater at the other end of the rack!

Hello I’m a guitarist who wants to put down some bass lines on home recordings. I’ve bought a book “Discovering Rock Bass” by Dominic Palmer, and my fingers have tied themselves in knots, and that’s just on the first ‘easy’ exercise – this bass playing is something different! When you start to listen it makes you appreciate the importance of bass, and the amazing skill of a lot of players. Hopefully I’ll eventually be able to work out bass lines and grooves in a number of styles including country, blues, soul, thru to some atmospheric and synthy stuff. Initially I’ll be looking for some advice on what sort of bass to buy…