clagooey

My brand new 6-string fretless Progress III arrived today; blown away doesn't even describe it. I'll probably post some more pictures later with a decent camera, but for now it's play times! [attachment=76874:2011_04_...10.01.55.jpg] [attachment=76875:2011_04_...10.02.05.jpg] Cheers, Tom

Hey guys, sorry for yet another case thread, but I didn't want to hijack anyone else's...! I've been looking at buying a new well-padded softcase, something like the Protec Contego. However, I saw this [url="http://www.dawsons.co.uk/acatalog/armourdillo_deluxe_bass_guitar_soft_case_rc-200b.html"]Armourdillo case[/url] and wondered if anyone had any experience with them? The case looks pretty decent, more of a 'hybrid' than anything else, so it's something I'm looking at, but information on it is sparse and I'm hesitant to buy something that no-one else has tried. Cheers, Tom

[quote name='leprechaun' post='1185570' date='Apr 2 2011, 09:17 AM']Same processor as a MBP 2011? My 2011 MBP with 8Gb Ram AND an SSD was cheaper than the Dell, will most likely be worth at least double when I come to sell it too. Blu-Ray has no bearing as it isn't used at all in music (most laptops will have no optical disc drive at all very soon), and as for USB 3 it is dead already. The hardware manufacturers will be releasing thunderbolt compatible interfaces/drives in the future, until then USB 2 is fine. Where is your FireWire port for external HDD? Without that you can't record using Pro Tools...[/quote] Debates on Mac vs PC always remind me of this gem: [url="http://xkcd.com/386/"]http://xkcd.com/386/[/url] Anyway... No, the same processor that they listed in their specs. The cheapest MacBook pro I found with an i7 (dual core only), 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD and 3 years warranty is £1822; this is on the base 13" mode with the 1280x800 screen. A 17" Dell XPS with a 1600x900 screen, quad core i7 2630QM, 6GB RAM, a 640GB 7200rpm HDD (no SSD option) and 3 year next business day hardware support costs £1079. The extra £750 can't justify an SSD, lesser processor and 2 more GB of RAM... If you can show me where it's cheaper I'd love to know as I seriously considered a MacBook Pro, but the price was just too high. I realise now that he said it was just a music machine, so I removed blu-ray from the options. As for USB 3 being dead already; that's a matter of opinion, and I believe it's doing pretty well, and will continue to do so. Thunderbolt is great, and the possibilities are fantastic, especially when it gets optical. However, there's only one port, and it's also the only option for macbook users to power an external display; if there were more then great, but having 1 is very limiting. Optical drives will continue to do very well until the internet speed in developed countries (i.e. countries where people have the money to buy the films) is high enough that people can download the films in a normal amount of time; this isn't likely to happen for a good 3-5 years. I've never used pro tools; is firewire necessary, or is it just any external HDD/ SSD, as USB 3 wipes the floor with it. And the laptop has eSATA as well... Sorry for going off on a tangent there guys, but I hope I've been helpful to the OP! Cheers, Tom

I guess it depends on what OS you prefer, and how much money you're willing to spend. The basic Macbooks and Macbook Pros start off at fairly reasonable prices but, as soon as you try to upgrade the internals, the prices shoot way up. I have a Dell laptop very similar to your specs (same proc, 6GB ram), and it cost me around [b]£1100[/b], including 3 years next day warranty, 2 USB 3 ports, 15" 1080p screen and blu-ray player. To get a comparable mac (without the blu-ray as Apple won't support it, and with a lower resolution screen) would cost [b]£2154[/b]; almost double the price I paid! The Mac has many advantages (build quality, much better battery life, looks pretty), but it also has many disadvantages, and certainly nothing to justify paying over £200-300 more, let alone the £1000 more they're actually charging. To sum up: get a decent windows laptop, it will cost you around £1000-1200. Unless you're rich, then it depends on which OS you prefer.

Hey guys, Bit of an odd question for you here! Has anyone had any experience in doing the LTCL (Licentiate of Trinity College London) performance exam on Bass? More info here: [url="http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=230"]http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/site/?id=230[/url] For people who don't know, the LTCL exam is a music diploma that's roughly equal to the standard one should achieve at the end of a 3 year music degree course. I'm in my final year of a Biology degree, but I've come to realise that I would prefer to play bass for the foreseeable future. Thus, what I intend to do is to work for a year after my degree, getting money to fund a MMus from a decent uni (I'm thinking maybe RNCM) that I'll start in September 2012. To get in, I need to prove that I'm good enough to get an audition: I've been musical director of a choir for the past year; played for 2 years in my uni big band; and have grade 8 (from 5 years ago), but I'll need something better; hence the LTCL . So... Does anyone have any experience doing anything similar to me? The main obstacle for me at the moment is choosing pieces: as there's no dedicated bass section, I'll need to submit a 38-43 minute performance repertoire for them to approve. I've looked at the LTCL section for both cello and double bass, and there are plenty of pieces there I could do, but I'd like to limit classical pieces to around 15 minutes as I'm primarily a jazz musician. I've been told that Teen Town at 100bpm (as opposed to 128... I think?) is equivalent to ATCL (the diploma one below the LTCL), so that gives me a rough basis. What I have so far (contemporary-wise): Donna Lee - Jaco Pastorius U Can't Hold No Groove - Victor Wooten Tears in Heaven - Jeff Berlin Teen Town (full speed) - Jaco or Marcus version Thoughts and suggestions? Cheers guys, Tom P.S. Sorry for the length and comma overload!

I know it's the only one in England, and that I think they have a 100% employment rate... It's an incredibly hard course to get on to, but if you get on to it and do well then you're pretty much set for life (if working at Abbey Road or somewhere similar interests you).

Hey all, I'm glad to see people are using this! I've had a bit of spare time so have added around 60 new songs to the playlist of various genres and difficulty levels. Have fun, and keep adding songs. Tom

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1036926' date='Nov 25 2010, 08:57 PM']Note values are indicated by the stem. Minim = whole bar SemiBreve = half a bar Crotchet = quarter Quaver = eighth of a bar Semi Quaver = sixteenth Hemi Semi Quaver = 32nd (rarely seen) Hemi Demi Semi Quaver = 64th (I've never seen one)[/quote] I assume you accidentally switched the first two note values here...! I hope you don't mind me editing it slightly so people just starting out don't get too confused: SemiBreve = 4 beats (whole bar in 4/4 time) Minim = 2 beats (half a bar in 4/4 time) Crotchet = 1 beat (quarter bar in 4/4 time) Quaver = 1/2 a beat (eighth of a bar in 4/4 time) Semi Quaver = 1/4 beat (sixteenth in 4/4 time) Demi Semi Quaver = 1/8 beat (32nd in 4/4 time (rarely seen)) This website has a picture which might make things clearer as well: [url="http://howtoplaythepiano.webs.com/pianobasics.htm"]http://howtoplaythepiano.webs.com/pianobasics.htm[/url]

[quote name='Soliloquy' post='1103034' date='Jan 26 2011, 12:27 AM']They build these quickly don't they ? I know Sei has something like an 18 month wait time. I don't mean to hijack your thread, but this is mine. I got it a couple of weeks ago, I have to say it's pretty amazing. If yours is anything like mine then you won't be disappointed. I'm lucky enough to have a few nice basses, but the Overwater is definitely my favourite. The relatively wide string spacing, compared to my Zon, makes for such comfortable playing.[/quote] That's a stunning top you have there! What made you go for the individual bridge saddles as opposed to the block bridge, if you don't mind me asking? I know I won't be disappointed; the only bad thing is that all this talking about it is making me want it more. I guess it's not the worst situation in the world to be in though! Tom

[quote name='dmccombe7' post='1102754' date='Jan 25 2011, 09:05 PM']Hi Tom They completed mine well within schedule. They will also take the time to make sure you're happy with the set up when completed. Chris is very fussy to make sure that everything is done to perfection and that's why people keep going back to him. If there's anything you're not sure about just ask the guys and they'll give you a straight and honest answer. You won't be disappointed. All the very best with it when completed. Dave [/quote] Cheers Dave! They've been fantastic with me as well, and I have complete faith with them. I'll make sure to put up some decent pictures when it finally arrives Tom

Great stuff guys; the more people involved in this will only make it better! When I get some free time I'll try and spend a couple of hours and sift through the suggestions of songs to learn already on this forum; in the mean time feel free to add as many songs as you like! Depending on how this progresses, in the future I'd be tempted to make new genre-specific playlists; I think we're OK at the moment though, and that new playlists would only be necessary if this one reached over 200 songs or so! Only time will tell, but I hope you're all finding it useful; I've already found a couple of songs that I've never heard before (especially that Joni Mitchell song!), so thanks for that. Tom

Dave: Yours looks incredible! It looks like we've both asked for similar specs but fairly different woods; I really can't wait to get mine. Hopefully not too long now, however I've no problem with it taking a bit longer than I thought if they're making it as good as it can be. Truckstop: So do I, and they sound so phenomenal. I used to own a MIM Jazz 5 as well, and I definitely wouldn't mind an Overwater version. If only I had the money...! Tom

Oh man, that's appalling! I wish there was something we could do to help. I suspect a few emails, detailing how Zon's reputation is being ruined to many of their potential customers, to Zon would probably do more harm than good? Tom

[quote name='GremlinAndy' post='1088814' date='Jan 14 2011, 12:59 AM']urgh... after promising me that it would ship a couple of weeks before Christmas, they've gone all radio silent on me. No comms or even replies to my email of the day before yesterday. I love Joe dearly when I speak to him on the phone. He's a lovely fella, but really their business operation is a proper nightmare. Dave Funk on the other hand (I'm currently waiting for my TF amp to be ready) is an example of the usual American attitude of customer service being paramount. awesome coms, regular updates with photos, and quite happy to just chew the fat by email. Truly unsurpassed service. The amp will only be a couple of weeks late, as opposed to the 12 months tardyness of my Hyperbass. The delay has taken me into 20% tax territory too, so now I have to find an *extra* 2.5% when it comes to import duty. a £200 increase due to the delay. grrrrr.[/quote] Any news on this yet fella? I've been reading your posts on this for a while; I really hope you get it soon! Tom

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='1099252' date='Jan 23 2011, 12:56 AM']I've added a track, tell me if you can see it[/quote] I see "I believe in miracles" and "cake hole;" good times! I had to restart it for some reason, but I can see them now. Hopefully this will be the start of something great Tom

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='1099233' date='Jan 23 2011, 12:10 AM']how do you add songs to your list? I've subscribed as CaptMoto[/quote] I think if you subscribe to it then you can just drag and drop songs onto it? I guess it might just take a few minutes for the adding function to be activated?... I can see you as a subscriber, so hopefully it should work now! If that doesn't work then let me know; I've never done a collaborative playlist before, but I'm pretty sure this is how they're supposed to work (as discussed here: [url="http://www.spotify.com/se/about/features/playlists/"]http://www.spotify.com/se/about/features/playlists/[/url] ) Tom

Cheers buddy; please feel free to add any songs you think the rest of us here would enjoy! I'm hoping that (eventually!) we'll have a list of about 50+ songs added by loads of different people, so that the playlist will be a great tool for people to use if they want to listen to/ learn something different. I guess I just need to be patient and hope that this gets some traction! Tom

Hey all, I've been playing bass for a while now, and I've learnt my fair share of fantastic bass lines. However, I know that there are bound to be hundreds of other songs featuring some sweet bass lines that I've never heard of. I know there are quite a few threads here already listing songs to learn, but I thought I'd put out an idea. I'm a big fan of Spotify, and I noticed it had a collaborative playlist function. Therefore, I suggest that we could make a basschat playlist, where anyone could add new songs with good bass lines that others may not have heard of. I know people would have to use spotify to benefit from it, but I think it could be a good idea. I've preliminarily set up one with 3 songs to test the water here: [url="http://open.spotify.com/user/clagooey/playlist/1M0gVCn8vA0sQN2qkts11g"]http://open.spotify.com/user/clagooey/play...8vA0sQN2qkts11g[/url] Thoughts? Tom P.S. If this has been suggested before, or if this thread's in the wrong section, then sorry!

iPhone pics thanks to Stu: [attachment=68782:tombass2.jpg] [attachment=68781:tombass_1.jpg] I'm not gonna lie, I am very pleased with how this is going! Cheers, Tom

Evening all, Almost 3 years ago, I bought a mighty fine Overwater from Alemboid on here which I was more than happy with. However, after around 6 months of ownership there was an unfortunate accident concerning the bass, a family member and a toy car bed which rendered the bass unplayable; to say I was upset is quite an understatement! Nonetheless, the time has finally come for me to get a brand new custom Overwater, similar in most ways to the old one. Chris and Laurence at Overwater have been fantastic, both going over and above to make sure things go to plan; to say I'm excited is a massive understatement! Specs: 6 string (B-C) 35" Scale Maple neck 18mm string spacing Ebony unlined fretless fretboard Fret markers on 12th fret upwards between G and C strings American black walnut body Ziricote top Standard Overwater 3 band EQ and pickups Locking jack and XLR out This won't be a detailed build diary (as I didn't realise how quickly they'd start building it!), but I'll upload photos as and when I get them. The bass was ordered in the first week of December, and should get to me around the first week of February; I definitely wasn't expecting a 2 month build time, especially during Christmas! Cheers all, Tom