cytania

Even at £250 you can get a bass that'll you could gig with for years. Checkout discounted older models in shops by the likes of Ibanez and Yamaha. My SRX only cost £229, no doubt the metallic green colour was the reason it was marked down. Lookout for little 'Boom' tags on the controls, you may find you can drive the price down on these older Ibanez offerings. If you are just practising a Laney Richter1 can be picked up for £70, nowhere near as tight as a Cube but fine for home jams.

Every night I run through about 8 songs, all to a backing track. With some of them I've played a simplified line and then learnt in the trickier parts. Other times I've learnt the fancy version and decided it's not right and developed my own lines that are more walking/safer live/easier to make zing etc. Beware simply learning scales and metronome timings, they don't really prepare you for playing with others. Also beware playing to the same track. I often seek out live versions or covers on YouTube so I can try a different tempo. Where possible play along to the right drum patterns not just an approximation. Hearing when you've meshed in right is one of the best things about bass.

Simple answer is to suggest that halfway though a set you swap instruments. Tell them how impressive the audience would find this (it does go down really well I'm told). Think you might find they shut up ;-) The other thing I remember is when myself and the drums in the old band were enjoying things so much we played a whole song without the guitar/vocals (who missed the intro cue). Didn't sound too bad as an instrumental (Bruce Thomas bass part) definately altered the balance in the band.

Most muscles work in pairs, one pulls one way, one pulls back. One of the problems with hands is they usually only grip inwards. The muscle to open your hand wide rarely gets a decent workout (unless you do jazz dance or surrender alot). Hence alot of the strains and pains. Now I reckon when you're playing fingerstyle bass right (took me a long while to stop plucking it guitarist style) you are exercising both muscles. Never had right hand strain problems but then last time I tried using pick it felt a bit like playing with a slice of toast ;-)

5705 by City Boy

Had a play around fuzz box wise, I have a nasty 80s cheapo pedal (Arion?) that when I had an electric guitar I categorised as 'nosebleed' (I was given it free which gives you an idea of it's undesirability). With the bass I immediately got a horrid machinery grind type effect. No way to wind this down to a nice level though, tweaking the drive pot just killed it or brought it on full. Then I found www.bassfuzz.com. Talk about a niche website but a very usueful resource. I've taken a fancy to the Devi Ever 'Year Of The Rat' pedal, it's subtle and the fuzz is on the treble not mangling the whole spectrum. May take a while to get hold of as Devi Ever is her own cottage industry but I'm intrigued.

None today either, when I bought it I was slightly panicked by the markets crashing and Carole said they'd already seen supply and price changes from the Far East. So maybe I have a future collectable or more likely an oddball instrument ;-)

Interestingly I discovered that with no batteries my Spear bass works on it's 'passive' switch (could be great on stage as I flip the bass Hendrix style and start attacking it's insides ripping batteries out!), no such possibility with my Ibanez though. Could give me GAS for a real simple backup bass... a project maybe.

Thanks Budget, nice to know you liked the tone, once you own an instrument it's easy to become hyper picky about tone. When the batteries were going things went a bit microphonic. There's still a tiny noise on the note but you really, really need to listen for it. Yes it's the tuner 'ears' that are plastic. The backs are standard metal Gotoh type barrels but the keys you turn are tough black plastic. There may be some variation in this Spear model as I see small differences on their website. Haven't been up to Music Inn to see if they've any more in (may even get time this lunchtime). If I had wishes it would be less weight as the Spear is much heavier than my Ibanez, can be quite surprising when switching. Neck and huge variety tones are still wonderful. It's taking abit of learning to switch to appropriate settings for my practice tracks rather than stay with one tone. Ibanez just has a lightweight/heavyweight dial that I tend to leave on 4 and forget about (bad boy, again).

Bit of an update. Batteries died and sound went faint/buzzy. Interestingly the 'passive' mode also went a bit hissy/crackly with low volts. Good news is that with both batteries out the Spear still works with the passive switch (unlike my Ibby which is dead without a battery). Interestingly the unpowered passive sound that seemed thin and wiry got a subtle boost with the batteries in. I'll see how the two Duracell's I put in last. My Ibanez is far meaner on batteries but I have left the Spear plugged in overnight a few times (bad boy). I'll hold fire before accusing it of being a battery-eater. The battery compartments are the cheap plastic 'quick change' type but infinitely better than my Ibanez which wanted to hold onto it's battery even once the cover came away with a fight. Whilst I was lifting screws I checked out the preamp section. Good news it had shielding tape and possibly paint in the cavity. Wiring wasn't terribly neat but nothing nasty. I also checked the truss rod cover (little bell shaped one). Could it be just for looks? Well, No, there is a truss rod head. Not sure where the other end is buried but I'll leave that till I have the courage to investigate under the pickup covers. Good news on the sounds front is that I have been learning how to get some really cool shades of growl out the the Spear, something the Ibanez is too polite to do convincingly. In passive mode this takes heavy playing or some amp gain. In active it's a matter of slightly favouring the bridge pu and slightly raising the mid-range.

The other night I was practising and the Spear bass played wonderfully. I was getting a real growling, zingy tone without even trying. Kept having to raise the amp level and it's seemed more noisy (think single coil). Then it went dead. I realised of course that the bateries were exhausted. Replacing them brought back a strong defined tone. But why had I enjoyed weak signal tone so much. Is this what you get with passive basses?

Nottingham Hobgoblin store now closed. We are now down to only 4 guitar stores (and two of those are out of the city centre). Credit crunch or just over-supply?

It may be you just need a different instructor. Find the play-along-with-guitar thing a bit odd though. If I had a wish it would be for a drum-playing (or at least drum machine programming) bass tutor. As projecting my notes into the spaces in the drum pattern is something that was hard to figure out as a beginner and something I still work at. It's sort of zen... Watch out for being deaf to what you are learning though. I kept asking for help on timing and getting instruction on left-hand technique. It was only months later when a bass-playing friend said 'left hand technique is timing'. I realised I had been shown what I needed to know. I don't see my bass tutor all the time but book sessions when I feel something eluding or frustrating me. I don't always get the answers I expect but...

Yep, all that talk of sustain and clarity... bogus, what it's really about is that moment when you're at home had a nice warm bath, drying off with a towel round your waist and you pick of the bass for a tiny bit of practice... Ye Gods that bolt-on plate is cold! And poly finishes are pretty icy too. Neck-thru instruments were clearly developed with the naked player in mind. A square of cold metal to the abdomen kills the whole warm and fuzzy vibe (man)...

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Hi Stu, you need have no fear of the Faber book. My copy is filling up with penciled corrections. Don't know if they used software analysis to create it's tabs but even where the lines are pretty right there are mistakes of the 'play tight then fly up the neck for one note then back again' variety. There is even a draft notation left in 'Pictures Of Lily' "suspected error on original - optional: play open D"! The Faber book has no awareness of bass fingering or getting the ringing percussive Entwistle sound. Perhaps the author is a virtuoso and can make his tab stand up with skilled phrasing. More likely it was tabbed by a guitarist ;-) 'I Can See For Miles' - the Hal Leonard version treats the verses as one note exercises, none of the brooding build up. Faber gets some likely open E G action then treats the 'miles and miles and miles' as open E which I can't believe is ever going to give the tight energy it needs...

Clearly something for future archaeologists going through the rubbish dumps of the future. Discarded pickup guards, bridge guards and [s]thu[/s]finger rests ;-)

Just found the Faber version of Substitute whilst being a laudable attempt to play it open with one finger is way off the Entwistle. That new book can't come too soon.

Particularly thinking of Fender here, were thumb rests optional? When did they switch to being above the strings and when did they stop doing them altogether?

Many thanks for that link Alun, I'll order the new book as soon as it's available.

'All Shook Up' by Elvis, Scotty and Bill. Basicly it's boogie line based. Learn blues boogie lines with Ed Friedland's 'Blues Bass' book/CD. I can also recommend the 'Play Bass With The Beatles' which unusually for soundalike tracks has vocals so you don't lose yourself songwise. 'Can't Buy Me Love' is fast but easy if you simplify the chorus to be two double fourth fret notes and two double second fret notes twice (clear as mud huh?). Tab is great for getting your confidence up but eventually you'll have to work out a line from scratch. Part of how people do this is 'oh, this feels a bit like that other song I know.. how about a fifths thing? maybe a truncated boogie line?' etc. Word a warning for tab though, is remember it's often just some music hack's idea of how to play the bassline. I now have two wildly different versions of 'I Can See For Miles' from Faber and Hal Leonard. I've already spotted an obvious error in the Faber Deep Purple book for the second riff in 'Black Night', now way would Glover fly back up the top of the neck to play a B when one's available in the seventh and ninth frets he's riffing in...

I've been done Weekend Warriors and will probably do it again next year. First thing it avoids is old geezers responding to ads from student bands. Second there's none of the pratting about I remember from teenage bands of my youth. There's a gig coming up (friends and family audiences but) so the focus is always there. Fee would be worth it for the match-making aspect alone. The organisers do an impossible job getting working bands out of the random crowd of proficiencies and musical tastes. That many of these bands go on for years as working units is amazing. My own WW band folded after 7 months but that's not terrible for a band. What I did learn was that unteachable business of listening to other band members and meshing in (again something that was in short supply in my teens). I had thought of just answering some local ads but I'm taking the chance to sharpen up on bass (bass and singing even) without the pressure of other people's choices to learn/find lines for. Hopefully for next Warriors I should have plenty of standards to play so I can take up more slack in the band.

Legalities are complicated. Music publishers do browse the net and threaten lyrics and chord sites all the time. Simply teaching a basic pattern shouldn't be covered as it comes under tuition, however that doesn't stop Publishers sending nastygram emails (see the JibJab/Guthrie case for how Publishers persue copyright then don't even own). If you have tabbed out a whole song then Publishers might claim you are on their turf. It's tricky for basslines since there are plenty of valid basslines that don't match what's on the record or what's in the official bass tab book. I definately think an archive of good tabs for popular songs is needed. As you get better at bass you learn how to simplify tabs to make them playable however a beginner can be floored by elaborate looking lines and miss out on some perfectly decent songs. A recent development is bass demos on YouTube. There are also sites like Show Me How To Play that are trying to make money from video run-throughs of popular songs. How long before there's a legal campaign against amateur bass demo videos? It's all very cat and mouse. A beginner wants to key a song title into google and learn it. However most legit bass instructionals have to use the tactic of 'here's an interesting pattern you'll hear it on hits such as...'.

How much did John Entwistle of the Who vary the lines he played over the years. I sat down at the weekend to work on 'I Can See For Miles', not only did I find myself playing different things from the official tab but watching various Who clips on YouTube I saw Entwistle departing from the beaten track. Is this common for Who basslines?

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