XB26354

SOLD

A bit of a joke as they are Warwick branded Gotoh tuners - that should definitely be a warranty repair! All Warwick's hardware is bespoke to them so I can't see why they wouldn't replace it (at least they could return the faulty tuner to Japan for QC purposes). I'd agree that it is rare - having bought about 40 Warwick tuners, plus all the existing ones on Warwicks I've owned over the years I've never seen your problem (hope quality isn't on the slide!)

You didn't tighten the stiffness adjustment screw on the end of the tuner perhaps?

***SOLD***

Hi,
Selling my 06 Warwick Corvette Custom on the bay:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=150305561496"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=150305561496[/url]

Any questions let me know!
Cheers
Mat

[quote name='NancyJohnson' post='307431' date='Oct 15 2008, 10:14 PM']I can't believe there's only one nod to Mick Karn on here. His starts to Adolescent Sex, Obscure Alternatives, ALien, In Vogue, Swing, My New Career, The Art Of Parties (12" version), Still Life In Mobile Homes, Sons Of Pioneers, Visions Of China are f2cking legendary.

Wise up you slackers!



P[/quote]
Couldn't agree more - heard Tin Drum and Oil on Canvas recently for the first time in 20+ years and they still sound great.

Don't forget
No More Heroes (Stranglers)!!!

I hope you like it when it arrives.
There is a video on YouTube of Ed Friedland playing one (and it sounds pretty good).
I've tried one (with maple board), and it might be the strings but I thought it was poor. Fit and finish is good, but the neck feels too chunky, it is pretty neck heavy, and even with a .130 tapered string the B sounded muffled. Bear in mind that the single P pickup has it's top half closer to the neck, meaning that the PU sees almost the middle of the B -string. With an added J pickup perhaps you could a tighter sound out of the B, not sure... Also the whole instrument felt like it was covered in a thick gloss finish which felt sticky, especially on the neck.
I believe that Fender do not know how to make a good 5-string - their designs just add an extra string and make everything a little wider. I get to try lots of basses, and maybe a couple of dozen Fender 5's over the years (even owned a US deluxe 5 ash - guess what, great sound, naff b-string) and given that sort of money I'd get a Lakland or save a little more and get a Sadowsky PJ or something similar (if they do a five?).
it's good that you can return it if not happy, otherwise I would have strongly advised trying before you buy!
Of course a lot of the above is personal opinion, but I do own a fantastic Mexican P and would love to have a P-style 5 with a nice fat bottom end - the American Standard just doesn't seem to fit that bill.

My Corvette Ash 6 string weighs just over 7.5lbs.

[quote name='frank' post='295039' date='Sep 30 2008, 01:25 AM']My chord/scale and fingerboard knowledge is something i need to work on so im wondering about the pros and cons of these two methods , Willis - fingerboard harmony & Putter Smith - Improvising hand book

I like in the Willis book where you are confined to a certain number of frets
but the putter Smith book seems like a simpler way of getting a lot more done

am i right ?

I need to get the nuts & bolts covered as quickly and simply as possible, ive been playing for a long time but havent learned this stuff properly so theres a hole in my playing when it comes to playing through unfamiliar chords or keys
or tunes with lots of chords

I would hope that this study would lead to more melodic playing and solos

Another question is that Smith plays sharp 4ths on major and dominant chords where as Willis avoids the 4th alltogether on these chords, he also avoids the 6ths as far as i can see
is this just a question of musical taste

Willis uses strong beats, weak beats for note choices where as Smith seems to have all notes equal (except the natural 4th)
the strong beat/weak beat idea seems very strong even if a bit like a formula

Again is it just musical taste and a question of getting the stuff learned by some method or other and then adjusting to suit.[/quote]
I don't know about the Putter Smith book but I've had a good look at Fingerboard Harmony for Bass. It is basically a graphical way of looking at shapes on the neck in a given position so you don't have to shift all over the place when the chords change. It can help to create smoother linear phrases - The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine has the Continuous Scale Exercise which is actually very similar. Strong beat/weak beat goes back to bebop and beyond so is hardly novel or new - but it is actually quite important to learn to create better phrasing. Again the Jazz Theory Book says that scales are just an available pool of notes so jazz musicians should be able to play any note of a relevant scale over a chord at any time. One BIG caveat about Willis' book is that for walking bass lines most of what he puts is a bit busy melodically - you'd have to be a very skilled and experienced accompanist to make some of those lines work. It is after all only one way of looking at harmony.
Just goes to prove there's nothing new under the sun

[quote name='kennyrodg' post='295814' date='Sep 30 2008, 07:53 PM']The thing is its his for sale thread,you do him no favours debating the price of his bass in his thread.Comments or disagreements about what someones bass is worth should be sent via PM out of common courtesy as Benwhiteuk states.[/quote]
Happy?

I've played this at the weekend and not only does it look absolutely stunning but it sounds great. Just came to my attention too late as I snapped something else up have a bump...

I'm pretty certain he played an NS-2 on the album - something I read in an interview with him a long time ago.
On the Serious Moonlight tour DVD re-released a while ago he was playing that black ESP.

PM'ed

What's the nut width and string spacing at the bridge?

Warwick wax is soft and, depending on the wood, leaves a slightly shiny polished finish. On a Warwick Thumb with a Wenge neck the finish is almost gloss over time, whereas on lighter coloured softwoods the finish appears more matt (doesn't soak into ash or maple as much).

Reminds me of a quote (I think it Anthony Jackson) when asked about the point of reading music, which went something like "If I asked you what the point was of reading English you'd think I were an idiot." If you choose to learn nothing formal about music and do it all by trial and error or feel, it won't make you a better or more creative player than if you do decide to learn something (a myth perpetuated even now by the Beatles "discovering" unusual chord progressions and key changes, e.g. Penny Lane). Knowing at least some theory allows you to communicate with other musicians (assuming they know something too of course). Your ears are your most valuable asset as a musician, theory just puts what you hear in context.

Excellent, thanks, only about 40 years work there...

Withdrawn

A chord and its related scale are the same information played horizontally and vertically.

If you play (ascending) C-D-E-F-G-A-B (forget the top octave C for now) one after the other, that's a C major scale.
If you play every other note of that major scale and keep going once you've got to the octave C you get:
C-E-G-B-D-F-A (again, forget the top C).

It's the same thing. You don't have to play all seven notes as an arpeggio but if you hold a major triad (C-E-G) down and play either the major scale or that arpeggio, it's the same thing. Can't learn one without the other
Of course, depending on the chord, you can play more than one scale. To start off with it is probably easier to learn the most common scale that goes with a given chord and get the sound of the scale in relation to the chord in your ear. Do [i]not[/i] learn to play scales just by themselves - relate them to some kind of harmony.

[quote name='SteveK' post='266394' date='Aug 20 2008, 04:03 PM']The reason metronomes have been so popular is that until relatively recently there was no alternative.

If you are playing or intend playing with a drummer, then a drum box would be far preferable and less boring. For a start, It makes practising a far more enjoyable experience - enjoyable's good, right? - and, It will give you a better idea of how you will sound in a "proper" situation.

5 minutes of, [b]Dock[/b] click click click [b]Dock[/b] click click click would make me want to put down my bass and go for a cuppa tea.

Steve[/quote]
I never found a metronome to be annoying. It depends on the sound - a fairly dull click rather than an electronic beep is obviously more palatable. Playing with a drumbox or click is just fine, as long as it just gives you quarter notes. Try halving the metronome tempo and have it click on beats 2 and 4 - it swings much better. It also forces you to supply the downbeat.

The point about playing in time is to internalise it - to feel the pulse inside you whether you have something to play to or not.
The reason many musicians practice with a metronome is that is a very stripped down time source.
The less source you are given, the more time you have to come up with by yourself. This develops your sense of time and feel - if you can make your lines groove and swing with a metronome clicking on beat 4 of every other bar, play on top of the beat and behind the beat and keep everything consistent with the metronome then you have good time. Drum machines or play-alongs are great for developing stylistic awareness and band playing but the time is being given to you by other musicians. It's better to be able to supply time by yourself. Musicians of all styles have been working with metronomes for a long time - if it didn't work or stopped the music from flowing it would have died out. Also bear in mind that at some point you may have to play along to a click track or with a song that is sequenced so trying to develop time by just playing with other musicians will cause you trouble sooner or later - especially if the drummer you have played with rush and drag (which is all too common).

I have been "visiting" the bass cellar since it was further down the street in the basement and they're full of sh!t. Not only do the assistants know nothing about bass, they know nothing about retail or customer service. I was interested in a Yamaha TRB 6-string (and I am neither young nor inexperienced, as the assistant stopped talking to someone else and looked at me when I played it). The action was approx 7mm at the 24th fret, i.e. unplayable. I asked him to set it up and was told "you can't really drop the action any lower as it buzzes" Maybe he should have looked at the amount of relief in the neck??
The stock is OK but I've seen loads of basses that have been there for years. Their attitude is and always was so poor I wouldn't buy a plectrum off them.

[quote name='Cernael' post='261261' date='Aug 12 2008, 11:33 PM']One thing I've come up with lately as a possible help to develop this "thumb in the middle of the neck" playing style:

place a little bit of BluTack there, and anchor your thumb on it; then play scales without changing position, utilizing all your strings.

I've yet to try this myself, so I ask; ye who know, does this sound like a good or horrid idea? This should not take up the whole practice time, of course, but in short bursts? Interlaced with playing the same scales, without the tack, while consciously focusing on the thumb?[/quote]
Can't really see how it would benefit you - the danger is you'll end up squeezing the neck harder. The thumb should just act as a pivot and stabilising point - very little pressure should be used. The same thing applies to fretting notes with the left hand fingers - use as little pressure as necessary to stop the note buzzing. I would avoid using any "approach" that doesn't allow you to learn in a regular playing situation - unless of course you normally play with BluTack on the neck

[quote name='synaesthesia' post='259118' date='Aug 10 2008, 04:56 AM']Only bass player these days that will make me get up and get tickets....and on this topic...why do these US tour agents organise European tours for top musos like Messrs. Swallow, Scofield etc that always come as close as France, Holland and Belgium but never cross the channel? Surely there is money to be made in the UK? Hotels, taxes, licensing, venues, promoters in Paris are probably as bad as those in the UK, so what's the deal? These people have no pop entoruage, and no containers of gear. Steve Swallow uses a WW head FFsake....[/quote]
There isn't the demand. The Victor Wooten gig at the Jazz Cafe was well-attended (by musicians, mostly bass players) but I was near the bar and they were very quiet. When a more well-known act is on and non-musicians turn up they spend more, especially if they can dance a bit. That is just one venue in the centre of the biggest city in the UK. How about if he did a gig in Northampton, or Birkdale? How many people would turn up? Tribal Tech never toured here as the cost of getting here would not even be recouped as there would only have been small audiences. Jazz/instrumental music has never been a popular form of music in the UK.

I have also encountered tremendous snobbery against electric bass in Jazz. It makes me laugh really as Jazz guitar has been amplified for a long time, and at larger gigs horns and keyboards go through the PA so isn't everyone electric to some extent? The prejudice comes because electric bass players often play too busily, with too many skips when they walk, and don't swing. Double bass, being harder to make a sound, tends to make one play only what is necessary. The sound and feel of double bass has never interested me however. As Jazz is a fairly new and constantly evolving art form, who is to say that electric bass should not be as valid? Who would seriously say that Steve Swallow, Jaco and Gary Willis don't deserve to be called Jazz bassists?

Speaking as a teacher for the last 10-15 years, I can't see any reason why you shouldn't learn with the thumb in the middle of the back of the neck. You will definitely limit what you can play with the "baseball" grip, to the point where even fairly attainable bass lines are unnecessarily difficult. Guitar is a different instrument with a different function - the thumb is often used to grab root notes for chords where the rest of the fingers are on the top 2-3 strings, so there is no choice but to wrap the thumb round. As other threads have mentioned, position playing (i.e., lining up one finger per fret, or double bass-style, index, middle and ring/pinky together) is useful for many things that we commonly play. It is next to impossible with the thumb-wrap left hand.
With regard to extended range basses (5+ strings) - muting where possible with the right hand (especially low strings) results in a much cleaner sound and frees up the left hand to fret.

[quote name='BassManKev' post='255729' date='Aug 5 2008, 08:17 PM']dont bother with mim fenders, you can get much better basses for the same cash[/quote]

Well I just got a MIM Precision for inside the OP's budget and it is the best new Fender I have played. Looks, sounds and feels like a good US Fender. My flatmate's favourite electric is a MIM Strat that just sings. They can be more variable in quality but I have played plenty of other, higher spec basses that were badly setup, heavy, ugly or noisy. OK, maybe you can get more bells and whistles but the P-bass won't break down, the battery won't die (hasn't got one) and it has a sound that works in any style of music. I'm no luddite either as my other bass is a 6-string Warwick Corvette