XB26354

If I am a snob, it is that I prefer second-hand basses to new ones. There are very few basses I have played that feel comfortable when brand new. When a bass has been played for a few years the wood seems to settle, the neck wears nicely and the instrument seems to feel so much better. As long as a bass is made from decent quality wood and feels right for you then it shouldn't matter what the name is on the headstock, or what the price tag says. I recently picked up a Yamaha BB615 in Black for £300 - a lovely, lovely bass. The only things I would change to make it perfect is to file the sharp fret ends and cut the G slot in the nut as it is a little high. It is all down to preference. I have played perhaps 200 Fenders and I have only come across 2 that I liked - a 1973 P-bass and a 1966 refinished Jazz. Both were light, really sang and looked lovely. They were also silly money

Snobbery occurs in any hobby/pastime/profession - golf, cycling, studio recording, designer clothes, cars, computers etc and is usually fuelled by money and envy. I do happen to own a reasonably expensive bass, but I've been playing over 20 years, and bought it because I was (only just!) able to afford it at that time, and decided to go for it because it made the perfect sound I hear in my head (which no other bass I have ever played did). If it had been half the price and a no-name make and sounded and felt the same, I would still have bought it

I think it is also worth mentioning that you do [i]not[/i] need strong hands to play the electric bass!
A well set-up bass, with a small amount of neck relief, requires you to push a metal string between about 1mm and 3mm down slightly behind a fret. Your plucking hand needs to pass the tip of a finger over the top of the string. A small child is "strong" enough to do this You also do not need stamina to play for a long time. You need to develop efficient technique, and most of all, relax. I've seen Gary Willis play several times, and he can play very fast, sustained passages. he has a very efficient technique so it looks like his fingers are hardly moving. At the same time he gets a deep, fat tone!
One Finger Per Fret is a general guide that is most useful for scales and arpeggios. There are always some awkward fingerings that don't "sit" nicely using OFPF, and require compression (Motown 3-fret lines a la James Jamerson) or expansion (playing a chromatic scale in one position).
With regard to strap height, too high is even worse than too low, as it pushes the headstock (and therefore lowest frets) as far away from your fretting hand as is possible. A lower strap (with the body of the bass around the waist) allows you to angle the neck up towards you. This also puts a comfortable bend in the fretting arm and straightens the fretting wrist (ironically bringing the playing position a little closer to double bass).

I would respectfully say that double bass technique is not necessary on a normal scale electric bass unless you have very small hands.
One finger per fret gives you a lot more freedom and fits most lines as well as, if not better than double bass fingering.
Octaves are, however, more comfortable with index and pinky (some players I know prefer index and ring finger). Middle and pinky tenses up the middle of the hand, straightening out the pinky. Be careful that you are not locking out the knucke joints of the pinky as well as this will make your hand tire quickly.

Far from developing strength it would be more advisable to
a. use the least amount of pressure to fret a note with the left hand
b. be as relaxed as possible both with your hands and your body in general
c. not wear the bass too low or too high - too low is not as bad as having it up under your chin as this forces your arm and hand further away from your body, distorting the wrist joint.

The fact that you say it "kills" your hand is a sure sign that you are pressing too hard and/or tensing up.

Light or heavy strings won't make a difference in your music. New strings will have more zing, but if you really want to cut through that mix you'll have to go to a studio and get each track balanced properly as bass ferret says. Most recordings use some kind of complementary eq so that each instrument has it's place. A good engineer might cut a narrow band of low mids from the guitars slightly, and boost the bass at the same place. The same would apply when getting the kick drum and bass to sit together. It may also help when recording to pan the guitars slightly, leaving the centre for bass and kick drum. Live, you may have to insist that the guitar player cuts a little bit of low mid

Hi, nice to meet you all here at Basschat - I actually stumbled across this whilst talking to another bass player at a gig, so networking does have its benefits...
My name is Mathew, I am 35, been playing bass for 20 years. I'm originally from Portsmouth. I was lucky (or unlucky!) enough that at 14 and a half my first bass teacher was an old school jazzer that played electric, upright and pretty mean piano. He eat, slept and drank music and instilled in me a passion for bass which I've never lost. He also introduced me to all the great electric bass players I would never have heard of at that age - like James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn and Chuck Rainey. I guess that I have leaned towards jazz ever since, but I have always liked a good song, so my iPod has got every conceivable style/genre. I was lucky enough that Portsmouth had a pretty decent music scene in the late 80's to early 90's - there were a lot of musicians passing through (as it is a port). I was lucky enough to play in a lot of different jazz bands, as well as a stint with a great 15-piece latin band (playing latin percussion certainly helps with your sense of timing!). As for influences, I would say my main sources of inspiration nowadays are Anthony Jackson, for his brilliant all round ensemble playing and note choice, Gary Willis, for his fluidity and deep harmonic sense, and Rocco Prestia, for being a great, funny guy face-to-face as well as an awesome player.
Equipment-wise, I have played pretty much everything there is over the last 20 years, and have settled on two recent acquisitions - A Ken Smith Black Tiger BSR6 and an Epifani UL210C. Both were expensive but surpass anything I have owned previously in both performance, sound and build quality. I also have a Yamaha BB615 which for £300 is an unbelieveable 5-string backup - great tone fingerstyle or slap, cool looks in black and solid build quality. I might even get time to whack a couple of photos up as well, if anyone's interested...

Well that's enough about me, thanks for reading and good to be a member!
Mathew