ChunkyMunky

Wow, I posted this 5 years ago. How did everyone find the DVD? Any good?

Over a year later, it's still really inspiring to see.

Just polished off a trade with Duncan. Absolute gent to deal with and to say he is knowledgeable on his stuff is a minor understatement! The chap simply oozes enthusiasm and knowledge with all things bass related, so if you're dealing with Duncan, you're in for a right treat. Unparalleled attention to detail regarding the equipment too, well worth the 300 mile road trip.

Hey, y'all! As the title says. It's your favourite overly inquisitive engineering student back once again. Anyone here into CNC stuff at all? I'm looking to get some stuff going with a Workbee CNC kit and go from there. Just curious to see who else is out there?

Ah, what a great question. 😎 So, when I went to learn this kind of stuff, I found that it takes a different mindset and approach to it. The bass isn't going to be the only thing quantized to the track. The drums/percussion and even other bits within the track will be quantized. Essentially, the tracks are divided. (for the techie geeks, engineers and nerds amongst us - I wonder if how we refer to subdivisions of bars in sheet music perfectly correlates to binary, hexidecimal etc? 1-2-4-8-16-32 being the denominator to a note subdivision?). In your mind, how do you think a digitally expressed music motif would be played? Under the constraints of the technology of the time, I'd think of these; - Dynamics. They usually stay relatively the same throughout. - Do they drag, push or play dead on in the pocket? Dead on. - If you can read music, look at the sheet as if it's a grid divided into 16th notes (32nds if you're playing the likes of Michael Jackson's 'Speed Demon' 🤣). Whilst it's also a great groove exercise, it's also helpful to see where the bass synchronises with the other instruments on the track. If a track is all digitally composed, they will be exactly on. I can't imagine the tolerance (or 'humanising' as Logic Pro would tell you) to be very much, if at all, in terms of 'pocket'. - On the topic of eliminating 'humanising' in your basslines, I'd recommend some exercises that'll not only help your playing in this realm but they will make your playing so much cleaner in general. If you set your metronome to below 15bpm, leave it running and see if you can hit your notes as accurately as possible to that click. Don't be tempted to embellish or go astray from it. The signs of agitation and frustration are symptomatic of significant improvement. Notice how different your playing is afterwards and be prepared to grin like Cheshire Cat, my low end friend. I call this 'Anti-microflamming'. - If the bass line goes below a standard low 'E', can your 5 string handle it without going 'floppy'? Your ye olde Casios and Yamaha DX-7s never have/had this issue. - A bass mute (I know, Motown, right?) is surprisingly helpful. Pop some foam under the strings and right by the bridge for an experiment. Play along with the tracks you so wish to and see if it helps your playing. I do hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions. If not, my apologies for over indulging here.

How about a discretionary test on the distance away from a cabinet and how that cabinet sounds at distance? See if the end results matches our hypothesis? (Ignore if it's a silly idea, a bit sleep deprived here)

Any idea what you fancy building? Fancy doing anything different at all?

Though the bargains are few and far between, a quick look on t'web yielded this; https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/fender-jazz-bass-62-ri-mij-made-in-japan-93-94/1335587598 I mean, not bad for £500, right? MIJ Fender stuff certainly has gone up in price since I last checked.

It makes me wonder about the shipping and the reduced cost by ration to one another. Then there's import taxes and all sorts of fun. I'd be a bit weary and honestly, I reckon you could easily find the same bass around our neck of the woods for around the same price or even lower by comparison to the cost of the bass, shipping, imports and the nervousness of dodgy shipping. Mind you, if you're really that keen, go for it!