Heket

The Full Monty and the Blues Brothers! Love those ones. I also have the sountracks for the LOTR films, Star Wars, The Lion King, Shrek+Shrek 2 and Donnie Darko.

Richard, don't forget the direct feedback you can get from Scott too, either from asking a question in the live Bass Hangs or by submitting your video for him to look at in "Feedback Friday". I'm a beginner. The beginner's course is just fine for a raw beginner and I'm finding plenty to do in the monthly challenges and watching old bass hangs and Q&A sessions (each session is recorded with a list of questions asked put up with it). Support from others helps a lot. I don't think there's a feeling of "this is for beginners, this is for advanced" etc, it's more a matter of how you can break down each lesson to fit your needs and how much time you need to put into it in order to progress. Online learning requires a lot of motivation and initiative and you get what you give. It's perfectly possible for a beginner to enjoy SBL, as long as you know what your goals are (large and small), what your practice needs are and accept that you have a long, long road ahead of you

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1420832875' post='2654099'] Im just leaving this here [/quote] Drooool. One day I'd like to upgrade my SUB to a 5 String Sterling or Musicman. I wasn't so keen on it at first, but since I got a second bass (a P-bass, which I love) it's made me appreciate my Ray even more.

Actually it's the 40W I'm only a bedroom player (for now) and would only do small jams at the moment if anything. It's my first amp. The amp is fine but the speaker is a bit meh. It's not very responsive at lower volumes. With the Ray I don't notice it as much because the tone controls aren't exactly subtle, but with the P-bass it's very noticible. I don't know if the other Rumbles suffer from that issue, but be wary if you want to play a larger amp at bedroom levels. I tried a friend's Roland cube 100W on the weekend, I liked that better, at low volumes. It's all about the volume!

Mine looks smart with a pearl pickguard. I think mine is parchment pearl, so off-white. Got it off ebay from someone called "[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/guitars_electric?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2754"]guitars_electric[/url]". It required a bit of filing around the pickup and a couple of the pickguard screws had to go in a wee bit wonky, but no drilling required.

[quote name='Bassman Sam' timestamp='1418910345' post='2634734'] Lozz, you are spot on here. The famous neck dive on a T-bird may just be too much for my RA, PMT Manchester will be my next port of call to see what works for me. [/quote] It may well be. I wanted a T-bird (The Epi one) as my first bass. I took one heft of it and said "nope" and handed it back. I'm used to neck dive, I play SG guitars, but this is one step too far, plus it was generally a heavy beast. It wasn't as bad as the SG bass they had, the Epi one which is 34". You could get used to it, but I'd recommend one of them duo-straps to distribute the weight. For comfort I would recommend looking at the American Special Ps and Js if you're into that sort of thing. It's the reason I got mine out of the others - slim neck, slim, light body, fits like a pair of old jeans. I'm hoping I can build up my play time as I progress, depending on time of year (I have yearly medication) and other blips.

I don't have much advice about the specifics but I do want to say something: I also have RA. Having just bought an American special p-bass because I liked it better than the Mexican and squier - get whatever the heck bass you want. I know your rational mind will think it's a waste, that you may not play it much. Does that mean you are not worthy of your dream bass? If you/your wife can afford it and are willing, then go with your heart. Stupid RA. learning the bass on 15 mins a day is slow.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1418495632' post='2630728'] Hey I like the walnut! [/quote] Yeah, I like it too. I prefer wood colours over coloured colours, but I still would (wood?) have preferred honeyburst as I love bursts. Nice price from Thomann.

[quote name='ColinB' timestamp='1418393890' post='2629867'] My SUB Ray 4 in Honeyburst arrived yesterday evening. Give me a couple of days to get a proper feel for it and I'll post up a review. Initial impression (after a set-up but with the el cheapo strings still on)..... crackin' bass. [/quote] Honeyburst?! Where are you guys finding all these cool colours, I had a choice of black, white or walnut satin (which I have). I'd have [i]loved[/i] a honeyburst one. I shouldn't complain too much as I got mine in a clearance sale, but I would have paid more for a snazzy colour.

Well, funny you should mention it, but I do still have the swarf - laden cotton bud! I was still trying to entice the stubborn bits next to the rod out last night. It's yours for the taking

Acutally - and I'm a bit embarrassed to say this - the problem wasn't with the guitar at all, it was with my amp! I only have one dedicated bass amp to test it with so I didn't even think about it. When I tested it with my guitar amp that also does bass (but is tiny and therefore not on my radar for bass) the tone worked fine. Apologies again to the tech and setup team at Fender... but not Fender themselves because the amp is a Fender too! This is good because I do very much enjoy the feel of this P-bass. I did some posturing in front of the mirror and it's remarkably light, easy to finger, (steady on), a bit neck heavy but otherwise ergonomic and fast. The tones I heard from the amp in the shop were brilliant, just what I wanted. It'll remain to be seen whether I'll stick with the Greasebucket, but for now the whole tone spectrum is very usable and warrants much exploration.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1417550434' post='2621669'] Do I win a prize? [/quote] My eternal respect, Sir Pete. Plus warm fuzzy feelings that you've made someone's NBD a less crap than it was. It is a great player, but so were the American Special Jazzes I tried (nowhere had any Ps). I think it's a feature of Special that, to save money over the Standard, they make the body and neck slimmer. This helps a lot with comfort and speed.

Well now I feel stupid The "scratches" cleared up with a heavy application of cotton bud so I guess it was swarf. Thanks for the suggestion! The tone pot still doesn't work so I don't know if it'll still get sent back.

I just bought a brand new Fender American Special P-bass, after a 2 month wait of having it on order from my friendly local store. Everything seemed ok, but when I got home alas! The tone pot stopped working. Then, now i had proper lighting, I noticed that the area where the truss rod is adjusted is all scratched. I understand adjusting the truss rod is tricky on these without removing the pickguard or even the neck, but surely a new bass shouldn't exhibit wear like this? I spoke to the owner of the shop and I'll take it in tomorrow, but he warned me to expect sending it back to Fender. I've waited so long and this was to be my special present to myself for my 30th birthday after a bit of a crap year, so I'm sad. Here's another picture I took, of it's general sexiness:

I'm so glad I've only ever had good experiences, but then my local shops are 2 PMT stores (which always have a good rep) and a friendly local family-owned store, who'll do anything for you but are limited as they are exclusive Fender dealers, as far as instruments go. I'm also very glad I've never experienced any sexism. The stuff Bluejay experienced isn't so bad, but I've heard some terrible stories on other threads.

One thing I forgot to mention that I really like about Scott, is that when he says that he's going to show something slowly he actually does do it properly slow. I don't get lost with his videos like I do with some others.

I'm a subscriber. I subscribed primarily to access the workbooks for the lessons and the structured courses. Now I've joined I've barely even touched those because I'm having too much fun with the other masses of content! Obviously it'll depend whereabouts on your bass journey you are. I'm a beginner so I'm getting an absolutely huge amount out of it for the money, however there are many pros and people who have been playing for donkeys years on there, and actually I find most of the content geared towards intermediate and beyond players. This an example of the things I'm doing right now: [b]The monthly challenge[/b] - this is where you are given a task with a theme to work on and at the end a winner will be announced. This month's is slap bass, which runs until the end of December. [b]Bass Hangs[/b] - these are live sessions where you can submit questions to Scott (and Geoff Chalmers, the community manager and double bass demon) and get a reply. They generally run from 1hr30 to 2hrs long. They are recorded so you can watch them at your own leisure. Lots of useful questions being asked by members. [b]Beginners course[/b] - this is one of the 4 main courses that can be accessed by subscribers. Scott's nearly finished a [b]"Harmonic Layering" course[/b], which covers scales, arpeggios and chord tones and how they work together that's over 10 hours long. [b]Campus[/b] - this is the forum where there's lots of cool stuff including [b]member-created lessons, transcriptions, and "Feedback Friday"[/b], which is where you can submit a video of your playing for Scott to critique on Fridays. Of course there's also general chat and support from your fellow bassists. Starting Monday there are going to be [b]live Q&A sessions[/b] with various professionals, hopefully once a week with a varying list including Ed Friedland, Danny Mo Morris and Evan Brewer. I can't remember who the others were, but I think there was a list of 5 with more to come. These will also be recorded. All this doesn't even count all the free lessons and the advantage of having the [b]workbooks and downloadable audio[/b], plus backing tracks if available. Lessons get released at least once a week. You also have access to several interviews with professional bassists. If you want to join, in December Scott is aiming to release a video every day up until Christmas! I hope this helps There are other sources, places that do free videos such as Marlowedk on Youtube and a couple of other sites I can't remember off the top of my head. Then there's Jamplay, which is also subscription based; I haven't tried the bass version of this as I didn't get along with the guitar version. Look around because learning from videos is very teacher-dependent.

Eh, pink is ok I saw someone selling tooled leather ones on eBay, they were fancy. Or how about mint, or is that too similar to white?

I'm an amateur. I vaguely know the treble clef if I think about it, but the bass clef I'm completely new to. I don't like standard TAB. I do like rhythm notated TAB, the type that they use in some Hal Leonard books. I also like seeing both standard TAB and standard notation together. I like theory and I like getting to the bones of the music, although I'm not sure how notation helps with this, can someone clarify? Yes, TAB is a shortcut and, as previously stated, it all depends on audience. For me, reading notation requires 2 extra steps before I can play the note - figuring out what said note is and figuring out which of those said notes to use on the fretboard (E string 5th fret or open A?). One day I'll learn notation but a lot of people don't. The original question (which may have already been answered) is do you want to have maximum accessibility requiring extra work or do you want to encourage players to read notation but risk turning others away? Side question - I find it easy enough to transcribe guitar but I have great trouble following bass in a lot of songs as the notes get drowned out by everything else. How do you easily transcribe bass?

[quote name='Passifid' timestamp='1413058949' post='2574637'] haha i played the sub4 ray the other week while getting a service on the jazz(i knooow) i thought it was a lovely bass but the neck was huge, really impressed with its neck laquer though [/quote] Yeah, it's good but sadly I got one of the duds when it comes to electronics. I suppose comfort is all about how a particular instrument sits with your own body frame and posture, and naturally that's a very personal thing. It's like with electrics, I like SGs and everything else feels like an elephant.

[quote name='Passifid' timestamp='1413038598' post='2574425'] not really a P guy but i gots a AM special J bass next to me. neck is AWESOME if you like it thin. if you want a baseball bat then its marvellous turn off and goodbye [/quote] Yup, that sounds good. I did compare the MiM and the American Special Jazzes seeing as they were both there and I much preferred the Special. It felt comfortable and it "fit". Made my SUB Ray4 feel like a right plank.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1412802498' post='2572319'] That's a 2013 model - tort pickguard, jack socket on the pickguard, no anniversary 12th inlay. I have to say that the finish is my least favourite thing about my EB. It's just as well I like the ergonomics and the sound. [/quote] Oh I'm glad you like yours! The ergonomics were pretty nice, it felt like I was playing my SG electric rather than a bass. Can't say I was taken aback by the sound but I'm glad it floats somebody's boat.

I found a 2014 (or was it 2013?) EB the other day, and gave it a try. One of these: It was a funny thing. It was so light that it almost flew out of my hand when I picked it up and the faded finish made it feel like it was made of plastic. Now don't get me wrong, I love Gibson's faded range (I have 2 faded guitars) and maybe it works well on mahogany, but on ash it looks like an oil spill. Actually playing it wasn't too bad, it wasn't neck heavy and the light weight and warm finish made it feel quite comfy. Sound was average, but I'm not surprised Gibson don't sell many basses when you see what else is offered at this price range. I was a little underwhelmed.

Hope you don't mind me adding something, I added a Grace Jones track from her Hurricane album. I just love the bass on the track "Love you to Life".

Is "fixing" the greasebucket circuit simply a matter of changing a capacitor? That's good to know! Makes me wonder why there's so much fuss made about it?