anaxcrosswords

I'm toying with the idea of buying a UV strip - there's one for about £40 on Ebay.

Much ta! Have asked the seller if they have anything lighter than 45-105... fingers crossed.

I replied to thread from last year but can’t find it, so apologies for repeating myself here. Having rummaged around Ebay I like the look of the blue ones, but just want to find out if they [i]only [/i]look visually striking under UV. We just use standard LED rigs – no point in getting the neons if they’ll look pretty much like ordinary strings albeit with a slight blue tint.

I've been rummaging through these on Ebay and I'm quite taken by the blue ones. Before I invest, though... they obviously look great under UV but do they have much visual effect under normal LED stage lighting?

Just checked some covers I uploaded to SoundCloud 2 months ago. Still there, no problems.

Programmed vs real drums – makes me wonder. Is lag/push more natural-sounding alongside real drums and does it sound ‘messy’ alongside programmed?

There were a couple of things that really annoyed me when I listened back to old home studio recordings. I seemed unable to go into the next bar without some little bass twiddle, and also had a bad habit of being slightly ahead of the beat, even on recordings where we used programmed drums. In fairness, it was often hard to detect, but it seemed to be increasingly obvious the more a track was played. So I spent the following years – right until now – concentrating very hard on precisely hitting the beat (as well as keeping things simpler) and it sounds infinitely better. Yes, there are types of music where being ahead/behind has a specific beneficial effect, but I’d rather play in time on a recording then move the clip forwards/backwards a tick or two if that helps with urgency/laid-back feel. For live stuff I want to be bang on because the temptation is always for things to speed up – as it is we seem to play the first half of Set 1 at breakneck speed through lack of rhythmic discipline and control and, as JTUK mentions, a pushy drummer can be a huge problem.

For as many months as I can remember, every time I’ve plugged in at home it has been to learn a song, entirely for my own enjoyment rather than for the band. After running through something last night I casually started fiddling around and came up with one of those funky lines that actually induces a grin. It made me think of Mark King’s “Gaddafi Duck” and, while nowhere near as adventurous, it had that vaguely messy feel (for me, lots of accidental harmonics and double string hits) that actually seemed to make it better. So if I can manage to tear myself away from the snooker I might re-learn how to take a riff idea and turn it into a tune, which I haven’t done for years. On that subject, I’ll probably try to look for decent drum machine software to replace HotStepper – which is pretty good, free, but slightly limiting – with something more sophisticated. Don’t mind paying a reasonable price for it and any recommendations would be appreciated (I run XP).

Funny that [b]Moondance [/b]should be mentioned. We were asked to do it as a wedding first dance, knowing that would be the only time it ever appeared in our set. Have to say I actually enjoyed learning and playing it, but I suspect that's because it's so different to anything else we do.

The 1960s. All of them.

A nice tip for making dead strings come back to life – no taking them off and boiling them! Loosen them so they’re quite flappy without actually dangling. Give them several tugs, the way you would when fitting new ones. Re-tighten to normal tuning. Some of that sounds fnarr fnarr but, believe me, it works.

[quote name='Qlank' timestamp='1430222569' post='2759099'] Rolling in the deep by Adelle. Cool to play. Need to convince the rest of the band to play it. [/quote] Hope you convince them. It's been on our set list for a couple of years and always goes down well. A favourite of mine is [b]Somebody Told Me[/b] ([i]Killers[/i]) for which I usually drop the E to Eb for the mid-section that starts with "Pace yourself for me". That chorus is huge fun.

It pains me to agree about Matthew Bellamy, which is a shame since Muse are a band of brilliant musicians. Because of that I sort of forgive him, but can only take his voice in small doses. Mariah Carey’s voice, on the other hand, is one of understated magnificence, and by that I mean precisely the opposite.

Billie Jean - boring riff but the unusual arrangement of verses, bridges & choruses has a habit of catching us out. Every time we play it I know it has the potential to fall apart. Ain't No Stoppin' Us (McFadden & Whitehead) - a lot of hard work for zero reward. It clears the dance floor like a fire alarm.

Blue - I can assure you, you look very young for your age.

When it turns out the person paying the compliment is another bass player I actually find it a relief. Not because the compliment carries more weight, but precisely because we can quickly move the conversation into nerd territory, which I find far more comfortable than talking about me.

I agree completely with what he says regarding the thumb. Strange this is that when I [i]do [/i]allow the thumb to be where it shouldn't be it doesn't feel awkward - I just have this odd feeling that it looks somehow wrong!

What an odd thing to be thinking about, but thinking about it I am. Just been blasting through a few songs and noticed that I vary between thumb on the back of the fretboard and thumb sticking out above the E string. Can’t say that one feels more comfortable than the other, nor does one seem to point towards better technique or playing speed. And yet… I have this strange image of the hidden thumb looking somehow more ‘professional’, and that the sticky-up version somehow isn’t. Damn strange thing to think…

Because we rehearse regularly enough and I’m so familiar with the material anyway, when I practice at home I call up my MP3 folder and rummage through non-band songs. There will always be something I try for the first time, but I’ll also gravitate to one or two irresistible songs which I know off by heart but can’t get enough of playing. In my case there are two – technically very easy but I love them; [b]Starlight [/b]by [i]Muse [/i](albeit without synth patch) and the rather obscure [b]Alive [/b]by [i]Arrows To Athens[/i]. I say technically easy – in truth I’m trying to nail lead vox as well, so they’re a bit more of a challenge. For matching vox to non-standard bass rhythm, 'Alive' is a fantastic exercise. Anyway, how about you? Are there a very small number of songs you always pick for a self-indulgent thrash?

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1428836523' post='2744978'] ...mumbled something about the onstage sound being crap. [/quote] Oh yes, oh yes! That is one of my stock responses, probably the most frequent one I use.

Yes, I certainly get that internal buzz – it’s nice to know that whatever I’m doing works. It’s just that, for me, whenever a compliment arrives I relapse to teen self-consciousness. But I’m hugely encouraged by the responses so far; seems I’m not as abnormal as I think.

I've always found myself saying "thanks" very, very awkwardly and hoping they'll leave it at that. Are bassists inherently a bit shy in this regard? It's OK for guitarists - they can say "of course I'm fantastic. Now down on your knees you meaningless non-god while I tell you all about myself". All I want to do is escape!

Quick update – it’s now fixed. The battery was getting on a bit, although it surprised me that a depleted one wouldn’t necessarily affect all strings. I’ve gone for a slightly heavier gauge (40s) and the tech said the A string was slightly low, not enough to cause audible fret rattle but enough to ‘waste’ some of what should have reached the pickups.

After a gig a couple of years ago, my bass combo was on a trolley making its way to my car. Whoever was pushing it didn’t see an uneven bit of paving and the amp toppled over onto my foot. Damn painful for quite a few days and amazing nothing was broken, not even the amp! Touch wood I’ve been injury free apart from that, other than a couple of weeks ago when I slightly pulled a finger muscle while playing – thankfully during the encore.