Al Krow

Ah that's a nice side effect of preventing drying laundry moisture penetrating the wood fibres on our basses - we've got distilled water for irons to press the laundry with! 😊 I ended up going for this one which was just under £50 - are you saying Lidl and Aldi ones are better? Are they noisy?

Just younger and with better backs. I suspect they might struggle along with the rest of us these days!

Tell me about it! If it had been a couple of lbs lighter I would have found it very hard to resist!

That's hugely useful Phil - and articulates with figures what my "gut" has been telling me for a while. Well my forking out on a bit of dehumidifying kit as a result of this thread has been very timely - it will hopefully prevent the humidity levels going above 70% or so in the basement.

So no different to a covers band at a wedding. At the end of the day we are the "entertainment". Our industry was given the label for a reason.

Now that's a great phrase "circus slap"! I'm banking that. Perfectly describes what this thread is moaning about.

It was an excellent post, thank you. You, the OP and @bassfan have just cost me £60 on a meter and dehumidifier. But have saved me a bunch of unnecessary stress and £several thousand on divorce lawyers 😁

Hygrometer for £10 Dehumidifier for £40 (no idea if it's any good, but it's an Amazon best seller) or this one which is a little more compact / effective for a few quid more. Peace of mind / avoiding a bust up with the missus - priceless 😁

Good shout!

That's really useful, thanks. (I've got similar concerns to the OP, although my herd is not in the same league as his! ). When you say maybe surprised, are you meaning pleasantly surprised at how low the humidity is?

Hey - welcome back! 9.75 lbs is not heavy - anything under around 10lbs is manageable in my books and I'm no Iron Man and no youth. This, on the other, hand is heavy at 12 lbs...

Hey @JRBass - I've spent a fair bit of time on that particular journey, myself, and have had two VK (both 210s) and two BF cabs over the past 3 or so years. You won't be disappointed with either brand IMO. The VKs are a little more coloured / sweeter sounding than the BF. I've ended up (a little to my surprise tbh) with a BF BB2 as my intended goto gigging cab, which I got hold of just before lockdown so have not had chance to try out in anger with full rock band yet. But I really like the combination of sound quality / articulation, frequency response, power handling & output and fantastic portability; as a 112 it's pretty hard to beat across all those categories taken together but it doesn't come cheap - I was fortunate to get one used in vgc. What set up and band will you be using it for - I see from your avatar that you're mainly an upright double bass player?

Dave that's very fair, however bass is part of the rhythm section as well as being a melody instrument. For me, slap is essentially a development of the percussive element of bass as a rhythm instrument. In fact Larry Graham, who is credited with inventing the style when they didn't have a drummer in the band, said that he developed "thumpin'" to make up for the absent kick drum and "pluckin'" to take the place of the missing snare (see clip starting at around 1.17). Leaving space for the rest of the band to breathe has been mentioned as key to a great slap groove. Absolutely.

Nope, I think ubit got it exactly right. Slagging off slap is a bit like slagging off punk or jazz or heavy metal or classical or whatever, just 'cos it's not your particular cup of tea. Fair enough, it's not your cup of tea. Move on.

What can I say?

Good question. My action is relatively low and my first thought was exactly as you suggested to raise the string height and that certainly helped, but I wouldn't want it too much higher. Interestingly I found that Marc was also getting some fret buzz on his Ibby SR (which happens to be the bass I am using), which was at least reassuring! Are you also a double thumb user / fan?

Hey - welcome to Basschat! What a really good groove you've got - your drumming roots clearly give you an unfair advantage on that score! Love that track by the Weekend btw: must admit I was for a long time fooled into thinking it was about the female love of his life and not his mate charlie.

If you, or anyone else, genuinely wants to master tasteful / usable slap bass technique then I'd very much recommend two simple steps: 1. Set your bass & rig up to accommodate slap bass. Essentially a fresh set of rounds and appropriate EQ: treble boost, a little mid cut and a perhaps a little bass boost 2. Enrol on Mark from Talking Bass' excellent course: https://www.talkingbass.net/product/simple-steps-slap-bass/ . If he's managed to get someone as clueless about slap bass as me, to significantly improve I'm sure that will also be true for many others. It's been the best £60 I've spent during lock-down on bass related stuff by some margin. Most importantly - have some fun learning and playing!

Interesting point I picked up (well to me anyway!) today on Mark's TB slap bass course. For slap bass the thumb-through technique (Victor Wooten style) gives a fuller deeper sound including the fundamental, more akin to using a pick. In contrast with the more common thumb-bounce (& percussive Mark King style) which results in a more zingy sound emphasising the harmonics akin to finger tapping. Particularly noticeable on the higher notes - and it really is noticeable now it's been pointed out! For the above reasons, Mark actually uses the thumb-through as his default. But if we're going to try and match the speed of the traditional bounce with the thumb-through this will needs double thumbing. The one key downside I've noticed is the additional fret buzz (certainly at the lower frets) caused by the direction of the downward strike and resultant string vibration direction

Really useful tips relating to this provided by Mastadon2 and Cetera in the Spector thread:

I'm sure @FinnDave will be along shortly to sell you his newly acquired by trade one. After all he's had that bass for 5 mins already, which is a pretty good show for him. BB414, BB424 or if you feel like splashing out a bit more a BB434. Job done. Either of the first two won't set you back too much at all.

Tell us a bit more about what you're after bass wise eg 4/5 string, purely passive or active / passive, whether you want to buy new or used and a rough idea of budget and I'm sure we will be able to furnish you with some suggestions!

You sure it wasn't a legacy of ingrained Ibby numbering habits i.e. SR1200, SR1205 and SR1206 😁

Actually four seems to be the "right" number of knobs - the pic that Andy posted has the same number (and shape) as the BB 735A i.e. 5 which is appropriate with both P & J pups, but this new model is purely a reverse P.

An active 3 band EQ solo P bass with a reverse P set up and 21 frets. Interesting!