neilp

Interesting the things people pick on with instruments. I'm an unapologetic Aria fan - I have a pair of SB100s, fretted and fretless and I love them dearly, but I also have a fretless Wal, a P bass and a Jazz bass. It would be difficult to imagine a more diverse collection of nut widths, bridge spacing and neck profiles, but in reality it makes no difference at all. I swap between them all regularly and within a second or two I'm fully acclimatised. I'm not a believer in "I must have THIS nut width and THAT fingerboard radius". Play the bass that makes the noise you need. And by the way, you missed a great bass in that SB700. No comparison with the Westone, a different league

Best purchase - never having owned a P bass, and with a new project on the horizon which would benefit, I dipped my toe in to the extent of buying a Squier Classic Vibe 60s P bass, on the basis that it's cheap enough to just get chucked under the bed if I don't like it. And? It's great! Body is a bit light maybe, hardware is a tiny bit cheap feeling, but it plays and sounds great. Neck is very nice, finish on the fretting first class, generally way better than I expected. Highly reccommended

It's all very clever, but it's closer to a video game than it is to music. Get these kids out playing music with other humans, and then maybe they'll turn into great musicians. Youtube channels can't do that

A Satellite Jazz bass copy bought new in 1979, which I still have! I didn't realise it was still around, I assumed it had been "borrowed" at some stage after I bought my SB1000, but I was clearing out a cupboard for my mother the other week, and there it was!!! I must have chucked it in there when a pickup died and it just sat there. Now has new pickups and is back in the herd... Photos later

One last comment on this, and then I'll let you all make your lives difficult. Just because a phrase doesn't begin and end at the beginning of a 4/4 bar every time, doesn't mean it's not in 4/4.

That's the point. So am I, but this piece is neither polyrhythmic nor in multiple time signatures. Straightforward 4/4, and that's by far the easiest way to count it

Just because there's an accented beat, doesn't make it the '1'. Have a listen to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, or almost any orchestral music by Brahms. There are accents all over the place, and it's almost impossible to play if you try to make the accents the 1 of every bar. Put the bar lines where they should be, so you can count a steady four, and it makes total sense. Try it. Trust me.

The drum track is the thing to listen to if you want this song to come out right. It's so much easier if you count it in 4 and learn where the accents come. Then all you need is a drummer who can keep time....🤣

No, we're thinking about it wrong. The drums are in 4 all the way through. Trying to play it with different length bars is what makes it difficult. Forget the notation, listen to the song, count it in 4 and follow the drums. I promise, it will make sense

No, the pink sections are parts of a longer, 4/4 phrase that have accents shifted from where the typical back beat would put them. Count it in 4, listen to the drums and it will become clear

All of the bars are 4/4. The thing that varies is the length of the phrases, not the tempo or the time signature. Thats why so many people struggle to play it, they try to divide up the bars differently. If you listen to the drums playing the straight 4/4 you can then place the phrases against that, and it's relatively simple as long as you can play the riff rhythmically

Well aware of that, I work there! But at the end of the day, what you're paying for matters far far less than how much you're paying!! My feeling is, given how often you need to change a bridge, paying a bit extra for the best blank and the best job is well worth it, if you can. Given how much some people spend chasing the "perfect" set of strings!!

Have you ever seen how much work goes into turning a blank into a proper, fitted bridge? Never mind the extra work to fit adjusters properly. To give you an idea how cheap luthiers are, an hour of the time of a "technician" at a Jaguar dealership hereabouts will cost you £200. Compare the skill levels....

Best - I can't choose, so either Q Tips at The Lakers Hotel in Redhill early 1980, or Springsteen at St James Park in 1985 Worst - Bad Manners at Bristol University Students Union in 1984 (I think). Dreadful, chaotic, awful sound, out of tune, apathetic drivel

I'm not a huge fan, but U2 were and are the tightest band I've ever seen. Clayton undoubtedly has the ability to play lots and lots more notes than he does, but makes the CHOICE not to. No way a band can be that tight and powerful with a bad bass player.

I don't think anyone has raised the idea of "cancelling" anyone or anything, the discussion has all been about personal feelings and personal decisions. And if songs, films, paintings or sculptures reflect attitudes from the time and culture they were created in, and those attitudes (racism, approval of slave trade, misogyny for example) are generally deemed by modern society to be unacceptable, what is wrong with refusing to play, listen to or look at them? Or should we just allow these toxic attitudes to hang around?

It's German, maybe 1920s/30s I reckon. Scroll looks quite nice, shame someone cut the hatpegs off! It's been in the wars though, those new bits of wood in the ribs don't help its cause any and there are lots of cracks in the top and the back. As it doesn't look great, its value depends largely on how it plays and how it sounds. Could be a grand, could be 3 or 4....

Marriott always said he was happy, even flattered, that Plant borrowed so much from that song. And after all, however much all the Zeppelin bashers go on, it's mostly sour grapes over the success. Whole Lotta Love is a much better, more interesting song

That record is a synth. I don't know why, it's dead easy and sounds better on a fretless. I like Tony Levin's playing, and Tony Franklin may be the best thing about The Firm

You don't need it counted in at 129 or at 130, you need it counted in at the tempo you decided on at rehearsal. You don't even need to know what that tempo is in BPM, as long as you know how it feels. Counting in is no different than playing. If you use loops etc you might need a click. Otherwise keep the mechanical timekeeping out of it and learn to play the song at the right tempo, judged by how it feels. Metronomes are a practice tool.

I think the answer to that is "no reason at all", except that I think it tends to become a displacement activity for some, like the endless search for the perfect strings that some double bass players get involved in (honestly, who has time for messing with mixed sets of strings????). I think the answer to most of the problems people encounter with neck profiles, balance, string spacing etc etc is simply to play the bass and get used to it, and focus on making music. Just my opinion, not saying anyone is wrong, just that there's a risk of too much focus on the gear.....

So in my collection I have two Aria SB1000s - one fretted and one fretless, a 2001 Epiphone Thunderbird, a 1985 Wal fretless and my first ever bass, a Satellite Jazz copy from 1979. All very different neck profiles, which is an issue that, being honest, I never even think about. In the same way it would never occur to me to worry about what wood a bass is made from. If you don't know, you can't tell from listening. I think we all worry about these things far too much. Consumer culture has taught us to expect to have EXACTLY what we think we want, regardless of its actual merits. GAS at work.....

While I entirely agree with this particular opinion, I don't think I give a flying f-ck what that whiny, arrogant tosser or his lairy brother think

Yes, you are being over sensitive! I think it's about how you view the whole thing. Being unprepared certainly doesn't make you an inferior musician, but it might make you a less reliable, flakier band member. I make no judgement, but I would be pretty whizzed off if my guitarist or keyboard player didn't have spares and it ruined the gig....wouldn't you? At the absolute minimum spare strings, batteries, leads, DI box and some tools. If you really only have one bass and can't afford another one, fair enough, but be as prepared as you can be, surely? The lazy one finger says it all, really....

If I'm being paid for a gig, then yes, I always have backups (bass and amp). Mind you, the gigs where I would play one bass throughout by choice are pretty rare, so I normally have a fretted and a fretless at least. Spare batteries and strings too. I don't think it makes a difference what kind of gig it is, if you're being paid then it's a professional engagement and you should be prepared as best you can. Having said that, I've never broken a bass string and I can only think of one occasion when a battery died!