bnt

Tony Levin's [i]Beyond The Bass Clef[/i] is excellent - funny and wise, the only theory-type stuff is a speech he gave on note placement against the beat. My copy is currently on loan to another BassChatter - no, I haven't forgotten! - so once he's finished it, it can do the rounds by post. Send me a PM, if you fancy a read.

Eek! Be sure to take your camera on your next trip to the local guitar shop: to catch the looks on their faces when you ask for a 9-string set. "Um... so you want a 4-string set and a 5-string set, then?"

I like Manring a lot too, though a lot of his stuff requires the Hyperbass, such as my favourite piece of his, [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ehhptz7RyU"]The Enormous Room[/url]. On his 1989 album [i]Toward The Center Of The Night[/i] he plays a PRS fretless on most tracks, including solo pieces [i]Blue Orleans[/i] (soulful) and [i]Geometry[/i] (tapping). Or, you could try doing bass versions of songs, and singing...

[quote name='lushuk' post='83374' date='Nov 4 2007, 01:28 AM'][/quote]There's already been a band named [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lush_%28band%29"]Lush[/url], actually. Now they're a chain of shops selling soaps & bath bombs. The Coffin Dodgers, meanwhile, is in use by another group, [url="http://fp.jculf.plus.com/shuffle/theband.htm"]here[/url].

[quote name='Jono' post='82936' date='Nov 2 2007, 08:58 PM']Bass collection or Tune basses are also pretty thin.[/quote] The Tune that I have ([url="http://www.tuneguitars.com/store/wizmart.php?code=000101&lv=2"]TWB43[/url]) is thin, but not extremely so - probably comparable to a Fender Jazz. However, I agree with other posters, that you may want to consider a shorter scale as part of the solution.

When I saw the title, I thought it was a thread about the difference between Accuracy and Precision. Would anyone buy a "Fender Accuracy" bass?

It's now been removed, and relisted as a '75.

[quote name='paul, the' post='82522' date='Nov 1 2007, 09:48 PM']The 'You're' in the title is killing me.[/quote] I tried to get in the spirit, and started writing "[b]I'm[/b] first real bassline...", but I chickened out.

There was a documentary about the making of [i]Aja[/i] a few years ago, with interviews with all involved, including Chuck. The story of how he had to conceal his slapped part on [i]Peg[/i] from Donald is now part of bass folklore. Hey, the bassist knows what's best for the bass!

My first real bassline was probably [i]Owner of a Lonely Heart[/i] (Yes), though Rush's [i]Red Barchetta[/i] was another early favourite.

Caution - EW didn't make it to Dublin, it was only announced at the start of the set. I didn't quite catch the name of the sub - Ivan Valyev is the closest I can get - but he did an excellent job on Warwick Thumb 5 (electric). Not the greatest jazz gig I've been at, due to other factors : I'm just back from Miroslav Vitous, at the Cork Jazz Festival, which was Bizarre in the best sense of the word. 8)

A few tricks I had: - "one drop" - leave out the first note in a 4/4 bar. Instant reggae, mon! - decide if a song is major or minor: throw in intervals on "off notes", when you're not playing the root with the bass drum. Examples are min/maj 3 (3/4 frets up), min/maj 6 (8/9 semitones up)or their inbersions . Sad songs are generally minor key.

Did a similar thing - digital FX with pitch shift set to an octave up, at a medium level (not too high).

They're not taking orders anyway - closed for "reorganisation". If you're after a Stick Bass, don't go anywhere near stick.com either.

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='77089' date='Oct 20 2007, 06:49 PM']That said, right now I'd like to build a simple website for my band. Can my Vista "Premium" laptop do that? Can it $#$#$#@. I'll prob have to buy a bit of software that won't work properly and then get another one to upload it. Grrr![/quote] I don't understand - are you expecting it to include a web page authoring app, like FrontPage, or Dreamweaver? The actual site itself won't be on your laptop, it'll be on a web server, and you'd do whatever is required to make that work. e.g. if the site has FrontPage Extensions, you can use FrontPage... or you can just use a text editor and FTP. Or base your site on a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress or Drupal, and do it all through the web browser. I think Macs are basically compatible with all WiFi routers - no reason to be non-standard, then they wouldn't be able to connect to public routers at airports etc. Standards are good - that's why there are so many of them!

[quote name='SMART' post='76977' date='Oct 20 2007, 02:17 PM']It seems that PC users have an inane desire to kick against innovation and ease of use in computing and prefer to suffer the multitude of tortures that PCs can wreak on mere mortals! ... But then PC fans seem to have an in-built desire to meet the time consuming frustrations of owning and running a PC and fiddle.[/quote] Sorry - fundamental mistake there: you're conflating PCs with Windows, and you're confusing Microsoft with the other companies who make the hardware and drivers that go on there. Apple has the luxury of an ivory tower, from where it controls everything from the base hardware up. When Microsoft does that (just about), you get the XBox, but if they tried making a laptop from the ground up, you can imagine the hypocritical protests there would be from Apple fans. That little laptop I mentioned won't come with Windows as standard, at least not at first. It runs a version of Linux. Windows will be made available later for those who want it, but I'm not one of those. My other PC a desktop, still runs Windows XP SP2, and does it just fine, with none of those problems your leaders tell you that everyone else has. I know, from experience, what you need to do and not do. The things I need to do, to keep it going, are no more of an imposition than using a manual gearbox in a car, filling the tank and inflating the tyres. Vista, on the other hand... been there, done that, and said "no thanks" - they're trying to "do it all", and not very well. I don't agree that Steve Jobs had no choice but to submit to DRM, but he did. He's since [url="http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic"]admitted he was wrong[/url] about that... but then he goes and locks the iPhone to AT&T in the USA, and it will be O2 only in Europe - again, submitting to anti-competitive pressure from other industries. Apple has become what they once accused Microsoft of being - anti-competitive - but they're so much nicer about it, aren't they? Such a clean, hip image they project, such an aura of "innovation", with the "completely original" OS X core that they took from NeXT, who took it from BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) UNIX. This is the reason for Apple's better resistance to viruses etc., nothing Jobs & co. can take the primary credit for. Do you think I have not heard all this before, and need to be subjected to a patronising lecture about how much of an idiot I am, for not joining the Cult of Apple? I prefer computers I can control, so that they do my bidding, and not [i]vice versa[/i]. Anyway, this is a bass forum, not a pulpit for your Cult Of Apple evangelism, please? PS: I didn't mean to rant, I just hope people can look beyond the PC vs Mac stereotyping, and have a think about why things are the way they are. The first post got it wrong on the hardware differences (there aren't many), and your post gives Apple credit they haven't earned and don't deserve.

[quote name='Bassman7' post='76655' date='Oct 19 2007, 06:50 PM']You just got to have the next Mac OS X Leopard with a screen like this![/quote] I don't see anything special, to be honest. To me, Macs cost far too much for what they do, and I will never forgive them for the DRM they pushed on "Pod People" who didn't know any better. My next PC purchase will probably be one of the [url="http://eeepc.asus.com/en/"]ASUS Eee PCs[/url], a laptop weighing less than 2lb with a flash HDD, running Linux as standard, and a price tag around £200. Something I can chuck in a rucksack and take everywhere.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='76553' date='Oct 19 2007, 03:06 PM']It's just a bit pointless isn't it! I don't mind having a messy pc, 'cos i'm always messing with it.[/quote] I'd say it's pointless for a general PC, and mine is hardly nice inside either. However, if you're into overclocking and other envelope-pushing, keeping a tidy interior is not just aesthetic, it's also about clean airflow to the CPU, memory controllers and other hot chips. (I've just realised that I put my current PC together nearly 3 years ago, from components that were hardly bleeding edge at the the time... yet the mid-range Ge6600 graphics card can still run a game like Guild Wars at 1440x900 resolution, 50+FPS. I really have to wonder who's buying these fire-breathing graphics cards, the ones that cost more than the rest of the PC, occupy two slots, and come with a leaf-blower on the back to keep them cool...)

You could look in to Stuart Hamm, perhaps. I wonder how many bassists have tried [i][url="http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Ei-ZFttsQ"]Linus & Lucy[/url][/i] since he did it years ago? Here's one example: [url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfZqfbTZbo"]http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfZqfbTZbo[/url] (No, it's not me, my Tune bass is only a 4-string)

Not sure how you can generalise about PCs from the likes of Dell, never mind a "beige box": manufacturers can do a better job of laying out the interior and designing cases for easy access, and some do. I know Compaq did, before they were taken over by HP. Disclosure: I used to work for Compaq, and then for HP, though that was in relation to Servers and Storage, not desktop PCs. I still saw inside various PC models over the years. You think that Mac is well laid out, but have you seen the inside of a Proliant 8500 (DL760) server?

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='76326' date='Oct 19 2007, 08:27 AM']See the sticky on this subject - the Bass Collection brand has re-surfaced more than once since the SGC Nanyo days.[/quote] Ah - OK, found it. I thought it worth mentioning because the other thread was quite positive about SX basses, for their price.

In the discussion about SX basses last week, did anyone notice that SX are making Bass Collection instruments now? Example from SX Spain, which seems to be the main European site, [url="http://www.sxguitarspain.com/sx_bass_collection.htm"]here[/url].

One site I found a while ago, and took some finding... [url="http://www.krappyguitars.com/"]http://www.krappyguitars.com/[/url] The [url="http://www.krappyguitars.com/punkbass.html"]Punk Basses[/url] are particularly enervating, but this one is at least innovative...

I dug in to that thread a bit further, and found at least one interesting link: [url="http://www.oddballbasses.com/"]http://www.oddballbasses.com/[/url] PS: have a look at pg 1 of that thread - or the picture [url="http://xs100.xs.to/xs100/06194/uglyassedguitar.jpg"]here[/url]. It's a bit big to post here, and might frighten the horses.