bnt

I'm now pretty good at resisting GAS, usually for financial reasons. I tell myself I can't afford stuff, even when I can. The prices in the few Irish music stores are a good disincentive, so I've made nearly all my purchases on visits to London. The last straw was in 2001-2, when I bought a 2nd-hand Chapman Stick, followed by a rare keyboard synth (Kawai K5000S). I really don't get on with the Stick at all, but there's not much of a market for a Stick in Ireland, so I may try and trade it on my next visit to the UK. Another reason is space: I share a small rented flat, with neighbours below me, so I don't have an amp at all, and play through a preamp and headphones. If I buy anything, it's one more thing that I have to schlep around with me, and I have too much of that already. I'm about to start university - a pre-emptive strike on the midlife crisis - so there's no let-up on the budgetary constraints any time soon. There, I hope to get involved in a band or two, even if it's just the "battle of the bands", so I may need a new bass, because my main Hohner headless is not remotely fashionable. However, I've just recently discovered the NS WAV 4 bass, the budget version of their upright, which is not helping. I'll have to travel to the UK before I even see one, though, so I can resist.

I'm investigating a possible EUB purchase, looking for video examples, and found this: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBv15FXBBvQ"][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBv15FXBBvQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBv15FXBBvQ[/url][/url] Eberhard was the first EUB player I ever heard, with Kate Bush, and has many recordings out on ECM. This ... just awe-inspiring. edit: I've just [url="http://speakeasy.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy/showthread.php?t=20999"]read[/url] that Eberhard is recovering from a stroke he suffered in April, but was sounding stronger and positive he'll be playing again.

It's a bass solo, innit? I like the little nods to other bassists - Mark King, Les Claypool, and of course Jaco (the delay section). There are other Casiopea tracks on YouTube that are more musically solid. The Dublin store Walton's has some Tune instruments on sale, and I'm considering a [url="http://tuneguitars.com/store/wizmart.php?code=000101&lv=2"]Hatsun's TWB[/url] 4-string. That's one of the [url="http://www.tuneguitars.com/"]Korean Tunes[/url] - not affiliated with the original [url="http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~tune/tune/framepage,tune.html"]Japanese Tunes[/url] that Narucho plays, and I couldn't afford. Don't quite know what the legal situation is there, but the Japanese site has a [url="http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~tune/tune/important/important.htm"]notice[/url] about the Korean site.

[quote name='RichBowman' post='42914' date='Aug 8 2007, 03:09 PM']I'm intrigued - does anyone know if you can get a 10-stringer (as in low ? I'd love to have a go at that.[/quote] I know Michael Manring got Zon to make one for him... but here's one made in the UK by Manson: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHWxLruLvA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHWxLruLvA[/url] As for the 8-string, try the following video: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuRuVT6QElw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuRuVT6QElw[/url] The sound quality is not that good, and the singer is ... unique ... but it takes more than that to get in the way of that 8-string.

I have a Hohner B2V: it's a solid chunk of wood, light but not quite as light as you might think..! The bass I really want is also very light: the [url="http://www.parkerguitars.com/code/models/models_bass_4str_intro.asp"]Parker Fly[/url], whose specs say it weighs 7¾ pounds. The Mojo is the same, but the cheaper PB41 weighs 9 pounds. I wonder if that includes strings?

[quote name='ARGH' post='41387' date='Aug 4 2007, 08:35 PM']You ever seen Bowie with Gabrels doing 'Heros'???[/quote] No, but I've seen King Crimson doing Heroes, with two of Bowie's old collaborators: Fripp (who was on the original) & Belew. Gabrels is awesome, though - who else would have thought of playing a chrome-plated Steinberger guitar with a vibrator..? He's been quiet for a few years due to illness, but he's on the way back.

Almost all fingers, though I do keep a few plecs around to play with. I find that I can get a plec-ish tone if I hammer on the strings a bit, especially when I've forgotten to trim my nails.

[quote name='bassboy115' post='38405' date='Jul 29 2007, 11:44 AM']Does he literally just get a piece of sand paper to the neck to remove the finish? Does anybody do that?[/quote] I just saw his Bass Player magazine interview and the answer appears to be exactly that. Not to a vintage neck, though - the neck on his main bass finally wore out and has been replaced with a neck from one of his signature basses.

I've checked out a few of those YouTube videos... is the human thumb really supposed to bend back that far? Mine doesn't go past straight, there's nothing to hit the string on the way back up.

They don't ship Ernie Balls outside the US... so does that mean I can't have that MM Bongo, Teal Pearl w/ Moonstone pickguard, then? Dang...

Hi, I registered on the old forum and posted a message like this, not long before the move here, which means I forgot to introduce myself here, so here goes again. I'm originally from Scotland (Dunfermline), but moved to South Africa at age 6, and live there till 23. Finished school, went straight to work. No university: no govt. grants there, competition for corporate bursaries was fierce and nepotistic. (This becomes relevant later.) I got in to bass there at around 16, and bought a P-bass copy someone there had going cheap. It certainly didn't go "Woof", even after modifications, and I found it was made of plywood, and not worth fighting for. I got it in my head that I wanted a headless bass, after playing one and seeing a few on TV. I also wanted a 5-string, which was rare in South Africa at the time, but a local shop found me the Hohner B2V I still have today. I used it in a covers band, mostly guys I worked with plus my stepbrother on guitar. I moved back to the UK in 1991 - but haven't been in a band since then: too busy working or looking for work. I was lucky to get the B2V through Heathrow: they saw the truss rod on the x-ray, and thought I was bringing a rifle in to the country. It didn't help that I had it in a hard rifle case - the only one I could find at a normal price. I had the B2V pickups replaced with EMG 40 P/J soapbars by the Bass Centre in London. It still sounds great - not "plastic" at all, though the anaemic Low-B means I've settled on a High-C tuning. I have quite strong fingers, after years of playing Rush songs with no amp, and with new strings this thing has as much Punch as all the Proms in Orange County. I need to do some more work on my second bass, a Hohner B2Afl fretless, which I picked up 2nd-hand in 1994, and modified straight away. Someone had put frets on the fretless fingerboard, and badly: some were audibly off. I didn't think I was buying a fretless then, but I was considering it: it was one of those "meant to be" moments. I soon had the frets off and epoxy in the slots... then I decided I wanted a natural finish, not another black Steinberger clone... then I got the saw out. I might put some pictures up in the "Bass Porn" section later. All I'll say at this point is: I suspect Steinberger sent their spies my way, before designing the Synapse models... My "GAS Overdose Moment" came in 2001: I bought a 10-string Chapman Stick, and soon found out that it was not for me. Huge learning curve for a bassist, and (IMHO) it's such a specialised instrument and technique that I'd need to study it intensively to get anywhere. I'm probably going to sell it. I've lived in Ireland, working at the local branch of a US IT company, since 1999, but here's where the "midlife crisis" comes in: I'm about to quit my job and go into full-time study here. It will be a career change in to Structural Engineering: IT is a young man's game now, and I have no prospect of advancement without bits pf paper, so I've decided to make a break for it and try to get back some of those lost years, as a not-so-mature student. I'm also hoping to get back in to playing live. A big obstacle for me, when looking at "band members wanted" ads, are lines like "no time wasters"... "must be committed", "must have own transport", and so on. Since the day I left school, I've been reliant on income from work as my sole means of support. It's only now, 20+ years later, where I have the relative luxury of jacking it all in and living off savings and investments... but I'll be studying full-time. So I'm always left wondering: just how are you supposed to play music with other people at all, when you have commitments? I don't know any other musicians here at all, and ads are not helping, but I hope I get to meet more musicians at the university ([url="http://www.ucd.ie/"]UCD[/url], in case you're wondering). Maybe I ought to start a "weekend warriors" project in Dublin ..?

I remember Tina Weymouth used to play a short-scale Hofner, though I doubt you'll find one of those at a sane price these days. What about the Status KingBass? With the "bendwell" option it's one fret shorter, making it about 32.1" (by my calculations). Mark King is quite a little chap who plays fast, so the short scale works for him.

I have a [url="http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=AmpworksB&category_id=6"]Korg Ampworks Bass[/url], which (I think) really sounds great in a home studio setting. Not the most versatile unit, though, and it would be pretty limited live, since the footswitch socket only lets switch between your saved presets - both of them - and manual. The presets sound great, and I always find myself dialling back the effects, but at least there are knobs for everything.

I just got an package of DBs from Status Graphite: they me did a bit of "ego-polishing" by twigging that the single strings I ordered were actually custom 5-string sets, and printing that on the package label. Makes my sets of .025 - .105 seem almost "normal". (I have a Hohner B2V, and have settled on High-C tuning for it: the low B was never solid, and I rarely used it anyway.)

I placed an order yesterday, and wish I'd seen this thread first, but Status Graphite's prices are still competitive. This time I've ordered some half-wounds for the fretless 4, and a couple of custom sets for my 5-string Hohner B2V. I'm converting that to High C again, 25-105, since the low B is weedy and didn't get much use by me anyway.

I remember Jim Glennie of James saying that the Sterling became his main bass because it's lighter, and cuts through a mix very well. That sound is the main reason I got in to James in the first place, and I wouldn't look down my nose at one.

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned John Kerry yet: the Democratic Presidential Candidate was bassist in a school band that recorded an album. ([url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3498847.stm"]BBC News report[/url].) First bassist in the White House?

Smashing Pumpkins' [i]Siamese Dream[/i] (D'Arcy & Billy Corgan) Michael Manring's [i]Toward The Center Of The Night[/i] Adrian Belew's [i]Op Zop Too Wah[/i] (AB on bass) Ash - [i]Free All Angels[/i] (Mark Hamilton) - esp. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW8mEMqiNhc"]Burn Baby Burn[/url] + the new Rush [i]Snakes & Arrows[/i] is excellent, though I preferred Geddy's tone when he had the "Horny Wal"

If "Fender" encompasses any of the other companies owned by Fender Musical Instrument Corporation (FMIC), then it's a toss-up between a Tacoma Thunderchief 5-string acoustic bass (high-C), and a SWR Super Redhead combo. ^_^ I wanted a SWR MoBass head, the one that Bryan Beller championed when he worked there, but it seems they canned it after he gave up his vice-presidency to go back to music. He's been with Mike Keneally for a few years, but this summer he's touring with Steve Vai, so it I suppose it was a good decision...