Annoying Twit

It would seem useful for a trio, who could occasionally use a few more complicated arrangements than would normally be possible. Also, if the trio was (say), drums, bass guitar, and maybe a brass instrument, then holding down the occasional keyboard chord might have its uses. Edit: I greatly enjoyed the Satriani piece, both as a technical demonstration and as a piece of music.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1386842067' post='2305130'] There are examples on line of pianists playing trumpets etc, bassists playing three basses (Michael Manring). Plenty of party tricks to go 'round. [/quote] True. E.g. I found this: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUGkj6TyZKQ[/media] I've seen Andy White playing guitar and singing while playing bass pedals, accompanied by a But I'd be curious to hear if anyone here can do this, as I'd like to ask them about it. Edit: [quote name='Huge Hands' timestamp='1386842601' post='2305146'] Not with hands, but when our drummer (regularly) shows up late to a rehearsal, I will play kick and hats with my feet whilst playing bass. I have a mate who does that and sings for his gigs whilst playing with a guitarist. [/quote] Do you find hand/feet independence easier to develop than hand/hand indepence?

Just idle curiosity here, but if tapping can be used to play with one hand, doesn't that create the option that the other hand does something entirely different? E.g. playing a keyboard at the same time. Is anyone here capable of that?

Responding to this thread http://basschat.co.uk/topic/223624-raspberry-pi-usb-audio/ TBH, I haven't run my looper on my Pi yet. I must try it out. I'm using a Rocksmith cable as a USB interface, and that should work. I will give it a try when I can. Currently it runs on my mac, but only uses libraries that should work on the Pi. Progress on the looper slowed down a lot when it go to the stage where it is usable, and I get tempted to play with it rather than work on it. I've added things. E.g. it's supposed to run from 10 footswitches and a LED display, but that doesn't exist yet. I was concerned that it was gaining too many commands, so I added a 'preset mode'. In this mode (modes switched through the footswitches) I can create up to 9 'macros' of commands, assigning one to each of 9 footswitches. Hence it would be possible to come up with command sequences that could be used while playing live. While I tested that it worked some time ago, I've only just recorded my first loop that includes a reversed recording. IMHO it sounds pretty interesting, though clearly playing backwards bass is going to require some practice. (It's playing in my headphones as I type) I would have thought even a backwards drum pattern would have given more guidance than it did. There might be better ways to create backwards parts than what I did this time, e.g. using the metronome, I'll try again.

[quote name='The Dark Lord' timestamp='1386764574' post='2304138'] I think, maybe, you don't understand how ebay works? If you bid £200 on an item which has a 99p starting price, your bid is shown as 99p - as you are the only bidder and, although your max bid is £200, you only NEED to bid 99p to win. [/quote] No, I understand how ebay works. Frequently I expose these 99p bids when I put on my own £100 stupidly low bid. Also, the actual bids are visible when revising a sold item. There are loads and loads of people bidding 99p maximum bids or similar on worthwhile basses.

Whatever you say about Wishbasses, at least the wood looks nice/interesting. Unless it's covered up by clumsily hand-painted black paint that is. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wishbass-Custom-Handbuilt-fretless-bass-guitar-/261351561141?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1120"]http://www.ebay.co.u...ME:B:SS:GB:1120[/url]

[quote name='Joeyfivebags' timestamp='1386701089' post='2303312'] With all the news recently of cons regarding pictures of Xbox One's and PS4's nice to see something in the same vein but other way round. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warwick-Rockbag-acoustic-bass-gigbag-and-Ill-chuck-in-the-bass-too-/331079336301?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item4d15ddc16d"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4d15ddc16d[/url] [/quote] Nice bass too. I put in a lowball bid, and at this exact second am winning, but it'll go for more than I can justify right at this very second.

It was a very interesting experience, and not what I expected. The teacher (I don't know if I should say whom) said that my technique is fine, and in fact that I should relax a bit concerning one-finger-per-fret and other techniques. He covered things such as a two finger and thumb plucking technique for triplets that I've been practicing today and will be into the future. The main theme of the lesson was improvisation and creativity, real time composition, with the main aim identified (* I hope I've remembered this right) being to not rely on muscle memory (playing more or less automatically) but to be able to think ahead concerning what I'm going to play, and with an aim of being able to visualise two different things I might play, and be able to chose one of them. In writing that looks like a small thing, but it's a fundamental change to how I play, and having spent an hour on this already post-lesson (stuck at a railway station with a bass, cable, headphones and a Zoom B2 with batteries ), I can see that there's a lot of work to be done. If I'm using the scales I'm most used to, Ionian, Aeollian, the 'standard' minor and major pentatonic scales, I can visualise the note I'll get with stepwise moves, and obvious intervals to/from the root, but I'm not so good at visualising, and therefore choosing, more adventurous intervals. This is a bigger change to how I do things that it would seem as in hindsight I've realised that my head has been full of ... nothing really when I've been playing. There was one minor comment made by the teacher that had more import than I thought. I mentioned above that I couldn't get the idea of how slap works. He said that due to the high action on the bass I bought with me, that slap would be tricky. Today I extracted my Rockbass 5-er, and lowered the action until it buzzed like a mad thing, then raised it a bit. Normal fingerstyle on that was awful, but I could actually slap on it! It was a slap 101 ultra-simple riff badly played (must make the thumb play a richer note and not accidentally choke it), but at least it was slap. Of my three basses, the Rockbass was the one I liked least, but now I want to play it. I tried adjusting the action on my Shine to see if it would work as well, but still prefer the Rockbass. The Rockbass even produces a better sound slapped than the slightly insipid (*) fingerstyle sound I get from it. Problem: it's not here, it's at work as a 'if there's a few spare minutes' bass. Now I'll have to bring it home (*) I liked the sound until I bought my Cimar, but the Rockbass pales in comparison IMHO.

Is it unreasonable to have some sort of subtle Braille dots or lines on the back of the neck. That can be felt, rather than seen. Sort of like the raised dots on computer keyboards to aid touch typists?

Why the heck haven't Fender released left hand versions of these basses? That seems really weird to me. It's not like Fender is a small time operation or that the bass VIs have a small market.

French lessons?

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1386522139' post='2300995'] Mmmm that sounds tasty! Will it be a suitable bass for dub reggae with heavy flats? [/quote] I'm no expert, but I would think that dub reggae would be what this bass would excel at.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aria-Pro-11-Bass-Guitar-/221333156069?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item33887bf0e5 I'm trying to revise my SBs. Neck through, passive. SB700?

How much is one of those worth? I'm wildly guessing about £600 or so, but have nothing to base that on. Edit: Or, perhaps over a grand http://basschat.co.uk/topic/190193-fs-ovation-elite-acoustic-bass-b768-withdrawn/

I tried one of these. I know it's a bass, but it was just too bassy for me. I found it a bit to be the bass equivalent of eating 80% dark chocolate. Just too much of a good thing.

[quote name='the hand of john curley' timestamp='1386508326' post='2300797'] Not too sure what's wrong with this one?.... [url="http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=350941406045"]http://item.mobilewe...Id=350941406045[/url] [/quote] There seem to be a number of Gear4Music instruments with the headstocks snapped off. I would guess that they have gone through considerable abuse and mistreatment at some point in their life. The above posts on inadequate packaging may be the clue, but I would think it would require more than just that.

Yay, I'm currently the winning bidder on this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ovation-B768-Elite-Acoustic-Bass-Guitar-Black-Including-Hard-Case-/271341979667?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f2d3e0813&autorefresh=true For some strange reason, I'm not looking up how to get to Leek on public transport.

So many of these appear on ebay, damaged in the same way. It's been said before that they're probably being piled too high on top of each other during transport. But, it certainly makes me wonder if there's some sort of design fault in there somewhere. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Round-Back-Electro-Acoustic-Bass-Guitar-by-Gear4music-Damaged-RRP-100-/301037565399?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item46173cb5d7

[quote name='the hand of john curley' timestamp='1386413650' post='2299753'] Think I'm going to have a punt on this...quick bit of research needed first though! [/quote] If you buy it, can I come around and have a go on it?

I'll look forward to seeing it all nice and sparkly.

Different scales sound different, so a solo can be spiced up by changing the scale used. So, switching from the major to the blues scale adds variation, e.g. if soloing over a single chord loop. More variation that Mixolydian, as you've been using. I find the flatted 5th works quite well in some bass riffs. Over the last week I've been experimenting with using it as an emphasised note, not just a passing note, and that gives a very different feel to riffs, and gets out of the problem of too many pentatonic riffs sounding too similar.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1386333452' post='2298869'] A fretstone is only about £60-£80 quid, if you feel it's really going to make a difference. As I've said before, if your frets aren't right and you like low action (although there's low and there's LOW) you're probably going to struggle. [/quote] I plan to take a fretstone to my Shine bass in the future. Though, I think I need to buy a straight edge to make sure that I'm getting the neck relief right before I do that. And one of those pieces of metal used to check for high frets so that I'm aware what the problems, if any, are. Edit; I was thinking of doing something like this: [url="http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?168216-How-to-properly-level-and-crown-frets-for-the-DIY-er"]http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?168216-How-to-properly-level-and-crown-frets-for-the-DIY-er[/url] I now think that by 'fretstone', you mean to get someone else to do it. That's an option of course. But I like the idea that [b]eventually[/b] I could become one of those people who can buy a fundamentally sound bass and make it play wonderfully.

Now, this is the kind of instrument that I'm thinking of keeping a long term eye out for over time. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-BB404-Bass-Guitar-/321268317514?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4acd157d4a"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4acd157d4a[/url] It's £90. But he says that the setup can go very low without any buzz. If that's the case, then I'd guess the action would be similar to those I played on Tuesday. However, I'm not sure I'm a fan of the typical active humbucker sound. This here is a passive bass. The listing says Jazz pickups, but the online documentation says humbuckers. After reviewing my Cimar, my current favourite bass, the action could be better. Perhaps I should suppress my fears and tighten the truss rod a bit. I really, really, like the sound of the Cimar. I'm testing my looper just using pure unchanged DI sound from the bass, and it just sounds great. But, the action isn't perfect. Good, but not perfect. But if I had a £90 bass like that Yamaha with no apology action, that could give me the best of both worlds. For not much outlay.

I think they might have had two of them, I'm not sure. Certainly there was a white one on a stand in front of me as I was playing. If they're that rare, then if anyone's looking, they were in Music Junkie in Leicester.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1386257114' post='2297813'] If the shop is local to you then why not go there and play it? If they have one in stock then i'd buy it pretty quick as i'd be surprised if many (if any) other dealers have one in stock. [/quote] Because I'd played about four or five other basses while I was there, and I had to stop somewhere I end up buying very little from shops, so feel if I'm taking the p a bit if I try too much gear.