Annoying Twit

Nothing newsworthy about this at all. I just think it looks real purty. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Schecter-Studio-4-bass-/251355037820?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a85ed807c

That's pretty much what I was thinking about being able to build basses with differing numbers of strings with the same hardware. My damping is improving, but on my six-string, it still has some way to go. I am sort of tempted to replace the bridge on my Shine bass with separate saddles. At the moment that's more or less 'just because'. But if the separate saddles made a significant difference, this would raise the priority of that.

Edit: I had a massive transcription fail when describing that pattern. What I was actually playing is: 1---6-5-6-1-6-5-1---6-5-6-1-6-5- With 1--- being a crotchet, and 1- being a quaver (like everything else). This is sure to have been used before, the other one sounds awful. You mention the 1-5-b7 pattern. Putting the two together gets the 'cowboy' bass line 1-5-6-5-1-5-6-5-1-5-6-5-b7-5-6-5 Edit: The main riff for De La Soul's "Say No Go" sounds similar-ish, but not the same. If I try to play it: 1-5h6-5-6-5-6-8 (with 8 being the octave and the 5 and six being above the root 1), then it sounds too 'major key'). But, if I play it as if it's from a minor pentatonic 1-4h5-4-5-4-5-4-5-8- that sounds even more wrong. I'm often able to work out basslines by ear, but am having trouble with this one. I thought it was a 1-5-6, but when I actually listen, it might not be. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08X5CVfL0bk[/media] Edit: For pure 1-5-6, or at least 1-6-5, Rita Coolidge "(Your love has lifted me) HIgher and Higher"

What are you doing awake at this ungodly hour? I"ve had to fix some software when other people wouldn't have been using it! Edit: You're in Germany - not quite so early there. The first thing I do when I learn a riff is to adapt it to something slightly different. The obvious one here for me is: 1---6-5-6-5-6-5-1---6-5-6-5-6-5 (these are degrees of the scale, not fret numbers, if that's not clear from context, the 6s and 5s are lower than the root. The root is a crotchet, the 6s and 5s are quavers). Here's a challenge: Has that exact riff above been used in songs? It certainly sounds familiar if I play it. (Note: I must admit I haven't played all of your example transcriptions, but went straight for the general case - is it in your transcriptions? - Edit. I read them, and didn't see it there)

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1381314338' post='2237309'] Gloria Gaynor - I Never Can Say Goodbye [/quote] Isn't it also on Gaynor's version of 'Substitute', from about 3:35 on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSlztAQcU1o

What is this Ibanez 'Mono-rail bridge IV'. In the picture it looks like a fairly normal bridge with separate saddles. Do these really make a difference in string isolation compared to a standard single bridge? Would this help reduce the amount that other strings will ring when a string is plucked? http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/bass_guitars_detail.asp?stock=13020410594316

FIFTEEN EUROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bargain of the century, surely!

If it's just a matter of playing unbent notes, then playing a keyboard is an option. But, if it's a matter of bending notes, trills, etc., then learning to use pitch-bend on a keyboard controller is a whole new learning curve in itself.

If I sell a bass, I'll be taking it to the lobby of my local GPs. Wonder if I'll get any looks weighing a bass guitar on their scales

This thread was mainly inspired by me seeing this bass for sale. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161122827223?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649[/url] I found some videos of a Pinoy bassist tapping on it, and wondered if it being good for tapping (which I wasn't convinced, but clearly tapping is possible), and if so, then a strategy might be to buy it instead of my current 'improve my Shine SB26' project. However, having done a tiny bit more tapping practice on my basses, it appears that the Shine is not so unusable for tapping that I really need to swap it. Tapping is something I'd like to be able to do in the future, and if I did decide to switch six string basses, then it would have been with the intention that this would prepare the ground for future tapping. But, at present I think I have more basic skills that I need to refine, so won't be putting a lot of effort into tapping right now. The book recommendations etc. are useful, and I might buy the book so that it's sitting on my shelf waiting for the right time. One thing I found in switching from 4 string to 6 string while trying tapping, is that even with the very primitive things I'm doing, I found 4 strings quite restrictive. In that I seemed to end up trying to use the same string for both hands. 6 strings gave me more options. As an aside, the fact that most second hand basses are sold on ebay is a bit frustrating. If that Aria was in a shop, I'd most definitely try it out in case I find that I just really like it much more than my Shine. I could message the seller and ask to test it, but I don't feel it would be fair to take up the seller's time on this unless I was much more serious about it. I do want to have a fretless bass around to try out. Given that I want to tap in the future, should I be looking at more strings? Something like this: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Dean-Edge-6-String-Fretless-w-EMGs-Trans-Black-Electric-Bass-Guitar-/400585541525?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item5d44c24795"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item5d44c24795[/url] (Though, there are certain bass sounds I like and others I don't, and I'm worried about the EMGs there). Or, as with what I'm thinking about fretted basses, do I eventually need to plan to have both four and six string fretless basses. (I've decided that I want both for fretted). That leads to a more relevant sub-question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of different numbers of strings for tapping? BTW: The fingerboard on the Shine seems quite flat.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1381272499' post='2236935'] IMO you can definite learn to groove. [/quote] Earlier on in this thread I was overconfident in certain skills. Some of the exercises in the Ed Friedland book have exposed some simple timing things that I thought I could do better than I can. Now that I'm practicing them and improving, I feel that there's a lot I can do to improve my 'groove'.

[quote name='Ziphoblat' timestamp='1381266672' post='2236826'] Look up the approach used by the Industrial Radio Midi Bass. [/quote] Fret sensing still has problems, e.g. a note that is bent before it is plucked. The industrial radio bass has string tension sensors which may help here, but we're talking about a controller that costs thousands. If a bass is being played monophonically, then I still believe that it is feasible to have much better bass synth response by ditching the MIDI conversion and integrating the pitch/note detection much more deeply into the actual synth. And it should be possible in a small digital box into which you could plug in any bass, and which would cost £100-200. The downside is that without MIDI, you wouldn't be able to use the bass to control just any synth lying around, it'd just be the synth in the box, or synths with OSC.

MIDI is utterly the wrong technology for bass/guitar/stringed instrument synths. It requires accurate detection of the note right at the beginning. This is easy on a keyboard with micro-switches, but much harder on a stringed instrument. I think the opportunity is there for someone to make a much better bass or guitar synth by avoiding MIDI and therefore the compromises that format places on the communication between the detection and synthesis. OSC is a better technology that could be used.

Wow, a chunk of wood to a beautiful sculpture in no time at all. Please excuse me if I'm being nosey, but how much does a piece of quality wood like that suitable for a bass body cost?

I'd be more worried if I can't improve. I've been working on the bassline for Herbie Hancock's 'Bring down the birds'. It's very easy to 'play' and the bassline is a short loop repeated throughout the entire piece. I've just noticed that I'm able to get the timing of the transition from the double hammer on that ends the loop to the root note that starts it again better. I know I don't have the time or the energy to really become good at bass. At this stage in my life, I'm happy that I've managed to get back into it after a gap, and am currently improving. I'm never going to be an Ed Friedland, but at least I'm not some guy who has completely given up on playing their own music.

I gave it a try, and the result was cleaner notes than I've had before. I'm not quite sure what I was doing even more wrong before, but now things look more promising. I've got no hand independence though.

I don't know how to tap. I've seen people do it, and can move my fingers in approximately the right way, but it sounds all kind of wrong. What I would like to know is: If I can't tap, then how do I know if a particular bass is 'good enough' for tapping? Does a bass need to have certain properties, e.g. super-low action, to be suitable for tapping? If I find that my current basses are not suitable for tapping, then how would I know what sort of basses are, and if I was thinking of buying one, how would I recognise one as being suitable? Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I think I am objectively clueless here. So I'm asking as step 1 in the process of addressing that ignorance.

I wonder if there is a 'Disaster Area' bass guitar around, with black finish, black pickguard, black tuners, bridge, and nut, black nylon coated strings, and an ebony fretboard. Fretless, unless you can buy black fretwire. (It seems that you can't). Black dots.

There's a precision bass being sold by the same seller. But, it isn't a precision bass with a single jazz pickup. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Precission-Bass-/251353614567?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a85d7c8e7 I do like the black finishes, and they make a visually interesting pair.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Jazz-Bass-/251353621430?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a85d7e3b6 What would this sound like? Surely more precision than Jazz.

The exercises in the book 'Bass Grooves Develop your groove and play like the pros in any style' by Ed Friedland appear to be helping with this. As well as 'practice practice practice.'

I'm only using it for guitar, not for bass. I'm now more or less only using the riff repeater to learn things. It's very useful to be able to set mastery instantly to 100%, and then slowly increase the speed. songs that I already know reasonably well so that I'm at 100% complexity I play in rehearsal mode, but I've more or less left the game mode, and am using it as a practice tool. I feel this is helping me advance quite a bit. It's also a good source of songs to play. There are some real fun choices in there.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1379586768' post='2214408'] Tex Comer, Ace, plays in a local band and he has always played with an old Precision and a pick. He sounds great on any amp he's using. You get more definition and attack at the start of the note when using a pick. I like that but I'm not a pick player. [/quote] I can't imagine someone wanting to not play solely with a pick, or without one. Perhaps people more advanced in bass playing than me have specialised to the point where they'd lose too much playing the other style. But to me, there are different sounds available through each technique, and I want to be able to achieve both of them. I have a shine bass which I don't like the sound of. I've been experimenting to see what I can do with it. Last night I discovered that I really like the palm muted sound I get when I play with a pick. (But I'm noting I need to be careful about orientation of the pick when I play or I get an unattractive scraping sound rather than the well defined attack). Played properly, the pick adds back some of the attack lost through the palm mute. And the muting gets ride of the ringing higher harmonics of the note, which on this bass with the current pickups, I don't like all that much.

I'd say that fingers versus pick is a bigger difference than precision versus Jazz. Through palm muting into the deal, and that's more variation again. I'm not sure I agree with the choice of bass sound being all about the design of the instrument. It's more about the playing style.

For new bass gods, or any sort of instrumental, 'gods' to emerge, there needs to be a new revolution in music. In the 50s/60s/70s, electric music had been discovered, and was being developed. So, in the 60s, you had McCartney playing basslines, the kind of which had never been heard by the general public. Then, you had prog rock developing, which bought a new level of technical prowess to music. But, electric music has been around for a long while, and much of what can be done has been done. And hence it's difficult to come up with something which is both fresh and new, and is also going to find a wide new audience. One thing that has changed is that computer games have taken a lot of focus from the younger generation that previously would have been on music. And this is unlikely to change. Not only would those young people be the musicians of the future (in which case there will be fewer), but also they in times past would have been the most keen consumers of new and challenging music. And there seems to be less drive out there to find new types of music the likes of which have never been heard before. If we're looking at music that's similar to what we've seen in the 60s or 70s at most, then we're going to get bass lines that might have been revolutionary back then, but certainly aren't now. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHmsblNnnGM[/media] When I was a teenager we had the older generation claiming that what we listened to wasn't music. The last time this happened was decades ago was the rap revolution which really picked up steam in the 80s. But, that's 30 years ago now. What has happened since that makes the older generation (of which I'm now one) deny that some new musical form is even music. If we're not getting that, then we're not getting enough change in music to enable new 'gods' as there isn't a sufficient new musical area for them to mine. Having said that, if there's going to be a new bass 'god' (which I personally doubt), then IMHO that will come from the hip-hop genre. The music in hip-hop is slowly becoming less and less important, and in my opinion boring. I think that creates an opportunity for someone to come along and add the musicality back in, and therefore create a significant advance. In the same way that The Beatles revolutionised popular music, partially through adding back some of the musical complexity that had been present in pre-rock popular music. With the development of computer games that allow a real guitar or as to be used as a controller, then perhaps in the future we'll get people who will emerge as some sort of 'god' in that genre. At present those games are focussed on playing traditional music as it is on the record. But perhaps future games will be more open-ended, and give scores for inventiveness within certain guidelines. Maybe those games will be sophisticated enough that people will have to invent new styles of playing in order to get those high scores. Perhaps that would mean that (to us old farts) unmusical w***ery would be what leads a player to become a high-scoring virtuoso, and finally we'd have something 'new' enough to make the older generation say 'that's not even music', while a younger generation is astonished by their youtube videos of them smashing forward towards new high scores. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x07yCQO2uo Or perhaps the focus of 'newness' won't even be music. Perhaps we'll see an era where the 'gods' aren't bassists or even musicians, but something else. In the way that game designer Jenova Chen is seen as a 'god'. Apologies for being a complete and utter pretentious prat.