Annoying Twit

Hmm.... The same seller has relisted the bass. I wonder what the reason behind this was. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-String-Electric-Bass-Guitar-/321315607817?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4acfe71509

I've seen these sell for quite chunky amounts of money.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1391513787' post='2357889'] Think that is a 460 Series with a Padauk top. Very nice. Edit; Not sure why he's described it as a 5-string though, it clearly only has 4! [/quote] I did think that something looked odd about the headstock for a 5, but my eyes were still goggling at the nice wood top. The only zoomed in photo I checked was of the control change cover, to check it was MIJ.

I'm not gigging, and at my stage in life, I'm very unlikely to. I would very much like to play solo/looped music, similar to Steve Lawson. There are some opportunities for playing with other people, and I'm thinking about what I'd need to play. Oh, and I'm enjoying myself when I'm playing, that's not a problem

Just wanted to report that I think I've done a reasonable job of this. I do a bit of guitar practice too, but only after I've had a solid productive hour of bass practice. Also, as I mentioned on another thread, I retuned my guitar to EADGCF, which I have discovered is called "all fourths tuning". I find that the practice done on that seems to be complementary, rather than competitive with, bass practice as the same scale/arpeggio shapes apply, it's just that the scale length and thickness of the strings is different, which doesn't take that much adaptation. I haven't done much six string bass practice recently, but I'm looking forward to seeing if the chordal work from EADGCF six string will transfer over easily. The guitar practice seems to be helping my pick playing on bass too. It probably helps that a lot of what I'm playing on the guitar is rather bass style. I've succumbed to buying a book with simple two handed tapping exercises. But, I generally practice this a little bit, so I'm not dumping normal bass practice to do tapping all the time, which might have happened in the past. So, that's working out. I'm not really slapping at all, just doing the occasional very basic riff. Slap will wait until later. Referring to my 'getting a funky/smooth feel' thread, my timing and feel is improving. Very slowly, but it's heading in the right direction. It would be much better if I sat down and worked methodically through the Ed Friedland book that I have, but given my history, I think what I'm doing now is a reasonable compromise between what I should be doing and what has stymied all attempts I've made to learn 'real' musical instruments in the past.

This is only potentially cheap, given that it's an auction not a BIN. But, being collection only, it could go for a couple of tenners over the starting price I would guess. It's in my neck of the woods, but I don't need another four string fretted bass. I played a Westfield MM copy unplugged the other day, and I thought it seemed very well made and played well. Very solid neck though. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291072273001&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

I think this helps tell us whether we are spoiling bargains by posting on here before the auction is finished.

I haven't seen one wth this finish before. Looks very nice IMHO. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-collection-5-String-Fretless-/271392053212?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3f303a17dc

[quote name='kennyrodg' timestamp='1391278264' post='2355350'] Just won this one and thanks to Annoying Twit for the earlier heads up post about the Cimars. Fingers crossed it'll be a half decent Bass. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cimar-P-J-Bass-Guitar-/331116537418"]http://www.ebay.co.u...r-/331116537418[/url] [/quote] Greetings to a fellow Cimar owner! Mine is a Rickenbacker clone. I hope you enjoy yours very much as I enjoy mine.

I've just seen a TV programme about people living on Sark. One lady was swimming in the sea, which was an amazing shade of turquoise. Then the thought occurred to me that I'd better not mention this on basschat or there will be a big long conversation about exactly what word describes the bluey greeny shade of the sea water

Sold for £271. The seller should be pleased as the BIN price was £250 IIRC.

It looks turquoise on my monitor. Though, from the J&D threads, the other colours described seem popular too.

I point out this listing only because as the J&D bass threads show, this seems to be a very popular colour for basses. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hofner-bass-blue-green-/251437594347?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a8ad936eb

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1390827480' post='2349896'] Often the preamp can have a built in phase switch to help cut out feedback. I hate the sound of them with steel/bronze strings, but with flats or nylons epecially on a fretless you can get a very double bass like sound out of them. [/quote] Are there nylon bass strings that work for longer than U-Bass scales? Edit: Do you mean nylon tapewound strings? I was wondering if there were silicone or similar bass strings that can be used on something larger than a bass ukulele.

£50 BIN or who knows what the reserve is. The listing says free postage, but I'd guess it's collection in person only. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-Guitar-/251436123683?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a8ac2c623

There seem to be plenty of Cimars popping up.

The bass that I own that has the lowest action is my Ibanez SR760. If I was prepared to accept as much buzz as in many of these professional player videos, I'd be able to get the strings pretty much right down on the frets. But, I find the buzz annoying and it would put me off practice.

If they're using CNC machines to cut the body, would it really cost them all that much more to have a body variation. Couldn't they have one person working one day on the files that define the shape, then after that they could run a batch of them pretty much without having to do anything really different compared to the normal BTBs?

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1390755426' post='2349060'] Hmm proportions are all out. The horn is too extruding and the top part seems too fat. [/quote] I think it looks more normal than the Spear S2. Though, I played one of these a few years ago. And I think I remember the one I played looking more normal and more like the Ibanez. Maybe the designed has been changed over time.

A lot more soldering done. Knobs and two footswitches (ran out of wire) work, and currently as a test I've set it up so that the two footswitches send C major and G major chords over MIDI, note on when pressed, note offs when released. This all works. I need to get some more wire, and connect the other eight footswitches. Next I have to look into connecting and testing (again) the LCD. After that, it'll be software development only, which will be easy.

I downloaded transcribe, and it seems that it will be useful. But, I was curious about the technology. I made my own version as a Max/MSP patch. It doesn't seem to produce as clear a result as transcribe!, but it's somewhere in the ballpark. It could be that I need to work on the filters a bit, both their cutoff/Qs and the choice of filter objects. The pitch-shifting and playback speed modification both seem quite reasonable.

Slow progress on this one, but I now have enough bits together to build the MIDI foot controller. I have some 5in x 2in aluminum box section at work which I will mount all of this in to make the physical foot controller. I seem to be dreadful at taking photos of things inside at night, but I think this blurry photo gives an accurate impression of where I'm up to Those with eagle eyes will notice I'm using an Arduino nano soldered to veroboard instead of the Arduino mega board I bought at first. I figured out that wiring so many things together without using veroboard was going to be a pain in the posterior. I'm not yet decided what the knobs will do, but it cost about two quid or something to buy them, and I thought it would be silly not to add some. I'll work out what they do when I write the code to make it all work. The arduino mega will not go to waste, I've ordered some various sensors such as a gyroscope sensor, waterproof temperature sensor, etc. Using the arduino has been find and I want to try some things like building my own Christmas lights. The foot switches cost more than all the other electrical components put together. But, they feel good quality, so I suspect that may be money well spent if I'm going to be stomping on them regularly. It's not visible in the photo, but the LCD in this photo was displaying: "Counter: <some large number>" which was a trial program I wrote just to check that I could communicate with the LCD. The next stage will be to solder the knobs and the switches to the board, and write a sample program to detect movements/presses of these and display on the LCD what is happening. Then to add the MIDI output. After that, code so that this 'thing' can be configured to send any MIDI streams when any switch is pressed or released, which will then actually make it a useful MIDI controller. As well as controlling my looper, I hope to be able to trigger drum sounds from the footswitches, and also use it as a bass pedal (sort of like some of the zoom footpedals) so that I can play notes or chords with my feet, and solo over the top.

Why is it that so often when I see professional and/or very skilled bass players on youtube, there is rattle and other fret sounds up the wazoo? E.g. from 1:58 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaFy5kKTJak

I'm also curious to know how much it cost. There are some of these on ebay, but the scale length isn't described properly. New price on ebay seems to be £134, though there is one for auction with a starting bid of £99. I'm no expert on basses and strings, but I have a vague suspicion that the tone might be because of the crappy old strings, rather than despite them. It seems to me that basses with old strings sound better. I don't like that metallic sound from bright strings, and if someone needs some more attack, they can use a pick! Are the dot markers in the right place?

Recently I've seen a number of cheaper acoustic basses which have quite high action. That can make it harder for a beginner to play, and possibly be a less inviting instrument. Particularly since it's harder to adjust the action on an acoustic bass as you don't have an easily adjustable bridge. If you see the bass you're buying in person, you can check that it is set up well. As a good setup costs £50-60, it's worth finding an instrument that is already set up well. I would definitely listen to any acoustic bass in person before buying if the quality of the acoustic sound is important to you. Even if a bass is recorded acoustically for a youtube video, the type and positioning of the mic can easily colour the sound (either flattering or unflattering) so that what you hear on the video is not what you hear in real life. Just a couple of things to watch out for.