FDC484950

A bit of both - time spent at the piano made most of the difference, as especially with chords it’s much easier to pick them out when you can play all the different inversions and hear how they sound - not something you can really do on bass

In short the song moves temporarily from the key of G to the key of C (the subdominant is the 4th degree of the scale, so G,A,B,C = 4 steps). The subdominant of this new key is F (C,D,E,F). Because it is effectively a 4th step of a key built on one of steps of the original key, it’s called “secondary”. Hence the term secondary subdominant. So F is described as the secondary subdominant of G. Dominant is the name given to a chord built on the 5th degree. As above, if we do the same we can build a secondary dominant. Start in the key of G, move to D, then build another dominant (5 steps up) = A. So in G major, A major is considered a secondary dominant. One other point: the second chord is in fact a D chord with an F# in the bass. This is usually called an inversion in the classical world, or a slash chord in pop/rock/jazz (because it’s usually written D/F#). Hope this helps?

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Absolutely. What’s the point of a forum, other than to obsess over irrelevant minutiae 😀

I’d concur with the above with the caveat that you really should play it first. I tried an a American Pro (1) P at BD a couple of years ago. Looked stunning. Sound was distinctly average, very dead sounding - not the amp or strings, it was just a dud. And it’s not the only one.

It's a tough one. It's certainly possible to get light weight instruments nowadays, not just via chambering but better wood processes - however that is offset by the amount of genuinely good instrument wood at a light weight. Any kind of hard wood is generally (but not always) going to mean a heavier bass. As few seem to think that wood makes much of a difference to the tone, other than the aesthetics of different wood grains, maybe there's no reason to put up with a heavy bass if you don't want to? My three basses are 4.7Kg, 4.6Kg and 4.1Kg, but then I don't gig and mostly play seated, and as I like the tone of them (and two of them are very hard to get hold of), I don't mind the weight. But even seated, anything more than that would get a bit much. If I were gigging (and standing) then 4Kg would be my limit. Balance is also important - not too much pull on the shoulder, but also not too heavy at the body end.

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How did the delivery go? Interested to hear whether the EB’s pre-charging of duty and VAT speeds up customs clearance as it seems to have turned up very quickly

Avoid the chain stores. I have part ex’ed a couple of basses at Bass Direct and at the Bass Gallery, and in each case they offered me a very reasonable price, two being a significantly higher price than what I offered for sale here (with no takers, not even a comment). It does depend what you have and what you’re buying, but the likes of GG, Anderton’s and PMT aren’t really about selling used gear, whereas smaller, boutique shops like the Bass Gallery and BD generally have a much bigger used stock.

I've never played a Warwick with a hardwood neck that was bowed - they're usually laminated and rock solid. However the flamed maple neck on the Streamer Stage 1 (my experience here is only with 5- and 6-strings) is more variable. I've tried a couple that had a lot of relief in certain areas of the board and one with a visible twist (top string a long way from the neck, low B rattling unless both nut and bridge were raised. With the bass in question it's probably just moved over time and hasn't been adjusted. However, if you can't verify the truss rod moves properly in both directions and works, steer clear. It's not worth the hassle as, depending on the age, it's likely that if the truss rod is gone it's a fingerboard off repair...

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The best advice I can give is have one bass to cover each sound/look/style. Everyone is different but I’ve made this mistake several times - the fact is if you have two basses that are the same make and model, or cross over a lot, you’re always going to pick a favourite. It’s got nothing to do with woods and hardware, just some basses sound and feel better than others. Of course, some players buy many of the same make or model but I would class that as collecting rather than owning. To the OP - you don’t come across as a collector, so if you have 3 Jazz basses then pick the best (sounds like the Limelight) and keep the P as you said you’re a P player, and ditch the other two. Get a G&L, Lakland, Rickenbacker or Stingray or something else that doesn’t cover the same sonic territory if you feel the need to have more than 2 basses. Only keep something that you really like and want to use - anything else is just decoration, which is why the for sale section remains so busy

So basically the $ price plus charges equals the delivered £ price. Not bad!

This will not help with anyone’s GAS! So irresponsible to further tempt us 😀 Looks good, especially in dark mode. Well done!

The Corvette 6 comes in two formats, one with an ash body, and one with the bubinga body (yours). It looks like the std active model (there have been variations over the years such as the Proline with a flamed maple top). They’re usually bulletproof but the ovngkol neck can be rather chunky. The ash model tends to suffer from neck dive as the body is lighter than the neck, but the bubinga one tends to be a bit heavier. The current models are the Pro Series (“Teambuilt”) in Germany and, having had one, they’re indistinguishable from the previous German series, other than chrome hardware only. I’d concur with the lower end of Oliver’s assessment - 6 strings have a relatively small market, and despite the high quality, Warwick used prices are fairly low, so £800 is probably where I would pitch it. I would put the original tuners/hardware back on if you have them, and sell the ultralites separately as you’d make more money.

I finally joined the Dingwall club. ABZ5/3 with the series/parallel toggles. Beautiful bass.

It certainly makes you think it has the beefiest bridge pickup, and the thinnest neck pickup, the first time you turn the pan, until you realise it’s wired in the opposite manner. I got used to it immediately but it’s still the wrong way round compared to just about every pan pot ever wired into a bass

Yes, it’s reasonably safe to assume the anything you buy from the EU and imported into the UK from a company or private seller will be subject to the same principles as those from, for example, the USA. Import duty on the cost of the goods, then VAT on top. I’m not 100% sure whether the negotiations resulted in a lower or zero rate of duty (it wasn’t zero when I bought a bass from Thomann in February - it was 3.7%), but you will definitely pay 20% VAT on the total instrument price plus shipping - and the exchange rate will doubtless benefit the UK government, so a rough guide is about 25% of whatever you paid for the instrument. Beware of some European music shops that do not understand this - there are some sellers on Reverb advertising the price “including VAT”, but that is not true as they’re not registered for UK VAT - it’s the local country VAT, because when you direct to their site, that’s what it says - and it some cases it doesn’t. This only became clear to me when I contacted them and was offered a “special” price, which was still more than the shop price minus local VAT! If not collecting UK VAT, they must sell deducting VAT or you will end up paying local VAT on purchase and then UK duty and VAT on entry. I would still buy from retailer in the EU (bigger and better stock of the kinds of basses I’m interested in), but private sellers are a no-go, unfortunately.

To the OP: the answer to your problem is to know exactly what you think is missing. The replies above cover all of it, but usually timing issues fall into three areas; Accurate execution of rhythm - so play one of the many exercises above, are you giving each note it’s correct value (that is when to start and when to stop each note) and can you lock that in with another timing source, which may start out as a metronome but could be anything? Internal clock - can you play without accompaniment and retain a strong sense of pulse and tempo without drifting? One of the most common examples is a drummer who generally plays solidly but rushes the fill and comes back in on the “1” early! The partial metronome exercises above are great (personally I prefer some kind of drum sound rather than a metronome as it is more musical). Feel - now you can play accurately in time and with a reliable pulse, can you lock in with and make other musicians sound good? In some ways this can go counter to the above as good feel is often not metronomically accurate timing. But you have to understand correct time in order to make it breathe a bit. I’m by no means an expert, but IMHO, number 1 can can be solved fairly rapidly with the right practice. Take it easy, relax, and devote much of the practice to listening (a very important and under-used skill in music). Number 2 is a bit more of a challenge but is again achievable with both practice and experience. Number 3 takes longer because of the breadth of music and musicians - I found the fastest way to get better was to get the chance to place with other musicians who were much better than me. As Trueno said, recording yourself is valuable as what you think is perfectly played comes back at you with pauses, uneven rhythm and hesitation. The first time can be demoralising but it does get better.

I’d love if those as a 5! What’s it like?

Excellent! Nothing like a Sterling. Was the 5 from Peach? It was very light for a MM 5.

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I agree. Both of my EB basses get super slinkies. They just seem to “fit” the tone of the bass perfectly.

Tighter than a pair of jeans three sizes too small. Such a pleasure to hear a guitar player with such good time and taste