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I think there’s been a related thread about this recently - can’t remember where exactly. I recently won a bass on eBay and was all ready to have it shipped, but wanted full insurance. I tried all the name couriers I could Google and the best I came up with was UPS - max £1,000 and it must be in a hard case. Parcelforce doesn’t offer enhanced compensation for instruments, TNT, DPD, FedEx and DHL don’t advertise significant insurance and volumetric dimensions of a bass case are too large for something like Special Delivery. If anyone has any other couriers who do I’d be interested -on the lookout for a Warwick Infinity, which is fairly rare, so may need it shipped if I find one!

They seriously need to give everyone trying out gear headphones. Some extremely noisy people with questionable talent. The show advertised quiet times for 45 minutes per hour - no chance! I was a touch surprised at how few stands there were, and had a brief stab at trying a bass (a nice ACG, not tried his filter preamp before), but could hardly hear it through headphones because of the racket. Oh and the noisy idiot right on the Eich stand hammering the hell out of a Fender all the way through the Gary Willis clinic in the room next door could do with learning when to shut the hell up!

OK. I assume most retailers will use a margin scheme so it’s only 16.67% of the commission rather than the 20% on the full purchase price of new sales - or £50 on the aforementioned £300 commission for a £2000 bass. Take outshop rent, rates, bills, insurance and staffing, plus interest on any business loans and the remainder won’t lead to bass shop owners retiring to a million-pound house in Barbados

I don’t believe VAT is payable on second hand goods.

That’s not quite what I’m saying. The care industry, like many others, is low paid, but the responsibility is for the well-being of people, especially vulnerable people and/or those who can’t look after themselves. This is a labour of love, and whilst very important and noble, isn’t quite the same as working in a music shop. There’s not really much commitment in the music industry and a music shop doesn’t have pay, rewarding work or a supportive working environment - basically it’s not a career but a stopgap for most. I’ve worked in music shops, and whilst I cannot compare it to working with vulnerable people (although I would challenge you to find a role now, paying what I earned in my first music shop job - well below £10Kpa for a full time role including working every Saturday, 45 hours per week!), it was pretty soul-destroying. The sheer amount of timewasters and chancers, none of whom were ever going to buy anything substantial, wears you down over time. It’s also not that much of a surprise that the industry attracts a lot of people with some quite significant personality problems! I had people to whom I had been very pleasant, accommodating and understanding shout at me down the phone, a number of attempted thefts from the shop and a significant number of people with a sizeable chip in their shoulder - hence my comment about flouncing out in disgust when shop staff don’t fall at your knees! Of course, we should not tolerate poor staff or service in any environment - but customers can be hell, too. Im also a biker, and if you think service is poor in a music shop, try your average motorbike dealer...

YOU do, but people in general don’t nowadays do they? Good manners aren’t all that common. I agree that we shouldn’t accept poor service, but then some of the examples on this thread are of people expecting, almost demanding good service just because they’re spending money. And that service should be, not too pushy, but don’t ignore me too much either. I must confess to rarely, if ever, experiencing such personally-tailored service. Well-trained, motivated and well-chosen sales staff can make a retail business more successful, but average service in most industries doesn’t stop the money coming in - until you’re undercut by online retailers and you go bust because there’s nothing to differentiate you - see Malplin, Toys R Us, Comet, Woolworth etc etc. It’s a vicious circle.

Musical instrument profit margins aren’t exactly massive. How much does a normal music shop “sales” assistant get paid? Probably nowhere near enough to attract anyone with decent sales skills (or even basic people skills). Thus most people working in shops are either part time musicians doing it for a bit of spare cash or older, unsuccessful musicians trying to stay in the industry. The market has shrunk massively from when I started playing, so think of it as a slightly odd, “specialist” market populated by weirdos (that’s us!), cut the sales people some slack, and if you want something and you like it, buy it instead of cutting off your nose to spite your face because you didn’t get “service”. I’ve definitely noticed that the quality of service across the board is much worse than it used to be - lifted only occasionally by someone who actually cares about what they’re doing. But then, that’s a different debate for a different thread.

I’ve never played a cheap 6-string bass that was any good. The peculiarities of the design (range, width of the neck, pull on the truss rod, ergonomics) tend to mean that a purpose-built bass is more successful, as opposed to a 4 on which the builder slaps a wider neck. This usually means that they’re more expensive - certainly the nicest ones I’ve played (Dingwall, Elrick, Fodera, Ken Smith, MTD, etc) are very pricey. If you can afford it, great, but as your only bass, are you using the high C enough to warrant reaching over it to play EVERY note on all the other strings? I’ve adopted Simandl technique on the right hand as the width of a 6-string neck rules out one finger per fret unless you have very long fingers or you like getting hand issues! I also find the first joint of my little finger tends to lock uncomfortably when reaching for notes in the low B. On the other hand, a five string is much closer to a 4 in that the top 4 strings are the same; get one with 4-string spacing and, other than damping that pesky low B, the experience isn’t too different. However, thinking of it as a 4 with a few lower notes is the wrong way to go - use all the notes you can in that low B and take advantage of the increased range, or else it’ll just start to feel awkward. All of which leads us to a 4, on which probably 95% of all music involving electric bass has been played. If you never go below a low E or play chords/very high parts a 4 is the best option - you can pick a good bass up cheaply, there’s loads more choice, it will probably be lighter, easier to play and may mean you spend more time in the performance than on your technical ability or what you can play with all the other strings - whether the music needs it or not!

Can you play the part slowly, perfectly with no mistakes at all? If you’re gradually speeding up, at what tempo does it start to fall apart? Is it the whole part or just one or two sections? If a cover it might be helpful to know which song as people on here may suggest different fingerings or tips etc. I have found that when I can’t play something because of speed it’s usually one (or more) of these reasons: 1) I don’t yet know the part well enough so am stumbling over the notes don’t ignore this as this is often the case! 2) The part contains a particular picking hand challenge that my technique isn’t yet good enough to mask - for example crossing from E-A-D-G strings with one note on each quickly is quite tricky to do cleanly. 3) The part has awkward fretting hand bits, making it hard for me to fret the notes cleanly and co-ordinate fretting/picking hand 4) The part is faster than my current technical ability can cope with. It’s normally the co-ordination between the hands that goes first. Remember any part can be sped up to the point where it is unplayable! Options 1-3 can be worked on in isolation and probably overcome in a few practice sessions; option 4 will take a more sustained period of practice to overcome, perhaps even a slight change of technique. As others have said, break it down into its constituent parts and you may find it’s one or two bits that are causing the problem. Hope this helps!

By all means have an opinion, but perhaps reserve it for a thread other than the Warwick one in the gear porn section? As you’ve got your Streamer up for sale, a cynic might think you only posted to draw attention to it elsewhere...

Playing with a lighter touch isn’t about whether you dig in or not; it’s about the dynamics available to you. Gary Willis’ instructional VHS is/was on YouTube and he explains it succinctly in about 5 minutes near the beginning. By turning up and playing lighter, you get a more even, fatter tone, and most importantly, you can lift the volume by digging in a touch. If you play hard and dig in, where do you go if the band lifts their dynamics? Of course it’s not for everyone - but if it sounds interesting, it’s worth a try. I surprised myself how much less energy I needed to play a note - which makes me feel more relaxed, in control, smoother and more fluid.

One of the most accomplished fretless players of the last 30 years, Gary Willis, has always had a lined fretless board. Why make things intentionally more difficult? Sure, when playing live you don’t want to spend the whole gig staring at your fretting hand, but I’ve yet to see a guitarist/bassist who doesn’t grab a look, at least when shifting positions or for a tricky bit.

Er... I suggest you take a listen to Electric Rendezvous by Al Di Meola if you think pick playing can’t keep up with fingerstyle There are plenty of great picked lines out there. The main difference is that you have to hold something rather than just pluck directly with your fingers. Once you’ve got some control there’s not much difference to playing fingerstyle. Have some discipline to play down strokes on down beats and you’ll get a consistent tone. Whatever happened to “if at first you don’t succeed...”??

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warwick-Streamer-LX-Jazzman-4-Electric-Bass-Guitar/202124878762?hash=item2f0f94e3aa:g:2r8AAOSwH2VaGafd Looks nice at first glance, some minor dings but not too bad a price. However... after asking for more info it appears that the truss rod went belly up, the fingerboard has been taken off, truss rod replaced, new fingerboard and re-fretted with stainless steel frets, plus the body has at some point had another coat of stain and the neck has been shaved. None of which appears in the ad! Caveat emptor...

After having spoken to several guitar and bass builders - wood does make a difference but not so much different species but differences in individual pieces of wood (mass, moisture content, grain etc), often from the same tree - hence something as straightforward as ash - you can have an ash body on a bass weighing 8lbs, or one weighing 12+lbs. Two basses made from these woods are likely to have some differences in tone. Heavier basses generally have a thicker, bigger sound, but only if the wood has been thoroughly dried - otherwise they end up dull-sounding (like some late 70's Fenders). I must confess to never having heard of Obeche - looking it up, it's a very light wood so may not be so suitable as a body wood as you'll likely experience neck dive (unless the neck is similarly light and the tuners super-light). It looks like it might resemble basswood or swamp ash, so potentially similar in tone? Sapele appears to be a mahogany substitute - not in my experience a particularly popular wood for bass necks but used a lot in bodies.

I think that's the trap I fell into the 2 or 3 times I tried one - plus getting my head around what the switches do and how to get the best out of them. The advice to either cut bass/treble or boost mids on the amp makes sense - thanks!

Thanks for the offer. If it comes off I’ll definitely get in touch. With the pan and the switches it looks like there’s some very nice tones in there. Thanks to everyone else. Good tip about either boosting mids or cutting bass/treble, too.

It feels like there are two separate questions on this thread. 1. How do you play something that is too fast or technically difficult for you? 2. How do you learn what the notes actually, i.e., can you work out the part by ear? I think question 2 has already been answered - other than the best way to get better ears is to work out lots of parts, and not just to write them down, but learn to play them. Regarding question 1: plenty of sound advice - slow the part right down, work through it bit by bit and particularly concentrate on the trickiest bits. If you can play that bit, sow it down until you can. Think of a different fingering too. Whilst I partly agree with Cato’s opinion that you can learn to play most things this way, you will hit a limit at some point - and that is your technique (normally the right hand can’t keep up with the left or sync properly). So you may have to fudge a line that’s nearly there but good enough for most people not to notice. However I’d look at my technique and try to overcome that limitation as a development goal. One final thought: is everyone else in the band playing their parts exactly right? Unless the band is really good, I’d seriously doubt they do. As others have said - I’ve seen plenty of live gigs where the (original) band played songs with quite a variation on the recorded track.

Thanks. I’ve found a YouTube vid with someone playing the sa,e lines with various pickup/selector combinations and there are indeed some great tones:

I’ve got n opportunity to get a Warwick Corvette $$ 4 quite cheaply. However I’ve never been ble to get on with the pickup configuration. In theory, it should be a very versatile bass, but I’ve always found it to sound scooped in the mids in series and rather un-Stingray in parallel. I’m fine with the basic single coil and soap bar sound of a Warwick Can anyone who owns one and knows it inside out offer any tips to get great tones?

I didn’t say that books aren’t useful to anyone, anywhere; just in this particular case. The OP doesn’t appear to want to embark upon a course of study but asked for some book recommendations with licks or patterns. Now we don’t know the OP’s ability to pick up licks etc. from a song - but it’s a reasonable bet that he has some ability - and working things out from his favourite tunes will make his ears better (which you’re very unlikely to improve with most books), he’ll get to where (it sounds like) he wants to be, and best of all - it’s free!