Stub Mandrel

I've had a Hohner B2 (four string) for about thirty years so when I found a virtually mint Hohner Jack Custom 5 for £130 (with case, strap, strap locks and lead!) it would have been rude not to get it. It was a cheap lead though.

I'd assumed the advantage was diving low, but what I've found, from relatively little practice, is that five strings gets you thinking more about scale shapes across the neck. This seems to have helped me in visualising scales in different positions when back to four string.

I love skinny four-string necks though.

You want to see the arguments about 'engineer'.

In mainland Europe 'engineer' is a protected title, like 'Doctor'. Over here our 'technicians' are 'engineers' and we have plenty of 'hobby engineers'. the professional institutes have given up the cause and rely on chartered engineer to make the distinction.

In plain english, a musician is just someone who make music. I like the idea that ANYONE can be a musician simply by making music - it's too glorious a gift to keep it to an elite few. Worrying you aren't good enough is classic imposter syndrome - I know I suffer the salmons of self-doubt myself despite having played plenty of gigs in my younger days.

There's no professional body to decide who is and isn't (thank goodness) but there are things like graded exams and the obvious distinctions of pro and amateur for those who like to classify, but the question for any classification is how useful is it? Clearly it makes sense to identify professional musicians as those who make a living (or part of a living) from their craft. What about the bands who (truth be told) don't make enough to cover the costs of strings, gear petrol and rehearsal space?

(P.S. it might be useful for mere mortals in smaller bands to know you can turn over (i.e. total income) £1,000 a year without having to pay tax on it from minor trading. That's £4K a year for a four-piece so I doubt most small bands playing a pub or small club once a month or so need to worry about tax).

4 hours ago, missis sumner said:

Anyway, I have played a little with a pick before, so "no problem", I think.  Only he insists that my alternate up and down strokes are very, very wrong, and that everything should be played on a down stroke.  Now, maybe I've misunderstood him, but it seems whether it's down strokes only or alternate up and down is down to the song and the sound required?

He probably can't do alternate picking and failed his shredding exams, so he's p****d that you can.

I don't like using a plectrum much. I like nice low action so it tends to make a bass sound clanky, and I can pluck faster with my fingers (my one and only flash move is a Sheenan-style three-finger trill). I also play guitar fingerstyle more often than with a plecky.

I'm working hard to get back my mojo.

I put on Planet Rock and try and play along to whatever comes on.

If I get stuck I pull the chords up on Ultimate Guitar.

If I 'click' I pull up the bass tab and try and learn the main parts properly.

No ones listening so if I just bash root notes to 'The Real Me' who cares?

It's great practice for (1) identifying the keys of songs and (2) learning to anticipate chord changes.

And yes it will amaze you how many songs are basically just I - IV - V so it's worth googling what that means!

Some late thoughts on this.

I can play fretless but I am not brilliant at it, but I have a decent ear and no-one has ever told me I'm playing it out of tune (even when I have been!)

First, accept that its harder and that lo and behold you won't hit notes dead in tune every time (that's why Leo invented the 'precision' bass LOL!

The secret is in putting your fingers into the right place NOT constantly trying to adjust to get dead in tune. Even on a fretted bass strings typically sound high and drop in pitch a bit, this seems even more true of a fretless and also the timbre of the note changes. These things not only give fretless playing its distinctive sound (apart from slides etc) but help to cover small errors.

My bass only has side dot markers. I've set the intonation so that I'm in tune when I play dead in line with the marker. With the amount of adjustment on any fretless you can can move this 'right spot' around a surprising amount by fiddling with intonation.

I play one finger per fret, and try and hit just behind the fret in all positions (I have big hands, my one big advantage!) It makes a bit more discipline to keep accurate spacing on a fretless but its the only way to hit the right spot for unmarked notes. It takes time but try and get used to how your fingers need to close up as you move up the neck.

DO keep reference to how you sound and be prepared to shift your playing position a bit to keep in tune rather than fudging individual fingers.

In summary, I'd say fretless is really about developing 'muscle memory' as much as your ear and don't expect to find it easy, I feel it is a lot harder. If you despair - think about violin, no markers and you need to be about three times as accurate in placing your fingers to be as accurately in tune (no wonder violinists always use vibrato!)

Strikes me that rather than falling out, the two of you are on the verge of starting to step up to the next level.

You need to tell him that you can add to the songs, but he needs to trust you and understand that you'll develop your style over time.

You don't say what style of music you are playing. If it's funk you are going to be putting in very different 'fills' to blues and if it's death metal you might want to simplify your bass lines (joke).

I'm not a flash bass player at all, but I love putting in little runs and decorations (just not at turbo speed).

Knowing what key you are playing in, understanding a few basic scales - pentatonic major and minor are good starting points. You can't go far wrong putting in a little run up or down to lead into a verse or chorus. Another trick is just playing an inetrmediat noe (e.g. the the third or seventh note of the next chord) ahead of the first downbeat to 'lead into' the change. Very cliche but it's popular for a reason.

On 29/01/2019 at 17:23, MacDaddy said:

Just the bass and vocals to What's Going On?  Out of context that bass line sounds like aimless noodling IMO, but play the full song and it's sublime. 

How did he do it?

What's Going On, bass and vocal

What's Going On, full song

According to Wikipedia David Vand De Pitte wrote the bass line and Jamerson (lying on the floor because was so drunk) played it exactly as written.

It's stunning.

I saw Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons last year. They do a little bit of an audience interaction routine as a sort of 'ritual' before Tyla Cambell goes into the bass riff og Ace of Spades.

Of course this time he hits the e-string and his pick flies off into space 🙂

Brian Bromberg had so much distortion that after the first couple of bars you could hardly distinguish any notes it was just static...

I learn one big lesson from that video - if you want to be a great bass player, start wearing baggies.

Ask Fender for the old neck back.

It's your property.

2 hours ago, Graham said:

I've been looking for this clip on YouTube for ages - 11 top flight bassists with Stanley Clarke on stage each doing a solo over School Days.

For my money, Flea plays the best by far

Don't watch their hands too closely, the audio is annoyingly out of synch with the video

Well that proves guitars are a waste of time 😈

Wayman Tisdale makes his bass look like a Ukelele!

Plectrum?

Just. Say. No.

🙂

Apparently Ivor Biggun and the Red Nosed Burglars song 'The Winkers Song' isn't about winking at all!

2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

my particular favourite is Rocking in the Free World, when the Berlin Wall came down everybody was covering it to celebrate, when in fact, it is an anti free world song

Hmmm. I would say it's anti-big corporation/pro-socialism not anti-free world. He's kind of being ironic that the so-called 'free world' is not as 'free' as it would like to be.

I won't say anti-capitalism as by his own admission NY is an entrepreneur and likes money.

Interesting.

This is always going to be challenging as it is easy for a ham-fisted person to keep tightening a truss rod and strip the thread, then how do you prove it's a manufacturing fault not user error?

As you are clearly not a clueless beginner and tehre's a known fault with these guitars, I have a theory: the truss rods haven't been threaded for a long enough distance so you simply run out of adjustment. In running past the end of the thread, the nut strips.

It's likely the upper parts of the thread are still fine. If you still had the neck, I would recommend seeing if you could still wind the nut right off, get a new nut and use it with a spacer 6-10mm long on the still intact end of the thread.

10 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

PEDANT ALARM!!!

Just noticed that the title of this thread is misspelt... 

Should it be Eroctica?

1 hour ago, RobF said:

Found a sapphire burst ( longscale) in a local pre loved shop yesterday. Lovely finish, so I've avoided the 2 months wait and ordered a new discounted CHB 1 shortscale in sapphire burst today. 

The wife will be pleased lol

That is pretty 🙂

22 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

You lucky divil!  He is one of the all time greats in my humble opinion.  Now I'm going to search for material showing his mandolin skills.  Thanks for the heads up.

Sorry to veer off-topic for a bit of idol worship.  As you were.

On the subject of the state of that guitar it's worth seeing http://www.rorygallagher.com/#/archives/guitars

" I’ve had to take the neck off occasionally and dry it out – it was getting damp with doing so many gigs and I started to have tuning problems. "

It also says he had unusually acidic sweat due to his blood group, whether this was why it was so copious is another question!

7 hours ago, cheddatom said:

Playing "melodic" or "musical" beats that fit the song, rather than just picking a beat and keeping time 

Moving with the music, not just an effort to entertain others but rather actually "feeling" the music

That's Ringo Starr's forte. You can recognise Beatles songs just by the drum line.

Regularly playing a bit of acoustic guitar should help with dealing with narrow spacings.

If you know the going price of what you want, then a 'price match' might appeal.

If you are looking for an instrument to fit a price range or just browsing, it's seriously likely to put you off.

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I've seen Rory Gallagher's Strat up close and I have to say it's minging! I'm glad it was in a sealed display cabinet otherwise I might have worried about catching something from it...

I saw Rory playing it.

You really would not have wanted to borrow his towel afterwards.

He was phenomenal, even his mandolin playing was absolutely incredible.

8 hours ago, josie said:

My first, suggested by my teacher, who then showed me the minor pentatonic scale it's based on. Lightbulb moment. 

My impression, looking at people's tabs on places like Ultimate Guitar, is that surprisingly few people experience that lightbulb going on. 80% of tabs seem to include huge random stretches that could be avoided by using a scales based approach.

31 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

This translates as "I did a functional field repair".  If it passes the bass guitar equivalent of an MOT it's cool.  No need to be afraid.  I like the control plate too. 

Sorry - I mean I did the repair in the 90s but fitted a new (whole) scratchplate recently because I want it to look nice >ducks<

I wonder how many people leave a lighted 'cigarette' under the strings above the nut of their strat to get the 'genuine Clapton burn mark'?

(This is the real 'Blackie' not relickteded)

2 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

In my opinion there is no need to ask the question, what you have is genuine battle damage complete with functional field repairs.

If you can't live with the looks it is just the sort of thing that hapless hipsters fork out a lot of beer tokens for.  Unless you let a restorer talk you down to a price that allows them to make a profit later on post-restoration that is.

As a hack it looks quite respectable.  All this assumes a playable instrument that sounds at least half-decent of course.

Afraid I fitted a new scratchplate 🙂 There was no eBay back in the early 90s 🙂