chris_b

My band had a gig in Leeds, and the trumpet player dropped out on the day of the gig. We phoned the Leeds School of Music and got a young student to sit in. We had a partial run through at sound check. He read the parts without a hitch, but it was a Soul band so ABC stuff compared to what he was used to. Reading music is like reading a book. You can be at "Janet and John" level or "Hamlet" level. Depends on the requirements of the gig and your ability. Ideally you want to be reading stuff that's below your maximum level, but I've seen interviews with Laurence Cottle and Chuck Rainey relating stories about sessions where they couldn't read what was put in front of them. Cottle said the arranger told him afterwards, "That's not what I wrote, but I like it, so we'll keep it." Very few people are going to need to play a piece at first sight, even in the West End they get practice and rehearsal time, as do symphony orchestras, but reading, at any level, is a great skill for a player to have.

IMO multiscale isn't a solution to anything, but, like jazz basses, roundwound strings, active, 5 and 6 strings, humbuckers etc it's a good evolution.

In the old days, beer crates borrowed from the bar staff used to work for me. If I couldn't hear my cabs standing right in front of them, I'd be questioning why I'm using those cabs. I use 2 Barefaced 112 cabs which have such good dispersion that while they are pointing at the lower half of my body, I can hear every note perfectly.

I used to visit when in Brighton. Always a good experience. This is sad news.

It was like that in the 60's and 70's. Sheet music was written out by piano players, who were paid by the song, so the bass parts were an afterthought, about 20% correct, if that!

When you've got started, try some of the various Bach for bass YouTube videos. Bach is very good. Rhythmically it's simple, mostly multiples of 4 in the bar. There are a lot of notes to read, so Bach is very useful for recognising the notes on the stave and translating where they are on the bass. Also you won't recognise the tunes so you'll have to be reading the dots.

I learnt scale shapes, the names of the notes, where they were on the neck and where they were on the clef, and played along, with sheet music, to various simple pop songs at the time. That was in pre computer age. These days all you need to do is search for "Reading bass clef on youtube". There are a lot of choices. I just looked at the first few on the list and the introductions look pretty good.

Thanks Steve.

Are they rough enough to cause wear to the frets?

If I won the lotto I'd keep most of my gear. Top of the list would be an Aston Martin DB12 Volante.

I've bought basses and cabs on the way to gigs and played them that night. If the bass is as good as you say, play it. No reason to delay.

Even though he came from Detroit, Bob Seger was Southern Rock. Thin Lizzy was more top 40.

Maybe a high mass bridge will change the tone on your bass, and maybe it won't, and maybe it does and you can't hear it. All possibilities.

If this bass feels right, sounds right and you want to pick it up and play it, why would there be another bass?

I think you'll like it.

For R&B (both), Soul, Funk, Blues and many others, my main amp is an Aguilar TH500. It has a fantastic warm, fat and well defined tone and enough volume to go from a whisper to keeping up with guitarists in stupidly loud Rock Blues bands. Be careful, it might end up being your main amp in no time.

I first met Mark when buying my Bergantino cabs, when the Bass Direct showroom was his rehearsal studio in a barn on a farm. I feel another visit coming on.

. . . . and the sustain isn't very good, is it? The original was probably Pino on a fretless, and in the studio you can do a lot more than you can on a gig. More importantly, if your bass is resonant enough to sustain a note well for several bars it probably sounds great when you're playing 2 or 4 notes to the bar. Some people need flexibility and some don't.

An "edge case" in your world maybe, but that doesn't mean it isn't a requirement for others. If you are playing the kind of music that requires long held notes you can either shrug your shoulders and look embarrassed because your bass doesn't cut it, or buy a bass that gets the job done. If a high mass bridge gives you the sustain you need then it is worth having.

Depends on the style of music and the songs. If you need to hold a note for a bar you want the sustain to last longer than that so the note doesn't die half way though. I used to play Boys Of Summer and the sustain is for 4 bars. So a good sustain is required from a good bass.

If Overwater made a Super Light range I'd buy several in a heartbeat, but they are missing a huge market segment by sticking with these heavyweight basses.

At nearly 11lbs it's a back breaker!!

Collectable guitars and basses will be like stamp collecting. . . . but not as popular.

It is, but that one has a different sound to other humbuckers.