Bassfinger

13 hours ago, TimR said:

 

Definition of insanity is repeating the same thing expecting a different outcome. 

 

I'll leave that there.

Except that isn't the definition of insanity.

 Neal Schon should remember the recent lesson of Joe Lycett - it'll now doubtless soon come to light that Schon once played a benefit gig for the SS or something and he'll end up looking a bit daft.

16 hours ago, blisters on my fingers said:

"Who determines what anyone deserves?"

 

Royal Mail management and their friends in high places. 

 

Unless you go on strike and fight for a better deal.

...and shoot themselves in the foot as RM are claiming that if it carries on much longer they'll be looking at making 11,000 staff redundant.

So the strike may instead mean that a load of them lose their jobs, and those that are left not only don't get what they were demanding but also end up having a higher workload due to the job losses.

I feel they do deserve it - as do the nurses, Ambo, lower paid rail staff - but I also feel it likely that not only are they not going to get it, they're going to end up worse off in a lot of other ways.   On top of that the unions will come out of it weaker and with even less influence in the future - when you call someone's bluff and they stand firm it inevitability weakens your own position going forward.

I wish them well, but with each day that passes it increasingly looks to me like each will end with an own goal of varying severity.

Yep, we've got in with the horsey set and they are out biggest customers. They absolutely sheet money, and are happy to pay - last gig I TWOC'd Mrs D's polestar and it was the cheapest car in the car park by about 90 grand, surrounded as it was by Overfinch Range Rooney's, Aston DBX's and Bentaygas. 

Luckily, as yet none of them have asked us to do any ABBA...

53 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

$3,000.00 for a 2 hour set?

Wonder what that is after tax...

We typically charge private gigs £2000 for 2 x one hour sets, dependent kn the nature of the gig. Seems if we chuck in some ABBA we could maybe charge a bit more, eh ?

Where possible I buy from a shop, partly to allow me to check the quality of the specific instrument I'm buying, and partly because weight can vary noticeably between otherwise identical instruments.

Unfortunately my serial Harley Bemton habit cannot be assuaged in this manner.

19 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Choosing between keeping the roof over your head or keeping the bass tends to make it a quite easy decision...

Yep, keep the basses and move back in with Mum and Dad.

58 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Bad boy Jaco. We knew you had crap technique all along...

 

 

 

 

And Victor! Go to the back of the class!

 

 

 

 

So glad there are better bass players out there than these guys...

Hendrix used to do it on the geetar too, and I'm given to understand he was quite a good player. 

Rules are one thing, but the rule is incompatible with thumb over the top to deliberately rotate that hand and put the fingers in a better position for outward bends and pull-off's on the high strings - watch Hendrix in slow-mo and you can see his hand rotating arou d the neck.  If people can ignore these rules to make another technique accessible then I would suggest that the rules need a few exceptions incorporating to bring them up to date.

And no, I don't do it myself because I was taught not to and that was ingrained into me at a young age. Nevertheless, I don't have any god given right to dictate how other musicians must play so if someone else can make something good happen by not following this rule then all power to them because that's how new sounde and techniques are born. 

I've gone off Gary Glitter in recent years...

The most I've personally paid is £2600, but that was for my dream bass. Other than that a grand is the limit, the point for me where common sense, playability and finish coincide, although I've found basses at half that which are as good as most £1000 ones.

I had no exposed holes, so they look OK.  The HB tuner spacing is a little closer than the Fender norm so 3 of the Wilkinson tuners required about 0.5mm filing off the edge where they butt up to the adjacent tuner.  The backplate covers the old holes and the Wilko tuners actually work very nicely.

7 hours ago, ern500evo said:

For those who have added a Warman pickup, are your controls still volume-volume-tone, or is it now just volume-tone with the Warman pup? 

I wired mine as per standard.

You can see why I went for Wilkinson tuners very quickly!

On 15/12/2022 at 13:41, thisisswanbon said:

 I've read a lot that they're short of low end, have any of you experienced this?

Good lord, no!  As stock they have nothing to be ashamed of low down, and with the Warman pickup it's like Joss Ackland clearing his throat.

2 hours ago, BreadBin said:

 

A large number of really great musicians play the 'wrong' way some or all of the time, yet they make music they love and countless other people enjoy. 

Elton John, makes it up by ear and breaks half the rules in the book.

Mark Knopfler, freely admits his technique would give any tutor nightmares yet his playing and songwriting send shivers down my spine.

Ian Anderson, defies established convention on flute, bass, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, penny whistle, claghorn (google it), drums and keyboard, but doesn't seem any the worse for it.

Lemmy, well...he was Lemmy and was utterly unapologetic about it.

Seems to me that not holding a digit in a certain manner did nothing to fetter their rampant creativity, and in many cases may have even facilitated it as it has with me.

The sound a musician makes is what ultimately matters, and if they can get the sound they want by not following a 'correct' method that someone has only invented since 1951 then why the hell shouldn't they?

I got banned trom Talkbass too for refusing to change my avatar from a poppy - it was that time of year and Im an ex squaddie so am prone to such bouts of remembrance - as the admin said it was 'politcal'. In response I deliberately committed forum hari kari by calling the admin something that rhymes with brick and was banned.

You are of course very welcome here. As a community, and a genuinely warm one, Basschat is in a different league.  You'll do particularly well if you like Harley Bentons.

Just because someone is a tutor, even one accredited to something or other, does not mean they're any cop at it. Even if they are superb, they aren't god, they don't get to say what is correct, and any that are bold enough to say so are likely of a closed mindset and will be slow to progress themselves, if at all.

The mass produced electric bass is a relatively recent innovation. That being the case, who is anyone to say what is right or wrong? Not me. Not Geddy Lee. Not Derek from the small ads who is advertising his bass lessons.

I've had formal musical training - not on the bass - and without being immodest I can truthfully say that I progressed (before smashing my elbow) far beyond the abilities of my guitar tutor, and despite that still wouldn't deign to tell even the newest guitarist what is correct or otherwise. I might say, "give this a try", or "have you thought about doing it that way, see if it works for you?", but I am in no moral position to tell anyone that is the correct method and thus the only one worthy of consideration. I'm just not that arrogant.

Watch, listen, learn, try it, practice it, critique it against that which you're trying to achieve, and then either adopt it, modify it, or discard it.  None of us should be blind to progressing our playing by learning, and none of us should rigidly accept convention either. None of us should suppose that just because we favour a certain way of playing that it is "correct".  

If it gives you the sound you're after, if you can do it and make it work, if it doesnt hinder some other aspect of your playing, and if it doesn't give you an RSI, then it's correct. Simple as that.

Marvellous! That's just what I need, seeing as I've always wanted to sound like I was having some kind of serious medical episode while playing a stringed instrument.

6 minutes ago, stewblack said:

You had a bad experience with them?

I have had the misfortune to examine one - not this exact model - at a car  boot sale. It was so horrible I felt dirty and violated for weeks afterwards.

Google abound with tales of extreme neck shimming required to make them playable.  Our hallowed forum founder had to use so something like a 5mm shim to be able to set the action, almost as if the bodies were rejects from another source where the neck pockets had been cut too deep.

Seriously, anyone who can't scrape together an extra £20 for an HB would be better off not bothering,  and as yet I see no evidence the new finishes bring any improvement.

14 hours ago, BigRedX said:

So what makes these different from every other P-Bass?

The fact that it's nigh on unplayable out the box?

An extra £20 spent on a Harley Benton shows the different between a genuinely decent and useable instrument, and a piece of tat that requires an absurd degree of neck shimming to be able to even set the action.

5 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Having taught myself bass I have a rather odd technique, which consists of either slapping, picking or strumming with the thumb, and popping, picking or flicking with 2-3 fingers...

Works for me!

I bet it's quite a sight when you pick your nose!

5 minutes ago, musicbassman said:

Oh please God no, I've seen too many examples of roadies hairy clefts over the years when they bend over to pick up a PA bin.......... 😳

And that's just the females!

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

144 strains to a grunt AND 12 grunts to a strain??

Imperial units make perfect sense!

I still use the imperial units for heft, you know, 144 strains to a grunt, 12 grunts to a strain, 20 strains to a heft, 105 hefts to a prolapse.

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

Watch any bassist out there in a pro band and they'll all be moving their thumbs from one anchor point to another.

Without expending any brain energy I can think of dozens who either do not at all, or who only do so some of the time.

I can play floating quite happily, but I don't really need to as I've big hands and can easily cover all 4 when anchored. That being the case ye olde thumb is usually on the pickup/tug bar unless I'm playing a song where I'm using my thumb to pluck (or using a pick.)

My technique is a little hampered through not having proper use of or feeling in my outer 2 fingers so I do what works for myself rather than what the sage old self-appointed technique critics tell me I should be doing. It has it's advantages - I'm very adept at muting with my little finger, which has other players scratching their heads at how I do it.