Bassfinger

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

Good networking skills are better than auditions.

^^^That's what got me my current billet.

Gary Glitter and Gary Moore.  One wants me to join his gang, and one is out in the fields, and all I can remember is that one of those might be a bad choice.

Excellent.  If they get a Jazz Bass too then it'll be worth visiting 😉

Looks great. But tell me, what is that strange thing on the left? Some kind of novelty tea chest?

Thank you!

The photos don't show it, but as the poly has cured its sunk into the grain slightly.  This has given a shiny but slightly textured finish which looks fantastic.

To be fair he's playing the patch really well.

I'm not entirely sure what it is,other than I'm fairly sure it isn't the maple it was sold as.  It's fairly light, fairly soft, but that's all I really know. 

It does have some nice grain in places. Not bad for a cheapie.

Wilkinson Tuners.  Well priced, look good, very little slop.  What's not to like?

Recently went through this angst with my new bandmate chums.  We discovered that the more serious and pretentious wer tried to be with the name, the more likely there was already a band with the same name.  The more stupid and irreverent we were the less likely the name was already in use.

Our keyboardist is a martial arts chap, and we were taking the pith, asking him if he'd entered the dragon lately when the idea for the name popped into our guitarists head.

I'm lucky, I guess.  I can read music, which is just as well as tab is gobbledygook to me!

If you can get your head around tab, choose a song with a not too difficult bassline (Sunshine of Your Love is a good one) and use the power of Google to find the tab.  Practice until you've got the basics, and then start playing along with the song.  Not necessarily a method on it's own for learning bass, but being able to play along to a few songs in short order is a real boost and will keep you interested and spur you on to more structured learning.  It'll also get you used to playing, fingering (snigger) and you'll start to subliminally learn where the notes are on the fingerboard.

Uk_lefty's tip for using an app is a tuner is a good one. Personally I recommend Guitar Tuna, but there are loads out there.

But whatever method you use, best of luck!

Just now, CamdenRob said:

Mrs C is right handed but plays air bass left handed 😕

Sir Paul McCartney is the same.  That is, right handed but a leftie player, not the same as Mrs C.

Coming from 4 decades of guitar I pick play.  I simply prefer it, and if Johnny O'pinionated doesn't like it then he can kiss my hairy arriss.

However, I devote the final 10 minutes of every practice session to finger style playing, on the basis that one can never master too many techniques.

Heres a picture of me not giving a sheet.

And on Gona set of Alan Entwistle pickups.  I went for the ceramic magnets and it surprised me how weighty they are.

I did a lot of reading around and the general buzz from testers is that they're decent budget performers and you need to spend proper money on DiMarzios or Duncan's to get an improvement.  Well, spending that much on a budget build just was nae gonna happen.

I used to work with the guitarist, and asked him if he fancied getting a pub band together for a laugh.  He knew a keyboard player (who by chance I also vaguely knew) and he knew a drummer.  Took  about 2 days of text messaging to sort.

Black Betty by Ram Jam.

29 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

When The Terrortones released our second EP on vinyl back in 2013 it was new and different and the lead times were about the same as those for CD manufacture. The quality and production times were much better than the last time I made a record back in the early 80s when it could take several months from the cutting session to actually getting your single or album; and when you did the pressing was really thin and already full of pops, clicks and crackles that weren't part of the music.

From what I have seen recently vinyl is starting to plateau. Production times are ever increasing unless you are prepared to pay a considerable premium, and from what I've heard the quality of the pressings is starting to come down as the pressing plants struggle to keep up with the volumes being produced. When the audio quality of vinyl is already below that of a CD, it cannot afford to be anything but the best possible for that medium. Without new pressing plants capable of high volume, high quality and low cost pressings, vinyl will eventually flounder as it reverts back to the bad old days of the late 70s and early 80s.

Having said that as an artist, right now, I'd be stupid not to at least consider vinyl when it comes to releasing music even if it's just so that I can sell over-priced crap to hipsters. After all a sale is a sale irrespective of the medium, and unless you go mad with the packaging the mark up for an album on vinyl is much greater than that on CD. You do need to consider your audience though. I've done gigs where I have only sold CDs - at one we sold every CD we brought with us but not a single record on vinyl. I've also done gigs where most of the sales were vinyl although at these we've always sold CDs too. What I have discovered is that if you are selling vinyl you need to include a CD version in the package, as for many potential customers a download code is not sufficient.

As an audience member/customer, I'd always go for CDs first and foremost. It's easy to transfer to my computer and then on to all my other digital devices. I'll buy a record on vinyl only if it comes with a CD version or at least an uncompressed/lossless download. However as soon as I have got my download and checked it's OK the vinyl will be up for sale "as new" on Discogs as I have no need to keep archaic physical formats.

I don't know that vinyl is archaic - in the english language sense it is I deed possessing the characteristics of an earlier period, but it is still very much current.  It still functions well, and has comfortably outlived all other commercial sound reproduction formats, including those that were intended to replace it. It will outlive all the current popular file formats.

When the current download formats become obsolete and we all have to upgrade our collections to some new standard to be able to listen to them, vinyl will still be functioning as well as it ever did, and selling steadily.

As Pops the terminator said - it's old, not obsolete.

See, I'm in a strange nether world.

I've pretty much no feeling in my right thumb and 3rd and 4th fingers due to injury.  Add to that limited strength in my elbow and shoulder.

The big rub there is I'm right handed.  Over time I've subconsciously adapted, and if a door needs opening or a suitcase carrying my left hand automatically does it.  As a result I've become e left hand dominant, although I am still right handed.  I still write (bit jot much) with my right hand, and play bass right handed, but anything requiring heft goes to the left.

15 hours ago, 12stringbassist said:

Is your drummer a leprechaun of stood in a hole?

Epiphone LPs punch well above their weight, and many of the older ones are genuine classics in their own right.  The guy clearly doesn't know his guitars as well as someone who teaches the topic should.

And the old pick bass player thing leaves me scratching my head every time I hear it.  It's such an oft touted opinion, yet so many bass players play with picks.  I reckon the ratio of players who use a pick some or all of the time compared to non pick players is probably greater than left handed folk to right handers, yet this stupid, Ill informed, and utterly ridiculous opinion is trotted out so much.  Weird.

What Monkey Steve said.  Whether they're there to party or there to play dominoes makes no odds to me, just so long as any fans (that'd be the day!) aren't inconvenienced.

I recall one gig I did as a young chap, when a filly in the front row lifted her T shirt and gave me both barrels.  I was pretty stiff myself after that.

Everything posted on Facebook is either fake news or plain tosh.

On 21/11/2019 at 11:18, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

The 4mm allen key that comes with a lot of non-US basses including Epiphones & Squiers is OK, but easily lost.

I've found an alternative which works much better and costs less than £2 from various ebay sellers in China.

Seach for 'T handle allen hex key wrench spanner 4mm'

I had one of those but I lost it.

Mrs Bassfingers car eats your CDs and memorises them so you don't need the actual disc again.  It also connects to the home WiFi so it can have your audio collection off the computer indoors.  It'll also play mp3s via Bluetooth etc.

It also updates its own software with Volvo overnight via the WiFi.  Talk about Big Brother.

But when I'm in it I still filch the CD out of my car and slip in in the slot in the dash.  Doesn't get simpler than that.

I only buy CDs.

But I'm old.