Johannes

Only 5 strings for me. For what reason would a 4- stringer be better?

My ”home setup” is same as my ”gig setup” exept at home I D.I. my amp Pre-EQ to my audio interface and at a gig to P.A. I use a Markbass mini CMD 121 extended with a Standard 121 HR cabinet, placed vertically. That rig gives me more than enough power to any gig. If not, I don’t want to be on that stage. At home I try to match the EQ of the rig to the sound of my studio monitors, I prefer to record my bass listening other tracks trough my monitors and the bass trough the rig. In the photo are my settings to match the sound to my monitors. Of course these settings are completly different at gigs.

Don’t try to force it (if Your familys survival doesn’t require it). Often a good break and distance from it can work wonders. After my first intense 10 pro years and very busy gigging schedule I just got enough and changed to another profession. I didn’t touch a bass or any other instrument for next 10 years. Then I got the ”sparkle” back and started to play again. It took couple of weeks about 1-2 hours practice per day to get my technique and cordination back. I think my playing got also more matured and disciplined. Weird thing is that my sight-reading got almost immediately better. I guess the reason for it is more relaxed mindset.

Endless variation possibility for bass players: ”Sweet Home Alabama” ”Knock Knock on the Heavens Door”

For most of the students music lessons are just wasted time. Anyway I was very lucky to have a great music teacher in our school who was very good musician himself. He noticed about 10 talents among us and got us playing together, at the begining under his supervision. Many of us became later pro musicians.

For stage use I think any common brand like Drawmer or Dbx will do. Anyway many pedal bass compressors are very good these days and are often much cheaper. Either You choose, be sure to connect it to a point in the signal chain where it does NOT affect the signal sent to the house mixer. As a FOH engineer I’ve had some terrible experiences with overcompressed basses, there is nothing You can do about it behind the mixer. It just sounds continuous mush or roar. As a bass player myself I have done lot of work to perform without one, I feel it sounds clearer and punchier that way.

It seems to be some kind of consensus among the bass players that You should use only index and middle fingers for fingerstyle. I don`t agree. You use whatever suits for You. I have been using my ring finger as much as index and middle for my entire career (next year I`ll celebrate my half century playing the bass). I use my thumb a lot too (I’m not talking about slap-style here). I cut my nails short exept my pinky, I use it for some special effects like twangy sounds or artifical harmonics. I claim that I can execute exactly as steady 16:th pulse using figers 1 and 2 or 1 and 3 or 2 and 3. Sometimes I roll it 123123123123 even it’s 4/4 meter. How about You, interested to hear.

I have used them long time on my 5-string Sadowskys, both fretted and fretless and haven’t experienced any sticky feel on them. For me they are great strings, balanced, clear and punchy sound, medium tension. Possibly the best flatwound B-string available.

This is somehow complex question to answer. I think even those who have studied under professional supervision are still self-taught to some degree. I had exellent teachers but I think their strongest influence to my developement was to wake up my skills to develope by myself. Those who don’t want to work and sweat for their skills at all usually stop playing after a while. Sorry about my english.

I have played about 3000 gigs and most of the time it`s just one, either fretted or fretless. Sometimes both of them. Never had a problem. I think if You have a decent quality bass, inspect it regularly and take good care of it there shouldn`t be a problem.

I begun playing the bass about 49 years ago. Made my living with it from age of 17. Today I feel I am better musician than ever. With experience I have matured, playing less but with more understanding about what really serves the music. I am accompanying, not showcasing my chops. Even my tecnique is better since I don’t panic facing difficult tasks and my experience and knowledge about practising helps Me to survive.

I haven`t heard any rules about this subject. I think it depends very much about overall instument and neck construction. It wouldn’t hurt to make it thick enough to have some material for some future refrettings or in case of a fretless sanding/resurfacing.

Sometimes the local staff present dont know about the existence of the loop. I’ve seen it happen.

Most likely it is caused by venue’s induction loop. Common problem with single-coil pickups.

How do You guys feel about tapered B-strings? I use my B-string much above the 5:th fret, often even close to the 24:th. Mostly they seem to have strange overtone and intonation problems. T:H

Sorry, there's no topic. It should be: using ring finger for plucking.

There seems to be widely accepted consensus about this, it's index and middle fingers, never ring finger. Thumb is now accepted for plucking too, ten years ago it was only for slapping. I started to play the bass (45 years ago) using index, middle and ring fingers. Later I involved my pinky and thumb too. My middle finger is much longer than index and ring which are much closer in lenght. If I must play quick triplets, 16th notes or something like that, I tend to use alternating index and ring. I remember reading (one of my great heroes) Nate Watts discovered the power of his ring finger after having an accident with his middle finger and not been able to use it for a while. Your thoughts?

To my experience (pro over 40 years) it really doesn’t matter much at all. Some basses are ”snappier”, some ”punchier”, some ”warmer” etc, regardless if the pickups are positioned half an inch south or north. You might hear the difference between 60`s and 70`s bridge PU placement when listening Your Instrument carefully alone at home. When playing in a noisy club or stadium You are often lucky to hear it at all. Even when You hear it recorded in a studio, sometimes it is so heavily eq`d , compressed and destroyed in the mix to lack all the detail and dynamics so it really doesn’t matter if there is a bridge pickup at all.