Eight

[quote name='simon1964' post='382559' date='Jan 16 2009, 04:04 PM']Also look at books. Sheet music and tutor books sell most days and produce turnover, which will keep your head above water while you try to find a buyer for that custom shop Warwick! Getting a good reputation for books will also bring repeat business in - if you get lucky they may take a fancy to an instrument you have in and buy that on spec.[/quote]
Good thinking. Nine times out of ten if I'm in a music shop its for a casual look at the available sheet music (stores just don't seem to have the range they used to though) and often walk out with stuff I didn't know I "needed" until I was in there.

The opposite seems to happen if the shop is too small and it feels like the staff are on your shoulder. Then I'll chat to them but will be very much about buying what I went in for; just don't feel as comfortable spending the time having a good look at everything.

[quote name='cytania' post='382486' date='Jan 16 2009, 03:11 PM']Eight, you're on the right track there's alot of good stuff around for £300 and yes you really do need to get your hands a bass in a shop to judge if it's for you.[/quote]
Hmmm... Maybe I should hang on an extra month or so until I'm next in London. They must have most of the manufacturers available in shops down there I'd guess.

Dr. Dave, no doubt there are and have been millions of happy Fender players over their many years. I suppose I'd be doing them a disservice by ruling them out just because I don't like the look. I will promise to give them more consideration.

[quote]I think you'll find the likely seller here is honest,helpful and knowledgeable.[/quote]
Is that you then?

[quote name='vmaxblues' post='382505' date='Jan 16 2009, 03:23 PM']4) Am I mad to consider this?[/quote]
Not necessarily. Apparently a lot of start ups are making good progress because property prices should be lower and there's reduced VAT and interest rates. Best time for a bank loan etc.

Although its a competitive market I guess.

[quote name='Balcro' post='381890' date='Jan 15 2009, 11:22 PM']One odd question and one plain question. In which County do you live? In repect to your age or size, do you have large or small hands or fingers? [i]Yes, I know, medium.[/i]. These minor details all help to refine the advice Basschatters will give you.
Balcro.[/quote]
Ah cool, I should have thought of including stuff like that. I'm in the North East of England (currently Tyneside but moving again) and I guess I mainly play rock and metal - although I'm only learning so will play absolutely anything. My hands are on the smaller end of medium, fingers aren't too huge either.

I had a look round the localish shops recently and was a bit disappointed - couldn't see much I liked in my sort of price range. A lot of Fenders & Squires which (with no disrespect to anyone) I just find very dull to look at. I'm not gigging so looks shouldn't be important, but I kinda hate to spend money on something that has anything about it I really don't like. And I think I saw some Ibanez SR300s.

Feret, you're right of course. Buying based on what you read on the internet or even magazine reviews etc. is not always a great plan. And if I was spending more than £300 then I wouldn't consider it - but it doesnt seem sensible to spend serious money travelling too far afield to try £200-300ish basses.

Charic, I've not managed to try an ESP bass. I seem to remember trying an ESP guitar years and years ago and not being overly impressed... but it was just one and it might have been good but not for me. I think Bass Guitar Magazine reviewed an F-series recently and said something like the low-end didn't quite match up to the price. But it still scored pretty good if memory serves.

I'll check out the suggestions you guys have made so far. Particularly the Yamaha BB - I must admit I'd kinda overlooked Yamaha basses but at first glance the BB614 seems pretty cool.

Thanks for all the comments so far. This is helping a great deal.

Well I've been a bass player for all of what, three weeks? Already I'm thinking of getting that next bass - but to be fair, I bought a £50 one (which looks ghastly) just to get me going.

I've been searching the £200-£300 range, something that's a definite upgrade but still not splashing huge amounts of cash when I'm new on the instrument.

I'm down to three options at the minute but as I don't know the tech, its hard to judge between them other than looks and price. Struggling to find local dealers for any of the basses I had on a list of 9, so playing it first might not be possible.

ESP LTD EC-54
Bolt-On, 34" Scale, Basswood Body, Maple Neck w/ Rosewood Fingerboard, 40mm Standard Nut, Thin U Neck Contour, 22 XJ Frets, Chrome Hardware, ESP Tuners, ESP DB-4 Bridge, ESP SB-4 p.u. w/ ESP ATB-1 Active Tone Boost, Black Satin Finish
**Can't find any reviews for this yet.

Epiphone EB-3
SG style electric bass - mahogany body, maple neck, chrome hardware, rosewood fingerboard, trapez inlays, 1x sidewinder and 1x mini-humbucker pick-up, Colour: Ebony
**Glowing reviews

ESP LTD F154DX
Bolt-On, 35" Scale, Basswood Body w/ Flamed Maple Top, Maple Neck w/ Rosewood Fingerboard, 40mm Standard Nut, Thin U Neck Contour, 24 XJ Frets, Black Nickel Hardware, ESP Tuners ESP DB-4 Bridge w/ String-Thru-Body, ESP SB-4 (B&N) p.u., w/ ESP ABQ-3 3-Band Active EQ, Colour: See Thru Black
**Ok so this is over-budget and much more expensive than the other two.

Anyone got any comments that might help me understand which of the three might be a better purchase? My gut is saying the EB-3 or F154DX. I love look of the F-series basses but the EB-3 is no ugly duckling and I haven't seen a bad word against it; whereas the F154DX is at the bottom end of the F-series so I don't know how good it really is.

Edit: and just to prove I'm not going on looks alone, I had to reject the Warlock which concensus says has a very poor sound for the money. Shame, it would have matched my gu*tar.

[quote name='jaythemusicguy' post='381128' date='Jan 15 2009, 12:02 PM']quite useful if you've written something and you can play it "at" the guitarist rather than writing charts or explaining.[/quote]
Is that because guitarists can't read charts and only understand grunting?

In a lot of areas I've noticed that the crappy pound -> dollar has been boosting prices horribly for the past few months. So if the instrument retailers haven't already increased the prices then they'll be doing it soon. I guess it depends on when they have to order more stock from the states.

Now is either the worst time to buy; or the best for a while - depending on whether your chosen outlet has already adjusted for £:$.

[quote name='tauzero' post='379177' date='Jan 13 2009, 03:32 PM']Well, if you emailed them to me, I could do some research to find out whether it was legal or not. I'd obviously have to study the material though.[/quote]
Hahahaha.

Well as I am technically a part-time student, then emailing it to me might go some way to test the academic use theory.

I've got a BC Rich Warlock (platinum edition) but I bought that (and a few others) many many years ago and it hasn't been played for a very long time. Simply owning a guitar can't be held against me... can it?

Traitor.

If you must play some guitar, at least have the decency to lie about it.

I would love a copy... so I thoroughly encourage you to undertake the task.
Edit: and as possession of pirate material is an offence too, then we'd all be in it together.

But it is completely illegal - aside from the legalities of transcriptions etc. that everyone faces, you'd be duplicating and distributing parts of a copyright protected publication.

You could end up in hot water - but chances are even if someone were to care then you'd just be told to stop distributing it and have your wrist slapped very hard. I'm not a lawyer either btw, so don't ask me to defend you in court.

I read somewhere that if you play with a metronome, get one you can turn off the accenting of the first beat. Can't remember why.

Lol. That was no help at all.

There was another thread recently about drum software - it had some suggestions in there which might be worth a look.

I think AM's suggestion was more from an organisational standpoint than a conceptual grading of people's abilities. i.e. a forum for beginner/basic/elementary/core [b]content[/b] rather than beginner or basic [i]players[/i] etc.

I would still say no (if this was a vote) but I don't think its introduction would actually unfairly label anyone.

As I am a beginner (no problem with being referred to as one) and a BC newbie, I thought I'd post to express an opinion. Well actually, I'm going to quote from page 1 as it sums up what I'm worried about.

[quote name='mewsie' post='373972' date='Jan 8 2009, 01:11 PM']however, will as many experienced players also be hanging around in there to answer them?[/quote]
I've seen this happen on other non-bass forums. People with the real knowledge and experience don't learn or find anything interesting in the "beginners" section and so stop visiting, then the only people left to answer questions are other beginners. No disrespect to other beginners, but what we know (or think we know) needs to be balanced with the opinions of the more experienced.

I can appreciate its sometimes intimidating for beginners to post in the main forums; and I can also appreciate it might be tiresome for you pros to read the same basic questions over and over. But by being able to ask a question to the whole of BC, it gets a more comprehensive exposure; and the more experienced players who might not actively go looking to impart their wisdom often seem to read these threads and can't help posting. From what I've seen this results in a lot of useful info and discussion.

This forum is currently great for beginners; one of the best I've seen in way too many years of being a web forums user.

[quote name='molan' post='368875' date='Jan 2 2009, 09:39 PM']I tried this but all my music players have a slight pause between each loop which screws with the timing?[/quote]
I can't remember what I used to use back in the day. Erm... you could use a basic free sequencer (something like Reaper maybe) but that's maybe a bit more learning of software than you'd want to do just to loop an audio clip.

I'm sure someone will know of something if using loop samples is a route you'd like to try. I had a quick look but nothing jogged my memory and I'm away now for a week.

[quote]All we’re gonna say is that this will be to the bass world what the iPhone was to cell phones[/quote]
An over-priced gimmick-invested mobile phone that sold through marketing instead of technology?

Cool. That means that whatever this new thing is, other manufacturers will have something that works better and at a reasonable price within 3 months.

You know, I really can't think of any free programs or virtual instruments that come with a library of patterns that you can just pick. I could point you in the direction of some half decent free drum romplers or synthesizers but that would mean you'd have to program your own beats.

Maybe drum loops would be an easier option? E.g. [url="http://www.mhat.com/phatdrumloops/beats.asp"]http://www.mhat.com/phatdrumloops/beats.asp[/url]

Just loop them in an audio player and rock \m/

Ahahaha - "one string PunkBass". How much easier would it be to learn to play bass if I only had one string - genius!!!

Missed most of it unfortunately - although there wasn't anyone I was particularly bothered about seeing.

I usually like Lilly Allen - not my taste in music but somehow whenever I've watched her perform I'm always pleasantly surprised. I think I was being sick during her bit - no connection.

Caught The Ting Tings near the end - which would have counted as the biggest shock of 2008 had we not already passed over into the new year. For a band I always turn off when they're on the radio, I actually enjoyed Shut Up and blah blah quite a lot. They impressed me... that's how I know I was drunk.

Not starting 2009 as I mean to go on... only managed to grab ten minutes or so with the bass and I fly away for a week tonight. Bah.

But, the first line I played this year was "My Michelle" (Guns and Roses). Played badly of course, I'm a newb and it turns out Duff McKagan was actually pretty good.

Followed by a few attempts to figure out "Feed The Gods" by White Zombie. Struggling... not helped that I'm pretty sure the guitar tab I looked at for a bit of a clue seems wrong.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='366406' date='Dec 30 2008, 05:01 PM']Do you mean the relative minor coming off the 6 th note of a major scale?[/quote]
That'd be the natural/harmonic minor; the melodic minor is an annoying theory where the ascending and descending forms are different from each other - supposedly because it sounds better in melody lines.

Hi Kris,

Thanks for posting. I was just reading through bits of your blog yesterday (from another thread I stumbled upon) and I think you really have a knack for presenting useful stuff for beginners - I'm very grateful that are there are guys like you around, and look forward to sitting down with your videos a little later today.

So far my first experience with learning this thing has been so much more fun and rewarding because of the help/tips/pointers I've been receiving from fellow bass players. I don't know if you all realise just how unusual it is - clearly bassists are a better class of people.

[quote name='ednaplate' post='366528' date='Dec 30 2008, 07:24 PM']Coldplay are also easy enough if you like eighth note plodfests.[/quote]
Now I try very hard to keep my musical tastes out of "practice" time. i.e. I don't have to like the band/song to learn something from playing it; but I would struggle to sit through more than a couple of repetitions of any Coldplay track.

Lol. Of course, I mean no disrespect to anyone who does like them. I can see why they are popular, they're just not for me.

(Although if forced to admit it, I did kinda like that single speed of sound or whatever its called).

[quote name='Absolute-beginner' post='365420' date='Dec 29 2008, 12:40 PM']might also be a good idea to get a tutor who will give you a grounding in tecnique and the ability to read music.[/quote]
I agree. I plan to start taking lessons in the new year (I didn't think the christmas holidays was a good time to go hassling tutors ) - was just asking for suggestions to keep me going until then. I can read music (not amazingly well, but functional), but I know there's also so much beyond technique that a good teacher is going to be able to help me through.

And its great that so many people have suggested tunes to try out - thank you for this - I'm having a lot of fun playing (or trying to) through them.

[quote name='mewsie' post='364409' date='Dec 27 2008, 07:33 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq6O_9RjCUs&feature=related"]gimme some lovin'[/url] is a nice straightforward song![/quote]
That's a very cool track - so cool I had to try playing it straight away. I got about half way through before my plucking hand seized up, lol.

And that octave riff just told me my bass is out of tune. *sigh*