Vin Venal

I'm really thinking about trying to learn guitar. Although I've never really played guitar before, beyond a couple of abortive lessons when I was about 12, I think I kinda play bass like a guitarist. I play with a pick, and do a fair bit of chordal stuff, mostly just power chords and double stops. One issue I can foresee is I can't use my little finger at all. Never have been able to, and not about to start now at 40. I think I have quite a weak left hand, and generally set up my basses for low string tension. I know there are plenty of 3 fingered guitarists around, but they must be limited to some extent? I'm also a very instinctive player. Good at improvising, good at figuring stuff out myself, terrible at taking instruction, and can't read anything, including tab. Always found that's not a problem on bass, I just figure out what the root notes are, then improvise a bassline myself. Dunno if that would be more of a limiting factor with 6 strings? Anyway, people who did bass first then moved accross, how easy was it, and what advice would you give? Should I just get a Bass VI instead? I think alot of it is just about increasing my ability to play with interesting effects and sounds.

Martha in Bristol.

The newer neodymium ones, not the earlier one which was crazy heavy. Has anyone got one of these, and tried pairing it with other cabs? Thinking about a second cab, but no longer have a darkglass budget, so can't afford a matching one, and I'm aware there can be phase issues with mixing cabs. Was hoping other users might have found anything more budget friendly that definitely pairs well with it, so I know what to look for. Cheers!

Oh yeah, sorry I missed the bit where OP said excluding large cities. 🙃 I saw Grace Petrie at Thekla the other night, that's one of my favourite venues. Usually a phenomenal atmosphere in there if it's packed. And it's just very cool to be on a boat.

Bristol is phenomenal for live music. Probably regardless of genre I'd have thought.

👀

I mean obviously there's Cliff Burton, cuz he dead. Do dead people count? He's on three albums and most people still think of him as the god of metal bass.

Noodle VI. 😅 Love it.

I enjoyed the way the drummer looked like he was there under duress.

Love the tuning prompt. I need one of those for my bass in D standard. In fact I'm only just beyond needing one for E standard. 😅

It certainly looks cool with the green glow... 😎

Tony Kanal is a bassist I like who always used yammys. Have to say, I can't think of many though. Don't feel like they have much of a presence at all in genres I like, which runs from indie/alt rock through punk/post punk and into stoner/doom/sludge.

That's beautiful. Is it a custom job or a signature model or something?

Where's your pedalboard? Aren't you allowed one?

Ah that's a pity. The guitar version of the katana seems to have a good rep, wonder why they can't get the bass version right.

An option worth considering is a Boss Katana 110 while you're learning. Might be harder to find used as they're quite new, but if you think you will want to play with effects at all, including drive, the advantage of the katana is it can model a pretty much unlimited range of amps, cabs and effects, which could be super useful while you're finding your sound, and figuring out what you like. If you did have to go new, would leave about 200 for a second hand squier classic vibe or similarly priced quality entry level bass. Definitely more of a practice/learning tool this one though, as I doubt it could handle a loud drummer.

Very neat. Compression after drive 👍 Also that's pretty much how I have my VMT set too.

My tone is 100% mistakes and doing everything the wrong way. As is my entire life basically. 😅 I like the process of figuring everything out myself, and coming up with my own ways of doing stuff.

I don't have a jazz any more but when I did I spent a lot of time listening to demos and comparison videos, and the ones I liked the most were SD Apollos. They're in line humbuckers in a single coil housing so sound fatter. I think the key though is not having both pickups on all the way. On a jazz with 60s pickup positions, I think you get a lot of mid scooping going on with that setting. My ideal jazz would have in line buckers like the apollos, in the 70s position with the back pickup closer to the bridge, be wired VBT rather than VVT to make changing pickup balance easier, and maybe even have a series/parallel switch as others have mentioned.

Ooh interesting. I don't know much about G&Ls and hadn't heard of empress. Is it a custom order only thing, or do they do a line of empress models?