EssentialTension

[quote name='chris_b' post='1126561' date='Feb 13 2011, 11:33 PM']I only saw Scott Walker playing a Gibson EB2 in the very early days of the Walker Brothers. It probably had flats at that time, but I don't know what he would have used on your record. After listening to Youtube: This is not my favourite bass sound but it sounds like flats and he's using a pick, if that's any help.[/quote] Here we go:

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1127313' date='Feb 14 2011, 05:11 PM']Best metal for bass? I'm going to say iron.[/quote] Iron is only any good for heavy metal. So I say aluminium.

If anyone's interested in the history of this problem, I recommend [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Temperament-Stuart-Isacoff/dp/0571234461/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297627397&sr=8-1"]Stuart Isaacoff, [i]Temperament: How Music Became the Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilisation[/i], Faber , 2002[/url].

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='1114174' date='Feb 3 2011, 05:26 PM']Or play fretless and be [i]very[/i] out of tune lots of the time![/quote] It's not out of tune, it's just spicy.

My 'acoustic' band doesn't use electric guitars but the acoustic guitars/mandolin/ukulele are amplified and we do have a drummer who mixes sticks and brushes and sometimes acts more as a percussionist than as a drummer. I usually use an EUB and/or a fretless Precision and a Mesa Walkabout combo. I am thinking about a fretless acoustic bass but it will be amplified just the same.

[quote name='TommyK' post='1126082' date='Feb 13 2011, 04:22 PM']Oh alright, alright.. I'll go. .....now about the 4 grand...............i don't have it see.....[/quote] Nor me.

[quote name='wesfinn' post='1125928' date='Feb 13 2011, 01:41 PM']I have been sent better photographers by the seller. It all looks legit[/quote] And are we going to see them?

[quote name='topo morto' post='1125479' date='Feb 12 2011, 09:48 PM']... Having just got a korg pitchblack+, I can actually see it happening... the note starts sharp, comes into tune and then goes flat ... ... Whadd'ya reckon?[/quote] I reckon it's close enough that no one will know.

Someone in Dorset needs to go and have a look - and take a camera.

[quote name='thumperbob 2002' post='1125437' date='Feb 12 2011, 08:52 PM']Try playing in a soul band where loads of tunes are in Eb without a low b. Even jamerson used a fiver sometimes. The argument is drop tuning where you could go downnhalf a step but still a bit inconvenient. Love my 5s[/quote] I (and many others more competent than me) have played in soul bands, even played in Eb, with an EADG four-string. It's what happened in almost all soul bands for thirty odd years. Jamerson did have a Fender Bass V but it would have been tuned EADGC and one story has it that he hated it so much that he threw it across the studio saying 'Never let me play that again'. I have no idea if this story is true. The massive majority of Motown, Stax, Atlantic etc output would have been done on an EADG bass. Of course five-strings are used a lot more today and if people want to use them or the musical director requires them to be used then fair enough.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1125389' date='Feb 12 2011, 08:19 PM']Get a Bongo[/quote] Six string?

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1125359' date='Feb 12 2011, 08:05 PM']I've said this before, but I was in a band that insisted I tuned down to play Black Velvet because I didn't have a 5-string. I didn't, but I didn't tell them. I just played it at the octave.... They never noticed.[/quote] Excellent. Stealth tuning.

[quote name='scalpy' post='1125347' date='Feb 12 2011, 07:50 PM']... Are we going to argue whether a pick or fingers is the best way to play next? ...[/quote] We usually do that in alternate weeks.

[quote name='3below' post='1125336' date='Feb 12 2011, 07:41 PM']I keep wondering about stringing one of my basses up B E A D. Just like the power off the E and A strings, so it might be interesting to see if my kit will deliver same on B. Some gigs that use walking bass lines / root + 5th etc would lend themselves to this tuning. Any one done this, any thoughts?[/quote] I had a Precision tuned BEAD for a while. It was fine but I rarely used it. I found I was using an EADG almost always and only using the BEAD when I could conjure up a reason to do so. So eventually I put it back to EADG.

[quote name='JTUK' post='1125141' date='Feb 12 2011, 04:57 PM']Any sideman on a big tour would have one in his arsenal and would probably be his go-to instrument A band gig, less so.[/quote] I must be going to all the wrong gigs then because so many only seem to be able to manage a four string.

[quote name='JTUK' post='1125116' date='Feb 12 2011, 04:42 PM']to the OP...of course. For most music I'd say a 5 is without doubt the standard but I can see that some here would not agree.[/quote] Which music and which standard is it that you are referring to? Most bassists and most music still appears to be four string.

Ricky 4005 EDIT: too slow

No, I don't, but we have this thread about every two weeks ... let's talk about something new like Mark Fleaking Pastorius.