EssentialTension

I've got nothing against busking it when necessary or a nice jam but when someone new asks what's the chord sequence or what's the arrangement or even what key do you want it in, it seems to me unsupportive not to have a straight answer and not the kind of band I would want to play in.

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='355510' date='Dec 15 2008, 11:42 PM']+1 And having read some quite sensible posts, I am pleased to see how others, like me, discovered the benefits. And having only a few "extra notes" really isn't what it's about, for me. It means adding a different feel, or [b]putting in a contrasting octave to a pattern[/b] and so on. What I'd hate, is if there was to be a perceived inferiority thing about 4-strings. That would be nonsense. Like having low profile tyres and a spoiler makes you a superior car driver . I really think that an instrument should be used to suit the band you are in, regardless of format. In my case, I have one 4-string fretless, and one roundwound 5-string for rock/funk (+ a back-up) and another 5-string with flats for a quiet band. It just helps to have different tools in the toolbox. [b]And, I can't wait for an excuse-cum-funds to get a nice sixer again[/b]. But back to Molan's OP. I hope you find what works for you in the band context you are in, and find the tool that fits the groove.[/quote] I don't dispute any of this - except my line about 'extra notes' being taken more literally than I intended it should. It does seem to me though that if you follow the 'putting a contrasting octave to a pattern' argument you end up with a six-string - as you said. I do have an urge for a Bass VI type instrument but only so I can buy some picks, go all twangy, and annoy guitarists.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='355476' date='Dec 15 2008, 11:14 PM']That's what I thought until I actually had one in my hands and it dawned on me that what you get isn't just 5 paltry extra notes but a whole extra slice of a neck. Now a E root starts on the 5th fret instead of the open and it follows that all the scales down to B occur in the same way with the added bonus of the extra notes on the 5th string - the G string. [/quote] Well, point taken but I didn't mean to start a row about it and I didn't call the notes 'paltry'. It was a throw away line really. I've got nothing against people using five or any other number of strings but I'm happiest with four. I'll go BEAD if necessary for a song and I can manage well enough without the G string (but then I rarely go up the dusty end anyway). At a gig last weekend, during the interval, the drummer and I were talking to an old friend of his who he hadn't seen for years. Turned out he used to play bass. Later after the second set the drummer says to me about his old friend 'He was a very good bass player, he could play a five-string properly and all that'.

[quote name='charic' post='351944' date='Dec 11 2008, 05:02 PM'][b]they refused to give me any basic chord structure or anything of the sort. [/b][/quote] That's the point at which I would have left.

[quote name='flychris' post='355102' date='Dec 15 2008, 03:10 PM']I'm not so sure about that, cause now, I'm the newbie, and the victim... by a non newbie member... I posted in Off topic concerning a trade by now... So I think it's more related by honnesty than to be a newbie or not, isn't it ?[/quote] +1

[quote name='neepheid' post='355099' date='Dec 15 2008, 03:08 PM']Already done: [/quote] Hmmm .. so imprecise it doesn't have tuners.

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='355006' date='Dec 15 2008, 01:45 PM']Ha! Considering the posts before you 'fretless Precision' is a bit of a contradiction in terms , isn't it. I suppose , at the time , the basic Precision the fretless was modeled on was too well known a name to mess with. Who wants a 'Fender Precisish' ?[/quote] Fender Imprecision?

FYI, according to Lakland endorser Jauqo, Lakland will be introducing a short scale 30" Lakland Decade (US only, not Skyline) at January NAMM. Personally I'd like to see a Skyline 30" Decade Bass VI with vibrato.

[quote name='BigAlonBass' post='354679' date='Dec 14 2008, 11:20 PM']1968-16 years old, dead caterpillar on top lip, playing as part of my Dad's "Resident Band" at a Local Working Mens Club Dance Night. Second-hand, hand-painted Artist Bass. God, how the time flies. [attachment=17264:My_Pictu...date_070.jpg][/quote] My vague recollection of my Artist bass is that it was actually quite good.

[quote name='bumnote' post='354473' date='Dec 14 2008, 07:11 PM']Thanks for sharing those I used go and press my nose against shop window and dream about the futurama I thought it looked much cooler than the only fiesta red strat in portsmouth at the time. I later bought a hofner president for the sum of [b]46 gns[/b] and later a marshall 4x10 blues breaker combo for [b]110 gns[/b]. Wish I still had the amp.[/quote] And for you youngsters out there, can I just say that was a lot of money in those days.

Yeah, that's a useful book, I picked up all sorts of things from it. I should get it out again.

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='354241' date='Dec 14 2008, 02:13 PM']I've been playing for 30 years. I've never had a lesson. I'm not too bad a player but I'm confident I'd be a much better player if I had ever had some lessons, in particular when I was young.[/quote] I should perhaps add that I have used instructional books and I've even taught myself an all too limited amount of theory from books but never been systematic about it. Mind you, I believe Mrs Tension has got me Levine's Jazz Theory book for Xmas so watch me go next year.

This is very cool, Wayne. Well done. But I don't like fivers. So that's why I'm out.

I think you just have to find what works for you. I like 4 strings but I have one bass tuned BEAD for whenever necessary. I'm not the kind of player whose likely to need a high G and a low B at the same time. Anyway let's face it, exactly how many extra notes are there on a 5-string? Not many. No offence meant to my ERB brothers. But if you want to convert to 5, you will need to stick at it.

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='354650' date='Dec 14 2008, 10:45 PM']Let's hope it stops raining and starts sunshining very soon! [/quote] Phil, I was expecting someone to say 'No pics, no bass' but of course you are more subtle than that. Pics will be coming but there's no point seeing pics that don't look like the bass. PS You're not thinking of selling those Bergantinos are you?

I had a Hayman 4040 back in the 70s. Heavy, wide neck, but this was a good British bass and at £200 or so would be still good value now if the condition was reasonable. I traded mine for a 76 Precision which was not better.

My Lakland Skyline Decade, in the first handful produced, got here on Thursday. One of the first of the new Indonesian Skylines - "Designed and Completed in Chicago, USA, Crafted in Indonesia". It's hard to know what you'd get extra on a US model, it has the bone nut and has been plekked and seems perfect in every way including a perfect finish. I'm planning some pics in the Gear Porn forum when the rain stops enough to take some natural light pics because the colour does not photograph well with artificial light, especially flash. I haven't rehearsed with it yet nor gigged it but my first impressions are extremely good. Rehearsal tomorrow night. The feel of the neck is to me superb. 1.5" Jazz style but I guess it's the plekking that does it because there is an even-ness to the frets that - if I exaggerate a little - makes it almost feel as if one is playing a fretless. This even-ness also applies to the life of the notes up and down the neck and across the strings. Not just no dead spots but everywhere rings out in an equal and vibrant way. Mine's a passive model with single-coils and is strung with medium gauge Lakland Joe Osborn flats. On the neck pickup, which is right up to the neck, a P bass kind of thump is available but it is never merely a P bass. There is a roundness to the tone, a completeness even, which goes beyond anything I ever heard from a Fender. Roll off the tone and the strings although bassier still ring out, none of the failure of the D and G strings to ring that can sometimes happen when one is aiming for some thump on the E and A strings. At the other extreme, the bridge pickup can get close to a J bridge pickup soloed but never quite makes it because the sound is never quite thin enough. Again a kind of roundness, fullness. I think what's happening here is that the Chi-sonics somehow copy the aliveness of the Dark Stars that they are replacing (and so I guess copy the old Hagstrom Bi-sonics too). It's as though you can't have merely thump or merely growl because there is always an aliveness a wholeness to the note on top of whatever you have dialled in. It's possible that some of what I am describing about the tones is down to the mahogany body. There is a kind of Gibson darkness to the roundness of tone - if I can put it that way. I'm still trying to figure out the blended possibilities. The active model with humbuckers and a coil tap switch must have a magnificent range of tones available. The clarity of tone seems to make it much easier to play double stops and even larger chords - especially higher up the neck of course - while retaining the clarity of the individual notes. They ring out individually rather than becoming blurred. I've heard some people suggesting that the Decade does not balance well because of the body shape. My experience so far is quite the opposite. Never have I had a bass that sat so easily on my shoulder. It weighs in at 9lbs 1.75oz. So far I'm thrilled with the Decade - I feel I've never had a better bass. A further report will be forthcoming.

'Plectrum shield' is a new one to me.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='354290' date='Dec 14 2008, 03:27 PM'][attachment=17210:scan0011.jpg][/quote] My first bass was a used 1963 Hofner Artist for £20. I wish I still had it but only for sentimental reasons. Er.. and it would be worth about ten times what I paid for it.

I've been playing for 30 years. I've never had a lesson. I'm not too bad a player but I'm confident I'd be a much better player if I had ever had some lessons, in particular when I was young.

[quote name='Paul Cooke' post='353801' date='Dec 13 2008, 07:00 PM']I play Blues... It's almost impossible not to accidentally re-use a bassline someone else has come up with...[/quote] I'd say not only 'almost impossible not to' but sometimes 'absolutely necessary to'. Anyway, isn't that what blues players have always done? More generally, I'd say re-using a part from another song is not necessarily 'ripping off'. The line may play a different role in the harmony/rhythm even if it's exactly the same line. And haven't musicians always done this?

Easy and smooth dealing with Peter. Besides which he is able to quote Jack Casady so that must be good.

And another small but smooth deal. Thank you.