markdavid

Hi All First off apologies if this is in the wrong section, if so then I am sure the moderators will move as applicable , 2nd I am not looking for any medical advice with this topic, I am medicated so that is taken care of Have suffered depression for a while , Recently started to feel depressed again and it has crept up on me , as is sometimes the case I don't feel particularly sad I just don't feel much of anything. Unfortunately this has extended to my bass playing and I cant motivate myself to practice, I just don't feel the enjoyment at the moment and part of me wants to sell all my equipment and just be done with it. I am not enjoying listening to music all that much either. I have just in the past couple days got over the flu so I think that has probably had a profound effect on my state of mind. I am after some pointers to motivate myself back into music , hell it was hard enough to motivate myself to make this post, hoping someone has a good suggestion , thanks

Joe Jackson Steppin Out - I thought I had it nailed but then on closer listening realised hes playing octaves , absolute b*!ch to play at the original speed, one day i'll nail it

Yeah the Amplug is awful, poorly built and sounds like s*@t

Not much to add other than the Vox Amplug sucks balls, flimsy construction, sound is overly midrangy with little treble detail and if you are near other electrical appliances they seem to pick up noise from them. Electro Harmonix do a headphone amp that looks great except no line in socket...how can you have a headphone amp where you cant plug in an external audio source.

Hi Try this website http://www.projectguitarparts.co.uk/Pages/hofnerparts.html

Yep the Amplug is really fragile, I use the acoustic version for my bass, it sounds practically the same as the bass version but seems much sturdier built compared than the bass version which I always seemed to break within a month

There are some good and some bad vintage instruments, you only have to play any of the Kay or Teisco basses to see that, my worst bass is also my oldest (probably older than me) absolute turd of a bass. That being said I think perhaps there is some difference in tone that is attributable to the ageing of the woods used for the bass and the magnets in the pickups becoming weaker over time

Flatwounds, it would be a crime to use any other type of string on that bass

Don't use open strings much, is just easier to play fretted notes as the majority of notes in a song will be fretted so to play fretted means easier transition from note to note , tonally there is some difference between fretted 5th fret and open string but imo you are not far enough up the neck for the difference to be that apparent.

Yep , i feel much the same way, same with Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke etc, all undeniably talented and all undeniably better musicians than me but do nothing for me musically

To keep a clanky/middy tone with flats is going to cost a small fortune, the closest is probably TI Jazz flats as they keep a lot of their middy tone as they break in

Sometimes, i have turned down some bands that play music i like as although i like the music it is not fun to play as a bass player

[quote name='markdavid' timestamp='1510139677' post='3404198'] It could well be, if the pickups are too close to the strings they can produce chorusy overtones [/quote] Sorry just read your post again and you have said that you tried adjusting the pickups, I don't think it is the pickups anymore. Might be a bridge issue or a nut issue or a witness point issue, try pressing playing the strings down at the bridge and nut end and playing a note and see if it dissappears

[quote name='Jhowhdheyieh' timestamp='1509993326' post='3403118'] Dunlop flats, they're pretty bright still, maybe 6 weeks old. They're definitely one of the brighter flats that I've played, I might switch back over to La Bellas, it was much less noticeable with those. Could it be a pickup thing? It seems odd that it's the same (just to a different degree) with each of the strings I've tried on it. I've not noticed anything like it using the same strings on other basses (not the exact same string but same brand etc). [/quote] It could well be, if the pickups are too close to the strings they can produce chorusy overtones

[quote name='Cosmonaut' timestamp='1509877466' post='3402211'] Hi guys, I'm in the market for a short scale bass, mainly it will be a backup bass and my travelling bass because next year I will have to take many flights. So what I need is a solid body bass with a classic tone in the cheap side I prefer the 9.5 radius, and not so thin necks. I already have some good 34 scale basses, precision and jazz, so I need something different. My options near here are 3 vintage basses that I will try next tuesday: -Kay eb100 -Kay K1b (Eb0 style) -Guyatone EB1 (mosrite style with one pickup) All of them between 200-250 euros, and all of them would need a cleaning. My options with the modern ones are: -Squier bronco (basically to mod...changing pickup and bridge) -Squier mustang ( the mosg expensive...its 295 euros used) -Squier Jaguar (the cheapest one it's 170 euros) What would you choose?what's your experience with your Kay or guyatone basses? Thanks guys!! [/quote] Go for cheap modern, i have gone the cheap vintage route before and really regretted it, manufacturing has come a long long way and even cheap modern basses are not usually too bad, the Kay basses and the other old cheapos tend to be atrocious. Bad enough the action was a mile high but the pickup sounded like a rhino taking a bowel movement

Hi Have recently changed the nut on one of my basses after deciding that Roto trubass where not the right strings but i have 2 issues,firstly the nut does not sit completely flat on the neck and secondly the finish around the nut was very very brittle and has cracked off a little,tone is unaffected by the issues just looks cosmetically bad, just need some input on how to fix these issues,thanks

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1509674802' post='3400824'] Sorry! Just threw a set of Fender flats on, I love the tone and wanted to give 'em a try. I understand it takes time for them to break in. Straight off the bat they don't sound much different. Boooo. Higher tension. Ouch. My bass needs set up again. Something has gone awry. The action is high so I relaxed the truss rod a tad, and lowered the saddles. For my trouble, I got fret buzz and the action isn't noticeably lower. Any tips on how to adjust? [/quote] Hi If the action has increased I would have thought you would need to tighten the truss rod as it sounds like the neck relief has increased which has increased the action. Maybe try tightening the truss rod, just make sure to make a mental note of how much you have tightened it. That being said I am no expert on setups, I am sure others will be along soon with suggestions

Don't really buy much bass gear as i am mostly a plug in and play kind of player but the worst purchase has to be the only pedal i brought this year which is a Digitech bass squeeze, lots of sounds, all of them crap, to add insult to injury it eats through batteries at an astounding rate, you need a sponsorship deal with Duracell to use one of these

[quote name='thegummy' timestamp='1509463495' post='3399119'] I got my bass back from a setup but the nut action is a few thou higher than I'd like so I'm going to get nut files to adjust this and also to do my other bass's nut myself. The first bass has TI flats which are smaller gauge than standard strings. At the moment that isn't causing any problems in itself. Would it be okay to use the larger standard sized nut files to deepen the slots or would you advise getting the specific gauges for the flats? [/quote] I usually use roundwounds of the desired gauge and use them like files

[quote name='chopper7' timestamp='1509394664' post='3398622'] I recently bought an Epiphone Viola bass and put a set of D'Addario flatwounds on it. It's lovely to play but during a gig last week I found it a lot harder when my fingers were sweaty - very hard to glide my fingers over the strings. Is there anything that would avoid this, perhaps nylonwound? Thanks. [/quote] Its gonna be a case of trial and error with this one, Daddario flatwounds are a little more textured (less smooth) than most other flatwounds so they can seem a little more grabby, this may be what you are experiencing. Maybe try some Labellas or GHS flatwounds, Nylon tapewound will be smoother also but will sound different to flatwounds, with the Labella and GHS maybe stick with the lighter guages as the heavier ones can be quite stiff

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1509295465' post='3397865'] Again, that's not the fault of the website. If there was such a thing as an "Unreliable" filter then that would be great, but there isn't. I would venture that if a site has lots of musicians using it, for whatever reason, then its doing its job of networking. Its up to the users to filter out the time wasters. [/quote] Absolutely, the website is not at fault, its the tìme wasters that do this kind of thing that are at fault

Just to add my recent experience to this thread, advertised on join my band for a drummer, got a reply from a guy claiming to be an experienced drummer,spoke to him on the phone and messaged him to arrange rehearsal, all seemed ok, long story short it was a no show , no notice given at all just literally did not show up.

Thanks for the replies. Another question and apologies if this is a dumb question as I am a bit of a theory newb, each Major scale has a relative minor scale for example C Major has A minor as its relative minor scale, the key of a song is generally determined by the notes and what scale they correspond to, if C Major and A Minor share the same notes then how do I know if a song is in the key of C Major or A Minor ?

Thank you , makes a bit more sense now, will watch the videos

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1508967768' post='3395759'] Then the guy just went on and on about how we feel threatened because he is better, and he's got so much experience, etc etc. He sounded insane. [/quote] I would have told him he was right and that we did feel threatened because he was so good