TDM

The main reason I signed up was just to put on my UCAS/Personal statement. Because "I play bass in my spare time" doesn't really say as much about yourself as "I play bass in my spare time and I've worked towards doing my grade 8" If anything it shows commitment rather than skill. But the exam has made me a better player and musician in general, because I now know a lot of scales/arpeggios which I didn't know before and probably would have never learned or practiced. Having said that, I don't really see myself ever regularly playing F#7b5b9 arpeggios in a song.

Thanks again for getting the bass to me so quickly (under 24 hours?) How's the car?

Really nice guy, great to talk to on the phone. Fast to respond to PMs and just generally cool to deal with. I bought a Spector off him and it came bubble wrapped, in a gig bag, bubble wrapped some more and then taped up in a box with polystyrene blocks. Needless to say it arrived in perfect condition.

And two pictures of me and the basses (Obviously no longer classifies as porn now that I'm in it ) Resist the urge to stare at the beach shorts and the leg hair, especially the latter. Initial impressions: "Awesome" was the word I used to describe it to Keir on the phone, except he misheard it as "Awful" and nearly had a heart attack. My friends all tell me I don't articulate my words enough..... The bass is everything I expected, as I already own a Euro, and more. First of all, the colour is amazing, it's a lovely transparent emerald stain on solid quilted maple wings and 3 piece maple neck thru. This thing feels amazingly solid and you can really feel the whole bass resonating when you pluck a note, needless to say the sustain is fantastic. Next up, playability. The action is on the deck - probably the lowest I've ever played on any bass. I dig in quite hard when I play so I will probably raise it a bit, but right how it's perfectly acceptable in terms of buzz and makes tapping really easy. The action seems to be much lower than I could get my other Euro to be, but I suspect that's because the nut is cut lower on the green one. Tone: Needless to say I love the Spector tone, it may not be for everyone but I think it's perfect for the stuff I play with my band. It's aggressive and cuts through the mix with no problem whatsoever. I usually run it with both pickups full, bit of treble and bass boost and play with my fingers. With some light distortion it's sounds a bit like Alex Webster (Blotted Science/Cannibal Corpse), except without the crazy 3 finger playing. I must say though, it's not the perfect bass for everything. I tried playing some acoustic stuff (I'm not [u]just[/u] a metalhead you know) at a gig and the tone was way too aggressive, even with just the bass boosted, neck pickup and playing lightly with my thumb. I imagine it's like the equivalent of playing tech metal on a violin bass. I've noticed that the neck seems a bit thinner on these old Euros compared to the my other LX one, although I can't be 100% about that. The body also seems a bit thinner but that could be an optical illusion of the alder/walnut/maple sandwich on the LX. Surprisingly, both basses are about the same weight, despite lots of people telling me the older models are heavier. The only other difference is knobs My only gripe with the bass is that the inlays are a bit sloppy, I assume they're CNC'd but there's more filler around the pearl than I expected on a bass built as well as this. I examined my LX more closely and noticed the same thing actually. The only difference than it would appear that they've started using darker coloured filler so you you basically can't see it. I don't think it's something that you'd really notice unless you are really anal about these things like me, in fact I never noticed it on my LX after owning it for a year until I saw this one and went to look for it specifically. Having said that it's not something that bothers me at all, because everything else about the bass makes up for it. My other pet hate about Euros in general is the fact that the jack sockets aren't gold/black to match the other hardware. Again, that's just the perfectionist in me.

[quote name='Finbar' post='528177' date='Jun 29 2009, 10:02 PM']It'll get a proper thread once I've finished it resplendent with pedals and all, but here you go for now Not a good photo though Roughly, it goes something like: Shuker Elite 7 NT Lehle P-Split splitter (Side A ) My pedalboard -> Ampeg SVP-Pro (Side B ) Aguilar Tonehammer Side A and B each get a separate channel on the QSC PLX1202 Each channel on the QSC feeds a separate Schroeder 1212L[/quote] I bet I could hear the rumble of that F# from my house

Congratulations! I've got an exam myself next week (it's only RGT though), was thinking of playing Teen Town too actually but I've finally decided against it, you're clearly more hardcore than me.

[quote name='JD1' post='528067' date='Jun 29 2009, 08:11 PM']Glide is good as you have slap and chords / double stops. Try and vary the feel. You could maybe segue it with some other funky stuff for fingerstyle - off the top of my head: Good Times or Rhythm Stick etc. Best of luck - I'm sure you will nail it![/quote] Thanks! I've been thinking of a segue actually, but none of the riffs in glide are very fingerstyle friendly. I'll check out the two you suggested, although it might be a little late to learn something new completely (I find it a lot easier to play riffs I've listened to a lot). Perhaps "Runaway" by Jamiroquai could be suitably groovy.

I called up RGT the other day, and the guy basically said I have to play a piece that's at a similar level in terms of technical ability to the rest of the grade 8 stuff, eg scales and bass patterns. The bass patterns don't seem particularly hard, so I guess I could get away with something relatively simple. I think I've finally decided on just jamming out on the two sections of "Glide" by Pleasure, and then do something another excerpt of fingerstyle playing maybe.

Not missed out on any huge deals on basses, but I've missed a few amazing deals on guitars (eg. Ibanez Universe PWH for £400). The only thing I really regret is not learning as much theory as I should have done when I started playing, at the time I was sick of all the classical music theory I had to do to play piano so I started bass with the mentality that I'd use tabs and not really focus on technical ability and just jam songs I liked. Fast forward 5 years later I'm doing a grade 8 exam next week and my ear sucks (better than 5 years ago, mind you), I don't know nearly as much as I should about scales and my technique is a bit lazy.

That looks really good, may I ask where you got the fingerboard from?

It could be cheaper to get a non-broken Rockbass off Ebay and just break it yourself?

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180372921992"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=180372921992[/url] What I didn't say in the auction: If you can come and collect it, paying by cash. It is possible that I will take £800 for it, or less depending on how nice you are

You have some serious balls sawing that neck with a coping saw