TDM

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea Celinder was such a small operation! I always figured it was a European Sadowsky type thing and wondered why they were so expensive.

I love my Euro too. It's about as different as you can get from my other basses and as others have said it's got a thick neck and a longer scale length but it's still easy to play and sounds amazing. Only thing I don't like that much about mine is the colour, plus they have painted necks which I'm not a huge fan of either.

Being able to recognise chords isn't my problem. I play piano and guitar so I can tell the difference between major/minor/7ths/diminished etc. I'm just not very good at doing the melody recall (partially because I end up forgetting the end by the time I figure out the beginning) and I'm not very good at figuring things out by ear when put on the spot either. I did the grade 6 Rockschool Guitar exam, and I ended up just trying to look confident and making up a random melody and chord progression for the aural bits, consequently getting only about 3 marks. Anyway, I got a date for my exam, it's the first Sunday of July (5th) so once i've finished all my AS exams I'll have ~3 weeks to nail this. Could any of you guys recommend any particular songs that has the potential to tick all the boxes? The book and syllabus itself rather vague about which boxes I need to tick and how they actually mark it. I remember in GCSE music I played a grade 6 piano piece and another guy did a much easier piece and we came out with full marks. I felt a bit stupid afterwards because I had to practice a lot more than he did. Also, what did you think of the playing along to a chord progression bit? By the looks of it it carries the most marks but I struggle to get a decent groove going especially if it's a Jazz thing, less so if it's funk. I know reading and improv helps me as a musician and all, but I've had virtually no experience of improvising to chord progressions before I started working for this. It's not that I don't listen to a wide variety of music, it's just i don't have much real world experience doing anything other than metal gigs .

Thanks for the reply. I get the impression that I'm way off with what I want to play then. This grade 8 must be harder than I thought it was! I was originally hoping to nail the scales + arpeggios and the solo, do reasonably on the improv and music questions and then expect to fail on the ear tests (my ear is terrible) but by the looks of it I'll need to rethink my game plan. I imagine I could play something a bit harder than D-code, but I don't know how long it would take for me to nail it for a perfect performance. Oh, if you still remember, roughly how long was your performance for grade 7?

Hey guys, I decided to go for the RGT bass exam, and I should be doing it this month/next month. Basically one of the sections (other than playing scales, arpeggios, bass patterns, improv and ear tests) is a choice between Sight reading (I don't know who in their right mind would choose to do this ) or solo bass. According to the book I have to play a piece or a series of excerpts that showcase either fingerstyle, plectrum playing, fretless or slap bass. I assume it means you can only pick one. Has anyone done the exam or have any idea of what level of piece is required? I was thinking of doing something like a bit of Teen Town if I'm doing fingerstyle. Or something like Scoop or Power by Marcus Miller if I'm doing slap. Maybe a bit of "Heart of the Sunrise" if I do pickstyle? My exam could be very soon, and although I do know bits of all of those songs I don't know how quickly I could nail it. If the piece doesn't need to be that hard to get to get decent marks then I'd rather play something easier perfectly then try to show off and mess up.

That actually looks pretty cool, although I still prefer the traditional rick design.

[quote name='phsycoandy' post='480800' date='May 6 2009, 11:41 AM']Me trying to look cool infront of what can only be described as a wardrobe! [/quote] Are you John Jowitt from Frost*?

The red Streamer is my favourite, with the natural one following close behind. Probably because they're the colour I want my Spector to be

I only have 3 basses atm. A Jazz (which I've had for years), a Spector and a Thunderbird that I built myself. The Jazz and Spector probably get equal amounts of use, because they are completely different in terms of sound, construction, looks and feel. On paper I think the Spector is a superior bass in every way, and I was convinced of this as soon as I bought the Spector. But I realised the there are certain things I wouldn't use the Spector for so I think i've got the perfect combo. Hopefully when I fix up my Thunderbird I'll get a bass that's somewhere between the two.

I might be up for it, if someone else doesn't get the spot before I get the funds together. I've been thinking about doing it for a few years now, and I live in Sheffield so I've got no excuse not to!

With that amount of money I see no reason not to go custom. Based on the "in stock" prices of Shuker, Overwater and the likes I'd say you could almost get one of each!

My teacher pointed out to me today that I don't always to proper Left, Right, Left, Right alternating fingers when I'm playing certain things. Namely riffs with an odd number of notes per string. I think I learned the technique properly when I first started playing but I've stopped doing it recently. It's really hard to get back into it properly. The only reason I'm concerned is because I'm doing a grade 8 bass exam (for the UCAS points ) and they stipulate you must alternate left/right fingers, or play with a pick doing up/down/up/down. Personally I think I can play scales at acceptable speed with just one finger and most riffs with my weird hybrid plucking technique. But I really need to re-learn my right hand technique properly. Here's a quick video I recorded of me playing some patterns/riffs that I've identified the problems in. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfpGABEGjnI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfpGABEGjnI[/url] Anyone else have this problem? I've been trying to do some basic three note per string patterns properly and it's like learning to walk again.....

It looks amazing. You did a great job. Also, nice PRS.