leftybassman392

[quote name='Rayman' post='550136' date='Jul 24 2009, 01:14 PM']I've bought my daughter her first bass. She's only 8, but I've forced the bass upon her before the dark side of the lead guitar gets her first. She's had a half sized bass on loan from Tayste2000 for a while, and I bought her a Peavey Micro bass amp. It's er......pink.......and it's made by Swift. OK, OK she's 8... I wasn't about to invest in a Fodera to get her started was I? It [i]looks[/i] nice...and....er....pink, but you could drive a bus under the action, even with the truss tightened up to it's limits and the bridge saddles as low as they'll go, but hey ho, I'm sure she'll love it, she's got to start somewhere eh? Maybe I'll post pics in the porn section? [/quote] Is the neck reasonably straight (bearing in mind that it's a budget model)? If it is then I'd have to go along with the neck shim. Also you'd probably be advised to try out some lighter strings - even some well chosen guitar strings if necessary - if she's only 8 she won't notice the difference and it will give small fingers an easier time. Biggest problem my younger students have is getting a decent note out of their instruments. Trust me, simply fretting notes correctly on a bass is going to be a big deal for an 8 year-old. The more help you can give her the better.

[quote name='greyparrot' post='541823' date='Jul 15 2009, 11:59 PM']If you can get a good deal, go for the 08/09 US jazz. Great build quality, great sound, great case! and it will sell quite well compared to mex etc. The new Jazz and P basses are top notch, and if you can get one for like £750 is gotta be worth it. At the end of the day a Fender JAzz is just that, and no sandberg/sadowsky/lakeland will ever be a Fender Jazz. They may copy the tone, and even sound better in some cases, but they wont sound like a true jazz bass. when i had my jazz, I tryed a lakeland jo osbourne, and while good, it did not have that growl of the fender.[/quote] I guess it mostly boils down to whether you want THAT sound (in which case it has to be a Fender), or whether you want something that might kid casual onlookers that it's a Fender but is actually something a bit different - and usually more expensive (in which case take your pick from any of a whole bunch of bespoke makers - most of them mentioned here - although not Martin Pietersen at SEIBass, who makes a pretty mean Jazz lookalike as well).

[quote name='bassman2790' post='547295' date='Jul 22 2009, 08:45 AM']Last night's rehearsal started like any other. I plugged into the bass rig provided in room 3, a Behringer HA3000 through a Peavey 410TVX. I fiddled with the parametric eq until I achieved an approximation of 'my sound' and the rehearsal began. Now I'd heard previously about bass frequencies hanging around in corners like a bunch of chavs with a spiff and also seen 'corner bass traps' advertised in the Studio Spares catalogue but, half way through the rehearsal, the vocalist vacates his spot in the corner to my right and drags his mic and stand to the centre of the wall opposite the drums. Being the wandering minstrel that I am, I moved over into the vacated corner and [b] [/b]. The effect was immense. No more volume from the bass but so much more clean low end. Stepping forward four feet defeated the effect. I got both the guitarist and the drummer to experience the effect with similar huge grin results. Simply dialling in more low end on the amp just made the cab sound boomy and wooly not like the sound in the corner. This just demonstrates to me the complex nature of bass frequencies. Even with a cab with excellent off-axis response, there's always going to be someone in your audience either sat in a bass trap (they'll be the one telling you your bass is too loud at half time) or in an area where out-of-phase reflections cancel out your cabs output causing a bass void. The only way forward is for the audience to all wear headphones .[/quote] It's the same idea as the one used by HiFi speaker designers - placing the speaker cabinet close to the back wall reinforces the bass notes - most designers of small speakers do it, and often give very precise distances for best results. In a corner you have two walls - multiplies the effect. In fact, the PJB Flightcase bass amp comes with a strong recommendation that you place it on the floor (despite its small size), and if possible close to a rear wall - the user manual actually goes into quite a lot of detail about how it works. Recommended reading (you can download a PDF copy from the PJB website).

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='546477' date='Jul 21 2009, 02:15 PM']By bizarre coincidence I was just last night trying to figure out some of the more twiddly bits in that song !![/quote] Well there you go! 2 answers from 1 question. I have to own up that it's not entirely my own work - sometimes it's possible to find a useable version on a Tab site like Ultimate Guitar and tweak it a little (which is what I did here) Can't guarantee absolute accuracy of the tab for that reason, but at least you get an idea of what you're getting for your money with GP5.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='546412' date='Jul 21 2009, 01:35 PM']Is Guitar Pro any use? I've been looking for ages for something to do a bit of lightweight music editing (I'm interested in standard notation and doing chord charts) and everything seems way complicated and super expensive. I don't think GP can handle chord charts and lyrics can it?[/quote] It's not bad for around £30 (and a damned sight easier to use than Powertab). Unless, of course, you have around £350 available to buy Sibelius. I use it to prepare basic tabs for my students. It does both chord charts and lyrics. It'll do a job as long as you don't try to get too ambitious with it Yes it's pretty basic compared to Sibelius and does have its limitations, but then it is around a tenth of the price. I've attached an extract from something I worked on recently. It's a .PDF document, but was exported directly from GP5. [attachment=29351:cant_stop_bass.pdf]

[quote name='Moody' post='546063' date='Jul 21 2009, 09:58 AM']In Guiitar Pro go Tools -> Transpose. You can then lift it or drop it by however many semitones you like. Word of warning though, it'll try to work out the fingering for you (assuming you use both the TAB and the Standard Notation) and it's not always the best![/quote] Yes! Once you've done the transposition you'll most likely need to go through the whole tab and redo (or at least check) all the guitar and bass parts. Be prepared to be confused for a while! :wacko:

[quote name='iamapirate' post='544374' date='Jul 18 2009, 10:13 PM']Bah, I dont think any [b]real[/b] bassist plays for the sole purpose of money.[/quote] Another thought about this one - try telling this to a busy session player spending most of his working life sat in an orchestra pit or recording studio, and see what sort of response you get...

[quote name='lowdown' post='544521' date='Jul 19 2009, 09:56 AM']Curiosity touching base here. What do you define as a [b]real[/b] Bassist ? Garry[/quote] Kind of wondering about that myself. Speaking personally, I'm a real bassist with a mortgage and bills to pay. Like a lot of other people around here I suspect....

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='543277' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:04 PM']Yes mate, something like this [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_double_bag_trolley_ebass.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_double_bag_trolley_ebass.htm[/url][/quote] Aha! Now there's a good idea! Again, I do appreciate it. Thanks for the excellent advice. Andy

[quote name='jakesbass' post='542727' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:02 PM']I don't think thats exactly correct, I think in fact the sale price gets added into your capital pool as a positive amount eg if your pool was 4k and you sold equipment for 1k your pool is now 3k. Last (tax) year I sold a bass for a profit as I'd owned it for 20yrs and I was advised by the (very helpful) people on the HMRC helpline that this was the correct course of action.[/quote] Fair point - I'm no tax expert and am happy to bow to your superior knowledge. However the basic point of remembering to declare it remains true, otherwise you could be accused of attempting to avoid paying tax that's due. I do agree with you when you hint that HMRC gets a bad press unfairly. Despite the horror stories posted in this thread, tax officials are for the most part not out to get you. Most of them see themselves as there to help you get it right. One of my neighbours works for HMRC and is a thoroughly nice man.

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='542691' date='Jul 16 2009, 10:27 PM']Seriously, if you do, you'll have alot less explaining to do at customs. Depending on which airline you go with you should be ok - invest in one of them double cases. How many basses are you brining back?[/quote] Two. Double cases?

Just a further point about buying & selling gear. As has been said already, if you buy gear to use within your business you can claim it as a capital expense over a period of years. Couple of things about selling gear that you need to pay attention to (and lots of self employed people are kind of lazy about this); when you sell it the proceeds from the sale get added to your yearly income as a single amount - whether or not you made a profit on the subsequent sale is irrelevant for tax purposes. If you don't declare the sale you could be in trouble later. Also, don't forget to remove it from your capital expenses claim - not usually a big deal unless it was very expensive to start with, but if you're claiming tax relief for something you no longer possess a vindictive tax person could get nasty. (Technically I believe it's fraud, but happy to be corrected if someone knows better. IR types don't like the idea that you're conning them out of money...) BTW, I'm definitely not an HMRC mole - that's one..... :ph34r: