AdamWoodBass

Thanks man, really looking forward to seeing some of Alan's other creations next month.

Thanks chaps! It's a 34" I believe, and yes ead does own some very nice ACG's, having played 3 of them I'm definitely a convert!

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1486999686' post='3236147'] I like that. I might pinch it! Would you mind? [/quote] I can't take credit for it so by all means mate!

I was talking to some people about this yesterday at the NW Bass Bash. There's a guy who teaches creative writing (novels etc) who did a few masterclasses, can't remember his name. Anyway, one of the most important things I remember from it was his philosophy on breaking writers block - "Give yourself permission to write garbage". Basically when you're at home practicing the only person that is judging you is you. You are your own worst and best critic. If you engage with your critcal brain who is telling you "this is crap" you will end up in a situation where your brain has already pre-judged what you're playing before you've even played it. "Everything before this was crap so why would this be any different". Learning to ignore that is very difficult and takes a lot of patience but eventually if you just allow yourself to play garbage instead of crucifying yourself for it you will start to approach your playing differently. A good thing to do when you have no idea what to play is to type in random things into youtube and keep clicking until you stumble across the first video with music (shouldn't take too many clicks). When you find something, play along with it. It's a good way to force you to play something you wouldn't normally play and drags you out of a rut if you feel like your playing is getting stale and repetitive. Hope that's helpful.

Not to stoke flames here but...... how to we feel about awards? The Grammy's, MOBO's, NME, Billboard etc. These are all sort of competitions right? I'm not saying I wholeheartedly agree with some of the nominations or winners for the aforementioned awards and I think there's obviously a certain element of it being a "popularity contest" - take your average local battle of the bands as case in point. I guess the difference here is a band doesn't set out to write a "grammy winner" and I suppose it's the industry that judges. Music like all art is incredibly subjective, you might love something that sounds like white noise to me so a "competition" is not necessarily the best format. I guess like with the other well known music awards you'd have to separate it out in to categories like "Jazz", "Folk", "Rock" etc in order to incorporate different playing styles fairly. I don't think "competition" is a particularly helpful word for what I think is being suggested here. Competition suggests scoring points and turning an art form into a sport. That said, there's plenty of art's competitions for pretty much every art form imaginable. I have been to a couple of music shows where there's been a solo battle and the "winner" is picked by audience vote, again a la battle of the bands. These are fun to watch and I think no serious musician is going to say "well this guy is better than that guy", it just simply comes down to who played the "better" solo (or who your mates are lol!). Again, not trying to advocate turning bass playing into a sport but I think some sort of "Bass Player Awards" would be really cool and a fun thing to be part of. Just my musings on the subject.

[quote name='MisterT' timestamp='1486984370' post='3235985'] Not wanting to single anyone out for playability but I kept meaning to chat to this chap playing here... I did like your style of bluesy funk. [/quote] Cheers mate, I had a lot of fun playing ead's stunning trio of ACG's! Hopefully catch you on the next one!

Hey guys So I quickly threw together a jam last night using one of ead's AGC's. This is me playing his fretted Recurve 4 string. I have to say I'm so blown away by these basses, really looking forward to meeting Alan at the London Bass Guitar Show! Mix is a bit ropey and the solo is a bit "meh" but yo get the idea - it was late and I was tired! All recorded in Reaper. The rhythm part is 3 cloned tracks panned out with effects; one has a weird distored delay thing on it, another has a heavy chorus and the last one is clean. The rest of the track is the EQ straight off the bass with a touch of reverb for the solo. https://soundcloud.com/adam-mark-wood/acg-recurve-4-string Let me know what you think! Adam

[quote name='Bassman Sam' timestamp='1486940837' post='3235809'] Josie. I forgot to mention your beautiful GMR single cut. It must be up there with one of the most stunning basses I have every had the pleasure to see. [/quote] Agreed on that, beautiful thing indeed. Sounded great too.

Fantastic time this afternoon guys, really enjoyed it!

Anyone see the fairly recent one with his new Fender Mustang? That TONE man!

Yeah I agree they're a touch on the pricey side. I would definitely consider buying one if they were cheaper, not sure I could justify paying £400+ for one!

Hey everyone I managed to play one of these in Forsyths Music at the weekend. I was genuinely blown away by it! It took a bit of getting used to with the rubber strings and unbelieveably short scale but after a few minues of adjusting I was grooving away on it. The tone on these things is insane! The only thing I'd change about it would be to fit a thumb rest as the playing postition feels a bit awkward. Not sure how I'd feel about turning up to a gig with one of these things but man it sounded good! Does anyone else own one or has anyone else played one? What did you think? https://kalabrand.com/pages/u-bass Adam

Lots of good advice in here, totally agree with all the suggestions about not doing intense 3-4 hour sessions in one go. After about 45 mins it will stop being useful to you and your brain will go into "mindless noodling" mode where you end up widdling senselessly over a groove and call it "modal improv" (mine certainly does). While this is a hell of a lot of fun and can kill a few hours it's not that useful as a practice routine! One thing I'd recommend is something Scott Devine said in one of his videos about finding a "study piece" and really getting to know it intimately. Mine is "Donna Lee", I love it and I started learning it about 10 years ago. I still can't play it as fluidly as I want to at tempo, I have to force myself to slow it right down to a tempo where I can absolutely nail it and then gradually speed it up. I've promised myself that one day I will be able to play Donna Lee accurately and at the correct tempo but I think I'm a bit of a way off that yet. A piece like this really highlights your technique and areas for improvement giving you a lot to work on. I played "Yardbird Suite" for my degree recital at uni and practiced it until I didn't need to look at the music. I still didn't nail it unfortunately but I got a decent enough mark and I learned a LOT about my own technique and areas for impovement that I still work on today. You do need to be brutally honest and critical of your own playing, not in a "I'm so bad at bass and I should just burn my gear" sort of way but in a more "I always get this part wrong, what am I doing that is causing that and how can I work on it". Filming yourself and watching it back with a critical eye is a good way to do this. Another thing is remembering that REGULAR practice is far more efficient and helpful than LONG practice. For example, a few weeks of 30 mins a day of dedicated and purposeful practice will show far greater progress and achievements than doing a couple of months of once a week for 4 hours. It's all about repitition, a personal trainer in the gym will tell you that to build up muscle you should work out regularly but for no longer than 30 mins and take regular rest days to recover. The same principle applies to practicing an instrument, you see huge results from relatively small amounts of effort as a result of repitition and rest. By the way, it's easy for anyone to say this but I think the vast majority of people on this forum (myself included) would benefit from heeding their own advice! I don't practice anywhere near as much as I want to/should and my playing suffers for it so this is as much an encouragement to myself as it is to you! Hope this helps man.

This is stunning, excellent work!

Just managed to square this with my wife, I'm allowed to come out to play so I will be there!

It surprises me that considering all the love for ACG there's not a great deal of footage of them on youtube. There's a couple of videos but not a lot. I am looking forward to trying one out though, if I don't manage to take up any of the several offers I've had from BC'ers on this thread before hand I'll be certainly getting my grubby mits on one or two of them at the London Bass Guitar Show.

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1485197033' post='3222030'] I have done the full custom thing with one of the UK's most respected builders. Would I do it again? No. The bass was all I asked for spec wise but it just did not sound fabulous. I changed electrics twice but to no avail. As above, I sold it for a loss. You just cannot tell how wood is going to work together. It might work, but it might not. If you still want to (and I am not saying do not) then I suggest you pick up a model from your favoured builder 2nd hand (they all come through here), live with it for a bit and then move on from there, selling it for the same as you bought it. [/quote] That's a pretty sensible idea. I don't think that what I have in my head is that "radical" in terms of spec/wood combination etc but it's a very good point on the fact that you just don't really know what it's going to be like until you get your hands on the finished bass. That's why I'm trying to get as many stories of personal experience as possible before I get into it, £3000 would leave a fairly sizeable hole in my finances and I'd be mortified if it turned out to not be a bass that I love.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1484993148' post='3220192'] I don't know what the OP's experience is. He may have buckets of experience in bass on many different instruments. But, Sir, all your basses I'm your signature are bulk manufactured, CAD-CAM produced instruments designed to supply bulk instruments at a price for mass sales. Now you're looking at custom designed. That's a he'll of a jump. I know you're not alone in making that leap. Good luck. I hope it works out well for you, and I mean that. [/quote] It's a good point you're right. I've been playing bass about 20 years, I've owned and sold more basses than I care to count but all of them have been "off the shelf" some of them high end some of them not. The basses in my sig are the ones I kept after I took about a 5 year break from gigging. I sold most of my gear when I moved for work as I had trouble finding a new band, needed the space and the money so my gear had to go as it wasn't being used. A custom bass is something that I've always wanted and the benefit of having owned/played a lot of basses means I have a very good idea of what I like and what I don't like about a bass.

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1484934658' post='3219898'] I have a slelction of ACGs, and you are most welcome to come over and try them as we can't be too far apart geographically. I hope they end up on your shortlist as I feel that Alan is superb at the whole customer experience thing. [/quote] Might just take you up on that actually.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1484934114' post='3219890'] You've sorted out what you want, had it built and you're happy as hell. Five years later and GAS start gnawing at your brain [/quote] That's what I'm afraid of! I want to make sure I have totally nailed down what I want before I order it. To be honest I wouldn't mind owning more than one bass, just don't want to get into the territory of "here's a custom bass I paid £3000 for and I've played it about 5 times since I bought it".