AttitudeCastle

What kind of music are you playing? I play with three fingers on my right hand but it just feels natural to me and more or less always has. A great way to keep me solid i find, so i hope it helps you build it up from the ground, is to play along to really simple say indie or pop bass lines in 4/4 and slug away with the three fingers. DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT TOO MUCH JUST LET YOUR FINGERS MOVE and it will become second nature, i also accent the first of every 4 to pick it out though obviously only when that sounds better. Try using your 2 fingers though, i emplore you! Speed comes with practise, and playing there is no jumps. I know two players who switched to 3 fingers one when he wasn't ready and made a mess of his playing and had to spend 6 months re-learning his right hand more or less and the other thought about it slowly then decided to do it. Like i said for me it was how i played when i first picked up the bass, but i've studied the "technique" as it were in great depth

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1323622638' post='1465118'] Thank you for clarifying the way the pickups mix at the jack sockets mate! - Is that the same for all the models? For some reason I thought that using one socket only mixed the two outputs but I must have gotten confuzzed! Maybe it's ric-o-sound I've got lodged in my noggin! [/quote] Haha yes you're thinking of ric-o-sound, which makes it easier to use both pickups i think together as that's more common It's the same for all models as since the Attitude LTD I as far as i know could be wrong though, i'll double check! Not sure how it's all wired though, that's beyond me

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1323615166' post='1465035'] p.s. One day I'll put some pennies aside and get an Attitude bass!! [/quote] You should have played billys at the stand! They are my favourite 4 stringers hands DOWN.

Ok let me walk you through it. Jack socket furthest away is just the P-pickup which only has a volume control. The one closest is just the neck pickup which has a volume and Tone. The knob closest to the neck is the Neck pickup volume. The middle knob is the neck pickup tone with either a push-push or push-pull knob depending on the age of your Attitude LTD II. This switch activates a high cut when active which removes top end for a "deep 60's" sound for when you want it. The knob closest to the bridge is the P-pick up volume and has a push-push or push-pull again depending on age which activates both pickups allowing you to run both through either jack socket. Edit: For complete desciption!

Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone recommend an Octave which offers both clean octave up and down? Does one exist? I am that clueless! (Not necessarily at the same time but that would be a bonus!)

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1323611167' post='1464974'] The OP presumably asked about approaches to tapping because he's already decided he wants to learn how to do it. I have great respect for your musicianship and integrity Bilbo, but I'm not sure that trying to talk him out of it is the right approach in this situation. [/quote] Plus the one! Didn't mean to try and start an arguement btw the guys just incase anyone thought i was simply looking for one!

Also, define musical merit? Surely if it expresses one's self then than in the end that's all that is required?

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1323606632' post='1464871'] Alternatively, spend some time learning something useful like how to read music or some advanced theory That classical fugue showed everything that is wrong with that technique. Take a perfectly servicable piece of music and turn it into a juggling act with no musical merit. [/quote] Maybe you should brush up on music history as that Fugue isn't classical And technically he didn't play it as a fugue either! I enjoyed it but each to his own, (don't worry Bilbo i too love jazz! Although i find jazzy bass playing very difficult) and how do you know we can't read music or know some advanced theory? (depends on what you mean by advanced i guess haha!) But i can read bass, tenor, treble, alto, and contra-bass clef better than i can read english Sorry if that sounded really like lash-out-ish it was all in mild humour my friend!

A little off topic but Mike do you think i could try out your gear some day? I saw you before when you played in Banchory, and sounded good! And you also have a gear list of things i've always been curious about We should have a mini aberdeen bass bash me thinks!

Not really sure if i'm understanding but from what i think that riff is as an exmaple it's just practise! Your first finger should be moving as the octave has/is souding. Have you tried alternate fingerings?

If you're on facebook look the guys band page up, the speak to their fans enough! Henrik is a great bass player!

Depending what you want to do, Billy sheehans tutorals are good, as is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbqcblG-6Do

[quote name='Mikeg' timestamp='1323111241' post='1459470'] Sadly im too far away from anywhere to have regular tuition. And that book does look good, from what I can see on youtube Jean plays bass's with silly amounts of strings, can the book be learned from with a 4 stringer? [/quote] That isn't close minded at all. The entire book is done with his 5 string. Though the sound clips are from his 11 string, and not silly bass. He is a wonderful teacher, i've had several lessons from him very down to earth and his bass lines are AMAZING

I HATE the term "Lead bass" like when in interviews people say "I was asked to play lead bass" or "I took a lead bass point of view" If you're playing the bass, and you're the only one you're the 'lead' bass player. I know what people mean by it but it annoys me! (I do seem like an arse =S ) Do you want it's your music, if it "fits" (fits being sounding how you want and what not) then do it. There is no right or wrong. Though having the bass act as 'another guitar' is what i do, i love it's abilty to mimic a guitar lick an octave below, carry on the groove below it or go above it. I love the sonic range of the bass guitar, same reason i play Bass trombone and tuba and sing Bass (when i can sing baritone and lower tenor parts) i find that area of pitch my home and where i relate the most. Everyone is different. If you like what i do and appreciate it and enjoy it great, if you don't cool, go do your own thing and listen to what you enjoy! It's music and that's why we love it!

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1322863326' post='1456919'] Wow, 2007! Was it really that long ago! [/quote] When you first got the Doodle was it designed to be F# to C or was it orginally B-F? Or was the nut re-cut as you hadn't found a chunky enough F# yet and the .145 was there to make do? Time really does fly!

You'd shred your hands! Could be very cool,

Dimarzio Model P every time.

Where did you get the GTBD? Was it from Bass-direct or?

If you know what and how to practise then 10 minutes of practise a night is plenty, and will do you better than 3 hours of faffing. I know that from expericence! No-one in my family is musical except my brother and I, I took up trombone, he then took up guitar then i also took up bass and piano and then stopped playing piano I think it shined through as i completely let my self down in my music examination for my Trombone yesterday after 11 months of hard practise (minimum hour a day as i get insanely jittery and nervous for performance exams) and i balls up everything. Though thats not totally related that's performace skills. [end stress rant] It's not gentic, if your parents were world class musicans but you were never exposed to it i don't think you'd be a musical wizz even if your folks were mozarts and child proidgies! [quote name='skej21' timestamp='1322168137' post='1447586'] + 1 EssentialTension... How does the OP come to the conclusion that the child must have been born with talent that was passed on from the parents. The only thing the OP's observations highlight is the theory that multiple pieces of research into children with musical ability have concluded... Nurture and a musical enviroment are the conditions needed in order for any individual to progress musically from an early age. Perfect pitch is probably the most obvious example. We are all born with the ability to train our ears to recognise frequencies as different pitches (in the same way we are all born to recognise different light frequencies as colours), but we need an environment in which it is developed (i.e. through the encouragement of musical parents who recognise the skill and can develop the ear through training) and consistent practice, otherwise we lose the skill as we grow older and use it less regularly. Those are just scientific truths... whether "talent" within any individual helps this process to happen at a higher speed with less need for practice is simply speculation really. [/quote] Also, Perfect and relative pitch don't develop you either have it or you don't. Always that way or never that way. Though something akin to the two can come with pure experience but perfect pitch it self, or relative pitch? You can't learn,