EMG456

Is it just me - where's the chromatic run in this?

Of course you can - it's a bass!

Great basses - I love my Sub!

@MoJo, you were probably just having an off night. If you've been playing fours exclusively for a while, having the five could feel odd and it probably threw you even when you went back to the four. As with all things music, practise and familiarity is the key. A good five is handy to have around in my opinion but it obviously depends on your priorities and what you want to do. It's not an age thing - I just got delivery of my 60th Birthday bass and it's a 6 string, 32 inch scale fretless. Now I've never played fretless while singing lead vocals before but the temptation to take it to the gig was too much. The playing was fine but the excess of strings and lack of frets apparently causes you to completely forget all your words - who knew! By all means, stick to the fours if that's what you want but for me at least, variety is the spice etc...

The terrific fretless line on Bergerac was the work of Mr Foster also.

Well, just watched the first two of these and have to say like a few others, preferred the drum one. I think essentially the difference between the two is the influence of the presenter. In Stuart Copeland, you have someone who has lived and breathed music and drums from a very early age and has worked at the highest levels both in terms of sales/ popularity and all round musical credibility. In Tina Weymouth, you have someone who was handed a bass at the age of 24 and told to learn it. I'm not belittling her talent here- she has sustained a music biz career for many years so she's obviously doing something right- but more pointing out that her musical experiences seem to me to be much more limited than the likes of Copeland and I think the choices of who/ what to feature reflected that. A programme about bass that misses out Squire, Entwhistle, JPJ? No Stanley Clarke, Jaco, Mick Karnes, Pino? No Larry Graham/ Louis Johnson? No Tony Levin/ Lee sklar? But wastes a few minutes on Dizee Rascal...mmm? On the plus side, she was very personable and had a nice easy way in front of the camera - just needed a more widely informed editorial direction. Anyone know who's doing the guitar one? Hopefully someone like Dave Grohl.

ACG will actually do set necks or bolt on - your choice. The set neck being a separate neck permanently glued in to a tight pocket. Status now call a set neck a through neck, even though it only goes as far as the bridge pickup route. I believe there is a difference tonally and also appearance wise but I have to say that bolt on joints have come a long way since the basic Fender type. I like both but chose bolt on for my recent ACG build because the sort of sound I was looking for it to provide has in the past most regularly been produced by bolt on basses as far as I can tell. I would suggest you buy what you want, after all, it'll just sound like you playing anyway! 😀 (runs for cover)

That's a great idea and would give you a valid reason to use one of those old Schaller bridges with the fine tuners fitted! Oh, and to answer the original question, high to low for me and then again to correct any errors.

@Al Krow I have an Ibanez Studio 8 which I bought new in 1980. Here's the thing- it has never really found a musical home with me. I have noodled on it in the house and I once in a blue moon take it to a gig and let it rip but the sound is so different to a standard bass that I find it's all but impossible to slip it into the usual situations. By comparison with almost any other bass it sounds loud and brash if you're using it to play the standard basslines. So I think you would be looking at using it in certain situations, with parts written specifically to suit an 8 string. For me it would be too much to play it all night. It's such a big sound that much like what happens when I play Chapman Stick on some songs, the rest of the band would likely have to adjust what they play to take account of the new sonic landscape. I play finger style, so it's always both strings at once for me and I can't imagine how you could cleanly and solidly select just the lower string whilst still playing fluently but no doubt someone with a better facility than myself might be able to do it! I have only ever recorded once with it and the song never made it past the demo stage, so I'm afraid I have no evidence for the court! This thread has however minded me to dig it out and take it to a rehearsal. The folky band I'm playing with just now would probably be a good setting for it and in any event I will enjoy the looks on their faces as I once again bring something odd to the party! In terms of recorded 8 strings, Chris Squire played one occasionally and I remember Greg Lake had a beautiful Alembic 8 although whether he recorded with it, I have no idea.

I'm assuming I'm correct (LOL which is what I always do!) in that clip B is the actual 8 string bass. I found it immediately obvious but then again, I've been a 8 string owner since 1980 so I'm very familiar with the sound. I heard a lot more dirt and general fuzziness in clip A which presumably is the pedal trying to disguise its limitations. To be honest, I think you could probably do a better emulation yourself using most multi-fx units these days - the Roland V-bass does quite a passable 8-string. For live performance though, I would just use the real thing if you have one. You'll get the proper sound and the punters will get the visual clues. Make sure you have a front of house soundman who will not mangle it out of all recognition trying to make it sound like a Fender Precision!

Thanks for that- I'm already very much loving it!

It’s another ACG special birthday bass. The first of a new model- the Krell Kompakt. Black Limba body with ART top. Wenge and maple neck with ebony board. Multi coil pickups with Dual filter preamp. Thanks to Alan Cringean (ACG) who not only builds great basses but also takes great pictures of them!! A full build diary is in this thread if you're interested in what the process is for having a bass built from scratch.

Thanks for listening all. I’m going to pop up a NBD thread over in bass guitars so some more BC’ers can see another example of Alan’s skill.

So here we go... ACG Krell Kompakt Fretless 6 String, Uber Spec, multicoil pickups, DFM preamp, 32" scale. These are Alan's pics - way better than I could do and it sounds and feels as good as they look! I'll try and get some sound clips together over the next few days. It's been worth the wait! 😀

In life, as in music, timing is all. I just picked it up, it's beautiful and now I have to go out and be sociable for the evening! Arghhhhh! Will post the pics up later on... much later on. 😬

Used RS66s in the 70s and 80s but the quality seemed to change in the 90s and they became very rough to the extent that I was having problems with blisters etc. Switched to Elites then but have tried RS66s again recently and they seem to be good again. Status sell their own branded strings and these are good also- excellent prices especially for double ball end, but not very long lasting.

The bass is now in final assembly!! It will be ready for me on Christmas Eve!! I'm away then and not back till Boxing Day!!🙄 All going to plan then I'll be making the hour drive down to Moffatt on the 28th to pick this beauty up from ACG HQ. Better polish up my fretless chops!

When I have an update, you’ll have an update! 😀 Seriously though, the bass is somewhere in the finishing/ final assembly conundrum, presumably along with several others whose progress pics I’ve noticed in parallel with my build. I'm guessing Mr C will likely be flat out to get these done asap but we can only wait and see. I am certain it is close now!

Absolutely howling at these! Some much needed light relief - thanks!

Yes, I notice that every time I see a clip of Tony Levin on Stick, he seems to be mainly playing the "bass" side *or* the melody side, almost never both at once? One of the reasons I had for learning Stick was so that I could make a complete sound on my own, in the way a pianist can. so to this end, I've been concentrating on bass note and partial chord on the left hand with melody or other partial chord on the right hand. It's a bit of a handful especially when singing as well but it's getting to where I wanted it to be. As soon as a band hears the lovely Stick tones, they want you to play it in the band and it's then that the "less is more" discipline has to be brought into play. Have you checked out Kevin Keith? He does a great job of the funky bass line and melodic chord thing but again in a very intimate environment. Keep us posted on your progress - at 6 weeks I was lucky to string 3 or 4 predictable notes together!

Stubborn will do! As lfalex-v11 says, the strings are quite low tension and the precision of the build and fretting on any stick I've tried means that a very low action is possible. You are lightly tapping on the strings and it doesn't feel anything like tapping on a bass that's set up for normal playing. I don't think reach is an issue either, both of my Sticks are just about the same width as a 6 string bass at the 24th fret and one has ten, the other 12 strings so string to string spacing is a bit tighter. Of course the Stick neck is parallel. The other thing is, I wonder if I had been able to go into a shop and try one, would I have then bought one? I fear maybe not, because I was so inept on it I may have just said "mmm… not for me" It's not the first time that it's been mentioned that the Chapman Stick absolutely seems like a great idea right up to the moment you strap one on... I'm in Glasgow so if you're ever around these parts, you're welcome to try mine.

Yes- paired with a GK3 equipped bass works very well for a massive variety of sounds. Also quite a nice multi FX even when used with standard basses.

Even odder is that in an emergency, you can just play all the patterns you usually play on the bass but string to string jumps take you to the right note but in the “wrong” octave.

Haha - how did you come across this or is it already notorious and I just didn't know? Genius!