Tait

[quote name='Delberthot' post='391965' date='Jan 26 2009, 05:45 PM']I would look for someone that's going to teach you what you want to learn. I know it sounds obvious but there are teachers that teach a specific course and won;t veer off into doing other stuff that the student wants to do[/quote] +1 my teachers excellent because he's very specific for me. for instance, the other day he asked me what i wanted to learn as my next sort of project (im an advanced player, so he does my lessons more as long term projects than as single lessons). when i said i'd like to learn to read notation really well he told me he'd be happy to teach me it, but he didnt see the point because of several reasons (such as i only play guitar and bass so tabs much simpler and im a confident sight reader of tab, it wouldnt be a very good project because to get up to a good sight reading level it would take a very long time, he's done a fair bit of session work both as a bass player and guitarist and he also writes melodies and stuff for some bands and has never been asked to follow notation, he either gets tabs or chord progressions, etc. and as long as i can work slowly through notation i'd be ok) and the he told me what he would think would help improve my feel and understanding of different things the bass can do other than just playing the bassline (record an entirely bass song, i recorded a groove higher up the fretboard with a couple of chords in last lesson, next lesson im doing a simple bassline at the lower end of the fretboard to give it "oof") and let me choose. i've had 4 bass teachers now, as well as 4 guitar teachers, and my current bass teacher is the best i've had yet because the bass lessons are all about what i want/need to learn to improve my playing. i don't know how good you are, but try to get one whos a lot better than you, too. i know thinking "this guys quite good, and you can learn from anyone" might seem ok at the time if you're struggling to find a teacher, but my last teacher was only a little bit better than me and we ended up sitting and talking about basses rather than actually learning to play anything.

i always thought the thumb would look much better as a singlecut

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='391267' date='Jan 25 2009, 09:34 PM']And I would opt for a fun musician over a bunch of dull musicians.[/quote] oh definatly, thats why i cant stand it when people care more about "pushing the boundaries" or whatever than they do about making their music sound good. ok, i hate playing roots, i dislike playing simple basslines, but if its good for the song thats what i'll play, after all, most people don't listen to music and remark how good the bassline was, just how good the song was. and yes, im not going to name them but ive read at least one person on here who said (these arent their exact words, they said it along time ago and i cant find their exact quote) they dislike people who claim to play whats best for the song and it makes you a better bass player to try and push the boundaries or something like that (on topic - i'd also like to add that whilst searching for this quote i found the same bass player saying he likes punk - not so much the music but the ethics) which i thought was total nonsense in itself because youre all there to make the song, and if it takes a simple bassline to make the song then you should play a simple bassline and not push boundaries.

[quote name='Brother Jones' post='391799' date='Jan 26 2009, 02:29 PM']Yes, yes I have. I've been covering it for the past ten years. Even then, the Blockheads were rarely, if ever, described as 'punk', and Norman's line is not a pointless, widdling solo...[/quote] i wouldnt class them as punk either , and i wasn't even born at the time, so youre probably right that they arent/werent classed as punk. people just mentioned norman watt-roy in the best punk bassist thread, so i figured most people did class the blockheads as punk. and i wasnt saying it is a pointless widdling solo (arent all solos to some extent pointless? but then, you could class the whole idea of music as pointless... different discussion entirely), but from what you said i infered you thought punk bass players werent supposed to play fast or well, that punk bass players don't "widdle", and in which case norman watt-roy isnt a punk bass player, but i've already given my reasons for thinking he was classed as a punk bass player and can accept (and i agree) that most people probably didn't think of him as a punk bass player - he was just mentioned in the punk bass players thread.

doesnt the weezer guy use a telebass? EDIT: just realised weezer have had 3 bass players, so maybe matt sharp didnt use a telebass, it could be another one of their bass players that uses a telebass

[quote name='Brother Jones' post='391013' date='Jan 25 2009, 03:31 PM']It is a bit ironic that 'punk' had a strong anti-virtuosity feel, as a stand against the ludicrous cockmongering of prog rock. And now here we are looking at a 'punk' band's bass player widdling away...[/quote] have you ever heard the 'punk' song hit me with your rythm stick?

yeah, but punk these days is completely different, more of a style of music than an attitude. its also a different thing entirely, punk back in the 70s and 80s was an attitude more than a style of music, you had the clash playing reggae, you had ian dury playing slightly jazzy sounding songs, then you had the sex pistols and the ramones playing fast, power chord based songs. they all had that rebellious attitude, but also played very different music. the stranglers had a keyboard player, can you imagine the sex pistols with a keyboard player? punk these days is more about the music. i see punk as music with -usually fast tempo -mostly power chords -playing quavers -3 or 4 chords in each section (chorus, verse etc.) theyre not all the characteristics, but for instance if ian dury and the blockheads, or even the clash, came out these days most of their songs wouldnt be classed as punk. however, things like ramones and sex pistols, probably would, because they have the characteristics of punk music.

why not have 2 basses?

me and a mate are talking about starting up a zebrahead style pop punk/rap band. we're going to be hugely influenced by zebrahead, so liking them (or willingness to play that sort of music) is a must. we're both 16. what we're after is pretty much the whole band except us two, me on bass, him on lead guitar. we want a similar line up to zebrahead, so a rapper, a singer/rythm guitarist, and a drummer are needed. we're not strict on this, so say for instance if you can rap and play guitar, we'll let you play guitar too. we're planning on doing our own material, its not a zebrahead tribute or anything. also, my mate gigs fairly regularly with his current band, usually about once a month, and so we'd probably gig that regularly too, but theyre not paid gigs i'm afraid, just for fun. we've only come up with the idea tonight, it might never even come into action, but theres no harm in asking around. cheers, Luke.

i play that bit a little different anyway tbh, i learnt it wrong before but it sounds so similar i couldnt see the point in relearning it differently when my hands automatically try to play it the way i originally learnt it.

damn, ive only just read this thread, i'd have liked to come see you at rock city, but i missed it! let me know next time youre playing rock city lol

i think theyre both hideous

JJ was good because he didn't play OTT. he played what needed to be played and left it at that. im just sad to have read that he didn't like the idea of just playing roots for golden brown, i wouldve thought that he'd know that that was best for the song

wherever my amp is

zebrahead, ben osmundson is their bass player. ok, he's not an amazing bass player, but i've got to say i've found some of his bass lines quite difficult to play in the past and they've got a fair bit of imagination for a punk band (it's kind of debatable if they even are a punk band, but they class themselves as one). as for them being underrated as a band, most people (that are into that sort of music, anyway) that know them absolutely love them. its just that nobody seems to know them. last time i went to see them it was the emptiest ive ever seen that venue, it was still one of the best gigs ive been to.

[quote name='elom' post='383481' date='Jan 17 2009, 07:00 PM']Top tune and thanks for the tab. This is one of those "I'll know I'm okay when I can play..." tunes. I've been meaning to try it for ages and now I have no excuse. Been working on it for a couple of hours today and I can now play it! But slooowly... Damn this is a fast tune - my poor old fingers. Had to slow it right down (can manage it at 85bpm - the original is 105 ). I'll get there in the end.[/quote] ive sorted it. i started at 85 bpm and throughout sort of half an hour upped it to 105 bmp. it wasnt too difficult, i just went up in set of 5 bmp and kept trying until i had it sorted at that speed, then went up another 5.

my taitycaster. i'll never, ever sell that. ever. if we're talking stock basses, maybe my ibanez soundgear. its brilliant, i wouldnt sell it for another bass.

i want one

[quote name='mcgraham' post='383605' date='Jan 17 2009, 10:09 PM']Lwtait I think that's a shocking attitude to take. A bassist is a bassist, if it inspires them to get on with practicing and opens their eyes to fellow musicians what's the harm? Seriously, talk about elitist! Mark[/quote] look, quite honestly i dont feel strongly enough about this to argue or even take offence at you calling me an elitist. so i'll just explain why i dont really want them coming along and drop it. budget bassist has organised all of this, i think he's got the right to decide really. i shouldve explained my reasoning in my first post, i admit it does make me look a bit of a d!ck. but we're a group, and this is a group meeting. theyre not part of our group, so why should they come and meet up with us? all i ask is they join and contribute to basschat a bit. if they enjoy talking about basses, i cant see that this would be a hardship, and if they dont like talking about basses then what do they want to come to the bash for? if they cant be bothered to get onto a computer with internet access (most people have them these days) and drop into to say hi and contribute to our discussions, which, IMO, is the polite thing to do, then why should i be happy about them playing my £1000 bass? these were just thoughts that ran through my head when i saw you were planning on brinning non-basschatters to the bash, and like i said, i really dont feel too strongly about it. im happy with whatever budget bassist decides, and what i've just been saying isn't an argument, im just giving the reasoning behind what i said in order to make myself look less like a d!ck really, and in hope that you'll at least see my side of the argument, even if you disagree with it.

yeah, but it'd still be nice to see them join up and say hi before coming to the bash. i'm not too against it, i just think that the bass bash is a basschat thing.

i dunno whether i really want non-basschatters at a bash

there have been 2 music shops open near me in the last couple of years or so. one of them has now closed down, another has changed to being an online shop only. also both shops are still owned by the same people, but just as guitar, drum and bass schools. i did work experience at one of the shops. i got to say it was terrible how few customers came in. there was very good stock, i thoroughly enjoyed playing the guitars all week. they sold both secondhand and new stuff. they supported local bands (they were even the people who put my band together, introduced me to a couple of guitarists). they were very friendly. but the week i was there they didnt sell a single guitar, the only things that people bought were strings, straplocks, straps and guitar stands. there were three customers all week. im not trying to be discouraging, but im just telling you what ive seen locally.

[quote name='simon1964' post='380306' date='Jan 14 2009, 03:03 PM']I was going to suggest the SR500 - fantastic basses and great value. But I think the OP was after a reasonably wide string spacing at the bridge, and I think the SR500 is very narrow for a 4 string. But if you like the string spacing, these are just about the best spec'd bass under £500 IMO[/quote] I THINK its the same as the BTB. not 100% sure though. im pretty sure the EDB and SR series have the same string spacing, and i think the BTB has too. you might want to double check first. anyway, the SR500 is an absolutely brilliant bass! although, if you want a thin neck... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=36590"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=36590[/url]