Gamble

I want an Explorer 5 too, I know Warmoth have done them in the past.....

I should be all good for this provided my studio time doesn't get bumped back a week, which is possible. Damn famous people paying full price, think they're better than me....... grrrrr..... I'll bring my Boss SYB-5 too, and see if anyone knows how to make it actually sound cool!

Dagnammett, I might be in the studio that weekend!! Will have to check as I'm getting a bit confused by the whole affair at the moment - the drummer's organising it!! If I can make it I'll be happy to bring most of my gear, which consists of: Ampeg SVP Pro pre-amp with Harma and Philips valves Samson S1 compressor QSC power amp SWR Goliath Snr 6X10 Warwick Thumb 5 custom (ovangkol body, ebony fretboard, drop tuned a tone and a half) Fender Mexico Jazz 5 The list of basses goes on but none of them are anything special, I'll just bring something interesting. I've got a few stompboxes too, I don't know if that's what floats peoples boats but the don't take up much space. Must check if I'm free that day...................

When you need 2 or more credit cards to obtain it it's too much, what you've done there is perfectly acceptable. If I could find an explorer shaped fiver I'd be on the phone to my landlord making excuses in no time. Gather round my children and I shall tell you a story..... Once apon a time in the late 90's, my guit*rist at the time called me on the telephone - which was the communication device of choice at the time. He proceded to inform me that Academy of Sound (later to become Sound Control, then more recently fall on it's a*se) had a five (yes five!!) string Ibanez bass for £550 in stock. Now bear in mind that this was a simpler time, when Korn ruled the NuMetal airwaves and my beard was trying hard but not quite making the cut. I promptly got myself to the aforementioned music shop (if anyone here is familiar with the Norwich branch, this was when it was on the other side of Anglia Square - before it was a candle shop or whatever it is now!) and tried out their nice shiney Ibanez Ergodyne 5 string. As I mentioned earlier, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Coal Chamber and such bands were just beginning to take the heavy music scene in the death grip that they would hold for all of about ten minutes, and I was seventeen (give or take, my memory isn't what it used to be kids!), so the decision was pretty much made before I even entered the shop. I tried the bass on for size - it certainly did have five strings! I thought it best to consult the local cash machine for advice - IT WAS PAYDAY, so I could have the bass but wouldn't have a great deal of wedge to go out on the lash with until the same time a month later. This didn't matter as I'd have a brand spanking five string bass and therefore be the envy of at least half a dozen of my friends until that day. Job Jobbed - or so I thought until I'd gotten as far as the aforementioned Guit*rist's house on the way home. His mum asked if I was sure I could afford the bass I had in my (big, strong, masculine) arms and I explained the maths to her..... right up to the point where I remembered that being as it was infact the very day my paycheque had gone into my bank, my housekeeping for the coming month was yet to be payed to my own mothers bank account. *rses I thought. Here's the moral: I had a tenner to last me a month when I was a teenager - Ten years later and I've still got my first five string bass. Winner. Go for it Sarah. Tune in next week when I'll tell you all about how I promised to pay my mum back for my first proper bass (second one I was to own) and never did! (I pay my own way in life nowadays, honest!!!) p.s. I've got somewhere close to ten basses now (can't count properly 'cos I'm half cut) and I only play 2 plus 2 back-ups on a regular basis, and I'm just small fry on this forum!!!!

Surely a Saturday would be best? I'd be happy to sleep in the car if there was a bar, but of course that'd be out of the window if I had work the next day. Just my 2p's worth! Cheers guys!

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in most of the bad technique habits listed above!

[quote name='paul, the' post='213440' date='Jun 5 2008, 07:55 PM']lol?[/quote] Yeah, lets re-word that. Peted is going, and if I get myself a ticket I'll be there with him. That definately sounds more like English, I must stop posting when I'm half asleep!

I hated playing 'Sit Down' by James for about 3 years after having to play it with pretty blistered fingers at the end of one of my first gigs with the covers band I used to be in. That, and it's a dull bassline! I used to get hard callouses, now I have thing skin on my fingertips but it's quite supple. I'm rather heavy-fingered with my playing when I'm rocking out.............

South East you say? That sounds more like it!

If I can pull my finger out and get it sorted I'll be there with Peted, and he'll be there regardless!

I think it cost me about £60 to re-valve my SVP-PRO, might have been less. That was about a year ago though.

I do: www.myspace.com/draglineband And rock too! www.myspace.com/thestanton edited 'cos I reasised you actually asked another question! I pretty much take what the guitards are playing and put my own spin on it if there's room in the song, it can get a bit messy if you're not following the guit*ars when it's a riffy song though. I like bassists like Les Claypool and Tye Zamora, but my style is probably more like Sam Rivers and maybe Dirk Lance. Him off of Deftones is pretty cool too, but I don't know if my playing is anything like his.

Listen to the Dood, that's what I did!

People keep talking about necks rather than fretboards, which is what the question was regarding. I'm sure that different neck materials would make a more noticable difference (depending on how different they are, of course) than the fretboard, but I'm equally sure that the fretboard will make some difference. Stands to logic, as someone has already said.

[quote name='The Burpster' post='206668' date='May 26 2008, 05:18 PM']Gamble; of your choices I'd go for the top one, as it seems in harmony with the neck. TBH it will be complete lottery ordering a wood laminate body, as it depends on the density of each individual PIECE of each wood if you want to get completely anal about it.... eg. one piece of Walnut could be less dense than a piece of Ash or Maple cut from different parts of a tree.. Generally the darker the wood the more dense, but this is open to variables.....[/quote] Is that the top one in my original post (the Maple top)? That's the way I'm leaning at the moment anyways, just waiting for a reply on the price differences at the mo. Not sure I'm going to get one tho, being as I followed my original email up with one going "Ooh, and prices for some of their other basses too.....". I know what some shops get like if you seem indecisive, they just lose interest in you - I'm hoping that wont be the case here.....

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='197215' date='May 12 2008, 03:29 PM']My issue with trying new strings is that I hate the sound of all strings for the first few months. Because of this, the three basses that I own all have their original strings on them. The only thing that would make me change would be breaking a string. I might start a second hand string donation thread.[/quote] I have masses of used stings of various gauge and brand, they're yours if you want them. I've been convinced that there would be a use for them one day, but have been getting close to binning them lately as I haven't been able to figure out what that use would be!!

[url="http://www.hk-instruments.de/epages/hk-instruments_de.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/hk-instruments.de/Products/WM-GUN3B"]http://www.hk-instruments.de/epages/hk-ins...oducts/WM-GUN3B[/url] Aww yeeeyaaah.......

That list of woods and properties on the Warmoth site is great, I should have though to look there before! The only thing is now, it tells me that mahogany (which is used for the back of all three basses I'm looking at) is quite "warm". Does that mean wooley, or just plenty of depth? Being as the model with the Ebony top only has a 7mm laminate on a 35mm Mahogany back, will it sound a bit dead, or is Ebony so bright that you only need a thin layer to brighten up a bass' sound? I'm not all that fussed about the Walnut top model, apparently Walnut's not as bright as Maple (although I don't know if it's enough difference to worry about) and I think it just looks a bit like furniture. Although, I do quite like it....... aaaaaarggghhhhh!!!!! Third (and looking most likely at the moment) option is the Maple top, but then that has a Rosewood fingerboard which Warmoth say is more "warm" than "bright". Is that likely to deaden the sound much? I think my Ibanez SR300 (only a cheapie, really) has a maple neck with a rosewood board and that's lovely and twangy. Also, I don't really like the idea of "Artificial Ebony", I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it but I'd rather have real wood. Anybody got any experience with the "Ebanol" fretboards that Tanglewood use(d ?)? It seems to me like Spear have made three options that might well sound very similar to each other, or am I missing something?

[quote name='Jono' post='205425' date='May 24 2008, 10:14 AM']The best albums for hearing kahler in action would be the first two Primus records IMO...[/quote] So that's a Khaler bridge on Les' CT is it? I had wondered. I spent a little time looking into trem bridges but couldn't find one that matched the string spacing on the bass I wanted to fit one to. I think I had a bit more luck once I'd lost interest in the idea, but that was a hipshot which didn't look all that solid. I'll be looking into Khaler bridges then.....

16mm is great for fast finger plucking, but it's a bit tight for slapping if you're as kack-handed as me. Over 18mm gets a bit wide for my liking, but it is probably a bit easier to get to grips with if you play with different techniques. I only really use finger plucking in live settings but I slap a bit for fun, it's not impossible with narrower spacing but it's a bit easier to make mistakes. I think 17mm/18mm is a decent middle ground, but I've never really spent much time finding out what suits me best - as I said I think it depends on what style of playing you use. Hope that's some help!

I used to play in a pub covers band and we'd make £200 between 4 of us for a night in a pub, although by the hour it's not much of a paycheck it's a decent night out most of the time, and as said above it's a payed rehearsal at worst. I was quite lucky that our guit*rist owned a PA and the singer owned some lights so we had everything we needed to fill an empty room, then the singer went mental and decided he hated me but never actually said so, and I'm still not sure why! Interesting one, that. Anyways, we would then get parties and wedding receptions from that which would be anything from £300 to £800 for the night depending on what we though we could squeeze out of them! It's not a great leap to get more regular gigs with a commited band, so that's more the kind of direction I was thinking provided it didn't clash with the originals bands too much. If I wanted to go on tour for a couple of weeks at a time it'd be letting the covers band down, but I guess if they knew that was a possibilty from the start..... Depping has been mentioned to me by a couple of people now, but I think not being able to read music at all would be a major obstacle. Like I said before, I'm willing to train/learn/practice if that's the way I decide to go but there's just not enough hours in the day for me at the moment unless I jack my job in. I think I might get back onto Royal Mail for a job as a postie, I'd be up early but done by lunch time leaving me the afternoon to practice my *rse off! Keep it coming guys, this is great reading!! Cheers!

This is awesome, cheers for all the advice guys! There's some great stuff in here so hopefully it'll do some others (< no apostrophe, right? ) on here some good too! I'm thinking that being a hardcore session player isn't really the way for me to go, as being realistic I don't think I'm talented enough. A friend of mine who's getting by playing drums by tutoring workshops, jazz gigs and so on has said that I'm easy to work with and enthusiastic which goes a long way (I played on a couple of his music degree recital pieces), but I don't think it'd go far enough to get me in over a really good player. It takes me a couple of goes to learn something usually, although I guess that might change if I practiced harder! Basically, my situation is this: I'm not married, no kids (that I've been told about) and no mortgage. I'm currently working nine/ten hour days to bring home £300ish a week and I'm pretty comfortable on that, apart from being sick of the job, not having much spare time to see my girlfriend (who I live with) or energy to get excited about practicing bass etc. It's a bit of a juggling act, and a hell of a frustrating situation. Oh yeah, and come August they're forcing me to work rotating shifts - 7 til 3 / 3 til 11. Screw that. I currently play in 2 originals bands which I'm pretty commited to, one a little more than the other, but shhhhh..... don't tell them I said so. That's 2 nights a week out to rehearsals, and obviously keeping the weekends free is a plus for gigs. If I could convince those guys to quit their jobs so we could rehearse during the day I would, but most of them are getting a bit more family inclined than myself and they need the stability. We're going for the "plug away at it, get an indie deal, go from there" route to super-stardom. What I want is a fairly stable job I enjoy, which involves music, or at least leaves me plenty of time for music. I know I'm asking quite a lot, and that's why music isn't the only thing I'm considering right now, but I really want to explore the possibility of it before dis-counting it. You guys have been great so far, and I really appreciate it! I'm really interested to hear from anyone who's tutoring and playing pub/club circuits, but not so much of the sessions for their cash too, can it be stable enough to count on? Another very talented guitarist i used to work with got a job at a high school as a tutor as well as teaching privately (and playing in 2 pub bands) but still works a couple of days a week at his old 9-to-5 to make up his paycheck. I could handle working a short week somewhere and suplimenting that with music, as long as the regular job didn't make me want to kill myself!! Cheers!

Right, I do believe that it makes a difference, I'm just not sure how much as I've never got to sit down with an array of identical basses made from different woods to compare them. So, I'm going to ask a shop to get me a bass in to try but I don't know which body wood to have them get in as I don't know what kind of difference it'll make. The choices are: 22mm Maple top, 0.5mm Walnut and 20mm Mahogany back - [url="http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2.asp"]http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2.asp[/url] 7mm Ebony top, 0.5 Walnut and 35 Mahogany back - [url="http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2e.asp"]http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2e.asp[/url] 22mm Walnut top and Mahogany back (I assume that's 35mm too) - [url="http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2w.asp"]http://www.spearguitar.com/product/pro_2/S-p/s-2w.asp[/url] The Ebony top and Walnut topped ones have an "artificial ebony" (hmmmmm) fingerboard where the maple top has an Indian Rosewood board, so obviously that'll make a difference too, but the rest of the neck is the same on them all. What I'm asking you guys is, what kind of flavour would each of these body woods give the bass? Any real wood-o-philes on here care to enlighten me? Cheers guys! Matt

One of Les Claypool's fretted 4 string Carl Thompson's has a trem fitted, and Jens Ritter makes his own trmolo bridges which look lush but only come on Ritter basses.