Ross

You don't need a helping hand, use and adjustable spanner to hold things, it's what I do Hardest thing about bass wiring, soldering the grounds to the back of potentiometers. I thought I'd destroyed one when I did it. 60/40 leaded solder is also easier to solder with, lower melting point. Also you get the advantage of a only a good joint being shiny with leaded. Lead free is shiny whether it's a good or bad joint.

One of the greatest moments I've ever had in a jam. Keyboardist: I can replace you with my left hand Me: Well so what? I can replace you with my right hand (At this point I start tapping out a piano adaptation) Keyboardist: Touche... I don't think a lot of people realise how versatile bass is.

Pretty much anything slap, I can usually pull the lines off but I really just don't like slapping, too much thinking involved.

Got an unbranded one for a little less than that, buy it now was about £70 though, it's actually a really good neck, lovely grain on it.

Got it all wired now after a cash injection, if I hadn't ordered the wrong kind of knobs it'd be done today but lesson learned, read more carefull next time. Hoping to get some sound clips up because it sounds gorgeous and plays really well. Went for wizard 84's in the end, thought my wiring didn't work after much fiddling about and f-ing and blinding, turns out I'd just knocked the switch on the bass pod to line in by accident. It's all in now, just need to send the knobs back and source/ fabricate some for the 1/4" inch shafts. But I'm willing to say, completed and damn good too. I've learnt plenty on the way, I can't wait to do my next one. Couple of pics:

I use cubase and fruityloops. Get plenty of plugins though. Most indespensible thing you can have is a midi keyboard though, trying to program stuff in bit by bit is tedious as hell.

Buy bass for dummies, great starting point to learn the basics, work through majors boot camp (on this forum somewhere). Learn some of the tracks you want to learn and don't be afraid to try new things, infact, always be looking to expand your knowledge in other genres and how other people played. One of the most enlightening things for me on bass was learning about James Jamerson, theres a really good book to be had for about £13 off amazon with his music. If you can afford it, lessons, don't go to the guitar school in old town because the guy who taught me wasn't a proper bassist. Don't be in any rush to learn slapping, tapping, fretless etc. Get your basic fingerstyle down first. Most importantly, stick with it, sometimes yes you'll need to give things time to sink in but if you get frustrated and put the bass down, make sure you go back to it.

Started on tabs and books, then got a teacher who was not a proper teacher and played mainly guitar and pretty much useless, then it was a learning curve for my band. Took a little break for a couple of years now it's all information off here, youtube vids and notation.

Looking at your fretboard? Booooo

I like it, simple clean cut bass. I bloody hate all these fancy boutique jobbys, too much going on with them.

Guitar solos just make them gush uncontrollably, you think thats sweat and beer on the floor at a rock gig? You're mistaken.

Because I used to play naked and a guitar was too small to hide my giant bassist package. I played bass because everyone and their mum plays guitar. I actually play very little guitar, I play drums and bass well, a little flute and piano, some flugelhorn. But guitar I've never really gotten into, got quite fat fingers so it's difficult.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1327439' date='Aug 4 2011, 05:04 PM']Not really. Maybe we will all start playing our instruments and valuing them for what they are instead of buying them, playing them for 10 minutes then selling them on so we can buy another one or comissioning new ones that are a hairs breadth different from the last one we commissioned. There are certainly more instrumenhts than there are good players so I see no problem here.[/quote] The problem lies in the cost of instruments will rise, it'll make it difficult for people to get into it young. I remember when I started, it took me months to buy a cheap starter bass, if it'd been twice/ three times the price I don't know whether I'd gotten into music.

A lot of people don't care enough about their sound to research, or just don't realise what they're missing. I remember turning up to a gig "Wow a real fender, you must have some money" I bought it with paper round funds... It's a bit like seeing a tradesman turn up with DIY grade tools, a little disconcerting but we'll let the work do the talking.

I remember getting a "Mate help me shift this stuff in your van and I'll buy you a pint" call, naturally I assumed it was a shitload of stuff and being a nice beerloving guy I obliged. Got there and it would have fitted twice over in his focus with the back seats down, only upside to having a van is being able to really shift some weight without destroying its internals. Unless we're talking minimum of a SWB transit you don't actually get that much more room in them, and with cages in most vans, often you find cars are better for longer stuff!

I've fitted 3 big old 4x10s and a small drum kit in in a 1993 civic before, keeping my original driving position (as far back as posible) Just play tetris til they fit, you'd be amazed how much crap you can cram into the smallest of cars.

Sorry to derail slightly, but why are these picks so desired by you that you'd go through all this effort? They're just bits of plastic surely or is there something I don't know?

Realistically you just don't like haggling because you're bad at it. And you're within your rights to say "no haggling" it just reduces your potential customers.

Yeah if it's £100 + £10 postage, offering them £90 + £10 postage or £100 + free postage is the same thing. And 90% of the time postage costs less than the advertised price. It's like asking someone to chuck in a case and a screeen protector when you're getting a phone, it's just business. I always haggle without fail if there is room to haggle, one of the reasons I tend to shop for food at markets and not supermarkets, the foods better and it ends up cheaper after a bit of haggling the prices down/ getting extras chucked in. Even if it's an extra few tomatos in the bag for free, it adds up.

[quote name='The_D' post='1321399' date='Jul 30 2011, 04:03 PM']Another guy wanted ME to go 10 miles down the road and meet him so he could buy it off me... and why would I do that you plumb?[/quote] Because the guy doesn't have a way to get to you? Or wants the car but can't afford insurance to drive it home so needs you to plonk it on his drive? I wouldn't though, could be dodgey.

I sometimes come in with a low offer expecting someone to counter offer. Not ri.diculously low but one of the reasons I buy second hand is because you can haggle the price down a bit. One thing I never got about cars is when people use paying in cash as a bargaining point, you can pay by any way you want it aint gonna make the price go down.

I go for a bit of improv myself, but i rarely go into a music shop, I buy all my gear second hand.

How to set gain on a mixing desk: "Dude play the loudest part of the song" (set gain to as loud as you can without clipping) "Sweet lets roll" Same applies to bass, just play the loudest part of the song (assuming you use dynamics).

I've a feeling judging by the attire they don't usually play with that guitarist. Absolutely superb aside from that.

I've changed to so many directions now I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, but if it sounds good I'm not saying sh*t! Really into my prog rock right now.