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What the hell happened?


arabassist
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Hello,

The only bass I've played for the past 10 months or so is my ibanez artcore, which i taught myself with it. The other day i went to a guitar shop and tried out a random bass. It was a 5 string ibanez priced at £225. I've never played a 5 string, and haven't played a solid body bass since i bought my semi hollow one, so i thought what the heck. But for some reason, playing that bass felt so much easier. I remember my legs shaking with excitement when I played. It felt like it was half the weight the neck felt like half the size. It also felt like the frets were tiny. I got home and tried out my own bass and thought, 'it can't have been that much smaller, could it?'.

What was it about the 5 stringer that made it so much easier for me to play? Is my artcore simply too big for me and needs to be gotten rid of?

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I had much the same thing here. Although I actually started with a cheapo Peavey 'kit' I soon 'treated myself' to a gorgeous 70s Hayman 4040, for all sorts of nostalgic reasons as well as the build quality of the instrument. I got used to playing it and did the lion's share of my early learning on it, despite it weighing more than a double-decker bus and having a neck like a plank, and thought it was the mutts.

Then I decided to treat the old girl to some new strings and noticed the perspex bridge (ah, those old 70s guitars!) was cracking and had little life left in it. I was devastated! Anyway, I decided to buy a new bass for rehearsing and gigs - and after a couple of afternoons playing everything on the wall in my local music shop got myself a nice skinny necked Fender Jaguar. Like you, I just couldn't believe the difference.

To cut a long story short, I have now parted company with the Hayman. Nice as it was to have a real old vintage piece of superb quality it was like playing a floorboard, with about the same tone. She has now gone to a far more appreciative owner. The jaguar is just amazing to play - I guess that is modern basses - and I believe I have improved exponentially as a result.

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wouldnt surprise me if you player an SR, they have silly small necks. The artcore looks like it has a pretty chunky neck too. Its all a matter of personal preference, I quite like large necks whereas it may be that you personally are more suited to smaller neck. Like silddx says, go try some out :)

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Had a similar experience playing my Yamaha TRB for years then decided on a whim to buy a Geddy Lee Jazz and wow it's so much easier and i love playing it.

The Yamaha in comparison has strings on that seem very thick combined with a very high action so I suppose when I re-string and sort the action it will be easier but it took a new bass for me to see how bad the other was set up.

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I've had a few of those moments. Started on a Yamaha BB605, then got a TRB4 which was a revelation, then got a StingRay which was a revelation, then got a G&L (Tribute) 2500 which was another revelation. There's been quite a lot of junk that I hated in there too, though. As everybody has and will tell you, get out there and try everything you can!

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Another possibility is that your artcore just needs a setup. If the relief is outside of the ideal range it can feel stiff and uncomfortable to play.

I picked up one of my basses yesterday (my self-built fretless Precision, which I haven't payed for a while) and I hated everything about it - it was just harder work to play it compared to my others. I noticed the action was a bit high so I checked the relief. There was obviously more relief than I normally have, so I got my tools out, tweaked the truss rod & checked action & intonation. Five minutes later its back to its easy-playing old self.

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