Marvin_ Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) I've been lurking here for a while (joined to pick up an Ashdown ABM 500 Evo 3 combo from glassmoon, which is brilliant (thanks Julian!)), and feel like I should really introduce myself. I've been playing bass around 8 months, guitar slightly longer. Starting with a Yamaha TRBX174 which I stuck a set of flatwounds on as the stock strings weren't very nice. As it was my first bass experience, I kind of assumed that all round wounds would be like that so went with D'Addario flats, which were nice, but ultimately I found the scale length a little challenging (I have big hands, but relatively short fingers - thanks nature). I started looking at short-scale options, ostensibly to go along side the Yamaha, and settled on an Epiphone Allen Woody signature, stuck some Rotosound flats on it (which I didn't like - way too floppy so I just got lots of buzzing unless I raised the action significantly), then Hipshot tuners & bridge (trying to fix what ultimately turned out to be a string issue), then D'Addario Chrome flats, giving it a Hofner vibe which I really like for 60s rock. A couple of months went by and I realised that I wasn't playing the Yamaha as I'd gotten so used to the short scale and really liked it. Equally, the Epiphone was set up for a reasonably specific task, but I also enjoy playing a lot of early metal, grunge and so on. The solution was clear, a more all-round bass to replace the Yamaha. In the end I settled on a Hagstrom Swede bass. It's a really excellent all-rounder, with two humbuckers with coil split options, two volume and two tone knobs, a pickup switch and a high/mid cut switch, giving a flat-like tone if desired at the flick of a switch. This is stock, save for some D'Addario round-wounds, again with a thicker E-string (it seems so many short scale string sets are made with a .90 or .95 E string, which seems to be too loose to me), and it's great. Style wise, I play most confidently with a pick (coming from guitar), but once I 'got' fingerstyle I've come on leaps and bounds. I'm using Rocksmith to learn songs (both guitar and bass), although I've found it's not as good at teaching technique, so I've done many YouTube hours (Rick Beato and Scott's bass lessons are faves) to hopefully not pick up any bad habits. Something that helped enormously is buying an amp (Rocksmith is set up to handle all the effects etc, so you can start with just a PC, your guitar and a cable) playing independent of Rocksmith so I know exactly what sounds I'm making, which has really helped improve my playing, with more focus on left hand finger placement to stop accidental buzz etc. Most recently I've been building my first pedal board, including three DIY pedal builds from EffectPedalKits (well five, but I never got the Filter working for reasons I can't fathom, and the Compressor just wasn't very good - really fuzzy compared with the TC Electronic I have now). Just this morning I was playing along to some Motorhead and found the Compressor, Fuzz and NO2 clean boost (which was a typo, I now realise I have Nitrogen Dioxide, but never mind) gave a bloody good representation of Lemmy's tone. I'll stop rambling now and say, TLDR: Hi! Edited January 9, 2021 by Marvin_ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Good afternoon, Marvin, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. (Careful; we already have an active 'Marvin', who has a brain the size as a planet..! ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Hiya Marvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky 4000 Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Nice. 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Welcome Marvin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Welcome Marvin If you've acquired that much gear in 8 months you'll fit right in here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin_ Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Thanks all for the warm welcome. On the GAS front (or should it be BAS?) I've just pre-ordered the new Ibanez 5 string short multi-scale headless as a birthday present (should arrive apparently within a few days of it anyway). This despite promising myself that I wouldn't have more than two of any instrument type... Might have to move the Epiphone on if I get on really well with it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 Welcome aboard. Nice kit. You may be a bit late for the Gear Abstinence Thread 2021 😅 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin_ Posted January 13, 2021 Author Share Posted January 13, 2021 On 11/01/2021 at 22:31, Richard R said: Welcome aboard. Nice kit. You may be a bit late for the Gear Abstinence Thread 2021 😅 I think that ship's sailed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 welcome from another Kent dweller. I used to play in Earls quite often Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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