The Bassist and Guitarist thread

[DCBassman]

It's a shame I am pretty much just a strummer.

Nowt wrong with just strumming! Just strumming really nice chords is one of the delights of guitar playing.

 

[Drago]

I've not got as far as bass chords yet.

 

[DCBassman]

Ah but then a bass isn't really a guitar!
<pedant mode> a bass guitar has 6 strings tuned exactly as a normal guitar, an octave down.</pedant mode>


In the early sixties, Leo spelt it out on the headstocks:
An electric bass

An electric bass guitar

 

[Drago]

Today I've added 2 more easy basslines to my repertoire, Another One Bites the Dust and Dazed and Confused. I think I'll be ready for some of the more complex scales soon.

 

[DCBassman]

If you're going to want to mess around at unsocial times, look into the Tascam GB-10 trainer. Music on SD cards, ability to slow tracks without changing pitch, or to change pitch without changing speed. Also effects, ability to loop a little part in order to nail it, etc etc. Needs full size headphones, though.

 

[Drago]

Have any of you fine people ever built your own guitar, either a kit to totally DIY?

 

[winjim]

This thread reminds me, I need to listen to more Primus.

 

[DCBassman]

Have any of you fine people ever built your own guitar, either a kit to totally DIY?

My Precision Bass began life as a standard 2003 Mexican, bought new by me. The only original bits left are the body, bridge, and knobs! The rest is: 1994 Fender American Standard pickup, 2014 American Special Jazz bass neck, Hipshot lollipop tuners, and a custom Kiogon solderless control loom. 70s style F neckplate. Schaller straplocks.
Black/white/black 3-ply pickguard. I'll be putting a set of chrome covers back on it when I can afford it.
It's just a Precision Bass, but it's MY Precision Bass!

 

[Drago]

I'm a compulsive fiddler, and I fancy having a go at building one. I'd probably try one of the kits first, and if I didn't make a total hash of it might then have a go at sourcing the bits separately.

But today my half hour minimum practice will be spend working o. Dazed and Confused. The main part is easy of course, but the fill ins require dexterity that hasn't yet come back to me. The only cure for that is more fret time.

 

[MontyVeda]

I use modern flatwound strings, either D'Addario Chromes or Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats. These can be quite twangy with tone right up, yet very mellow with lower tone. Much easier on the fingers and frets, and if you look after them (and if you don't suffer from killer sweat), they can last years, which makes them, in the long run, much cheaper than roundwound strings.
And if any Cyclechatter wants their bass set up, and they are nearby, gimme a call!

I recall Nile Roger's talking about the late great Barnard Edwards and his bass... another bassist was amazed by the sound of his strings and wanted to know which brand he used. Bernard had no idea, they were the same strings that were on the bass when he'd bought it over a decade previously.

It's a personal thing. I hate the twangy sound of new strings. They sound much better six months later when they've dulled a lot (IMO, of course)

 

[MontyVeda]

Have any of you fine people ever built your own guitar, either a kit to totally DIY?

I had a cheap fender precision copy in the 80s. I took a jigsaw to the body to customise it but it looked dreadful and the balance was gone. 30 years later and I've still got everything but the body and am planning to build one based on a telecaster, slightly oversized and chambered so it'll have a bit of unplugged volume. ...but like all my potential projects, it'll take years to get started and years to finish.

Building just a body isn't the same as building a guitar, I understand. It's all about the neck, apparently.

 

[DCBassman]

I don't practice nearly enough. I don't read, although I could possibly scrape through a page of dots in an hour or two!

 

[Stephen Piper]

45 years ago I built two solid body guitars as 6th form, A level D&T projects, but I had no way to reference the proper method of construction, nor any quality materials, so the results, though playable, were not too good. Having no work shop at home my luthering career ended when I left school. I have a friend who builds excellent guitars in his 8x6 garden shed.

 

[Arjimlad]

A little late to the party, had this since 2010. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

I play it at church & sometimes too exuberantly/loud.

 

[swee'pea99]

A bass is longer and heavier than a guitar so it is easier to beat away the inevitable young female groupies.

Reminds me of my younger sister who, thoroughly mashed, once managed to blag her way backstage after a Ramones gig. Got talking to a very nice young chap, eventually asking him what his connection was. He looked slightly taken aback and said 'I'm with the band'. Thinking he looked like a roady or something she asked what he did with the band. This time he looked more than taken aback: 'I'm the lead singer,' he said.