BASS MEGATHREAD: Beginners, welcome to my ass!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > BASS MEGATHREAD: Beginners, welcome to my ass!

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

3toes posted:

Not quite... Claypool is a great bassist and is always rhythmically on point. He can groove as well as anyone AND can innovate at the same time.

You might want to get a little more time under your belt before you start blasting PROFESSIONALS on how well they play bass.

You might want to as well, 3toes. From what I read, Akur0 wasn't blasting any PROFESSIONALS. I'm sure a lot of other goons would agree after listening to any Primus song that Les' style is slightly unorthodox. And I do agree it does get annoying when people glorify Les because he has a unique playing style.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2008 18:25

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:45

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

Hey guys,

I currently play in my college's lower-level jazz band. The only bass I have access to right now is my Geddy Jazz Bass which sounds great on the certain songs but weird on stuff intended to be played with a double bass. Unless I can borrow another player's stand-up in the department, I'm usually stuck playing bass guitar on, for example, Duke Ellington charts.

So, as a poor college student, I'm looking to buy a "decent sounding" double bass or EUB in the next 6 months or so. I don't know much about the stand-up bass market because I just played my orchestra's instruments throughout middle and high school. I took a peek over at talkbass.com but couldn't immediately find what I was looking for and search on this thread didn't reveal any discussion. Does anyone know if I can find an instrument for around $600-$800 that will sound okay (mainly playing pizzicato on jazz charts)?

P.S. I saw these two instruments in Musician's Friend catalog:
http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/NS-Design-?sku=514435
http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Palatino-VE550-Electric-Upright-Bass?sku=512015

Does anyone know how these compare to a plugged-in double bass with a pickup?

# ¿ Nov 15, 2009 02:43

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

warwick5s posted:

The WAV is nice, but NS just came out with an NXT upright, that's basically a WAV with a maple body, ebony board, better hardware, and made in the Czech republic instead of China. It's about $300 more than the WAV is new, and from all accounts it's worth it.

I really dug the WAV I played a while back, and had the NXT not come out I was planning on getting one. I've never really dug the Palatino stuff, it's just kind of cheap and chintzy.

On talkbass, you'll want to check out the stickied megathreads for each brand in the EUB forum.

As for an actual double bass, I had an Englehardt that served me quite well through college. It was a full laminate, which means it sounded great in big band and like dogshit in symphony, but I could smash it into things and open doors with it without worrying about it, which is kind of nice if you're going to be heading from class to class with it. The downside with an Englehardt is that you'll need to have the fingerboard dressed, a new bridge, and a new endpin at the minimum.

Gollihurmusic.com and uptonbass.com are two really good sites to check out.

Man, that NXT upright looks great after reading more about it. Google does not show the corporate music dealers carrying it though. Would this be a bass the I could find in a store and play before I ordered it?

Doomy posted:

Have you tried using tapewound strings? I've heard some brands of those can cop a decent upright'ish tone. I'd figure it's worth a try because a pack of strings is maybe $30 and an upright/EUB is much more than that.

Well, I'm not really looking to turn my jazz bass into an upright. I play a lot of blues and rock when I'm not playing jazz but thanks for the suggestion.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2009 03:08

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

Big Face posted:

Yeah, I have a great music pawn shop in my area (sold me my first 45w tube amp for $60), I just haven't been in there in a while, but since I've got a new job I will be able to afford new things. I probably shouldn't drop any more money on "decoration guitars"

Yo, where in Cleveland are you from?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2009 16:45

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

Hey goons, I just joined a local group that plays a lot of pop country. A number of the songs are tuned down a half step (some are recorded this way, some are adjusted to save the singer's voice throughout the night). These adjustments are creating some headaches for me because the guitarists are just adjusting a capo or tapping a pedal but I'm stuck with weird transpositions.

My question: do y'all know of a good bass pedal that will allow me to adjust a half step on the fly? I don't care if it sounds somewhat like rear end as long as it jives with the guitars. Otherwise it looks like I have to memorize these unnatural (to me) fingerings, tune my strings down a half step between songs on stage, or have an extra one to two basses on stage pre-tuned to accommodate (we are not good enough for me to justify this look, haha).

Thanks!

Wanh fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jun 24, 2020

# ¿ Jun 24, 2020 20:42

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

Chunderbucket posted:

Digitech drop would do the trick, I think, but a second bass might be cheaper.

BonHair posted:

The Drop does exactly what you want, but why not just use a capo like the guitarists? Are you playing a lot of open strings since you can't just tune down and play one fret up?

Thanks. I'm new to a lot of these technologies. This guy seems to sound pretty good on bass from what I just heard on YouTube.

Schwza posted:

Two basses, one either a 5 string or dropped a half step, is the way to go. Especially if one guitar goes down.

I actually like this idea a lot. Coming from a double bass background, I didn't even register the option of the low B. Of course, that would require a new instrument purchase that would be more costly than the drop pedal (~$200 if I Googled correctly?). Do most of you guys have 5 string basses?

baka kaba posted:

if you're not bouncing on the open strings a lot, or you don't need the Eb, could you learn the songs in the new key? I know it's more work if you're not already conscious of what you're playing, but one of the nice things about (usually) only playing single notes is you can focus on what you're actually doing musically

obviously guitarists can too, but a lot of them (*cough* me) learned to play by memorising shapes and fret numbers, and end up pretty lost if they have to do things like shifting to another key. Capos and downtuning are obviously useful but they can be a crutch too, where it all Just Works and you don't need to think about anything

and a big part of bass is knowing what chords you're playing over and which money notes to hit and when, so a general awareness of what's going on is good! Honestly I'd take it as an opportunity to learn and maybe get a 5-string more places to play them notes

So a little back story - this band gave me a list of 15 songs to learn for an audition. I obtained the piano charts for most of them and focused/memorized the chord changes, took a look at the left hand, and came up with some basic bass lines. When I showed up to play, they sprung a lot of "oh yeah, we decided play this a half step down, sorry forgot to tell you." Most of the songs in those cases require the E flat. I don't really want to learn those songs in a new key if I can just do a quick fix because I'm now trying to work my way through a setlist of 30 songs. Additionally, I really like practicing along with the original recorded version with the aux in on my little pocket amp and headphones. Also Jason Aldean requires lots of low E and D flats :argh:

The Wiggly Wizard posted:

You could get 4 hipshot xtenders but it would cost over $400 and I'm not sure if most headstocks even have the space

# ¿ Jun 24, 2020 23:13

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:45

Wanh: Aug 15, 2005; wanh

baka kaba posted:

I guess I mean kinda learn the songs like "it's in this key so I start in this particular position, the changes are I ii IV V7, these are the important scale degrees I need to hit on each" so a key change is more like "just play the same thing somewhere else" and it's all relative, rather than trying to learn a bunch of specific notes in specific places

if you've already been playing double bass then you obviously don't screw around and I'm telling you stuff you already know! And yeah Eb is a troublemaker

honestly I feel like a capo might not help - it still requires that mental adjustment where you need to play in a different place on the neck than you're used to. The benefit really is being able to move the open strings up too, if you're using them a lot - otherwise you could just keep your bass in D or whatever and just play everything 2 frets higher. Definitely worth playing around with if you can borrow one, see if it clicks for you and seems like a good solution though

but yeah a 5 string might be good, it's not just about having access to lower notes, the extra string means you can shift across the strings instead of down the neck. I think most people probably don't have one though! (I don't)

I appreciate your help!

DrChu posted:

If the band is playing the song in a different key, learn it in that key. There are programs that will change the pitch of a recording, or you could record your practice with the band and later play along to that. If you focus on the chords of the original recording rather than the relative chord changes at some point you're going to play the "real" notes rather than the correct ones for the key you're in.

The drop pedal is a a bit of a cheat, you'll be better off just tuning down the half step and living in that world for a while. Get a capo if you have to have open notes in standard tuning for whatever reason, but you'll quickly adjust to not really needing it.

Thanks. I mean learning in the correct key without modification is ultimately the right answer but the guitarist is using a pedal and/or capo also. My bass chops aren't good enough to make those adjustments in real time without lots of practice. I'm just thinking the pedal will save me sometime on the front end without compromising my base understanding of how songs are written just because our singer can't sing at those higher ranges for three hours (he's not even here to defend himself).

Seventh Arrow posted:

Learning to transpose on the spot is a really valuable skill. I can't tell you how many Sunday mornings my church group decided to do a song up or down a step, sometimes even a third.

No doubt! I'm not half bad at transposing when I have a chart in front of me. Not so good when I have to account for 30 songs in memory that are somewhat similar. I need to get better.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2020 19:33

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > BASS MEGATHREAD: Beginners, welcome to my ass!