The Bassist and Guitarist thread

[Cycleops]

The trouble is, not all custom guitars are equal. Early 2000s, and I was playing a Fender Precision Bass Sting model, crafted in Japan. Glorious, wish I still had it. Went to the Fender stand at the London Guitar Show and was given a Custom Shop 55 Time Machine NOS, a reproduction of a new instrument, none of this relic nonsense. It was a dog compared to the Sting.

Well, sting was pretty

Played a Status headless bass. Fabu. And it fit in a standard guitar gig bag!

Sorry, I was just trying to get a rise.

 

[Cycleops]

As we get older:

 

[winjim]

Hilariously the house is now full of grownups shouting 'Hee hee!' at the top of their voices as I've learned the chords to Billie Jean, leading to two annoyed and rather bemused children who have absolutely no idea who Michael Jackson is or how he sang, and don't believe us when we say that's how the song actually goes.

 

[Cycleops]

...but the question is can you sing it like Michael Jackson?

 

[winjim]

...but the question is can you sing it like Michael Jackson?

As he is now.

 

[DRM]

Do you do any exercises or do you just play songs? If you don't already it might be worth starting your practice with a few warm up and stretching exercises to build up the strength and dexterity in your fingers.

Regarding basic barre chord shapes and moving them up the neck, just forget what your first finger is doing. It's just acting as a new nut position or moveable capo, if you like. Your other fingers are basically making the shape of an open E or A.

So one month on from this, I found some stretches on t’interweb, which basically are gently pulling each finger back to feel the stretch, same at the fingertip knuckle, then stretch the fingers sideways by gently pulling them apart, it does seem to have had the desired effect as the difference in how much spread I can get between my fingers on the left hand, compared to the right hand is astounding, I’ve also gone back to revisit a song on the Justin Guitar website which just using the open chords was down as a beginner level 1 song, namely Black by Pearl Jam, which uses E, A, D, C & Em, but there was an intro which at the time was just impossible using Barre E & A from the 7th fret, well last night I cracked it, I’m really pleased with the progress made in about 11 months or so, I can’t believe how far I’ve come, I only wish I could have done it sooner.

 

[winjim]

...but the question is can you sing it like Michael Jackson?

Having nailed Jacko, I think I've figured out a passable acoustic version of Queen of the Reich, so now I need to be able to sing like Geoff Tate.

I should learn some songs with more boring vocals...

 

[Cycleops]

I've just posted this on another thread but I thought a few here might be interested. Nice bit of guitar (Dubro?) Playing and The Spoon Lady is just fantastic.

View: https://youtu.be/_nLmM9kcBKs

 

[MontyVeda]

After getting ranty about LH guitar parts costing more than the RH equivalent when they're essentially the exact same thing...

...
I ended up buying a RH one (not Wilkos, but same style) for £12. The same seller had LH ones for £18

Today I am eating my words

Whilst many saddles look like this on the back end...

...with four equal sized holes for the strings to thread through.

The one I bought for 2/3rds of the price of a LH saddle has smaller holes for the G and D strings and larger holes for E and A, which I can't really drill out because they're right on the corner of the fold.

So another new saddle on the way. Anyone want a RH Pbass saddle for £10 plus P&P?


On the upside... I did notice before mounting it on my never ending bass build.

 

[avecReynolds531]

Revisiting classics from younger days - Berry Oakley's great playing throughout the Fillmore East concert: flatwound strings, played with a pick, a Jazz bass with a Guild/ Hagstrom pickup in the neck position & both jazz pickups moved to the bridge.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jhLV22VUk

 

[avecReynolds531]

 

[DCBassman]

View attachment 664460

The Tractor

 

[DRM]

On Father’s Day I was given a really excellent leather guitar strap, but I always felt it was liable to slip off the strap pins due to the thickness of the leather, so yesterday I fitted some Schaller strap locks to it and put the pins on the Jazzmaster style kit, what a brilliant piece of kit, there’s no way the strap can come off now

 

[DRM]

Latest tune to have a go at is Metallica’s Mothing Else Matters, it’s a really hard song to get right , been at it for a week and a half and managed to slowly get the first few bars of the intro , what do people think is it good to push yourself into a difficult song? There’s lots of new techniques for me in this one, even the deceptively easy, yet hard to get my head round finger picking bit right at the beginning, still get the fingers in a muddle occasionally

 

[winjim]

On Father’s Day I was given a really excellent leather guitar strap, but I always felt it was liable to slip off the strap pins due to the thickness of the leather, so yesterday I fitted some Schaller strap locks to it and put the pins on the Jazzmaster style kit, what a brilliant piece of kit, there’s no way the strap can come off now

Excellent. I've got mine held on with old Grolsch cap seals, but I can't find those bottles for sale in any of my local off licences to do my new guitars with.