Posted July 12, 2020 3 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said: Haha nice! I still enjoy playing the Thunderbird, such a great looking piece of work. Did you go for the Pro or the regular one? I went for the regular in the end after reading up on both. As we're on a budget, I didn't think there was enough there to justify the extra cost of the Pro and the regular/classic IV is more than enough for my needs. Compared to the cheap branded bass that I had before, this was be an amazing upgrade anyway. Excited! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 15, 2020 It is heeeeeere! I'm in love. Hair is getting cut on Friday. Hasn't been trimmed since early March. Basically, it feels amazing. I really like the fretboard, but the overall finish on the bass in general is just gorgeous and shiny. I think that we will be very happy together! 5 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 24, 2020 Loving the bass. I've given the bass a whirl with the Focusrite Scarlett and it hooks up like a dream. For a while now, I've been figuring out the best way of playing along to songs so that I can actually hear the song itself AND my bass/guitar bits at the same time. Scarlett solves that issue because you can output the sound from the bass and from the music (say, Spotify) to the headphone jack of the Scarlett, meaning that it's easy to listen to the track and play. I've spent the last two days just playing some old Rage, Manics and Smashing Pumpkins tunes and just relearning the bass all over again. Have to say that I'm really enjoying getting back into this. One thing that I'm really bad/not great with is fiddling with pedal and amp settings to get the best sound possible. I'm really inexperienced with the sound mixing so I'm going to put some time aside this week to get better at this side of things. Any help here would be great, if anyone can offer any suggestions. I guess that in itself is an art and it proves that there's more to each instrument than just playing the right notes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 25, 2020 17 hours ago, Fierce_LiNk said: Loving the bass. I've given the bass a whirl with the Focusrite Scarlett and it hooks up like a dream. For a while now, I've been figuring out the best way of playing along to songs so that I can actually hear the song itself AND my bass/guitar bits at the same time. Scarlett solves that issue because you can output the sound from the bass and from the music (say, Spotify) to the headphone jack of the Scarlett, meaning that it's easy to listen to the track and play. I've spent the last two days just playing some old Rage, Manics and Smashing Pumpkins tunes and just relearning the bass all over again. Have to say that I'm really enjoying getting back into this. One thing that I'm really bad/not great with is fiddling with pedal and amp settings to get the best sound possible. I'm really inexperienced with the sound mixing so I'm going to put some time aside this week to get better at this side of things. Any help here would be great, if anyone can offer any suggestions. I guess that in itself is an art and it proves that there's more to each instrument than just playing the right notes. After getting my NI Komplete Audio I've been playing this way a lot too. Bass into the Komplete Audio, headphones on my head and playing along with Spotify and YouTube. I find it far easier to hear both the original song/bassline and what I'm playing this way, compared to audio through the speakers and bass through the amp. It also makes figuring out basslines much easier. Usually I use one of the presets in Guitar Rig 5 as bass sound. But I think there are customizable options in there as well where you can set up your own amps/pedals but I haven't looked into it so I don't have any suggestions there. You can download a free version of GR5 which has some presets. What program are you using now? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 25, 2020 4 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said: After getting my NI Komplete Audio I've been playing this way a lot too. Bass into the Komplete Audio, headphones on my head and playing along with Spotify and YouTube. I find it far easier to hear both the original song/bassline and what I'm playing this way, compared to audio through the speakers and bass through the amp. It also makes figuring out basslines much easier. Usually I use one of the presets in Guitar Rig 5 as bass sound. But I think there are customizable options in there as well where you can set up your own amps/pedals but I haven't looked into it so I don't have any suggestions there. You can download a free version of GR5 which has some presets. What program are you using now? Cheers for the suggestion with Guitar Rig 5. I've never used anything like that before. Only software that I've currently got is PreSonus Studio One 4, and then I've also got access to Ableton Live 10 Lite, which is alright but I'm not too keen on. Tempted to download GR5 and have a look at it to see how it all works. Cheers! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 26, 2020 (edited) Having learned bass parts in the past - either to play on actual bass guitar or on keys (yep I've played keyboard bass in bands, pitchforks lighter fluid and matches are on the shelf to your left) - I really appreciate when the bass player does something interesting that really makes the song. Compare some RHCP or Black Sabbath basslines, to ones where they just follow the guitar chords (glances over at Metallica) Quite a few successful pop songs over the years too, I've discovered the bass line has really made the song (Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins, Crush by Jennifer Paige and In Your Eyes by Kylie are ones that spring to mind... I'm sure there's more modern examples too) Here's the start of a Flea youtube spiral to get an idea what I mean... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEF8WejnEc Edited July 26, 2020 by mr_bogus Added youtube link 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 26, 2020 4 hours ago, mr_bogus said: Having learned bass parts in the past - either to play on actual bass guitar or on keys (yep I've played keyboard bass in bands, pitchforks lighter fluid and matches are on the shelf to your left) - I really appreciate when the bass player does something interesting that really makes the song. Compare some RHCP or Black Sabbath basslines, to ones where they just follow the guitar chords (glances over at Metallica) Quite a few successful pop songs over the years too, I've discovered the bass line has really made the song (Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins, Crush by Jennifer Paige and In Your Eyes by Kylie are ones that spring to mind... I'm sure there's more modern examples too) Here's the start of a Flea youtube spiral to get an idea what I mean... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEF8WejnEc I'll just leave the best bass intro of all time here: 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 27, 2020 On 25-7-2020 at 9:43 PM, Fierce_LiNk said: Cheers for the suggestion with Guitar Rig 5. I've never used anything like that before. Only software that I've currently got is PreSonus Studio One 4, and then I've also got access to Ableton Live 10 Lite, which is alright but I'm not too keen on. Tempted to download GR5 and have a look at it to see how it all works. Cheers! GR5 is not a program for recording, it is basically an amp/pedal simulator so it's great for playing along. I haven't figured out how, but it should be possible to use that output in stuff like Ableton or another recording program so you basically record the processed bass or guitar. I really need to look into this as well because I think the sounds in Ableton are pretty limited. 18 hours ago, mr_bogus said: Compare some RHCP or Black Sabbath basslines, to ones where they just follow the guitar chords (glances over at Metallica) Quite a few successful pop songs over the years too, I've discovered the bass line has really made the song (Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins, Crush by Jennifer Paige and In Your Eyes by Kylie are ones that spring to mind... I'm sure there's more modern examples too) It's baffling how complex some basslines are in pop songs! There is quite often some really funky stuff going on (Bruno Mars his songs for example), and if there's one thing I can't play then it's funk/slapping haha. Never really learned it as I usually play punk, rock and metal. But I fully agree that it's nice when the bass does something different than the guitar. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 27, 2020 14 hours ago, Goafer said: I'll just leave the best bass intro of all time here: That's weird, Youtube seems to have messed your link up, so i'll re-post the best bass intro of all time for you: 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) Recently started to actually learn chords and comfortable technique again with my electric guitar. Using Justin Guitar's online/video lessons as I've done a few years ago but stopped quite early. I still know a few chords so the first lessons are a bit easy, but I'm trying to get rid of my old habits regarding wrist position, most importantly I'm trying not to touch the fret board with my palm. Man, breaking that habit is tough... Anyways, my daily training routine is quite simple: A and D one minute chord changes (managed to get 23 just now) and a 5 minute finger stretching exercise: Only stage 1 (up to 4:19). I cannot, for the life of me, get the fourth finger up there on the thickest string without touching the fret board with my palm. Guess I need a lot more practice To keep in line with the thread, though: My setup is rather modest and cheap (I bought it 10 years ago...haven't played it as much as I'd liked...I'm still a novice ): Sadly the whammy bar on my electric guitar is busted. It doesn't "stick in place" anymore, so it just wobbles around. It's quite difficult to use it in a song (well...the only song I can play that uses it is Knights of Cydonia). And that amp seems to be broken, too. The gain and volume knobs don't work properly. It's either too quiet or way too loud. And occasionally there's an extremely lout "crack" coming out of it while playing. I'd love to get a new one, but money is tight and I don't know whether I could get a reasonably good one for 30-50 bucks (maybe someone here could help with recommendations?). Need to get some new strings for my acoustic guitar, as well. But I'm too lazy to restring it anyways, so... Edited July 28, 2020 by drahkon 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 29, 2020 On 26/07/2020 at 1:29 PM, mr_bogus said: Having learned bass parts in the past - either to play on actual bass guitar or on keys (yep I've played keyboard bass in bands, pitchforks lighter fluid and matches are on the shelf to your left) - I really appreciate when the bass player does something interesting that really makes the song. Compare some RHCP or Black Sabbath basslines, to ones where they just follow the guitar chords (glances over at Metallica) Quite a few successful pop songs over the years too, I've discovered the bass line has really made the song (Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins, Crush by Jennifer Paige and In Your Eyes by Kylie are ones that spring to mind... I'm sure there's more modern examples too) Here's the start of a Flea youtube spiral to get an idea what I mean... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEF8WejnEc I do agree with this. Flea always comes up with an interesting bassline that always makes his part of the song stand out. I quite like the way that the rhythm section worked for RHCP, with Flea and Chad on bass and drums sorta working in tandum, with John then noodling over the top of that with his own bits. There's "space" between the bass and guitar bits which makes the song feel big. The bass work for All Around The World for example. Still my favourite RHCP album. At the same time, I love how bassists like Peter Hook (Joy Division and New Order) Tim Commerford (Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave) and Justin Chancellor (Tool) approach the bass parts. For Tim and Justin, the bass parts are almost the crux of the song, with the guitar parts from Tom Morello and Adam Jones often following their bass lead before going off to do something else, whereas a lot of bands seem to approach it the other way around. (e.g. guitar parts first and then the bassist just playing the root notes) I've got to say that Rage and Tool would be muuuuuch poorer without those bass parts. On 27/07/2020 at 8:06 AM, Vileplume2000 said: GR5 is not a program for recording, it is basically an amp/pedal simulator so it's great for playing along. I haven't figured out how, but it should be possible to use that output in stuff like Ableton or another recording program so you basically record the processed bass or guitar. I really need to look into this as well because I think the sounds in Ableton are pretty limited. Yeah, I've just downloaded the free version of GR5 and there is a way to output it in PreSonus, but not in the free version of it. The upgrade for PreSonus is about £80, so I will get on that at some point. Should be a similar sort of story with Ableton, I'd imagine. I'll give this a little go a bit later to see how it all works. Nice setup @drahkon. Justin Guitar is a good channel and quite famous. I've watched their videos a few times in the past and he talks a lot of sense. No better time to learn really with the amount of video channels, apps, websites and resources out there. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 30, 2020 There's a Hatsune Miku guitar pedal and I've never wanted anything more. It's so stupid and I must have it. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 30, 2020 The Miku pedal is hilarious. I've seen numerous videos online where people have tried it and it's just utterly bizarre. Hilarious, but also (and unfortunately) insanely impractical. I want to try it for myself, but definitely won't be purchasing it. This guy turns all of his pedals on at once, and the Miku pedal is in that chain, too. It's around the 8 minute mark. You'll know when it kicks in. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 31, 2020 Don't know how to stretch my little finger to the thickest string (doing that exercise I've mentioned before) without turning my hand/wrist so much that it starts to hurt. I simply can't "just stretch" only my little finger 'cause it's too short. Anybody got some advice? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 31, 2020 4 hours ago, drahkon said: Don't know how to stretch my little finger to the thickest string (doing that exercise I've mentioned before) without turning my hand/wrist so much that it starts to hurt. I simply can't "just stretch" only my little finger 'cause it's too short. Anybody got some advice? Have you got much strength in your little finger? It's commonly the weakest finger amongst guitar players and is normally the one that requires a fair bit of work. It might be worth looking on YouTube for other finger strengthening exercises, like practising scales and using all four of those fingers. Playing notes that stretch your hand across a single string before moving to others, like playing the 5th, 7th, and 9th frets. A song which instantly makes my fingers want to cry is Every Breath You Take by The Police. Look at the tabs/score for that...THAT will alone get your fingers stretched and it's worth building up to that. (there's a stretch in there with the fingers 2nd, 4th, and 6th frets across multiple strings...I can manage this but it's never quite as clean as I want it) Where does the hand/wrist hurt exactly? Could it be a case of thumb placement on the back part of the neck of the guitar, for example? When I struggled with barre chords, I had to look at dozens of videos until I finally felt comfortable with it, so it is worth looking at info from a range of sources. My first thought would be to tackle some major and minor scales as that will use all of your fingers and help you to move comfortably along the fret board (up and down the strings, as well as to different zones of the guitar). I've not got huge hands, but the fingers will eventually stretch, especially that pinky. I can't tell you how valuable scales were to improve with my little finger strength and stretch. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 3, 2020 (edited) On 7/31/2020 at 1:18 PM, Fierce_LiNk said: Have you got much strength in your little finger? I...don't know? Not sure how to "measure" strength I can hold down strings fairly easily, if that's what you mean. On 7/31/2020 at 1:18 PM, Fierce_LiNk said: Where does the hand/wrist hurt exactly? Feels like my entire wrist eventually hurts after that exercise. Can't really point my finger on where exactly the pain's coming from. On 7/31/2020 at 1:18 PM, Fierce_LiNk said: Could it be a case of thumb placement on the back part of the neck of the guitar, for example? Maybe...I know where to put my thumb when I use chords on the first few frets of the neck, but the further down I go the weirder my thumb placement looks like... It's weird, when I do the exercise on the 1st to 4th frets it's so easy, but between the 9th and 12th fret it's much more difficult... Edit: Tried to take some pictures for reference (not sure if it's helpful...quite difficult to take pictures with one hand while the other is handling the guitar ) Spoiler Pretty easy, no pain, thumb is dead center on the back (i.e. between my middle and rind finger). Spoiler This is how far I can stretch my little finger without twisting my wrist to the point it hurts. And if I do twist it, the other fingers also twist in a weird way and the placement is all off. Spoiler Side-view of what my thumb and wrist look like, if I put my little finger on the 12th fret (1st string). This is when it starts to hurt. Edited August 3, 2020 by drahkon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 25, 2020 (edited) Lately I've been thinking I want to pick up an "easy" acoustic instrument. I have an acoustic guitar and a cajon here, but mastering acoustic guitar is quite an effort I don't want to invest time in, and cajon is not really something you play solo. So I've been thinking what would be a nice instrument to pick up that is fairly easy to master. I'm thinking a ukulele could work, as I know basic chords on guitar already (although a ukulele is tuned differently so you would need to relearn chords anyway). Plus it just looks like an awesome little instrument to play. And they are fairly cheap to come by. Anyone here who has experience with ukuleles? Or only with Yooka-Laylee? Edited August 25, 2020 by Vileplume2000 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 25, 2020 On 03/08/2020 at 4:25 PM, drahkon said: I...don't know? Not sure how to "measure" strength I can hold down strings fairly easily, if that's what you mean. Feels like my entire wrist eventually hurts after that exercise. Can't really point my finger on where exactly the pain's coming from. Maybe...I know where to put my thumb when I use chords on the first few frets of the neck, but the further down I go the weirder my thumb placement looks like... It's weird, when I do the exercise on the 1st to 4th frets it's so easy, but between the 9th and 12th fret it's much more difficult... Edit: Tried to take some pictures for reference (not sure if it's helpful...quite difficult to take pictures with one hand while the other is handling the guitar ) Stretching between 1st and 4th fret (Reveal hidden contents) Pretty easy, no pain, thumb is dead center on the back (i.e. between my middle and rind finger). Stretching between 9th and 12th fret (Reveal hidden contents) This is how far I can stretch my little finger without twisting my wrist to the point it hurts. And if I do twist it, the other fingers also twist in a weird way and the placement is all off. Stretching between 9th and 12th fret (with wrist twisted) (Reveal hidden contents) Side-view of what my thumb and wrist look like, if I put my little finger on the 12th fret (1st string). This is when it starts to hurt. Whooops, sorry, I thought I had replied to this bit already! When I mention about the little finger, it's usually the finger that is the weakest amongst people learning how to play guitar or even amongst those who are not beginners. It ranges from person to person, but there are some who mostly use the index and middle quite confidently but then struggle with the ring and little fingers. Or if they put the little finger down, it's more of a struggle to get the right connection, so you get fret buzzing or just not the desired sound. Did you make any progress with this or did it become any easier? It's an odd one, because the sizes of the frets are beginner at the lower end of the neck, so you should almost have the opposite problem. Looks like maybe it's more difficult because your whole arm is closer to your body when by the 9th-12th frets, whereas it's moving away when at the lower frets. Could be a case of the positioning not being comfortable for your arm to begin with and then this is having a knock-on effect with the wrist. If it's still aching, it might be a case of looking at the entire arm closely and making minor adjustments with the arm included until it feels right and comfortable. Sometimes little things can make a bigger difference, like just adjusting the elbow position, minor adjustments with the forearms, finger placement. Sometimes when I'm playing at the higher frets (like on the 17th) I have to adjust myself to get over to that position, but it never quite feels as smooth as it does compared to the 7th fret, for example. It's something that I probably should work at more, myself. 4 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said: Lately I've been thinking I want to pick up an "easy" acoustic instrument. I have an acoustic guitar and a cajon here, but mastering acoustic guitar is quite an effort I don't want to invest time in, and cajon is not really something you play solo. So I've been thinking what would be a nice instrument to pick up that is fairly easy to master. I'm thinking a ukulele could work, as I know basic chords on guitar already (although a ukulele is tuned differently so you would need to relearn chords anyway). Plus it just looks like an awesome little instrument to play. And they are fairly cheap to come by. Anyone here who has experience with ukuleles? Or only with Yooka-Laylee? Acoustic guitar is my least favourite type of guitar. I find the bodies are often too big and cumbersome, sometimes just plain uncomfortable to hold for a prolonged period of time. Not only that, but I find it's harder to get the sound you want out of it and it just seems like a bigger overall effort for minimal gain. I'd like to get a smaller-bodied guitar at some point, or just something that is a bit nicer to hold. I have no experience with ukuleles, but I've just had a look on the Gear4Music website (not sure if you have that in the Netherlands) and there are some sweet models for a pretty reasonable price, imo. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Ukulele-Heritage-Cherry-Sunburst/UFB I mean, that is pretty tempting, tbh. You could probably get models which are just as nice for a lower price than that. There's a bit more of a novelty with that too, since you're more likely to come across an acoustic guitar player than you are a ukulele player. Do it. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 27, 2020 I thought I'd post a picture of my updated pedal board, because it's changed a lot since the start of the thread. The OG pedals were the Morley Wah, the Boss DS-1 and the Boss RC-1. Since then, I've gradually added to it. I decided to get myself a tuning pedal, but I was not keen on spending tons of money on a pedal for that singular purpose. The Donner DT-1 came to around £25 or so, which I think it decent value for money. I like the small build of it, which means that I can tuck it right into the corner of my pedal board without it causing too much of an issue. I bought the TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 Reverb pedal, which I absolutely love and swear by. Such a beautiful sounding pedal and a lovely build. I'm a big fan of it and can't recommend it enough. After that, I think @Eenuh got the Ibanez Tube Screamer for me for Christmas, which has to go down as one of the greatest pedals of all time. It's got such a gorgeous sound to it and offers something a bit different to what else I have on the board. Again, can't recommend that enough. Finally, my most recent edition is the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal. It's an iconic pedal that the Smashing Pumpkins famously used on the Cherub Rock album. It's got such a specific, distinguishable sound that you can recognise it anywhere. It's maybe my favourite pedal on the board, and I just love how it almost snarls at you. Aggressive tone, very meaty. My top row is Overdrive Central. I'm really happy with the way the board has taken shape. It's a little messy with the way that it's set up, as I've got my overdrives on the top and then a regular sized guitar lead that goes from the left side of the Big Muff to the right side of the Hall of Fame 2. I might have to have a think about how to alter things up a little. It's also a bit tight for space. I'd eventually like to get a delay pedal and maybe a volume pedal, but I will most likely need to thing about a second board or ways of adding those on. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 14, 2020 Just seen a Saxaphone on HotUKDeals, should I buy it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 14, 2020 3 hours ago, Happenstance said: Just seen a Saxaphone on HotUKDeals, should I buy it? There's only one answer to that: 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 14, 2020 7 hours ago, Happenstance said: Just seen a Saxaphone on HotUKDeals, should I buy it? I hope that you now have a Saxophone. Howmuchisit? I'm tempted to get a violin at some point. Seems like a beautiful instrument. Not sure how I'd get on with a Saxophone as I've never tried an instrument like that before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 14, 2020 1 minute ago, Fierce_LiNk said: I hope that you now have a Saxophone. Howmuchisit? I'm tempted to get a violin at some point. Seems like a beautiful instrument. Not sure how I'd get on with a Saxophone as I've never tried an instrument like that before. It was £575. I'd never learn to play it, I'd only want it to pose for photos with a lean back while pretending to play it 😆 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 14, 2020 1 minute ago, Happenstance said: It was £575. I'd never learn to play it, I'd only want it to pose for photos with a lean back while pretending to play it 😆 Do it. Then sell the photos to recuperate the cost of the Saxophone, but with added profits. Make it Sax-tember. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 15, 2020 If you do get it, the first (and perhaps only) song you learn to play, has to be the HIGNFY theme tune. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
