Here is what we are waiting for – convertible bass from Mikey Guitar. Just one move of hand and it converts from fretted to fretless and vice versa.
The main idea is rotating fret. Manufacturer promises that bass is reliable and durable including conversion mechanism.
… stress test was setup. The mechanism was hooked up between two solenoids and driven back and forth. A counter kept track of the cycles. The “clack clack” sound of the solenoids drove everyone nuts but, over the course of 8 weeks, the mechanism was cycled 1,000,581 times. That’s the equivalent of 20 back and forth switches a day for about 137 years. The result…
NO SIGNS OF WEAR. Needless to say, we’re happy.
Unfortunately it is available to “test drive” in Toronto, Canada only.
If you are still not in a band – here is great site with open mikes listings. Every place accompanied by comments, maps and links to homepage. Nice resource for bandless musicians and musicians at all.
This is repost from my old blog, but I think it will be useful here.
This week I asked on talkbass.com about sitting position. Today I’ve reviewed several videos and here is answer of bass pros.
All of them (except Gary Willis. He keeps bass on central position) use right leg.
Recently I bought my first 6-stringer – Brice HXB-406 with bubinga finish. First of all – this is very decent bass for $310 (with S&H). Two-trussrod neck is very nice and comfortable, electronics is not too loud, but sounds great. Hardware is perfect and guitar stays in tune all the time. Well, you have to expect bass for this price. I mean – stock strings are crap and setup wasn’t perfect. But I think this is all complaints. New Labella strings are on the way, and 1/4 turn for both trussrods solved all my complaints about setup.
The sound… Great sustain and whole-range sound – this is what HXB-406 is. B-string sounds great and not floppy, thanks to 35″ scale. The only one sound I cannot get – P-bass one. But I solve this problem with Korg PX4B or Hartke Bass Attack. I didn’t try to tweak it on amp yet, because I don’t have one – I’m using PA or amp on rehearsal studio – still looking for great one.
About scale and transition. Well, I used to play Yamaha RXB170 (great inexpensive bass too) 4-string with 34″ scale. One week is almost passed and I feel that transition is over (about 12 hours of practice total). Well, some stretches are still not perfect, but at all – I’m ready for today rehearsal with my new toy The weight of Brice is a little bit more than my Yamaha, but I cannot complaint about it with my 5″ wide leather strap (I wrote already about them) and my 6’8″ and 300lb
Also be careful with strings selection. You need “Super Long” or “Extra Long” one. 35″ scale plus strings-thru-body makes all “Long” 6-strings sets unusable, but you can found wide selection of strings on JustStrings.com. I didn’t received my LaBella one, but I can confirm that DAddario “Long” doesn’t fit.
So, it sounds great, it plays great and it looks great. Here is myself with just unpacked Brice.
You can purchase Brice and SX basses on RondoMusic.net. Click on “Bass Guitars” and select “6 string” on the top. Handling was less than 24 hours. Shipping was lighting fast. UPS estimated 7 days, but I’ve got my bass 4 days earlier . Bass was double-boxed, had tuning wrenches and was carefully packed. Great seller.
If you are looking for cheap gig bag – musiciansfriend.com TODAY ONLY gives away Musicians Friend Leather Trim Bass Gig Bag for $9.99 + shipping (street $39.99). Ratings are about 8.5. Just ordered one for myself.
StudyBass.com is another site with online bass lessons. All articles are well illustrated and cover wide range of topics. There are lessons about basics, bass technique, reading music, practicing, common bass patterns, rhythm, intervals, bass scales and bass chord patterns. Every beginner or intermediate player could find there something new.
No irreversible modifications except nut filing. Easy and fast. If you don’t want to invest into “Mobius Megatar” but want to try – all recommendations looks reasonable.
One of my big influences to become bassist was Anatoliy Krupnov and his thrash band “Black Obelisk“. There are plenty of articles written about Anatoliy and history of “Black Obelisk” you can read on their site. Here is just random set of videos with this great bassist. All of his bass lines, fast or slow, complex or simple always perfect from first note till last one. He had He died in 1997 from heart attack in the studio while recording his solo album. Black Obelisk died with him. Right now Black Obelisk up from the ash and their “Green Album” is more like progressive metal than thrash one. Very professional and musical album.
Everyone knows “Primus”, but only some people know “…I Drug Moj Gruzovik” (… and My Friend Truck) band from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Band was founded by bass player and drummer of funk-band “M.F.Launch” at 1997. They found vocals – Anton “Gruzovik” (Truck) to take part in festival “Karier” (Quarry). Since then Anton is author of all lyrics. From first rehearsals they start to play minimalistic bass’n'drum music without any style limitations – symbiosis of acid-jazz, funk, grunge, hip-hop, post-punk, city and country folk. At August 23th 1997 they had first gig on “Karier” where they had great success. Since then they had plenty of gigs in the clubs and festivals in the Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Israel and many other countries in Europe. They had a lot of interviews on radio and TV on web sites, magazines and newspapers. Right now they have 3 CDs and all songs there are the best. Every song is the hit. Every song is unique and you want to listen it over and over again.
Music of this group has very organic symbiosis of bass and drums. Bass lines has a lot of tapping, harmonics and chords on overdriven bass. Sometimes those lines are simple, sometimes – very complex. Rostislav (bass) never publish tabs of his songs – looks like they never exists.
Here is members of this amazing band:
Rostislav Chaban – bass, vocals
Yuri “Zhigarev-96″ – drums
Anton Antonov – microphone
You definitely have to take a look on those videos I’ve found on YouTube. Unfortunately their site has no English translation and you cannot order CD there to US or any other country or buy MP3 without account on WebMoney. This is very unhandy, but if I’ll have enough requests I can try to ask them to use PayPal or something else more suitable for US listener.
