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There are a lot of folks who start their TalkBass tenure with "Hey uh I used to play, then I had a family, now the kids are grown up and what the hay I thought I'd give this another shot." I'm on my way to writing one of those posts in twenty years. Working overtime in retail, finally got a...

One of several reasons I don't learn to play jazz is that I don't know how to start exploring it. Whether on Talkbass, a search engine, youtube or otherwise, using the terms 'jazz' and 'bass' in a query will get you loads of results, but not the results we're looking for just now. What terms...

Let's see if I can keep this in a reasonably small nutshell. I'm a roundwounds guy. 5 strings are non-negotiable. And there's no tone in the world more authoritative, more rock & roll, more monstrous to my ear than a P-style with rounds. The tone I have in mind there is captured perfectly in my...

With 3 EQ knobs and a pickup blend, I rely a lot on the detents to keep a sort of home base. And there's the active/passive switch that turns the 100% tone knob into a "blast the highs!!!" treble boost in one direction, or the flat treble into a 50% tone knob in the other direction. I just keep...

I'm pretty comfortable with rounds. They make sense to me, they work the way I expect expect. But my (admittedly limited) history with flats is that they just sound like neutered rounds. I haven't found whatever it is you all have that inspires such romance in the way we talk about flats on a p...

Mostly a bedroom player here, but realized recently that I have two pretty solid basses and don't know which to bring if the need arises. Either one would work, but I felt the need to get a real reliable, fit-the-bill, look and sound professional workhorse bass. Picked out a goal, then realized...

Seems like I remember there being a "Man, the BB73_ QC is really having issues lately" discussion at some point. Was that real? And was it resolved? Prices went up again today, which pushes me more toward going used. But I don't love thinking of getting one from a period of janky instruments...

A while back, I realized that the old dream was still alive, and I needed to go ahead and start saving for that Schecter Hellraiser C-VI. While in that process, I discovered a Sire V7 that has an aesthetic I've been hunting for years that would bring me so much joy to own and play. Then it...

I generally just prefer passive, but once in a while I miss the utility of being active. So, active circuit with a passive switch, right? But I'm getting wary of "best of both worlds" stuff nowadays. Like coil splitting gives you humbuckers AND single coil tones!! ...but it doesn't really...

Bridge pickup is obviously their version of a MM pickup. But all the MM basses I see have either an H or an HH arrangement, no HS pairings. I've checked out some tone demos, and the Z7's single coil in the neck sounds murderous (though apparently unbalanced with the humbucker). I'm not sure I...

I know I'm not going to master a genre with ten songs, but it's a start. Just something to see what's usually expected of a bass player in this arena. I can jam along to rock or country, but I would have no idea what to do in church. And I'd like to be at least a little bit ready if the need...

I don't know what to think about this world full of copies and knock offs. But I do know Hagström doesn't make a Super Swede fiver. And that's a rough truth. I just think they look so, so doggone classy. And they're neckthrough. And they're Swedish (heja Sverige!). I can live without the last...

I've done my own setups almost from the beginning, and it always goes pretty well. Just did one on my new bass and it shocked me how well it plays now. Except it buzzes on the first fret of the E and A strings [also has a B string, but no buzz there]. Made me think, my electric guitar buzzes on...

Took a Sire P5 into a luthier because I couldn't find a white pearloid pickguard anywhere online. Got the bass back today with the pickguard I wanted, but I plugged it in and discovered both knobs now control the volume, and I don't have any tone control. It also kinda feels like the tone is...

Looking into these lately. I know it's gimmicky, but doggone it I think I'd like one. But as I listen to demos of various models, it seems like the low E string on many of them is considerably quieter than the other strings. I have a U-Bass like that, and it makes the otherwise thrilling...

I've read a few discussions about picking that include a sentiment like "If you want the down stroke sound, but need alternate picking speed, practice until you can't tell the difference between up strokes and down strokes." I can see the wisdom, but how? Practice what? Is it just a matter of...

I got some new headphones, Sennheiser 280. Their cable is coiled, which I think is nice, but the coil is pretty stiff right now. I assume it'll loosen up and become easier to move around with after being used a while. Is there a way to expedite that process without breaking anything?

I'll be recording and mixing my first album in the next few weeks. Pretty excited, and learning a lot of things pretty successfully. But I get hung up on the bit where everybody says, "When you're mixing vocals, x y and z are bad frequencies, and a b c are good frequencies." I can see where...

I live in a small town where some folks rely on firewood for heat, and I'll often join the volunteers in gathering/cutting/splitting wood for them. Turns out I really enjoy grabbing a maul and splitting wood! Very zen, and a pleasant way to get a workout. But if I do it for a long time or too...

Yooo, VIC-tor! You can't hold no groove if you got too much stuff in your pockets so your bass won't sit right! Or something like that. Guitars and basses are generally carved to allow the instrument to rest on your leg when sitting, putting everything into a comfortable, ergonomic position...

The vast majority of my playing time has always been unplugged, unamplified. I have an embarrassingly low level of skill in setting EQ and such, just because I so rarely get to do it. Anyway, plugged in yesterday and tried playing some chord melody stuff. Unplugged, it sounds great. Amplified...

Got a toddler. He's fascinated with the input jack on my amp. Hasn't put any crayons in it yet, but he messes with it a lot, shoving the cable in and out, and I expect further experiments are inevitable. Is there any accessory or any common strategy for protecting one's input and output jacks...

As a teenager, my friend was well along the path of classical piano training, and she had worn out, sensitive fingers to show for it. I got into guitar/bass and saw a lot of stuff about how training your fingers to get stronger is a terrible impossibility and will only result in damaged tendons...

I've got a Peavey VYPYR 2. I was looking into headphone amps, and it finally hit me that the Peavey has aux out, aux in, effects, all sorts of things that I'm looking for in this new tool. The only issue is that when I play through headphones, it's real easy to turn my head and yank the cable...

"So versatile! Well built! Made by ____ so you know it's good! *reads spec sheet* Great for beginners or pros! Blues, rock, jazz, folk, metal, you name it! Boy, what a great piece of gear!" Is there anybody out there who offers real, actual, helpful reviews? Something I can go through and know...

I find plenty of "reviews" of people reading off the spec sheet, and a few conversations here that are mostly just arguing about wattage. Anybody actually played one enough by now to offer a solid rundown? I've played one in store just enough to find out the straight tones are lovely. If...

Been reading an awful lot of "The Truck Book" to my little buddy lately, learning all about the different sorts of trucks and the jobs they help people do. Good times. Started wondering if there isn't some children's book out there about musical stuff. "This is John. John plays rhythm guitar...

A fascinating bunch of chords and melody throughout, but I'm especially trying to make sense of the part that comes (among other places) at the end of the chorus, e.g.: I've finally decided my future lies ~~~~~~~~~ beyond the Yellow Brick Roooooad ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...

Listening to ABBA recently, and marvelling at Björn's lyrical boldness. Super Trouper, for instance, a song about "I hate touring and I'm freaking tired of singing for you people." Major hit, people loved it. "Thank You for the Music" starts with making his bandmate and soon-to-be-ex wife...

We're at my sister's house for Christmas. I'm trying to focus, but somehow I just keep getting distracted and thinking about a Peavey T40.

Once upon a time I was decent at Swedish, but it's pretty rusty now. So I thought, hey, I watch enough gear videos, maybe somebody makes them in Swedish, and I could use that as a tool to freshen up! Initial YouTube search efforts just yielded a bunch of random English videos with a few...

The combo part is easy enough: I like simplicity. One box, boom, done. But I'm still working through the other bit. Whenever the question of a new amp comes into mind, I think to myself, "Okay, step one, we can narrow it down to 2x10s." Realized recently that I have no idea how I got that in...

I've got an acoustic baritone guitar. It was real inexpensive, but it's been a great instrument for several years. With each successive string change, more pins feel more loose in their holes. Changed them a week ago and got everything set with some real effort and coordination, but the guitar...

Had my first baby and was afraid to play plugged in for a few months, then moved to another state (similar climate) and haven't had the chance to play even unplugged until recently. Finally did, and yowza, what a buzz that thing's developed! It's a Dean Edge Pro 5, active electronics, EMG...

I've got a song in mind to write that's one vocalist essentially recounting a conversation. I keep imagining I've heard music like this, but I can't think of any examples. A bit of research and the closest I've found was George Thorogood's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" which was a...

I like single coils. I like dual coils more. I like split coils. Stands to reason I might like split dual coils, like a doubled Precision pickup, even more. Surely I'm not the first person to wonder about this, but I've never heard of it, and my searches just return a lot of filler results...

Most of it I can do if I run through the various licks a few times beforehand, get 'em under my fingers and all that. Not especially easy, but I can do it well enough. Then there's that bit that starts around 2:35 in this video. It's just a quick trip down the pentatonic, super simple, but heck...

It sort of feels like a cross-over between solo bass playing, which I want to be good at, and normal "in a band" bass playing which I feel obligated to be good at [the rest of the band kicks in around 40 sec]. So practicing this song has been a lot of fun, thought maybe y'all could recommend...

I always get stuck on this. I was never a gambling man, and dropping $1000+ on parts for something that might end up playing/sounding/looking like garbage isn't really something I'm in a position to do. But spending that on something that I'll almost certainly love, yeah, I can do that. So I'm...

My handwriting is often fine and very legible, if a little casual. Occasionally it's way out there with random lines being way too long, circles unclosed, everything at the wrong angle. Usually it's somewhere in between. Basically, I can be good, but when I set pen to paper I never actually know...