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Double Bass Sacrilege - fret lines
- Thread starter John B
- Start date
I am quite willing to go out and find a cat, if someone could tell me what color works best for strings. Calico? Tortoise shell?
There’s really nothing wrong with adding some marks. I’ve seen more than one vintage bass with notches in the neck at the spot that corresponds to the fourth as if the owner dug a marker with his thumbnail.
The problem with marks is that when you play DB you are assumed to be able to play without looking at the neck. Most players need to be able to read charts/scores or follow a leader and still stay in pitch. With that in mind markers are redundant.
But go ahead and do it if you think it will help. I’d just use a little fingernail polish on the side of the neck at the fourth, fifth and twelfth. Fingernail polish comes off easy and is easy to work with.
Chow
The problem with marks is that when you play DB you are assumed to be able to play without looking at the neck. Most players need to be able to read charts/scores or follow a leader and still stay in pitch. With that in mind markers are redundant.
But go ahead and do it if you think it will help. I’d just use a little fingernail polish on the side of the neck at the fourth, fifth and twelfth. Fingernail polish comes off easy and is easy to work with.
Chow
- May 3, 2007
- 1,471
- 1,163
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: D'Addario Strings, Remic Microphones
Thanks honey. I was hoping someone would get us back to Personal Appearance, Hygiene, as well as Wardrobe!
I, my ownself, prefer 100% GRAIN ALCOHOL rather than FP.
You may, as I have, experience a profound and intense awakening, by taking little sips of the substance while you work on your toenails.
Jake deVilliers
Commercial User
- May 24, 2006
- 6,349
- 607
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- Owner of The Bass Spa, String Repairman at Long & McQuade Vancouver
Hey OP, your guitar vocabulary aside, its foolhardy to put permanent position markers on an instrument with a movable bridge.
When you mature as a player and your setup evolves, your bridge will be replaced/shortened/moved and the very expensive permanent lines/dots/fugly pearl inlays will no longer be in the right place.
Far better to put some white-out at 3, 5, 7 & 12 to help you learn the positions. Maybe by the time they wear off you won't need them any more.
When you mature as a player and your setup evolves, your bridge will be replaced/shortened/moved and the very expensive permanent lines/dots/fugly pearl inlays will no longer be in the right place.
Far better to put some white-out at 3, 5, 7 & 12 to help you learn the positions. Maybe by the time they wear off you won't need them any more.
Hey OP, your guitar vocabulary aside, its foolhardy to put permanent position markers on an instrument with a movable bridge.
When you mature as a player and your setup evolves, your bridge will be replaced/shortened/moved and the very expensive permanent lines/dots/fugly pearl inlays will no longer be in the right place.
Far better to put some white-out at 3, 5, 7 & 12 to help you learn the positions. Maybe by the time they wear off you won't need them any more.
Good point. Archtop guitars do have frets, but maybe they don't move their bridges around much.
I was taught how to use the standard Simandl fingering to learn higher notes, and it's probably a better method than relying on tape or white-out. Get half position *down,* which is relatively easy as you can just play Bb major scales and F major scales, using your ear to get better. Then you just slide into 1st position by moving your index finger to where your middle finger was, et voila, your pinky is now a half step higher. Get used to that, then repeat.
More importantly, it teaches you how to move up & down the fingerboard without having to look at it.
Of course, having a marking like tape on there so you can glance when you're playing a passage, and you think the passage sounds wrong, isn't sacrilege. There's a reason your violin teacher did it -- tape is easy, cheap, and very removable.
More importantly, it teaches you how to move up & down the fingerboard without having to look at it.
Of course, having a marking like tape on there so you can glance when you're playing a passage, and you think the passage sounds wrong, isn't sacrilege. There's a reason your violin teacher did it -- tape is easy, cheap, and very removable.
This whole thread is about cheap, easy and removable.
Thankfully, at least for some of us, this doesn't apply to music.
I'm so happy that we're having this discussion because it's never come up before.
Just let me point out the everyone who supported this idea has an electric bass guitar as an Avatar. If you don't know who some of the people advising you to the contrary are, do a search before you pick a side.
In the end, it depends on how you want to learn and how far you want to go with it.
All sarcasm aside, this exact conversation has taken place on these boards no less than 3,417 times. Do a search to read the old threads, they went just about like this one did. I'm guessing in the end, those people picked a direction and went with it too. Might be worth following up with some of them to see what choice they made and how it worked out for them.
By the way, as long as I'm being crabby. THis is the "basses" forum, where we talk about "basses". This sounds like a technique question. Scroll down.
Just let me point out the everyone who supported this idea has an electric bass guitar as an Avatar. If you don't know who some of the people advising you to the contrary are, do a search before you pick a side.
In the end, it depends on how you want to learn and how far you want to go with it.
All sarcasm aside, this exact conversation has taken place on these boards no less than 3,417 times. Do a search to read the old threads, they went just about like this one did. I'm guessing in the end, those people picked a direction and went with it too. Might be worth following up with some of them to see what choice they made and how it worked out for them.
By the way, as long as I'm being crabby. THis is the "basses" forum, where we talk about "basses". This sounds like a technique question. Scroll down.
I have to say this is certainly an entertaining thread. I once got blasted for saying fret board. I begged forgiveness for it and I think you all forgave me? But the truth of the matter is it would be better to learn without markings. I think it may have slowed me down. Eventually I got a tuner that is meant for horns. It reads very quickly so I was able to watch while I played scales to get the intonation right on the money. Now it has become effortless to stay on the notes. I did however set 2 small dots on the side to keep the notes right (for bluegrass festivals) when the alcohol in flowing and I need a little visual -if I can see-. It also helps around a campfire in the dark of night.
How dry I am!
How dry I am!
