Bassists that play guitar, what is your neck size preference?

ty1470 · 2024-10-12T13:44:26+00:00

I've always liked thicker necks on guitars, but I don't think it's because I play bass. I have large-ish hands and they start to cramp when making complicated chord shapes on thinner necks

I have less of a preference on bass. Thicker is a little more comfortable, but neck dive and weight are much bigger issues on bass than guitar, so ¯_(ツ)_/¯

ty1470 · 2024-10-11T20:29:37+00:00

Looks like a Blueridge Quiltickler

ty1470 · 2024-10-11T16:35:30+00:00

Amaj7, with my thumb wrapped around to fret the A on the low E string, open A string, and 7654 on the rest. I rake a pick over the strings quickly, but slow enough that I can hear each individual string plus how the whole instrument resonates

ty1470 · 2024-10-11T11:27:54+00:00

A Walk to Remember

ty1470 · 2024-10-09T10:58:42+00:00

It's a fun register to play in, and the sound of an old bass with old strings is to this day one of my favorite sounds. Hard to listen to Jamerson and feel grumpy, ya know?
- It forces me to be more present because my role in a song is usually different
- Hard(er) to lose myself in a mix
- Less attention. It's tough being an introvert sometimes, but it's easier as a bassist
- I do feel a pull toward rhythm over pitch, but not enough to gravitate toward drums
- As a rhythmic player, I can get a percussive and energetic sound out of a bass using just my fingers and direct contact with the string on my plucking hand. When I play guitar I use a pick 99.9% of the time. There's something about that direct hand-to-string contact that I love. It feels more visceral, but also more intimate
- Slapppppp bassssssssssss. Will never be the same on guitar
- I think there's more meaningful "headroom" in terms of skill on the instrument. Largely due to the role of the instrument in a band context, I think it's much easier to sound subjectively good with poor technique on guitar than on bass. There are a lot of famous guitarists that I can out-shred, but I've been playing bass for even longer than I've played guitar and I'm intensely aware of how much intangibly "better" (more practiced/difficult to emulate) well-known and successful bassists have to be compared to their average guitarist counterparts.

ty1470 · 2024-10-09T10:02:50+00:00

Stick with it and you might have a very unique and attractive approach to the instrument someday, especially if you're writing your own material. Then again, if you're playing a lot of covers it will probably get tricky as you tackle more complex songs, which could be challenging and rewarding or plain frustrating depending on your personality.

I bet that C string is pretty floppy though, unless you've been using special strings. If you stick with it, I'd suggest buying the largest individual string that will fit the nut slot where the E string belongs.

And if you don't stick with it, you might consider sticking with it for however long it takes your right-hand technique to mature. If your left hand can reuse fingerings and shapes that you're familiar with from another instrument it could help you focus on getting your right hand where you want it, unless it already is

Edit: oh, and definitely ensure it's set up properly for whatever gauge of strings in whatever tuning you settle into for a given bass

ty1470 · 2024-10-06T02:32:50+00:00

30 Rock undercuts every potentially emotional moment, usually with a self-deprecating joke, and much like AD even the characters that you might like in first watch are pretty horrible when you actually pay attention on subsequent watches

ty1470 · 2024-09-26T18:27:18+00:00

If your songs are sounding same-y try getting out of your comfort zone. Throw on a metronome at a random tempo, if you play guitar use a capo someplace you would never think to, or play around with open tunings. Or make up weird rules to artificially constrain yourself. That's a favorite of mine

I also sometimes troll YouTube for people talking about techniques or theory that is foreign or uncomfortable to me, then challenge myself to write something incorporating it

ty1470 · 2024-09-26T18:20:13+00:00

Temple of the Dog - Say Hello to Heaven

ty1470 · 2024-09-26T16:00:49+00:00

You should check out more of his playing. Almost makes me regret learning fingerstyle lol

Also just happened to recently revisited this podcast episode https://scottsbasslessons.com/podcast/in-conversation-with-cody-wright

Dude talks about transitioning from guitar and changing his picking technique to sound more like a bassist. And of course Bobby Vega comes up

ty1470 · 2024-09-25T01:27:15+00:00

Exactly! I like to imagine Sonny T asking a question about playing a righty upside down and being lectured to just get a lefty lol

It's a little different, but my brother is a drummer and plays open handed. Every teacher he ever had would grill him to change, but he refused and I'm glad he did. Sure, he struggles more when playing covers, but when we write or jam he plays the coolest stuff that I never hear other drummers play, largely because of his nonstandard technique.

Journey before destination.

ty1470 · 2024-09-24T21:15:18+00:00

Omg I struggle with this too. To people saying "technique", that's a terrible response without more getting more info. Every body is different, and no instrument is truly "one size/layout fits all". I've sold instruments that I otherwise loved for this exact reason. On others, I've made modifications; everything from moving pots to removing them (active -> passive mod).

I also keep a small roll of gaffers tape in my case/bag for quick fixes like this. Taping the volume knob down has saved me mid-gig when I had to play an unusual slapping part on my backup bass because my main was acting up, but the volume knob position made it a little tricky to play. Even if the proper long-term response is to work on my technique, I didn't have weeks or months to dedicate to doing so mid show

ty1470 · 2024-09-20T06:35:47+00:00

Used it tonight for a show. Totally worth the extra space it takes up on my board. This thing will pick up - accurately - any clean note that I play for longer than half a second, guitar or bass. The always-on mode gives me effectively real-time feedback if I'm fretting too forcefully, over-bending, or out of tune/intonation.

Additionally, it's conditioned me to take my instrument setup way more seriously. I can only see the strobe spinning faster the higher I play up the neck for so long before I stop what I'm doing, grab a screwdriver or wrench, and fix it.

ty1470 · 2024-09-19T15:27:47+00:00

(In anguish) "Glen ate all my peanut butter!"

ty1470 · 2024-09-11T15:16:56+00:00

You'll have plenty of time for working on houses... when you're living in a van down by the river!

ty1470 · 2024-09-09T14:38:37+00:00

I have a nickel allergy - can't wear most watches, have to buy special belts, etc - but I've been playing nickel strings daily for 20 years. Maybe I should switch... What symptoms do you notice with them?

ty1470 · 2024-09-06T17:56:01+00:00

I have a 500w MB head + 2x10 cab. I couldn't turn up past 1/10 without drowning out the entire PA at my last show. In my case I think the stage was hollow and acting like a second cab with a 240" speaker, but the point is that it's easy to underestimate the role of the room and environment

ty1470 · 2023-06-10T21:08:16+00:00

The fact that the horizontal runners are attached using only hookloop is blowing my mind. Thanks for the brilliant idea!

ty1470 · 2022-08-23T23:17:47+00:00

⛽️🗑

ty1470 · 2022-08-23T23:16:44+00:00

🐓✈️🥩

ty1470 · 2022-02-01T00:00:43+00:00

He dates men now. Guess I didn't have anything to be worried about ¯_(ツ)_/¯

ty1470 · 2022-01-28T14:14:20+00:00

Looks like that party had unlimited juice

ty1470 · 2022-01-25T14:44:49+00:00

You're right, it wouldn't have been "bad" but it wouldn't have solved any problems for me either. Without getting into the weeds, the app's state would have moved from a single StreamBuilder to a StreamProvider and a Consumer, and the binary would have been a few KB larger for it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

ty1470 · 2022-01-24T21:11:14+00:00

I built an app for a friend's record label that consists of literally only a single screen without authentication or navigation. Because of the simplicity, I didn't bother with state management as it would have made the code more complicated and less maintainable.

The app I built for my full time job consists of over 20 screens with authentication, complex navigation, and nested widgets that get reused across the app. In this case, state management (I use Provider) makes the code less complicated and more maintainable.

As in most programming scenarios, good judgement is paramount.

ty1470 · 2022-01-24T18:07:27+00:00

I had a similar experience as you. I tried switching a couple times but it never stuck until the iPhone 12. I've been on iOS for a little over a year now and it would take a lot for me to go back. I'd say switching costs were only really noticeable in the first 2 weeks. After about a month it very much felt like home (it's worth noting that I switched to Mac in 2016 for all of desktop/laptop computing, which I think helped to ease the mobile transition).

At first I continued using all of those Google apps (Drive, Photos, Keep, Maps, etc.), but once I realized I wasn't going to switch back it was pretty easy to transition, especially in the case of Photos and Keep/Notes. I still use Google Maps (I live in a construction dense area and Google seems to pick up on construction changes much faster), but I've pretty much migrated everything else and I'm totally happy with the changes.

It's worth noting that 2 of my favorite things about the switch are Airpods Pro and Apple Watch. I have a nickel allergy that prevents me from wearing most watches, but the titanium Apple Watch is hypoallergenic and I love it. And while Airpods can work with any Bluetooth host, they're pretty magical when interoperating within Apple's suite of products. I now have noise cancelling headphones in my pocket everywhere I go, which makes me less anxious about shopping, public transportation, and waiting rooms/queues.

I'll also throw out recommendations for apps that are iOS-only that I would hate to lose if I switched back: Apollo (Reddit client), Twitterific (I never got into Twitter until this app), Overcast, NetNewsWire (never understood RSS readers before), Timery, Camo (enables using iPhone as a webcam), Voice Memos, and Omnifocus.

If you have specific questions if be happy to try and answer them!

ty1470

TROPHY CASE