Forum menu
Double post sorry!
Plenty of ( mostly accurate ) tutorials for things in YouTube with the tab on screen.( Use the settings icon to slow playback down)
working stuff out by ear is a good way of improving your playing too. Check out the Moises app. It lets you separate songs (for free) into separate guitar /bass / drums & vocal tracks. You can then individually adjust their volume and slow down playback to isolate the bass to learn then mute it to have a backin* track to play along with!
I always get offered Ultimate Guitar when I search for particular bass tabs, but I prefer Songsterr. The layout is often more understandable and seems, to me, more accurate.
I've been trying to develop my ear a bit too, so that Moises suggestion looks good. I've been using Chord Ai to tell me what chords are being played in tunes - it can listen from YT, Spotify etc, so its been useful for learning the fretboard and training my ear.
sorry, was stuck n p14, hadnt realised the thread had moved on a page.
just had a look at moises and muted everything but the bass, but i think at this stage id need the tabs to work things out. ive had a cursory glance at UG and songster, and am currently just practising 7 nation army and the billy ocean track that was kindly linked to on the last page to try and sort my 2 finger strumming.
current things on my list to improve are muting, i seem to have a constant buzz from unplayed strings, and (micro)shifting as my hands/fingers just arent as long and spidery as the ones i watch on the videos so i need to move my hand up and down the fretboard more than most 😀 i also dont seem to be naturally able to place the little finger on the E string. maybe its my 60 year old flexibility/dexterity but i seem to be struggling with that and dont have that natural hand placement with thumb lightly on the middle at the back, floating around.
still havent signed up to bassbuzz yet altho i will. got 5 days at work from tomorrow so limited practice time so i WILL sign up on wednesday on my first day off. i dont spose it matters that much as its lifetime membership with a 6 month refund policy if i dont get on with it, just seems uneconomical to pay up and then have 5 days wasted.
cheers
Your pinkie will be virtually useless at first. You just need to use it. I've been working on it quite a lot lately, so running through scales and making a point of using it when playing songs. It's still rubbish, but better than it was.
A few things here.........
Don’t get to hung up about the “one finger per fret” thing - look at top class bass players in the real world and none of them do that religiously. As long as you can use all of your fretting hand fingers if you need to then do whatever is most efficient for you.
Step away from on-line tutorials, downloadable tab etc for a bit and just listen to a few of your favourite tunes and mentally transcribe and learn them by ear. How do you think we managed 40 or 50 years ago, without all the stuff that’s out there now? If I’m learning a new song/tune the most important thing is for me to hear it enough times, and be familiar enough with it, to sing that bassline (out loud or just in my head, it makes no difference). Because if I can’t hear something in my head then how can I play it? Conversely, if I have a melody/sequence of notes/whatever in my head, then I can play it. It’s called ear training and this is the most useful and valuable thing to devote time to, because in the real world this is what will serve you well when you’re called upon to play material that is unfamiliar to you.
Think of a simple melody - it doesn’t have to be a bassline, it could be “Happy Birthday to You”, and then try and play it and see how far your sense of pitch and intervals will take you - the more you do it, with different melodies, is the better you get at it.
Being a bass player, in the holistic sense of the words, is about knowing where you sit, how what you do affects everyone emotionally (in the band, the audience and oneself), how one person (me, say) playing that particular A natural won’t be the same as, for example Tony Levin or Jack Bruce or Jeff Berlin playing it - there’s so much that’s non-definitive, that’s subjective, that’s just part of you (whoever you might be.....).
Or you might, as you are free to do, dismiss all of this as the ramblings of some geriatric who, given that he was playing long before most of you were born, should have been shot long ago, or at least had his basses ( never refer to them as guitars, btw) forcibly removed. It’s why I always considered myself a shite teacher, although my students seemed to disagree - we’d end up discussing how to make the perfect curry or something - it’s like “Zen and the Art of Playing Bass”.
Step away from on-line tutorials, downloadable tab etc for a bit and just listen to a few of your favourite tunes and mentally transcribe and learn them by ear.
It’s called ear training and this is the most useful and valuable thing to devote time to, because in the real world this is what will serve you well when you’re called upon to play material that is unfamiliar to you.
been doing that today with blitzkrieg bop and 7 nation army. i saw tabs that had them all on one string, so thought id work out what the notes were on the next string too to keep hand movements to a minimum. had some success by the end of the day, but my follow up question to that is...... how do i know what 'key/chord' to play it in? ok say ive worked out a passable blitzkreig bop starting with an open E string and utilising the A string too, but what if i play it at a jam/with mates and the guitarist says "no, that needs to be in A minor" or suchlike? how do i know the actual notes that dee dee ramone played?
Or you might, as you are free to do, dismiss all of this as the ramblings of some geriatric who, given that he was playing long before most of you were born, should have been shot long ago, or at least had his basses ( never refer to them as guitars, btw) forcibly removed. It’s why I always considered myself a shite teacher,
id be a fool to dismiss your advice as the ramblings of a geriatric/shite teacher 😀
i appreciate the advice, thank you.
EDIT: i also spent a fair bit of time trying to get used to the major scale pattern, and hand movements for the '1 finger per fret' for the 1st four frets on each string and then back again. im a long way from being able to do those without plonking the wrong string or using the wrong finger :D. i also struggle co-ordinating all of this with alternate 2 finger plucking. if i concentrate on the frets i find ive been mainly using one finger. concentrate on the fingers and i balls up the frets/strings.....
i added an edit to the last post which doesnt show after a few minutes of refreshing so ill post it as a new post.....
EDIT: i also spent a fair bit of time trying to get used to the major scale pattern, and hand movements for the '1 finger per fret' for the 1st four frets on each string and then back again. im a long way from being able to do those without plonking the wrong string or using the wrong finger :D. i also struggle co-ordinating all of this with alternate 2 finger plucking. if i concentrate on the frets i find ive been mainly using one finger. concentrate on the fingers and i balls up the frets/strings.....
I start every practise session with 5 mins of finger stretches and there is an exercise called "the spider walk" which I see more guitar instructor videos mention than bass videos, but it is equally as applicable which I also spent 5 mins on for the first few months, and still do once or twice a week. They really help without worrying about being musical, although for the spider walk you do still have to try and fret correctly and not lift the fingers away from the string too much.
Doing that, also with alternate finger plucking just meant I didn't have to think much about my plucking and fretting technique any where near as much when I then moved onto the more musical part of practice.
Also have a look at Justin guitar, he has a good short video or two about building a routine, rather than just "noodling" which I think helps keep focussed on need to learn rather aimless practice, which worked for me especially those first few months.
but my follow up question to that is...... how do i know what 'key/chord' to play it in? ok say ive worked out a passable blitzkreig bop starting with an open E string and utilising the A string too, but what if i play it at a jam/with mates and the guitarist says "no, that needs to be in A minor" or suchlike? how do i know the actual notes that dee dee ramone played?
Two or three parts to this, and firstly a congratulations for finding the intervals or pattern that the song follows. That's a sign that your "ear" is working.
Part 2. I assume if you're playing it on the E string and using the A string then you're playing open E (E), open A (A) and fret 2 on the A string (B) during the main part of the song. This means that you've got the shape of the chord progression which is E major, A Major and B Major. The names of the chords aren't important at this stage because what you've identified by ear is that the second chord (or note) is a fourth above the main (root or tonic) chord and the third note you use is a fifth above the root. This means that the chord progression is a 1-4-5.
Now try playing the same pattern on the open A string (A) the open D string (D) and the second fret D string (E) Your ear will tell you it's the same sound (chord progression) only in a different key, which is now A major.
Just to seal it in your mind, play the same progression on the open D string (D) open G string (G) and fret 2 G string (A) again, the riff or progression sounds the same only higher?
Next, and this bit will, if I can explain it clearly, open up the hundreds if not thousands of songs which use that same 1-4-5 progression.
Listen to Blitzkrieg Bop and play different notes on the E string until you realise (by ear) that you're playing the same note as the bass. You'll discover that one of those notes sounds the same and you will have identified the root or Key- the 1 chord. You know from the pattern you found above, that the next note is a fourth higher (4 chord) and all you did to find that was to play the same fret (open) on the string above. So this time, simply move your fretting finger to the same fret on the next string up and you'll find that 4 chord. Next, you discovered the fifth note (5 chord) was two frets higher than the open 4 chord, so simply fret the note two frets up from the 4.
That's a lot to digest, but persevere! I'm not going to spoil your fun by telling you which note he actually starts on, but if you get it and recognise that vital 1-4-5 pattern shout up and we'll get more into playing the same riff in different keys as a pattern.
When it comes to giving advice on how to learn bass, I realise that if I were a tutor I’d be in the valley of despair! Thankfully as a bassist and songwriter I’m happily climbing the endless slope of enlightenment.
Victor Wooten has some good philosophy on music - stop practising, just play! We don’t practice speaking, we just try speaking and eventually we learn how to do it.
However, if you’re finding the two hands confusing, separate what you’re doing - do the alternating fingers on loads of 8th note roots so your left hand is hardly moving. Figure that out on one string and then start moving across more strings. Frequent repetition is the key.
All the advice above is great. Cheers to everyone who has contributed. As a beginner, I'm trying to absorb it all.
As for playing by ear, a pal suggested this one for me and I actually worked it out!
Sitting on G during, 4th fret (B I think?), ty to work out the main riff from "blister in the sun". Hint - it's only three separate notes.
Learning by ear is a really important skill that teaches you things a dry tab won’t. Even if you have the tab for something it’s much easier to learn if you can actually hear how the phrase sounds……
Just on the Moises audio track splitting thing, indulge me a little….
I’m primarily a guitarist but bought a squier bronco bass and a fender rumble amp a few months ago on a whim and I’ve been really enjoying playing it as something different to do. I think Mike Mills bass lines in the early REM stuff is really good & Driver 8 is a fave song of mine.
It turns out a lot of the tab and “lessons” on YouTube are wrong ( if you listen to the isolated bass tracks ) so I used Moises to work it out then thought I could maybe use the app to play the vocal and drum tracks then “multitrack” myself playing the guitar and bass parts…
There’s a “proper” way of doing this with garage band I'm sure but it came out ok I think….
I agree with you about the dryness of tabs. Bass is quite a lot about groove and feel, and the freely available tabs are all the creators opinion about whats being played and can be inaccurate, but also have no way to impart that feel. I tended to use them more earlier on in my "journey" but am trying to train my ear more nowadays. Just as I did when I taught myself to play drums when I was 15!
As for playing by ear, a pal suggested this one for me and I actually worked it out!
Sitting on G during, 4th fret (B I think?), ty to work out the main riff from "blister in the sun". Hint - it's only three separate notes.
That's fun! And lots to go at from a practice point of view. It teaches a number of technique points as well. Firstly, you can play the intro riff all on the G string, so open(G), fret 4 (B)and fret 5 (C). But after the intro the riff plays an octave lower, so test your fretboard knowledge and find the riff an octave down. Hint: you can't play it like you did on any open strings!
So before you puzzle that out, find the G on the D string at fret 5 . Fret that with your middle finger. The next two notes remain the same as before, ie frets 4 and 5 on the G string. Now you have the same three notes as you did with the open G, but you're now playing a riff that hops between two strings. Fret the B (fret4) with your index finger and the C (5) either with your middle finger or your ring finger- trial and error will determine which works best for you.
Once you've done that, you're all set to play the riff an octave lower using the G on the E string and the B and C on the A string. Another example of how useful repeated patterns are.
@sadexpunk
This might help with your two finger practice also
/span>
This is also an interesting example of the importance of timing! Whoever is playing that cover manages about two bars of being in time, then they push too far ahead of the beat, then get roughly back in the pocket, then they push ahead again and now I’ve reached the point of grimacing like when the audience on Strictly can’t clap in time and can’t bear listening to any more!
I presume they’re a beginner bassist and haven’t figured out that the way to keep in the groove when playing fewer notes is to subdivide the groove. So with a shuffle like that I’m not feeling “dum dum dum dum” for each bar, I’m feeling “dum ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum ba-“, so the quarter notes are subdivided into shuffled eighths.
It’s a good tune for hardly ever changing string, but don’t try to copy their feel! (Don’t feel bad if you can’t hear this timing issue, I’ve been obsessing over the minutiae of groove playing for a long time!)
That sort of thing took me a while to work out but is worth the effort.
It also creates a question I've never properly (had) answered - to my satisfaction at least.
I'm not very good at notes; I know the opens are EADG, the 5th fret which clearly is ADG-and then C needs 'knowing'
Fret 3 is GCFA# (or Bb) - another complexity of theory, that in some scales it's one and some it's the other when really it's the same note. And fret 7 is BEAD
Which then reveals that an octave is 8 notes but also 12 steps or semitones, hence why an octave is repeated on either fret 2 of +2 strings, or fret 7 of the next string, and the pattern repeats all over. I'm still waiting for that moment of being able to intuitively know - so if someone was to say "it's A then D then E" I'd know without having to think where they are. And then guitar it all goes ****ed up because of B being 4 semitones above the G string and then E 5 above B again, so your repeating patterns fall apart!
So the question - you can play an open string or 5th fret of the string below. Why would you choose one over the other? Sometimes seems obvious because of the way fingers fall, but as in the example above, or Spirit further up - to me feels more natural to be playing 5th fret than open, but the tab and vid is open.
God this new forum software is shit. I wrote a reply and then lost it. So in short:
Thinner strings sound brighter and thinner. Fatter strings sound darker and fatter. Fretted notes are easier to work/control than open. Open strings can save a big jump or give you time for a big jump. Where you play something will depend on the sound of the bass and the feel you’re after. Bouncing off an open string can feel very good.
If you want to play Motown on a bass with rounds you have to move most of the lines down a string and up five frets or it just sounds wrong vs a P with old flats.
The better your technique gets, the more your fingering can be led by tone and feel instead of being controlled by what you can physically manage without losing the groove.
Someone please just tell me what Joe is doing here and what combination of lessons I need to learn how to do it....
Can't see how to edit a post but my last post is showing the Spirit in the Sky YouTube video and and it should be this one...
God it is so weird how it’s showing new replies to the thread in the title but not actually posting them…
Now I can see the correct video in both of my posts.
This forum is utter garbage. I'm having another week off.
Someone please just tell me what Joe is doing here and what combination of lessons I need to learn how to do it....
Although I also head off in heavier, weirder and dubbier directions, that kind of funk improvisation is one of the things I do best on bass. Quite early on in my bass playing life I was in a funk rock-ish band and whenever we soundchecked we’d go off on “porno soundtrax” style funk jams.
I’m having to dig deep into my memory banks but I guess I started on those 16th note funk grooves with RATM (yes they’re not a funk band but there’s a lot of funk happening!), then RHCP, Jaco and Tower Of Power. By that point I was then in a band and when it was right for the song I’d improvise funky 16th note parts whilst we were working out arrangements, and then maybe take them away to develop on my own.
If I’m remembering correctly, on one song that we played a lot and had a very busy 16th note line with lots of octaves I’d come up with this verse line with a load of chromatic (hang on let me get my bass and check… ….yes, that’s it) movement and octaves in the verse and then in the choruses I was bouncing around the chord tones plus some passing notes within the bouncy octave thing.
I don’t think there are really any shortcuts. You’ve got to get used to 16th note fingerstyle funk grooves. You’ve got to learn how to play through changes which means understanding enough harmony (FYI I can’t read standard notation but I understand chord charts).
And then on his solo breaks through that he’s throwing in some other fun techniques, I noticed some Stanley Clarke vibes, some Meshell Ndegeocello, etc.
But step 1 with this bass playing is answering this question in the affirmative: Can you feel the funk? Because if you fake the funk your nose will grow! If you haven’t already, go back to James Brown, P Funk, The Meters, Motown, Sly Stone, etc. Without the deep groove this kind of playing is just pointless muso noodling. Mr Dart has the groove but I’d learn it from the people he learnt it from.
I start every practise session with 5 mins of finger stretches and there is an exercise called "the spider walk" which I see more guitar instructor videos mention than bass videos, but it is equally as applicable which I also spent 5 mins on for the first few months, and still do once or twice a week.
i do something similar as practice, just going up and down the top 4 frets, but that video looks like itd be more worthwhile as it uses the whole fretboard. thanks
Also have a look at Justin guitar, he has a good short video or two about building a routine,
bookmarked for my days off, thanks
Part 2. I assume if you're playing it on the E string and using the A string then you're playing open E (E), open A (A) and fret 2 on the A string (B) during the main part of the song. This means that you've got the shape of the chord progression which is E major, A Major and B Major.
yes thats right, but altho i get the names of the notes E, A and B, why are they called 'major'? is that just the name for them if theyre not flats or sharps?
Now try playing the same pattern on the open A string (A) the open D string (D) and the second fret D string (E) Your ear will tell you it's the same sound (chord progression) only in a different key, which is now A major.
Just to seal it in your mind, play the same progression on the open D string (D) open G string (G) and fret 2 G string (A) again, the riff or progression sounds the same only higher?
ok, so i get its the same tune, but why is it now called A major? because its an A that starts the riff? simple as that?
Listen to Blitzkrieg Bop and play different notes on the E string until you realise (by ear) that you're playing the same note as the bass. You'll discover that one of those notes sounds the same and you will have identified the root or Key- the 1 chord. You know from the pattern you found above, that the next note is a fourth higher (4 chord) and all you did to find that was to play the same fret (open) on the string above. So this time, simply move your fretting finger to the same fret on the next string up and you'll find that 4 chord. Next, you discovered the fifth note (5 chord) was two frets higher than the open 4 chord, so simply fret the note two frets up from the 4.
That's a lot to digest, but persevere! I'm not going to spoil your fun by telling you which note he actually starts on, but if you get it and recognise that vital 1-4-5 pattern shout up and we'll get more into playing the same riff in different keys as a pattern.
ill try that when next at home. i genuinely think ive got a poor ear for things like that tho and doubt very much ill suss out which note he starts from but ill give it a go 🙂
do the alternating fingers on loads of 8th note roots so your left hand is hardly moving. Figure that out on one string and then start moving across more strings. Frequent repetition is the key.
still coming to terms with terminology. 8th not roots....... im going to take an educated guess that these are open strings at twice the speed of a crotchet yes? which leads me to another question. how long is a crotchet? i know its a 'quarter beat', but does it depend on the speed of the song? and where is that speed written in music sheets? i dont see it on the clef if i look at sheet music, so where is it actually stated?
and thanks for all the vids. havent had chance to watch them yet but i will. not at the expense of practice time tho 🙂
thanks a lot for all the advice, much appreciated. wish i had more time to practice, work gets in the way 😀
Major and minor refer to the scale type that the chords come from. Major chords sound happy, minor chords sound sad.
As for note lengths. It’s complicated (but also simple). Notes are written relative to each other. 8ths in different pieces will be played for different lengths but all in the same proportion to the speed of the piece. Sometimes the bpm of the music will be noted but not always. In standard notation there may also be a description of how fast to play, eg slow, moderate or some other description.
I’ve said it before but that’s doesn’t usually stop me from repeating myself. Get signed up to bass buzz. A structured program will help with all this, in the order things matter. Nothing to stop you trying to figure songs out yourself along with it.
Get signed up to bass buzz
Yep, I couldn’t agree more, Beginner to Badass is a fantastic course.
Rather than a dry old lesson, here's Bill Bailey
Get signed up to bass buzz
Yep, I couldn’t agree more, Beginner to Badass is a fantastic course.
Yep, ill do that wednesday on my first day off. dont know why im waiting really as its a lifetime subscription and you get 180 days to ask for a refund if its not for you. just my brain trying to be economical with the days for no logical reason 😀
. This means that you've got the shape of the chord progression which is E major, A Major and B Major.
yes thats right, but altho i get the names of the notes E, A and B, why are they called 'major'? is that just the name for them if theyre not flats or sharps?
They're called Major because they are the chords the guitarist plays. Chords are a number of notes played together. What you are playing are the Roots of those chords. It doesn't actually matter for this song whether they are Major or Minor, because the roots are the same. Dee Dee simply follows the same pattern as the guitar chords.
Now try playing the same pattern on the open A string (A) the open D string (D) and the second fret D string (E) Your ear will tell you it's the same sound (chord progression) only in a different key, which is now A major.
ok, so i get its the same tune, but why is it now called A major? because its an A that starts the riff? simple as that?
Yes, spot on.
Listen to Blitzkrieg Bop and play different notes on the E string until you realise (by ear) that you're playing the same note as the bass. Y
ill try that when next at home. i genuinely think ive got a poor ear for things like that tho and doubt very much ill suss out which note he starts from but ill give it a go 🙂
I think you will surprise yourself. You only need to identify that first note.
thanks a lot for all the advice, much appreciated. wish i had more time to practice, work gets in the way 😀
ok, so i get its the same tune, but why is it now called A major? because its an A that starts the riff? simple as that?
Yes, spot on.
im sure ill get more used to this as time goes on, but thinking aloud, out of the 3(?) notes in a chord.....
"The A major chord is a triad formed from a root (A), a major third (C♯) and a perfect fifth (E)"
so i play a riff that goes A, C#, E then thats an A major chord. if the riff actually started with the E, so went E, C#, A for instance, is that now an E major chord? why does it have to be called after the first note rather than recognising the different notes played together?
and major thirds and perfect fifths? why not just a third and a fifth?
if the riff actually startedwith the E, so went E, C#, A for instance, is that now an E major chord?
No, an E major chord has the triad E, G#, B.
The chord with A, C# and E is an E major, although people call it an "inversion" - just a different order of combining the three notes of the chord: those 3 notes still sounds nice together in the same way, but also sound a little bit different because the lowest note is now an E.
What matters is the interval (gap) between the three notes, like you said "recognising the different notes played together". In A major the C# is 4 frets above the A, and the E is 7 frets above the A. For the chord of E major you also need a note 4 frets above, from the E that's G#, and 7 frets above the E, that's B.
If you play the chord of A major by starting on the E string at fret 5, then play A string fret 4 and D string fret 2 you have A, C#, E = A major. If you take the same shape of those three notes (relationship between the fret positions) and move it up the E string to start at fret 12, with A string fret 11 and D string fret 9 you now have the chord of E major: the shape of the chord is the same so you will get the same "happy" major sound, but the actual 3 notes (the triad) are different and in this case they are based on E.
why not just a third and a fifth
Because in other chords these notes can be modified, for example in an A minor chord the C# is reduced a fret to become C. So that C is called a minor third to tell it apart from the (major) third C#.
This is all the basic music theory that it is good to learn after you can reliably do the basics of consistently playing specific notes on different strings in time.
Listen to Blitzkrieg Bop and play different notes on the E string until you realise (by ear) that you're playing the same note as the bass. Y
ill try that when next at home. i genuinely think ive got a poor ear for things like that tho and doubt very much ill suss out which note he starts from but ill give it a go
I think you will surprise yourself. You only need to identify that first note.
just got a few minutes to myself at home so gave it a try. im hearing the 5th fret on E string, so open A. with the other notes the 5th and 7th on A string (so E and F#?). is that right?
...... chord stuff. too complex for my little brain at the mo, ill investigate further when im a bit further into my journey.
5th and 7th on A would be D and E
I'd see that as a 1-4-5 progression, being 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale (whereas chord is 1-3-5) and 145 is very commonly used. This is where even if you don't know theory, patterns repeat over and over, just change rhythm and you'll recognise a new bass line.
Eg, Rainy Night in Soho; single long notes 145 starting on I think C, and then as song develops it goes to 1-5-1 and then run up the scale to 4/F
just got a few minutes to myself at home so gave it a try. im hearing the 5th fret on E string, so open A. with the other notes the 5th and 7th on A string (so E and F#?). is that right?
Nearly. As theotherjohnv says, it's A D E . But your ear clearly does work despite your misgivings!
...... chord stuff. too complex for my little brain at the mo, ill investigate further when im a bit further into my journey.
Good plan. Others have said concentrate on plucking and fretting cleanly on even repeated notes for the time being. We'll have you playing Hysteria in a couple of weeks... 😉
5th and 7th on A would be D and E
durrr, of course it is, i read the chart wrong, went 7th and 9th. but was i right with the blitzkrieg notes?
I'd see that as a 1-4-5 progression, being 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale (whereas chord is 1-3-5) and 145 is very commonly used. This is where even if you don't know theory, patterns repeat over and over, just change rhythm and you'll recognise a new bass line.
nope, not a scooby. give me a few months 🙂
thanks
durrr, of course it is, i read the chart wrong, went 7th and 9th. but was i right with the blitzkrieg notes?
Yep, you were spot on.
Yep, you were spot on.
wow, not often i actually impress myself!
just subscribed to bassbuzz so we'll see how that goes.
ok, guitar set up.....
working my way through the 1st module on bassbuzz and a couple of times hes said to make sure the strings are no further away from the frets than his, and if they are, then get it set up by an expert at a shop. his....
mine.....
if theyre too far out, then it looks fairly simple to bring down a little using an allen key maybe, and then just retune, but am i being naive?
(i'll try these pics to see if they post first, cos ive got all sorts of pop ups coming up saying i need to use the right checkbox to insert in post. ive done that already, but.... you know....)
Ah, you’re getting a long way down the rabbit hole here!
Firstly, the first photo is the clearance of the strings as measured at the 12t h fret. Your pic is of the strings above the bridge pickup.
We’ll start with the top pic. Basically if the clearance is too high you’ll find it harder to fret the notes quickly and cleanly, and at the same time the additional finger pressure will tire you out and hurt your fingers. Too low, and there’s a chance the strings fretted at certain points will foul the higher frets and buzz.
In a proper setup you’d check the clearance with feeler gauges whilst clamping the strings with a capo and fretting where the strings meet the body of the neck. This will indicate whether the neck relief is where it should be. Once you’ve got that bang on you’ll need to check the saddle and neck heights, then the nut channel heights, then the intonation, then ……. It’s complicated and perhaps a step too far for you for the time being.
Sorry to sound patronising, but send us a pic of your strings near the 12th fret from the side. Much more than say 3 or 4mm is too high, but it’s more complicated than just tweaking the saddles.
This guy will talk you through it if you really want to, but my advice is to check that it isn’t so monstrously high that you’ll not want to pick it up and play it, then crack on with BassBuzz (I love Josh’s teaching style by the way)
Sorry to sound patronising, but send us a pic of your strings near the 12th fret from the side. Much more than say 3 or 4mm is too high, but it’s more complicated than just tweaking the saddles.
not patronising at all mate, i appreciate the advice. difficult to take an accurate pic but just measured it at 12th fret and its 7mm.
ill have a watch of that video when i get a few minutes.
thanks
In the first week of getting my bass, I watched some videos on setting the string action and intonation bought some nut files and did it myself, left it slightly higher than recommended just to be safe, redid it again a month later when I was getting more used to it but didn't really need to adjust it much more. It isn't that complicated, the worst part was trying to see the marks on the ruler with my old eyes, I have a digital gauge now because of that but while I have checked it again a couple of times since it hasn't needed readjusting.
The action on my basses tends to be in the 3-4mm range at the 12th fret. I use a lot of dynamic range and play pretty hard at times so if I go any lower I run into fret buzz and choking which I hate!
I think that’s a reasonable height to aim for. With a higher action (like you currently have) it does become notably harder work fretting the notes and it’s harder to stay in tune as you’re high up the neck (and I play a lot of chords). You also get issues with fretted notes being louder than open notes because the string is closer to the pickups (again more of an issue high up the neck).
If you’re happy to take a gentler approach with your right hand, have a bass with very good fretwork and a stable neck, and are willing to adjust trussrods seasonally (depending on your climate) then you can go much lower with action but I don’t think it’s necessary unless you want to head down the super technical tapping & slapping rabbit hole…
I tried a super techy player’s 7 string years ago and the action was so low I couldn’t play it - I’d rather manhandle a double bass!