Newly launched guitar string store http://sunburymusicshop.com is taking advantage of the high Australian dollar and offering Rotosound, Elixer, D'Addario, Ernie Ball, and more at up to 50% off retail prices. For too long we in Australia have had to put up with ugly profiteering of importers jacking up our retail prices. Well no more. Sunbury Music Shop is an online alternative giving the best prices on strings in Australia and all with free postage.

Check these out:

RotoSound Billy Sheehan Custom Guage Bass Strings These are only $36. Don't pay $70+ anymore!

RotoSound SM665 5 String Bass Strings 40-125 These are $42. So cheap and Free Shipping as well on all orders.

All stock is in Australia, no drop ship. Say no to paying too much for you strings.

If you're in the Sunbury area and looking for Bass lessons, you've found the right place. Whatever style path you want to go down - blues, rock, funk, metal. Come and have a free lesson. First lesson free! casual lessons $26, permenant term lessons $21. Beginner through to Advanced, I've got something for you.

Call Neil on 0438356229 to book a lesson. Currently booking Tuesdays. But I'll work something out for you if need be.

This last week I've added Diminished Arpeggios to the ebook for 4 and 5 string bass guitar. They were all closed patterns and each page shows the fretboard pattern, notation and the TAB. In addition the left hand fingering was included.
These links go directly to the pages:

4 String Bass Patterns
- A Diminished Arpeggio 1
- A Diminished Arpeggio 2

5 String Bass Patterns
- 5-String Pentatonic Pattern
- A Diminished Arpeggio 1
- A Diminished Arpeggio 2

You can also check-out what else is in the ebook my going to the navigation page
- Bass Guitar Player Ebook

I wanted to let everyone know that I have added some interesting things to our online music notation content. The first thing is a chord chart for guitarists. This has been added to electricguitarplayer.info
The next thing is some medium level Arpeggios for bass guitar in C. The accompanying sheet with that piece has music notation, TAB and frames showing an exercise in major, minor, minor 7 and major 7. It's a bit of a hand stretch but great fun for masochist bass players

We can see what sorts of things you are searching for in Google when you come to our site and thought it would be a good idea to start a FAQ page to help future visitors.

FAQ (of google and yahoo)

are pentatonic scales the same with a bass guitar?

Well in essence, yes, Pentatonic scales are the same on Bass as they are on regular 6 string guitar. Pentatonic scales are 5 note (penta) scales derived from Major scales. They are played in modal fashion for minors etc.. Pentatonic Scales are just that, a scale. They can played on any instrument you wish. As far as fingering goes a bass guitar's strings are the same as the low 4 strings on a guitar so the position is the same for those 4 strings. Click here for a music notation sheet including tablature (TAB) for an Am Pentatonic

Fender headstock transfer?

I've seen many transfers for sale on eBay. If you have an original instrument, I'd recommend going and contacting either an authorized distributer or the company themselves

Unscrewing and Ibanez Bass's jack.

A lot of Ibanez bass guitars have no scratch plate and you'll need to remove the back plate to tighten or remove the jack. Bass guitars with scratch plates need to have the scratch plate removed to gain access to the back of the jack. When removing a scratch plate you may need to remove the strings.

Minor Pentatonic on a 5 string Bass.

A minor pentatonic or any other scale doesn't change in theory regardless of the instrument you are playing. To help out Bass Guitarist trying to get their head around the instrument I have started writing tab / notation sheets for practice. You can see one of these sheets at 5-string Bass Pentatonic Pattern

Major Scale Construction

Easy, have a look at the Major Scale section

 

This page will be updated regularly.

PukeHead Music Community is Dead.
The people involved in PukeHead had big hopes and ambitions pouring thousands of dollars and hours into promotion and development. PukeHead took 8 months to develop and after some server issues on Servage, never recovered from the early popularity.
Over the years the owners of PukeHead became resentful of online music promotion and the PukeHead site. Regularly the financial costs were discussed as the head programmer could only regret the incredible amount of time invested in the scripting of the site.
With thousands of dollars lost and thousands of hours seemingly wasted the decision was made to pull the plug. "I didn't think it would be so easy, but after so many losses, it was just a part of my Saturday morning scripting routine. Bam, it was gone." Going on to say things like "It didn't hurt, in fact I'm feeling quite indifferent about the matter", Head Programmer and birth father NR really didn't care anymore.

tuning heads - Sometimes called "tuners" or "machine heads". These are used to tighten or loosen the strings. Each tuning head controls one string on the bass. Tightening the string makes the pitch of the string higher, while loosening the string makes the pitch lower.

head stock - The head stock is just the top part of the bass. the piece of wood that the tuning heads are attached to. The whole section of the bass above the nut is referred to as the "head stock".

nut - The nut is a thin piece of ivory, graphite or plastic that sits between the headstock and the fretboard. It raises the strings off of the fretboard and has a groove for each string that holds the strings in place. This allows the strings to vibrate freely, not touching the fretboard or each other when plucked.

neck - The neck is the longest part of the bass. It is the part of the bass that you "hold" with your fretting hand (as opposed to your plucking or picking hand). The word "hold" is in quotes because your hand should be relaxed, sliding up and down the neck to and from the frets that you are playing, not squeezing. The neck itself is under tremendous pressure from the tension of the strings, when tightened. It is prone to bending or warping. To counter this, a "truss-rod" (a long metal bolt) is installed the length of the neck, mounted underneath the fingerboard (you can't see it). It can be adjusted when necessary in order to offset the tendency of the neck to warp or bend one way or another, thus keeping the neck straight and and the bass playing properly. The head of the truss rod bolt is usually underneath a little plate screwed into the front of the headstock, right behind the nut. When speaking of the neck, we are usually referring to the back of the neck (not shown) as opposed to the front of the neck, upon which is glued the fretboard.

fretboard - Sometimes referred to as the "fingerboard", especially on fretless instruments such as the violin, cello or double bass. The fretboard is the wood attached to the neck that you can see from the front of the bass. When you press your finger on a string and hold it down onto the fretboard, the note that will sound if you pluck the string is the note that corresponds to the fret directly to the right of your finger (on a right handed bass). The fretboard is essentially a foundation for the frets and a support for your fingers while fretting. At no time will the vibrating part of a string ever touch the fretboard. The fingerboard on a fretless instrument is much more involved in producing the notes. On a fretless instrument, the point on the fingerboard where you press down the string is the exact point which determines the note that will be played. The string directly touches the fingerboard on fretless instruments.

frets - The frets are skinny pieces of metal that are set into the fretboard at specific intervals, sticking up above the fretboard just enough so that the string can be pressed down onto it without the string actually touching the fretboard. The intervals which the frets are spaced correspond to "half notes". When tuned properly, pressing down the string, so that the string rests on a fret, will allow you to play a specific consistent note (or pitch) at each fret. The frets on a bass guitar correspond directly to the frets on a standard guitar. Knowing the notes one one will allow you to play the other fairly easily.

fret markers - These "dots", inlaid flush into the fretboard, are simply "markers" that allow the player to quickly see where he is on the fretboard with just a glance. They allow orientation of the fretboard notes, but are not a necessary part of the bass. sometimes they are also on the edge of the neck and sometimes they are not dots, but other, often intricate, designs.

E, A, D and G strings - The E string is the "lowest", fattest, string on the 4 string bass. It is the string that is closest to you when you are playing the bass. When tuned in the standard way, playing the E string without pressing it down onto any frets (the open position) will produce an "E" note. The A string is the next fattest string, then the D, then the G, which is the thinnest string, sitting the farthest from you when playing. The strings on a 4 string bass correspond exactly to the lowest 4 strings on a standard guitar, except that the bass is tuned an octave lower than the standard guitar. 5 string basses have a low B string, which is even fatter and lower than the E string, and 6 string basses add a high B string, which is thinner and higher in pitch than the G string.

strap button - A shoulder strap can be conveniently hooked onto this strap button and an identical strap button on the tail of the bass (just below the bridge), allowing you to play the bass while standing in a relaxed position.

body - Just like a standard electric guitar, the body of an electric bass is simply a solid piece of wood, or fiberglass, graphite, Lucite, Plexiglas, or any number of modern materials. The body has a cavity cut into it in order to house the electronics, which is covered either by the pickguard, or a plate which is screwed into the back or front of the bass. The shape and material which the body is made of makes much less impact on the sound of an electric bass than the body of an acoustic bass. This accounts for the wild designs and materials sometimes used when making electric basses.

pick guard - The pickguard is the piece of plastic or other material that is affixed to the bass in order to protect the finish of the bass from getting scratched while playing with a pick. When you strum or pluck the strings with a pick (plectrum), the body of the bass directly below the G string can get scratched. Over time, the finish of the bass in this area totally wears away. Most pro players would regard this as a badge of honor, however for the player who treasures the look their instrument it can be an important concern. In cases such as the Fender P-Bass and many other electric instruments, the pick guard is more of an engineering solution than a finish protection device. It simply serves to cover the electronics cavity, allowing easy access to the guts of the bass by unscrewing it from the body. The entire electronics of many basses are attached to the pickguard, rather than the body, of the bass. This allows the electronics to be assembled separately from the rest of the bass. Some styles of basses do not have pickguards and many bassists do not use picks.

pickup - While the body of the bass has less influence on the sound of the electric bass than it's acoustic counterpart, the pickup on a bass has almost everything to do with the instrument's sound characteristic. There can be more than one pickup on a bass and the position of the pickup on the body of the bass, i.e. closer to the neck or the bridge, will affect the tone. The pickup sits directly under the strings in the body section of the bass. It does not touch the strings at all, but it picks up the vibration of the strings when they are plucked. The little "circles" in the pickups are actually cylinder magnets or "poles" which are wrapped with very thin copper wire. Each pole is directly under a string. When a string vibrates above that magnetic pole, electrons are excited in the wires wrapped around it and an analog electric signal flows through the pickup and out the jack and through the cable and into the amp...etc..

volume and tone controls - These do exactly what you would expect. One controls the volume of the bass and one controls the tone of the bass. On instruments with more than one pickup, you might have another tone control (one for each pickup) and either another volume control for the additional pickup, or an additional knob or switch that allows you to select between the different pickups or blend them together. The signal path on a bass is generally pickup > volume > tone > jack.

bridge - The bridge is the part of the bass that holds the strings at the opposite end of the bass from the nut. Like the nut, it has grooves for each string and raises the strings above the fretboard so that they can vibrate freely and independently. Unlike the nut, the bridge can usually be adjusted easily in order to raise or lower the height of the strings over the fretboard and, most importantly, the intonation of each string. Accurately adjusting the intonation of each string is crucial to the playability of any fretted instrument. Most instruments should come from the factory with the intonation adequately set. It is a task which requires intermediate skill, but you can perform it yourself if you learn how. Check the other tutorials here at 2kool4skool.com for instructions on intonation and bridge setup. The same technique will work for guitars and basses and should work as well for the banjo, mandolin, mandola, ukulele, lute, vihuela, guitarron, bajo sexto, quinto, charango, cuatro, oud, saz, dobro, sitar, dulcimer, zither and other western fretted instruments.

We've added bits and pieces of music theory and lessons to our Bass Player Ebook. You can now learn about theory, triads and there are some YouTube lessons on there as well. Here is the entire bass player category tree:

Navigation:
Basics
- Strings and Tuning

Scale Theory
- Major Scales
- Minor Scales
- Modes of the Major Scale
- Pentatonic Scales

Triad Theory
- Major Triad
- Minor Triad

Interesting Posts
- Dave Marks Bass Lesson (arpeggios)
- Victor Wooten Bass GuitarTechnique
- Canora or Ibanez
- Seinfeld Slap Bass Piece from You Tube
- Bass Lessons Sunbury
- Audio Mixing
- Making Money On The Net


So check some of it out. You can only improve you're playing!

We've now built an ebook / blog thing that will eventually replace this blog system.
The script is one of ours and is in development. The old ebook script is still quite good and you can get it from PukeHeadProgramming Free PHP scripts CMS EBOOK
The new version we're using is v1.1 for our Bass Guitar Player EBOOK is in beta at the moment. It displays more like a BLOG but still has the construction like an ebook. We recommend that you subscribe to the feed on that system and you'll be kept updated as we add more pages to our popular book.

Leigh "Lee-Roy" Stancliffe
Living In The Land Of Oz
2-4pm Mondays
979fm
Melbourne

Well as a muso you may find that you're not really interested in working for the 'MAN'. Well, if you're a bass player you'll probably have a small stream of income coming in as where usually well educated musicians. Although Bass seems easy to play, it isn't really if you want to do it well.
What would be great is that if you could continue playing music and another income stream that allowed you to be creative and even include your passion every step of the way. That's what I do. In the process of finding alternative incomes I've developed some great internet savvy. I know what affiliate programs you can put on your sites to earn money and even how to build sites that convert well. I know where to purchase the traffic as well. Most importantly, I know who are the big rip-offs. I write about all of this in my Affiliate List Blog.

So, if you want to earn money on the net, learn about how I do it at The Affiliate List. This is not a scam, and I don't want your money. This isn't a system or pyramid selling scheme, you will not be telling your neighbors about this stuff. You'll still have to work-out what affiliate programs and adzone selling partners you will have. This is also not easy money, but it is ongoing and residual.

Hey, we have site/blog that we are developing called Audio Mixing. It has some great software recommendations and some other tech info stuff. Pretty soon I'll be writing articles for local magazine and I'll be duplicating them to the blog. You'll be able to learn about ringing out systems, cabling standards, rigging, mixing and recording techniques and all that good educational stuff.

STRINGS AND TUNING of GUITARS:
Six String Electric guitars usually have plain steel strings with Low E, A and D wound in a steel material usually nickel. The higher strings are not would and are just various gauges of plain steel. Occasionally a guitarist feels it necessary to have a wound G. This is consistent with the usual set up of an acoustic guitar but not generally applied to the electric variety. Bass Guitars can have any number of strings. I have a couple 4 string and a Five, I've seen John Myong from Dream Theater competently shred on a six string. A Bass Guitar's strings are incredibly thick in comparison to the normal six string guitar. All strings are also of wound type and are usually a nickel type composite. It is possible to get stainless steel strings but they lack tone, although they'll out live any other string variety. Bass tuning is EADG same as for standard electric guitar tuning on the low sounding strings. More interestingly is that when a bass is a 5-string variety like the SD405 Ibanez I have, a lower string is added being a B. The B sting can have a very 'heavy' gauge and because of how low the string must vibrate it will be extremely slack, and must vibrate very widely.

SUMMARY OF TUNNING:
6 String Electric - EADGBE
7 String Electric - BEADGBE

4 String Bass (including Double Bass) - EADG
5 String Bass - BEADG


INTONATION:
Intonation is the note a string rings at a given point of the neck. When your intonation is out it means that notes are not sounding at certain frets as they should (either sharper or flatter). There are factors that effect an instruments intonation, some are - string gauge, string composite and the age of the strings. Tired old strings will not vibrate as they should. It is possible to stretch a string unevenly this will cause the vibration of the string to differ from that of a new string and will force intonation to ‘go-out’. It is advised for that reason to never set an instruments intonation with old strings. That’s true for any stringed instrument. Remember when setting intonation on a guitar that by lengthening the strings ability to ring will lower the note value at any given point of the neck.

Finally I have decided to teach bass.
It's been a long time coming and finally I've made the decision to teach bass in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia.

Dedicated bass teachers are hard to find in the suburbs with the job being left to Six String guitarists to do the job. A dedicated bass teacher is a player and understands the importance of bass within an ensemble in a way that a regular guitarist doesn't. So, hopefully with some help from 'Sunbury Guitar Tuition' I'll be up and running in the next couple weeks. I intend to use this blog to communicate additional tutorials for my students and other students of Bass. Learning Bass is an extended process, it takes time.

The instrument needs to be one with the player, and the player needs to be able communicate theory and feel through what they do. Experience plays a huge role in the process, it is unlike a solo instrument as it has many rules that must be followed to the strict letter. People dance and groove to the bass, solo instruments add the colour. Never be mistaken, bass is not an instrument for a poor guitarist to pick-up so someone can solo over the top of. It is an instrument that keeps it together, delivers the power, and keeps the audience listening.

This bass came to me about 7 years ago. I found it in a pawn shop in Dromana, Victoria, Australia. I was visiting my friend who owned the shop to talk about some other business things when he asked me what I thought. At the time I owned a guitar retail and repair shop and considered myself to be quite a knowledge base on the subject of fretted instruments. He open the case and there it was, to most it would have been a piece of crap. What I saw was a 3 piece neck through body bass guitar. It had no transfer on the headstock, it’d been rubbed back. Amazingly this bass guitar is the sister instrument to a six string electric I’d acquired about 6 years before that. Both instruments are identical in timber construction all the way down to the brass nut. Anyway, the guitar I had was branded a Canora. Canora is the ‘Monterey’ Brand of the eighties in Australia. Mostly pieces of cheap junk. There’s something special about this model, I’ve always known it. My friend said what is it, I said a Canora, he said are they any good, I said not usually, he said give me $200 for it, I said yeah if you throw in the case. What a dog of an instrument, action was more suited to a lap steel then an electric bass. After about 5 attempts to set the instrument up I finally got it sitting in a sweet spot. It could sound better, pick-ups could be better, frets could be replaced but it gets me through heaps of stuff. Here is when it all gets interesting. I really wanted to know more about the instrument so went searching the net. After not finding much reference to Canora Guitars I came across the Ibanez Musician. I couldn’t believe it, Ibanez set out to make an awesome instrument I reckon, I’ve got a crap prototype that was badged Canora. Cool.
The story gets a little more interesting when I was up late one night watching a music video program on TV. The song ‘Send Me An Angel’ by Real Life came on. You know what saw in the clip don’t you? -same model bass (single P bass pick-up and the tome controls I remember it having when I got it), rubbed out headstock transfer, but fretless. Picked my bass up and had a close look at the fret board for workmanship around the frets and to my surprise (not really surprised by anything with the instrument anymore) there was some shitty craftsmanship along the neck including tooling marks on the edge for fret positioning. I might not have found the same bass, but I’m pretty sure I have, I’m also certain that it came from Ibanez based on the rest of the instrument’s construction and I know it was badged Canora. The final thing I know about this bass guitar is that it’s mine and it could do with a refret, some new machine heads and a new P-Bass pick-up. If you know anything about this model contact me - bosswild (at) projectmp3.com.au.