Bass Guitar Player Blog

Cheap Rotosound Strings in Australia

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 18:49:47 -0600

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.

Sunbury Bass Lessons

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 01:40:09 -0500

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.

David Hull Tutorial for Mozart - Turkish Rondo

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:19:16 -0500

David Hull is pretty awesome on bass. This tutorial is for Advanced Bass Players, there some amazing two hand tapping that even some more advanced bass players will struggle with.

A tutorial on how to play David Hull's arrangement of the Turkish Rondo. Transcription available at www.dehamusic.com

OLP MUSICMAN COPY Made in China

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:10:11 -0500

Well, the guitar presents well at first glance. But here's the warning, if you buy anything that requires some craft or skill that was made in China expect to be disappointed. It seems as though that there isn't anyone in China that can build anything properly. Sure, we send machines there that can build stuff and pay someone 20 cents a day to push a button and we end up with a usable product. But if we ask the button pusher to assess or modify the item that comes out of the machine we are in serious trouble. I will never buy a Chinese made item again that has required any skill to produce. This wasn't the first time that I've had to repair the work of a china-man (about the 20th), I am hoping it will be the last (but, I said that last time). The finished product is still defective but without close inspection it plays as well as $1000+ guitar with one days work put into it.
It all started early in the morning when I decided to set the OLP MUSICMAN COPY 'up'. The neck was very bowed so I started tightening up the truss rod. Here's where it all started. Fully tightened I had a 4mm bow. I removed the neck and placed a 2mm washer between the neck butt and the nylon washer, in hindsight it would have been better to put a 3mm thick washer in there so that the OLP truss rod would have a bit extra in it.
During the process detailed above I found the most disturbing thing in a commercially produced instrument that I have ever seen. The routed cavity for the neck was a mess. Someone needs to inform the country of China that chunky splintered wood and paint over run does not constitute a satisfactory seat for a guitar neck. I almost cried. I never understood comments about 'built with love', and the 'essence of an instrument' until I saw the result of all of that being ripped away by some halfwit.
I set to work building a support for my router so that I could, with some care, re-rout the cavity. 4 hours later I had my bench set-up and ready to go. It took me about an hour of shaving about a half a millimeter at a time before I had a surface that I was happy to bolt a neck to. Thankfully I only needed to place two pieces of electrical tape on the back of the body to do my final pass to get the correct neck angle. I cleaned up the work very carefully with a sharp chisel and a box knife. It isn't perfect but it is as good as this guitar as it is going to get. There are still two chunks that are too deep too rout down to. Still, there is about 90% of a flat face to bolt to. And bonus! - no shimming required.
After this I went back to where I started, I reassembled, tightened the trust rod and got to flat surface with no turns to spare. Set the action (easy now with the alteration to the neck cavity),then set the intonation, which is I found to be almost at full extension of the saddles. I then plugged this thing into my Hartke and had to call all the family members to the music room. What a beast! Absolutely awesome! It feels great and the sound 'just bounces'! It has a quick bass punch with smooth highs. The OLP will sustain for 30 or more seconds at a usable level and goes on for a minute afterward. There are very limited sympathetic rings and a full range bouncy sound with warmth that I am yet to experience in a bass under $1000.
The disappointment occurred when I leaned the guitar against a wall and saw that the neck had been bolted on at that factory with a 1 or 2 degree angle towards the high end. I could fix this but on closer inspection I would have to rotate the neck cavity as I have about an 8mm gap at the 12th fret from the edge of the fret board at the E string and about 2mm at the G.
So, the results are as follows:
I have a $300 bass that sounds like one of over $1000.
I lost one day of playing Grand Theft Auto to achieve this.
I built myself a router bed that I'll probably never use again, or at least I hope.
My OLP bass has had some love put in it, no blood though on this rebuild.

My advice to Ernie Ball:
Don't license to anyone building crap in China, it makes you look like money grabbing assholes.
If you license to anyone, make sure that you actually check what you are licensing, periodically at least.

My advice to China:
Give it up, your overpriced crap is playing on our nerves.
You do know that we can actually manufacture half the stuff you do at a cheaper wholesale price in our own countries!
BTW. it is unfortunate that you waste such good wood on substandard manufacturing attempts.

My advice to unemployed people around the world:
You know what? We can actually manufacture Chinese crap in our countries for less then what china is trying to charge us.

Causes Of Vibration and Remedies

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:06:32 -0500

This was going to be an update to the FAQ page but thought that it would make a good post.
In my experience audible acoustic vibration on a Bass Guitar is almost always due to two things. The most common is Machine head vibration, the other will be an over loosened truss rod. The fender style machine head is constructed in a way that if the 'butterfly' part can become loose without falling apart. I have one bass with this issue and really the only real fix is to replace the head. I've tried rubber bands, sticky-tape, bits of paper and nothing has worked well enough. So, let's fix the thing properly right now!
For the purpose of this post I'm going to go to a little more effort.
Here is an image of the offending part. You can see the remnants of sticky-tap on it.
Machine Head

My first repair attempt was to use a vise grip to apply an incredible amount of pressure in attempt to reduce the movement of the part and stop the vibration. This made a difference but didn't fix the problem completely.
Machine Head Vise Grip

Next, I scuffed up the surface with some sand paper and prepared to solder the two parts together. A heavy duty soldering iron can help here. A little low wattage one is not going to get the surfaces hot enough.
The basics of this operation are that you need to get the surface of the 'job' hot enough to melt the solder.
In the first image here you can see that I've pretty much got the repair done but the solder is a little bubbled and I wasn't confident that repair would hold so I've added heat again, and a bit more solder and completed the job with a bit more patience. When you're finished the solder should shine and not be raised like a bubble.
Attempt one Attempt Two

This should have the job complete. If there is still vibration coming from the part and you can tell by touching it while playing a note, replace the machine head completely.

Diminished Arpeggios on 5 string Bass

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 23:24:41 -0500

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

Diminished Arpeggios

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 02:34:46 -0500

A diminished chord or arpeggio is on that has a flat 5 and a flat 3. As a bass player you will at some stage be called to play over a diminished chord and you'll be well prepared if you remember the diminished triad theory and these two arpeggios.
The first diminished arpeggio is a passive variation moving down the neck and the second diminished arpeggio variation is one that moves up the neck but still in one position. The second Diminished arpeggio is easier to play as it in a single position, but might not be the flavor you want to have. Try them out and read more. Below are the graphics of the two arpeggio variations with TAB, notation and graphic frame.
A Diminished Arpeggio
A diminished arpeggio variation 2

Major Scale Patterns

Sun, 3 Aug 2008 06:18:52 -0500

I've recently added two new pages to the Bass Guitar EBook. I had noticed that a few visitors had come from google having searched for things like a 'C Major Pattern on Bass Guitar'. So, I went away and created a couple images of A C Major pattern and a G Major Pattern. They are both movable patterns and can be used to create a major scale in any key. Here are the two images. Read more in the ebook at G Major Scale and C Major Scale

C Major Scale

G Major Scale

The Ebook is shaping up to be a great resource for intermediate to Advanced Bass Players. Subscribe to it's feed to keep up to date with all the new material BASS PLAYER EBOOK FEED

Dave Marks Arpeggio Lesson

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:28:35 -0500

What I'm trying to do with this bass guitar ebook is to document essential theory and give support lessons from various Bass Teachers around the world. Dave Marks seems to have his head screwed on pretty straight and this lesson is good example for intermediate players to grasp the arpeggio concept. Add this lesson to some strong foundations in Music theory and you'll be able to improve what you are playing on Bass.

As a bass player what you are generally doing is playing grooves based around chord forms. Use this lesson in conjunction with triad theory to improve your understanding of what you need to be doing on stage and in the band room.

Arpeggios and Chord Charts

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:00:55 -0500

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