r/Bass

I've been doing research on what kind of bass I want to get for my first bass. But a lot of the information I've been trying to look at doesn't make a lot of sense to me since I just have no frame of reference for any of it. This is one of those things. I might throw all my attempt at research and ignore advice that people give me just to pick the bass that speaks to my heart even if it is slightly ill-advised because I don't know what I'm doing. But I wanna at least try to do so knowingly if I can manage it. Explaining other potentially confusing terms might also be helpful. Again, please explain it to me like I'm stupid and/or from a different planet.

I have had various brands of basses over the course of a 40 year plus career. I like most brands of basses... but even though I have had a few Fender basses (mostly gifted) and never liked them.

The necks are not to my liking, and the pickups always seemed to be underwhelming at best. Is it just me, or do others find this.

Us use mainly use Steinbergers, but also Ibanez and Peavey basses as well.

TL;DR - I need case advice for a Gibson Grabber from actual Grabber owners.

The crown jewel of my collection is my 1975 Gibson Grabber. For reasons I will not get into, it has been in storage for over a year and I am finally at the point where I am comfortable spending the money to get it back into my hands.

The problem is that the bass is currently in Maryland and I live in Guam. I have no way to fit check cases and the bass will have to survive a trip halfway around the world. Since Gibson basses are notoriously fragile and this is a vintage instrument that is deeply important to me I want to make sure that I get a proper case for it.

I have a friend in the area that is willing to handle the packing and shipping for me, so all I have to do is cover shipping costs and order a case to his house. Unfortunately he is ignorant of all things instrument related, so his expertise begins and ends at putting the bass into the case and shipping it.

I need someone that actually owns a Grabber and a case they trust it with to give me some input. The Sweetwater Case Finder returns some pretty generic results (not that they are bad quality cases but they're generalist units that I can't be sure of sight unseen). I'd be happy to settle on one of them provided someone that actually keeps a Grabber in it can vouch for it.

Thanks in advance!

I have become quite obsessed with odd instruments, I really love music, but I also love the artist that makes them, and a lot of times, the artist I love the most end up having something; a fun shaped instrument, for example, Takanaka’s surfboard Guitar, or the North Drums, or Bo diddley box guitar, and I really wanted to know, are there fun shaped basses too?

How da hell do you download an effect from toneprint onto a tc electronic bg250 amp. any video i've tried to watch was downloading it onto a pedal but i don't have one:(
guy i bought it off said it was pretty easy to download sounds onto it but i cant figure it out help plss

Planning to get an EQ pedal, Punk has been a favorite genre of mine and I don't like using picks due to my wrist cramping or sweating.

I tried EQ pedal before and the p bass at the store felt more impactful.

I wanna know on how to cut through the mix without being too distracting

Three years ago I [posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bass/comments/15n3lau/my\_chownys\_5\_years\_order\_story\_from\_covid\_to/) here about my Chowny Davie504 EVO — ordered in September 2019 and never delivered.

Short version of part 1: paid in full in 2019, then two years of manufacturing delays, then Covid, then Brexit, then the war. In early 2022 the bass finally arrived in London and got stuck there, because couriers stopped shipping to Russia.

**What happened after part 1**

Honestly, the post worked better than I expected. Stephen showed up in the comments, explained that the company had nearly gone under and he was rebuilding it from scratch, posted his personal phone number, and promised that everyone still waiting for a bass or a refund would be taken care of "no matter how much effort or time it takes me."

He also got in touch with me directly, and we had a completely normal, friendly conversation. My bass was safe at his house, and he'd ship it as soon as a route to Russia opened up. I logged off feeling like this story was one email away from a happy ending.

That was the summer of 2023.

**What happened since**

Not much. Nothing, tbh.

I've been emailing every few months, no replies (sent another one today). I've tried WhatsApp on every number I could find, including the one posted publicly in that thread. Nothing there either.

**The part that actually frustrates me**

Shipping to Russia stopped being impossible a long time ago:

* Back in 2022, a different UK shop delivered my order via Royal Mail with no problems.
* Parcel forwarders (CDEK Forward, Qwintry - thanks to the commenter who suggested this in part 1) give you a UK address. Stephen wouldn't need to ship internationally at all - from his side it's a regular domestic UK parcel to the forwarder's warehouse.

So it's not "none of the couriers deliver to Russia" anymore. The routes exist, I've found several myself. The only missing piece is one reply, so we can finally sort this out.

**Where I stand**

Order 27424, paid via PayPal on September 2, 2019. All the refund windows — PayPal, chargeback expired years ago, which Stephen himself pointed out back in 2022. So realistically it's the bass or nothing, and I'm fine with that. I never wanted my money back. I wanted bass. It exists, it's finished, and it's sitting in a house in England with my name on it.

In part 1 I wrote that a lot had changed in my life since 2019. I graduated, got a job, found a girlfriend. Update for part 2: still employed, girlfriend's there. Life as the status of order 27424 remains constant in my life.

**And one thing that genuinely worries me now**

The bass was finished back in 2021 and has been sitting in a box ever since. Strings and setup after four years of storage may be fine, that's all fixable. But if there's still a 9V battery in the preamp cavity, it has most likely leaked by now, and that's the kind of thing that quietly kills the electronics. And judging by how consistently my messages go unanswered, I suspect that box simply isn't anywhere Stephen looks anymore. Out of sight and mind.

**Stephen, if you're reading this**

I'm not here to trash you. I wasn't in 2023, and I'm not now. Part 1 reached you once, and I'm hoping part 2 does it again. Even before we talk about shipping: just find the box, check on the bass. After all these years, one photo of it would honestly mean a lot. My emails are in your inbox, one reply is all it takes to finally figure out the delivery.

And to everyone else: if you know Stephen or hang around the Chowny club on TalkBass, a small nudge would mean a lot. Last time, this community was the only reason anything moved at all.

This is more just a ramble about decisions I am making, so feel free to give any thoughts. But firstly, let me get this straight. I love the 5-string and the way it sounds. I have found a lot of ways to make it work on plenty of songs for the sounds that I want. I have also gigged with the 5-string bass for numerous house bands and a large roster of singers in the local R&B and Fusion scenes in the past 6 years.

A lot more recently this year, I started to experiment more with bringing my 4-string basses (a Fender Precision and a Fender Jazz) to my gigs and seeing how I survive on them. In many cases, the 4 strings work amazingly in the situations where I call the shots of how I want the bassline to sound. Furthermore, my problems with carpal tunnel symptoms went away, and I didn't feel like there was a lot of weight from the bass pressing down on my shoulder to make my arm freeze up.

For context, I wear my basses quite high and angle them at about 45 degrees so that my hand has sufficient access and reach to the strings. I can comfortably play a 4-string for a whole hour set. But with a 5-string, my hand starts being problematic, and my middle and ring fingers start to go somewhat numb. I know there are players like Leland Sklar who have accounted for carpal tunnel symptoms and are able to play all their basslines well with just their index and pinky fingers. Where I run into problems is that I lose my ability to do any gospel-style runs or unison lines that are unique to a lot of the R&B songs in the gigs I do.

To benefit my physical health and not hurt my body, I think it might be time to exclusively play a 4-string bass on most of my gigs. Even more recently, the carpal tunnel symptoms have extended to when I am cooking in the kitchen or doing housework. I am curious to see how I go playing a lot of R&B repertoire on my 4-string and how well it will be received by band members and directors. At the end of the day, it didn't kill Freddie Washington, Chuck Rainey or Pino Palladino for that matter. Besides, if I am forced to play 5-string, it might be worth pulling an Anthony Jackson/Melvin Lee Davis and just sitting down.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Reading before replying would help the most due to the provided context

This applies to both larger and micro improvements. I solely mentioned micro in the title due to these being harder to catch, but noticing big improvements can still be hard to see to its full extent.

Relevant info: I have a good private teacher, I've been playing for 7 years, and I practice bare minimum 1 hour a day of focused practice. I still haven't been able to track it well throughout the years. That said, I still notice improvements, just usually not at the rate of satisfaction.

While I'm practicing for a while during the day and this feeling pops up, it can be a bit disheartening. I first want to mention that this doesn't stop my practice session, routines, and practice length at all, it's just a rough feeling to have. I either feel great after a practice session - "wow I played great at the end", or the opposite - "I don't feel like I played well at all". The end of a practice session is so important to the view of myself as a player and how much I achieved throughout the session - usually it's the latter

My teacher does acknowledge improvements and gives perspective and that's great to have, but feeling them during the week of practicing aside from the lesson is far more important to me. For me, not consciously noticing improvements would be a lot more manageable if I wasn't more hyper self aware of plateaus and set backs.

I'm not here to complain, just asking for advice and seeing if you guys relate. Extra perspective from the more experienced is extremely helpful. Thanks for reading :)

i have been trying to learn guitar to no avail so i grabbed a cheap bass from a pawn shop because i was intrigued and some guitarist friends suggested i give it a try. I have been playing a week and its surprisingly very intuitive. Ive played to backing tracks already trying to get my coordination down. Ive looked up videos on youtube and found some good stuff but any insights on what to focus on from veteran bass players would be awesome.

Hi all. Noob question.

I've been playing bass on and off semi seriously for the past 12 years or so. My friend gifted me a Ampeg BA-108 (~$120) bass amp around the same time, and I have only been using it as my home amp ever since.

I've been playing on the same cheap Yamaha 4 string passive pickups bass this whole time. Recently, I decided it was time for a much needed upgrade in gear, and got myself a 5 string Ibanez SR505E. Never in my life did I have so much customization with tuning my sound, and I feel a bit lost, confused, and overwhelmed.

Only recently we start going to rehearsal spaces where they have large and expensive looking amps. Sure they might sound a little better. If we play live, we use the PA system of whatever the venue has. I'm just confused on how do I use the tone knobs on bass amps and my (active preamp) bass. What are some rule of thumb that people follow when trying to dial in a tone? Amp first then bass, or bass first then amp? Etc Etc. What are bass amplifier headers? Why would I need both an amp and an amplifier header?

Sorry for silly questions. Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Hey all,

Looking to further familiarize myself with the fretboard by getting away from tabs and using sheet music and chords only. Wanted to start with autumn leaves then move on to some other ones but I don't really know where to look for that kind of stuff.

I'm a guitarist I've been playing a cheap p bass for a while, I can do something with fingers but I wanna start doing 3 fingers and tremolo pick, *firstly start with fast alt pick because I'm still slow) I already use 2 fingers but very slowly compared to how I pick on guitar ofcourse, any advice?

I've been learning bass for about two months and I feel like I'm stuck on the same songs and can't really progress so I'm looking for some relatively easy songs that a more experienced bassist would recomend

I'm trying to get more aggressive sounds and I don't know what would be the right choice

I've been building a lap steel guitar for the last couple of weeks - never played one, never even seen one personally - mostly for the fun of it, to keep my mind ocupied and learn a new instrument, but I have this bad habbit to start thinking about the next project before I finish the current one, so, spending the last days revisiting Morphine - man, did 27 pass fast! - got me wanting to build something like a "lap steel bass".

I've done some research, but all I find is almost nothing about this Jackson Steel Slideking, and a few videos on YouTube with DIY builds and, well, "test drives". I like the sound they get from the instruments, but I haven't heard nothing that musically inspires me much. The lap steel guitar community doesn't seem to care much for the concept, I guess they're more in it for the twang than for the growl. Or maybe it's just not such a great idea.

Anyways, I guess I'm going to experiment with it. Now, I want something I can play Morphine vibes with - fifths, D and (G tuned up to) A strings - but I don't know if I want to be limited to two strings, and I want to use for ambient and more experimental sounds, like maybe using it with and e-bow.

Sandman fans, slide players, what do you think? Any ideas? Has anyone played something like that? What tuning would you use? I guess DADA would be the most obvious, for power chords, but that wouldn't add much to it, right...?

Thanks!

I'm practicing these tabs and they're switching to plucking while the most of the stuff are played in slap. It's pretty fast too since they're 16th's at 142 bpm

Still new to bass (2 years) and have tried flatwound and round wound and have found that the Billy Sheehan Rotosound strings seem to work best for me. .43-.110 gauge, sound good on basic rock/ blues to metal.
Any input on other string sets would come in handy to a noob like myself.

I've been practicing slap n' pop for a few days, there wasn't really a problem.. until today. i tried playing can't stop by rhcp, practiced it for basically the whole day and noticed my right index finger forming a hump. i didn't think much of it and continued playing.

it's now late at night and the hump turned into a small blister. I'm jst wondering if this is normal and if i should be concerned? it doesn't really hurt, jst a hassle to play with.

They have started letting pop up ads on Talkbass, even for supporting members. Not just any pop ups, they start automatically playing video when you click on a thread.

The resolution? Even if a supporting member, you have to be an additional $25 per month Ad Free plan. Screw that site. Hope everyone leaves. Nothing selling there anyways unless you do a stupid discount. I’ll take my chances on Reverb.