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Relearning the bass and other follies
06 July 2011
The past few weeks I've been a bit pre-occupied with several tasks and pursuits, so I haven't been blogging much, although I have been busy. About a month ago, I bought an Epiphone Viola bass from Blue Mountain Music. It was the culmination of several months' exploration and investigation of bass instruments that began with an electric upright bass, meandered through several short-scale or micro basses, and landed on this model.
I had wanted a bass for a while to accompany my ukulele playing and recording. Back in the 70s and 80s, I played a little bass when we jammed - mostly I played guitar - but I lost my skills after I sold my instruments and stopped playing. But when I turned to ukulele, I regained some skills, and wanted to again pick up the bass. I bought a Kala U-bass (reviewed on my ukulele site) but it didn't satisfy me, so I sold it and started looking at other options.
Uprights - double basses - are too big and clumsy for me at present, although I love the sound. Plus they're very expensive and my budget is quite modest. An electric upright from Stagg intrigued me, and was in a reachable price range, but I figured I should start with an inexpensive fretted electric bass guitar to relearn on, before I tackled a fretless upright model.
The Epi was longer scale than I was looking for - I wanted 25-26" like my old Supro bass and it is 30", which is classified as 'short' scale today - but I liked the Hofner-esque body. It reminded me of the Beatles, and besides, it was on sale at a local store. How could I resist? Besides, the EUB I wanted was a lot bigger, and more expensive, and a couple of hours' drive south. Better to start at a more modest level.
That led to a lot of thumping practice, and trying to make a comfortable transition from a ukulele neck to the bass. I watched a lot of YouTube instructional videos about the bass. One of the things that caught my attention was a video about choosing between 4-, 5- and 6-string basses. Six string basses? No interest before that, but once I had the bug for bass, I wanted one. A new sort of challenge. A Kijiji ad caught my eye and I ended up with an inexpensive Ibanez 6-stringer a couple of weeks ago. It was my birthday present to myself. Hmmm. Did you know there are 8-string basses, too?
The Ibanez has a fretboard like an aircraft carrier, and after the ukulele, it feels massive and heavy. Even after the Epi, it's huge. But I'm enjoying the learning process. Some skills are slowly coming back to me, but I have to remember to dampen strings as well as pluck them. And work more on my scales. Drives Susan mad, though. Headphones, gotta remember to use the headphones. This weekend I started to teach myself to sight-read the bass clef. Tough new trick for an old dog... that will take a while to master. If I ever do.
My fingers are getting more calloused, but my heart isn't.
Now I have the bug, I am thinking about getting one really nice bass with a piezo pickup - a Turner would be very sweet, but it's a little more (okay, a lot more) than I can justify, so perhaps an Epiphone Zenith, maybe even the fretless model. Fretless would add an extra layer on that challenge. Or should I look to that Stagg EUB? Decisions, decisions - sadly hampered by having no money to speak of. Well, music is soul food, so it's worth investing in. Learning and playing fulfills a basic need in me. Have to start saving.
And on top of that I've been working on several new songs on the uke. I hope to record them this month for YouTube. Roll Along Prairie Moon... my friend Bill was here during the weekend of my birthday and we jammed on our ukes for much of his visit.
Meanwhile, I've been updating and rebuilding websites - my vintage ukulele music site is live now, and I'm working on a new look and many updates for my tequila site. Learning some of the new tricks in CSS3 and HTML5 has been interesting.
I've also been writing a lot, albeit not online, just on my laptop. Working on a fiction piece I began several years back - I really want to write fiction, although I'm not very good at it, but I enjoy the process. I've been puttering with three non-fiction books, one of which stems from a request to write a book about tequila. One of these books is complete, or is in an almost-final draft, depending on how it is received. The third is in the beginning phase, but I have a lot of paperwork to go through before I go much further. Some of this requires research, so I spend part of my time surfing for information and answers before I can write anything.
Plus I started writing a piece for my granddaughter, Hannah, based on Christine Cowley's work, The Gift. And there have been meetings, politics, work around the house, taking care of the dog and cats - so I haven't been on vacation, just otherwise occupied. I have several draft entries I've been dabbling with - some political content - perhaps I'll get them finished this weekend and post them.
I had wanted a bass for a while to accompany my ukulele playing and recording. Back in the 70s and 80s, I played a little bass when we jammed - mostly I played guitar - but I lost my skills after I sold my instruments and stopped playing. But when I turned to ukulele, I regained some skills, and wanted to again pick up the bass. I bought a Kala U-bass (reviewed on my ukulele site) but it didn't satisfy me, so I sold it and started looking at other options.
Uprights - double basses - are too big and clumsy for me at present, although I love the sound. Plus they're very expensive and my budget is quite modest. An electric upright from Stagg intrigued me, and was in a reachable price range, but I figured I should start with an inexpensive fretted electric bass guitar to relearn on, before I tackled a fretless upright model.
That led to a lot of thumping practice, and trying to make a comfortable transition from a ukulele neck to the bass. I watched a lot of YouTube instructional videos about the bass. One of the things that caught my attention was a video about choosing between 4-, 5- and 6-string basses. Six string basses? No interest before that, but once I had the bug for bass, I wanted one. A new sort of challenge. A Kijiji ad caught my eye and I ended up with an inexpensive Ibanez 6-stringer a couple of weeks ago. It was my birthday present to myself. Hmmm. Did you know there are 8-string basses, too?
The Ibanez has a fretboard like an aircraft carrier, and after the ukulele, it feels massive and heavy. Even after the Epi, it's huge. But I'm enjoying the learning process. Some skills are slowly coming back to me, but I have to remember to dampen strings as well as pluck them. And work more on my scales. Drives Susan mad, though. Headphones, gotta remember to use the headphones. This weekend I started to teach myself to sight-read the bass clef. Tough new trick for an old dog... that will take a while to master. If I ever do.
My fingers are getting more calloused, but my heart isn't.
Now I have the bug, I am thinking about getting one really nice bass with a piezo pickup - a Turner would be very sweet, but it's a little more (okay, a lot more) than I can justify, so perhaps an Epiphone Zenith, maybe even the fretless model. Fretless would add an extra layer on that challenge. Or should I look to that Stagg EUB? Decisions, decisions - sadly hampered by having no money to speak of. Well, music is soul food, so it's worth investing in. Learning and playing fulfills a basic need in me. Have to start saving.
And on top of that I've been working on several new songs on the uke. I hope to record them this month for YouTube. Roll Along Prairie Moon... my friend Bill was here during the weekend of my birthday and we jammed on our ukes for much of his visit.
Meanwhile, I've been updating and rebuilding websites - my vintage ukulele music site is live now, and I'm working on a new look and many updates for my tequila site. Learning some of the new tricks in CSS3 and HTML5 has been interesting.
I've also been writing a lot, albeit not online, just on my laptop. Working on a fiction piece I began several years back - I really want to write fiction, although I'm not very good at it, but I enjoy the process. I've been puttering with three non-fiction books, one of which stems from a request to write a book about tequila. One of these books is complete, or is in an almost-final draft, depending on how it is received. The third is in the beginning phase, but I have a lot of paperwork to go through before I go much further. Some of this requires research, so I spend part of my time surfing for information and answers before I can write anything.
Plus I started writing a piece for my granddaughter, Hannah, based on Christine Cowley's work, The Gift. And there have been meetings, politics, work around the house, taking care of the dog and cats - so I haven't been on vacation, just otherwise occupied. I have several draft entries I've been dabbling with - some political content - perhaps I'll get them finished this weekend and post them.
