Bass Lust

Oh, man - my brain is on a totally  different wave length Zurf.  When I read the title of your post the first thing I thought of was lust for a 20" smallmouth bass.........

Are you still interested in my Ohio Valley acoustic, or has the 23" scale micro-bass now went to the top of the list?

DE

I too, was looking for a huge fish you might have caught or a fishing song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs_UHEzxSgg

Joey offered me a free guitar for converting to slide. I just very much liked the way that Ohio Valley felt and sounded. If you have another fish on the line who is willing to purchase, let me know. I don't want to put you on the spot, but that guitar just really felt and sounded like something worth having. I am specializing my guitars in the set-up. The Guild is set at moderate action with heavy strings for flat picking. The Breedlove (at least for now) is set with very low action and extra light gauge strings to help me with learning some of the Pop/Rock chords up the neck. The Takemine is the overall do everything guitar. And when I get the Ohio Valley guitar, I'm going to either set it for slide or swap the lineup position with the Breedlove - depending on how they feel. I'll try them each in each position and whichever sound and feel I prefer is what it will wind up.

And yeah, I've got some solid black metal framed sunglasses that are a cross between wayfarers and clubman style that would be just right for playing some blues on a porch.

I've been working on flatpicking some of the old style country gospel. It's not going very well, but I'm working it.

Sounds like a little piece of heaven, Dirty Ed. I'm going so slow with it that I'd be embarrassed to show up, except to listen in. There's a bit of method to my madness in that I am learning to play it while relearning to read, and studying how the notes fit together to make a melody. I need to relearn music to make any progress on violin - so it's two birds with one stone. Three if you count the theory work. But that does make it real slow progress. I like just banging out strummers for fun. The flat-picking is more of a learning exercise, and those old tunes in G or C are all read good ones.

Are you planning to go to Amy and Jim's in August?

That's a very different bass guitar than I've ever seen, Zurf ... 23" scale, eh? They're usually around a 34" scale, so it would feel weird for someone used to regular fret spacing. I also wondered about how "big" the voice would be on such a small box, but glad to hear it sounds good. My advice? Buy it!

Bass guitar is different from regular guitar. For the most part, unless you're playing some jazz fusion stuff, it's one note at a time. Also, the bass style that I like is not trying to run the show but to provide a foundation for the other musicians to build on. A really good bass player can not only keep the beat but also move the song along rhythmically while permitting the vocals to remain pure and simple. Jim Croce and Gordon LIghtfoot are examples of what I consider this style of bass playing (and interestingly - same guy playing bass on a lot of the songs).  But, bass can also create a riff that continues while keyboards and guitar are varying that theme all over the place. The Guess Who did that a lot, and Blood Sweat & Tears.

So, I'd say that playing bass is a whole different approach to making music than playing guitar. I find it easier, but it's where I come from. I've only ever played guitar in the way that you may have heard on my contributions to the Song Of The Month forum. Pretty much limited to country/folk style. But for bass, I've played orchestral music, show tunes, big band jazz, Dixieland jazz, blues, and Christian rock. And not only bass guitar, but also bass trombone, tuba, and upright bass. So I feel more comfortable being able to pick up a bass and make up a line that won't hurt the song and play with others than with guitar. But that's why I learned guitar in the first place. I mostly play alone in my basement office, and playing bass alone is kind of boring. The guys on the CD are going to do exactly the same thing every time and there is no spontenaity or connection. I much prefer when I'm in a band and the rhythm section locks in with one another and you've got rhythm guitar, percussion, traps, and bass all connected and creating an unassailable groove. That's heaven. But it's not something that happens alone. Whereas with guitar I can play alone (almost said play with myself) in my basement and still feel like I'm learning and improving and making music, or something that approaches it.