Tonefiend Forum

Yeah it had some issue ,that's how it ended up in the attic before I stole it off the side of the road.Placed there as junk , I took it home plugged it in and turned it on.Worked fine and has ever since without a single problem.

Quote from Double D on October 21, 2012, 23:46
I've taken to applying a piece of duct tape just north of the bridge on my terrible Indonesian Squire J-bass.

You mean, you put the tape across the strings like a mute? (??)

Wasn't it Victor Wooten who'd play with a hairband near the nut to mute the strings?

Way back in the late 70s, when I was in high school, a friend said to me, "hey, you play guitar, you could probably play bass, right?" Well, the gig was for a band of "older guys" (in their 20s) who played at actual bars, so I said "fuck yeah!".
At the time, I thought it was just plain wrong to play bass with a pick. Plus the music was like covers of Bread, Skynyrd ballads (like "Tuesday's Gone"), etc, as the singer dude avec-mustache was a crooner. So I practiced and learned to play bass somewhat like a bass player, that is to say, two fingers plucking, as was appropriate for the late 70s.
Two problems arose at the first gig. One, needless to say, no matter how much practice one does, one plays harder at a gig. So blisters formed pretty fucking fast. But I was 16 or 17 and there was beer, so I was ok there.
Two, I was playing a borrowed bass, from the bass player in my other high school band where I played guitar, and it was a '65 Rickenbacker. Which wasn't thoroughly the best bass for the gig, tone wise, but had the additional attribute of having this weird pickup ring around the bridge pickup that had points on the inner edge each corner. It *was* supposed to have a cover attached in the gaps between them. These points... well, blisters hitting them while playing was extremely painful.
Nevertheless, I persevered and tried to continue to play bass as a bassist would. I don't really have the muscleature for it, though. I played some fretless outside jazzy improv in college, again on a borrow bass. I finally got a P-Bass, from a bassist who swore she would only ever play upright, still have that one, and I record with it—fingers, still.

Started on guitar but lately I've been on bass about as much as guitar. I always use a pick but then my favorite "real" bass players are guys like Simon Gallup and Peter Hook. For me the best bass sound is a Fender bass hit hard with a pick into a just breaking up Ampeg.