This is my first bass.

[kitekrazy]

View attachment 2156

There we go. That's the best I can do for now. I hate digital cameras.

 

[maddog]

Very Nice!

 

[tkarter]

Nice bass and it does look like it will do a killer job of laying down the bottom.

Keep playing and enjoy. Now if you really feel you have terminal GAS and you thought you were going to get help for that here. Well, let's just say "Fat Chance".



tk

 

[strummer]

Thanks for the welcome. The action doesn't bother me at all.

What's the best way to mute the other strings when playing?

The best way is to use some part of one of your hands not currently busy with fingering or plucking.
*Plays to see how I do it*
I use right pinky and left middle finger the most, but also the rh palm on the pinky side and any fingers on my left hand that are not busy.
Oh, and the finger that just plucked a string lands nicely on the next thicker string, too.

Good luck and Welcome! That Sub sure looks good!

 

[Golem]

........ You will find a variety of opinions here on most everything except EB quality. tk

There's some variety. Some say it's astounding for the price, others say it's unmatched at any price

But mainly, welcome.

BTW, if you do have the passive model, realize that it's not lesser, it's very special. Some folks are just nutzo over passive tone. Never before in all the decades of MusicMan was there ever offered a passive bass featuring the great MusicMan humbucker. And now there is.

 

[Golem]

.............GAS just doesn't stop there. But if there is a Betty Ford Clinic for GAS. I need to check in. Last summer sales people at Sam Ash use to call me when they had a sale.

Guitar Center and Sam Ash, they all know me. It's like lions waiting for weak prey.

Nah. They are just fat mosquitoes. Make you itch, take a little blood. But THIS PLACE, this is the lions for sure ....

An easy toe-in-the-water gas-wise is a new pickguard. Moonstone? Reddish torty? You aren't ever supposed to choose your own y'know. It's like your tribal name. The elders of the community will hash it out and give you the news

 

[Golem]

You know, that is a great question. We old bassists don't even think about that business - it's such a part of playing that we (I would think) never consider it.

You'll figure out your own methods, but for me, it's my fretting hand, mostly. I use parts of it somehow to keep unwanted strings from chiming in. I also notice that when I'm playing on the D or G strings, I tend to use my right hand as well.

I've actually never tried to explain it! This is hard.

Jack

I feel exactly the same as Jack. But I'll make this observation:

If any real learning is involved at all, it's not learning which little body parts will do the muting. Idle body parts will just trade off the job amongst themselves when not involved in fretting or plucking.

The learning [if any] is in noticing which strings are ringing and when, and focusing one's 'second mind' on stopping the ringing of particular strings from moment to moment. Once you have a semi-awareness of just what needs doing, the "how-to" seems to just fall naturally to the available fingers, heal of hand, palm, whatever ....

 

[kitekrazy]

So does anyone here who plays a 5 string stick with the standard tuning?
I read where some will actually tune the low B up to an E and tune the other strings up a 4th.
Do some tune the 5th string to a different note like D and leave the rest as E A D G?

Does anyone lick to use a pick sometimes? What type of picks to use?

I don't think I've really heard a 5 string in action. What recordings are out there?

 

[tkarter]

I stick to the standard tuning. Or I will tune to Bb Eb Ab Db Gb. If you are referring to some who tune up so they have a high C I am sure there are some that do.

My advice since you are a guitar player. Forget that and when you have a bass in your hands play the bass. That B is something to get below the guitar player with. The groove is there I promise you.

This is a personal opinion. Not meant to mean anything other than what written.

Opinions are like? We all know.

I played a guitar 25 years before picking up a bass. I got on the bass life changed. I changed.

Mostly that means I stink at playing bass but love to try.

tk

 

[Mobay45]

Paul's Bongo 5 that he just sold was tuned to E A D G C. I tried to play it last Friday and it drove me nuts! Great sounding bass though.

I keep all three of my 5ers tuned to B E A D G. That's the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it.

 

[midopa]

Yeah, different strokes. I know Bassmonkeee has tuned one of his Bongos that way. I tried it on a fiver I had before and didn't dig it as much.

 

[tkarter]

Yeah, different strokes. I know Bassmonkeee has tuned one of his Bongos that way. I tried it on a fiver I had before and didn't dig it as much.

When you get old like me. Different Strokes just means something entirely different than you meant.

tk

 

[kitekrazy]

Should be an interesting experience when it comes time to change the strings. I've changed strings at least 6x on guitars and have moments of retardness doing that.