Welcome to the January '26 diary

I don't know why I don't change my strings more often. The truth is, they don't stay in good shape for more than 2 months.
Well, I know I'm not the only one, for some reason bass players are lazy about changing strings. Is it an old tradition, because I think strings were expensive a long time ago?

I used to use Ernie Ball strings. There's nothing wrong with them, but now that I've been playing for a couple of years, I'm starting to know a little bit about how I want my bass to sound. I bought Dunlop strings yesterday and they sound really good. They also feel like they're easier to play.

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The famous bass player in this anecdote is James Jamerson, the legendary Motown session musician known for his work on countless hits in the 1960s and 1970s (like "My Girl" by The Temptations and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). He passed away in 1983.The story comes from a 1965 recording session for The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go," where Motown engineer Mike McLean asked Jamerson what strings he was using.

Jamerson replied, "whatever came on the bass."

This was an offhand comment, but it stuck because Jamerson was infamous for rarely (if ever) changing his strings unless one broke—he believed the accumulated dirt and "gunk" helped preserve his signature funky tone. He played a 1962 Fender Precision Bass (nicknamed "The Funk Machine") with heavy-gauge flatwound strings, and he kept the same set on it for nearly 20 years, making the instrument quite old and worn by the end. This approach contributed to his distinctive, muted sound that defined so much of Motown's bass lines.

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P.S. I don't change my strings that often either, I think mine are about 3 years old :D I have a set of extra thin gauge Billy Gibbons strings waiting to be put on, but I am lazy as F , I'll probably do it when one of the strings breaks B)

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I have trouble getting the bass to come through under the guitar sound if the song requires tuning the strings to D. New strings help a lot.

Well, it's also because I'm not good at mixing. Sometimes it's annoying because there's a guitarist on Wikiloops who makes good songs, but I fail every time when mixing bass into his songs. I usually leave those songs unmade.


Well, I have to study Wikiloops for other things too. I've been looking for an hour for a button to make an album in Wikiloops. I found the edit button, but not the next button. I'm still looking for it. The battle continues..😁

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Depends on what sound you're trying to achieve, but I think that for recording bass, new strings (means: 2-3 days old) are quite good, especially if you're using roundwounds. With flatwounds (see TeeGee's answer about James Jamerson), age doesn't matter that much.



First thing I do with each and every track in a recording is to add a low-cut, even on bass. Its deep E string is at about 41Hz, everything under that is to be considered garbage, so get it out. For Drop-D (which I never used), you'll have to look that up yourself.

The most important "opponent" in bass recording is actually the bass drum; you'll have to separate these two.

Guitar (the normal one, not drop-d) needs nothing below some 80Hz, and so on.

And bass likes compression to get it a bit fatter, and to feel the bass as well as hearing it. It also gains from harmonics (I mean harmonic distortions, not flagiolets here) like in tube preamps and such, these are the things which makes a bass "heard" against other instruments like guitars and such, so try to use a tube preamp or amp where you can get off a signal in addition to plugging it into an interface or mixer directly. There are also plugins which do this, a good and free one (both in cost and in freedom) is the one by guitarix called GX-SVT (after the famous Ampeg amp with the same name), but that's for Linux only.

I personally do it two ways - direct in only (but with compression) like in #300426 - and/or with a (transistor) preamp (Tech21 Samsamp SVT-DI) like in #245196 or #245209 or newer ones.

Hope this helps, and cheers,
Wolfgang

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I always cut everything below 40 hertz from the bass first. I also cut the highs a little.

I also try to separate specific parts of the bass to be loud and on the other hand I try to reduce parts that sound muddy.

If I cut the bottom end of the guitar sound, I cut it at 180 hertz or start reducing the decibels from there.

To use a Finnish saying, I always climb to tree with my ass first. Meaning.. I always use longest and hardest way. So i try to press all the buttons in random order and hope that I can hear the bass. 😂


By the way, I just found an interesting ad where a band was looking for a bass player. I sent them a message, let's see what happens.

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Antti,
having your bass not cut through doesn`t always mean that you have a general problem with low cuts and/or eq`ing. To a large degree it also depends on what speaker environment you`re listening to the track.

The same track can sound extremely different on your phone, your car stereo, your studio headphones etc.

If you`re using your phone or tablet, most bass notes will only cut through if you add a slight distortion to the bass and amplify the resulting upper frequencies so that the bass notes actually make it past the threshold of your hardware.

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It's funny how the mind works (well mine anyway) when you start to research for lyrical inspiration. I wanted to add a vocal to a ukulele song, I found that a ukulele is called a 'Jumping Flea' so then I researched jumping fleas and found they had superhuman qualities... then I researched other creatures that could do amazing things... and so it went on. It's not at all what I imagined a classic Blues lyric would be but it's really fun to let storylines develop in this way. Ever heard of the Butterfly or Domino effect ?.... ever heard of Chinese whispers ? Chains grow and deviate. Ooh I can't carry on now so I'll leave those thoughts dangling :D

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The weekend is approaching and I am starting to get exited. But, too many things I want to do, but not enough time, starting this afternoon :O

Play my guitar
Go to the gym or at least do a 5k run
Fix my son's car
Get electric connection to workshop sorted
Finish modifying the lathe
Start taking BSA motor apart
Start taking Norton motor apart
Go to post office to return some Amazon stuff
Watch Manchester United lose another game
Start working on Mrs. Gee's lamp that she wants done (!)
Finish honing cylinders and measure pistons
+ about 10 other jobs waiting to get done.

OMG so much to do, I really need to retire so I can get it all done ;)

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Wait until you're retired - you'll have less time than before :D

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I've made a start for you TeeGee, A poem to guide you though the weekend ;)

So many things for TeeGee to do
So little time to do them too
Fix his Son's car, play a guitar and watch a football game.
Life is so hectic, connect the electric then alter that lathe, it's insane
Two motorbikes to take apart
You really don't know where to start
Cyllinders, pistons, then run for your life
if you don't do that lamp for your darling wife
A trip to the gym? well it's good that you're trying
And no more returns if you watch what you're buying
Your life is a poem that will not rhyme
There's never enough of that stuff you call time

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At Christmas time I could barely hear anything with my left ear. When the horrible humming stopped after two weeks, I noticed that I could hear a little better again.

I went to the hospital today because my hearing aid was ready. New tests showed that my hearing has improved a lot. I don't need a hearing aid after all.

Although I can't hear perfectly, I can hear well. This is fine, I'm really happy.

The nurse said that she hasn't seen such an improvement in over five years.

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Retirement? Whats that?

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This is the result of my weekend planning (a weekend in a life):

Play my guitar - oh dear did not :O

Go to the gym or at least do a 5k run - actually did a 6.7 km run in the woods!

Fix my son's car - yep, success, too!! Runs as good as it can. Electrical problem.

Get electric connection to workshop sorted - yep, done that, all done. No chickens were harmed.

Finish modifying the lathe - still waiting on parts, so not really progress. However when connected the used electric motor to the frequency converter it emitted a very annoying high frequency sound. Terrible!! Got to do something about that.

Start taking BSA motor apart - no :(
Start taking Norton motor apart - oh dear, nothing done

Go to post office to return some Amazon stuff - did it, and got the refund ;)

Watch Manchester United lose another game - that was the surprise of the year, not only did we win, we actually played well, too. UNBELIEVABLE!!

Start working on Mrs. Gee's lamp that she wants done (!) - oh nooooo I am in trouble!!

Finish honing cylinders and measure pistons - did a little bit, emailed the piston manufacturer with pictures and measurements. I bought these pistons 35 years ago, how dare they not have rings for them anymore :O . Fingers crossed, maybe they do.

"+ about 10 other jobs waiting to get done.":

*managed to source and book flights for the coming holiday. As I love to eat fish, we are going to Sardinia woohoo :W
*cleaned the workshop
*wrote some emails regarding technical stuff
*bought some things online
*researched the net regarding legal requirements of building a shed in the garden
*watched a little TV

That's it...I can't say it was a complete success weekend, but I still got quite a lot done...

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Tuesday 20 Jan
When I look at TeeGees diary entry I realise that my life is quite boring at the moment. I've been stuck indoors for ages as I can't walk (one bad foot) without pain but I went out today as I thought it was getting better, I even found a walking stick for support and padded my shoes with 2 pairs of socks. I got where I was going but I couldn't get back without finding places to rest and crawling along at snail's pace - now I'm right back to square one with the pain again <&*$?("

My football team didn't do as well as TeeGees either last Saturday and they have another match tonight. Just when I think they're getting better they let us down again, no consistancy... a bit like my foot problem :(

I've been having a bit of a HipHop week. It's a good genre for me as it's not really singing but it's very lyrical. I'm struggling with all the remixes I have lined up... so much new music coming up now. I renewed my membership because one freebe remix a week was too frustrating :o

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