Some pals of mine has asked if I can fill in on bass for them on a bunch of dates in October. Coincidentally, I bought a cheap Ibanez Talman last week to use on home recordings. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to enjoy being tuned down to C, which conjures all kinds of rattling from the bottom string. Is there anything I can do besides pick up a Drop/Pitchfork?
I also need the cheapest possible little practise amp. All suggestions gratefully received!
Finally, what's the best way to learn relatively complex songs? For the tracks they've done videos for I've found it helpful to utilise YouTube's slow mo feature, but other than that I'm worried I'll struggle with weird time signatures and such.
Comments
For a cheap practise amp if you can find a used one the Line 6 Lowdown 110 (now discontinued) was pretty cool.
Other than that Roland Cubes are worth a look.
Personally i would sell it, get something with a standard scale and a bass string set with at least a 125 on the low string.
I love peavey microbass amps, bargains.
Overall with the cost involved in getting something decent and the work involved you are better off passing on these gigs unless the money is really good or you genuinely want to play bass and woodshed these tunes.
I doubt that a Digitech Drop will work properly on bass, but if you can try one before you buy (or buy second hand at a good price so you don't lose money if it doesn't) it may be worth a go.
You'll get a cheap "bass" 15 or 20W practice amp for about £30 to £40, but don't expect it to be worth using except for *very* quiet bedroom practice - any more than that and the speaker tends to flap alarmingly… especially if you're tuned that low. The Fender Rumble might be an exception - it has a very effective limiter to prevent that.
Surprisingly, you can often pick up much higher-powered amps second hand for not a lot more, if they're both medium-powered (around 50-100W, too little to be taken seriously as a giggable amp now) and heavy, which a lot of old mid-price ones tend to be. If you don't have to carry it anywhere or turn it up too far you'll get a far better sound out of something like this, especially for very low tunings. Look at Laney, Peavey, Trace Elliot etc.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Even if you did, it's not an expensive job really, in the context of the price of a typical instrument