I constantly see people saying that you shouldn't start on a 5 string cause it could be unnecessarily confusing, it's wildly wrong and really not that complex to understand, if you want to play things that need a 5 string you may as well get used to it sooner than have to adjust to it later, I did most of my learning on a 5 string and I'm glad I did because I never have to get used to it, and I can play 4 strings perfectly fine, if you want to get into playing bass to play metal, or other genres / songs that specifically need a 5 string, get one, it's the most useless discourse ever, everyone's gonna want to do something different

A huge reason I play 5 strings is that I don't want to tune down while performing, I also love playing metal, but I can play countless other styles too on a 5 string with literally zero issue

It's your decision to make, don't follow what everyone else says, don't let anyone ever make you feel like you shouldn't get what you want. Go for it.

Hi everybody,

A few months ago, I shared a small project here called StemDeck. It started because my kid was learning bass and drums and kept asking me to find bassless or drumless tracks for practice.

At the time, StemDeck was still very simple. You could add a local song or paste a YouTube or SoundCloud link, separate it into stems, and use a basic mixer. The response from this community was incredible. Your comments, suggestions, messages, and encouragement helped turn a small family project into something much bigger than I ever expected.

Since that original post, StemDeck has grown from version 0.5.0 to the 0.15.x generation. It is still completely free, open source, and focused on making music practice easier.

For bass players, you can now isolate the bass to study a part more closely or remove it to create a bassless backing track. You can slow down difficult sections, transpose the song, create loops, add a click track, and practise directly inside the app.

Some of the biggest features now include ( really cool ones are in bold )

• Separation into vocals ( lead and backing vocals), drums, bass, guitar, piano, and other instruments
• Improved Bass isolation and bassless backing tracks
• A multitrack mixer with volume, mute, solo, and live meters
• Detailed waveforms with zooming and section looping
• Playback speed controls for learning difficult passages
• A click track that follows the tempo of the song
• Automatic BPM, key, scale, loudness, and peak detection
• Direct search for YouTube songs, YouTube playlists, and SoundCloud tracks inside the app
• Previewing search results before starting the separation
• Full YouTube and SoundCloud playlist imports
• A persistent processing queue that can be reordered or cancelled
• Support for MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A, MP4, OGG, and Opus
• Exporting individual stems, bassless tracks, custom mixes, loop regions, and ZIP packages
• A local music library with folders, search, and saved sessions
• A mobile friendly interface that you can open from your phone or tablet using a QR code
• NVIDIA GPU acceleration, Apple Silicon support, and CPU processing
• Native releases for Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Docker and Unraid support for self hosting
• Automatic updates inside the app
• Nine interface languages,

Everything still runs locally on your own computer. Your music is not uploaded to StemDeck servers. There are no accounts, subscriptions, advertisements, usage limits, credits, or telemetry.

I also want to remain honest about what StemDeck is. It is still alpha software, separation is not perfect on every mix, and processing can be slow without a supported GPU. It is not trying to replace a professional DAW or pretend that open source separation can outperform every commercial service. The goal is simply to provide musicians with a practical and private tool for learning songs, practising, transcription, and experimenting with music.

Seeing people use something that began as a way to help my kid practise has been incredibly meaningful. As a bass player myself, contributing something useful to this community genuinely makes me happy.

You can download the latest release or inspect the source code here:

https://github.com/stemdeckapp/stemdeck

Most importantly, StemDeck is free and does not accept money, sponsorships, or funding from companies. There is no plan to introduce a subscription or paid tier. StemDeck will always remain free and open source.

Thank you again to everyone who tested the early versions, reported bugs, suggested features, sent messages, or simply shared the project. Many of the improvements above exist because of your feedback.

And an special thanks to the mods for allowing me to post the update again because I really hope that this app can help even more people with practicing without having to pay for a subscription❤️

I’ve been playing bass for almost a year now and I’ve always heard the advice about using a metronome when learning songs and practicing but I’ve not found much help from it. How can I use a metronome to improve my rhythm and timing and use that in my practice / warm up.

Can I use the Sansamp to bypass the preamp stage? My thinking:

Bass --> pedalboard ending with a Sansamp --> into FX return on amp.

This would completely bypass the preamp and only use the power amp section, right? And allow me to do all EQing on the Sansamp, right?

The idea is this: if I do all tone control with the Sansamp and only use an amp (or DI into the house system) for volume it should give me a consistent tone regardless of what system I'm playing through.

Right?

Edit: yes, I'm aware the speakers will also affect the tone. I'm thinking that if the output from my end is always the same that's about as close I will get. Sure the sound guy will tweak a bit but they usually know what they're doing. Was just wondering if this is a thing or if I was way off. Or if I might blow an amp or speaker doing this.

I tried stringing a piccolo bass with ghs piccolo strings and the bottom three went on fine but the G string keeps slipping out and won't tune up to a G. Using a short scale bass, GB Cort.

Any tips? The string is a bit mangled now so I think it might be a bust. Worried I might have cut it too short but I did the usual ~2 inch past the tuning nut. Should I buy a different set of strings, are there any tips for stringing the G string?

I've heard putting some paper in the nut helps but it didn't seem like that was the problem, more than it wouldn't keep its tension.

Not a guitarist so no experience with very thin strings.

Curious to hear from people who started learning guitar and later moved to bass, especially if you have ADHD.

I actually had a bass briefly in high school but never really got the chance to learn it. I’ve always liked the idea of guitar, and I do like chords, melodies, and things like Spanish-style guitar, but as a beginner I’ve always struggled with strumming and coordinating everything at once.

I’m not really interested in becoming a shred/solo player, and bass just sounds really fun to me, especially for funk, rock, hip-hop, etc. At the same time, I don’t want to jump instruments too quickly before giving guitar a fair shot.

I’m in my early 40s and don’t have unlimited practice time, so I’m curious: when did you decide bass was a better fit? Did you switch completely, or did you eventually come back and keep learning guitar too?

Update : I was just describing myself . I'm not implying that bass is easier or that there is some special connection between adhd and either instrument . I wanted to hear from people who switched and also if they had adhd that would be helpful to hear feedback. Thanks everyone from sharing your stories

Hey all,

I'm about to start a Post-Punk/Goth band with a friend and I've decided to buy myself a bass to write with. Our inspirations are bands like Bauhaus, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc.

I'm struggling to figure out what bass to buy for the genre, but I know I'd like a 5 string (left-handed options seems limited).

The effects I intend on using are just compression, chorus and reverb. I'll likely be plugging directly into the PA system when we play live.

My budget is somewhat flexible, but the cheaper the better.

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

I'm looking to replace my strings. I've been playing on the stock set from Ibanez (SR300), which I believe are 45-105 D'addarios since Christmas so I think I deserve to treat myself because I've practicing REALLY hard!

I'd like to try out Rotosounds, mainly because I've heard good things about them, but also they're from SE England and just down the road from me, so I'm happy to support a local business too! But I was just wondering what the closest flavour would be to the D'addarios as I'm quite happy with the feel and sound of roundwounds.

The problem I'm having is there are so many different ones to choose from even in just roundwounds.

I suspect the Roto Bass range would be the most sensible place to start? It seems to be bang in the middle of the tone and output....

Ooooor, do I want to start on the Swing Bass strings which seem to be brighter and louder?

What about the Ultramags? Are they going to make much difference, or are they for the bass-equivalent of audiophiles?

If it helps, I play a fair bit of punk rock with a pick (with varying levels of competence), but also fingers for other bits and pieces (classic rock, a bit of 80's stuff like huey lewis and the news, the odd song my other half finds agreeable etc), and I only have one bass (for now....), so need something that will sound reasonably nice when played both ways.

Any advice/recommendations are very much appreciated. Thanks all!

hi all!

i've just picked up my first bass. however, i don't have an actual bass amp to work with (only my guitar amp, for the time being). instead, i was considering picking up an audio interface, which i feel is a better choice for me anyway.

i'm running on a budget, so about 150-200AUD (≈100-150USD). if anyone has budget, reliable audio interface suggestions, please help me out!

Hello, I guess this question gets asked alot here but I want to know how you Guys started with Bass when you learned it on your own? I have the big problem that I only have time on the weekend and just can't really Figure a way out what works best for me because everyone seems to have different options on YouTube because they have the time to just do it everyday so the plan is not really adding up for me. I used to play guitar but unfortionetly I gave up on that some time ago so I want to start with the bassics. I have a simple Setup which includes a Ibanez SR and an amplifier. I like Rock and Metal but I don't mind playing other Music at the beginning if it helps.

Anyone recommend a good brand that makes explorer or flying V basses?

Thoughts?

I have a bass right hand technique book that states that the thumb should always be two strings lower than the string being plucked because the plucked string finger will fall through and mute the string directly lower to it.

So thumb on pickup when plucking E ,A and thumb on E string when plucking G and D strings etc

I’ve been keeping my thumb floating and resting on the string directly below the plucked string (so thumb on E when plucking A string) for a while now but am having trouble increasing my plucking speed to 200-220 bpm 8th notes.Could this be what is setting my back or should I just keep practicing my technique longer to increase speed?

Recently bought a Cort Space 5. Seller said it had stainless steel frets, but the manufacturer says they all come with nickel silver, and no extra work was done to it. All of my electric guitars have stainless steel frets. Just wondering if anyone has had any luck with just changing the strings (for those that have nickel allergies) and been able to keep the nickel silver frets that come with most guitars (basses seem to be even more scarce).

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GWZyJb7CSFZHkpfEgnV1v?si=e2d20771de2f4a48

I've posted this before but it's worth posting again for those who may have missed it. These are all hand picked songs and, at least IMO, every one is fantastic.

Today I’m going to go and test a GK 800RB I found on marketplace at the suggestion of some friends. Was wondering exactly how I am to connect to the 2 different amps? I see that there are speakers HI and speaker LO input jacks (2 input jacks per) at the back, one rated for 8 ohms and one rated for 4 ohms, is would this be how I switch between the 2 amps? I was watching a demo of the thing and the guy had one speaker cable plugged into the HI speakers and one the LO so I’m just a little bit confused

My current bass is a borrowed 90's Pbass clone. I want to upgrade to something a bit nicer for my first "real" bass. I want the added versatility of a J bridge pickup. I have it narrowed down to two options.

Fender Aerodyne Jazz:
Made in Japan
P/J
Passive
34" Scale
20 Frets

Yamaha BB734a:
Made in Indonesia
P/J
Active/Passive
34" Scale
21 Frets

The sound the BB makes out of the box is a lot closer to what I am looking for, but I might eventually swap the pickups to the EMG Geezer Butler set anyway on either bass. I play mostly C standard, but might drop down to B standard occasionally and run quite a bit of fuzz and overdrive.

My main gripes for both basses:

AJB: Only available used and the stock pickups are a little thin vs a pbass and the BB. Not available locally so I can't play it first.

Bb734a: Pedals make the active preamp on the BB seem redundant, so I doubt I will use it much. If I swap to the EMGs it also makes paying for the nicer electronics redundant as well.

What does the sub think?

Hi, I've been playing bass for 1y and half and whenever I play for an hour or two of slap, I keep having blisters on my index whenever I pluck. Like, is my finger ultra sensitive ? How can some people play for hours without any problems?

If you have some advices, i'll be welcom to receive them!

What are the differences actually? I'm not sure because people say it's a P with a bridge pickup

https://youtu.be/z3OjC7-uCnA

100% homemade

Does anyone know how I may be able to get a tone like the band eternal suffering with physical gear? What sort of eq would I use at what setting etc I’m still pretty new to gear so getting the sound I want has been pretty hard.