hikari (etc) ๐ใฉใฃใกใฉใฃใกใใใ
currently feeling like โก is closest to on-brand, โฃ a close second, โ is stealing an oomf's swag too much (โฃ has a little of that problem too), and โข is honestly the coolest but would hikari_no_yume really buy a guitar without the woodgrain showing through. would she really
secret fifth and most likely option (โฃ๐
ฑ๏ธ): the rosewood fretboard with white pearloid inlays version of โฃ. as much as we like how black block inlays on maple necks look, the roasted maple necks on โก and โฃ in some photos look so dark that the inlays look bad instead
look at this cute little 4-frame looping animationโฆ thank you DHL
the last tracking update on this package was โDie Auslandssendung wurde an DHL รผbergeben und wird fรผr den Weitertransport in das Zielland/Zielgebiet vorbereitetโ, and it was well over 48 hours ago. that's unusual. no indication it was processed for export or is on its way yet huh
either they already processed it for export and sent it on its way to sweden and somehow didn't provide the usual tracking update for this, in which case we may get it friday (i.e. within ~42h) assuming postnord get it today, or it's stuck in the warehouse and it'll take a week
sorry i'm sleep deprived and have package tracking autism
ooh!! as of twelve minutes ago, โDie Auslandssendung wurde an DHL รผbergeben und wird fรผr den Weitertransport in das Zielland/Zielgebiet vorbereitet.โ again, but now in Regensburg instead of Kitzingen. maybe things will speed up now
DHL is still having a normal one, what is even going on down there. it's been more than 90 hours since they got the package and it still hasn't been processed. in normal circumstances it'd have arrived by now
!! 1.5h ago it was processed for export in Hamburg and is now on its way to Sweden yayyy
okay well normally when the last tracking update is โDie Sendung wird ins Zielland/Zielgebiet transportiert und dort an die Zustellorganisation รผbergeben.โ the shipment shows up in the destination country within like 24 hours or one working day. but now it's Tuesday. sighhh
PostNord got it half an hour ago, it arrives tomorrow, phew
carrying this box up the steps I was surprised by how light it felt. 7.68kg (lots of packaging material?) isn't that much when distributed over such a large area and gripped by two hands apparently. I'm sure the instrument itself will not feel so light though
Thomann are serious about packaging, this is double-boxed (inner box is Sire's) and the outer Thomann box has half-centimetre-thick cardboard with those huge metal staples
ooh I like the design of the Sire box, it can be opened non-destructively by cutting a single piece of tape, and the top cups the whole circumference of the bottom part, so on one of the axes it's effectively triple-boxed
SILICA GEL
DESSICANT
THROW AWAY
ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY
TOP DRY ๐๐ฎ๐ตยฎ
GEL DE SILICE
No Manges Pas
DESSICANT
SILICA GEL
Jangan Dimakan
Serap Lembab
Niet Om te eten
actually for the real silica gel sickos out there there's this huge one packed in with the bass itself. mm. i wonder if this is Om Te eten. i wonder if i should Manger
and finally (after removing both the outer plastic bag and inner polystyrene wrapping), the instrument itself. so shinyโฆ
torturing our kitchen scale suggests the following weights:
guitar: ~3.4kg
bass: ~4.4kg
will need to try a potentially more reliable measuring device later (wii balance board)
both of these bodies look more vibrant to this camera than they actually are, but this may give you an idea. the back of the bass is so dark, almost black, but if you're close to it you can see this redness to it that, because it's so dark, comes across as very rich
anyway gosh satin neck with fret finishing that puts our main guitar to shame, this would get 5/5 on the sock test I am certain
โso hikari, as a guitarist, how are you adjusting to bassโ
wdym adjust
just in case: that was a joke.
you can play rhythm guitar on bass but dear god you need skull-crushing fingers for that even without trying barre chords, and you also will have the lower strings droning and causing trouble (in this case, the edge of our hoodie is muting them)
5-string bass impressions:
- it does of course want to neck dive but we can sit with it very comfortably if we balance it on our right leg, crossed over our left leg, with our right arm (which has our picking hand) holding it down. that must have been what we did in the music store. the funny thing is we can't sit with it comfortably without being crosslegged, unlike for our guitar
- that lowest string makes everything more annoyingโฆ
there's this metallic, almost flanger-like resonance on the two deepest strings, particularly the E string, that I really don't like. I'm not entirely sure if this is normal
โadmit it, hikari, what you really want is an upright bassโ
i have no idea what you are talking about.
basses are dangerously fun instruments. they don't want you to know this. last time someone told us this, they got got
i have less than five days remaining to decide whether i want to keep this bass and i think i'm leaning towards "sending it back" because, as nice as it may be, 1) why the hell did i buy it to begin with; 2) it's a bit of a distraction from the whole "guitar" thing. but idk
can i speedrun learning to slap in like two days. if so then maybe i can keep it
the bass was very nice and i was honestly leaning towards keeping it, but this was the last day i could return it and some quick investigation found a particularly frustrating high fret, so alas, 'twas not to be, i said my goodbye o7
Joyces๐ต๐๐ธ๐๏ธ๐@hikari ime learning to slap is relatively straightforward on a properly set up bass. learning to mute the ringing strings, however... that takes a while
@hikari no don't say it! that's how you get got!
@hikari that might settle down with some playtime on the new strings, it's not uncommon to get some weird resonances on unplayed bass strings
Nina Kalinina@hikari thanks for the clarification, I almost had a heart attack
@hikari ...sock test?
@joyces the way youtube guitar nerd Phillip McKnight tests for fret sprout and sharp fret ends. he puts a very thin sock on his hand, runs it up and down the edges of the fretboard, and then shows the viewer how much the sock got torn up
@hikari ahhhhhh gotcha. and now that i have done some more reading i see that "fret sprout" was the reason i turned down that other bass i looked at, good to know