Welcome @woody1071
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Hi Iâm Mike and Iâm new to playing bass and new to this forum (feels like the start of a Bassist Anonymous session). Iâm 66 and live in the Highlands of Scotland and have been meaning to get into bass for years now. Finally bought an âelectro acousticâ Fender CB60SCE in the spring which has a lovely sound but needed some work doing on it as the action was way too high. Whilst I do love it I have developed arthritis in my pinky fretting finger which was giving some serious pain so more recently I have picked up an Ibanez SRMD200D which is much easier on the fingers. Both are medium scale 32" instruments as my old fingers struggled to make the stretches and with my pinky on the way out thatâs not going to get any easier.
Iâm currently quite pleased with my progress doing some on line courses at TalkingBass and, with the arrival of the Ibanez, going down a bit of a rabbit hole of gear purchases. Pedals come nextâŚ
Joined this forum as my searches for best gear choices kept taking into these pages.
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Thanks. Funnily enough I made the decision to join whilst browsing the thread on straps and your posts on there were some of the first I saw!
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Great to have you here @HighlandBass !!
Stretch no more!
Check out the Smandl technique (below) and/or microshifting (simply moving your hand so the ring finger does the work, etc) and give your pinky a break.
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Thanks. Iâm mostly using micro shifting and only using the pinky when unavoidable. It can still do it and strapping it helps so itâs not the end of the world. The problem when I do use it is that the discomfort means I donât hold the string quite as firmly and am liable to get fret buzz. But the electric has helped there as I can get the action quite low. Might actually try to see just how low I can take it and then play lightly with a bit more volume.
Currently I am tending towards the Simandl in that video playing the pinky and ring together but actually I wasnât rigid on the the whole on finger per fret. That said if Iâm playing a walking bass line it can be very difficult to avoid using the pinky.
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I am a very Smandl player. My pinky is super tiny and uber useless.
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Welcome @HighlandBass! If you have TalkingBass, the Bassic Fundamentals course has great info on the fretting hand in module 2. I felt like this combines a lot of the options that are mentioned in videoâs like Joshâs and others. 
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Hey everyone! 
Itâs 'Sabel here.
Iâve been a semipro/pro drummer for a long while, started playing at 14. and I picked up the bass at around 20. Sadly I skipped a few years, but here I am.
I learned a crash course of music theory (up to voiceleading and major/minor modal scales) on piano but never really had any practical use of that lurking knowledge.
My goal is to eventually switch to bass as a main instrument and to write my own music.
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Welcome, @Sabel. Glad youâre here. Follow Joshâs lead and all your past music experience will serve you well. Enjoy!
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