Noel, Mario...

Thank you very much gentlemen the MIDI directions worked just fine.

Noel, Tip #3 was exactly what I needed in the equation - additional thanks for the link to Kenny G's Reaper MIDI stuff on YouTube. I'll be taking notes as I watch it...

Mario, the bass did have a natural decay. It faded away at the perfect time, about 2 bars after the ending note sounded.

As my hand's arthritis events increase, MIDI guitar and bass keep looking better and better! I am very happy with the results/sound of the Ample Sound virtual stringed instruments. But getting those results has been frustrating at best - the manual isn't good, key switches and other piano roll articulations seem to differ depending which DAW one is using - and nobody has developed a cheat sheet for using Ample Sound products in Reaper yet. Their You Tube training videos are mainly targeted to Cubase users and keyboard players. And communicating with the folks in China who developed the Ample Sound software isn't easy. But sticking with it has brought me to a point that I'm beginning to get acceptable results.

just an old analog dog tryin' to learn new tricks...