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Four strings down


bassace
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I took my German Blonde Ply to an outside gig yesterday. It does all the outside stuff because it's more resistant to rain than the carved basses. Set up the amp, bass out of cover, plugged in and just a soggy sound from the strings. It immediately became obvious that the tail wire was about to go. This is the second time it's happened on a German; the older basses were fitted with quite soft wire.

So I took it back home and picked up the Martin and got back to the gig for the second set - 50 mins round trip. They said they got on quite well without a bass!

This morning I looked on line and found that Martyn Bailey does a tail wire kit and while I was about it I thought I'd treat the bass to a new tailpiece as well; the wire is included. But I found that he's on holiday for two weeks and I've got another outsider next weekend.

On the offchance I phoned George Martin who took the call from the back of a horse! Told me to go and see the guys in the workshop and they would fix me up with some cable and a cleat. Which they did for a bag of donuts.

On the way out I saw Tom Martin and it was good to have a chat with him. He's doing mainly teaching right now but there will be some more international stuff soon. He said that when he started out he never dreamed that the double bass would take off in the way that it has. He was interested to hear about the Bass Bash and asked me to keep George in the loop. I wonder whether I can persuade him to come.

So, back home and the tailwire was fitted by 3 o'clock and I have a fully working bass again.

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