NickA

Doesn't sound like my Wal at all. Then again, mine has no frets and doesn't get played with a pick 🤔. More fun than a squire Jazz bass tho ...

I also pretty much use one fixed setting for everything on my active twin humbucker bass ... but that fixed setting needs two humbuckers, two active filters and a blend control! 😂. Amp dead flat EQ, no effects. Joe Dart seems to use a direct wired, usually single pickup, bass but a whole truck of off board processing. Many ways to kill a cat.

The realist sound clamp is also ok for Arco with a sufficiently hifi amp, I've used it on my cello too. Needs a fair bit of experimentation with placement, weights and tension though. I use a bit of bike inner tube twixt it and bridge to soften the sound too. Bit disappointed in the copperhead, as trying it at home it sounded great; then playing in a band it lacked treble. Found a little mixer in my bits and bobs cupboard and blended the sound clamp with the copperhead ..and that sounded really good.... at home anyway. But too much faff for me. As said, matching to the bass really matters!

Go active. Trouble with passives is that you're drawing current through the pickup, which robs the high frequencies. The more low pass filter you put in the worse it gets, plus you get a change in tone when you turn the volume knob down. Precisions aren't noted for tonal range, after all. Sure some people like all that, but you get a better tonal range with a few buffer amps. Or like NancyJohnson says .... straight to the (high impedance) amp and let the amp do the tone shaping. 😁

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So many people making Wal clones! Wals sound great, I live them myself,.. but you don't see anyone much playing them these days. Why the sudden enthusiasm?

I have a borrowed bass right now (1880s German, swell back, viol shape). It's set up purely for jazz (spiros, low action, no bevel on the fingerboard) it came fitted with both a shadow and a realist pickup. The shadow is really harsh and clacky ( the reason I stopped using my own shadow pickup), the copperhead has loads of warm bass but is very light on high frequencies. I took it out for a gig and tho the copperhead sounded lovely it had no projection. Ended up using my usual realist sound clamp .. still much darker than my own bass, but ok. So it's a very warm sounding bass.... but are copperhead pickups usually so bassy? I wondered if the idea is to use both pickups ( shadow and realist) through a mixer. Is that "a thing"? I'm sure plenty of people use just a copperhead tho.

For new laminate and hybrid basses in the uk you can't beat Bassbags.co.uk. But I doubt his shipping costs are cheap. For 2nd hand, thedoublebassrooom.com ... But that's a place you really need to visit to see & try.

Good tip. No-one in my orchestra does that! From Monday they shall! Think my mutebisna fake ( no Torte lettering !! ) but it works just fine.

Tough one... I realised you're in Norway after posting. I think it's a long jouney in the UK if I have to go 100km to see a bass! Hopefully someone here has played one; as just being the same construction as the Hora doesn't mean it's the same quality; some plywood basses are better than some hybrids. I guess it'shis one? https://www.danmusikk.no/arvada-db-820-kontrabass But if you go to Oslo at least you can try these for comparison: https://bassanova.no/butikk/kontrabass-1/3-4-4-4 ..or come on holiday to England, we have lots of bass shops within a distance you probably think of as a short walk 🙂 Good luck.

Whatever the recommendation, don't buy anything until you've tried it...and some others for comparison. Seems it's only available in Denmark, so I'm guessing it's Chinese made for a Danish import company. Unlikely anyone outside Denmark has one. Looks ok and certainly cheap for a hybrid. Bu, you might get a better / more interesting bass second hand ... and one that's properly set up too ; basses from Thomann etc generally need a lot of work doing to them to get he best sound.

I dropped my bass. Broken neck right up at the peg box. It's with Max at Tim Tofts...it could possibly be pinned and glued, but being well insured it's getting whole new neck. .. so while it's in the workshop and in pieces, I wondered about getting some new tuning machines to replace the bent and rickety ones it's always had. Looking around I don't see much on offer. These are lovely and just the job: https://www.mjbl.co.uk/double-bass-tuning-machines.... But over £500 even without a brass plate and the cost of fitting. These are modern versions of the "Tyrolean style" tuners on it now: https://www.thomann.de/gb/roth_junius_tyrolean_bass_machines_3_4g.htm. Only £48!! Must be rubbish surely. It will need the brass plate as the peg box is not pretty ( it always had a plate over it and hence there are many screw holes.) Has anyone replaced their tuning machines? Any recommendations?

My phase switch only has two positions ... On & Off. IE reverse and not reverse. Hard to have a partial reverse. I guess you're talking about some kind of digital phase shift thing?

..yup. reckon I've broken even on my payments to Allianz over the decades. They'll win in the end tho.

phase switch will sort it ..but it sounds a bit weird to the player as the amp cancels out the bass itself. best bet is getting the singer turned down to a lower volume!