Andyalfa

I just got me a copy of this album and I concurr, Ink in the Well is Awesome. Hoever, Danny is only credited as playing on that one track. Might be better to download just that tune, if that's what you're getting the album for. That said, the rest of it is pretty good anyway. David Sylvian has one hell of a voice.

I get about 3-4 months out of mine, but it gets fairly light use. 2 hour practise with the band a week, one or two gigs a month plus the odd bit of noodling at home if we've got a new number to learn. That reminds me though, when I plug in earphones in for silent practise, I get an awful hiss from the pre-amp. Anyone else get this?

I saw Hot Club of Cowtown on Jools not long ago. Awesome slapping. Nice to see the bass player getting the round of applause after his solo.

By the way, thanks for the suggestions. It's amazing how quickly you can get up to £25 these days...

So, having taken ages to work my way round the HMV site and carefully made my choices, I find that I can't use my gift voucher online and have to go to a store instead. Bl00dy marvellous. Given my selection was anything but top 40 pop dross, what are the chances that my nearest store (Nuneaton) will have heard of, never mind carry any of the titles I want? Looks like a trip into the main store in Leicester or maybe Manchester when we are away for a short break soon. Oddly, I was able to order and pay for a book in Waterstone’s using a gift voucher, even though they are part of the same group. Go figure.

Life begins at 40 they say, so to celebrate my 10th birthday, I received a £25 voucher from HMV and am keen for some recommendations on what to buy. I love double bass and alreay have a good selection of stuff by Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Pault Chambers, Charles Mingus etc, but I was looking to expand in to work by contemporary DB players like Danny Thompson and Christian McBride. I just added the David Sylvian CD to my basket after reading the rave reviews about Danny Thompson's playing in a recent thread, but was hoping for some more gems that I've yet to find.

Don’t give up, hang on in there. I play in a “mature" (as in age) covers band and we did a wedding the other week. Set one was awful. Very few people in the room to start with and most of those had slowly drifted out by the end. We were getting thoroughly demoralized. It was only when we took our break we realised the situation. It was the first day in ages that had been bright and sunny, so everyone was outside drinking and chatting and enjoying the fresh air. We also noticed that there was a boys v girls footy match going on, with the bride playing a full part (wedding dress rolled up and wearing trainers), running round like a loony. How could we compete against the weather and entertainment like that? We delayed the start of our second set until it was dark and suddenly it all kicked off. We had the whole crowd jumping and dancing for the full 50 minutes. It was magic. It was like playing two different gigs. The thing I learned is that it’s not always your fault when a gig goes badly or no-one is watching. There may be other factors involved. Hang on to the fact that when people ARE there, they love to hear you play.

My bass hangs around belt buckle hieght. Recently I realised that the increasing beer gut altered the angle so I could no longer see the fretboard. A diet ensued...

Might be worth looking at one of these, though it wound change the EQ, just the relative volumes. [url="http://redonionsolutions.co.uk/AB/ABVol.htm"]http://redonionsolutions.co.uk/AB/ABVol.htm[/url]

+1 for Danny Thompson. What TONE. He did a brief solo, backing the Blind Boys of Alabama on Jools Holland which makes the hairs on my neck stand on end every time I hear it. He was also in a band called Pentagle, a top notch jazz/folk combo back in the late 60's. There was some footage of them on BBC4 recently showing yet another wonderful solo from Mr Thompson. Another contemporary to watch out for is Christian McBride. I acquired a recording of [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fingerpainting-Herbie-Hancock-Christian-McBride/dp/B0000047FK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1249545173&sr=1-1"]Fingerpainting: The Music of Herbie Hancock[/url] featuring Mr McBride, Nicholas Payton and Mark Whitfield. This is a cracking album from a virtuoso player. Well worth a listen. This thread is proving interesting reading. I currently have a Stagg EDB and while I was playing it last night, it all kind of gel'd. For the first time I felt like I actually "got" the instrument. of course, that's now started me thinking about getting a proper double. I know we haven't got the room, but I have abig birthday coming up and they look and sound soooo sexy...

I swap between my passive P and a Stagg electric upright with an active pre-amp. Both go through my Ashdown ABM. I use the passive/active button and the flat/shape button then swap instruments via an A/B foot switch. In a gig situation, that seems to manage the job fairly well. Both instruments sound so different to each other, slight variations in EQ don’t make a great deal of difference as far as the audience is concerned.

Depends what you mean by play, really. If it's play as in CD, it's usually something dubby/trancy like Jah Wobble or Bill Laswell. If it's play as in bass, it's inevitably blues. Usually something by Muddy Waters.

Hi. As Maxcat says, I had a rattly endpin which I fixed with bubble wrap. The details should be in the Stagg mega thread around page 12 or 13 I think. +1 on the damping too. I have a block of foam between the bridge and the tailpiece as well. A sock worked fine, but leaves you open to a bit of ribbing from the drummer. Being quite tall, I have the end pin almost all the way out, and although it flexes a bit during enthusiastic playing, it shouldn't feel loose and move about too much. If that's what is happening, you should get it checked.

I got into Ray Brown rather belatedly last year after a tip off from someone on Head-Fi forum. If you like him, it may be worth chacking out Ron Carter, Christian McBride and Paul "Kind of Blue" Chambers. These are the guys that persuaded me into the murky world of the Upright Bass.

Rather belatedly, here are the pictures of the stand in action, as promised. The first is folded, next to the Stagg in a Bag. [attachment=22476:stagg_1.jpg] Here it is set up. [attachment=22477:stagg_2.jpg] This one shows the bass in place [attachment=22478:stagg_3.jpg] A close up of the neck bit [attachment=22479:stagg_4.jpg] And the bottom. [attachment=22480:stagg_5.jpg] Both the neck bit and the bottom rest are height adjustable. I have it set to the end pin is just above the floor.