Gareth Hughes

[quote name='thunderbird13' post='1148374' date='Mar 3 2011, 02:04 PM']Unlucky and only meet assholes.[/quote] That's what I think has happened. If you're all just in it for fun, not looking to gig or 'make it' then someone is taking it WAY too seriously if they felt the need to fire you. Sounds like you're better off not being in that situation. Don't sell your gear - why would you let idiots like that take away something you enjoy? Jam along to records at home - that can be a lot more fun and certainly a lot more musically satisfying than playing with someone that thinks they're the next Hendrix.

[quote name='fatback' post='1148309' date='Mar 3 2011, 01:13 PM']Gareth, did you get that from kontrabass-atelier.de/ or is there a UK supplier?[/quote] That's the one. Actually waiting on a second one for my Eminence as I nabbed it's one for my upright. Jonas Lohas is a great guy to deal with - very prompt with his service.

TPJ - they're great pickups, IMO. Like a Realist but with a lot more clarity - less muddy low mids and far greater high end transparency. One thing I forgot to mention is that my bass has laminated back and sides. I really feel this helps in dealing with feedback. Gig last night I was standing right beside the drummer - scraping distance from his hi-hats. Usually being that close, my previous carved bass would have resonated with each kick drum beat. And if the kick is going through the PA then fuggedaboudit.

[quote name='ficelles' post='1147910' date='Mar 3 2011, 12:08 AM']Just noticed this while trawling through looking for double bass pickup advice... I'm sure most in here know that the fundamental frequency of a concert-pitch E string on a double bass is 41.25 Hz. Roll off below 50 Hz and you drop out everything from your low G down. Don't do it! ficelles[/quote] Whilst that's technically true it isn't always practically applicable to keep in those low frequencies. Setting a HPF even as high as 100Hz can be great for using an upright live, and also when mixing upright on records - a lot of those lower frequencies can just swamp the 100-250Hz range where the meat of your tone is - much in the same way that boosting too much high end can make your bass sound thin, even tho you haven't cut any low freqs. As for best pickup - I'm getting the best tone, and most useable live, with an APTflex Electret pickup going into a Boss TU-2 tuner as a buffer and then into a Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0/10T. I'm really finding that everything in the signal chain interacts with each other to a huge degree. That pickup into my Markbass/Epifani rig is just low-end mush. I had been using a Fishman Dual Parametric DI as a buffer for years, but finally realised that the 10 Mohm input was letting in way too much lowend - the 1 Mohm input of the Boss is working so much better, seems to act like a HPF filter of sorts. Whatever the reason, this is what's working best for me, and I've tried A LOT of combinations!!

Same here - I swear by mine. I have the molded ones with ER15 filters in them and I've rarely done a gig without them since 2000. Well worth the money - think of it as a few quid a year to protect your hearing for the rest of your life.

Double ouch. I really feel for you - but fair play to you for not letting this dampen your enthusiasm. It surely is a wonderful instrument to play. Even with my left hand fingertips feeling like they've been rubbed with a cheese grater - I have three 3 hour residencies a week that came out of nowhere about a month ago - I still love playing my bass as much as I can.

Ouch. And may I be the first to say 'Bet you wish you played the flute now'

[quote name='TPJ' post='1146054' date='Mar 1 2011, 05:03 PM']I put my car on it's side once...glad my bass wasn't in it [/quote] So in this instance it WASN'T ok to put the bass on it's side? I'm confusssssed. I think we need a new thread to clarify when exactly it's NOT okay to put a double bass on it's side.

Which side of the car is best?

[quote name='bassace' post='1145817' date='Mar 1 2011, 02:32 PM'].... on its side. Right?[/quote] On it's right side? (this could easily lead to a 'which is the best side for metal?' thread)

Well, my bass was on it's side for all of the seven hour car journey but that didn't seem to help it much. Maybe all basses should be modified to be played on their sides and then we'd avoid these mishaps completely. But then you'd have to call it an On-It's-Side Bass instead of an Upright Bass.....

You should be fine. My bass slipped off my shoulder once I'd gotten to the top of the stairs into my old apartment. After a seven hour drive I was just too slow to catch it. Down it went head first. Neck had broken clean off. Best part was that this was a Monday evening. Called Ernie McMillan, my luthier, explained what happened and said - I've a gig on Friday I really need it for. Back into the car I went for another hours drive to him. Had it back to me on the Thursday playing better than before. I took the opportunity to have some long needed bridge work done, so it really was a far better playing instrument after the break. Keep an eye out for other cracks appearing shortly after you get it back. I got through my next gig fine with the bass. Practicing at home the next day there was an almighty ripping sound that frightened the life out of me - I can still hear it and it makes me shudder. The headstock has a hairline crack that wasn't noticeable until the tuner up strings put all that tension on it. Back to Ernie it went. Two discreetly covered bolts later and all is still well with that bass 5+ years later.

The only way to go through with this is like something I did for PauBass here recently. He saw a GigRig system for sale on Gumtree that wasn't too far from my neck of the woods. I checked it out next time I was gigging nearby (the seller even brought it down to my gig). Thankfully I did check it out because it turned out that the power input was dodgy on it - no reflection on the seller, I could tell when he went to power it up and demo it for me that he was in stunned embarrassment. All of this saved Pablo a heck of a lot of grief had he bought the thing sight unseen. So my advice would be to find someone you know in Greece, or someone on the board here that you trust in Greece and see if they can check it out. Otherwise you could be in for a HUGE headache.

[quote name='burno70' post='1144400' date='Feb 28 2011, 12:55 PM']I've got girlfriend stoppage til wednesday - can't wait to get stuck in![/quote] To the tune, right? (sorry, couldn't resist. No offence intended) Thanks for these charts - chord work is something I've been wanting to work at for a while now so this is a great kick in the a$$.

Here's my old chestnut (in joke to those unaware as I keep banging on about these basses and how good they are). This is what I wrote before last time someone was looking something new: [quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='1067708' date='Dec 23 2010, 12:44 PM']...I would recommend you look into some of the basses available from Thomann. After playing a friends that was set-up professionally and played brilliantly, I replaced my €5000 bass from Ken Smith with one of these: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_22_02.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_22_02.htm[/url] The Ken Smith was fully carved, while the Thomann is a hybrid (carved top, laminated sides/back) and to be honest there isn't a lot in the difference. My main reason for downgrading was to get an instrument that would amplify better than the Smith would. The carved body was a crazy feedback machine. So I knew I would be sacrificing some acoustic qualities in getting a hybrid. I can honestly say that after playing the Smith for over a year, and getting to know it pretty well, that I would rather have the Thomann. The Thomann bass is made by the Hora company in Romania. Also, I was able to specify what set-up I wanted, so the bass arrived with the bridge set-up to my playing style. It also arrived with the soundpost still in place, so I was able to string it up as soon as I unpacked it and was playing in minutes. This saved the time and expense of going to my repair guy to get it setup. I've been playing this bass for almost a year now and have no problems with it at all. With the free shipping from Thomann and the trial period where you can return it if you don't like it, this might be a better option for you. Maybe check with them about the procedure to return it if you don't like it.[/quote]

Hey Paulo - welcome to the forum. Sounds like you're off to a great start - I know I wish I'd had a place like this to check out when I'd just started playing bass. Good luck and enjoy. gareth

+1 to using in-ears if it's possible. I say 'possible' because some gigs it just won't seem appropriate for various reasons. I've had great results running in-ears on theatre gigs, with my bass in one channel and a monitor mix in the other. This works fine for me because I'm not having to deal with loud background noise of punters talking and I have a dedicated soundcheck time and monitor guy. For gigs that don't have those luxuries, I wouldn't be bringing all those extra cables, power supplies, boxes, etc to my weekly residency's. As for fatigue - one thing that's helped me enormously lately is using a bent endpin - it shifts the weight of the bass away from the left hand drastically. I'm sure there are ways to stand with a straight endpin and achieve similar results, but for my height/posture this works best. I definitely believe that not hearing yourself properly can lead to overplaying which leads to fatigue. Sometimes it isn't about overall volume, but the volume of certain frequencies. I have a weekly gig with a pianist/singer where I was constantly struggling to get a clean sound. His piano wasn't too loud, my amp wasn't too loud and then I discovered the problem - there was a huge peak of low frequencies in his vocal, through the monitors that was fighting against my bass. You could see the input level light up immediately when he sang and I wasn't playing a note. Turning down wasn't an option so I moved the monitor as far away from me as possible and everything was sorted. On other gigs, I'll get the same problem with my bass resonating with each kick-drum hit. Sometimes that's what we're at the mercy of - but if you're aware of it, and have sympathetic band mates then a compromise can be met.

[quote name='dougal' post='1139813' date='Feb 24 2011, 12:10 PM']I want a bent end-pin, but I don't want to destroy my bass doing it![/quote] No need to destroy your bass at all. I just have a steel rod that has been welded and bent to a certain angle - bought fro George Vance. There's nothing fancy to it. A local iron welder was able to make me another one, for a different height, out of the same material he uses for making iron railings. Not the prettiest to look at, but so what? As long as it fits in the endpin collar, then you're fine. As well as taking the weight away from your left hand, I find that I hear more from the bass as the body is now angled upwards instead of directly away from. Do excuse the derail Fatback!!!

Sad reality about cover/tribute bands is that it's just down to supply and demand. As much as I'd love for the general, pub going, wedding dancing, beer drinking majority to be up for supporting original and creative music - they don't. Music to them is not what music is to us. By that I mean it's the difference between 'Last night a DJ saved my life' (the concept for real, not the song) and 'Music is what I have on in the background while I'm getting ready for work/going out/etc.' Once I got comfortable with the fact that playing in bars and at weddings was entirely about keeping the dancefloor moving and not making great music, I enjoyed it a whole lot more. Of course it's possible to get paid for playing original music, but your audience numbers do shrink drastically so you have to work a damn side harder for it. Having said all that - would I play for free? Not if everyone else in the venue is getting paid. Why should I? Given the music you're expected to play in bars, I'd get much more enjoyment jamming along to records at home than playing 'Sweet Home Alabama' for the 1000th time. But there are plenty of times I've played for free because of the people involved, the music or just because it was something I wanted to be involved in and there simply wasn't any money in it.

Cool - thanks for that. Yep, Jessie J is a very intriguing artist indeed. Something about her music, her attitude when performing it and her overall demeanor make me want to hear more. And her voice - I could listen to that for a long time.

I have the first of his method books but I haven't really delved into it at all. Still sawing through Simandl - which is more than counter-intuitive when you already have the pivot idea developed from playing electric bass. I'll definitely be digging the book out and working through it tomorrow tho - these videos are quite inspiring. I have the 'Art Of The Bow' DVD, which has a lot of the same stories/explanations. Rabbath is a great teacher for sure - he gets you excited about learning!!! One thing I did try - in an attempt to alleviate some back/posture problems I was having - is the bent endpin. For me, it makes a world of difference. My bass position isn't as cello-like as Rabbath's - standing behind the bass - but it's close. The benefit to me is better intonation, no left-hand fatigue from taking any of the bass's weight, and more strength in both pizz and arco with the right hand. I'm just home from a 3 hour gig and have little to no fatigue in both hands. I did the same gig last week with a straight endpin and had to change it after the first few numbers because my left hand was in pieces. Worth investigating IMO.

Hey rikodriko - welcome to the forum. In my experience the problem with recommending for or against any double bass pickup is that they really do seem to respond completely differently from one bass to the next. They seem to interact with the individual bass a lot more than pickup on an electric bass do. (This isn't a scientific observation, just a gigging one). I had a Realist that sounded great on my Eminence Portable Upright (all laminate construction) but sounded muddy on a £3.5K fully carved Romanian bass. When the Realist died (and most of them seem to after a while) I replaced it with an Apt-Flex pickup - similar design but far superior tonally, IMO. One problem you might be experiencing is that a fully carved, gorgeous acoustic toned bass does not always make for a good amplified tone. What I found with my fully carved bass was that all those lovely vibrating pieces of wood were just vibrating too damn much once an amplifier or drum kit was nearby. In the end I sold it and replaced it with a £700 hybrid bass from the Hora company, via Thomann. Whilst it has about 85% of the acoustic tone that the fully carved one had, it is so much more useable live - which is where it counts for me. Another aspect is amplification - I had both an Acoustic Image Contra combo, and a Focus 2 head, and found that they never had any life to them, or were any good at dealing with midrange EQ problems. (The Hi-Pass Filter is a truly wonderful thing tho). Right now I'm using a Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0T combo and I'm having the most satisfying tone I've ever had. One design feature of these is that there's quite a steep low end roll off built into the preamp, in order for it to maximise the cabinet it's coupled with. It seems to have removed all of the unusable but feedback inducing frequencies that made my gigging life miserable before. As for a preamp with the Realist - I don't think it will help. For one thing - the Acoustic Image heads are designed to take Piezo pickups, so you're already getting the impedance load you want on that pickup. Sometimes it's about getting the right impedance, as I'm only finding out now. For years I was using a Fishman Dual Parametric DI because it had a 10 Mohm impedance which I thought was best - get it as high as you can, or so I thought. Right now I'm getting the best result plugging my Apt-Flex directly into a Boss TU-2 tuner, which has a 1 Mohm input and it sounds so much better. It could be that the 10 M-ohm input was letting in too many low frequencies, and highs too possibly. I could be completely wrong in all this - but I know it's working a lot better than it did before. Here's something to check out about the importance of getting the right input impedance: [url="http://contrabassconversations.com/2008/06/28/cbc-85-bass-gear-with-steve-rodby/"]http://contrabassconversations.com/2008/06...th-steve-rodby/[/url] And here's a link to Jonas Lohse's store for the Apt-Flex: [url="http://www.kontrabass-atelier.de/pickups_e.html"]http://www.kontrabass-atelier.de/pickups_e.html[/url] Where abouts in the world are you? If you're in the US you might not be able to get the Apt-Flex (assuming you wanted one) as it is similar to The Realist which has a US Patent protection. The Apt-Flex is made in Russia so the patent restriction doesn't apply. Hope that helps a little. And good luck!!!

Just dive in and watch the guitarist's hands for chord changes. And keep your ears open. Best piece of advice I ever heard was: you have two ears- one for you and one for the band. Don't worry about not being ready - you'll learn so much more in one night's rehearsal with a band than you will by practicing on your own for weeks.