Gareth Hughes

Same as what makes any bad musician in my book - not listening. From not listening stems a multitude of sins - bad timing, poor note choice, inappropriate playing, rampant egos, poor intonation, missed cues, etc, etc.

Here's an earlier take on the tune - with my personal favourite Anthony Jackson on bass. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eduisPnDU-I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eduisPnDU-I[/url] This gig is still available to buy on DVD - well worth the price of admission. Great band - Jackson, Steve Gadd, Eric Gale, Paul Griffin, Ralph McDonald and Richard Tee. Basically THE band in New York in the early 80's - that's them on Simon & Garfunkel's gig in Central Park. Same band (with Will Lee replacing Jackson) are on many Sadao Watanabe gigs/records on Youtube. Thanks for posting that vid - digging the tone a lot. *Edit - forgot the link..DOH!!*

Welcome - and needless to say you're in the right place for some good ol' bass waffle.

Doh - if only you'd asked a few weeks ago you would have been welcome to come A/B my LMK against my F500, but I've since sold the F500. If you fancy taking a spin down to Rathfriland some time you're welcome to come check out an LMK.

You can use anything for a mute - at the minute I have some cut up foam from a panel of studio sound-proofing material (must be a shorter way to say that). Also used a sock when stuck on a tour once. Basically anything strong enough to mimic the pressure of holding a string with your finger. The pickup jack on the tailpiece won't do a lot for calming feedback - it's not heavy enough. I've generally found that for reducing feedback potential you're almost trying to remove all acoustic (ie - resonant) qualities from the instrument - hence why plywood/laminate instruments can be easier to amplify. On a fully carved bass I had once I had to wedge a foam rugby ball between the tailpiece and the body, putting pressure on the top table to stop it from vibrating too much. Of course, there is a limit to what you should expect volume-wise from amplifying a double bass - at some point you just have to go electric or sort out the rest of the band's volume. And another thing to think about is your perception of how you expect a double bass to sound in a band context. What I mean is that after years of playing electric bass first and foremost and being used to that sound, it took me a long time to realise and accept that a double bass will not have the immediacy and solid tone/punch that comes from an electric - so if that's the sound that your sub-consciously trying to get, then you'll ended up frustrated and drowning in feedback. As always, I could be wrong.

Hey Clarky - Dampen the afterlength of your strings between the bridge and tailpiece. (I know, this has become my mantra of late). You'd be surprised how much feedback is generated there - those strings just keep ringing, and set the tailpiece ringing - which is all good in a purely acoustic setting (like an orchestra, but who uses them there anymore? ) I was playing electric bass in a big band on Monday night, along with another bass player on upright. He was having hell with low feedback and couldn't EQ it out on his Acoustic Image Clarus+. I reached down and muted his strings and tailpiece and all was good.

Renting is a good idea, especially if it's his first time at this. Some shops might offer to take the rental price out of the final sale price if you go for that. Another idea is to contact local schools/colleges/amateur orchestras to see if someone has a left handed upright. Definitely check out Thomann for left handed instruments. Check this out: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_1_l.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_kontrabass_1_l.htm[/url]

And +1 for Jennifer's suggestion of raising the cab up out of the firing line from the bass's body. This helps more than you might imagine. And don't forget to dampen those after-lengths!!!

[quote name='Mateybass' post='969065' date='Sep 27 2010, 01:40 AM']The feedback question might have thrown up an interesting point with regard to solid versus ply construction. I've had this theory that ply basses will generally feed back less because they are stiffer in their resonating parts... wondered if that might be born out by player's experiences... or maybe I just think too much and should go and have a lie down in a darkened room.[/quote] That's been my experience. I ended up selling a gorgeous carved bass that cost almost £4000 and replaced it with an £800 hybrid that works so much better for gigs. I was heartbroken selling the carved bass, but there was no point in keeping something that didn't do the job I needed it to do. If I recorded more than I gigged it would be a different story tho.

Kids In The Hall were so so so so so good. And painfully true!!! Remember - "He's hip, he's cool - He's 45"?

I lose track of what strings were first put on what bass. I literally swap strings out three or four times before I bin them. Not always to do with sound either -sometimes I just want to check a different string tension on another bass, or flats versus rounds, etc. Only advice I'd give is to make sure you don't twist the main length of the string - that can lead to a dead (in a bad way) string. Given that the peg-wound bit of the string has already been wound, it will try to dictate how your string lies - which may not be in a straight line if the ball end part wants to go a different way. Make sense? If the bridge is ye olde Fender type string through, put the string through and wind the excess around the tuning peg, but not tightly. Leave it loose enough that you can orientate the string length into the path it should go.

I can definitely attest to the Thomann basses being great value for money. You may or may not need a set-up in that I was more than happy with the set-up that came from Thomann - where I specified string height - and the sound-post was still in place so I was able to string it up and get playing within minutes of it's arrival. I've been playing the upright for about 12 years now, got my Thomann last October - happy camper indeed. Oh - and you DON"T want a full size. 99.5% of basses in the world are 3/4 size. It is the standard size. Plus that'll help if he ever decides to sell it on.

I don't agree that you're musically illiterate if you can't read music. Reading/writing music on paper is only one part of making music. (Insert the 'Paul McCartney can't read music' quote here) It just means you can't read music - but it doesn't mean that you cannot communicate using music. For someone to feel insecure because they can't read music - that's wrong, in my opinion. I'll be the first to day 'Learn to read music' because of the benefits that come from it. But I'll also be the first to say - go play and make a glorious noise. Mike Kenneally couldn't read music when he auditioned for Frank Zappa, yet he got the gig because his ear was so good he could play all that was required. That's a talent I wish I had. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Sure let's be proud of our strengths, but lets not beat ourselves up about our weaknesses.

My feedback usually results from band leaders wanting a double bass used in an electric bass setting - ie: with loud drums and guitars. When the feedback inevitably comes they ask can I do anything about it - to which I happily reply 'this is one reason the electric bass was invented'.

Check out the Youtube clips for the Catalinbread SFT pedal - it's sounds as good for real. I'm running that thru a Markbass LMK and LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG it.

Fair play Chris - not an easy job to do. Here's something that might help with the hand strength: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=powerball&x=0&y=0"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?u...amp;x=0&y=0[/url] Very useful if you don't have the time or facility to warm up on the instrument. Basically it gets your blood going through your forearm and gets it ready for some work. Also, use your shoulder muscles - don't try to get all the sound you want by squeezing the neck with your hands. Think of your fingertips as pinning down the note and your shoulder muscles as the strength to pull the sound out. (Jeez, analogies are tough). This sounds terrible but picture this - if you were going to punch someone you wouldn't use just your knuckles and wrist - you'd put your whole arm into it - well, same goes for double bass. As for digging in to get more volume - it can be very counter-productive on the upright - it almost chokes the string. Simple tips are - bring an amp (and you'll ALWAYS need one unless you're playing with band members and audience members that understand they're listening to an acoustic instrument meant to be played in large numbers) and get the amp up high so that 1) you're getting the high frequencies pointing at your head and 2) you're not getting the low frequencies pointing at the upright body. Also, LOW low frequencies are NOT our friend here. I find anything below 100HZ to give nothing but problems, so sometimes you need to cut those by way more than seems rational. For controlling feedback - stick some foam/cloth/socks (yup, been there) through the afterlength of your strings - between the bridge and tailpiece. Those parts ring like crazy and cause way more feedback than you'd imagine.

Yup, D'Addario Chromes have PLENTY of click and zing in them. I've just put an old set, that must have been on three different basses by now, onto a Precision and they still have plenty of life in them. All good.

The other tough thing to deal with, even if your intonation is correct, is playing with a guitar player with a slightly out of tune guitar - or with an in-tune guitar that just had a capo put on and has shifted everything sharp a little. When this happens on more than a few songs on a gig, that's when I begin to wish I'd brought a fretted.

I have no sure fire method to offer only that I've found that for me, if I'm working on something new (and unknown like original music) that if I write out a chord chart I find it tough to move away from that and always need that damn piece of paper at hand. Now I just learn it by ear and the only notes I make are on a setlist - Track one in C, mid8 in Bb. And that's about it. Any more info and I become a slave to it. The other thing I found that I do is that if I'm sight-reading all the time then my memory shuts down completely. I did ten weeks of 'RENT', seven shows a week. I honestly could not play one song now start to finish without the music in front of me. Yet when I have the music in front of my I barely look at it. It's like a safety net - don't look down!!!! This also echoes something mentioned before - you don't have to play everything note for note as it's written on paper. For me that's something I'm always working to overcome, and in doing that I know I'll get away from the page a lot quicker. Hope that helps!!

Play it live NOW!!!!! You'll be fine. I did a three week tour with a band, and the guitarist only noticed on the last night that I was playing a fretless. Same rules apply - be tasteful.

The Patitucci book is excellent. Not only for reading but I'm finding it's a great way to think outside the box when playing in a certain key. All of the examples are not what you'd expect to play when told a piece is in C Major, for example. And like any great etude should, it opens up many different ways to get around the fingerboard to play the same thing. And I bought mine for about $13 from David Gage himself, so I'm well chuffed with that.

My tuppence - yes it's necessary IF you want to do reading gigs and learn things from books, expand your musical vocabulary, etc. As much of a headache as it was for me to learn to sightread, especially as I could already play (to an extent) I always figured it would be a bigger headache to be offered a great gig, with good money and I'm available and then I have to say no because I can't read. I've had gigs come up the day before, from people I have never met, simply because I can read. Given that I make my living doing this, I'm happy that I can take those calls rather than sit in the house, wishing I was out working. It's a skill like any other - play with a pick, slap, thumb mute, whatever - it's all relevant. Those folks booking you DO NOT CARE about all the things we care about. I've never heard an MD or a sax player or whoever argue the merits of playing with a pick - all they care about is can you make the music sound the way they want it to. Play it standing on your head - with a nappy on, no less!!! Just play it right - and if that means learning to read then do it. Does that make me a better musician than you? Nope But it makes me a better musician than I would be if I couldn't do it. Edit- Just to add to the OP's original questions - I sometimes use a metronome, especially if I'm working on something that trips my fingers up. And something else that caught my eye on this thread - I haven't done any grades, just learnt from Chuck Rainey's 'The Complete Electric Bass Player Volume 1' book. Well worth getting.

Loving that Oriental Express tracks - beautiful sounds and playing. And interesting that Hyunmo is using a GK MB150 combo that cuts off at about 2Khz, yet his sound is very detailed in the hi-end. Wonder if that's just the DI track we're hearing or is he hearing that through the monitor?