bassace

A lot of her stuff had Les Hurdle, a fellow pupil at the Forest Grammar School, Winnersh. A bit of Googling/Wikkiing will establish which tracks. As I recall, he did a lot of stuff with an EBO with a second pickup put on. He was one of the early root/octave players, this in the early seventies.

The best advice I can give is just enjoy the new experience. Pound for pound the Stagg is the best value in the EUB market and it's a very effective instrument. Try to do without the markers because the higher you go up the fingerboard the more iffy the intonation becomes. You'll get used to it very quickly.

[quote name='TPJ' timestamp='1342166604' post='1730523'] There is a chap called fdeck on Talkbass that has designed one, he is a double bass player. [url="http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/hpfpd.pdf"]It's this one.[/url] [/quote] And it works. I have a later one with a vol control although I never use that. It has a phase shifter - great for addressing feedback, a great control for killing any boom and of course it buffers the impedance. It slots in nicely under the amp's carry handle. Trouble is Francis Deck hasn't got a licence to export so you can't get his gizmo over here. If you are serious about getting one I suggest you subscribe to TB and put out a post asking if anyone can ship you a 'second-hand' one. Just to complicate the whole preamp thing, I also have Fishman pro eq: sometimes this works better and sometimes the fdeck according to the room. Funny old world.

Playing double bass, my requirements are more modest perhaps but I always have a GK MB200 in the car as backup. It's so small it can fit in the glove compartment

Ah, The Man Who Failed to Earth.

[quote name='steve' timestamp='1341663886' post='1722421'] Actually yes, I'd describe the neck as more triangular than square [/quote] That is interesting. I bought my bass from Peter Tyler in May 2006; he told me it was German circa 1960. It didn't have any label. Being a ply bass I use it mainly for outdoor work (not too often these days!) and it has a quite a nice growl on it with Spiro Mittels.

In a word, yes. Just expect the new strings to be a bit twangy for a few days. I generally change mine every year but with four basses to consider some have to go two years. End of financial year is a good time to buy new strings if you are heading for a profit on your musical activities.

I was wondering whether the neck is of a triangular section rather than the usual square. My German Blonde looks just like yours but has this neck on it. I don't know anything about mine either.

Rescue Me My Girl

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1341008104' post='1712921'] Joe Meek.... [/quote] Certainly!

Lists, Bilbo, lists.

[quote name='sticker' timestamp='1340964839' post='1712061'] I'm fairly certain Hank didn't play on Move it , the intro has always been credited to sessioneer Ernie Shear , with rhythm played by Ian Samwell , Hank and the other 'Drifters' as they were then didn't play on the first few Cliff records . [/quote] I stand corrected. Still an iconic sound and fair play to Ernie!

The sound that defined the early pop revolution in UK was Hank's intro to Move It. Turned a whole generation on to the electric guitar, Bert notwithstanding!

There is a gorgeous bass on Upton's site by Luciano Golia. You could get it shipped over here for about £16k including taxes. No idea how it would sound for jazz, but in the meantime just feast your eyes on the great pics. [url="http://www.uptonbass.com/Luciano-Golia-Double-Bass-Italian-Bass/"]http://www.uptonbass.com/Luciano-Golia-Double-Bass-Italian-Bass/[/url]

I'm going to see Steve Winwood at Cornbury this Sun. Reminded me I used to enjoy playing BG on Keep on Running. OK, maybe it's been eclipsed over the years but was quite funky at the time.

Ah. I had the Upton first and it was a bit difficult to amp. This often happens to complex basses and that is why some people favour hybrids or laminate basses. So, for the band that I get most of my work from I reverted to the Meinel that I had most of the time. Also I found the Upton a bit heavy to lug around, that is why I am talking to Upton about making me a lightweight 5/8 bass for gigs. Initially the Martin was a tad disappointing but it has since opened up a lot. Acoustically it's not as strong as the Bryant but it amps really well on anything I connect it to. It also has a lot of attack, or 'thump'. The Bryant is a real singer with a lot of sustain and is great for trios/quartets. Again, being a somewhat complex bass it was initially difficult to get the very best amplified sound. Like the Upton it prefers a 10" speaker. I have recently bought a Genz Benz 10" Shuttle combo and that has what I've been looking for for a long time, a tight solid bass sound but without the boom. I haven't tried it with the Upton yet but I'm confident that it'll sound great. So I don't really favour one bass over the others; choosing a bass shows up the many different characteristics that are inherent in DBs. I'm sure that I'm not betraying a confidence in mentioning that jwbassman visited me to try the Bryant and Martin together before he committed himself to choosing a Martin. I wouldn't like to second guess why he made his choice but I'm sure that Martins' lifelong aftersales service that was offered had a lot to do with it. And George's sheer enthusiasm is very hard to resist. I've had an opportunity to play it and he's got a great bass there. Just as a PS, my particular Martin was roughed out in Hungary, and the Upton in Eastern Europe although they are 100% USA now. In buying the Bryant I had a craftsman made all English bass. And that's nice.

He's dead right of course. When I first played my Martin a good bass player was in the audience and at the end he came up to me and said, that's the best bass sound I've ever heard.' I told him he'd made my day to which he replied 'well, you've certainly spoiled mine!'.

We used to have a dear old chap who owned the music shop in Reading - I bought my first DB there. I once asked him how much the Gibson EBO was that he had in the window. He frowned for a minute and said 'well, the tenor sax is ££££'

[quote name='MandShef' timestamp='1340573774' post='1706514'] Thanks Bluejay, I'll keep trying. I've found I'm OK plucking, it's bowing that seems more of a struggle. Sitting is normal in an orchestra Bassace. Reckon the 'greats' would be able to do both. Hopefully I'll get the support/advice I need to master it, but don't think I'll feel the need to shoot myself if I don't [/quote] Agreed, bowing seems easier sitting down, which is why classical players don't stand up. But in a jazz context the 'greats' I referred to always stood. Which is what I've been doing for quite a while; I feel I can enjoy the music more if I can get a bit of body movement. The gun's still loaded btw.

To paraphrase the great Sir Steve, if you ever see me playing bass seated you can shoot me. How many of the 'greats' have you ever seen sitting?

Helpful Banking?

Sometimes I've had an annoying buzz and it turns out to be something in the room, unconnected to the bass. Everything else seems to have been covered but how about pickup wire? Endpin is often the culprit.