bassace

[quote name='Mr Bassman' post='1286699' date='Jun 29 2011, 05:25 PM']Success again last night. Flexocor strings, stock Realist into GKMB200 / Epifani UL110 (+ a cheeky line into p.a. to keep level down on stage) Big fat sound that sings. Thanks to Clarky[/quote] Can anyone here with experience compare/contrast Epifani v EA Wizzy? Just curious.

Yes, twice. First time I went up to London to look at a '61 Fender Jazz for under £100 - well, it was a long time ago - and came away with a Gibson EBO because it was easier to play. What a t**t! Second in about 1994 I went to see a guy who had been Howard Jones's bass player who was selling a very nice WAL for not a lot of money. Trouble was I had very bad flu and wasn't in any mood to do a deal. So a bit later I went and spent the money on a starter double bass and have never really played a BG since. So perhaps I don't regret that one too much.

[quote name='tharidla' post='1284308' date='Jun 27 2011, 04:51 PM']Hi guys thanks for your replies. It seems that this pa speaker/mic thing is more popular than I first thought! The consideration I have now I suppose is cost-just looked up the QSC K10 and headway preamp. £689 and £199. Ow. And that doesn't include the mic! Would this setup be [b]that[/b] much better than a Mackie SRM350 (£320) and a behringer mixer? (£30 on ebay)[/quote] Not sure as I haven't any experience of a Mackie - Clarky uses one. As someone on TB said 'the 4099 isn't a cheap date'. However, if you get one you have the second option of putting it through the front of house, if there is one, and then it really kills!

I'm getting very good results with a DPA4099/Headway/QSC K10 on a stand with a little bit of pickup blend into the second Headway channel. Very good for trios and quartets in smallish/medium rooms. Probably best ever. Problem is when I turn up for a bigger room I get a bit of off-axis sound from other instruments even into a close-miked DPA and I struggle to cut through. If I play with any more than four I use a pickup and to a certain extent compromise on the sound quality. Also with the mic there is quite a bit of stuff to set up but for all that it can be very rewarding.

Did the Shipston Prom on Saturday with our 'village project,' FiddleBop which is a Django/Gypsy trio of violin/gtr/double bass. We were booked to play the Horsehoe and when we arrived, the landlord told us that if we plugged just one plug in he'd be closed down. Pity the Prom organisers hadn't let us know. So we did two 45 min sets completely acoustically with not an amp in sight and went down very well. The landlord, Baggy, was well pleased, wants us back soon. Seems I'm having more fun than with my 'proper' band.

No, don't burst. If you've got a few days to rest it may even go down on its own accord.

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='1280436' date='Jun 24 2011, 01:58 AM']Egads - I haven't even had time to chime in yet and I've already been quoted. Well, all I have to add is everything I've already said And that I'm using an Apt-Flex pickup as a replacement for the David Gage Realist and find it to be a better suit for the Eminence all round. I did buy a Kent Armstrong magnetic pickup for my Eminence but I've to get around to installing it. I do know that Trevor Hutchinson from Lunasa prefers a Fishman Full Circle to the Realist for his one, and he has toured the world and elsewhere with that thing - and he does get a truly righteous sound from it. I did have mine strung with D'Addario Helicores for several years and liked those a lot. Not really sure why I changed. Must have been a Tuesday.[/quote] Interesting, that. Actually I have an APTflex pickup for sale, ex Clarky. The Underwood has gone back on; it must be hardwired into my brain (the hearing bit).

Rattling Bilbo's cage puts me in mind of someone going into a bear's cave, banging a drum and saying 'How's the hibernation going then?'

[quote name='Beedster' post='1278116' date='Jun 22 2011, 08:30 AM']I suggest you start a website [/quote] Thanks Beedster but a phone does just fine. There's a lot of stuff coming in at the moment.

[quote name='4StringFortress' post='1277862' date='Jun 21 2011, 10:43 PM']Update: On top of everything have a friend who happens to be a very experienced DB player and she said she will help me sort it out and set it up for me.[/quote] Has Jennifer migrated to Wales then?

I was playing fretless in 61. My brother made it for me; because he couldn't figure a way to fit the frets and I had just started on DB we left them off. The pickup was the moving coil thing out of a headphone. It sounded very good and I gigged it a few times. But because I'm not really anybody that doesn't count.

It's happened to me twice. First was during the gig when it was quite spectacular. It was so long ago that I don't remember who repaired it - it might even have been me. Second was when I was tuning up and the more I turned up the lower the note became. It was on my Meinel which was a quality bass but on which they'd put cheap single core tail wire with the strength of a welding rod- yes, that soft. Peter Tyler put a good length of twisted cable (yacht rigging?) while I waited and no more probs. So, in common with what the others have said, breaking a tail wire is not a big deal in the whole scheme of things. I'd forget gear4 and spend out on a local luthier and maybe he'll do it while you wait. You can see what he does and in so doing you'll learn a lot more, such as how the strings are removed and reset, ditto the bridge. BTW, during the second interval of a gig last Friday I heard a crash followed by a bass noise and a crack. My bass had been resting on its side and a the sax player tripped over the neck toppling the front over onto the corner of my cab. Result a 5" long crack in the front. George Martin said no probs at all and my MU insurance will cover it. They even offered me a loan instrument. Great.

Because I can't slap very well I tend to look down on those who can - but seriously it's a worthwhile technique. Trouble is while you're slapping you are tending to stifle the actual note sound and your notes are limited, so there is danger of becoming a percussionist rather than a bassist if you overdo it. There is a guy on the scene who is hailed as 'the top trad bass player' who just slaps all the time. Personally, I think he's just bollocks. But that's my opinion. I was doing a festival abroad and I heard the band Hullabaloo and their bass player was just amazing. Limehouse Blues very up tempo.

Not work-related but gig-related having an effect on work. If I had a 'challenging' project come up on a day that I had a gig in the evening I'd think of the gig and idle a lot - to the detriment of the job. I used to have a lot of gigs come up! I'm sure there are others who had this prob.

String Emporium (Steve) is a straight guy to deal with.

I did a trad dep (somebody has to do it) at some pub out in the sticks and while I was setting up my gear an old yokel came up to me and said 'ere, yur not one one of those modernisers are you?'. The leader of another band I used to play with used to say 'don't forget to patronise the bar because the more you drink the better the band sounds'. A 'lady' tried to correct him by saying 'no, the more the band drinks the better it sounds' to which he replied 'no, the more we drink the better you look'. 'Do you do requests?' 'Only when we're asked'. There are other:- We did a gig recently and a woman came up to us and said 'my mum used to play accordian with Ivy Benson'. You'll only understand this if you know who Ivy Benson, or an accordian, was/is.

I use a QSC K10 with my double bass but they are primarily active PA speakers @1,000w and very good with it. Only minus is I sent a query to QSC tech dept and never got a reply. Never mind, who am I? Still buy with confidence, lots of pro sound guys use them.

Anybody see them? The last 15 mins were very moving - an excellent documentary about a great band and much loved charismatic singer.

As one muso said of another, ' he's got good chops but I don't like his style'. Does that help to define it?

[quote name='PaulKing' post='1246126' date='May 26 2011, 07:35 PM']No, not that bass. I may have seen it at his place a couple of times. I got the term 'German Blonde' from him, I took a couple that I owned to him for some work (including the B+H I still own, which I believe he restored years ago for someone else) and he called them that, showed me a couple similar that he had in stock. Only thing is, my B+H is Czech of course, and was certainly not blonde originally... but he still called it a 'German Blonde'. What a thoroughly lovely man. With a house full of basses .. 3 floors of them. Poor Mrs Tyler.[/quote] Yes, poor Mrs Tyler. I have met her once and she is very nice. Have you seen his room full of double bass memorabilia? He's got all sorts of beautifully crafted bass ceramics and other stuff but the one thing that does it for me is a miniature double bass apprentice piece.

[quote name='PaulKing' post='1242949' date='May 24 2011, 01:49 PM']Well you're in a different class from me... Upton Professor ... sweet. There's only one person I know that describes unlabelled blonde laminated basses as 'German Blondes'. Did you buy it from Peter Tyler? Or me?!![/quote] Interesting that. I bought the Blonde from Peter Tyler. It's quite nice and I use it for, er, the more 'challenging' gigs, like outdoors or gigs that might be a bit rough ([i]moi?[/i]) It has a distinctive triangular profiled neck. Do you know anything about it, Paul?

[quote name='PaulKing' post='1240869' date='May 22 2011, 09:29 PM']Noone in their right mind can justify owning 3 double basses. (cough)[/quote] Whaaaat?