SICbass

That is just ice-cold. Bilbo won’t sleep for a month trying to decide that.

It does my heart good to know that there are people out there who are like that 👍

🤮 oh God, just the thought of it!

Weight please?

I saw them then too. Absolutely brilliant.

Never mind lad, we’re here for you.

There‘s always hope, right?

You just know that that was immediately copied and sent to most of my contacts.

Wow, this is super interesting... and has a ton of rabbit-hole potentail. I've put the synthetic E on the bass. It is very clear, and quite different to the other strings, but I'm sure I can even things out by working on my point of contact and attack with the right hand. Off to the shed as they say at SBL... Thanks for all your insights guys. This is clearly something that will take time and some application. I am open to, and very grateful for any other tips or suggestions you may have. Cheers, Paul

God these prices really are eye-watering, aren't they? Regarding your single string, thank you for your the suggestion. I think I'll try and figure something out here first. I'm in Germany. My idea was to do like you suggested and mix string types. Would it have to be E,A one type and D,G gut. I ask, 'cos I'm pretty happy with the ADG gut and could try using my synthetic E. Or is that likely to sound too uneven?

God, and I almost baulked at €200,- for my set of gut strings - ouch! The budget option is definitely more my deal. On Thomann an E and an A singles is gonna cost me a total of €150,- Forgive the question, but given their durability (and the prices), is there a market for secondhand DB strings? Or is that just too risky? Thanks for your reply - that's just the sort of insight and experience I don't have.

Hi All, I'm one of those bass -guitarists/permanent double bass newbies - i.e. I've owned a cheapo-but-playable plywood bass for years. I only ever pull it out to noodle on or when a show requires it #highriskofCarpaltunnelsyndrome. Preparing for a new show, I put on some gut strings that I've had for a few years. They sound lovely but for the dead E-string. Barry Bales talks about silver wrapped gut strings. He has half and half, wrapped and full gut on his basses. Can anyone recommend silver wrapped to try out for the E ans A strings? Cheers, Paul

Oooh that Bex pretty. Oh god no, GAS attack. Thanks for the tip.

Hi All, I have an Eastwood Classic 4, a Harley benton Beatbass and even a real Hofner Violin Bass (on loan). They all sound great, but have that typical, short-scale narrow neck. I can work with it, but it is a bit of a drag. This week, I finally played an Epihone Jack Casady and immediately... I was home. It is SO much more comfortable to play with the wider string spacing, but as many people say, more like a precision bass sound, than the typical semi-acoustic thump. I've tried looking at the spec of various basses on Thomann, and they generally just talk about scale length and nut width, which doesn't answer the question. Most are 41,5mm - 43 mm nut width, but the Jack Casady has the same nut width, so that clearly doesn't help assess the string width higher up the neck. My question: Can anyone tell me of other semi-acoustic basses with a similarly wide neck, that are more typical soundwise? Cheers, Paul

I foresee a flurry of new BC profile pictures.

I remember the drummer on his solo album singing the wonderful 'Boat Gig' - a crackin' song

Onstage with Prince you might have gotten away with it. Playing Mustang Sally at the Dock and Duck, less so.

You know the drill Daryl, what happens in the barn, stays in the barn.

It looks like you're right. The bridge is made of wood, but doesn't have the white stripes on it. The change must have happened ages ago though, because the bass has just been standing in the corner of my mate's living-room since about 1971. Also, there is a support wire connecting it to the scratchplate which is aged and rusted and appears to be original. @hofner experts, were there occasional basses built with stripeless bridges??

Thank you for the kind comment. I did just quickly photograph it from the end of the bed, so it’s probably just the perspective.

I must confess, I hadn’t noticed. I‘ll take a closer look when I get the chance.

Thanks for the tip 👍