martyy

Yeah that'll be it. Some other amps I've played, Markbass doesn't really drive, and an old Ashdown ABM that has a drive knob that doesn't seem to drive a whole lot.

I've never had the opportunity, bet it would be fun though. The only time I've had a chance to play through an all-valve amp was in the studio. I don't think anyone wants to move them anymore

I've never had the chance to play through one of them but I have used the guitar version and it could barely clean up at all! Would love to check one out.

I am happy with the sound I'm getting. Not really looking to change, just idly curious about what else is out there that can do similar, and why nearly every pre-amp and amp sim pedal out there goes big into overdrive and sometimes fuzz territory despite the fact that many real amps don't tend to bother so much with that. I think that maybe I just have it wrong and plenty of bassists are getting drive straight from their amps!

Yes I suppose that is true, however whether it is musically pleasing is a different story. Valve amps will sound good, but solid state don't tend to sound too nice with gain cranked, unless they are designed to (at least in my experience). My tech 21 amp is basically VT bass pedal with a power amp, and its circuit is designed to simulate valves. My TC amp sounds terrible with the gain too high, and my warwick amp just won't clip at all.

We got a desk recording from a recent gig, and when listening back I realised just how much I had the gain cranked on my tech21 VT bass head, it was much more apparent in the recording than it was on-stage. I really liked the overdriven sound and it made me consider deliberately going for more saturation in future. It also made me think about how few bass amps are designed with overdrive as a feature. The VT bass head can get very dirty, but what other amps are out there that are good at letting bassists crank up the dirt without messing about with pedals? It seems clean-only is the design goal of the vast majority of bass amps.

Looks great. One thing I can't figure out from the pictures, where is the active/passive switch?

Thought I would update this post in case it is of use to others. I got a finish that I am happy with. After I sanded everything back I: * Re-dyed the body with the leather dye * Used 4 coats of shellac sanding sealer (water based) to seal the dye, applied with a cloth. Dye does lift at this point, but not enough to worry about. * 4 coats of tru oil applied with a cloth, with 24 hours between each coat.

I'm looking for advice from any body finishing experts out there. I am attempting to finish a swamp ash body with angelus leather dye and crimson guitar finishing oil. I can get a colour that I am very happy with, the trouble starts when I try to apply the finishing oil... The oil readily dissolves the dye and lifts it, even after 4 or 5 applications. I've found that the dye dissolved in white spirit which is what the oil is based on. So I sanded back and for a second attempt I tried to seal it post-dye using shellac sanding sealer, using my own spraying equipment. Result was a splodgy finish that did not seem to help with the dye bleeding problem anyway. Any good advice? Different oil I can try, or a better way to seal? My spraying skills/equipment is clearly not up to scratch so a hand-applied approach would be better I think. This is the bass as it is now, sanded back and dyed, awaiting my next attempt!

Some really helpful comments here which sent me in the direction of some basic technique videos.... Turns out I've been doing all the wrong things when it comes to left hand. I have a lot to unlearn. I have been putting my palm on the neck and squeezing/clamping the strings down all this time. Apparently that is a no-no 😃. I've spent a little time trying to get it right, so far it feels even more exhausting but hopefully something will click. Thanks for all the pointers folks.

It's all the left hand.

I have seen this sentiment often! I have played many gigs with my torture device, I'm in my 40s now, I just find it hard to believe it'll be possible in 20 or 30 years..

I should say as well that I was originally playing bluegrass/country. I remember buying the bass from Thomann and telling them that at the time. Probably why they set the string height high. These days I'm more interested in soul verging on jazz I suppose.

I'm based in the Belfast area. A fiddle player friend of mine took the bass to a fiddle maker about 10 years ago and he took down the bridge for me which helped a little bit, but I get the impression that bass is a bit of a specialism and it would take an actual player to understand the work that would need to be done.? I have always had spirocore mediums on which I understand is quite high tension. I have lights ordered but I suspect that will only have a moderate impact. I think the fingerboard has too much relief but can't be sure. Maybe I just need to man up!

I've played upright bass on and off for 12 years now, both gigging and in the studio. I've picked it up again recently after some years of exclusively playing electric bass, and as a result I've remembered how physically exhausting the instrument is. Now for the question... I don't know any other double bass players and I've never played a bass other than the one I own. It occurred to me that maybe basses aren't supposed to be this torturous and I just have a badly set up one. The question is how can I even tell!? Electric basses have precise details about ideal setup (string height, relief etc) but not so much with uprights.

I received a new Hofner Club from Thomann this week. Thought I would share some thoughts. First up, having read some other reviews I was expecting to have to do some work on the bass. However I wasn't expecting to have to fish out 3 screws that were rolling about inside the cavity! Also had to clear the burrs off the scratchplate and bridge. Really basic QA being neglected there. Once I did that I replaced the (bad) stock strings with Labella flats. First time using this brand, very impressed. Intonation was surprisingly easy to do, and pretty accurate considering the limitations of the bridge. Lovely bass to play. Makes the sounds you expect a Hofner to make. Brought it to rehearsal and it held its own and more, though it is obviously not an all-rounder. It definitely encourages pick playing. The control panel is definitely a weird one. I found that "bass on" was great for picking, and "bass off" more suited to fingers, with some tweaking of bass volume to get some brightness back. Although the hardware is a little cheap I don't think that matters to me too much and it's all replaceable anyway. I would love to try a Contemporary to compare but overall I'm very happy with the budget model. Looking forward to doing some recording with it now.

Bit of an update. Ultimately there was too much mud for a band setting so I gave the bass a makeover. Routed the edges and added contours, added a regular p bass pickup, painted it halford matt black and added a pickguard to hide the old cavity.

Any recommendations for places to buy electronic components? Never mind, spotted the hificollective suggestion above.

I have the VT bass 500 head on the way for £174 inc vat. Crazy that it was about £50 cheaper than the pre amp DI. I was sure it was a pricing error and would be cancelled. Must be the end of the line.

I got this sorted in the end - I'll give a quick description of how I fixed it in case it can help anyone else. The bridge ground wire comes out against the side of the bridge post insert nearest the G string, and the wire is simply held in place by the friction of being sandwiched between insert and wood. My wire had come away for whatever reason. The fix was like this: Pull the ground wire out completely through the f hole (you can just about see the hole through which it gets to the bridge post). Remove the insert - I just put half a wooden dowel in the hole and screwed in the post, and it came out easily. Feed a stiff wire through the insert hole and on through the small ground wire hole, hook it out through the f hole and use it to pull the ground wire back through. Press the insert back into the hole, making sure that the ground wire makes contact properly. Job done!

I have a Jack Casady bass that has developed a ground issue - the bridge/strings are no longer grounded. I took off the bridge to investigate. I couldn't see the ground wire under any of the inserts. Presumably the wire has pulled away. How is the ground wire meant to be connected with this style of bridge? Is it just a friction fit under one of the inserts? Is one of the posts meant to screw down onto the wire? Struggling to see how to fix this one!

The Weems design has two external ports (one from each chamber) and one internal port, whereas the barefaced (I think) has one internal and one external. There is info out there on how to tune the Weems design, but I couldn't find anything on calculating the alternative double chamber designs.

Thanks Phil. I actually do have A level physics and maths funny enough, so maybe I will see if I can actually remember any of it and seek out those books. I have tinkered with winISD but I don't understand a lot of it, I think I need to get some more of the theory first.

Based on an old post here, an internal slot port can be spotted by looking through the external round port. So maybe not a passive radiator.