Rabbie

Thomas is a legend. You will be very happy with your Duke.

After many years and oodles of ££££ spent on guts, I had an epiphany (driven by the bank account shortages) and changed to Spiro Mitts. Yes they sound very twangy at first but once they break in they are great and they force you to learn to play dynamically I think. With guts I just dug in all the time with high action. With Spiros I’m down to the normal 9-11mm and I can play hard or soft, mute a lot more and dare I say sound almost gutt-ish at times. Of course I never bow, so if you do a lot of arco people say they are not so good (yet some philharmonic orchestras apparently use them). In a nutshell, a bit like yourself, I’ve been playing for a while and have come to the conclusion that any shortcomings in my sound are not due to the string choice, but my fingers. Hope you are well anyway and all the very best.

Nah, it’s ebony. The bass is at the luthier just now and we are having a think about what is worthwhile doing, so I’ll post an update when it’s done. PS - there are a few great quality plys out there with excellent ebony boards on them actually. I have owned a vintage Hofner ply which was outstanding quality, and a Duke which was also superb. I have played a Kay and an American Standard on the road and again they were truly professional plys. This one unfortunately isn’t as good, but again I didn’t spend anything on it so may be worth fixing. It certainly would be nice to have for the gigs on which I don’t fancy taking my already quite battered carved bass to.

Wowser, you guys must be loud! I used to have a Duke and play big tents and festivals sometimes and it was a great bass. The rockabilly type pickup system you use gives it loads of thump before feedback but it’s not really the “ your bass only louder” scenario, so I don’t think that the tone colouring of an SVT is too much of a problem. I used an SVT plus 8x10 as a back line once and I was frightened by the power! I used to own a Genz Benz 9.0 but I guess you want even more power so I guess the options you suggest should be awesome. For cabs I’d say get Greenboy (Tricky audio in the U.K.). I had a fearless 15 and it was so good, much louder than the 2x12 it replaced. They also make 2x15s and thet must be a monster. They can make whatever combinations you need probably. My question is: why not declutter and have the band invest in in-ear monitoring and the kind of system which would suit you all? I’m not at all up to speed on those because I never used one and nowadays I can only put up with low stage volume and small ensembles. I look forward to learning from the other suggestions you’ll get as it seems an interesting challenge: play at loud volumes and still sound like a DB.

Francis is a great great person to deal with. We had a brief string loan situation and he was a dream in terms of honesty and communication.

Cheers chaps. Jay, when you have time if you could PM me that luthier's number it would be awesome. Thanks in advance. And yes I agree it's a dilemma, but it could be useful for little fun gigs, open air things, parties, etc If it's within the £300 ballpark I guess it is still ok.

Hi, I just took home a cheapo bass from a home where it was no longer wanted or needed. It was used for school and nobody there knew there was something wrong with it. My idea was to leave my good bass home on the, what shall we call them, less "humane" gigs... It's a ply, but only 5-6 years old: a Hofner. The body is fine, BUT, it has the worst case of saggy (a.k.a. concave, buckled) neck I've ever seen in the flesh. The action between 2nd/3rd position and thumb position is unplayable and the action at the end of the fingerboard is far too low! Neck reset, or something cheaper, or skip? Or else? It's not my main bass and I didn't pay for it, so I'm not too fussed, but can I save it? How? At what cost? and Where? (I'm in Scotland). Any help appreciated. PS, the photos are the best I can do, but the description of saggy should suffice... And no I can't manage to rotate the photos so they are easier to see somehow...sorry

I take it your bass sounds even acoustically? (Edit: sorry, you said above it is) And I assume the Shadow is the "underwood" looking wing type? Lots of people use the Realist so if it just doesn't suit your bass, I'd say abandon ship. I've never had it on my bass, but I used to have an Eminence and it sounded champion on that. There's no point altering the bridge to suit the Realist unless you will then use it forevermore. And it may not work. In that case, if you wanted to just have a "truer" sound but not too expensive you could go down the route of Ehrlund. Schertler is much better but more expensive. Remic is brilliant. I have the studio version. I know they make a live version which is apparently much more resistant to feedback and trades off a bit on sound. If you play at extreme volumes however you'd just have to put up with the unnatural sound and stick to underwood-types or get the dreaded mag pickup.

He he, so...probably fair to say that Jay is not in the market for a 1/2 size bass...or a wee coffin... Still, as everyone said, get a 3/4. Peace.

[quote name='spencer.b' timestamp='1506855809' post='3381492'] I use a QSC K10 and it's great , I actually prefer it to a bass amp when using a pick up too, I set up the the qsc alongside a mackie srm450 a while ago and I was suprised how much better the qsc sounded ,way more detailed refined and focused Btw those remics look the business I might have to get one [/quote] Thank you very much mate, yeah, I'll go for one of them or the K8 as soon as I manage to sell my flip top combo (I'm so surprised about how hard I'm finding it to sell that even at super low price). Yeah the Remic is amazing in my experience so far although being in a sort of live sabbatical at the moment, I have not really tested it on difficult stages yet. I got one of them endorsing deals and I am so very glad about it, top quality sound and so much easier to install than all the other mics. I'm quite confident it will be perfect for the acoustic/jazz situations I will be going out with in the new year.