Rabbie

Bassace just gave you the best possible reply. What he said is THE truth. Like him, I somewhat miss the excitement of starting out on DB and I wish you loads of success. For sure you'll find lots of advice and encouragement on this part of the forum.

Just completed a very pleasant amp trade with Stevie. Top guy, excellent communication and very safe packaging! Top class.

Superb for look, tone and practicality IMO. In fact, I need to get me another one soon for my main bass.

As per Bilbo suggestions, plus add: Blues; there's a great album with Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim, I think it's called "aux Trois Mailletz" (spelling probably wrong) and it's published by Gitane. Willie also played on most great recordings from Chess Records in the 50s, bridging the gap between blues and rock n roll. You won't need anybody else to listen to blues double bass IMO. Rockabilly, well, any 1950s Elvis, Carl Perkins and later Eddie Cochrane and Gene Vincent will put you in the picture of what the bass does there. For modern Rockabilly start with the first Stray Cats album then maybe download Brian Setzer latest Rockabilly Riot album to get to grips with the modern sound. To add another dimension to your Jazz knowledge, don't miss out the joys of the players that started it all. Check out the genius of Milt Hinton in the Cab Calliway recordings (and follow his unique swinging in later recordings like the charming "Partners in crime" with Ralph Sutton). You may want to check out great modern slapping in the context of Western swing by getting an album from the Hot Club of Cowtown. Finally, for me the best jazz player around now is Carlos Henriquez of the Jazz at Lincoln centre orchestra with Winton Marsalis. Their brand new album Live in Cuba is fantastic and you get an overdose of Latin and jazz DB on that one. As I said, this one just sits alongside what you have been advised this far. I'm quite jealous you still have to listen to these great albums because you are gonna have a great time!

I'd say focus on how you sound acoustically. Everything else depends on that. A friend of mine recounted a beautiful story to me about meeting Milt Hinton when he came to the UK. The judge told him that if he was gonna slap, just practice and forget about all the nonsense about steel or gut strings. Personally, I prefer how guts sound and how much easier they are on the hands, but Milt and Djordie Stijepovic did/do it on Spiros and sound amazing, so there. Once you get your technique and sound to where you want it, as long as you control feedback and roll off the high mids, curb the treble and tame the bass, you will sound ok on stage too.

Good on ya mate, you'll be fine. I'll tune in!

That's good to know, thank you very much.