Rabbie

She needs a lot of work on her technique! I mean, stance, right hand and left hand are all wrong... She does have other assets though...

I have had Shadow and Underwood in the past which were great, but now I use either a Rev Solo or a Blast Cult pickup and I find them both excellent. I have tried fancy ones like Ehrlund and DPA mic and I found them terrible for my uses, yet I have seen quieter guys/girls getting great sounds with the fancy ones too.

Good for you mate, you got a great deal there! All the best with it and I hope to see you gigging around.

Shameless plug: If I remember well, he plays Garbo lights A and E...and guess who just happens to have a one-day old pair of them for sale right now in the classifieds....sorry, I did say it was a shameless plug...

Not good Clarky, I think you'd be well within your right to drop Velvet a line. If I remember correctly, their rep is a great boogie woogie bassist from Switzerland and I have heard they have a good customer service.

Thinking about it, I could have just answered in one sentence: if you cannae fit your fingers between the strings and the fingerboard, you cannae slap. That's all really.

To slap you need high action. As a matter of fact real low action does not suit the double bass at all, in any style. Bear in mind that the action at the fingerboard is only of very relative significance and it all depends on hight at nut, string type, string tension, bridge curvature, in short general bass set-up as well as your technique and stamina. To over-simplify and answer your question: some people can slap steel strings with low action around 7-8mm. This low action would not suit wackers or guts as you will have no acoustic volume. Personally I use gut strings and action around 1.2-1.3cm. Very high for most people, but I like it and I can be heard even without an amplifier (up to a point of course). That's how the old players did it, since you asked about classic slap tone. Some modern psychobilly guys have different setups which rely on amps a lot more, but I really don't know about that. Gee that's a long answer sorry my friend.

I'm not sure actually but it may well be that. I think Blast Cult uses a new ebony substitute which is still hard wearing wood, but I don't know what King used to do. Looks way too shiny for me though.

Good deal for whoever got it. The shiny finish and colour wouldn't be to my taste but the quality is great. I hope that whoever got it is going to put it to good use, might catch it round in the circuit hopefully.

Buy it. I would.

Hi Andy, I think I may slightly change my hand to a wee bit of a "sideways hook" when doing fast runs, I never really thought about it to be fair, I just do it. I think that most people just do feels natural to them; as you quite correctly say, there is no rule as long as you achieve a clean big sound. The most important things in my opinion are to make sure your hand is relax and your action is high enough, so your fingers will be able to grab the strings easily, even at fast tempos.

King Moretone Basses are vintage pearls of the 50s.. They are no longer made and they have street cred +++++. You are not likely to find one easily. King double basses were rockabilly basses made in the US a few years back. They are also no longer made but the guy who made them, Jason Burns, now makes Blast Cult basses, similar concept but improved design: excellent basses. Both options will be very expensive as well as very good. I think Blast Cults retail for around $4500 plus lot of dosh to import them from the US. If you find a used King (of either kind) buy it!... But it ain't gonna be cheap.

In terms of sheer influence on popular music, slapping, songwriting and general bad-boyness, gotta be Willie Dixon for me http://youtu.be/UcqqyL-Y6Go

As it stands I think that Lenzner are the cheapest good quality ones. You can buy them singularly from Bassico. Efrano are also great. Never tried the cheap ones on eBay, but they might be ok. I am gonna take the plunge on some Gamut soon, which are £££ but everyone says they are worth it. Anyone got a used set? Even for a straight rockabilly player, the unwrapped E and A may be too thuddy, not to mention expensive! The wrapped fall apart with slapping (apparently, never really tried them long enough to know), so you may have to find a compromise for especially the E. people use anything from solo steels detuned to velvet garbo lights to innovation etc...

My main bass is also kept in the corner of our living room and my wife never complained about gut strings smell in our house. I was also raised in a farming village and yet I am not that familiar with the smell of donkey's bahoochy. Makes me wonder about the person on doublebasschat.....

Guts are not that fragile, they can last for years too and if an Olive G broke that quickly it must be due to a manufacturing fault or to incorrect fitting to a bass (I.e. around winder or jaggy bridge or nut slot or over winding past pitch)

Good stuff. Yes mixing sets is indeed often the key of a happy DB sound. Good on you for finding a mix that suits your bass early on, it will save you £££. But....If you ever get dissatisfied with your choice, i have one message from the "gut preservation society": try gut D and G. Or failing that try to get a set of Lamberts (vastly better than all other slap strings IMO).

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1384184960' post='2273678'] Seems to pop up all over the place, and not cheaply. Problem I found - as did Clarky above - is that AI doesn't have the grunt for nice clean DB tone in a noisy room (and I had a combo and extension cab also). I found exactly the same problem with PJB rigs. [/quote] They have excellent wattage but lack the bigger size speakers to move air and produce bass IMO.