Rabbie

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.

[quote name='keeponehandloose' timestamp='1384175137' post='2273504'] IMO using a Fishman Pro Platinum preamp will alow you to get a more than decent sound from almost any amp , my search stopped when I realised this.. [/quote] True. A preamp such as this is the first thing you should put in your gig bag, especially if you play in big places where your amp, no matter how big, is not enough. To Arisan above I'd say you don't really need one when using a GB shuttle, but if you prefer it, it's up to you. Like many here, I have tried a lot of amps in a lot of situations and basically it's so variable that I don't think a holy graal exists. For me, Genz Benz shuttle plus one or 2 cabs allow me to get loud and still sound like a DB, whilst being light to carry.

That's right, as I said I have never played the rockabilly version but the hibrid 3/4 model, now known as 1950, was my first bass. I also had to put the spike very high and it was a flimsy wee endpin too if I remember well. If memory serves me well, I couldn't really complain about the sound per se, but as soon as I started gigging I found that the bass was falling apart around me: the tuners were unreliable, the black paint stripped off the fingerboard, the bridge was flimsy, the tailpiece was wobbly, I couldn't help feedback and it was so shiny the audience had to wear shades (not really of course).... In saying that, if I remember well I paid £400 for it back then and it served its purpose well in making me understand I had found my instrument and needed to get something better in order to make the jump.

Brilliant tip, no shame in getting a bit of help with intonation on the gig: nerves and adrenaline can really do funny things to the old fingers and ears... Well mine at least.

Not the same model, the one in Bassman thread is the solid wood top one. Still, same fittings.

Hi, I have never played the bass you suggest but I am sure you can make a reasonable sound with it. It is what it is: a cheap bass, in the same ballpark as many others in the budget category. I play Rockabilly and roots music like you and I am a lover of plywood basses. Plywoods are a lot cheaper than good carved basses, yet for a good ply you'd need to pay at least 2-3 times as much. Of course nobody needs a top instrument to play in the pub now and again, so don't let this put you off. There are many cut corners which make this bass a budget one: "ebonised" fingerboard and nut are just hardwood painted black which wears off very quickly, the tailpiece is metal instead of ebony, the finish is industrial and shiny, the lamination used will be of inferior quality, the setup is non-specific and Innovation are cheap strings. This is not bad per se: just necessary for a budget instrument. Still, if you play as amateur in the pub at weekends, and especially if your main interest is the drums, and if you play mostly amplified, I'd say you'd be fine with it. I think it is better than the Antoni you have now, but probably still not a "keeper" in the long term. Hope this helps a little, but I'd wait to get a few more opinions from the very knowledgeable people in this forum.

[quote name='paddy109' timestamp='1383682082' post='2267692'] More of a cheat than a tip - Ive downloaded my bands set list to my phone and then attach a car window phone holder to the back of my bass. From the audience my phone isn't seen and its better than having music stands and loads of paper everywhere. Great for remembering those songs I always have a blank on! [/quote] Good one! But I cannae see the back of my bass when I play.

[quote name='ubassman' timestamp='1383675589' post='2267554'] I'm assuming that for intonation you rip the tape into little pieces first Rabbie ? !! [/quote] Eh eh, the best way for me is really to tape my ears up and blissfully ignore how bad my intonation can be... But aye I do rip it in wee bits

Sports tape! That's the thing I always keep in my gig bag. Basically a thinner gaffer tape useful in lots of situations: tape up lots of things such as blistered fingers, loose or rattling pickups, frayed strings, music to stand, setlist to floor, cables round tailpiece. If using borrowed bass and nervous about intonation I even use it to "cheat" and mark the side of the fingerboard on the night. Oops, sorry I just noticed that the touring guy above also had it for strings...probably everyone already knows about it so not much of a tip sorry!

To be fair, lots of folk give guts such a terrible name but they really are not all that high maintenance, they do stay in tune once they stretch and if you are in the uk they really are not affected by climate changes unless you play whilst being cremated.