NickA

I DID buy a MK2 5er Wal off reverb without ever having seen it in the flesh or played one. £4k tho not £13k. Doubt I'd do it at today's prices ... though they've settled from the peak and 5ers are generally a bit cheaper than 4s. I'd buy an ACG Krell instead 😁.

Difference with double basses is the amount of work that goes into one. All that carving (and a considerable amount of material) or they're rare antiques made (allegedly) from wood of a quality beyond what is now available. £20k for a lovely Penning or T&G Martin is pretty good value. Electric basses are, by comparison, just fancy plywood that's been band sawn into a shape. 😉 No, I'd never pay £20k for an electric bass, and certainly not that ugly fodera.

Plays over the bridge pickup and uses an awful lot of pull offs and push ons ... at first I through he wasn't actually playing as his right hand barely moves; the left hand hidden behind the keyboard player is doing most of the work! various vids of him on the GK website:

Trendy yup. Modern, probs not entirely. Anyway we talked this to bits 4 years ago 😂

Oh yes, pencil marks! In an orchestra you might have a 40 bar rest followed by the bass section coming in FF... you really don't want to hit a bum note! We sometimes play this lovely Sibelius piece called "scene with cranes" which has almost silence then a high stopped harmonic on the bass ..no way can I hit that without a pencil line ... But it's the exception not the rule. Got my music, the conductor, other players, even the audience to watch. Looking at my left hand is off the agenda. Admittedly, I do glance at the side dots on electric because the neck is long and without many clues as to where you are. But I'm trying not to as looking at the rest of the band is more important..it's a matter of knowing what position you're in (4th finger currently on C for example, so that swapping 4th with 1st will put 3rd finger on D and 4th on Eb). The double bass has extra tactile clues.. thumb on neck, 2nd finger opposite thumb = 1st finger on D, 2nd on Eb etc. Once you key in a few parameters, switching to a different bass is easy enough ..my bass is 4/4 Eb neck, but I borrowed a 3/4 D neck one at a recent session .. strangely, going back to my own bass was harder!

When I was learning the cello (aged 😎😎 my teacher put a bit of Elastoplast on the back of the neck where my thumb should be in 1st position... But really you need to play enough to get muscle memory for each position. Drop your arm to your side, then, from nowhere, put your hand on the neck to get a particular note, adjust till it's in tune then do it again. Before long, it's like touching the tip of your nose with a finger...you just know where it is. Ps excuse inadvertent smiley ...it happened when I typed an 8 then a )..and refuses to delete!

it depends where you're going after that 2nd C... if you're working back down the neck I'd go 4, 1, 4, 4, 1 all on the G string. But if you're already up at the neck or planning to stay there, then Owen's fingering is good ( though due to small hands and a big bass, I'd put my 4th not 3rd on that E ). Also if you have a trendy modern D neck then reaching E with 3 or C with 4 is a stretch ( my bass has an Eb neck, so 5th position is very easy ... hitting an in tune D less so). In the end, there is no one way ..it depends too much on what came before, what follows, how long your fingers are and what kind of bass you have. Try several fingerings, then stick with the best one for you.

I'd never even heard of Unicorn.... amazing wood work and he can deliver in under a year. From his website: Prices starts from SEK 64000 / €5600 plus taxes*. Custom orders starts from SEK 74400 / €6520 plus taxes*

Go realist. They are better than the sort that slide into the bridge wings and don't seem to wear out ( my shadow failed just like the OP's one). The sort that go under the bridge feet are a bit dark sounding for my bass but they have a good tone and a high output. I have a realist sound clamp that "clamps" onto the bridge, bit fiddly as you only fit it when you want to use it but very adjustable ..even has a built in volume control.

I've played a double bass through MarkBass and PJB kit recently and frankly it's hard to get a fag paper between them. Despite totally different tech (PJB has 4x 5" speakers and no tweeter . MB has 1x 12" and a tweeter) they both do the job really well. My amp is a PJB flightcase (BG-150). Not very loud so plumbed into a PB300 powered cab for bigger gigs. Both of them have PJB's (discontinued) "neo-power" drivers which are very "HiFi" and a bit soft; nice for jazz on a DB but a bit short of thwack, thump and sparkle (to use tech terms!). The MB combo is Martin Spencer's (our local Bass pro) and I think is a CMD 121P. Bit bigger than my BG-150 but louder and a bit brigher when all that "VLF VPF" nonsense is turned off. He has a micro-mark I've used too; also OK but limited in controls and volume.. If you're buying new then I guess it's between the PJB BG-450 and the Markbass MB58R Mini 121; both of these have bigger amps than the internal drivers so can power a passive external cab.. I've not tried a DB through either, but I did try my fretless electric through a BG-400 in bass direct. BG400 and BG450 have PJB's newer (and heavier) "piranha" drivers and sound a bit brigher than the neo-power PJB kit. As I say .. probably makes no odds which you go for. I can vouch for the PJB stuff (if you can find one!) but the MB stuff also sounds good. Here's Martin playing live through his Markbass 121:

Pretty much all amps do. Pjb and Mark bass for sure. It's fixed is all, so no tweaking. I play my double bass through a realist sound clip & pjb flightcase in all kinds of places and never had a low frequency issue. Sometimes turn up the low bass and high bass EQ knobs if there's not enough room reinforcement. Tempted by the EBS Stan Clarke ( for all the reason NS quoted by @Burns-bass) but it's yet more kit to lug about.

Same with my pjb flightcase. Massive input impedance and has an HPF built in; no additional pre required. That EBS Stan Clarke looks fun and has a maybe useful variable hpf, notch filter and phase reverser ... but it's expensive for a few extra knobs. Just get a quality amp and plug in. Ps: I've a realist pickup and that helps

Photo? If the wires came loose or there's a fault in the cabling, I can solder it back together for you. But the piezo itself is glued between metal plates with rubbery gunk. If the fault is deep inside the gunk it will probably be destroyed by any attempt to get at the fault. I have an old shadow piezo ( Underwood but cheaper) that died, I just cut off the dead side and used it on one side of the bridge, it sounded ok. I've upgraded to a realist one since though.

Makes you sound like Charlie Mingus ( Thumpy and often out of tune ) But maybe doesn't endow you with his incredible creativity.

https://reverb.com/uk/item/77914727-g-l-usa-l-2500-fullerton-deluxe-bass-2003-swamp-ash-rosewood-clf32398 temptation! I really don't need another bass, but I'd love to try this one.