NickA

There are many many models from boiler plate plywood up to some rather nice fully carved "master series" Which one are you looking at? All decent workmanlike basses tho not terribly special at the price. Lady at my orchestra has a plywood vb80 which is built like a battleship but frankly pretty awful ( despite £250 strings ). I tried a vb503 at bass bags and it was pretty good, but also a bit bland and also £8000 You'd likely get better value 2nd hand, but yes, they're ok and certainly won't fall to bits.

Turners in beeston is ok. But tend to high end and wood rather than carbon. Bass bags in Ripley is still going ( after a major financial wobble) but have little in stock...tend towards lower end stuff. I got my carbon Arcos S3 from them but they had to order it in for me to try it. Better bet is to call Creswell Strings, who will send you 6 bows in a box that you can try at home; call or mail them with a quick description of what you want and your budget. I did that for a new cello bow a few years ago. I think it's important to try the bows with your own bass as the interaction counts for a lot. Bows sound different on different basses and spending more doesn't always result in the difference you expect. So ifbyou do make a trip to Nottinghamshire you'll need to bring your bass!

Fretless Wal custom biased to the bridge pickup into a small, clean sounding and mid rich pjb flightcase with flat eq. Sounds like a stoned Percy Jones doing a jaco impression. A have a fretted warwick that sounds completely different and keep intending to gig it .... but then just take the fretless instead. More than one bassist has stopped playing a Wal as the sound is distinctive and detracts from their own sound and the music... not me, I love it.

Taped fingers changes the sound, but that's not an issue for practicing. I used to get blisters, but no longer do and I don't think my right hand is significantly more calloused than it was. Some things I've learned over 30 odd years: Let the amp take the strain, you don't need to pluck that hard. Share the load, use index and middle finger. I used to use just my middle finger but now use both, some sequences of notes fall easier if you alternate between fingers. Play little and often if you can, building up to those three hour gigs! Pluck diagonally across the strings, it sounds better and spreads the load across more skin. Some people recommend wiping your finger down the side of your nose to apply a little natural lubricant. Sounds a bit gross, but works actually. Keep playing!

Or buy a pack of these and see if they help: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292979806418?var=0&shprz=EBAY_GB_619&_ul=GB&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&toolid=20006&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338986375&loc_interest_ms=&loc_physical_ms=9046416&adtype=pla&customid=Cj0KCQiA0p7KBhCkARIsAE6XlalW5IfZcd_Uf--FTf6ENEaToqvPpylhUhmEwS2j7VKA9ACQm9NAxNkaApXuEALw_wcB|null|null&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20398737499&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0p7KBhCkARIsAE6XlalW5IfZcd_Uf--FTf6ENEaToqvPpylhUhmEwS2j7VKA9ACQm9NAxNkaApXuEALw_wcB

The cartoon says it all. Logically, the genuine road wear ( the scratch) should add more value than the fake ( Sandberg applied ) wear. Meanwhile on Wal and Warwick forums the question is "if I get my bass refinished to look like new, will it be more valuable" to which the answer is generally yes. Equally dumb as it's the sound that counts.

I know, doesn't it just. All Stanley is remembered for, tho he's done lots more. It is indeed a bit samey. The other tracks on nightfall are good too tho, I like the fifth of Beethoven ( Ornette Coleman?) and will be looking out more of Herr Ilg.

20 hour flight from Perth back to Brum last night ...Emirates have a surprisingly good music library on which I found this: I'd never heard of Dieter Ilg...ok so it has a trumpet on it too, but boy do I wish I could play like him.

Moving the bridge will alter the tone. Fitting a new nut will change the scale which will also play havoc with intonation surely? Learning to swap around is really the best way. The note you get when your thumb hits the neck heel is a good cross check but electric bassists manage without it; good intonation depends on accurate position changes which is something well worth practising (over and over!). I borrowed a 3/4 D(ISH) neck bass while my 4/4 Eb (ISH) neck bass was being mended. It was no Biggie. But I realised that using the neck heel as a reference was a bit of a crutch.

My 4/4 dB fits in a Skoda citigo. Using the neck down the foot well body on reclined front seat method. I got to a bass bash once with the dB, two powered cabs and three bass guitars....in the citigo; but I can't quite remember how.

I have one now!! Not found the hp filter to make a heck of a difference tbh. Yet to try it "on stage";

Even if the riser works it will have a frequency response that accentuates some notes / harmonics more than others. I really can't see it working across a wide enough band to make a difference, especially outdoors. Small amp and a battery pack. Or...ditch the double bass and get a sousaphone 😀

Thing with the double bass rooms is they sell at good prices for buyers ..so I'm guessing not great prices for sellers. Great place tho.

£7 to 8k sounds a bit high tbh; tho "rubner" covers a wide range of qualities and values. The "name" has been sold on a few times and only basses made in the 60s were made by mr rubner. The company was owned by musima in the late 80s. You may need a valuation, bearing in mind that an "insurance valuation" will be a lot more than a potential "sales" price. 1. Put it up on here. 2. Try musicalchairs.info Minimal advertising fees ...but selling can be slow. Dealers will ALWAYS rip 15 to 20% from you for a commission sale and usually find "some work" that needs doing before it can go in their showroom....however, they will also put a top price on it and are more likely to find a buyer. Use a specialist: Turners in Nottingham Thwaites in Watford Tim Toft in Stone T&G Martin in Oxfordshire, maybe. Etc My mum sold my late dad's cello last year. It was worth up to £90k (!!) sold for £85k by a dealer who took 15% and also charged £5k for "renovation". Mum got £73k. Last seen being played at the proms! Anyway, that's how it is with dealers and restorers.

That is going to make most of the classical repertoire "rather difficult" 🤣

Total respect for the DIY. I just would not dare. Fingers crossed and best of luck

whereas some folk play a double bass tuned in fifths! Before I acquired any basses, I used to try plucking bass lines on my 'cello ... inlcuding in a singing band at school that always got good applause. Possibly due to the row of sweet 17 year old girlies in their tight white blouses and mini-skirts....but I reckon it was my bass-on-the-cello that was the clincher 🙂 TBH having acquired a bass (or few) I wouldn't bother playing anything but classical on my cello .. just feels odd somehow. David Darling is worth a listen though (very ECM).

My pjb flightcase ( plus pb300 for larger spaces) is great for uncoloured double bass and has a good high input impedance. It just makes the bass louder really. The two four is probably just too small. My rig totals 10x 5" and 400W. I presume a pjb head would be equally clean and work well into into a neutral sounding cab. Likewise I've found the small Mark bass combos good for dB ( turn off all that vfm vpf nonsense) so surprised the op isn't happy with it, maybe the nano isn't as good as the larger amps? In fact (amost) all amps have an hpf built in ( even the fender rumbles) it's just not adjustable. Only a few exotica ( Mesa d800+ for instance) seem to have tweakable high pass. It's there to protect the speaker but being set around 40Hz ( usually) and quite a steep roll off, also controls boominess. Whatever, for jazz in pubs etc ( which is what I do) I've not needed an external HPF but have sometimes turned the low bass EQ knob down to deal with room acoustics.

that does indeed apply to my acg-eq-01 jazz with it's 8 pots ( volume & blend, LP filter & filter gain for each pu plus variable frequency and gain high frequency pass through). Easy to get lost in there! Not to the Wal tho ( a mere 4 pots and three pull switches) on which 90% of settings are good!

Several reasons to stay active: 1. Buffering ..it's not just a long lead that eats sound. Some amps have a relatively low input impedance and when matched to high impedance ( lots of windings) pickups plus resistive volume and tone controls a lot of high frequency content is lost. Also if you have two pickups or humbuckers the individual windings load eachother. Now if you like that warmer sound passive is good ..but it's easier to cut high frequencies than put them back. 2. On bass EQ... I don't really see the point, the amp can do it, but sometimes the builder puts in eq that's specially matched to the bass. 3. Active filtering....is a better tone control than a resistor and a capacitor; you can make the roll off steeper and/or add a little boost at some frequencies. 4. Low output pickups ( fewer windings) have lower inductance and less intertwinding capacitance so can have a wider frequency response ...if you want those high frequencies..but then need a signal boost. 5. Possibility of separate filtering for separate pickups...you can't do that on an amp ( not without stereo wiring and two channels) 6. The tone doesn't change when you adjust the volume, with resistor volume and tone controls, it does. I agree tho that passive is nice and simple and that you sometimes get a sound you like without needing any of the above 🙂 . Eg The classic fender jazz sound relies on that inter pickup loading I think

Really, who watches that shite...and why is the licence money wasted on commissioning more of it.

Just put jazz in the garden on ..after a solo home practice session with iReal What impresses me is that Stan's in time and in tune, sometimes playing in perfect unison with a complicated piano melody, but also exercises great restraint, playing the same apparently simple bass line over and over without straying into unnecessary complexity. It's very skilled and "grown up" playing. I fear my own playing fails on both counts! Too many notes and not at the right time! Also listened to VSOP today and remembered how good Ron Carter can be.

Light as a feather .. have it on cassette tape, played to extinction in the mid 80s. That and Hejira my gateways into Jazz from prog.

"Jazz in the garden". Stan Clark trio. Lots of Hiromi but Stan on double bass throughout. He's one of the greatest double bass players of our time...gets lost beneath his funky slappy alembic antics.