NickA

I have those Facom wire cutters and a halfords bicycle cable cutter too. Tend towards the bike cable cutter as I don't want to damage the Facom (have you seen the price of them now?) 🙂

Listened to the very end now. Kind of hard to tell over a pc sound card and laptop speakers ... so plugged my laptop into a PJB BigHead's USB port and it's output into my bass amp (also a very clean PJB thing)! As you didn't grace us with a head to head against that Wal that's lurking in the background, I swapped around between your recordings and my Mk2. I reckon you're 90% there for some settings at least. The lusithand certainly adds the vital bit of fuzz. My Wal is a bit brigher and has a harder attack, maybe a bit growlier (low mids?) ..and that "clipped" sound gets more dominant the more I lay into the strings .. on the other hand it's fitted with DR HiBeams to make it brighter and I've found that pickup height and action make a deal of difference to the sound too. So probably you're now within the range of sounds that come out of a Wal with different setups. Looking forward to the new neck ... and then a mahogany body. And then there are some Wal owners who are convinced a black poly coating over the wood also affects the sound (they're surely wrong) 🙂

Ok. Just ... Wow. Fantastic clean technique too ... evidently Simandl is all you need. And a reminder that I don't listen to enough classical music. It's like she's playing an extended range cello. I especially enjoyed watching to see how she keeps from tangling her bow in her pony tail 😁

Certainly has some Wal like qualities! What became of the Wal clone neck Andy made for you? I've lost track.

And the point of a streamette is? I mean you could always get a streamer. The usp, of the corvette and the main reason for its popularity, surely being that it was relatively cheap.

New neck .. Good move! I think most 3 to 4 conversions they just squeezed an extra string in and changed the nut. You see some strange goings on in peg boxes where an extra peg has been forced in. Sometimes one string even has a non matching tuner. All this variety just adds to the charm of double basses 😁

Thread ending advice there! Mine has always had a crack on the edge of the board. I might try fixing it now. Just need to find some ebony to make dust from.

Wow. Did they need to change the neck? If not it must have had a super wide string spacing when new? I was told mine had originally been a 3, but I see no sign of a conversion. I reckon it was built as a 4 back in 1880 something; but it would still make a very close spaced 5 ( and need a new fingerboard due to having one of those Romberg bevels under the E).

There are suprisingly few 5-string double basses in the world ... combined with a suprisingly large number of orchestral bass parts that go below bottom E. Beats me. I guess the reason is that even the 4-string bass is a fairly recent thing, many old basses having been built as 3-string basses. Whilst you can make a lovely antique 3-string into a 4-string, making it into a 5 would be a stretch too far ... hence not many nice old 5-strings about; and hence 4-strings with those ugly (IMHO) extensions. Plus most parts don't go below bottom E and sometimes you really need to lay in to those low notes that no-one else in the orchestra can reach (tuba and contra-bassoon excepted). Something I've noticed about those few double bassists that play 5-strings is that they don't play them like a 5-string electric bass, they mostly play in first position using the B string to get notes below E ... whereas on a 5-string electric you'd likely play a 4th up and get the advantage of a shorter scale whilst still getting a low E and a range up to Eflat without changing position. Better tone I think. Owen's 5-string NS was a thing of wonder though, so especially if you're going to pluck rather than bow, go 5 if you can find one.

Had some of my spiros for 30 years! Rosin doesn't age them. Expect at least a decade, but they do snap occasionally.

Me too. Used to lean it backwards against the wall; one night it fell forward, shed it's fingerboard, cracked its bass bar and loss lots of the little patches old basses acquire inside. £1500 repair bill and that was 20 years ago. Probably less of an issue with a small laminate bass. But why risk it.

Not a clue about those strings. Random cheapies I guess. The pizz only standard is probably thomastic spirocores. The Best all round strings seem to be Eva Pirazzi ( "weich" if your only going to pizz, regular if you want to bow ). . But I paid £180 for my set. Bit ott on a £150 bass. strings do make a big difference; but don't get too hopeful; I don't think a half size laminated bass is ever going to "sing". The other bass players in my orchestra have decent basses but mostly use orchestral strings which sound really dead to me. One of them has a 3/4 laminate with Eva pirazzis on it and that plucks better than the nice carved basses with bowing strings imo. My fully carved 4/4 with spiros on beats the others hollow! Pretty good with Eva's too ... but that's a £5k + bass with £100s in setup costs and £200 strings. Maybe stick with what you have. Get a feel for whether you like double bass then look to upgrade?

My problem is it not being quite a while semitone away! Ron seems to have this problem on occasion too .. his intonation on piccolo is awful. I guess a small error on a tiny bass makes a big difference. Still a great player though.

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GK better than most. PJB and Markbass better. DB wise that is. Still I've been to Liran Donin and Alec Dankworth gigs where they both used those archaic looking GK 150 things with one huge speaker .. and they sounded great. Sometimes think we fuss too much 🤣

What is it about Wals ?? Hmm. Not sure, I have two and love them, especially the fretless. Pretty facewoods aside .. they are very responsive to player input and have a fat and complex, slightly muzzy sound to them, but still manage lovely clear harmonics. I tried a load of (5 string fretted) basses before buying my second Wal ..and nothing else quite hit the spot. ... and because they're expensive, and keep getting more so, they get collected which sticks the price up in an ever increasing spiral. When all the old guys (like me) who were over influenced by them in the 80s, drop dead... prices might fall 😁

I've got a pjb flightcase which is great for dB and pretty good for electric. It sits on a pjb pb300 ( 250w powered cab) for gigs with drums etc. Very transparent. I've also played at sessions through some markbass kit and was well impressed. Small drivers are the thing. My full pjb rig is 10x 5". The most recent markbass I tried was 1x 6" surprisingly loud for the tiny size ... Has a vmt knob which radically alters the sound though I'm not sure what it actually does. Both pjb and markbass well worth a punt.

Pva wood glue ( stronger than the wood) if you can get it in the cracks. Then g-clamp hard and leave for 48hrs. Should last a while. I'd save up for a new one tho.

I've got some kolstein. It's ok, less grippy and less long lasting than nyman ... Ok in the summer. No idea if it works with plain gut ... have no intention on using plain gut.... but I'll bet nyman is better.

+1 for the Sandberg vm5. A real versatile work horse of a bass. Well made too. And they do a gorgeous black one too. I tried a load of 5s a few years back and found most ( including an expensive Pedulla and a £2k+ zon) couldn't really hack the low B. The Sandberg did and had loads of sound options too. Not played a g&l 2500 mind. No I didn't buy one. Got a Wal instead, just before prices leapt to stupid. That's a great 5 string, but just silly money now.