NickA

Do NOT look at your left hand! If you feel tempted, start playing in a dark room. When I was a small boy learning the 'cello, my dad (who was also my teacher) put a bit of elastoplast on the neck where my thumb should be in first position (ie finger 2 on the A string = C, thumb behind 2nd finger, more or less); from there, one finger back is half position, moving your hand up to the neck so your thumb is on the heel gives you a 5th up, or an octave up from the next open string down. Filling in the space between first position and "tuhumb on the heel" is a matter of replacing second finger with first finger (do that three times and you've reach the neck position) - the brain's ability to map where a finger was touching and replace it with a different finger is amazing. It got to be learned and is quicker than you think ... and won't hurt your neck either! It's much easier than an electric bass because of the clues telling you where your hand is (but harder as you can only use three fingers and the gaps are bigger!). I admit to looking at my hand now and then when playing electric otherwise I just get lost - but never look at my left hand when playing double bass or cello.

Pretty much a stock answer to this type of question: "Talk to David at Bassbags" They used to (and I assume still can) get custom sized cases made to measure but also have lots of stock (I guess the clue is in the name of the company!). My own bass is the opposite to this one, being long in scale and body, but not very deep. I assumed I'd need a custom case so took it to BassBags, where David looked it up and down and pulled out a stock Westbury case that fitted like it was made for the bass. www.bassbags.co.uk

Mine works fine up and down the E-string. Too much like hard work holding the big fat E down onto the Romberg bevel to make thumb position worth it, but I sometimes use the E string to play a B if I'm up there. Check your bridge and sound post? Bridge may have shifted. NB: probably rather bass dependent; mine is a big & rather "rustic" fully carved german one, currently strung with "un weich" Spiros. I had a go on a French 3/4 flat backed one in Thwaites a bit back and that sounded much the same everywhere, which is probably why they wanted £20,000 for it.

I think it is the implication that one might purchase a young lady at all, let alone with the aim of enslaving her nether regions to keep ones amp warmed up is the potential source of objection; rather than the word BUM itself --- after all if the forum is happy with BUM (having previously changed the US rendition of derrière (*) to Donkey) it must be OK :¬). Still, no worries, this country will elect ANYONE to be an MP .. except Nigel (seven times failed) Farage apparently ... and Screaming Lord Sutch (RIP) who stood 40 times without keeping his deposit (probably get elected now). (*) Still changes AR$E to Derriere!

Probably good instruments. ( Bartolinis, hard wood body, nice through neck). Just the Barcelona special seems to have been designed during a mescal trip.

Belonged to session bassist Simone Feroci. He sold it to crack converters himself. I asked him, to check it wasnt nicked.

Snap! That thread says "eBay items only" so I put it here instead! Presumably someone commissioned and paid a load for it ... Possibly Simone Feroci himself, as here he is playing it! Maybe it was a gift from jacoland ... which for some reason, he didn't much like ( except for the knobs, which he kept). .https://m.facebook.com/simoneferociofficial/photos/a.3247995105240617/3247994978573963/?type=3&source=54&ref=page_internal. He lives in London according to LinkedIn ... so maybe traded it himself? But why with crack converters not wunjo or the gallery? Anyway, I tracked him down and messaged him; it was indeed his and he sold it to crack converters as he was short of ..... cash!

How many guitarists!!!? Sounds fine though. Two fingers and using your thumb for damping (or sitting it on the edge of a pickup, on a four string) is the normal method. I think the idea is that you get faster timing and an more even pluck But of course basses used to have a finger grab rail and you were expected to play only with your thumb (as indeed Pauls Westwood is doing on that beat up ... and woolly sounding - old Fender Jazz at the outset) so these things change. Famous guitarist, Julian Bream, played with his thumb only and I don't think anyone complained to him about it! Probably worth LEARNING the two finger method (in the same way I should probably learn to play with apick, which I never have) as it widens your scope a bit. I just learned "floating thumb" damping to use on a 5-string and now wonder why I never did it before.

Knobs is extra mate .. got to wonder how crack converters came by it and how much of the £1900 asking price they paid to the "owner".

Might be hard to find a German bow teacher in the uk.? Obviously nothing wrong with it, but not very popular here.

Supposed to look like Gaudi mosaic work .. I think.

Noticed THIS in Shephead's Bush crack converters today! People who made it are proud enough to put it on their website. http://www.jacoland.it/site/jacoland-barcelona-simone-feroci-signature/ Surely they didn't make more than one!!!!

I did! Paid £850 for my fretless in 1997 and have never regretted it or played a bass I liked as much. The fretless is very special indeed, nothing sounds quite like it. Fretted Wals less special IMO. This here Honduras mahogany one is expensive because of bass direct's 20% commission! ( And an extra neck that would cost £1600+ from Wal ).

I know no one nor have I ever met anyone who uses a German style bow. There must be some reason for this. In my own case I went French from the outset because I was originally a cellist and despite unsuccessful dalliance with a bass viol have always had my hand over the top of the bow. The French sort just seem comfortable. and yet... You tube vids of the Berlin Phil show them all using German bows as does this one of a Korean double bass orchestra! One of the weird and wonderful things about bass playing ( along with viol Vs violin corners, straight vs sloping shoulders, flat Vs carved backs ....)

Main reason I sold my trace gp12smx.... too many possibilities. Now have a Bank of TC toneprint effects to waste time on instead. Damm those Danes.

'fraid I use a device called a Skoda citigo ... And if amps etc are needed, a bigger version called an Octavia estate. I've taken it on the train a few times, with discomfort and difficulty. Met a bloke once who moved his around in a bicycle trailer ... bit risky, these things cost £1000s!

I've tried a few walking stick ferrules. Either grippy but too soft so wear out or hard and not grippy enough. File the sharp end off the end pin. Then he'll have to use a floor mat ;-). These are brill https://www.bassbags.co.uk/product/super-sensitive-stoppin/ ..

Double Bass and Cello radii are tiny. The radius on my double bass is about 3.5 inches (and being set up for Jazz is moderately flat!). Cello tighter still. And they both have "romberg bevels" too. I've never seen an electric bass that was like that! It is indeed to make bowing possible, though on the double bass it does allow you to dig in very nicely. Having played the 'cello for 16 years or so before getting my first electric bass, I do still find the electric bass fingerboard a bit flat (especially on my 5-string) but it's no biggie.

Shielding the control cavity won't help in this case as the noise is coming in from the pickups. You can shield the pickup cavities but it still leaves the front open. You could also shield against radiated interference by shielding the whole pickup ( surprised more pickups don't include an internal shield ).. but there is nothing much you can do about close field magnetic interference without also blocking the signal picked up from the strings ( and using thick plates of steel ). Copper Vs spray on conductive paint? Probably the same effect. Commercial basses almost all use paint and it works pretty well. Much easier to use than copper foil .. and less prone to gaps. Humbuckers = the way to go.

Wish I had this one: https://www.thomann.de/gb/km_stehhilfe_14045.htm. Bloke who sits next to me at orchestra has one .. very comfy.

Conductive paint inside the pickup cavities might help a bit (connected to the ground wire if you can). A low amp impedance will reduce the noise too, but rob you of high end. A single single-coil pickup into a high impedance buffer in an electrically noisy room is the worst case. The solution is this: https://www.delano.de/jmvc_4_fe_m2/jmvc_4_fe_m2_details.html