thisnameistaken

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='1273582' date='Jun 18 2011, 11:10 AM']Santana doesn't sound thin[/quote] TBH I would say 'thin' is Carlos Santana's signature sound. He always sounds a bit weedy and choked and I'm sure it's by choice, although I doubt it's all down to the guitar.

[quote name='4StringFortress' post='1274063' date='Jun 18 2011, 07:53 PM']I been looking at some new Double Bass strings and iv noticed there are loads of different types but what is the different between Orchestral, Jazz, Hybrids, Slap/ Rock-A-Billy and Solo strings? Could someone explain them to me please?[/quote] Orchestral strings are either gut strings, or synthetic strings that try to emulate the sound of guts. They tend to have quite low tension, and they're intended to be strung with a high action so the string can move a lot and produce high volume. They are designed to sound best under the bow. Jazz strings are typically steel, designed to sound bright and reedy, higher tension, and often don't sound very good when played with a bow. Hybrids are somewhere between the two; examples being Belcantos and Evah Pirazzi. I can vouch for the Evah Pirazzis sounding excellent when bowed and nice and pingy when played pizz but not as sharp as you might expect jazz strings to sound - they are quite rich and mature-sounding. Slap strings are closer to orchestral strings in that they're low tension and usually try to sound like guts. Solo strings are tuned a tone higher than other strings, usually higher tension, because they go on a soloist's instrument which is likely to be a shorter scale and with a lower action than the other basses in the orchestra. Some pyschobilly players buy steel solo gauges and tune them to standard orchestra pitch to give them a lower tension. They like to get a low-tension string to slap, but with a bright steel string sound, but regular sets of steel strings are usually too high tension to get a good slap sound. Hope this helps. There really is no one string that is good for everything. Jazz and hybrid strings don't work very well for slapping, sadly. If you want to do both you might want two basses (I know I would like two basses!).

I've got a bassmax in my bridge, and I often wondered if it was a bit broken because it doesn't sound very good. Anyway another bassist - well, someone I know who's got a bass but doesn't really play, took a sort-of tutorial course with a group that culminated in a set tonight as part of a larger gig - called and asked if she could borrow my pickup, so I fitted it for her and gave her my Plat Pro and explained how it all worked, and I saw her play tonight and my god her dirt-cheap battered old ply bass sounded rich as buggery! Gutted! I'm tempted to tell her to keep it. There was another DB player in the same group and for one tune they were both playing together, and her tone just smashed his. I suppose I've now come to appreciate that not all pickups work on all basses. The guy who sold me the bass told me he had a realist on it before and it didn't suit it, so I suppose I'm looking at a Full Circle next. Thought it was worth posting as a case study if nothing else.

I would take it to a luthier and get a better cable fitted (no point replacing it with more of the same). Unless you're planning to re-sell the bass at some point in the future and/or you hate the sound of it, then any small (cheap) improvements are worth doing. Unless you have to do a lot of them. Looks like a cheap repair though, unless you need a new tailpiece - they can be expensive and it's the one part of the bass where I really don't understand why it is expensive.

[quote name='essexbasscat' post='1273370' date='Jun 18 2011, 12:31 AM']I'd like to hold off a bit before taking the approach of playing within what can be considered reasonable hours at home. If I take the approach of playing up to some time before 9PM, I'll be living in a state of armed truce with the locals, with everyone looking at each other over a fence of council rules Not good for personal karma.[/quote] So what about pulling up your floorboards and soundproofing the gap? It definitely makes a big difference.

Hmph! I had the loops going in Reason I could've easily plugged in my bass and tracked some ideas. See this is why I never write anything!

... and god damn it just doesn't sound right until I turn on the Bugcrusher and try to play like a broken robot. No wonder they didn't want me in that ska band any more.

This confirms everything I've ever thought about Sun readers and Rush fans.

I'm using five different types of strings at the moment and I'd consider six different brands to be my 'usual' strings. Oddly I only have four basses.

[quote name='bassintheface' post='1273039' date='Jun 17 2011, 06:29 PM']the trouble with putting anything inside your bell is that it makes you play sharp[/quote] I bet it bloody does. That's going to end up in a few signatures I reckon.

Double bass isn't *that* loud. Knock it on the head before 9pm and he'll have nothing to complain about. If he does complain, point out that you never practice beyond 9pm out of courtesy for your neighbours. If you really want to go out of your way to keep your downstairs neighbour sweet, consider pulling up your floorboards and putting acoustic insulation in the gaps between you and him. It does work; I had an upstairs neighbour a couple of years back who asked - on the day we were helping them move out - if they'd ever been too noisy. I told him we hadn't heard a thing in two years, he said he hadn't heard us either. [quote name='Wil' post='1272976' date='Jun 17 2011, 05:21 PM']Paying to use a reheasal room is the only other solution that springs to mind, to be honest. They are normally the hang outs of loud electric bands but I've seen a fair number of people using them with acoustic instruments too.[/quote] Unfortunately depending on the studios you can end up being drowned out by bands in the other rooms if you try to practice with acoustic instruments. Or they are at least loud enough to be very distracting.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1272382' date='Jun 17 2011, 08:37 AM']I think the tone from the whammy octave up is a bit thin. I wouldn't use it to try and fill out the sound a-la unibass unless you have a very good distortion pedal to put in the LS-2 loop.[/quote] I use my M9 for whammy effects, but yeah I tend to blend it with something else, or put something after it to beef it up. I don't think the thin aliased sound of the whammy is very suitable for bass. Since you've got an LS-2, try the whammy in one side and an analogue octaver in the other side, then you can go nuts with the whammy and always have a bass note going on in parallel. Or try whammy directly into an analogue octaver, which will replace the digital sound of the whammy completely but still give you the pitch shifts.

Yeah I always try to practise in my front room at home. The bass is in a corner in the dining room but it always sounds too boomy in there, the bedrooms sound flat, the front room for some reason sounds really airy and natural. No idea why.

I've been playing for about ... 17 months now? I am starting to appreciate lots of different sounds and wishing I had enough basses to have them all on tap. Realistically I think I will end up with two basses - one ply strung with something gut-like for rootsy stuff and one quality bass strung with hybrids for everything else. But I will probably end up playing the cheaper bass more...

I should stress more that this is a very nice gig for a bass player. It's not really a ska gig, it's all reggae influenced in some way but it's not what you might expect from a ska gig, it's more interesting than that. I like these guys a lot and it's a shame I can't do the gig any more.

Very cool. What are the other two expression pedals for?

My first proper girlfriend I always dissuaded her from coming to my gigs because I was a bit ashamed of how crap I was. Turned out she thought it was because I was knee-deep in clunge at my gigs, which of course I wasn't. Now of course I realise I'm always going to be a bit ashamed of how crap I am, regardless of how good I get, so I am more open to people coming to see me play. Nah I've never had the issues you talk about.

[quote name='RussFM' post='1270897' date='Jun 16 2011, 12:56 AM']No love for Kim Deal? Simple bass lines often make for great songs. [/quote] I just came here to say "Kim Deal". And my friend Marcia. And my ex-girlfriend Sarah, assuming she still plays bass, she was really good.

I never had a lesson. I saw some photos Jake posted on here showing the shape of his left hand and arm, and I saw a couple of videos on YouTube, and I practised in a disciplined way at home. I'm pretty sure I don't do anything dangerous, bad or even especially unorthodox with my technique and I've not had any instruction. I have a friend who teaches double bass here in York and he's never flagged up any problems.

I would like to write a bass line as good as Guns of Brixton one day.

Because more people have got them?

Of those three I would pick the Washburn, although the other two are nicer looking IMO, because basses with no upper cutaway (apart from the awful boutique Dugong-looking monstrosities that the jazzers like wearing these days but you're not looking at buying one of those) tend to sit a bit uncomfortably on the strap - the lowest positions are a long way away and will be quite a stretch, especially for a beginner. If I were you I would get a bass where the strap attaches above the 13th or 12th fret, purely for comfort reasons.

[quote name='charic' post='1269574' date='Jun 15 2011, 06:02 AM']I don't think I agree re Jordan, I actually think the lines he puts down are usually perfect for the song, although they can stray into ridiculous at times I still feel they fit.[/quote] "Ridiculous' seems to be the band's motif, after all.

This is my former band, my last gig with them will be on Monday. Harmony vocals would be a big plus. They've got some good tunes and they've always been fairly agreeable to bass players f***ing about with effects and over-playing. They don't, however, know which forum to post stuff in.