thisnameistaken

So I turned up for a quick slot at an acoustic session in a big tent on Friday night, turned out the bass backline was an AI Coda. I've never even seen any AI kit in the flesh so I thought cool, this will sound amazing. Hmm. We had very little time to set up and they're quite complicated little heads aren't they? I couldn't seem to get any sort of volume out of it at all no matter what I did, and it seemed to sound very middy - I was using my Ehrlund pickup so I expected to just get a totally natural sound out of this box without having to tweak anything (my usual experience plugging the Ehrlund into anything) but it didn't sound very nice at all. :/ Although I couldn't hear it particularly well, because it was so quiet. And that was with the only background noise being the audience of about 100 people talking! Then the sound guy comes over and asks if there's a pad on the DI out because the signal's way too hot. I am a bit flummoxed because there's loads of buttons on this thing and none of them seem to affect the signal level out at the DI, so I try turning the master down and I get thumbs up from the desk! So at this point I've got no idea how I'm supposed to get a useful backline level out of this thing whilst sending a useful DI signal to the desk, so I just gave up, and asked for my bass in my wedge instead. So you AI users, what was I doing wrong?

Actually I am disappointed that so much bandwidth here is given over to Victor Wooten who has the worst bass sound I've ever heard and no audible soul whatsoever but just so happens to slap faster (and unfortunately less tunefully) than anyone else every in history, when you've got this geezer who is a living breathing example of how to be an awesome bassist and he's totally ignored because he's making actual music instead of making solo bass guitar albums.

Like, bump. I've had Man Alive and Arc on a lot at work lately. In between heavy stints of early '90s rap like Snoop and Cypress Hill. But anyway: It took me a while to get into Arc (where Man Alive grabbed me pretty quickly) because I think it's been watered down a bit to try to appeal to a broader audience, but I think they've struggled to dilute it successfully because they actually really meant what they were doing on Man Alive, so Arc sounds a little bit too soft, too considered. One thing they are is very clever, struggling a little to find an audience but show me a band worth an audience that isn't. And there is no better bass player in modern pop music and I will fight anyone who disagrees with rubber imitation knives and nuchucks.

When I first got started with DB I had a couple of lessons with Geoff and he's a great teacher. He's got a good eye for what you can improve and his technique is practically immaculate so it's a great goal to aim for. Sadly I ran out of free time to be able to get over to visit him, but Geoff I will have to get back in touch soon having watched a couple of your videos, I am still jealous of your intonation and - shock horror - I still don't know how to play bass properly. Oh yes in terms of video critique: The main thing I like is that you don't spend a lot of time explaining things in very simple terms. For example Scott Devine's bass guitar videos are great but I think from the way they are paced they aren't aimed at people like me. I feel like I am constantly scrambling at the steeper end of the learning curve - the bit where most people turn back and play the blues licks they know and love. It seems Scott's videos are intended as a course for beginners, but I imagine there are a lot of musicians in the same 'bright, uneducated, struggling' sort of area I occupy, and they are the type of people who most want to learn more, so I think your videos are targeted pretty nicely. Unless of course you meant to build a course of instruction for total beginners, in which case I think you are playing yourself.

This chap is what I would call a Great British Good Sport. Well done, Fran Pfterrier. Well done especially for still using a TE bright box. I think the last time I saw one was 1993.

It's hard to believe those guys died so young. I had Live at the Village Vanguard on in the car today and the stuff La Faro was doing was just stunning. He clearly had his bass set up with very little relief though and sadly I think the recordings suffer a bit because of it. Musically though, wow.

I've had the Evah Pirazzi mediums and weichs, mediums were a bit heavy for me (I was a total beginner at the time) but I thought the weichs were great, especially the G, probably the best bowed G I've ever had and it had a great pizz sound too. I ended up with EP weichs on the G and D and Spirocore weichs on the A and E for about a year which was a really nice set, the spiros giving a bit more pizz sustain on the lower notes. That's the second double bass in North Yorkshire called Matilda I've come across by the way. Just found out tonight the other one is for sale if you've got a spare £14k.

Weird. I've got a standard Squier Jazz with stock pups and it has tons of bass available. I did make few tweaks - swapped all the pots out for 500k and put a .1uF tone cap on it so I could roll off more treble, and a series switch for a thicker sound when I want it, but it was pretty big sounding before all that.

I've got two of those braces, a matching pair. About two years ago I had to go to my GP because it was so bad, and they gave me wrist splints and told me to try to manage it. I basically stopped playing bass guitar, quit my main gig, and both wrists are almost completely recovered now. The right wrist is still a bit scratchy sometimes but that's because I use a computer all day at work. For what it's worth I can play double bass as much as I like with no wrist problems at all, it's bass guitar that inflames my tendons. If it's your fretting hand suffering, have you thought about switching to a 32" scale bass? Also I know it's obvious but moving the first position as close to your body as possible is massively beneficial, so try to get the strap snug right up against the side of your neck. You have to make some adjustments if it's your living. Also concentrate on how much effort you're using to stop the notes, how tense you are. Concentrate on improving that. Edit: There's also the option of steroid injections, or surgery with its associated risks. I know professional bass player and BCer Geoff Chalmers had surgery on both wrists in the past and it was very successful for him, but for me it would be a last resort.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1376862815' post='2180188']Of course, your interpretation of the events and the exact sequence in which they occurred is probably based on a greater knowledge of the facts than anything I've found out. . .[/quote] No it's simply based on the principle of Occam's Razor. We know that one person took tools to that body to shape it, where the apologists (yourself, maybe some other people? Mostly yourself) seem to be suggesting that more than one person has shaped the body because Jimmy Coppolo couldn't possibly have done such a bad job. I say 'suggesting' because the apologists are very quick to clarify that they are not making any assumptions or statements about what happened. It seems an exercise in talking a lot while saying nothing.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1376777440' post='2179111']Hypothetically speaking. . . If I buy a bass that's been used and shows obvious wear marks that the builder tells me about, then I fiddle around with it and make it significantly worse, does that mean the guy who sold it to me is completely in the wrong and shouldn't have sold it to me in the first place?[/quote] I don't think that's a scenario relevant to this buyer's situation, unless the buyer - having spent five grand on this bass - then decided to take it into his workshop and make some changes to the body shape. This seems pretty unlikely. Unless you're saying that the terrible work on the back of the body was 'obvious wear marks'. In which case, I say 'Haha, good one'.

They do say there's one born every minute.

Conversely, it seems everybody who is so keen to defend the guy owns one of his basses. Worried about resale values much?

Some of the classic fuzz circuits were designed for passive pickups, because there were no active pickups. The Fuzz Face certainly sounds bad with actives, it gets nasal and reedy. Muff circuits aren't as bad, so the Pickle Pie may work OK for you. I had a Pickle Pie B a few years ago and I seem to recall it sounded good with my Thumb.

So if I put up a '62 Jazz on eBay, which turned out not to be a '62 Jazz at all but it did look a lot like one, but I'd advertised it as a '62 Jazz and someone had given me £20,000 for it, would it be their fault that they'd got saddled with a bass that wasn't what they thought it was? I'd have the plausible deniability - I could say I didn't realise it was fake and I sold it in good faith and as far as I'm concerned it's now the buyer's problem. Is that good enough? Would you be keen to support me with your odd brand of objective pseudo-legal responses?

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376433581' post='2174053'] The point I keep making over and over again is that[u] you only have the buyers version of events[/u][/quote] Your point is flawed given that Jimmy replied and did not dispute the buyer's version of events. Given that he disputed the validity of the buyer's OBVIOUSLY VALID PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE then surely we can assume that the buyer's version of events met with Jimmy's approval. [quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376433581' post='2174053']The other erroneous assumption you are making is that the customer has a right to expect a particular kind of workmanship for $5000 .[/quote] No. Your position of "No buyer of anything has any right to expect anything better than shoddy workmanship from any supplier" is preposterous. The customer should reasonably expect excellent workmanship for $5000 given that he could have bought any budget bass built in any factory anywhere in the world for literally a fraction of that price and received a product with a better standard of finish. And given that Alleva Coppolo market themselves as an exclusive, boutique brand, with a price tag to match.

All my fretlesses have had unfinished rosewood boards and I've always strung them with roto RS66 rounds. They have all been marked by the strings to some extent but it's never become a problem. Oh except the Godin Acoustibass I had. That had an ebony board. I still used RS66 on it but that board barely seemed to get marked despite loads of gigging. Maybe I just couldn't see the marks because it was so black. I loved that bass.

I'd agree that you probably don't have enough time to get the tunes to a level where it's worth recording. Unless you're already working from demos that are pretty 'finished' as it is. If the band leader is dictating parts then I guess all you need to do is remember yours and off you go, but if you're all contributing to the songs and they're growing quite organically in rehearsals then no, you don't have enough time.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1376430643' post='2174006'] Not a lefty are you? As I understand there's an Alleva-Copollo going cheap at the moment........ [/quote]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376427908' post='2173962']With the benefit of hindsight , he should have managed the situation in exactly the manner you suggest . But that doesn't make him dishonest in his earlier representations to the customer . He may or not be crazy , but whether he is or not , it doesn't mean he cheated the customer out of his money .[/quote] I think Jimmy was dishonest throughout. I'm surprised the customer parted with $5000 for a bass he hadn't seen, but with AC's reputation you'd think he could reasonably assume he would be receiving a bass that was brilliant but had some signs of playing wear. That's what Jimmy told him was the reason for the discounted price - some wear and tear due to the bass having been played, but this clearly wasn't true. Even disregarding the silly glue/oil/camera flash nonsense and the finish problems on the body (which could indeed have been worn while it was being played), there's the rubbish finish job on the face of the headstock, the strange problems on the rear edge of the headstock and the edge of the neck in the first position, the chips on the edge of the fingerboard (that's not 'playing wear' unless someone's been fretting notes with a chisel) and the terrible contouring on the body. Jimmy told the buyer that these imperfections were due to regular wear from the bass being played a lot, and he must have known this was not true. Anybody who has seen the photos knows it's not true. I think if you knowingly misrepresent a product, you are cheating the customer. And to then compound the mistake by suggesting that the whole thing is the customer's fault, and to effectively call the customer a liar, that's unforgivable. And unfortunately for Jimmy Coppolo you can't do that on the internet without everybody knowing about it. This mess is entirely of his own making.

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1376422849' post='2173837'] Overall , I get the impression that JC was so enamoured of his own work and reputation that he thought that the buyer would be content to own the bass in its' current state . With hindsight , that was an error of judgement and he has offered a refund , so all has ended well , thankfully . Jimmy's faith in his own work and belief in his product is admirable in many ways , but maybe this time he slightly overestimated the kudos of the AC brand and this is the resultant fallout from that . In situations like this I always reflect on the fact that anyone can make an honest mistake or an error of judgement - I know I have done myself , more than once - and I wouldn't be so quick to condemn someone or besmirch their character because of that because of that . [/quote] You would [i]really[/i] have to be enamoured with your own work to think that a body that looks like it was contoured by a drunk with a Dremel is of craftsman quality. And your ego would have to be of cosmic proportions to believe that your work couldn't possibly be that bad and that somehow a camera flash must have made the bass look like ****, or to suggest that the buyer had doctored the photos rather than admit you've produced a really poor quality instrument. If he'd come back and said "OK I've seen the photos and I agree that bass isn't up to my quality standards and I'm going to put it all right.", then his reputation would have been saved. Unfortunately he said "Give me the bass back and I'll give you your money back because you're clearly not the right type of person to own a bass as amazing as this.". I think he's crazy. Neither the buyer nor the forum are not to blame for his current predicament. It's entirely his fault.

Looking at your photos, your bass only seems to have four tuners. Does it really have five strings?

Never seen one before. 10mm under the E at the end of the fingerboard is pretty normal for a double bass. It may be a couple of mm lower for the G. As for 5-string sets, Thomann certainly do them, or you can buy individual C strings from most places that sell double bass strings (assuming the manufacturer makes a C string).

[quote name='phil.i.stein' timestamp='1376342609' post='2172619'] anything above the 12th is for musicians, not bass-players. [/quote] I was once introduced to an actual musician with the line 'This is Kev, he's a musician', and I immediately replied 'Well, I'm a bass player'.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1376332030' post='2172324'] We have a dishwasher [/quote] Bit sexist.