Clarky

But seriously (he said, hitching his stockings), very cool Chris. I keep thinking about getting a tat (I have five already) of Tom the cat playing double bass [attachment=149422:SOLID SERENADE 1.png]

How did your tattoo artist find that old picture of me as my alter ego, Clarkella?

I found the Ehrlund excellent on my now-sold Kolstein travel bass, incredibly natural sounding. But paradoxically it sounded boomy and terrible on my 3/4 flatback wherever I placed the element. I don't think there is such a thing as a best DB pickup, it depends on the bass! My 3/4 bass has Full Circle on it (was there when I bought it) and it sounds pretty good to my ears and not (very) feedback prone. Of the piezo's I have tried, I like the dual wing ones best (Shadow, Underwood - with a bit of EQing). The BassMax is a pretty good easy-on/off option as is the Rev Solo (though the latter has to be sanded to size as its contained in a wood block). The David Gage Realist was good at low volumes but at my band's volume it tended to break up.

Couple of pics* from our gig at the Old Queens Head, Islington last Wednesday [attachment=149364:LOnov_031.jpg] [attachment=149365:LOnov_040.jpg] * copyrighted by Owen Davies, so props to him for some lovely shots and hope he doesn't mind me sharing two of the many pics he took

Al bought some DB strings off me. Excellent transaction Nice one matey!

Me again! Tom and I did a string swap and all was good All the best Clarky

I was tempted and I don't even like 5-strings!

Apparently the windings were a fraction (1/100th mm) out on a batch of 'G's and that led to eventually unravelling and detuning as happened to mine. The customer services guy Nuno was very happy to help out, recognising this problem, and even said I shouldn't have bothered posting the string to them for examination as they already knew what the problem would be. Good service that

Agreed, I like too many players to put one person as the sole representative of my tastes. This thread is doing nicely as it is

Thanks Peter/MS I contacted Nuno at Velvet this morning and he said he would send a new G to me (he mentioned there had been a bad batch and that they had to trash the production of them - sounds like I got one that escaped destruction). Hopefully all's well that ends well

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/alembic-5-string-orion-bass-/291025267281?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item43c2752a51#ht_197wt_1319"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/alembic-5-string-orion-bass-/291025267281?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item43c2752a51#ht_197wt_1319[/url]

Update: I have packaged up the faulty G and will be sending it back to Velvet to see how they respond. Fingers crossed they will send a replacement!

Hi Rabbie, you may be right although the fact I purchased second hand would probably count against me as anything could in theory have happened to them during the change in ownership (not that anything did). In a fit of pique I have swapped over to a set of Danny Thompson steel strings while I decide what to do. It has reduced my confidence in these strings having since discovered this is not a rare occurrence, according to TalkBass' DB forum. Having examined the faulty G it looks like it has gone 'floppy' at the peg end, almost as if the silk inside the copper windings has snapped. PS sorry Kev/TNIT that you encountered something similar and I am glad your G could be fixed, sadly mine is shot

I have a set of Velvet Animas that I bought second-hand on BC but only a few weeks old. The G tuning suddenly started to drop a hell of a lot yesterday (about a tone and a half yesterday and about three whole tones today) but the tuning peg has not moved, nor has the bridge (the E/A/D are all fine) and the string's been on my bass for about 2-3 weeks now without anything like this happening. The copper windings also seem to have developed some rough/sharp patches. I don't slap and am a hobbyist who plays pizz at most 30 minutes a day so these are 'babied' strings. Checked on TalkBass and it seems I am not the only to have experienced this happening randomly. Seriously very annoying and also pricey as a replacement G is about £65-70 from Germany. Making me re-think whether I should just stick with trustworthy, long-lasting steels (eg, Spiros), grrrrr

Excellent, so much tidier than all the repairs mine has. Can only conclude that mine was pieced together after being run over by a herd of elephants, a Chieftain tank and a sperm whale on rollerskates

good work Wayne, he was a lovely man by all accounts as well as a fountain of knowledge

My faves would be Scott LaFaro and Danny Thompson. But this song ('Topplue Votter & Skjerf' by Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous and Jack De Johnette) is IMHO one of the most beautiful ever written and includes my favourite ever DB solo, so for that reason alone I nominate Miroslav Vitous http://www.xiami.com/song/play?ids=/song/playlist/id/1769303657/object_name/default/object_id/0

Hi all, there's a bass I am quite interested in that is listed on eBay Australia. I appreciate that I will have to pay c20% UK import duty but given the weak Australian $ it still works out do-able price-wise ... as long as shipping isn't exorbitant. The seller hasn't shipped abroad before and so hasn't yet come up with a quote for me. So I wondered if anyone here had imported a bass from Australia and how much it cost purely for the shipping? Many thanks

I also had a Micro. Very neutral and lacking in warmth for an electric bass but in my view excellent for double bass as its so uncoloured and plenty powerful. The Doubler adds in some useful DB-specific features to the Micro, that is notch filter and phase switch. Given it was part-designed by Mike Arnopol, the acoustic sound genius behind BigE speakers, I think the Doubler is an excellent choice for those gigging double bass primarily. If you doubled a lot, you would certainly want to put some kind of preamp (eg Sansamp) in front of the Doubler to warm up the sound for electric playing IMHO

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1385313740' post='2286752'] [/quote] fat fingers and iPad = red face

By the way, Mrs C has occasional bouts of arthritis and has kept it at bay (she believes, and who am I to argue) by taking something called Honeygar, a mixture of honey and cider vinegar that Sir Ranulph Fiennes swears by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1053045/Sir-Ranulph-Fiennes-I-beat-arthritis-vinegar-cure-passed-mother.html, and a rosehip syrup/Vitamin C extract called Litozin LInks here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Comvita-Manuka-Vinegar-formerly-Honeygar/dp/B002DFWFBC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385312882&sr=8-1&keywords=honeygar and here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Litozin-Health-Capsules-Natural-Vitamin/dp/B0013G3EOE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1385312958&sr=8-3&keywords=litozin+joint+health She was supposed to have been in line for possible knee replacement 7 years ago but is more active and mobile today than she was back then. She attributes this to the aforementioned and exercise