petebassist

Well done @Rob MacKillop, I had a quick look at the youtube samples and these look awesome! Although i mainly play upright, I do have an electric bass for rehearsals, so I'm gonna delve in - thanks for the introduction to Giovanni Bottesini, who I hadn't heard of.

It's maybe worth contacting the luthier to ask, as presumably he/she would have tested the new strings while doing the setup. I wouldn't expect one string to be noticeably different. Maybe the sound post slipped in transit or something like that? Is the tuning stable ?

Hi yes, I've subscribed to one of Geoff's courses (the Adam Ezra signature sounds one) and the lessons are a good length, well laid out, and easy to navigate. If you register with Geoff's web site I believe you can get taster videos to try out for free. Whether online courses are worthwhile I guess depends on your learning style.

Jazz Upright Bass Featuring Ed Friedland [DVD] - for beginners Ed covers the basic left & right hand techniques before moving on the more jazz-focused stuff. I use still use some of the practice routines every day from this, great stuff. I got this after trying other DVDs such as those you mention, which waffle a lot but didn't tell show me what to do. Good luck!

Went to see the brilliant band Moscow Drug Club last night at St George's in Bristol, with Andy Crowdy on upright bass. I've seen them before but last night I had a seat right down the front and the acoustics were great, so was able to appreciate things a bit more, particularly Andy's pizz technique & sound (I think he had a set of Thomastik Spirocores on). Looking online I see the HENLEY JAZZ WORKSHOP ‘MASTERCLASS’ coming up in August, so I'm looking into whether I can attend.

The band I play with has been offered some free recording time in a studio, so I'm looking for some tips around recording my double bass, particularly around technique. When I practise pizzicato at home I notice things like finger noise more when moving up and down the strings, stuff that gets drowned out when I play live. Also, does anyone dampen bits of the bass for recording? Any pitfalls to avoid? I know this is probably a big topic, but any tips appreciated.

It's difficult to find somewhere that does the whole end to end setup including strings and pickups etc. Bassbags does this extremely well, so worth a trip to compare what they can do for you. I tried out a number of old basses in various other shops and wasn't hugely impressed, but it depends on your budget.

Did I see Dave on Saturday night on Jool's show backing Lilly Allen on an acoustic upright bass? Things were a little hazy by that time of the night. Nice to see Dave back in action.

Lovely looking bass, I nearly bought one myself because I was looking for one with an adjustable bridge. I'm sure it sounds as good as it looks, enjoy!

Taylor Swift was fab (did I just write that?). I really enjoyed watching Nigel Kennedy on Monday evening - especially when Mark King joined in on bass and jammed on the Hendrix tunes.

Seems a tad cheeky - will they be borrowing your bass & rig too? Book another gig for when the singer's on holiday and tell him/her that you're gonna sing and play bass.

If I was doing three nights I'd definitely take the big guy or at least hire one, especially in a 10 piece band. Hope you have a great time! If you're driving, I'd recommend a stock car and some horse blinkers ;-)

Big fan, let me know where you're playing. The Faces were a super-group before the term was invented, awesome musicians.

I've been a member of a WMC in my home village for years up in the NE, but unfortunately I live down south now, but it's handy to call in when I'm visiting. Being a members-only club, you get to avoid the trouble & aggro that you sometimes get in the local pubs, the beers cheap & it's a very friendly atmosphere. Agreed these places are in decline, though as a lot of the village pubs have closed the private clubs are becoming some of the few places left to socialize. And yes punk, mod and ska bands are very popular up there.

Would love to visit Ed's emporium if he's still got it. I learnt my upright bass technique from Ed's Jazz Upright Bass book & CD. I'd recommend it for beginners wanting practical advice about the basics of playing technique. Great bloke !!

As Scotty purportedly said, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it" ;-)

Hey there's nowt wrong with a good meat-draw in the middle of set! Had to laugh at @Happy Jack's post. The last club band I saw were The Kill in the Belvedere in Bishop Auckland, County Durham a couple of years back, amazing band, since gone on to better things I heard.

Annoying... I had a similar issue with my old bass on one string on one or two notes up the neck - after trying to damp various bits of the tailpiece, felt at the ball ends of the strings etc, I found that the tailpiece itself had a hollow cavity, so I stuffed a piece of black cloth up there and it stopped the buzz on mine.

I know zilch about luthery but I think they use animal glue that can be melted & maintained down the line.

If it were me I'd loosen the strings down a tone or two and move the bridge to the horizontal and centered between the inner nicks as others have said. Be careful to keep enough tension in the strings to maintain a downward pressure on the bridge to keep the sound bar in place inside the bass, which is positioned somewhere underneath the bridge. Once in position, if you think any of the strings are pulling the bridge out of place, detune the strings one by one just enough so that you can pull the string to one side out of the groove, and drop in some powered pencil graphite into the grooves to enable the strings to slide in the groove when being tightened or loosened.

Gorgeous looking bass, haven't tried one for sound though. Here's mine ;-)

Is anyone else doing Adam's signature sounds course? I signed up over the weekend so I've done a couple of the introductory lessons and reviewed some of the other sections. It's early days yet, but so far, so awesome... I'd be interested to hear what other people think, because it seems to be changing the whole way I look at and approach my DB. BTW This is the first course I've done here and I'm finding the course website well laid out and easy to use and navigate too. Nice work Geoff.

Second hand's a smart move. I don't know much about these Archers except what's on the G4M site, so I couldn't comment on them specifically. Age doesn't really matter with uprights, as good ones age gracefully and just sound better, providing they're good quality wood and parts. I guess if it was me I'd find out whether it's had a setup (i.e. bridge has been set, sound post checked, neck sometimes smoothed out) or is it just straight from the factory/workshop, any upgraded parts, e.g. bridge, string upgrade? If it doesn't play well it might need money spent on a setup. If you could get an existing upright player to try it out that would be ideal if you're not sure yourself. Hope that helps.

Saturday night at the Old Bookshop, Bedminster, Bristol - lovely venue and very cool crowd.