petebassist

As I'm looking to uprgrade my Stentor gigging bass, I dropped into Turner Violins today in Nottingham to look at a couple of basses. I rarely get the opportunity to visit somewhere like this that has a large number of instruments, and since learning upright bass I've only played one or two others in retail shops. Even though my budget wasn't huge compared to the cost of most of the orchestral level instruments that they have there, I was made to feel very welcome by the staff, who were friendly & professional. I tried a Michael Poller, a Gewa, and a couple of more expensive fully carved older basses. The bass I eventually decided was for me was slightly outside of my budget at the moment, so needs a bit more thought (AKA selling off everything I can get my hands on to raise cash), but it was great to try out different basses, so I hope to get back there soon. Cheers, Pete

Interesting to hear that Alan is back in business. Does anyone know where to find out more? Can't find the old website.

Regarding technique, there was some amazing shredding going on and loads of techniques that I hadn't seen before on bass (tapping up and down the neck at the same time with two different hands), but I have to say that I loved Glen Matlock's comment "I don't do any of that fancy stuff" as he brought a bit of punk/old school attitude to the proceedings. Also I thought Dave Ellefson from Megadeath did a great session - awesome tone & sound. And Remco seemed to create a wall of sound over at the Eich amps stand seemingly without hardly moving his fingers...very nice. BTW I'm not intending to kick-off a discussion about old-school vs latest techniques here - just a bit of feedback on the event.

You definitely had to get into the right queue - blood splattered zombies (one guy was walking around with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire :-), knitters, brides to be, and of course bass players. This was my first LBGS and I loved it. Met some great people & heard some great music.

johnnigel Hi, I'd be very interested to hear how you get on over at Thwaites or Caswells. I'm in a similar position wanting to upgrade from my Stentor 1950 gigging bass to a better quality bass. My budget doesn't stretch to the Contrebass shop, and I wouldn't wanna drag something from there round the type of gigs I play. Turners in Birmingham/Nottingham seem to be another of the shops that carry a reasonable number of basses, but I haven't had time yet to get up to Beeston in Notts. Good luck with your search. Pete

[size=4][font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]Hi Burns-bass, regarding the exercises, it's not a thumb-off exercise specifically in a book, it's the jazz dead notes exercise from 'Jazz Upright Bass Featuring Ed Friedland', which I do regularly, and sometimes thumb-off with just the weight of my arm & arm muscle holding down the string. I don't know whether it's advisable as I have no formal training except that from Ed's DVD and great advice from Geoff Chalmer's website, but it works for me & reminds me to not rely purely on thumb pressure to hold down a string. Ed does advise keeping the thumb light behind the neck so that the hand is free to move up and down the neck.[/font][/size]

I do a few press-ups to maintain my arm & upper body strength, this makes a huge difference. Particularly when I remember to let my left arm take more of the strain and keeping my thumb light behind the neck - I even do one of Ed Friedland's warmup exercises with my thumb off the neck to remind myself to use my arm weight. I treat rehearsals and gigs a bit like training for a 10K run, if I haven't prepared enough I know I'll be knackered, but then that's probably down to my sloppy technique ;-) good luck...

Saw a guy today carrying a double bass on his head, much like a Nepalese sherpa carrying gear up a mountain. It looked like it was in a thick padded bag, but he didn't seem to have anything on his head to balance it. Might give it a try the next time I have a local rehearsal ;-)

Thanks everyone for the info, very useful. I think it might be ok, will have to find my tape measure and double check.

Most specs say 1.69 metres, but is that with the end pin set at minimum or maximum? Just checking as I'm 6 foot 1 and don't wanna be stooping over the neck, and of course there're none near where I live to try out. Any info much appreciated. Thanks, Pete

Thanks guys for the advice, very useful.

Marc, thanks, that would have been great to pop in and have a cuppa, a very kind offer. Not sure you would have appreciated my being covered in mud and "unwashed and somewhat slightly dazed" from the festival. Was just thinking about having something more portable for rehearsals & tiny venue gigs. Let me know when you're playing a gig and I might just be able to come along.

Interesting to see Chris Price of North East folkies The Unthanks playing an Eminence upright at the Green Man Festival, Crickhowell/Crughywel, Wales at the weekend. Looking at their international touring schedule I don't blame him for not trying to take a full size acoustic upright around the world. What an amazing set though, and the band sounded great to my ears. I contacted Smart Distribution about Eminence prices recently but got no response.

Hi, Can anyone recommend a good preamp to use with a Bass Max piezo bridge pickup? As well as balancing the sound from my bass, I'd like to be able to adjust the volume & tone from the bass itself. I've looked at the KK Pure Preamp. Thanks, Pete

After trying Pirastro Obligatos and [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Innovation Rockabillies, which are both great BTW, I found that Presto Jazzicatos are the closest I've got to that wonderful gut sound and feel & work best for me on my half carved Stentor 1950. They amplify well when I'm plugging straight into PAs in little pubs and bars where the sound isn't that great. Have fun mate![/font][/color]

More fretless than Double Bass? Dunno, but maybe you're right - it's difficult to say. I wasn't there, I only saw it on TV. I was wondering about the strings, pickup, amplification etc as I'm looking to upgrade my Stentor 1950 with BassMax pickup for something better. I've just played a few outdoor shows plugged directly into the PA, so I'm interested in what other players do. Not that I'm playing to 30,000 people though, more like 30 :-) Any tips appreciated.

Anyone see him at Glastonbury? Wonderful bassist on a very smooth sounding upright, was it JAHMAL NICHOLS, does anyone know? That's the kind of setup & sound I'd like.

Yes, looks like you're right - stock Stentor strings. I'm surprised as off the bass they feel decent quality. Thanks for looking that up, appreciated. Pete

Hello string experts, I have a nice looking set of 3/4 size Solo strings (I think!) that were on my double bass when I bought it, but at the time as a DB novice I didn't think to ask what they were. I don't think they were the stock Stentor 1950 strings. The colours are: A - Purple E - Light blue B - Green F# - Black I tried may different string ID websites but have drawn a blank - does anyone recognize these ? Many thanks, Pete