Happy Jack

Oh well played, sir. 🤣

Tonight's gig in a tiny pub in Chalfont St Peter with a band that does 50/60 gigs a year. EA Doubler on the banquette to the left, compressor pedal on top, Crazy 8 on a PA pole next to the Kolstein Busetto and ... erm ... well that's it really.

I've ridden Harleys, owned Buells, played and owned Rickenfakers, vintage Ricks and modern Ricks. In truth this 'comparison' is so laboured it hardly seems worth replying to. All they have in common is 50s technology that has stuck around FAR longer than anyone anticipated. Next up ... valves are stinky poo.

That would certainly work, but that's a helluva lot of money to spend on what is essentially a PA cab. I like to have the power amp at waist height and just a passive cab to raise onto a pole. I'm very weight conscious. And bad back conscious. Given that you've chosen a 5-string DB you'll want to ensure that whatever cab you buy goes low enough, and that Stinger only goes down to 70Hz which ain't great for a bass cab. You can buy decent pre-owned power amps really quite cheaply, and there's no shortage of preowned cabs (bass or PA) that will go down to 40Hz.

Ideally you want an amp that's optimised for piezo pickups but, in the real world anyway, it makes surprisingly little difference what you play through. Ultimately, what gives a DB its particular sound is its DB-ness rather than what amp you're using. My stage rig is always the same: amp head close to my right hand (with a DI to the board), feeding a Crazy 8 on an old PA pole so that the cab is at head height behind me. Works perfectly every time - small pubs, big halls, festival stages - with no feedback issues and perfect monitoring.

Are you doubling with electric bass, or just playing the DB?

If you're going to play pukka Americana then you really do need to be playing a DB. That has surprisingly little to do with the sound and far more to do with the look. The size difference is far less drastic than you might imagine. I have a 4/4 carved/ply DB, a 3/4 aluminium, and a Kolstein Busetto which is only a little larger than my old KK BabyBass. I play the Kolstein at really tight venues, natch, but that's more for ease of load-in/loud-out than because I haven't room for the 4/4. It's also because almost all of my DB gigs are doubling gigs, so for some of the gig I have to 'park' the DB somewhere while I play electric bass. The feedback thing is all about learning how to control and avoid it. Extruded rubber f-hole blockers make an enormous difference, and equally important is NOT having your cab or combo right behind you and pointing straight at the DB. I played 60 feedback-free gigs on DB in 2022 at a very wide range of venues. I have a Crazy 8 cab on top of an old (spare) PA tripod pole, so my bass sound is aimed directly at my ears, not at the bass. Since I take a DI to the board at every gig, that works just fine. Loud drummers can't be tamed, so best avoid them. 🙄

Yes. You're gonna need a bigger spatula.

Paging @chris_b

This video allows you to play Spot The Basschatter. Hint: There are three to be found ... can you find them all, children?

Luckily enough, feedback turns out to be a renewable resource so all this wanton 'feedback destruction' does not represent a problem for humanity's long-term future.

The "foam" they use for this isn't like packing foam, or even the 'pluck & shape' hard foam that you get in flight cases and similar. This is a far more rubbery extruded stuff, higher density, much greater tensile strength. It's designed to be easily removed and replaced at will, but the little curlicues at each end of the 'f' are inevitably a weak spot. Once installed, my feeling is to just leave them in there.

Pretty grim in small venues, much less so on festival stages. If it gets started it can be very difficult to control (remember I'm self-mixing the signal that goes to the board) so I have foam f-hole blockers permanently in place. They work really well and I can't recall the last time I suffered from aluminium feedback. @Silvia Bluejay, can you remember?

Yup, saw all this on Facebook. @RonC How much does it weigh?

Shirley, you mean WD40? 😂

Mine's shinier than yours! 👽 I could have 'snagged it', as you say, but I already have three DBs here ... Obvs I have no idea how your new baby will sound, but be aware that I ended up using a twin-pickup system on mine to tame the Mad Oildrum Syndrome. I have one under the bridge foot to pick up the sound of the body, i.e. the oildrum, and one using the rockabilly approach (bridge wing + under the end of the fingerboard) to pick up the sound of the strings & slap ... then I feed both signals through that rather nice EA Doubler I bought from you last year, self-mix, and feed a single signal to the board. And no, you can't have it back. 😂

I feel duty-bound to point out that, had I known there were two Basschatters with a genuine interest in buying that bass, I would of course NOT have bid at all. 🙄 As Beattie once pointed out (ask your Mum), "It's good to talk". 😉

Not since they brought in Chip and PIN ...

Very lucky indeed - at that price it's a steal. Or is that steel? Anyway. I put in a single bid at £2000 just in case I got lucky, but I already have an ally DB and I really don't need another one so I didn't bother to counter-bid when it went past me.

Hugh Bradley's style is something I try to emulate when play in my rock'n'roll / rockabilly band but a couple of points. 1. I bet he has calluses that you could roller-skate on, playing with that 'sliding off the string' technique. 2. In my experience, 'proper' slap DB simply disappears the moment you introduce a drummer. Most of the DB players I've seen on the circuit are either slapping or trying to, because that's what the genre demands, but if you actually listen with your ears rather than your eyes, there ain't nuthin' there. That's why faking it (my own choice of technique) works just fine.

With a bit of bodgework, this should fit ...

So anyway, I hesitate to ask, but ...