JoeEvans

Another interesting experiment would be to record a track with a band, then push the bass parts back and forward against the drums to see how it sounds when the playing is literally and precisely behind or ahead of the beat by different amounts. Has anyone done that? Better still, does anyone have a multi-track recording of a track they could doctor in that way then post a link to here?

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1430685578' post='2763756'] Sometimes no one. The beat can be implied. Sometimes maybe just the ride cymbal or something. We're human beings and the thought that we are all playing the notes exactly at the same time is nonsense when you actually think about it. It'll always be a few milliseconds out. As commented above. Listen to programmed sequenced music and it will sound like it is being played by a robot. Which it actually is. [/quote] Yes - what I was wondering was, if you looked at the audio tracks on Logic or whatever, you'd be able to see where the different musicians' notes sat relative to one another. I'm intrigued to know if the earlier poster (or indeed you) had done that and could report back.

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Top of the menu for each song, regardless of the tastes of the client and demands of the producer is the tempo and feel of the track. Once we think we've got the master take the first thing we check is whether or not we've played ahead, on or behind the beat.[/font][/color][/quote] This is interesting - when you look at the audio, to what extent are the notes played by the different instruments actually in different places? Does the drummer tend to define the beat, with the other musicians in front of or behind that? For what it's worth, I've often thought that although we talk about playing in front of or behind the beat, for bass players at least, it might also be to do with how sharp an attack we put on the notes. A slap or a plectrum pick has a much more precise attack than a softer finger action, let alone a double bass note. In jazz, the DB player might well be going at the note on the beat, but because of the soft attack and the tone of the instrument, we hear it as being somewhat behind the beat.

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]How many strings should it really have?[/font][/color][/quote] Four. Obviously.

Drain the blister but leave the skin in place, tape it up, and depending on how you play, maybe tape up the one next to it too - I do a lot of pizzicato with two fingers, and if the index finger was hurting I think the second finger would instinctively step up a bit.

I can only assume that whatever beast went at this thing bit the original neck clean off.

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I'm not sure if I'm attracted or repelled by the idea.[/font][/color][/quote] Depends whether you're in a negative or a positive kind of mood, I guess...

Robbins Timber do good mail order for specialist plywood. They do GL3 Aircraft Ply, which I think is what you're talking about with lightweight birch ply - high quality birch veneers, and lots of thin laminations. But I'm not convinced that you'd hear any difference between GL3 and a regular exterior birch ply. The Finnish exterior birch ply in particular is very good quality without going to the GL3 specification, which is about the absolute consistency of quality you need if you're building a plane.

I'm trying to transcribe this and not finding it at all a chore to listen to it over and over again... Amazing musicianship and lovely restrained bass playing too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDfjd6yxTcU

I had a go with this on the weekend and it seems to be shaping up pretty well - the Sennheiser e608 sounds very warm and nice, and the cheapo contact pickup ([url="http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/bizzy-bee-contact-mic-539517"]Bizzy Bee[/url]) added some thump, clank and click. Both together through the Trace Elliot with mid pre-shape switched on and a bit of eq and it sounded pretty classy. So the plan is now to buy a decent quality stereo DI box and a selector pedal and use Zero9's cunning plan of contact mic only for on-stage and both out front. Although in fact, I got it pretty loud in my living room with both mic and contact mic and no feedback, despite standing right in front of the amp. I have noticed that the e608s are not prone to feedback - the pair of them and the pre-amps are my accordion kit and I have never had much feedback trouble with that, apart from when I tried using a wahwah pedal, which basically worked as a very effective device for finding the exact resonant frequency for maximum feedback... Anyway, thanks for the input, and more stories of multi-pickup solutions would be very welcome!

Zero9 - that's an interesting idea. I could get a decent quality stereo DI box and send the two signals separately to the PA with instructions not to send the mic to monitors, as you suggest. Then the contact mic link output only to amp at loud gigs, and both to amp at quiet gigs, using something like the Morley pedal (which looks really useful, by the way). Thanks!

I'm starting to play around with pickup options for a double bass. I'm going to experiment with using a contact mic and a Sennheiser e608 together, just because I've got them both already; I also have a pair of ART Tube pre-amps. But from there I'd like to send a single signal into a Trace Elliot amp, via a DI box if I'm also going through a PA. So the question is, does anyone out there have a set-up like this, and if so, how do you merge the two signals? I wondered about using a mini mixer; or a stereo DI box which has the option to merge the signals. Is there any neat little object on the market to do this?

I've got a Tokai Jazz Sound (jazz copy) with Bartolinis and it sounds absolutely lush - a huge, huge improvement on the original pickups. I haven't done any comparative testing to speak of so the other options mentioned above might be good too...

I guess that if ever there was a place to find that out, it's eBay...

Veneer, if you can do it really neatly. I saw one once with quite wide veneer lines, made of holly if I remember rightly; the luthier had taken out the frets, then sawn slightly wider slots out so that they were really sharp and neat before inserting the veneer strips. It looked great.

Buy a soft case then just walk over, zip the Fodera in, stroll out and see if anyone notices?

Go with the bassline from [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNwPDLl4eak"]'Licking Stick'[/url] and do a special dance and appropriate facial expression, to indicate that you are actually on stage with the JBs.

I don't know about this one but I've got an old Tokai jazz copy with Bartolini pickups which is my favourite bass ever - I've played lots of other much more expensive basses but nothing else quite does it. I've spoken to other bass players and had the same opinion: old Tokai's are great!

^^^ That's the one!

A rather battered-looking Golden Strad currently on a very good price... [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-bass-/291437225699?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-bass-/291437225699?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276[/url] I just bought one of these for a lot more than this (nicely set up with good strings on) and I am very happy with it - a lovely big sound.

I was thinking about this video and about the changes in the music industry that universal internet access have created. On the one hand, obviously the recorded music industry has basically died on its arse. But on the other hand, if a band can put on a properly entertaining show, it opens things up for them very quickly indeed. I used to book for a 400-capacity venue; if a band sent me a link to a video like this I'd book them straight away, even if they were completely unknown, and I'd be confident of selling the venue out because I could embed the film on the venue website, slap it all over Facebook and email a link to my mailing list, and wait for the ticket sales to kick off. More than that - if I was in a band this good, I would be confident of booking myself a well-paid tour in pretty much any country in western Europe, with no manager, label, agent or reputation needed.

I suspect that Enigma's 'Sadness (Part 1)' might be a contender - it used chunks of Gregorian plainchant, which in general dates back to maybe 10th century, although I don't know exactly how old the piece they sampled is. But it's got to be somewhere round a thousand years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnZ1NQm2uk I like the four hands bass solo and I also like the general commitment to putting on a proper show...

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]You don't think that the case might account for some of that?[/font][/color][/quote] I think the main problem is that a completely unnecessary neck accounts for some of it... Honestly, what were they thinking of? A five-string bass [i]already has four bass strings on it![/i] Why have a whole extra neck with the same four strings? Madness!