mybass

'F Simandl' Book 1....(publisher Carl Fischer Inc).....Simandl 'New Method for String Bass, (publisher International Music Company).....Simandl 'Eighty Six Etudes for String Bass (Carl Fischer Chord Studies for Electric Bass by Rich Appleman and Joseph Viola from the Berklee Press.......These are all books with exercises and scales, some get a tad boring but persevere. The double bass exercises can be used for electric bass and you will see in the first book listed a lot of 'advice' on hand/finger positions. These are not always exact and you wouldn't suffer as much strain on electric bass as maybe on double bass if you get them wrong. A simple ear exercise on each string...(no jokes you lot!) is to slide up from the lowest note on a string, even the open string to the upper octave. ie G to G octave then G sharp to octave G sharp etc.

....another latest today.... New York Times publishes list of over 800 artists potentially affected by Universal archive fire As Universal Music continues in its attempts to cast doubt on recent reporting in the New York Times about the 2008 fire that damaged its Hollywood-based archive, the newspaper has published a list of more than 800 artists who allegedly lost recordings in the blaze. Based on internal UMG documents produced in the wake of the fire, the Times says that, of the "many tens of thousands of tapes" covered by the list, "nearly all [are] original masters". The newspaper adds that this list is not even complete, rather it's an amalgamation of a number of lists put together by Universal in 2009 and 2010 as part of 'Project Phoenix', the music firm's attempt to work out what had been lost and then try to source alternative copies, where possible. By the label's own estimates, it reiterates, over 100,000 tapes were lost, containing up to 500,000 individual tracks. That the fire happened on a Universal Studios backlot in 2008 is no secret, of course. It was also known at the time that the Universal music company still stored archive recordings at the Hollywood site, even though it was no longer in common ownership with the Universal film business. But the NYT's recent articles allege that the music major greatly played down the severity of the damage caused at the time, and has continued to cover it up to this day. Although current Universal Music CEO Lucian Grainge recently admitted to his staff that "we owe our artists transparency" on the status of their archive material, he and the company's archiving exec Pat Krauss have both said that the original New York Times article on the fire is not accurate. For a Billboard article, Krauss even pulled out a John Coltrane master tape said to have been destroyed in order to prove his point. In its new article, the New York Times says that it is likely that some of the tapes listed as potentially lost are indeed safe. It estimates that the aforementioned Project Phoenix was able to source around a fifth of the affected recordings - either original copies that had been out of the archive at the time or back up copies of reasonable quality stored elsewhere. But that still means a lot of masters were completely lost. Following the publication of the first NYT article, several artists whose recordings appear on the lists commented on how they'd attempted to get hold of their masters at some point in the last decade, only to be told by Universal that they were lost. However, that they were destroyed in the fire was rarely explained. Speaking to the newspaper for its latest article on the fire, Bryan Adams recalls how in 2013 he wanted to put together a 30th anniversary release of his 1984 album 'Reckless'. "I contacted the archive dept of Universal Music", he says. "I called everyone, former A&M employees, directors, producers, photographers, production houses, editors, even assistants of producers at the time. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I couldn't find anything at Universal that had been published to do with my association with A&M records in the 1980s. If you were doing an archaeological dig there, you would have concluded that it was almost as if none of it had ever happened". In the end, he discovered a tape in his own vault and was able to produce a remastered release. However, he says that throughout his conversations with UMG staff "there was no mention that there had been a fire in the archive". This despite his name appearing on the label's own list of artists whose work was thought to have been lost. Last week, a group of artists named in the original article, including Soundgarden, Hole, Steve Earle, and the estates of Tom Petty and Tupac Shakur, filed a class action lawsuit against Universal in relation to the fire. As well as claiming that the label breached its contractual duty by failing to keep their master tapes safe, they are also seeking a portion of monies Universal seemingly received from an insurance claim in relation to the fire and a negligence lawsuit it brought against NBC Universal. While publicly playing down the extent of the fire damage in 2008, the artists' lawsuit claims, the label received large pay outs based on its own internal estimations of the damage. It then failed to share this with affected artists, or even to inform them that they had been affected. The lawsuit is demanding $100 million in damages. It's thought that other lawsuits specifically relating to the 2008 fire could as yet follow. Meanwhile, other ongoing litigation could also force the music company to reveal more about the extent of the damage that occurred. A number of heritage artists in the US have already gone to court to test the reach of the so called 'termination' or 'reversion' right that exists under American copyright law, and whether this applies to master recordings. The termination right says that 'authors' who assign their copyrights to another entity have a one-time opportunity to terminate that assignment and reclaim their rights after 35 years. This particular termination right comes from a piece of 1970s copyright law in the US, so only really kicked in earlier this decade. On the songs side of the business songwriters reclaiming their US rights in this way has become routine. On the recordings side, however, many corporate rights owners have resisted efforts by artists to reclaim assigned rights. This is based on an argument over the nature of record contracts and the status of the artist in copyright terms. Many labels insist that record deals are so called 'work for hire' agreements that basically make artists employees, so that the default owner of any copyrights they create is their employer, ie the label. Lawsuits were filed against both Universal and Sony earlier this year attempting to gain court confirmation that artists are in fact able to regain their recording rights by employing the termination right. If they are, that would include the return of their master recordings. In those circumstances, the label would have to admit what tapes it does or doesn't have. The potential outcome of the reversion rights cases is just one black cloud hanging over Universal parent company Vivendi's plan to sell up to 50% of its shares in the music company. The fallout from the NYT's articles on the big fire is another. Although last week, Vivendi CEO Arnaud De Puyfontaine told Variety that the new scandal surrounding the 2008 blaze was "just noise" and would have no effect on the share sale plan. However, it seems unlikely that "noise" is going to subside anytime soon. Responding to De Puyfontaine's comments, Howard King, the lawyer leading the first lawsuit to be launched off the back of the New York Times' report, told Variety: "The likelihood that their life's works may have been destroyed by the gross negligence of Universal Music is far from 'just noise' to any potentially affected artist". He went on: "It wasn't 'just noise' in 2009 when Universal Music sued NBC Universal, claiming that hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable masters had been lost in the devastating fire. It wasn't 'just noise' when Universal Music collected tens of millions of dollars, or more, in compensation for the lost masters. I believe that Mr De Puyfontaine wishes this would all disappear and not interfere with his financial planning. This wish will not come true". Universal has not yet commented on the fire-specific lawsuit. However, with the publication of the extended list of affected artists by the New York Times, it seems likely that many more artists will now be asking questions, and potentially going legal, in the coming weeks.

Top dealings with Gary, all fast done n dusted easily, cheers.

Thanks for the heads up....I'm mini festival'ing that day, hope it goes well.

Just play fretless all the time! This way you will really have to ear train yourself to intonate better than you ever have. Ideally practising on double bass is the way forward. Double bass technique books can help, they show the exercises in ‘position’ playing, ie half position, 1st position etc. The frets on a fretted bass play the notes for you. On fretless ‘you’ play the note which is why intonation becomes of paramount importance.

The latest today: $100 million lawsuit filed over Universal's 2008 warehouse fire As expected, a lawsuit has been filed following recent revelations in the New York Times about the scale of a fire at an LA warehouse storing Universal Music owned master tapes all the way back in 2008. A legal filing made last week, which seeks class action status, says that the major breached its artist contracts by failing to keep the master tapes safe and then failing to inform said artists about the damage caused by the fire. Citing internal Universal Music memos, the NYT article alleged that up to half a million master tapes containing recordings from the 1930s through to the 2000s were lost in the 2008 fire at the Universal Studios Hollywood. This contradicts statements made at the time of the blaze when the record company played down the extent of the losses. The major has denied many of the claims in the NYT report. However, Universal Music chief Lucian Grainge said in a memo to staff last week that the company now had a duty to be super transparent with affected artists. While insisting that lots of speculation that has followed the publication of the NYT article is without substance, Grainge wrote: "We owe our artists transparency. We owe them answers. I will ensure that the senior management of this company, starting with me, owns this". However, the artists participating in the new litigation - who include Soundgarden, Hole, Steve Earle, and the estates of Tom Petty and Tupac - want more than answers. The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages "in excess of $100 million", arguing that Universal failed in its obligation to keep the master tapes containing its artists' recordings safe, and then instigated a cover-up which, the legal filing adds, basically continues to this day. The lawsuit also notes that, while in public Universal played down the significance of the 2008 fire at the time, that didn't stop it from suing the Universal film company over the blaze and making a significant insurance claim in relation to its losses. Law360 reports that, in Universal Music's largely sealed lawsuit against the other Universal company shortly after the fire, the former accused the latter of failing to keep sprinkler systems properly up to speed at the Hollywood site where the music company still stored its tapes. It also said that the Universal studio business had ignored safety recommendations made after an earlier fire in 1990. But the music major itself should have been ensuring safety measures were up to scratch at the facility, the artists' lawsuit argues. Not least because when the 1990 fire occurred, Universal Music and Universal Studios were still parts of the same company, so the former would have had access to the safety recommendations that were made. Moreover, the legal filing goes on, "at a minimum, these alleged dire [safety] conditions were observable to UMG on even the most cursory inspection of the warehouse and its location". As for the way Universal Music communicated the impact of the fire to its artists, the lawsuit lists various allegedly false statements the company's executives made to the press back in 2008, all of which played down the scale of the damage. And as for how the loss of the master tapes could in turn impact on the artists pursuing the litigation, the lawsuit adds: "Master recordings - the original sound recordings of songs - are the embodiment of a recording artist's life's work and musical legacy. They are the irreplaceable primary source of recorded music". Universal Music is yet to comment on the legal action. If it gets to court, there will be various questions to be asked. Firstly, exactly how many master tapes were actually lost? Then, how many recordings on those tapes don't exist elsewhere? Then, has the artist still suffered a loss even if their recordings are stored in another format? And, perhaps most importantly of all, what are Universal's contractual obligations to artists regarding tape storage?

https://completemusicupdate.com/article/universal-master-tape-fire-revelations-could-result-in-litigation/

I met Lee many years ago at Aria when they were sited near Heathrow and then near Guildford. He is a very nice person, I'm glad you got this sorted, top stuff Aria.

I’m surprised these cheap bridges were ever used on those basses!

Interesting stuff neilp ... I was in a bass repair shop once and the owner let me try a very old and very heavy full size bass. I had difficulty getting good bow volume out of it but he explained that this bass projected far beyond the player’s area and actually had a huge sound......in the right hands!

Ah, not ambient’s clip.....yes a quite novel hand position for French style bow, I must try, I’m in the throws of changing to a German style, perhaps even practising the DB again though I don’t know if I can get the Bach cello concertos playing as well as Ibragimov!

I seem to remember a story that after Koussevistsky passed away, his wife offered his double bass over to Gary Karr. I saw Karr play in London in the 80’s accompanied by piano and it was awe inspiring especially his harmonics playing.

That is a ‘German’ style bow, it has the wider frog so the grip is different.

Mine was sold on to a shop in Shepherds Bush, London back in the 70s, looks like this colour too.I think I tried a Ricky but then went for a Gibson Les Paul Recording that I had a long scale neck fitted perfectly by Richard Knight guitars down Weybridge, Surrey way. That bass has a bass clef at the 12th fret......(anyone got it now?)....So, when and where did you get this one?

Interesting zero fret Combi nut on this site, I’ve never seen one like this.

Find a reputable osteopath, really. My man (Hindhead, Surrey) is excellent and has seen many musicians. ie....I had a bad knee problem once, it turned out it was my ankle that was out of alignment and a single visit sorted it all out.

String sale to Reggabass Tony for his bass restoring project, great dealing with you, cheers.

Gotoh tuners to Gary, all nicely done, cheers 4pwclm.

Hiwatt and Fender valves in the UK and Jansen in NZ.

Maybe that particular cables doesn't have decent wire in it so bin it. I make up cables from quality stuff and always use Neutrik jack plugs for a proper contact area for bass or pedal inputs as some jack plugs from 'other' countries are inferior quality and just ever so slightly less in circumference than Neutrik.