Beer of the Bass

I bet those aren't real coffee stains on the note!

What's your amp, and are you using a preamp? I used to gig regularly at one particularly tricky venue using the house 4x10“ cab, and the thing that helped most was having a high-pass filter to take out the low rumbly stuff that can often start feedback. Mine is a Schalltechnik Vong pedal. Making foam f-hole plugs helped too.

In my first band, mid 90s, I had a Zoom 506 that I mostly used for compression and EQ, maybe a little chorus on one tune. I left it at home one week, and the drummer asked me what I'd changed as he thought I sounded much better that day. Nowadays I just bring a fuzz and an envelope filter, which are used sparingly but unsubtly.

There definitely seems to be a rough correlation of less gapped/smoother to being darker and thumpier. I guess the gaps allow for a little more flexibility.

I used to take my bass around Edinburgh on foot a lot, and found a simple bass wheel worked well for me. Mine is the inflatable tyre type, and I would keep it fairly soft to cushion the ride somewhat. The only time that's not great is if you're getting on and off public transport with it.

Since low key diatonics have come up a few times in this thread, I thought I'd mention that I picked up a low C Lee Oskar to play around with. The nice thing about it is that LO price them the same as their standard keys. It sounds fine and plays easily - the bends on hole 2 and three are taking a little adjustment of my technique but I gather that's normal with low keys. So they seem like a good option if you're curious about low keys.

Yeah, it's a useful site. Last time I checked it out I realised that I probably wouldn't like anything else better than my Spirocores, so it's definitely saved me some money!

Yeah, I wouldn't replace them in an older amp unless they were dead and a replacement was cheaper than a re-wind. They're such a fundamental component that it seems a bit Ship of Theseus!

I have one, a Schalltechnik Vong. TBH I've yet to find that it adds anything useful to my bass guitar setup, but it makes a massive difference playing double bass on a loud stage.

I never used it in the MAG combo I had - I preferred to use my Boss OC2 as the low octave from that was much more punchy and characterful. I don't think my combo had footswitch capability either (it was a while ago), which seems silly for an effect like that.

I've seen it argued that the - man suffix in vocational words might come from the Latin "manus" for hand, and isn't inherently gendered. Though others say that's probably a fudge that was applied in retrospect, so I dunno...

I use a tiny amount of oil extremely seldom on rosewood boards, maybe a couple of times a decade. I'm not convinced it performs any massively necessary role, but it does improve the appearance, removes some dirt in the wiping process and evens up the colour with the parts that have already absorbed oils from the skin. I use woodwind bore oil, a very light mineral oil, and I've had the same 50ml bottle for years.

With the sort of monitoring likely to be in place I probably could do fine with my Ampeg PF-50T and pair of 12“ setup, it's just that I suspect the guitarist would probably want to upsize from his usual Blues Junior and it's more a matter of looking and feeling in-keeping with that!

It does get confusing, especially as there have been quite a few thinly veiled or obvious wanted posts in this subforum (not even in the marketplace), and only some of those get moved.

I didn't see it at the time, but that looks like a lot of fun.

I don't own a suitable rig for that size of stage, but I'm guessing there'll be hire companies involved in a setup like that, so I'd probably just request an SVT and 8x10", since Ampeg stuff is reasonably familiar and ubiquitous enough that it's probably available.

I guess an A-width Precision neck would have forked off from Jazz bass production quite early in the process, since the J would get block inlays and binding in that era. Presumably the same stack of blanks, though.

I thought back in the 60s you could special order a Precision from Fender with a Jazz width neck, still called a Precision and marked Precision on the headstock? Few would argue that that was not a Precision bass.

The band I've been playing with for the last wee while have just finished up our new album. It's the bands third album, but my first with them. The full release is June 18th, but there's one track up as a preview right now. It's quite a varied album musically, there's a definite Canterbury prog influence though we also get a little jazzy in places, there are some folk horror vibes in the lyrics and even a bit of a tongue-in-cheek yacht Rock feel occasionally! I play double bass for a couple, too. We should be getting out for some gigs in the autumn, fingers crossed... https://bighogg.bandcamp.com/album/pageant-of-beasts

I'd be more concerned at the speaker end of things, personally. Though I've often tended to have amps that aren't crazy high powered compared to the speakers, so it would take some unusual use to really stress the drivers (detuning, crazy effects, excess low-end EQ etc).

For me the presence of a telecaster would push things in more of a Western Swing direction, which can also be fun.

I've depped on bluegrass gigs a couple of times. It seems to really vary as to how purist people are in the UK - some will be happy with electric bass, and some will scowl at you if your double bass doesn't have gut strings!

I've found it a little awkward where I have gear that's at all idiosyncratic. Particularly on guitar where I've used a couple of different valve combos that I built - I've had people get annoyed there's no dirt channel, that it's not some big clean pedal platform amp to run their looper into, and a lot of younger musicians have never encountered valve amps at all. I've had someone struggle through a half hour soundcheck not figuring out how to turn an amp on while I was next door eating and then be grumpy at me, and others frantically toggling the power switch because it didn't make sound instantly (which is terrible for valve rectifiers). But if I hang around and offer explanation on how to use it, some find that patronising...

That seems like a good, solid choice, I remember quite liking the Zeller basses I've seen.