Beer of the Bass

Many of the faked '59-'60 sunburst Les Pauls are a little different from if you were to build forged instruments from scratch, I gather a lot of them are less valuable earlier 50s versions which have been re-worked. Not only did they start out as guitars made in the same factory in the same decade, but it's also been going on so long that many have genuine ageing and play wear too.

I had the J-Tone black rubber covered single wing pickup for several years, I'd say that as piezos go, it's one of the less fussy about running into ultra-high impedance. Straight into the 1Mohm input of a GK amp or most buffered tuner pedals was fine. Yes, an HPF, phase switch etc can help if you really need to push the volume and control any resulting feedback, but the pickup is fairly usable with most typical bass amps as-is.

I suppose a lot of players develop their playing styles around the E or G string being on the outside, particularly for pick players in heavier styles, or more old-school slap techniques. My bass guitar style transitioned to 5 smoothly enough, but I think I'd struggle adding a high C or low B to double bass.

Yeah, with hindsight, if I'd timed it right and moved some other gear around I could/should have done that. Always the way!

I suspect I would like those 5-string Rics a lot, they're the kind of spacing I like for a 5 string, they lose the anachronistic Ric metalware and I love the walnut/maple aesthetic. Bit out of budget for me though!

I'm thinking it's something to do with the difference between a plucked note and a bowed one. Plucking, the energy is applied the string in one burst and it's all decay from there. With the bow, there's continued energy input through the length of the note.

I recorded once with a very experienced producer/engineer who was absolutely insistent that the fundamental frequency on a double bass was one octave below the same string/position on bass guitar, on a session where I was playing double bass. It was a very strange experience, I eventually just kind of conceded so we could get on with things rather than pushing the point even though I know they're the same.

I brought my 5-string to a very 70s sounding band where the bassists on the first two albums were both short scale 4-string pick players. I wondered at first if it was appropriate, but it turns out no-one else in the band had even thought about it that way. My bass is passive and basically does what a Jazz bass does apart from the extra string, I use lower notes very sparingly and I'm running into an Ampeg. I'd say it works fine in that context. I probably could use a four string in that band, but I don't own a large number of basses, so if you want me and you want fretted electric, that's my bass.

My endpin is the larger diameter steel tube type, so the right diameter dowel slots right in. I tried both walnut and oak, I *think* they sound subtly different from each other, but the difference between wood and metal is the more noticeable, it's a little bigger sounding. The rubber stopper I used on the wood does like to wear through, so I only really bring out the wood pin if it's an unamped setting where I'm shooting for every last drop of projection available.

Probably more familiar as Gypsy Jazz, but many advocates for Traveller and Romani groups are encouraging people to move away from the word Gypsy. So Hot Club Jazz seems as good a name as any given that it originated with Rheinhardt and Grapelli's Hot Club quintet. Though I depped on a gig earlier in the year with a Romani guitarist who calls it Gypsy Jazz, and I was not about to correct him! I've just gone for the approach of showing up with the sound that I have (a more modern steel strung sound) and just trying to be stylistically appropriate within that, but if it was my full time gig I'd probably be looking at guts.

Do the 2012 remasters keep the original bass and drum tracks? Many of the 90s reissues quietly re-recorded parts that Zappa wasn't happy with, and I feel like while they're cleaner sounding, they miss some energy from the original releases. Hearing the original "We're Only In It For The Money" compared to my 90s reissue was particularly noticeable, just a weirder, more interesting sounding album all around before Zappas 90s "improvements".

Just realised I do this with my dog, with the first syllable lengthened. "Iiii - vor!"

For that budget and in the UK, a decent mid-20th century European laminate bass could be a good choice, and they do come up if you wait around and watch on here and other bass specific selling places. Or relatively recent carved or hybrid student basses like the Stentors, Zellers, and Czech and Romanian ones under a few names would also be good. Any older carved bass in that range will likely have something keeping the value down, perhaps less than ideal old repairs, or needing immediate work, but you might just get lucky.

Since the Behringer is a pedal tuner, what kind of pickup is on the bass? I've had good results with a cheap Harley Benton pedal tuner (the Boss TU-2 copy) with a piezo bridge wing pickup. But if you have the old style Baby Bass diaphragm pickup, it might be that the more percussive thud those put out is harder for the tuner to read. A clip-on tuner will probably work fine, but I know a pedal tuner can be handy in some live situations.

'97 would be after the third album, that certainly fits with the timeline of him disappearing up himself from most accounted I've heard.

I'd say not, the surface grain of the top looks like flatsawn maple veneer.

The carved vs ply discussion really depends what you're doing. If you're playing rootsy pizz or slap styles, there might not be a meaningful upgrade from a well setup, quality laminated bass. The situation is complicated by there being a lot of carved student basses that aren't all that wonderful either. And the laminated bass can be a useful working instrument in situations that would be rough on a carved bass even where it might not be the ultimate instrument for the style you're playing. It's in classical styles and the more articulate end of jazz pizz where great carved basses can bring something that laminated basses rarely have - otherwise, a nicely set up laminate is probably going to be fine.

For live use I just have a simple LPF on my pedalboard, and set it just above the point where I start to hear a difference in my clean tone through my tweeter-less cabs. It takes the nasty off my fuzz and drive sounds in the DI without doing any complex stuff below that.

I've played with more than one drummer who packs standard drums like this for travel. It's not great, they end up taking forever to set up and usually have badly tuned drums (or just leave one head off), but I do seem to have played with an unusual number of non-driving drummers who have to accept whatever lift they can get.

They already have a range of strings referred to as DTF - surely somebody must know!

I've kept flatwounds on fretted bass for maybe 4-5 years before I feel they're lacking something. Roundwounds I like when they're a little played-in, my last set on a regularly used bass went for 18 months. I do have a set of Status groundwounds on my fretless bass that must be 10 years old, but that bass only gets occasional use.

The bands at the top and back joint are usually referred to as external linings. They're often (but not always) associated with German made basses. I would say the scroll and tuners don't look like a Kay, the outer part of the spiral scroll is a separate glued-on piece on a Kay, and they have tuners with smaller gears than most double basses.

It's interesting, for the feature set and size of these, I feel like if they didn't have a coveted older name on them, basschat would have greeted them with a collective "meh". Just from the control set it looks fairly generic.

I feel I'm doing OK with a 50 watt Ampeg PF50T at gigs that are either small or PA reinforced, with one or two DIY 1x12" cabs. If it's a larger stage or a reasonable size room without bass in the PA the second cab makes a big difference, so I wouldn't want to wed myself to a single 12" rig. I think the Barefaced 12" is efficient, but not in a way that would be a night-and-day difference with another quality 12" in a low-powered valve amp rig. The viability will depend a lot on how much amp your guitarists use, and how the drummer works with the rest of the band too.

I'd have to check, it's the one they recommended with it, one of the SMPS800 variants. Amidst all the "heft" discussions on bass forums I liked the concept of using a more than ample power supply.