TheRev

'I can't believe he's worn the same shirt as me AGAIN!'

I'm in Bristol, count me in if you need me.

It has a brass nut, so if it's 1991 and has active eq I reckon it would be a 405.

Mine has the same width as a typical Jazz, but is fatter from front to back.

Check that the bridge foot is flat on the pickup surface. If the bridge has tilted forward and isn't in full contact with the piezo element, you will get some pretty horrible sounds.

Man - you are going to have such a good time.... My band did a ten day/five date Us tour which took in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver in February. I wish I could give you sage advice about how we ate healthy food, kept ourselves hydrated and washed our underpants regularly, but none of that happened. Everything almost got derailed when our guitarist threw his toys out of the pram and quit ten days before the tour began. Undaunted, we secured the services of the guitarist from the band who were playing the last night of the tour with us and flew him from Rhode Island to Portland to meet us the night before the first gig of the tour for a bit of a rehearsal. With all that behind us even before the tour started, there was no way we were going to eat lettuce and drink spring water, so we lived on breakfast burritos, beer, cider and stuff that you can legally buy in Oregon that you can't buy over here. The one actual useful piece of advice I can give you is to make a note (on paper or on your phone - anything that will stay on your person) of where your hotel and gig venue are for each day/city. That way, when you inevitably wake/end up in the wrong hotel/part of town, you will always know where you can find your band mates and/or luggage. Don't worry about down time - you will either sleep or spend it travelling form the side of the city where you woke up to the side of the city where the gig is at. As for dealing with promoter screw ups - this will happen. There's nothing you can do about it so, you're best off not worrying about it and just dealing with problems as they arise. On our tour almost nothing went to plan, but everything turned out alright because no-one threw a hissy fit and everyone pitched in to sort out problems. Anyway despite all the disasters, this is how our tour ended up in Vancouver: Totally worth it. [url="http://s22.photobucket.com/user/RevDave/media/ML%20rickshaw%20crowd%20amp%20band.jpg.html"][/url]

The EA Doubler is designed to do exactly what you want. It takes a bit of experimenting to get the best out of it - running the master volume at 3 O'clock and then using the input gain to set the overall level seems to get the most out of the eq. I now use my Doubler in preference to my Markbass LM2, mainly because it's tiny and light which means i can get more stuff in my gig bag.

I use a Wolf ball. Not a wolf's nadger, one of these: https://m.thomann.de/gb/wolf_super_endpin.htm

I love dead Spiros. I took my usual old Spiros off my bass so I could use them on a borrowed bass I was using on tour and didn't get round to putting them back on before our first gig with my regular bass (which now had new Spiros on). The sound was horrible, all nasal and sproingy. I'll be putting my dead Spiros back on for tonight's gig....

Two weeks ago I was playing this amazing venue - the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver, BC. It's an amazing venue in Vancouver's Chinatown district which used to be a cinema showing kung fu films for the Chinese ex-pats. [url="http://s22.photobucket.com/user/RevDave/media/SkimmityHitchers_Rickshaw_MC_13022016_007good%20band-crowd%20shot.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://s22.photobucket.com/user/RevDave/media/ML%20rickshaw%20crowd%20amp%20band%20amp%20badger.jpg.html"][/url]

Excellent job, well done! Play it for a bit before taking it to a luthier for a set up. You'll have a better idea how you want it set up once you've had some playing hours under your fingers.

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1453739759' post='2962318'] It's a defret as well. That was never born a fretless. [/quote] That'll be the 'custom' part...and what strings is he buying for £85 a pop? Double bass strings?

Are you using a preamp to buffer the impedance of your J Tone pickup? If not, that could be part of the cause of your electric/wooly tone and feedback issues. As for strings, Innovation Super Silvers are nice low tension strings, or, for a bit more money, you can't go wrong with a set of Thomastik Spiro weich.

Would a bass shop want them? I'll happily donate anywhere rather than throw them away.

I'm clearing out my music room as it now has to double as little Rev's playroom. I have the entire 2011 run of Bassist magazine sitting around doing nothing, so if anyone wants 'em, come get 'em! I'm in Bristol, not far from IKEA/J2 on the M32. I also gig in Dorset a lot, so I could potentially meet down that way. Churrz! Dave

[quote name='sbrag' timestamp='1452686067' post='2952349'] I've not organised one before but I can try and sort a venue. A pub near me (Bs16 Staple Hill) I've rehearsed at before has a large function room and skittle alley. It's not the prettiest but could be functional and about 5 to 10 min from m32. [/quote] The Portcullis? The other Portcullis opposite Morrison's on Fishponds road also has a decent sized function room. Parking can be a bit of a 'mare, but could be OK if you do it on a Sunday.

Yep - impedance is a tricky think to get your head around and I certainly don't understand exactly how it works, but there's what I do understand in terms of double bass pickups and preamps. Piezo pickups (i.e, the majority of double bass pickups) are high output impedance devices - usually between 5-10MOhm. To give their best performance, they like to be plugged into an amp with a similar input impedance. An amps input impedance - such as the LM2 is typically a few hundred KOhm - so it is designed to work best with a signal coming from a device with a matching impedance. So, you plug your 10MOhm pickup directly into your 220KOhm amp input and you've got an impedance difference of 9.78MOhm. That's a lot of MOhms..... Your pickup will work, and you won't damage your amp, but neither pickup or amp amp are working with the impedance that they're designed to, so the sound can be a bit thin and scratchy. Now, if you're happy with that sound, then fine, but if you feel that there's something lacking then you probably need a preamp What a preamp does is buffer the difference in impedance between the pickup and the amp, so that both 'see' what they expect to see and you get the full tonal range from your pickup. Think of it as a universal translator - it allows piezo pickups and amp inputs to understand each other. There's no reason why you can't buy a pickup and just plug straight into the jack input of your Markbass without a preamp and see if that works for you - it's entirely a matter of personal taste. You might find that a bit of EQ twiddling will get the sound you want. You can always add a preamp at a later date if you want to. Note: If you go down the magnetic pickup route then you very likely won't need a preamp, as the output impedance of mag pickups are much lower. Having said that, I use a magnetic pickup and still use a preamp because of useful things like low pass filters and a DI out. Good luck.... Dave

I've used a MarkBass LM2 for years with double bass and been very happy with it - so no problems for you on that score. If you have £50-£100 to spend on a pickup then you should go straight to the for sale forum and buy the Underwood that's for sale. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/273151-underwood-pickup-for-sale/ It's a piezo, so you will very likely need a preamp to match the output impedance of the pickup with the input impedance of the Markbass. The Fdeck HPF mentioned by Owen is an excellent choice. You can't buy them from the guy who makes them in the US, but you can commission a custom pedal builder to make one for less than £100. Otherwise, keep an eye on the for sale forum for a second hand Fishman Platinum Pro

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1452341876' post='2949024'] so essentially a 310?? [/quote] Yep, pretty much. When the model line was revamped from the *01 to the *10 models, the entry level 310 had active eq, which was essentially the same as the old 401 models.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1452257550' post='2948132'] I can't see any particular difference between that SB401 and the SB301/SB310 ... what am I missing? [/quote] The 301 was passive and the 401 was active. Otherwise they were exactly the same.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1452257550' post='2948132'] I can't see any particular difference between that SB401 and the SB301/SB310 ... what am I missing? [/quote] The 301 was passive and the 401 was active. Otherwise they were exactly the same.

Euphonic Audio micro. 550W and only slightly bigger and heavier than a VHS video cassette.

I have six - three double basses, two electric basses and one acoustic bass guitar. I did something like 70 gigs last year and played the same bass each time except for one gig where I used my Eminence portable double bass due to space constrictions. I should really sell the electrics as they only get a little bit of home use.... but I don't need to sell them, and TBH, I don't want to.

I've never been one for naming inanimate objects and I haven't named any of my electric basses, but for some reason the double basses needed to be named, so they're Barbara, Jayne and Boris.