TheRev

We've been running into this kind a crap a lot this year, you were right to cancel. We've turned up at events where 'a PA will be provided' to find a power amp and speakers, but no desk, mics, stands or cables. I've since amended our contract to define what a 'full PA' means.

I'd be up for it.

There's a very good French band called Phoenix, not sure I'd say they were proggy... http://www.wearephoenix.com/

It's likely that he's filed the slot down to lower the action on the G string. I've done the same thing when I bought my last bass - the G was way to high for me so I filed the slot down and played it that way for a few months until I was sure of how I wanted the bass set up. When I had the bass set up, I just had the bridge cut down to the right level. I know players who have cut deep bridge slots and never get round to cutting off the excess.

The Kala U-bass won't sound like a double bass, but it does a decent impression of an amplified double bass.

Hi Mart3442. I didn't mean claimed in a derogatory way or to suggest that your story wasn't true. Poor choice of word on my part and I apologise for any offence inadvertently caused. Dave

Poo. Andy Fraser, along with Jack Bruce, was an enormous influence on my formative years of bass playing. Now both are gone and I feel old....... Still, great tunes eh? I think I may go whack on the headphones and play along to Mr Big very loudly indeed.

We have a 'pub' fee for gigs with no door charge and an 'event' fee for gigs where punters have to buy a ticket/pay on the door . Both are negotiable depending on what/where/when but the pub fee has an upper limit based on what pubs can realistically afford/get from the PubCo or brewery and the event fee has a lower limit based on the premise that if the promoter is booking us to sell tickets that we should be getting a fair crack of that whip. We also have a 'supporting the legends of the west country' fee which may or may not cover our expenses but is regained in merch sales and the potential for expanding our fanbase.

It looks in decent enough condition and as BOTB says, these Eastern European basses are solid workhorses (I use one as my regular gigging bass) - but £1200 could buy you this: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/256863-for-saletrade-gedo-34-semi-solid-db-tom-will-gigbag-gage-pickup/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/256863-for-saletrade-gedo-34-semi-solid-db-tom-will-gigbag-gage-pickup/[/url] That's a lot of bass, pickup and excellent strings for yer money.

Preamp use is a matter of taste - if your amp input can handle the impedance difference then it won't make any difference to the sound. An impedance mismatch will make your sound nasal and scratchy. In my experience, the K&K disc-type pickups need good firm contact with the bridge to get the best out of them.

Are you using a pre-amp between the pickup and the desk/your amp? I'd recommend getting some double sided sticky tape for the pickup discs, they need firm contact with the bridge to get the best sound and the gaffa tape probably isn't providing enough pressure.

She is... I don't play it anywhere near as much as it deserves.

It can be tricky to work out exactly how much a BigE cab will cost as it will depend on the exchange rate at the time and how much you get charged on import duty. I think that my MAS45 ended up costing £700, which wasn't far off the cost in US dollars. So as a guide, the price in US dollars will be pretty close to the cost in £ Sterling after import duty is added. So, they aren't cheap cabs..... but I am very happy with mine and have never, ever felt that I paid too much for it. What I love about mine is the note definition & separation you get, especially from the B downwards, the sheer volume you can get before feedback kicks in and the small form factor and weight. For my needs, it really is the perfect package. Before I bought the BigE, I was using a BFM Omni10.5, which is a great little cab by anyone's standards, but I often struggled to hear myself clearly on the A and E strings. I thought I needed more volume, but after trying bigger amps and doing a shedload of research, I realised it was lack of separation of the notes in this frequency range that was the problem. Mike calls this the note 'envelope' and it was his discussion and explanation on the topic that alerted me to the BigE cabs in the first place. I've used this cab a lot as backline (so not going through the PA) in pub gigs and it's done an amazing job considering its size, but where it really excels is as a monitor on a proper stage, where i can set it upon a stand at shoulder height, about 8-10ft away, and get a fantastic sound which sounds like my double bass and doesn't boom or feed back or generally turn to mush.

A rare outing for Barbara. Was quite nice to take the old girl out for a spin.

I'm not nomally this expressive, but we wuz 'avin fun..

The Puma is supposed to be great for DB according to the Talkbass DB mob. All that's needed to go from electric to double bass is a tweak of the taste knob. As for cabs, if you like the Crazy 8, have you considered the Mike Arnapol Soundworks MAS46? It's designed by the same bloke who was involved with the Crazy 8 and 88 and is squarely aimed at the doubling bassist.

The thread's in the bass guitars forum and is called 'obscure musical backwaters' - the search function should bring it up.

[quote name='BruceBass3901' timestamp='1424900544' post='2701786'] Thanks for the advice Rev! Which Superior Bassworks set are the nylon whackers? There are several different types on their website [/quote] I have a set of the 'Dirty Gut' Deluxe jobbies: [url="http://www.superiorbassworks.com/Superior_Bassworks_Deluxe_Upright_Double_Bass_Strings_Dirty_Gut/p693784_6219678.aspx"]www.superiorbassworks.com/Superior_Bassworks_Deluxe_Upright_Double_Bass_Strings_Dirty_Gut/p693784_6219678.aspx[/url] They're all the essentially the same strings, but the Deluxe and Gripmax sets have roughened/spiral cut surfaces to mimic gut strings and give your fingertips a bit more to grab onto.

Indeed - very nice.

I have Rockabillys on my main gigging bass and they're not as easy to slap as the name would suggest.... silver or golden slaps (same string, just different colours) much easier to slap. I have Spiro weich E and A with Innovation Super Silver D snd G on another bass and I find this combination to be very slap friendly. Another set worth trying are the Superior Bassworks nylon whacker strings. They're very low tension so not great for pizz, but you can bang triple slaps out like crazy. The set has six strings so you can choose a heavy or light setup. They're pretty cheap too, about 40 qiud a set if I remember correctly.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1424873626' post='2701422'] I did not know this, so thanks. RIP. Roots and fifths are often regarded with contempt on this forum, but if you want to get a room dancing there's nothing better. [/quote] Agreed. My band regards any thing more with suspicion. I shall listen to some Crickets tonight I think.

I'm with Mr X on this one. A band that is entertaining and willing to do a bit of promotion and go where the crowd is will never be short of gigs. We're almost fully booked til June (5 or 6 gigs per month), the festival slots are rolling in for the summer and we even have a couple of 2016 gigs in the diary. [quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1424804059' post='2700672'] Bristol is the nearest good sized city with a good music scene to me, that would take me and my band in excess of 2 1/2 hours to get to. [/quote] 3/4 of my band live in Bristol and we'll be driving to gigs in Bournemouth and Tavistock, both about 2 1/2 hour drives. Our guitarist lives in Weymouth and will be driving to Cardiff and Stroud, both about 2 1/2 hour drives. Some of these gigs will be 'big name' support slots for which we'll get £100 and hope we can sell enough CDs to make it all worthwhile. So far, it has all been worthwhile. I'm not saying it's easy, it's a lot of hard work, but the gigs are there if you want them.

I've never heard of anyone deliberately roughing up their double bass, but I've seen plenty that are a bit scuffed around the edges - it's unavoidable when you have to man handle something the size of a wardrobe up onto a stage. Both of my basses have chips out of the edges and scratches on the finish. They were like that when I bought them and I didn't have a problem with it.