TheRev

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.

OK, I've got another one. It's a bit long winded so bear with me..... The band were booked for a weekend at a cider farm during apple pressing season. We'd done the gig for two years in a row, so we knew the organisers well and were all happily looking forward to a weekend of playing and getting squiffy on scrumpy cider. We arrived at 10am on the Saturday and got busy unloading the van, setting up and chatting to the organisers, exhibitors and friends that were in and out of the barn we were to play in. In the middle of all this we hear a cheery 'Owright laaads?' and turn around to see the owner of the farm - a 70-something proper Dorset farmer with an accent you could shovel with a pitchfork. 'Good to 'ave you baack boys' he says, 'really lookin' forward to you playin' We say thanks, cheers etc. 'Can you play a request for me lads?' he asks, 'Will you play that song you do about the nig**rs?' Silence We look at each other..... more silence. 'Sorry, what??' splutters our singer. 'You know, the song you do about the nig**rs, I like that one' More silence... Our singer is looking horrified, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. I should point out that our singer is a full-on, hardcore, left-wing, trade unionist, anti-fascist, so the idea that he would even say the word nig**r, never mind write a song using that word is just unthinkable. 'Sorry mate' says our singer 'I really don't know which song you mean - do you know the title?' 'You know,' says the farmer, that song about the nig**rs, you sings it all the time' Our singer really wants to tell the farmer to feck off, but he owns the farm (i.e. he's paying us) and he is 70 odd, so he thinks that maybe the old boy doesn't know that it's really no OK to keep saying nig**rs... anyway, he has one more try. 'I'm really sorry, but I just can't work out what song you mean - are you sure it's one of ours? It doesn't sound like one of ours.' 'Arr, go on, you know, like Tom Jones' says the old boy. Now we're really lost. 'Like Tom Jones' says the old boy, 'with the girls throwing their nig**rs' The penny drops - we have a song with the opening line 'The girls throw their knickers at the Skimmity Hitchers' (Skimmity Hitchers is the name of our band) and the farmers' thick Dorsetshire accent makes 'knickers' sound like 'nig**rs' I have never seen someone look so relieved - even more than when our guitarist thought his £3k Martin Johnny Cash signature guitar had been stolen from backstage and we told him we'd put it in the dressing room for safekeeping. So, all was well and we had a great weekend playing music and getting squiffy on the farmhouse cider which the farmer supplied in never ending quantities. Only problem was, every time we played that song (playing 4 sets per day across two days,so it cropped up on a couple of occasions) all I could hear in the opening line was 'Girls throw their nig**rs at the Skimmity Hitchers' along with a mental image of our singer's totally horrified face, resulting in a fit of the giggles for the rest of the song. I still chuckle now, 4 months later.

I seem to remember there was a thread on Danny Thompson, where a Basschat member claimed to have had a go on Danny's bass, Victoria and said he sounded just like himself playing. Danny then had a go on the Basschatter's bass and sounded exactly like Danny Thompson. Pretty much tells you all you need to know about Danny's sound....though years and years of playing on Spiro starks to develop fingers capable of poking through titanium armour probably helps.

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1423814261' post='2689230'] Wow, Dave, that is one exceptional answer! I know this is a great forum but you have really gone the extra mile and I am truly grateful. Many, many thanks! [/quote] No problem matey! I had exactly the same questions when I started out so I'm just passing on the information that others gave me.

Welcome back to[b] real[/b] bass playing [b]Amps[/b]: In my experience of playing at festivals where backline is provided, the amp is less of an issue than the speaker cab(s). Over the years I've been given an Ampeg SVT with a 2x10 cab (nice), 4x10 (careful with that volume...) and a 1x15 (uncontrollable feedback on any note below a B on the A string). The best 'random festy stage backline' amp I've played through was a TC Electronic 2x10 combo.... As long as you have a decent, designed for DB preamp (Fishman Bass Plat Pro Plus or Fdeck clone for example) then there's no reason why your Carvin or any other bass amp shouldn't work for you. If you're pairing it up with a 2x15 cab though, then you could be in trouble! 10s and 12s are generally popular for double bass with the current trend favouring 8 and even 5" drivers. [b]Ply or carved[/b]: The general consensus is that ply basses are easier to amplify than carved basses, simply because generally, ply basses resonate less than carved basses. However, it stands to reason that a poorly made, dead carved bass will be less feedback prone/easier to amplify than a well made ply bass. The truth is, you won't know till you try and there are multitude of pickup and preamp combinations you can use to help tame frisky basses. For folk and blues, a good (i.e.not a £300 Chinese Ebay job) ply pass will serve you well. Having said that, Danny Thompson does OK playing folk and blues on his 19th century French fully carved bass..... It's also worth bearing in mind that, for the same money, a well made laminate bass would be better than a poorly made carved bass. [b]Thomann/Gedo/Archer[/b]: I always recommend the Thomann 2 bass (carved top, laminate sides - the TN (Tineo wood) version is very highly rated) as that's the only one of the above importers/resellers basses that I've had direct experience of. The Thomann 2 basses are Czech made Strunals, which are considered decent quality, mass produced instruments. I've no idea where Gedo or Archer source their instruments from - there's a good chance that they all come from a small handful of Czech or Hungarian factories. If you have a substantial budget (£1500-2000), then you could buy a Duke bass and be pretty sure that you're going to get a very nice sounding and playing bass. Buying blind is always going to cause you a bit of panic - what if you don't like it, or it feels unplayable? Chill out... My experience is that you and your new bass will mould to each other - you'll make little changes to the bass setup and to your technique as you spend more and more time together until you find that everything is just right. This obviously will require the services of a luthier for setups and the close observation of the 'Double basses for sale' forum for the next pickup/strings combination that you just have to have to make everything 'just right' If you do decide to buy 'blind' from one of the big online shops, then I would recommend keeping £3-500 of your budget back to pay for work on your bridge and/or sound post and for a couple of different sets of strings o try out. If you're willing to travel to North London, then a trip to Thwaites in Watford would be time well spent. They usually have a good range of nice old eastern European ply & carved basses in the £900 -£1500 price bracket and you can play every single one of them to find the one that suits you best. [b]Strings[/b]: Oh Lordy - you don't know what you're asking!! The 'standard' double bass strings are Spirocore Mittles (medium tension) - though if you have issues with your hands, then the 'weich' set may be a better bet. I really like the weichs for rootsy/old school jazz stuff - nice low tension but still retaining enough note definition with short sustain and no 'sproingyness'. Other good 'gut-a-like' strings (which is what you want for folky/bluesy stuff) would be Evah Pirazzi, Innovation super silvers or honeys (tho I quite like the Rockabillys), Pirastro Obligatos, Rotosound RS4000, D'addario Zyex etc.etc. The list is almost endless, and what sounds good on my bass may not sound good on yours. As some where to begin, I'd plump for either Spirocore or Evah Pirazzi light/weich. Both are easy to play and are very popular, so if you don't get on with them, you'll be able to sell them easily enough. So. in summary, there are no easy answers - sorry about that. I think most people on the DB forum would agree that double bass is a much more personal instrument than a bass guitar or even an electric upright, so it does take time to work out what it is that you want from your bass. It can be a frustrating and potentially expensive journey, but it's also a very satisfying journey. Dave