TheRev

I have Spiro weich A and E on my carved bass - they're surprisingly good for slappin'

There's a dearth of reputable double bass luthiers in the Dorset/Hampshire/West Sussex area, so you're probably going to have to travel a bit to have the damage assessed. T&G Martin in Banbury, north Oxfordshire are an obvious choice, as are Thwaites in Watford. If it's a good quality instrument then it's really worth your time in taking it to a respected luthier for repair.

I'd second the EA Doubler for it's transparency, but I find I can only use it for folky, jazzy type gigs as it seems to lack the sheer grunt that I need for my main band. I use a Fishman preamp into a Markbass LM2 and a BigE MAS45 double bass cab. It works well for me (loud and feedback free), but I wouldn't necessarliy describe it as a natural sound - I'm just looking for a sound that sits well in the mix, rather than a particular double bass tone. Yer tone in in yer fingers anyway... If you already like the sound of your Schertler, why not just add the Schertler 200W sub extension? http://www.schertler.com/amplifiers/classic-series/bass/ That way you'll have a nice modular, 400W rig that you can adapt to any size of stage.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1409938088' post='2544870'] If anyone is looking to upgrade and wants to move on an old-style one, please let me know. It's a last resort to getting a decent sound out of my BP-100, having pretty much failed with an ADI21 and a Phil Jones Briefcase. [/quote] I'd agree with Clarky about ditching the BP100. I had one for a while and was never happy with the tone despite trying it through Fishman, Headway and a FDeck preamps. For the price of a second hand plat pro, you could easily buy a used Realist or Bassmax, which would work much better with your amp even without a preamp.

I like the look of the StagePro, but it doesn't seem to be on the Fishman website. oops, hang on - I scrolled down and found the link. Tidy little beastie - bit like the nifty little FDeck, but with the added bonus of a DI out.

Bob Gollihur has them available for pre-order at $249. Quite a step up in price from the old model. [quote name='BassBod' timestamp='1409924192' post='2544642'] Nice...I do hope it runs on batteries...and you can see the tuner display in daylight.. [/quote] A tuner that can be seen in day light? Might as well ask for the moon on a stick.

http://www.fishman.com/products/view/platinum-pro-eq-analog-preamp Very nice... I particularly like the boost switch for when your solo comes along. Anyone had their mitts on one of these yet?

I buy used strings all the time - it's a very cost effective way of trying out different brands to find 'your' string for 'your' bass. In fact all 3 of my basses are currently wearing second hand strings I've never had a problem with a used string and even had sets from other basschatters on a try before you buy basis. I've also done string exchanges - swapping sets that I didn't like for sets that I want to try.

The Roland Bass Micro cube runs on batteries and is suprisingly loud. I use it for busking.

I'd never rely on just a monitor mix for double bass, too much risk of uncontrollable feedback, regardless of the skill of your sound engineers. If you're using electric upright though, feedback wont be a problem, so you should be ok. For big PA gigs, I set my cab up on a keyboard stand at about shoulder height and place it to the side of the stage on my left, about 5 feet away and use that as a personal monitor. I ask for little or no bass in my monitor mix so there's less chance of feedback. That way, I can set up a sound that allows me to hear my intonation clearly but still give the engineer free reign on the FOH and monitor sound for the rest of the band

I've not had a lesson from him, but I've met Greg Cordez and heard him play -he certainly knows his stuff... I'm not a teacher (of music) but I'm happy to give you an hour of my time and give you advice/pointers on stance and basic left and right hand technique.

Had a great summer this year, even with two band members missuses having babies right in the middle of festival season. We've played a load and headlined at a couple of little one day festies, played a handful of VeeDub and Harley Davidson rallies, put on a full 3 day festy in Somerset and played a stomping set at Boomtown Fair last weekend.

'I hope the bass player turns up soon, my arm is getting tired'

[quote name='gerryc' timestamp='1407587321' post='2522054'] Hope you got paid http://m.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/11398758.Forever_Sun_festival_performers_and_staff_claim_they_have_not_been_paid/?ref=la [/quote] Not looking good is it? I know a lot of Dorset bands that are very annoyed right now.

I've pretty much settled on Innovation Rockabillys on my ply bass - I just love the way I can bounce my right hand from string to string. My carved bass, on the other hand, is proving to be something of a problem child. I persevered with my Velvet Garbos before finally losing it big time over the nasal overtones on the D string and swapping to Spiro wiechs. All was proceeding well until I had a new bridge fitted and the bass came back with an 11mm action on the G string, making the Spiro G feel like a bit of cheese wire. I've now got Innovation Super Silvers on the G and D (still Spiro Weichs on A and E) just so I can actually play the bugger. I did a little open mic session last night and wasn't incredibly eanmoured with the amplified sound - soooo I think I'll have to go back to the luthier and admit defeat and have my action lowered to a wimpy yet playable 7mm and then give the Spiros another try. I think I've fallen out of love with my Velvet Garbos - too many overtones for my old school tastes. I'll put them up for sale cheap if anyone's interested.

I meant that eventually, the pressure on the pickup elements will make little dents in the table/bridge and allow the bridge foot to sit flush. It's not something that you 'have' to do, it's something that just happens.

Bridge, so you don't get little dents in your bass. I don't think it makes any difference to the sound, at least not to my ears.

It's also a good idea to rub a bit of rosin or candle wax on both sides of the foil before you install the pickup to help it stick to the belly of the bass. Otherwise, as the bridge starts to tilt forward under tuning the pickup can suddenly slip out from underneath the bridge foot, sending your bridge flying one way and your soundpost in another.

The bumps are the piezo elements. Eventually the pressure of the bridge will make little dents on the top of your bass and the bridge foot will sit flat.

Could be an old East German factory bass -hard to tell without better pictures. Old (50s-70s) ply basses that are still in one piece are usually good buys as they're solid as a very solid thing. If you can get this for less than £300 and (assuming there aren't any big seam splits and the bass bar is ok) then budget another £400 on having the bridge, soundpost & neck/fingerboard sorted out by a luthier, you'll end up with a very decent jazz/folk/blues bass for not a lot of money.

+1 on Gail Anne Dorsey [media]http://youtu.be/d5nYX-iuUFk[/media]

Take it back and have your luthier lower the action to what you want. Yes, it does mean that f you want a higher action, then that will mean a new bridge, but that should be your decision to make There's always the temptation that you should 'man up' and get used to a higher action, but if it's getting in the way of your playing then what's the point? It's not a competition, it's about making music. I recently had a new bridge fitted to my carved bass. The action on the G was 6 or 7mm, which was a tad on the low side, even for me, so I told my luthier that the action could ''go up a mm or two''. It came back with a G string action of 11mm! To be fair, he did say I could bring it back and he'd lower the action free of charge.

My band has taken a couple of minibusses of fans from Dorset to Lon-Don but we drove them ourselves. Because of the length of time involved (2.5 hour each way plus 4 or 5 hours at the venue) we would have needed two drivers for each bus, which made the whole premise uneconomical.