TheRev

Blast Cult basses are pretty special - they're a modern version of the old King basses much beloved of touring rockabiily bands in the 50s and 60s. If you're playing rockabilly, bluegrass or counrty type stuff then a high-end ply is a much better choice than a solid wood bass.

I have Innovation strings on both my basses- Rockabillys on the ply DB and Silver Slaps on the Eminence. I really like the tension of the rockabillys and the strong fundamental sits perfectly in the mix of my scrumpy'n'western band. I've only recently put the Silver Slaps on the Eminence -my jazz/soul trio is on a break so I thought I'd work on my slapping. It turns out that the low tension of these strings works really well with the inherent brighter sound and greater sustain of the Eminence. I'm also a massive fan of Velvet strings, particularly the Garbos - they sound amazing on my East German ply when playing solo or recorded, but they don't suit the sound of the band.

If I had your money I'd be driving over to Thwaites in Watford and The Contrabass Shoppe in Walton-on-Thames to try out everything that they have within your budget - you might just find 'the one'.

+1 to wot BRX said. Getting a pub to pay you decent money for a free to punters gig isn't rocket science but it does require hard work. As long as you can bring in enough people to cover your fee and ensure that enough booze goes across the bar to make it worth the landlord opening the doors, then you'll get paid.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1378980913' post='2207242'] Mmmmmmm ... attics. [/quote] That's the dressing room at The Fleece in Bristol. Bit swish innit?

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1378980913' post='2207242'] Mmmmmmm ... attics. [/quote] That's the dressing room at The Fleece in Bristol. Bit swish innit?

[quote name='timbo1978' timestamp='1378645630' post='2202700'] ...after practicing a tune all week to finally master it, someone says, let's do this in Eb instead... [/quote] Don't get me started....

....when you get on stage for your 5pm set at a festival and realise that accepting all those drinks from punters after your 1pm slot might not have been a good idea.

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1378448351' post='2200333'] ... when you realise that not only are you in thumb position but you're actually in tune and playing the right notes! Steve [/quote] That has never happened to me.

My first bass was a Jedson. It had a separate bridge / tailpiece and a plastic Jedson logo on the headstock. I don't think this is a Jedson but it looks identical to my old bass in every way except the bridge and logo. My bass was crap.

Realistically, how much are you willing to spend? Thomann and Gedo basses are good value for money but you need to be spending £800+ to get one of the European made ones - if you don't have that sort of money available then there's no point in us reccomending them! So, let's be realistic. If you only have £400 to spent then it's either a Chinese made Thomann or Gear4Music or you wait and keep an eye on the for sale ads for a bargain to come up (be prepared to travel). I looked after a G4M bass for a couple of months while the owner moved house. I wasn't very impressed. The neck was very chunky with sharp edges to the fingerboard. Every time I tuned up, the whole thing creaked alarmingly lke a galleon under full sail and the sound was pretty dull. It could possibly be improved by putting on some low tension nylon strings to alleviate the creakiness and having a luthier radius the edges of the fingerboard, but you'd still be left with a dull sounding bass. I'd only recommend this option to someone who 1) had a top limit of £400. 2) just wanted to 'have a go' to see if they liked it and 3) were going to be playing rockabilly or really thuddy bluegrass. Given that you've been playing EUB for a year and now want 'something bettr', I really don't think a £400 chinese bass will do what you want. In all honesty it probably won't sound any better than your Stagg. So, option two: hang in there and wait for a bargain. I spent four or five months intensively looking before a 50s East German laminate came up for sale locally. I paid £600 for it and spent another £250 on getting the neck shaped and the fingerboard re-shot. it plays and sounds great (for a 50s East German laminate...) and I'm glad I spent the time looking. Bargains are out there, but you have to be prepared to wait and to travel. I was lucky finding one so close but I did one 60 mile round trip to look at some real peices of crap. But....I ended up paying £850 (not including strings and pickup) for which i could have bought a Stentor Student 2, a Thomann 2 (actually a rebadged Strunal and a very good bass for the money) or I could have taken a trip to Thwaites in Watford and had my pick from one of their [url="http://www.thwaites.com/basses/basses-up-to-1000?zenid=ca85ce170ef1e5ffdd306227c34a3f8b"]sub £1k basses [/url]any of which could well have bagged me a bass of the same quality and playibility as me beloved Jayne - although Mr Thwaites is selling similar basses to mine for £1500, so maybe I made the right choice after all. This isn't Talkbass, so I don't want to be telling you that you must spent £1500 on a bass before you can even post on here, [b]but[/b] at £400 you're looking at the very bottom of the double bass market. Down here, you really only get what you pay for, unless you can find some old boy selling his bass for what he paid for it in 1968 just cos he wants it to got to someone who'll appeciate it. Those old boys are few and far between! If you want to step up from your Stagg and get something worth your while, then my honest advice would be to scour the forsale ads on here, on ebay, on gumtree, in your local paper and anywhere else you can think of for a decent secondhand bass. While you do this, try squirreling away some more cash if you can - a few hundred quid at this price point can make all the diference between a tidy, well made, played in east European ply and an uninspiring bass shaped heap of firewood-in-waiting.

Got recognised as a band member (3 times) and as the bassist (twice) this weekend. Bit of a record that. Admittedly, we did 5 gigs in 3 days at the same festival, but actually being recognised as the bassist was pretty impressive.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1377952792' post='2194002'] There's a live show being streamed tomorrow night . [/quote] When and where?

Serves him right for playing a solo..... After I had a drunk punter stumble into my bass, knocking off the bridge and dropping the soundpost I took an electric to those gigs which involved an overnight stay as I wouldn't be able to get my bass to the shop to have the soundpost reset. Otherwise i don't bother taking a spare - there isn't really room in the car.

It's interesting thst you used the Fishman with your Ten2 - my uinderstanding was that the inputs of the Ten2 were matched to the impedance of yer typical BD peizo pickup and that a preamp was unnecessary. Perhaps that's why I didn't get on with my Ten2. I did try it with the Fishman but didn't notice any significant diffeence in the sound so i just left it out. I will admit that they sound fantastic at low to mid volumes, but didn't cope too well with being pushed.

There's two Yamaha SLB200s in the for sale forum......

I didn't get on particularly well with the AI combo that I had for about a year, much happier with the EA Doubler that replaced it.

Great lessons - concepts are well explained and there's not brain melting amounts of theory in each session. Enjoyed the shifting lessons, lots to think about.

Occasionally, usually in Weymouth or Dorchester and then only if I'm wearing my stage clobber. I once played a gig in Poole where I went for a pi** in the interval. The bloke standing next to me at the urinal started talking to me about how great the band were and how he'd seen them loads of times. "How many times have you seen them?" he asks me I replied that I'd never actually seen the band play, but that I'd been to every one of their gigs since 2011....

Is the upton thinner than the Bassmax?

[quote name='ubassman' timestamp='1376917035' post='2180768'] ...its pretty cool to see what some of us DB players look like - handsome bunch aint we ! [/quote] Not really. The double bass just makes people look cooler.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1376904487' post='2180469'] Good pics and a hat in one of them, awesome. [/quote] I am predominately hatted (capped to be specific) when performing bass duties these days. I'm building up quite a collection now, my favourite is a 40s style 'paperboy' that I picked up at a 40s revival festival.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1376904905' post='2180479'] and my turn to mention the wife as Mrs C is also called Jayne with a 'y', so when you say here's a sexy shot of Jayne ... [/quote] *cough* Jayne is named after Jayne Mansfield - another 60s blonde who broke her neck. I know, I know - very bad taste.....

I think this shot of Jayne is pretty sexy: And [i]au naturel[/i].... In action: And finally a bit of EUB action. Poor old Barbara doesn't get out much these days now that my trio is on hiatus. I'm thinking about putting some whackers on and slapping her about a bit.

I've used a little Roland micro cube for busking. It's surprisingly loud for its 8w output. It also seems louder from 15ft away than it does when you're stood right in front of it.