TheRev

I haven't played electric bass in a band for almost two years, so My Eminence upright gets 99% of my time, my Fender acoustic gets living roon noodling time, my poor beloved EBMM Sterling hangs forlornly on the wall, waiting for the 1 or 2 hours a month that I get to plug it in at home. My Bass Collection fretless now lives under the bed (and is for sale.... ). I'm giving consideration to selling my Sterling as well, as I can't see myself playing it in a band any time soon and it kills me to have such a great bass hanging on the wall not being played.

No idea mate. If you look at the description blurb on shop websites, the details are exactly the same for the Palatino and the Harley Benton. But given that the Harley Benton is around £300 and the Palatino is £600 in the UK, you might expect that the Harley Benton to be made from cheaper materials, or perhaps it goes through less stringent quality control, or maybe the Palatino is shipped over here from an American distributor, which would dramatically increase the retail price. Harley Benton is the 'own brand' for the Thomann music shop - why not drop them an email and ask if their bass is exactly the same as the Palatino?

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1316164108' post='1375227'][i]That`s[/i] why we`ve not been getting the better gigs ffs, no dancing badger. I feel a proper chump now. [/quote] Baz is available for deps, he needs 2 tins of Pedigree Chum and a dark corner to snuffe about in.

Is there any sort of label visible through the f-holes? Can you tell if the top is solid or laminate? Without a label It's almost impossible to identify a maker just by looking at a DB and without knowing the maker, the only price you can put on it is what someone's willing to pay for it. TBH As for where to sell, I'd start in the BD for sale forum here and see who bites. I might even be interested myself.....

One's called 'Harley Benton' and the other's called 'Palatino' AFAIK, they're made in the same factory, to be sold as own brand. I suppose there could be some specification differences and QC variances to reflect different price points.

The Thomann 22 bass is just under £800. If I couldn't find a nice second hand bass, that's what I'd go for, simply cos I've played one and it was very nice indeed.

Go to the EUB forum on Talkbass - they have a sticky called 'the definitive Palatino modification thread'. There's a ton of big and small mods you can do to improve the sound and playability.

[quote name='Green Alsatian' post='1374752' date='Sep 15 2011, 06:57 PM']Some lovely ladies fronting your bands, folks! Here's our man in action. [/quote] Feck! And I thought we had problems with gig nudity.....

[quote name='51m0n' post='1374673' date='Sep 15 2011, 05:18 PM']Yeah, I have the same feeling when I see a 30 year old HH PA amp being used too! Didnt notice a badger, but there were some fine puppies wiggling about in one of those piccies I think....[/quote] The amp belonged to the pub... we didn't even touch it with the drummer. Unfortunatley, the puppies are usually outnumbered by the old dogs.

[quote name='silddx' post='1374659' date='Sep 15 2011, 04:58 PM']This one? [url="https://www.facebook.com/butchersarms.yeovil#!/butchersarms.yeovil?sk=photos"]https://www.facebook.com/butchersarms.yeovi...eovil?sk=photos[/url] There are enough photos of potential front persons on there to keep this thread going a very long time [/quote] That's the one - I almost didn't recognise it with it's clothes on. We're going back in a few months I think. Should be fun.

[quote name='silddx' post='1374649' date='Sep 15 2011, 04:47 PM']f***ing hell. Where was that gig?! Dale Farm?[/quote] Pub called the Butchers Arms in Yeovil. It was our first gig there and the nudity kicked off about 20 minutes in. I'd say it was all to do with that pub if it was the first time people had got their kit off at one of our gigs but partial or total nudity seems to be fairly common. I think it might have something to do with the gallons of scrumpy being drunk. *edit* Ah -just got the reference! Aplogies for the serious reply!. Yep, they scared the sh*t out of us when we first walked in but they truned out to be really nice people. The large hairy bloke is the landlord.

Any bass amp/combo will do. You don't have to worry about feedback with an EUB so you can use a 8x10 if you like.

[quote name='silddx' post='1374453' date='Sep 15 2011, 02:07 PM']Your band look like immense fun in those photos [/quote] We are - but there can be a fine line between immense fun and abject terror Mind you, that was Yeovil - they probably do that sort of thing at everyone's gigs? Baz, our dancing badger

[quote name='fatboyslimfast' post='1374224' date='Sep 15 2011, 11:29 AM']Ah, the Hitchers. Must get around to coming to one of your gigs at some point - I was a good mate of Kes' for ages, and bumped into him again recently after about 10 years![/quote] We're not in Brizzle for a while unfortunatley - 9th & 10th of December are the next ones. We're in Bridport tomorrow night though if you fancy a wee drive! Kes is a total star - I've only been in this band for 2 months and I've already seen stuff that would turn you grey. We did 5 gigs in 3 days over the August bank holiday, amazingly all of us survived although Kes and I have no memory of the gig on the Sunday night.

Mr Tatty Smart of The Skimmity Hitchers

I spent quite some time experimenting with putting my cab on a stand to eliminate feedback - the only way it worked was to get it well up above the body of the bass and even then I had to stand stock still and usually at a specific angle to present as little of the front of the bass to a speaker (mine or a monitor) as possible. It was a useful technique though, especially in my old swing blues band where the onstage volume could get silly and a double bass onstage was more about image than actual notes. However, I dont use a stand anymore as the following two actions seem to have solved the problem for me. 1) Less volume on stage, more out the front where it belongs. Can be a bit of a problem when you're in a small bar using the PA for vocal only and everything else on backline, but in those type of venues you don't need to be stupidly loud. In my jazz/soul trio, our singer always has his vocals coming through the monitor at full tilt, which is what usually sets my bass feedback off. I used to reduce my backline to a point where the feedback stopped - and to where I could no longer be heard above the vocal monitor. Now, if he gets too loud at soundcheck, I just stand there and let the bass feed back until he gets fed up and turns his monitor down. It's all in the training really. 2) I fixed four litte feet to the front corners of my Omni 10.5 (great cabs - thanks Bill! ;-)) and set it facing down so that the speaker fires into the floor like the Acoustic Image combos. Now, I'm sure there's a wealth of technical reasons why I shouldn't do this, but I get a sound and volume that both the drummer and I can live with. I have heard it said that a downward firing speaker will give you a good onstage sound but a crap sound out front where the punters are. This could well be the case, but I've had more negative comments regarding uncontrollable feedback or poor intonation (due to not being able to hear myself above the vocal monitor....obviously *ahem*) than I have about the quality of my bass sound 10 feet from the stage. Just my thoughts... Dave

Wot Bilbo said. £350 will only buy you headaches in the DB world. If you can scrape together £600 and keep an eye open for a well used second hand bass (i.e. one that has been set up, played and is still in one piece) you'll have a much better playing experience. Going the EUB route, you'll get a better deal for your £350. The Stagg (as Bilbo suggested) is the most common, but if you can find a second hand Palatino (or Harley Benton, different names for the same bass) they can also be pretty decent with a little bit of DIY. If you can find someone selling an Aria LITE one Or a NS WAV for that sort of cash, bite their arm off.

Done!

Are you sure you need metal core strings? Most EUBs will have piezo pickups which will work with both synthetic and steel core strings. If it does have to be steel core, then try Spirocore weichs or Corelli 370 medium tension. If you have a piezo pickup, then there are loads of synthetic strings to choose from. Obligatos are pretty light, as are Velvet and Innovation Honeys. If you want to go super light, then a rockabilly string like Silver Slaps should do the trick.

P bass + Nylon flatties + foam mute = job done

Neil Tarlton's scale books are very good for beginners. If you want something a bit more in depth, then Rufus Reid's 'The evolving bassist' is pretty much everything you'll need.

My dream rig would carry itself into the venue, set itself up, haul the drummer out of the back of the van and go as loud as I need without feeding back with my double bass. Yep. a dream......

My Scrumpy & Western band are thinking of buying a couple of Roland street cubes for busking. We've busked acoustically before when we've got gigs on consecutive nights in the same area - we go out in the day between gigs and see waht we can get. IF it's a reasonably busy day (and we don't get moved on) we can get up to £150

On Wednesday, I was on a carnival float dressed as Robin Hood, last night I was in a wee pub in Yeovil where 5 punters were getting their kit off halfway through the first set. This was my fourth gig with this band and not the first time people have got naked..... I've no idea why this is happening but I think there are going to be some very interesting gigs ahead.

[quote name='tauzero' post='1344988' date='Aug 18 2011, 11:29 PM']That must have been very cosy. How many arms and legs did the costume have? [/quote] Not enough. I had to play standing on one leg, like that bloke out of Jethro Tull. Could have been worse mind, the drummer choose to wear a badger costume so we didn't have to fit him in there as well.