TheRev

Moondance?

[quote name='steviedee' post='1095989' date='Jan 20 2011, 09:08 AM']Cheers I'll check them out and Rev I'd need to be able to do the triplets in the first place [/quote] They're easy mate - just string up with a set of rubber bands and away you go. Personally, I use the red ones the postie kindly leaves on my doorstep.

Groovy..... Looking forward to having a go with one of these babies. I'm having some cab GAS & loooking for something that's going to work really well with my Eminence EUB.

This almost makes me feel all nostalgic for my old Jedson. Almost. The first picture of the bass with just two strings put me in mind of Morphine's Mark Sandman who played crappy basses with two strings and a slide. Great sound. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M34iZH4-qkI"]Buena[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=985JGeGq_tc&feature=related"]Cure for pain[/url]

Silver Slaps? I've not tried them personally but they seem to be the string of choice for pizzers & slappers over on Talkbass. Perhaps Obligatos could work as well. I doubt you'll be able to keep up triplets on them but the projection is good and the tension should be low enough for slappin'.

I played a bunch of Muse songs in my old cover band. As others have said, they're not musically difficult but they do require good technique and stamina to get them sounding right. The hardest ones for me were Hysteria, which took some work to get the timing right, as the phrasing towards the end of the riff makes it difficult to find where 'one' is. The other was 'New Born' which starts fast and stays fast with no let up all the way through the track. There are also a couple of big finger stretches in the chorus due to the drop D tuning. Otherwise, stuff like 'Time is running out', 'Plug in baby' 'Muscle museum' & 'Feeling good' weren't too difficlut to get up & going & were a total blast to play - particularly 'plug in baby', I love playing that song. They're also a good excuse to break out the multi FX and have a good twiddle. I also found that you have to be very relaxed to play Muse basslines. They're busy but in a kind of meandering across the track sort of way. If you tense up, you've had it.

I can come as long as it's not in March. I haven't bought any new gear so it would be the same stuff as last year - Eminence EUB, Musicman Sterling, LMII & 2xBFM Omni10.5s. I suppose I could bring my old Bass Collection Fretless & the Fender acoustic if people are interested inn such things? Dave

Go on then....

Is the NS NXT pretty much the same as the Wav? I've played both the Wav and the SWB Lite and of the two I definitely preferred (and bought) the Aria. The Wav was well built and sounded good but the neck felt a bit too flat to me. I also didn't like the marker dots on the fingerboard - they were more confusing to me than an aide to intonation. Finally, I didn't like playing it on a stand. I know you can buy a body brace/endpin stand type thing but it added quite a lot to the price. The Aria was also well constructed and felt more DB-esque to me, probably due to the standard endpin/body brace and a much deeper neck and rounder fingerboard. This felt much more comfortable & natural to play and I warmed to the Aria immediately, wheras I never really felt any connection to the Wav. I didn't get to try both back to back but after I bought the Aria I did get to play a Wav on a couple of occasions at jam nights. Straight out of the box, I would say that the Wav had the better sound but the Aria was vastly improved by replacing the stock strings with a set of Helicore Hybrids. I think it's really all down to feel and personal preference when choosing between these two. I like to feel the notes vibrate and be able to move the bass around, so a bass on a stand was never going do it for me. I would suspect that if you're looking for a backup to your acoustic bass, you'll find the Aria more familiar than the Wav/NXT. Dave

Have you considered either the Markbass Little Mark, F1 or Mark acoustic? Both 500W at 4Ohm and very, very light. Other lightweight options are the Genz Benz shuttle or the Ibanez Promethean. The Acoustic Image amps are probably the best option for double bass as they're tonally transparent and will faithfully amplify your natural bass sound, but they aren't cheap.

Have you tried posting on Talkbass.com? The double bass forum there has many more members and collective experience that we have here, so it's more likely thata someone over there will have experience of the basses you're looking for. Also, most of the members are Americans and are more likely to have dealings with Bob Gollihur.

I used a Peavey Black Widow 1x15 cab (4Ohm) with a Sessionbass head in a loud 3 piece pub rock band and it was great. Pleanty of volume and just the right ammount of thud without getting muddy. You can pick up secondhand Black Widow cabs for around £100 but they're definitley not lightweight. 2x10 cabs are OK as long as the band isn't too loud - I used a Hartke 210 with the Sessionbass in a folkie acoustic type band and it worked well. Nice compact rig, very portable but not capable of keeping up with a loud drummer.

[quote name='fatback' post='1060617' date='Dec 16 2010, 02:43 PM']+1000 My first bass was a Jedson too, and it nearly put off the instrument for life Can you imagine a Jedson through a Selmer What was I thinking of? Don't waste your time. There's far better japcrap around than these. [/quote] I wonder if we had the actual same bass? I grew up in Fermanagh and it seemed that bass player in the county before or since had owned my Jedson at some point!

If you're after something cheap and retro, check out the Hofner Galaxie. Dripping with 60s retro vibe and about £180 on Thomann.

Cheers chaps! Nymans it is then. At least experimenting with rosin is a lot less expensive than experimenting with strings...

I'm starting to really work on my arco technique but my rosin (Pirastro I think) is very hard and needs warming to get it soft enough to apply to the bow. This is a bit of a pain, so can someone recommend me a suitable rosin? Ta Dave

My first bass was a Jedson and to be honest, it was s#*t. I got rid of it after about 6 months. No ammount of tweaking or restoration will make an essentially crap bass sound good, unless you replace the neck, body, hardware and electronics..... If you're really, really not concerned about the sound and just want a retro looking bass to faff about with/spend money on, then fill your boots but it won't sound any better than your EB0 and a lot worse than the Jetking. All IMHO of course....

Back when I had an Aria Lite One I tried a couple of sets of different strings. The stock strings were really stiff and sounded a bit too much like a big fretless electric bass. There was good note definition on the E and A but the G was way too glassy. Helicore hybrid mediums had much lower tension and a much better, mellower sound. I could get some reasonable DB sounds with good left hand and pizz technique. I like a bit of growl in my sound and this was easy with the A string but harder to find on the E. I missed some of the note definition I got on the E with the stock strings but the overall improvement in sound was worth the sacrifice. Innovation Honeys had a lovely low tension with plenty of bounce and an even more woody BD-esque sound. I didn't notice any loss in note definition compared to the Helicores but by the time I switched to the Honeys, my techniuqe had improved a lot which probably compensated for the inherently less defined sound you'd expect with synthetic strings. After that, I bought my Eminence and entered into a whole other world of string choices..... Of the three sets I tried, I definitley preferred the Honeys. Synthetic or orchestral strings seem to suit stick type EUBs as they compensate for the naturally brighter tones of these basses. Other strings you could look into are Corellis - much touted over on the Talkbass EUB forums or Velvet blues which are a budget set similar to the very lovely Velvet Animas. Dave

I've seen these guys before - well worth a look for anyone in the area. The Blue Lagoon is a class live venue too, got a gig there tomorrow night!

[quote name='macclad' post='1037785' date='Nov 26 2010, 02:01 PM']So to summarise,nylon core strings tend to be looser but are fatter than steel core,whereas steel core can have a a higher tension but they are generally not as thick??? Is this correct?[/quote] As a general rule of thumb, yes. But steel core strings can vary a lot in tension between solid steel core and braided core. Some players use solo tuning steel core strings detuned to concert pitch to get a suitably low tension. As for thickness, the Velvet Garbos (silk core) on my Eminence are pretty thick and are almost the same size from the G to the E, which takes a bit of getting used to at first, but Velvet Animas are similar in thickness to a set of mmedium Helicore Hybrids.

[quote name='PURPOLARIS' post='1037002' date='Nov 25 2010, 09:41 PM']£230 for strings ? [/quote] Oh yes. Could be worse, a set of proper orchestral gut strings can set you back £350 or more. Velvet are great though, well worth the money as long as I get a couple of years out of them.

If you've got £230 to spend, I can thoroughly recommend a set of Velvet Garbos. Nice, light, responsive strings with a great sound but not cheap....

I have a set of Helicore hybrids that were on my Aria EUB for about 6 months, still plenty of life left in them. Any use to you?