derrenleepoole

Sexy things them NS basses

PS... I live close to Paul and he's not building as much now as he's landed a full-time job. Last time I saw him, he was busy doing lots of hours, and just occasionally dipping his toe into the forums to keep up to speed on things. PM him if you want more info on the bass, I'm sure he won't mind.

That was a 24"(?, could be smaller) fretless bass Paul (Prosebass) made out of left over odds and sods. The neck is from a guitar, not bass, that was chopped down and converted to fretless. The pickup is from a guitar too, telecaster perhaps. I owned this for a while, and it was a fun little thing to play, it just never got finished properly. I sold it on on eBay as it wasn't getting used, and I suggested that it could be mounted onto a stand to make a small and unique EUB hybrid instrument. Looks like the buyer did just that

Phwoar! I could go for one of them Now I have GAS!

You won't be disappointed. I'm gigging the Promethean tonight with the Bass Buddy with both my upright and leccy bass. A very portable and capable setup

I use the PJB Cub, Bass Buddy and the Promethean with a NS Wav4 EUB and electric jazz bass, so can offer advice on both! There's loads of stuff on BC about the Promethean already, so I won't go into too much detail - just do some digging. Basically, a f***ing superb combo for very little financial outlay. Loud, portable, built like a tank and a very flexible unit. The input channel isn't matched for the uprights in my opinion, so the Bass Buddy would be required. In fact, the Bass Buddy is the best preamp I can find for my Wav, the upright just comes alive with tone if I use it. The amp is voiced well for the upright, and the 10" handles the fundamentals of the EUB quite well. A bigger speaker is always better with this type of instrument, but certainly no issues to write home about. For electric bass it's simply superb. The flexibilty of switchable EQ, vibe control and additional bass treble control gives fantastic amounts of tonal variation, and that's before you use your preamp or on board bass controls! The CUB is beautifully made, incredibly portable and tonally very flat. For it's size, it produces bass well, not masses - but good. It's not however, a loud 100 watt amp. In fact, there's practice amps out there at half the rating that will feel louder. BUt this is simple physics of using small drivers, so the volume, or lack of it is to be expected. You buy this gear because you want good tone. The input channels are matched perfectly for EUB, so no need for a preamp. The compressor/limiter is excellent and the unit is quiet as a mouse. The AUX in and headphones sockets are very useful and the DI is lovely and quiet. The unit is very small, a lot smaller than you realise, so this helps explain why volume is never going to happen. But, even when pushed to full volume, the unit behaves perfectly! Obviously, electric basses through the unit do feel louder because they punch through more. Of the two, consider the Promethean as it will give you the greatest flexibility, but at a slightly higher price. You already have the Bass Buddy, so a good amp is all you need. While two channels is great, it's not the be all and end all of your needs. The Promethean will produce you bass tones very well, whether it's for upright or leccy bass, and the 500 watt detachable head makes the combo incredibly flexible for practice and gig use. The Promethean is one of the best bits of kit I've ever purchased and is easily as good as Mark Bass, PJB etc.

One word to sum up what's now being discussed - discipline. Irrespective of skill or ability, it's the one thing that matters in doing justice to the song/music etc.

Maybe this thread and the resulting discussion highlights that 'Kim' is in fact jealous of slap bass players

[quote name='hubrad' post='1292351' date='Jul 4 2011, 04:06 PM']Oh yes, indeed! And that thing about the ending.. I played with a band for a while who did that on EVERY BL***Y SONG!! It was an excuse for an extra bit of guitar widdly, nothing more.[/quote] Once or twice is good for a giggle though

[quote name='Conan' post='1292312' date='Jul 4 2011, 03:40 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCPy_57z4_w"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCPy_57z4_w[/url][/quote] I've just watched this, and while I'm no Kim fan, what she says is so true And yes, I'm guilty too

I can't do slap bass, end of. I respect those that can do it though. But, it's one of those techniques that can be overly used to flamboyant effect. "Look at me, look at how good I am!" Ergo: Bass Day *yawn* Put two bassists in a room with an audience, one bassist doing slap, the other laying down a serious motown groove, who do you think will get the most attention? It's all gravy with very little meat

I doth my cap to you sir! Very well done indeed I preferred the melodic chord work you were doing in that arrangement, very beautiful.

Depends on how much you want to spend I guess. I use a Phil Jones CUB amp. It has two inputs, one for normal bass etc and one for mic. Now, this is only a low 100 watt amp, but it's designs to be used with the Phil Jones powered cabinet giving a total output of about 300-350 watts. It's not a cheap setup though, but it's very flexible and will work for all types of basses equally well.

Bassists are spoilt for choice when it comes to small heads now, the choice is mind-boggling! Not sure about getting the 'Ampeg' sound other than getting an Ampeg. Have you considered the Gallien Krueger MB series heads, or the SWR Headlite series, the Ibanez Promethean or Eden heads? A lot to choose from. If it's a tube growl that you're after, maybe a small head with Sansamp DI Driver preamp might get you close?

After playing 34" scale for over twenty years, moving to 30" short scale was the best thing I ever did. I personally find it a lot more comfortable, it feels more natural, especially over longer sets. I get along fine with long scale, I just prefer it shorter. Hey, I play upright bass okay, so it's whatever suits you

[url="http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-PB-Pro-P-Bass-style-pickups-Sweet-Alnico-Vintage-Tone_p_333.html"]GFS pickups[/url]. I used one of there pro wind series in a short scale P-bass and I have there Pro wind in my jazz bass. Great pickups with high output for very little money.

Get yourself on [url="http://www.gollihurmusic.com/category/5-STRINGS.html"]Bob Gollihur's[/url] site. A great resource with plenty of information on how each set of strings he sells work, feel etc. You're probably looking at a set of Corelli's which are $106, so about £60? Not bad at all really. Back to the original topic, any bass which is budget or even pro can fail, it's just part of the course of owning and playing such instruments. Like others have said, a new set of strings, repair at a luthier ad set up will give your bass a new lease of life and will probably feel completely different when done. This money you're now spending is the trade off of buying budget against better used instruments. But there's no guarantee's either way.

Doing a trio gig tomorrow night of singer, grand piano and me on upright All of the material is completely new and site read on the spot and we're doing stuff like 1. Pokerface - Lady Gaga 2. Forget You - Cee Lo Green 3. Hit Me Baby One More Time - Britney Spears 4. Use Somebody - Pixie Lott etc etc Now, I'm not a fan of pop music at all... but a lot of what we're doing tomorrow is stripping the tunes right back to a bluesy/jazzy interpretation, and some of these songs really work well - and are very well written indeed. It's also good to do stuff outside of your comfort zone to push your self Type of stuff we do in our band are: 1. Ace Of Spade - Motorhead - done as a fast swing number 2. Mannish Boy - Muddy Waters (the fast version off Electric Mud?) 3. Messin' With The Kid - Buddy Guy 4. Gotta Serve Somebody - Bob Dylan 5. Rocker - AC/DC - done as fast swing etc etc

In that guys defence, it does look like he's dicking around because there's a camera pointing at him! So maybe we shouldn't judge too harshly? But yeah, not my cup of tea at all

[quote name='ahpook' post='1267898' date='Jun 13 2011, 09:11 PM']libraries are your friend[/quote] Oh I don't know, have you been in a library recently? Ours now has music playing, and coffee areas and weird shaped desk that a rubbish! The internet is your friend

I have right in front of me a 1991 edition of Bass Player dedicated to the man himself! You can't have it, but I can scan it for you and create a multi-page pdf and send it to you. Just PM your personal email if interested.