derrenleepoole

Great bassist and great tone. If you're a tone freak check out Jasper Høiby of Phronesis, his tone is incredible. This video is quite good, but doesn't do full justice to his immense tone on the albums.

PM'd

[quote name='davethebass' post='1168347' date='Mar 19 2011, 03:32 PM']Cheers for that.......I am going to try first of all my current strings with a bot of a higher action. Then if no good get some nylon style strings. Trouble is I play also in a blues band wher slap is not required and only have the one bas. So I think some compromise is needed. Also, has anyone had success with playong their DB through a keyboard amp. Just been recommended. Cheers [/quote] Keyboard amps usually have full range speakers in them, so providing it can give you enough volume, it wont be an issue I don't think. Not ideal, but certainly not the end of the world If you're stuck in position of having one bass but need to get two very distinct uses out of it, your best best is probably a combination of two pickups with a dual preamp. A double bassist I know who plays slap upright has a pickup under the bridge as normal, but also has a piezo pickup under the neck to pickup the slap and click sounds you get from such playing. He then runs both into a preamp and blends the signal accordingly. This would give you great flexibility. PS... I love rockabilly bass players, but can't do it myself for toffee. I discovered this guy the other week... incredible stuff

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1163659' date='Mar 15 2011, 08:44 PM']I will try and record the gig but reserve the right to destroy the tapes if I sound like a complete tit.... The big issue is the choice of material. The big 'killer' is the fact that there will be no rehearsal!! The sax player lives about 80 miles away. I will get a couple of sessions in with the drummer but that's it. What am I thinking? [/quote] These are usually the best gigs Nothing like adrenalin to get the best out of performers!

Cort Action Junior basses are very good too...

Yeah, cheers guys and sorry for the vagueness of the first post - should've realized you'd need more ammo. The stuff is straight english folk (I think), but as updated and played by the likes of Davy Graham, Joan Baez, Martin Simpson, Pentangle etc. It will be played quite stripped back though, with two singers, guitarist and me. So no fancy in your face band arrangements. Just interpretations true(ish) to the originals. It's stuff like Bruton Town, Jackaroe, The Bold Fisherman, Granemore Hare... I have found a good website called [url="http://www.8notes.com"]http://www.8notes.com[/url] - like others have pointed out, this site only has melody charts etc. That's still very helpful because you can see where the melody is going and get a round-about idea of feel required and general harmonic movement. Well, onward and upward and do my home work. Anymore insights would be very gratefully received

I'm doing a little side project at the moment of playing upright bass for a folk outfit. Folk music is not an area I'm experienced in, I'm a jazzer above anything else. I am enjoying folk music more and more, but it's never been a genre I ever played before. But, if it's good enough for Danny Thompson to play, it's good enough for me Anyone got any useful tips and resources that may help a fledgling folkie get started? For example, there is the Fake Books for jazzers available, and I have the iPod iReal Book app which is excellent. Is there an equivalent resource for folk songs? I've seen one, but a lot of reviews state it's very US centric, and not ideal for British folk music. Just simple things like charts is all I need as I won't be playing the melodies obviously.

All Blues is a cracking bass line to learn. Not difficult harmonically, but to get that loose and relaxed timing is very hard. In fact, most of the bass lines on that album are played with incredible timing. I've got So What down, more or less, but for the life of me can't quite get the feel right.

[quote name='2wheeler' post='1152649' date='Mar 7 2011, 04:25 PM']Thanks for saving me wasted time. Now I can get back to Moondance [/quote] You beat me to it!

Another vote for [url="http://www.soundcloud.com/fourfingerfunk"]Soundcloud[/url]. There's also an iPod app support for the site as well, which works really well and is another good way to get your music out to other listeners if you choose to use it.

[quote name='ficelles' post='1152106' date='Mar 7 2011, 12:46 AM']As I posted in another thread, I almost always use my WAV through a Seymour Duncan Paranormal Bass DI... I hadn't really thought about impendance mismatch but it certainly improves the sound hugely. On the other hand, the WAV sounds just fine straight into my Ashdown Acoustic Radiator. ficelles[/quote] Isn't the Acoustic Radiator just that, an amp designed for acoustic instruments? So it's input will more than likely be set to accommodate piezo pickups and such. The bass sounds ace through the Phil Jones Bass Buddy, so a preamp is certainly the order of the day. Don't know why I didn't twig it was impedance straight away?

Well, further reading has me convinced that it's probably a miss matched impedance issue. The fact that the EUB sounds amazing through the Bass Buddy, albeit with headphones, but dull and lifeless without the BB, but played straight into the amp I think strongly points towards this as being the likely cause. Annoyingly the Bass Buddy has developed a fault whereby there's a very loud and noticeable low frequency hum coming from the unit. Not too bad for headphone practice, but makes it unusable as a preamp Phil Jones have offered to take it back and have a look at it I've spied a few K&K Pure preamps and a Fishman on eBay at good prices, so I think they may do as a good temporary stop gap. @Moonbass - cheers for the indepth response, some useful info there

A bit of further reading suggests that this could be a miss matched impedance issue. The amp not fully configured to handle the impedance of the piezo pickups.....

Unfortunately the Bass Buddy is actually faulty and will be going back to the US soon. So for the time being at least, that's not an option. I may look at a dedicated upright preamp though.

Okay, so I'm loving the NS Wav EUB, put I've come across an issue I'm at a loss to explain. Basically, my sound of the NS Wav is sounding very choked and lifeless through my Promethean amp. When the NS Wav is played through my Phil Jones Bass Buddy (with headphones) all the tone, growl and tone is there - in bundles too. But, when used through the amp, all the sound is very choked - there's no tone or sustain. In fact, even using the pizz and arco switch produces no noticeable change! I'm at a loss to explain this, totally. Anyone else had something similar? I'm not using the Bass Buddy as a preamp, just going from the Wav, straight into the amp. I don't know how this can be explained? Thoughts or suggestions are most welcome!

I must confess, I don't know any of these players. I stumbled across it by finding the Joe Fink videos. Obviously these are videos to sell the instruments that are being played - and what instruments! But the quality of playing is breath taking. This cover of All Blues is simply stunning:

Don't know if this has been covered before, but there are loads of amazing double bass videos on the string Emporium website: [url="http://www.stringemporium.com/videos.htm"]http://www.stringemporium.com/videos.htm[/url] Well worth checking out... great picture quality, great sound quality and phenomenal playing

Bugger! Well, the cheapo gut strings from India arrived today. They came wrapped in muslin around a cardboard box. Quite novel. The strings unfortunately though are way too thick on the E and A strings to go through the holes of the string through body setup of a NS Wav EUB - they won't even fit in the machine heads So if anyone wants a set of unused black gut strings, give us a shout out and we'll work out a price. All I've done is open the packaging of the strings, soaked the strings to allow me to knot them, and then promptly placed them back on the table for packing away again! A good opportunity to try guts at a cheap price I guess!

I would say life has the potential to be very long indeed (I've never understood why people say short), so why waste any of it on something you know the answer too already

[quote name='BassBus' post='1145413' date='Mar 1 2011, 09:19 AM']That's pretty good playing after only three weeks. Great sound. Good work.[/quote] Cheers buddy I have played upright before, but never for any real length of time. There's nothing like a baptism of fire to get your brain into gear and get your playing head on! I did get fatigue through the gig. I managed the whole first set of an hour and half of the second before switching to my jazz bass. In future, I think I'll break up the set into different instruments. The next thing is to introduce variety into my played lines, but that will come with time. I know just enough to get me through, so the plan is to have a lesson with Steve Berry to get me pointing int he right direction. He'll spot stuff that I won't even think about.

Well, I gigged the NS Wav for the first time on Saturday. Had the bass about three weeks and have been working through my technique, and there's nothing like a baptism of fire to get your chops in The bass played really well, and once I relaxed int the gig I found moving around on the instrument relatively easy. My intonation was out in places, but I was expecting that. Tonally, the instrument was probably more electric bass that DB, but the sound is certainly softer, and the physicality of the instrument means I'm not inclined to show off If anyone is interested, I recorded the gig and there are some sound clips here: [url="http://soundcloud.com/fourfingerfunk/dealing-with-the-devil"]Dealing With The Devil[/url] [url="http://soundcloud.com/fourfingerfunk/mannish-boy"]Mannish Boy[/url] If anyone is thinking of getting one, I'd highly recommended it

I've been getting cramp in my left arm since playing upright again. I know my technique is okay, as I remember most of my lessons from my teacher, even though they are a long while back. But I'm just so out of practice, and the leap from shortscale bass is a big one! Did some searching around and found this useful exercise for combating cramp and fatigue and stuff. Thought I'd share it. a. Put your arm out in front of you and your palm away and up (as though to say stop) pull your fingertips back towards you with your other hand - 15 seconds. b. Now with arm still out in same position point the hand down to ground and then pull the finger tips back with that other hand again - 15 seconds. c. Now turn your arm, elbow UP so that your palm is facing your face and stretch the fingers back towards you with your other hand again - 15 seconds. d. Now tip your palm back down toward the ground away from you - elbow still up to sky - and pull your hand back toward your chest - 15 seconds. e. Now repeat all 4 stretches with the other arm/hand. Remember to take deep breath's throughout the routine. I've tried it a few times and it works nicely. Apparently it's a similar exercise for anyone suffering tennis elbow and such.

[quote name='BassBus' post='1130452' date='Feb 16 2011, 11:46 PM']Be interesting to hear how you get on with the guts on your WAV. Let us know how you get on with them. Probably the best bet to start with something cheap. If it doesn't work you haven't lost much.[/quote] My thinking exactly

Cheers guys for the responses. I bought the bass off Ruairidh here on BC, and the bass came fitted with Thomastik Infelds. These a great strings but I'm looking for a very dark tone with a very soft feel. This was the experience I had when I first ever played a quality DB owned by Steve Berry (Loose Tubes). I know that my EUB will never quite get that experience, but I'm sure that the right set of strings will go a long way. I'm inspired by bassists like Jasper Høiby (Phronesis) and Dan Bergland (EST) as well as Sven Faller (Trio ELF). I've had an upright before and have had several different EUB's, but none of them did it for me. I'm now seriously bitten by the bug and the purchase of a better instrument (to me at least), is pushing me into making the right choice. I'm only too aware of string costs, but I don't want to go down the route of buying a set that might not work for me. My money isn't that flexible enough at the moment. That link you posted detailing the different string recordings is excellent. I'm particularly taken by the Pirastro Jazzer's, they seem very dark and growly! I have actually taken the plunge on a very cheap set of guts off eBay made in India. They were so stupidly cheap that it was worth the punt to see if they offered anything usable. But I'm not daft, and I'm not holding my breath. They seem to get mixed feedback from several sources. But hey, I might just be surprised.

I'm now listening to Men Imitating Machines