Rosie C

I don't worry so much about how my gear looks. But the exception is I do find the audience tends to notice a double bass - especially as mine is white, so I tend to take it to gigs as much as I can as it gets attention that my bass guitars never get.

It started at a small festival, the first time I used the Stage Bug. The new 9v battery in my GEB-7 pedal went flat after only 30 minutes right in the middle of our set. Maybe it was faulty, but as the first time with the Stage Bug actually connected to a mixing desk, I harboured suspicions that the Stagebug was somehow drawing power from the pedal. I looked around for various alternative batteries but anything good seemed expensive. But, I found an article on the internet about using a drill battery and I had an Erbauer cordless drill and impact driver (https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-ebcd18li-2-18v-2-x-2-0ah-li-ion-ext-cordless-combi-drill/785hf) with a couple of batteries and a mains charger. I found a guy on ebay who 3D prints connectors for the battery - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194015784172 - the 4Ah battery fits straight on, the 2Ah needed a little modification. The battery is 18v, I found a pedal power supply that runs off 18v and has a bunch of 9v outputs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D8NTK6Y After that it was a just a bit of soldering. As a bonus, the pedal power supply has a USB socket too, so I can charge my phone. I should probably add that lithium batteries can be dangerous and I have no electronics qualifications, so while it worked for me, anyone copying this is on their own!

They're not cheap, but would one of the Realist "Docking Station" volume controls help? That would at least extend the range of pickup options.

Top of my list is a compressor pedal, probably a Boss CS-3 but I might stretch to a CP-1X. I just sold my Höfner bass so it might be ordered soon. Also one of those lithium power packs, something with a nice clean output to use with an amp. If I somehow come into a pile of cash, I'd love a Hagström H8 II.

This is about the third iteration of my home-made pedal board. Nothing fancy, just basic Boss pedals and a passive DI. The tuner has the handy side-effect of splitting out a signal for my IEMs. The EQ is mostly used to stop my upright feeding back. The pedal in the middle slot varies, but isn't ever tremolo when playing bass! I built the board for gigs with a PA, where I'm using IEMs - although I don't actually do any of those anymore. It runs from a cordless drill battery and I get 3-4 months use from a single charge.

I'm a bit late to this thread, but you're in South Wales as well, so I'll pitch in. I have a mandocello I wanted to play through a PA, but fitting a pickup was problematic. It has a fancy rosette glued in the sound hole which didn't help. The trapeze bridge didn't suit a pickup, and the end of the fretboard was the wrong size for a pickup. I didn't want to cut a hole in the body but in the end it gave more options, so we just went for it. The pickup is a K&K big shot pickup fitted on the inside. It's paired with a Fishman pre-amp from a guitar, cutting the holes for the pre-amp gave access to fit the pickup - I understand that involved two drumsticks and some blu-tack. Anyway, as I say I'm a bit late replying, and you did say you din't want to cut holes! But you're probably not far from me so there's always the possibility of popping along to try it.

Martin's Violin's in Caerphilly have worked on my double bass - doing general setup and fitting a pickup a couple of years ago.

I had similar - a faulty IEM amplifier, Thoman said they'd just send a replacement and to keep the faulty unit for 6 months in case the replacement developed a similar fault, then dispose of it.

Lugging a double bass is rarely fun, and I can't change my car without taking it along to check the size. But I love the "theatre" an upright adds to a performance, and I love the 'thump' that they have. I just have a cheap unbranded one, but it sounds pretty good.

It's the Widders Border Morris in Chepstow. I've only just joined - quite a new thing for me, but a lot of fun. So far I played recorder and mandocello with them, but I'll be taking my double bass along at some point. I love playing it but I'm getting a touch of arthritis in my hands lately and I find I know about it the day after playing double bass

It seems it's traditional to post an introduction. I've played bass since school in the 1980s when a friend loaned me a bass and said if I could play it I could join his band. I played on and off, only really rock covers, never going past the fifth fret until a few years ago when a friend dragged me along to his community jazz band. That was a bit of a step up, I moved on to double bass, joined a bluegrass band, but found the double bass too hard on my hands. I bought a Fender acoustic bass but found it very quiet, but that got me into mandolins, and the string instrument I actually play most at the moment is mandocello, which I've lately been playing in a Morris side, and also at our local church. I'm at kind of a crossroads with bass playing at the moment, not in a Robert Johnson way, but in a sort of "been there, done that" sort of frame of mind. Maybe this group will give me some enthusiasm.