Laminate basses for Jazz. Any downside? Also any experience of LD Starter bass?

[Arnold Bennett]

Is there any downside of using a laminate bass for jazz with a pickup?  Is there any loss of quality of the notes compared with solid wood?

Also, has anyone out there got any experience of the  LD Starter basses from Romania?  They are quite expensive for laminate basses - up to £4000!!

[Burns-bass]

Laminate basses are absolutely fine! I think most of us started on one. As you progress you can save up and buy a fully carved one (if you find you need to).

 

I’d avoid a new bass if I was you, and instead search for a well set up used bass (on Basschat, naturally).

 

For relatively small amounts you can find incredible basses. I bought a fully carved Stentor bass on here for £900 which was beautiful.

[NickA]

Even a good laminate won't match a carved bass.  The carved ones are more sensitive, produce a lot more bass and generally have a better tone. Laminates generally a bit bass thin and thuddy.

 

Of course if you only ever play through a pickup or amp, then it matters less ... but there's still a difference.

 

Check out your favourite Jazz bassists and you'll see they're all playing carved basses. Even go along to a local gig or jazz session and you won't see many laminated basses.  There's a reason for that.

 

Not to say there are no decent laminate basses, but go 2nd hand, go old, 1960s if poss, expect to spend £1200-£1500.

 

I would say do NOT touch a new laminated bass with a barge pole; you'll get a nicer bass 2nd hand for less money and £4k would get something really quite good.

 

Certainly don't ever buy on line.

 

Go to "the double bass room" in Hastings and try a load.

 

 

[petebassist]

Laminates are more robust as well so if you're dragging a bass round smaller venues they'll take the knocks better - I have a hybrid Eastman with solid back and front and laminate sides. 

Soundwise, a microphone will capture more of the complex double bass sound versus using a piezo pickup, whatever the type of bass I think, so that might be worth looking at.

Somewhere like Bassbags would enable you to try out a lot of different basses before buying. Good luck.

[NickA]

21 hours ago, petebassist said:

Somewhere like Bassbags

My local bass shop.  They're good for new basses, from ok laminates to some quite nice carved Chinese basses (if you have £7.5k for an Eastman vb503).  Always come well set up and with quality strings.  Plus, they state their prices instead of this "on application" nonsense.  All clear and above board.

 

What you can't do there is compare with used basses as they rarely have any.

 

One of my orchestra colleagues has a bass bags supplied laminate.  It's ok, but kinda quiet and lacking lower end.  She says it was a low risk option and what they recommended in her price range (£2000).  As the man says..robust too.

Edited April 18, 2023 by NickA

[JoeEvans]

I'd also recommend a visit to the Double Bass Room. He often has older Eastern European laminate basses at good prices, and always a great range of carved basses at the low-middle end of the price range. Even if you don't find what you want, playing ten or twenty different basses one after another is a hugely educational experience.

I think a secondhand laminate, or spruce-topped laminate, is a good idea for busy gigging with a pickup. Slightly less prone to feedback, much more robust, and less money and emotion tied up in it if it does get damaged. The real danger is that if you get into playing it you'll end up wanting a carved bass to play at home, and not every household can accommodate two double basses...

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, JoeEvans said:

I'd also recommend a visit to the Double Bass Room. He often has older Eastern European laminate basses at good prices, and always a great range of carved basses at the low-middle end of the price range. Even if you don't find what you want, playing ten or twenty different basses one after another is a hugely educational experience.

I think a secondhand laminate, or spruce-topped laminate, is a good idea for busy gigging with a pickup. Slightly less prone to feedback, much more robust, and less money and emotion tied up in it if it does get damaged. The real danger is that if you get into playing it you'll end up wanting a carved bass to play at home, and not every household can accommodate two double basses...

My home can accommodate two basses, not sure my relationship can!

[bassace]

Those were the days, and I also had a laminate in the garage. But I’ve only got one bass now.

 

[petebassist]

19 hours ago, NickA said:

One of my orchestra colleagues has a bass bags supplied laminate.  It's ok, but kinda quiet and lacking lower end.  She says it was a low risk option and what they recommended in her price range (£2000).  As the man says..robust too.

I guess arco/orchestra players mainly only play acoustically - I'd not thought of that, I only ever play live amplified. I don't think you can get enough volume acoustically playing pizzicato unless in a tiny venue, at least not when I've tried. Arco though, you can rattle the walls...

[NickA]

In an orchestra there are four or five of us, plus it's rare (though fun) for the whole orchestra to be belting it out. So we're audible even when pizzing.  In jazz, add a drummer, two saxes, a keyboard player amped up to match the drums ...and audience who chat and clink glasses when you're playing ...and you certainly need an amp!

 

Yet jazz bassists still mostly favour carved basses. Unless you use a magnetic pickup, the sound of the bass itself comes through the pickup and I guess pros, especially in a studio, use mics a lot too. So yes the sound of the bass itself still matters ...otherwise I guess we'd play eubs instead?