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Hotclub style jazz - strings and things


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I'm playing double bass in a new Hotclub Style band. I love it. I don't have decades of double bass experience but it's huge fun and I can get away with not being the most technically dazzling player. I had the db set up a while back and it plays fine even though it's a student model. The string are still the ones that came with it when I bought it. Anyone play HC style and do things differently string wise? Are there specific strings that work better for you? Other types of insider information also welcome.

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1 hour ago, julietgreen said:

Hotclub Style

Had to look that one up. 

 

Sorry no answers there. I think I play cool jazz, hot jazz, mainstream jazz, modern jazz, jazz funk, jazz fusion and jazz rock but not hot "club" jazz. 

 

Sounds like a job for big fat gutalikes tho; warm and thumpy yes?

 

( Chap once asked me if I'd play in his jump jive band... Had to look that up too.... before I said no thanks )

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1 hour ago, NickA said:

Had to look that one up. 

 

Sorry no answers there. I think I play cool jazz, hot jazz, mainstream jazz, modern jazz, jazz funk, jazz fusion and jazz rock but not hot "club" jazz. 

 

Sounds like a job for big fat gutalikes tho; warm and thumpy yes?

 

( Chap once asked me if I'd play in his jump jive band... Had to look that up too.... before I said no thanks )

 

Probably more familiar as Gypsy Jazz, but many advocates for Traveller and Romani groups are encouraging people to move away from the word Gypsy. So Hot Club Jazz seems as good a name as any given that it originated with Rheinhardt and Grapelli's Hot Club quintet. Though I depped on a gig earlier in the year with a Romani guitarist who calls it Gypsy Jazz, and I was not about to correct him!

I've just gone for the approach of showing up with the sound that I have (a more modern steel strung sound) and just trying to be stylistically appropriate within that, but if it was my full time gig I'd probably be looking at guts.

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7 hours ago, julietgreen said:

I'm playing double bass in a new Hotclub Style band. I love it. I don't have decades of double bass experience but it's huge fun and I can get away with not being the most technically dazzling player. I had the db set up a while back and it plays fine even though it's a student model. The string are still the ones that came with it when I bought it. Anyone play HC style and do things differently string wise? Are there specific strings that work better for you? Other types of insider information also welcome.

 

Great gig , well done. The best kind of jazz. Go with what you've got, you'll be fine.

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14 hours ago, julietgreen said:

I'm playing double bass in a new Hotclub Style band. I love it. I don't have decades of double bass experience but it's huge fun and I can get away with not being the most technically dazzling player. I had the db set up a while back and it plays fine even though it's a student model. The string are still the ones that came with it when I bought it. Anyone play HC style and do things differently string wise? Are there specific strings that work better for you? Other types of insider information also welcome.

 

Traditionally would have been played on gut strings, but it really doesn't matter. 

 

I played in a gypsy jazz-style band for a few years on an old Boosey & Hawkes bass. Sounded great, looked great and was a lot of fun!

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2 hours ago, Staggering on said:

Lucky you, I would love to land a gig like that!

Are you using any type of amplification? Your choice of mic/pickup/amp may have some bearing on the strings that you use, some pickups make all strings sound more or less the same.

I've got a good system that seems to work for me. I have a J-tone double bass pickup through a Trace amp into a little Mark Bass traveller cab. I think it sounds OK. I haven't gigged much with it for the DB yet - only tried out in rehearsals. The last gig I did, it had to be accoustic as there was no power.

 

s-l1600.jpg

 

 

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Sounds like a fun gig!

I have nothing to offer on strings advice, but have you heard The Hot Club of Cowtown?

Their album 'Continental Stomp' is one of my all time desert island favourites - the Bass player is incredible.

Enjoy!

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