mtroun

Take it a to a luthier, it's got to be worth spending a bit if you like the sound of the instrument. If the action of your instrument isn't too low then they may be able to cut your existing bridge to a decent shape with a slightly lower action. It's worth getting a really good luthier to sort out your bridge though... my bass has had 3, should have gone to the last guy in the first place!

It seems strange to advertise on gumtree for a jazz bass player, surely any player worth their salt is already connected with the community?

Hello fellow Cornish bass player! We've met, ages ago! If I were you I'd be checking out as many instruments as you can. The problem with buying a new instrument direct from the maker is the loss of value after you get it, as opposed to an older instrument. That said, I got a Paul Bryant bass a few years ago and I rate it very highly for the money, certainly unbeatable price-wise among English makers. Martin Penning has done quite a bit of work on my Bryant as well which has made it more pleasurable to play. Getting an instrument made for you does give you the chance to get exactly what you want from an instrument. Then again, I don't know if you're like me but it just has to 'feel right' rather than be a series of specifications. There seems to be something of a glut of affordable old basses on musical chairs these days so it may be worth checking out some of the instruments there. I'm not convinced anyone in the UK has a Golia bass but I'd love to be proven wrong. Good luck on the search!

Where does one get hide glue? How long does it need to be held for?

Thanks, so should I be buying glue? I live in Leicester, any recommended luthiers near me? Tim Batchelar is unfortunately unable to take on work at the moment because of an injury.

I've managed to damage the violin corner on my double bass (see attached pic) I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of repairing this kind of thing, I have the piece of wood that came clean off. It can be placed directly onto the area where it broke so hopefully it shouldn't be too bad a repair? I hope and pray. The lower bout on the same edge has a bit of damage as well, I think it may be because of the way it rests, sandwiched between a sofa and a wall. Any advice on better storage solutions (I don't really have a lot of room for it!) Thanks! [attachment=203777:DSC_0001.jpg]

Feeling this. It seems like a lot places are putting on bands of questionable quality who will play for peanuts or nothing at all, and I'm trying hard to break onto the established professional circuit but because my band is made up of my peers instead of 'names' I haven't had a single positive response from a venue. The gigs I do get at the moment seem to be one-off 'event' type gigs which require a lot of preparation for only a small financial reward. Not great. I'm not doing many functions at the moment, are most people with agencies or relying on contacts?

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1435569682' post='2810004'] Listen to Paul Chambers ‘doom, doom, doom’ and it is different to Jimmy Garrison’s more ‘compressed’ ‘dum, dum, dum’. Different feelings created but neither are more right or wrong that the other (although most people would prefer the swing generated by Chambers to that of Garrison). [/quote] Sacre bleu! Most people eh... I love them both but that's a big statement to make! Agree with the rest of your post though, Bilbo. It's quite hard to explain that while the electric bass isn't disapproved of in jazz per se, it's something of a speciality instrument and generally you can expect jazz groups with electric bass to be breaking away from the mainstream of the music, i.e. acoustic groups with a focus on swing feel. Electric bass and big drum kits just live in a different sound world, not better or worse, just different, and drastically change the sound of the ensemble. Whether it's a good or bad thing to be mainstream is immaterial in this discussion! If you turn up to a jazz gig with the electric (I have from time to time) either you've been booked because the group wants the specific effect of electric bass, or you're really really really good!

There's no rule as to what instrument is better for jazz per se, it's just that the majority of amateur to semi pro musicians who play jazz are aiming for a 'classic' jazz sound so will invariably prefer double bass, small drum sizes and acoustic piano. Like most jazz double bass players I started out on electric bass and eventually made the switch because jazz became my favourite thing. I'm not saying you can't make it work, but it's a bit of a compromise playing electric bass in small group jazz (I actually think electric bass often works well in big bands, particularly more contemporary ones) because the sound of the instrument doesn't interact with the ride cymbal at the same frequency and that's such an integral relationship in straight ahead jazz. The bloom of the longer strings combined with the 'thwack' of the string being pulled back is really hard to emulate on an electric bass (I remember someone telling me that a Rob Allen sounded just like a double bass, they can't have heard much double bass!) and that's because the technique for playing the two is fundamentally quite different. Conversely, I don't like playing fiddly semiquaver stuff on double bass in a pastiche of electric bass playing, because the longer scale makes the attack less prominent, particularly as I'm a gut string guy on double bass. Interesting the number of posts taking a shot at the well known jazz snobbery, sometimes I know what people are going on about, there's a breed of jazz player (normally quite good but not quite world class) who spends the majority of their time pointing out the shortcomings of other musicians. But I do find that there's an immense amount of unwarranted inverse snobbery towards jazz musicians from certain sectors of the community.

One method I've come around to recently is using a drone, more reliable than a tuner and helps develop your ears. I use the Bille method book as warm up exercises. Page 44 has a nice shifting exercise (going up and down the major scale on all 4 strings up to the fifth, switching between 1st and (I think, I'm not very technically minded) 3rd positions. With the fifth ringing out as a drone, you are acutely aware of any issues with your tuning. A nice way to slowly warm up.

Weich means soft - the standard Evah Pirazzi (medium) are rather thicker and slightly higher tension. They don't seem to mind being put high or low. I would argue they are THE hybrid string - I use them as do quite a lot of other jazz players I know, and I also know a number of classical players who are fond of them. They've also been a big hit with Violin and Viola players, they are basically the next generation of plastic-core string (dominants and obligato coming before) Compared to Obligatos (but bearing in mind it's a long time since I've played a bass with Oblis on) they are slightly darker, richer, louder, with more 'pop' at the start of the note. They amplify extremely well and I'm told the Obligatos can suffer from 'rolling under the bow' which is not a problem with the EPs. Compared to Spirocores, well they are a lot less painful to play on. Spirocore Weichs are nice too though if you love that steel string sound, but I think EPs bring out the sound of the wood quite a lot more and sound better through an amp. If you haven't tried them I would suggest you get a set (in weich gauge) and just see how you get on. They settle in pretty quick but the magic really happens when the initial brightness has worn off. I sound like I work for Pirastro here, though if you read up you'll see I mix them with plain guts. They get a lot of love on the forums and for good reason.

[quote name='Martin Penning' timestamp='1428474357' post='2741523'] The best way to prevent the soundpost from coming down when changing strings is to change them one at a time. This will keep the tension on the front. Keep checking that the back of the bridge is at right angles to the front and the feet still fit and are not getting any gaps. It`s best if you can do it on a bench or table. Good luck! [/quote] This. The man's a genius at bass setup and repair.

Nope, can't be done. It's hard enough getting a double bass to sound like a double bass through an amplifier, let alone getting an electric bass to sound like a double bass through an amplifier!

I find the wonderlove works a lot better on my cheapo p bass (which has a very hot output) than my stingray

I think I may have fixed it by isolating the jack socket, securing it with a cable tie and wrapping it in foam. I'll let you know how I get on.

I've had a David Gage realist since early 2007. It's been on two different basses over those years but I think it may be on its way out. I'm experiencing a lot of unusual, hard to describe except 'grindy' noises when I'm amplifying with the realist. It's not particularly noticeable at low volumes but it gets more present as the volume increases. Now to complicate matters, I've only had this problem since having plain gut strings. It's possible that the noise is part of the natural earthiness of the guts, which somehow gets amplified to make an unpleasant sympathetic buzzing. I've looked at the position under the bridge foot and it looks secure. Because of the plain guts (and before that garbos, I've taken to installing the realist jack under the A saddle. I moved it today as I thought the sound was possibly in the tailpiece, using a combination of cable ties and velcro to attach it back to the treble side of the tailpiece (it won't fit under the loop for the gut G string. I'm not altogether sure what the source of the noise is. Has anyone had their realist die on them? There are some reports on talkbass of the realist making unusual sounds before it eventually dies but it's complicated by the strings issue in this case, making it hard to tell if it's the strings or the pickup. I don't really want to buy another realist and then realise it's the strings not the pickup. Thanks for any help.

Sounds great. I've decided to order the crazy8 as it has the form factor for total portability, which I'm aiming for. I also ended up buying a Bergantino NV115 for electric bass. I tried a lot of different cabs and that one just seemed to work really well with the Puma for the kind of sound I'm after. Only experimented a little bit but it seems to work well for acoustic bass, if a little bit of overkill!

Yeah I've thought about the Arnopol cabs, particularly the MAS 25.5, which is similar in weight/power to the crazy8. I have been in contact with Mike but I'm a bit put off by the uncertainty of working out the cost direct from the USA. I'd be interested to hear your experiences of the Big E.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a complete new setup, but wouldn't mind hearing what people think: I've decided to get the Tecamp Puma 900 - it seems flexible enough for single channel use with my realist pickup and sounds awesome with electric bass (I thought about the EA doubler but I'm worried it won't be as great for electric bass, not as loud and lacking the EQ options of the Tecamp) I'm getting a Headway EDB-2 for when I want to blend a mic or feel I need notch filter and HPF - I can also use it as a front of house options. I'm ordering a troll microphone to use for this purpose. I'm planning to get more than one cab - first of all a crazy8 for when I want a completely portable setup, with the Meinl cajon backpack. I then want another larger cab, I'm thinking at the moment of either the Fearless F110 or F112. Any other cabs friendly to both electric and acoustic bass that you can think of?