Gareth Hughes

Only once in about 3000 gigs have I needed an alternative bass, due to seriously dodgy wiring in the venue resulting in bad earthing - and thankfully that night I was playing upright as well as electric, so I just did the whole gig on upright. And only from about 2 months ago have I started bringing two basses to a gig - and that's only because I might be digging the P for some songs but then feel like it's a J time, and when I want that tone I'll just start regretting not having brought that bass instead. On upright gigs I have a spare pickup mounted on the bass, as that's the most likely thing to stop working.

Fair play - looking forward to having a jukesie at that!!

Here's my tuppence worth (again probably but bear with me, I'm having my morning coffee at 12:30pm and loving it). I read music and I'm thankful that I can because this week it's giving me employment that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I play music for a living so being able to say 'YES' to a gig is about as important as it gets for me. Musicians who do not read music are no less musicians than I or anyone else that reads music. If you want to do reading gigs and want to communicate with others using written notation then it's important to read music. If not, then it's not. Simples.

[quote name='beyond' post='1004104' date='Oct 28 2010, 05:25 PM']What will you spend all the royalties on [/quote] Hmmmmmm......how much are plectrums going for these days?

Thanks folks. Bilbo - yeah, the Piazolla feel is great there. Maurice Seezer, the accordion player on this, loves that stuff inside and out. And both Friday and Seezer are huge Jacques Brel fans. I have a pile of Piazolla and other tango charts if you want a copy of them. PM me an address and I'll get them copied soon. I'm playing 'Seussical' at the minute - so a sneaky copy of that is needed.

Hey folks - This is a bit of self-patting-on-the-back so please just indulge me. A track I played on a few years ago, on the soundtrack to 'In America' by Jim Sheridan, has been used on the BBC's new weather ad. Nothing flash or fancy in the playing - just a nice tune with some lovely people. The band is The Friday/Seezer Ensemble - where I got to be a kid in a candy store working with Michael Blair - drummer on Tom Waits 'Rain Dogs','Franks Wild Years' and 'Big Time', Lou Reed's 'Magic And Loss', Suzanne Vega's 'Days Of Open Hand' amongst many others and also produced one of me favourite records 'Every Day I Wear A Greasy Black Feather In My Hat' by Moondog Jr. Needless to say I was a pestering fanatic coming into the studio everyday after I'd found another record in my collection that he'd played on. Here's the clip: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7_PqXdugQE&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7_PqXdugQE...player_embedded[/url]

Yup, I'll second Velvet's as being an instrument changer for sure. I have Blue's on my upright - makes a world of difference. For my Eminence I have a set of Kolstein Heritage string on, and the low tension/gut feel really make that bass into more than it should be.

Clarky just bought my (and his old) Fender Am. Std. Jazz in Olympic White - thus completing a very incestuous Basschat circle. A pleasure to deal with.

Headstock looks like a Godlyke.

Folks - just found this on the Huffington Post - our favourite cross-dressing Korean bass player is making headlines in the US. Check it out: [url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/19/whitman-twitter-fail-beco_n_768205.html"]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/19/w...o_n_768205.html[/url] I gotta say - I love this guy. I'm digging his playing and his sound a lot. Check out a band he plays with called 'Oriental Express' - some really good tunes on their Myspace page. A little too smooth IMO, but I like the blend of Korean traditional instruments with modern Western-influenced 'lite jazz' sounds. Who knew?

Thanks for that Jake. It's a great song indeed - but I wince when I hear the chorus. Someone is out of tune on the 'Lovvvvviingg youuuuu' bit. Can hear it rolling around my head now. And that's going to be there all day, isn't it?

[quote name='endorka' post='990827' date='Oct 17 2010, 01:59 AM']I tried it on a gig tonight and have come to the same conclusions. I was using the wee mixer box so could blend the pickup and mic myself - it was possible to get some of the mic into the mix along with the pickup without feedback, but unfortunately the mic seemed to be picking up quite a bit of the other instruments, so I took it out the mix and used only the pickup. I'll give the mic a bash next time I record - can you remember how you oriented it on the instrument? Jennifer[/quote] Hey Jennifer - I had the mic head positioned so that it was looking towards the G side F-hole, but not directly over it. It was close to the notch in the F, at about a 45 degree angle pointing in. Any closer or above the F-hole and it sounded like the mic was in a wind tunnel (which I guess it is, so to speak). Also had some joy (for recording more than live) with the mic pointing straight up towards the tuning pegs, parallel to the front table, but you have to be careful muttering abuse about your band mates - the mic can be more sensitive than you want

I had a Golden Bullet a few years back, and while I liked the sound of it to record with I could NEVER use it live. I had countless soundmen tell me to turn the mic of within minutes of soundchecking because it was giving them feedback through the main PA before they could get a usable volume from it or my pickup. Ah well.

There's pro's and con's with what you're doing. Like a guitarist friend of mine says about instruments/pedals/amps and all their variables: "A man with many sheep has a problem with many sheep" I've found that, with upright bass especially, there's a lot to be said for getting one good sound (or one good pickup/amp combination) and learning how to use that in a multitude of scenarios, rather than having a multitude of gear and trying to figure out which one is right for each scenario. Having said that - it can also be a benefit to having several options, especially live. There's been many a night on boomy stages where I wish I still had my old Fishman BP-100 - a pickup that has very little natural lowend IME. But like Bilbo says - get the sound from your hands first and then figure out which pickup/mic/amp does the best job in reproducing that sound in your opinion. As for your question - you might get phasing issues and you might not. That would be the only problem I'd foresee trying to use two or more at once. One advantage you have with having several options is using the best characteristics from each to make a composite sound - kind of like the huge robot at the end of TRANSFORMERS 2. So you could use the underfoot and the magnetic pickups for the solid low sound, the bridge K&K for the mid definition and the mic to add some air. EQ out all the high's from the underfoot/magnetic pickups, all the lows and highs from the K&K and all the low's from the mic. It might work. And it might sound like dung. Either way - think of your bass now like being like a MusicMan Big Al bass, with it's bridge, middle and neck pickups and all the series/parallel kerfuffle. Options a plenty.

Elites Flatwound strings are, in my opinion, very high tension with a dull sound. They only come in one gauge which you either like or don't. I didn't like them at all but they may work for you. I was a lot happier with D'Addario Chromes in a lighter gauge (40-95, 45-105). Groundwound strings start from a roundwound string, which is then ground flat, as opposed to flatwounds, which have a flat material to begin with.

Bummer to hear that Clarky - I know you were looking forward to that. Even if you had more experience and stamina on the upright, I'd still say to do the gig on electric or dep it if possible. Let it heal and you'll get your first upright gig soon enough!!!

Aren't double basses like electrics - don't they come in tune when you buy them?

Fair play. Looking forward to hearing this - I remember you coming home, well chuffed with the tone you got.