halfmanhalfdrum

Hi. Are you still looking? I'm fairly local. Can you let me know what songs you do?

Flats on everything for me.

I'm very happy with my Ashdown rig. It does everything I need. The guitarist in the band I'm in expects the bass to have a thunderous low rumble and the Ashdown delivers in bucket loads.

I'd recommend anything by Brian Setzer. His Big Band stuff is great.

I reckon you should just turn up at a junkyard dogs gig with your DB. I introduced my DB at one of our gigs and now I use it every time for the first set. The punters love it!

Get yourself a Double Bass and practice your basslines on that for a few weeks. When you go back to your electric you'll find it a breeze and it should reinforce why you chose to be a bassist in the first place. If that's not for you then learn some songs from completely different genre of music. I find that playing Beatles stuff is good for the ego. It should help you look at the stuff you play with different perspective.

[quote name='TheGreek' post='1314578' date='Jul 24 2011, 11:22 AM']I'm in full agreement - I don't normally ike Tele basses but this one looks nice..real question is are they any good??..and whats the build quality like?? (err..sorry that's 2..)[/quote] In my experience you get what you pay for. I can't imagine that it would stand up to much gigging abuse but as a basis for upgrading...?

[quote name='Clarky' post='1307786' date='Jul 18 2011, 01:17 PM']Towards the end of our 75 minute set at the Upton Blues festival yesterday I got cramp in each hand and my left hand curled up like a claw - I had to really use ingenuity to keep playing (used the side of my right hand thumb to pluck for most of a song and to use one very mobile left hand finger to keep the riff up!) Managed to stretch my hands after the song and just about got through the rest of the set. I obviously need to do more hand conditioning if we are going to play longer sets more often. Has anyone else experienced this problem with a DB and - building up hand strength aside - do you have any tips for alleviating the issue if it strikes?[/quote] I get the same problem, but not all the time. I can practice for hours without any problem but on some gigs my hands are tense after a couple of numbers. I put it down to stress as I can usually alleviate it by relaxing and taking a few deep breaths. I also switch to electric if it becomes a problem. I also give myself a good talking to in the break and this helps!

[quote name='Mike' post='1290142' date='Jul 2 2011, 02:55 PM']Hi all I'd be interested in starting a discussion about making your double bass sound good live, through a rig and/or PA. I am starting to gig with my double bass and have a pickup mounted underneath the bridge. I'm not sure what it is but I remember it is a reasonably common one, and one with a low impedance that needs a preamp. I am using a Sadowsky DI [url="http://www.sadowsky.com/accessories/preamp.html"](This one)[/url] as my pickup sounds weak and weedy when plugged in on its own. I can't seem to get a great tone though - I know it's a cheap double bass (Andreas Zellor, well set up by Martyn Bailey) but the acoustic sound is very nice. When I plug in through my preamp into a Markbass 1x12 combo with stacks of headroom, I can get a very bassy sound but the top end doesn't sound nice and woody at all - quite crisp and brittle. I have experimented with the Markbass vintage tone control which takes off some high end but I just can't get a really lovely double bass woody sound. So how do you all get great sounds from your double bass? Any EQ tips? What preamps or pickups do you recommend? Anyone using mics? How practical are they? Thanks in advance. Can anyone tell me what pickup I have here if possible? The flat pickups clip under the bridge (I have removed one so you can see it here.) Regards Mike[/quote] It depends on how loud you need to be. I play with a loud trio and I use a Custom Kent Armstrong Mag pickup through Bassbone preamp into my Ashdown JJ Burnell, 4x8 & 1x15 ABM Cabs. This works best for me. Huge volume on tap, no feedback and a DB tone that still sounds like a DB. I tried lots of other piezo pickups but just couldn't get the volume or bottom end and had huge problems with feedback.

[quote name='Linus27' post='1289379' date='Jul 1 2011, 06:16 PM']Yeah I am leaning towards the Boss. Plus its white and I have a thing about anything white at the moment [/quote] I use a Radial Bassbone but then I'm switching between my active Musicman SUB and my Double Bass. The Bassbone enables me to eq the DB separately and there is a boost switch as well which means I can get the volume on the DB to match the SUB and I'm talking LOUD with no feedback.