AndyBass

New holes go here...

I've got a Stagg eub switched right to left. I got a better man than myself to do it, but it cost very little and basically involved switching round the obvious bits then drilling a few new holes for the brackets. The bracket that pokes out into your midsection is the only one I'd say you need (is the only one I use anyway), stops it rotating away from you

A few suggestions based on my limited experience. Strings: Silver slaps (or golden slaps or rockabillys) will do you fine. They'll also save you £50+ against most string brands, yet theyre used by various pros, etc they're not a "budget" choice. Also if you decide you want to try bowing, they, unlike a lot of strings better suited to slap/pizz, can be bowed. Try and avoid the trap of thinking you need to buy a million strings to find the perfect set. Your first set will last you ages, just practice on those and get good. People just love to throw money at double bass for some reason. String height: If you're not sure what you want, I suggest string height of 8-10mm for each string at the end of the fingerboard. This is a rule of thumb used by a lot of people at the start. An adjustable bridge would be a good idea. Shims do work, not that I want to open that can of worms again, but the best option is to just have the right tool for the job. You should be able to learn anything you want with a height of 8-10mm, adjustment up or down will then just make it easier or sound better Slap: I always recommend The Ungentle Art and Slapology DVDs as the ones that best show the techniques. There's some good and some bad stuff on YouTube, but as there's no "right way" to do it, just watch stuff and try it out. Spend some time with someone who does it well if you can, that helps too (thanks again to Paul King and Adam Richards, their time helped me no end). Maybe you can find someone local on here, or at a double bass bash if that happens again, or just at a gig Hope that's some help. Double bass is a great instrument, stick at it and it'll pay off in all kinds of ways.

Here's my suggestion to learn slap: 1.buy/borrow The Ungentle Art and Slapology 2.practice lots. Practice the techniques first, then practice them along to stuff 3.when youre 90% happy but there's something you've seen/heard that you can't do, find a slap player who can do stuff the way you want to and cajole them into giving you an hour of their time to get some pointers 4.practice that stuff Done. Then when you realise there's nothing left to learn, convince yourself you don't sound good enough and spend ££££s trying to find the perfect set of strings

I'm afraid I'm not near Cardiff, but I'd say good things about Gutalikes. I had the wrapped E and, for me, they have a really nice tension and feel. I've used them on my main gigging bass for 3 years or so now (same set). Great for slap, decent for pizz, just don't ever try to bow them.

Now sorted courtesy of Vic's Pickups. Cheers

It's a lot less long and torturous than learning to bow though! I'd say it's not essential as (unless you're talking single slap in the sense of the string snapping back on the fingerboard) the slap in itself mutes the string. But the other hand muting the string just gives it a bit more control. The whole thing with slap is there's no "right way". There's no Simandl of slap. You just find what works for you and the sound you want, then do it lots.

Hi, sorry I know this belongs in Wanted but DB stuff tends to get lost in there. I'm after a bridge wing pickup with clicky, like the K&K RAB etc. Anyone got an old but functional one they'd part with for a decent price? Thanks y'all

Thanks guys - not least for not judging me for my desire to do this on the cheap! Shims sound like they're worth a try before I try my more Heath Robinson solution...appreciate the advice

So I need to raise my bridge more than the adjusters allow (a luthier did a bit of a botch of the profile, then another lowered the height too much trying to even it out) and I don't have the cash for a new one. So...I have a plan. 1.Buy cheap bridge 2.cut off feet, leaving majority of bridge intact 3.drill holes for the existing adjusters to fit, meaning the bridge feet which are ok can still be used 4.file indents for the strings in the top bit myself. That should work, yeah? If not any other cheap, Macgyver-style fixes that don't exceed a budget of about £20? This is obviously for amped up ham-fisted slap and pizz, nothing delicate or where intricacies of tone matter. Thanks

Golden Slaps were good enough for at one for me to get through a couple of ABRSM grades before I gave up, so it can be done if you're not looking for anything too intricate. Rub a little rosin on the bowing area of the string initially, over time it'll build up anyway,that should get enough traction. Steels will sound nicer, but I just don't like em for anything but arco

When I was in this situation I bought myself a cheapo Stagg EUB which meant I could practice pizz or arco any time of day or night (hey if you're gonna be up at 3am might as well be productive). It's not the same as playing a "proper" db but it scratches the itch, and helps you get practice, and when your kid is a bit older you've still got your lovely double bass to go back to.

I'd agree, irrespective of the "without wireless" part of the request, the best way to get the result you want is to go wireless Doesn't have to be a huge [font="Calibri"][size="3"][color="#000000"]investment (I scored a Line 6 from Gumtree for not very much), and it frees you up and tidies you up, and I’m darned if I can notice any difference in sound quality.[/color][/size][/font] Sorry to be unhelpful!

Hi, I'm afraid I'm likely to have to bow out as my little girl is going through a bit of a "Damian" phase. Sorry all - many thanks to those putting this together because I think these sessions are a great idea, even if I've yet to make it to one. As per the above if anyone wants to try out any of my gear (all left handed so I don't expect many takers!!) they're welcome to swing by Sheffield some time and do so. Have a great bash

I can't commit to coming at the minute but I'd love to if I can. If I'm able to, I'll have a left handed Duke or Strunal 50/4 (probably the Duke). Bluejay - if you had a preference to try a steel or fake gut-strung bass I could bring one or the other

[font="Calibri"][size="3"][color="#000000"]I recently had a speaker blow in my Gallien Kreuger MB212, despite a distinct lack of use or misuse. I’m now looking at replacement options and a like for like replacement from GK isn’t that cheap, so I’m loathe to replace one shoddy component with another expensive one when I don’t have much confidence it will last. [/color][/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"][color="#000000"]Has anyone any good or bad experience with GK speakers that would suggest I should trust or mistrust them, beyond my own limited experience of total failure? I’m looking at other alternatives such as the Eminence Legend BP122…anyone got any experience with those? Better still with swapping out a GK speaker for an Eminence in a GK combo?[/color][/size][/font] [size="3"][color="#000000"][font="Calibri"]Any help or advice much appreciated as I know pretty much naff all about amps, beyond its really annoying when they stop working, and too expensive to make them work again [/font][font=Wingdings][font=Wingdings]J[/font][/font][/color][/size]

I've not come across their composite instruments "in the flesh", but I think Thomas has only been making them recently so unlikely any have made it over here yet. No UK distribution for Duke and they don't export directly, but you can get them from Thomann or you have to use Bassico if you're having anything "non-standard" (so possibly the composite models). But messaging their FB is a good start. They're nice instruments. I love mine. Big, fat, deep sound and nice light instrument.

If you don't want to shell on a "classic" American DB (King Moretone or Kay) - then Blast Cult, Knight and Duke seem to be the classy end of modern plys, with Duke by far the cheapest/easiest for us UK folks. They're all comparatively new brands so don't turn up used very often. Engleharts and Strunal 50/4s are also weapons of choice and are more easily found used, and probably more easily afforded. There are also some of the newer King basses floating about now and then. You don't have to have high action to slap, unless you have an insanely fat E string, but a general rule of thumb is higher action for slapping gut or gut-like strings, low action for slapping steels (though often that's to allow for crazy fast slapping). Depends what suits your style really though. Get a Duke 2-tone and stick some cordes lambert on it. It'll look sexy, sound ace, you can stand on em and you won't have to deal with hairy bits of intestine for strings. £2-2.5k. Job done

Depends on the bass. Black cabs, buses, trams etc are fine as required, for walking I find I can comfortably carry my Duke bass with a shoulder strap on one shoulder and that arm reaching down to hold the front carry handle. I can probably walk for 20 minutes like that because the weight distributes out nicely. My Strunal, on the other hand, is like carrying a wardrobe, so I either drive straight to the venue or leave it at home...if your bass is more like the latter then maybe a wheel is the way

My bad, yes it's bowing rather than warping then. I did get the truss rod adjusted once but the views here that air should be sorted with that and addled adjustment just convince me the guy who did it didn't really do it very well. I'll take it elsewhere today and see if it's a really easy fix. Thanks all

Oddly enough, the room that bass lives in is pretty much the only one in the house without fluctuating temperature and moisture! It may all be in my head but it seemed warped when I first took it out if the case again after a long time away following the conversion. I've had the truss rod adjusted once but I'm not convinced they know their stuff particularly...I'll try taking it elsewhere in the hope they can sort it.

I think the neck of my P bass is warped. A while back I had the nut filed so I could switch the strings round and have it as a lefty (badass II bridge was fine so no other mods needed) - would the changed load on the neck from the reversed strings cause it to warp? No other reason comes to mind. Anyway, do the photos give an indication of how bad it is and if so any thoughts what I can do about it? Sorry, I'm normally a double bass man so I'm pretty rubbish with electric basses and am at the mercy of your knowledge

Hi. Yes the Boosey 400 was made in the Strunal factory for re-branding as Boosey's student model. They're all laminate and the fingerboard is not ebony, possibly rosewood but not sure - I seem to recall the black on mine fading but not flaking, if it's flaking id probably look at getting rid. As I say, I used to own one and when I was looking into buying it pulled together a lot of info on them from posts on Talkbass and the now-defunct Doublebasschat - might still be somewhere on the net if you want to find it. So a carved top and ebony fingerboard would be an upgrade (if the type of music you're playing would benefit from that), though personally I didn't like the change to ebony for slap playing. Seemed "snappier". Hope that helps.

When I was starting out with it I found The Ungentle Art DVD really useful. In hindsight Jared McGoverns DVD (on youtube in it's entirety as it happens) would have helped too, and has some good country playing on it that would work well for bluegrass. Slapology is good too but probably better once you've nailed the basics. Others (such as Lee Rocker's) don't really help as they break down their slap motion and show you it really slowly, but that's not actually how their muscle memory has them do it, so they're doing these bloody great hand-claps on the string then yanking them up off the fingerboard and it bears no resemblance to how they actually play. The best thing I ever did was hassling/bribing a few really good players to spend a bit of time with me so I could just watch and learn up close and ask stuff that I hadn't got from DVDs, YouTube or whatever. I like the Fonokraft pickups on my bass - dirt cheap and do a good job. Likewise Paul's old K&K rockabilly setup continues to do a great job for me about 5 years after I bought it from him on Rockabillybass.com! Innovation strings are as good as anything else I've tried - the rockabillys are nice. But otherwise I tend toward lighter tension - that stuffs all just preference and how hard you want to make it for yourself! I used to drop quite a bit of slap into my old bluegrass band. People seemed to like it as it's typically an audience where that's a bit more unusual. Good luck with it and if you're playing near Sheffield anywhere, shout up.

Bought a GK MB212-ii from Alex. Absolutely top fella. Took extra photos and even did a video of the amp "in action" as I couldn't get down to have a trial before pulling the trigger on it due to work and other commitments. Even dropped it off to a friend of mine nearby as he was passing. Suffice to say the amp is in amazing condition, even the roqsolid cover looks like it's been perfectly preserved! Great amp at a good price, great guy. God only knows how he keeps his gear in such good shape