JPJ

Yes, sound hole plugs work. Take a leaf out of the double bass players book who use F hole blockers to reduce feedback on loud or difficult stages. Also, bring that HPF up to about 60hz. I played a gig yesterday with my acoustic double bass on a very resonant (I.e. empty wooden box) stage. The whole gig I was on the verge of run away feedback and playing open strings was an absolute no no. Sometimes you just have to modify your technique to suit the circumstances of the gig.

So, initial impressions, bearing in mind that I’ve only heard it using the phones out. Build quality appears to be very high with a robust metal body. All faders and controls are reassuringly ‘stiff’. The app connects seamlessly over Bluetooth, and there is a second Bluetooth connection for playing background/break music. The workflow of the app is good, and I was able to set up a mic channel (channel 1) and a line out device (bass preamp on channel 5) both easily. FX is quite powerful although you appear to be limited to adjusting just one parameter of each installed effect. The preamps are super quiet, as long as you set the input source correctly. I have a gig tomorrow with in-house PA so I won’t get to explore further until Sunday. That said, first impressions are very favourable.

I built a five string with a pair of J’s and a P, along with a five-way switch (N, N+P, P, P+B, N&B) but only ever used P & P+B options live. It was inspired by the Fender Stu Hamm signature bass, and include John East active eq (bass & Treble stack, and a mid-stack).

So mine is finally arriving today. Stand-by for initial impressions.

Just checking back in to report on how the Spirocores are settling in. I’ve done a few gigs and multiple rehearsals with them and I’m absolutely loving them. They’ve really opened up the tone of my old Boosey Hawkes Excelsior and are really rewarding to play. Dig in, and these strings respond with all the growl you could ever need, go with a lighter touch and you have mwah for days, and vibrato shimmers. I only play pizz so I can comment on how they play/sound under the bow. All in all the took about a week to fully settle and about another month of light use to fully open up.

So this arrived yesterday. Haven’t had chance to try it out yet, but if it’s half as good as my internet research suggests, then I think I’ll be happy. All part of my master plan of splitting my acoustic/double bass board from my electric board, as both of my bands move towards silent stages.

Damn you GAS, another preamp pedal inbound - but which one? All will be revealed tomorrow 😎

Guess who missed the word “like” 🤦‍♂️😂

My current combo is a bit of a rare beast in that is an Ashdown ABM Neo 400w 1x15 combo. I find it covers most of my gigs with support from the PA. It lives in its flightcase which rather negates the ‘Neo’ or lightweight bit of its name, but makes it super road friendly. I am dreading having to replace it, but my candidates would include the EBS Magni 210, and the humble but well loved Fender Rumble 500 or 800.

Funny ain’t it, I quite like the look of it. Could be a good buy for someone depending on the price

Not a Tony Franklin as they a) only come in sunburst, black, or lake placid blue finish, and b) have a three-way Strat style pickup selector switch.

Just a shout out to say how my Behringer XR18 never fails to amaze me. Played a gig last night with 12 inputs, six IEM mixes, plus FOH and running two fx as well, and she never missed a beat. Rock solid connection between the AirPort Express and my old Microsoft Surface Go running the latest X-Air Edit software. You might think “well yeah, that’s what it’s designed to do” but it still amazed me that it does all that at this price point. I still hanker for an x32 rack but as long as the XR18 keeps doing its thing I see no need to make the outlay. Maybe I’ll wait until the price of the wing rack drops a bit 😎

Before you go off spending money on new IEM’s etc have you tried eq’ing the aux that is feeding your X-Vive? I used to experience the same harsh IEM sound until I spent a bit of time last night eq’ing my aux send. That solved the problem for me and I had the best IEM sound I’ve ever had.

So just in from an absolute belter of a gig. Used my Senheiser IEM100’s in combination with my X-Vive U4 and due to getting there nice and early I had time to tweak my in-ears mix as well as eq them better with the result that I think I’ve just had the best gig ever on a difficult stage sound-wise.

I am involved with a lot of teak in the marine world, and looking at that grain, I’d say it’s more likely from the mahogany family. Pictures of the end grain would be helpful - in my experience old slow grown teak tends to have a very tight and regular grain pattern with no great variation in the thickness of the individual growth rings.

I was fortunate to buy my NXT from a classical player who had this end pin stand as well as the tripod. I can confirm that the NXT works much better on the end pin and does allow you to use arm weight without the bass springing backwards and forwards. The only downside is what to do with the bass when your between sets and whilst I’ve seen some clever clamps that allow you to use the tripod and the end pin stands, they’ve all been from the USA so prohibitively expense (and that was before tariffs).

My journey to double bass is like that of many, via the gateway drug of the EUB. The biggest difference on arrival at a real double bass is the string height/action and the physical right hand effort you have to put in to get the lower strings to speak with clarity and volume. Having transitioned, I went back to my NS NXT and raised the action up to double bass heights and gained a far more double bass type tone. But, as Ned Steinberger himself says, the NS EUB’s are not intended to be replacements for double bass, but are in fact to be considered an instrument in their own rights.

Re 2.4ghz vs 5.8ghz Recently, I did a gig as a sound guy. I had two devices connected to the bands Behringer X-Air XR18 running an external dual band router, one on 2.4ghz and one on 5.8ghz. The 5.8ghz connection dropped out two or three times during the gig whereas the 2.4 stayed rock solid all night. That said, I see that X-Vive have now brought out the U45 - a 5.8ghz version of the U4

Judging from his vocal mic, it sounds like quite a bit of reverb going on?

I’ve used J-Tones (Reds and Big Twin) and found them to be excellent pickups providing you spend time to get the fit in the bridge wing ‘just right’. I’ve recently moved to a David Gage copperhead, which is a huge improvement over the J-Tones but I guess you’d expect that given the respective price points. So far I’ve had no feedback issues with the copperhead, but I’m playing a gig in a couple of weeks with a notoriously resonant stage so that will be the acid test. Do you used F hole blockers on louder stages?

So, used this on my gig last Sunday. Loved the way it tightened up my sound, but found that the harmonic distortion didn’t sound great through the PA so switched it off for the gig. Could just be my eq in the PA but, thanks to a delay at the Tyne Tunnel, I didn’t have time to iron this out. Further experimentation required, but overall very happy with this very musical compressor.

Here’s an update video on the finished model. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EdniV9P7M/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Wait until you try two (or more) subs centrally, you’ll be a convert for life 😂

Latest incarnation of my board, transplanted onto a Pedaltrain Metro 20 kindly supplied by our own @spacecowboy. This will probably be the last incarnation of the doubling board (for electric, acoustic, EUB, and double bass). If I acquire any more pedals I’ll probably split between an electric board, and a second board for the acoustic, EUB, and double bass gigs.