JPJ

Darkglass Harmonic Booster, bought on a whim to add some secret sauce to my fretless sound but never actually made it onto my board as it didn’t.

For me, it’s the SushiBoxFX Finally v2 ‘with bass in mind’ valve DI box. Calling it a DI does it a bit of a disservice as it also has a built-in fixed HPF and the ability to include or exclude the valve from the DI chain. It’s become a fixture on my meagre little board and just adds that valvy goodness to my otherwise quite sterile signal path.

Really depends on where the gig is. Smaller gigs the best single cab I had was a Schroeder 21012 (a 2x10 + 1x12 on a slanted baffle). For bigger gigs the best cab I’ve owned was the SWR Goliath Snr 6x10. That thing could rock hard all night and still come back for more.

I know my EV ZLX tops have a setting in their DSP where you tell them what sub you are using (or no sub at all) and I think the onboard DSP takes care of crossover filtering. This might explain why the EV bins put out a full range signal? Personally, I prefer using an outboard crossover or loudspeaker management such as the DriveRack, especially when mixing whilst playing. In this scenario I wouldn’t leave home without the DriveRack.

So, I am looking for an app that can pitch shift songs from either iTunes or Spotify that allows you to build a playlist with the song and your chosen key. My current method is to drag the iTunes Media into GarageBand and pitch shift in there, but it’s a bit clunky, device dependent (i.e. not really portable between my Mac and iPad), and you have effectively got two versions of the song on your storage (original, and the copy in GarageBand. I know I could be a little less lazy and export the songs back out of GarageBand in my chosen key, but surely in this day and age there’s an app that can do this? WARNING: iOS solutions only, Apple fanboi

For reference my X-Vive starts to clip if i push the aux master much beyond -18db on the meter (Behringer X-Air XR18) but it might go earlier if i have individual channels that are regularly ‘in the yellow’ gain-wise.

Distortion can be a result of pushing the gain too high on the IEM send. Using IEM’s on a conventional (ie none silent) combined with poor fitting ear pieces can lead you to turn up the desk out until you start clipping the transmitter.

Look out for a TC Electronics BG250 208, you’ll pick one up secondhand for about £150. Honestly it’ll blow you away.

As a long term Behringer X-Air user, and I suspect like many of us, I’ve basically been working with the same scene file since I got the unit, copying and modifying the file for different bands (I’ve been in three since i bought my XR18) on the principle that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Having recently been working in an acoustic trio, I decided to build a new scene file from the bottom up, using all the knowledge I’ve acquired from here and from other sources, and the results were a revelation. Obviously my old scene file had been tweaked and adjusted hundreds of times and the cumulative effect was a less than optimal. The new scene file sounds much better to my old ears and a lot more dynamic and live sounding. Bottom line, just because you’ve got eq, gate, compression, etc on every channel doesnt mean you have to use it. If you’re new to the digital world you will probably do the same as I did, but once you’re up to speed with your desk, I recommend a periodic rebuild of your scene file to make sure that you don’t carry that frankly bizarre eq cut you needed at the Dog and Duck forward to all of your future gigs.

My experience is that most piezo type pickups benefit from a preamp designed to cope with the high impedence. Once you have a good preamp, any bass amp or as some have suggested powered PA speaker will work fine. Again, from my experience (mostly EUB) smaller speakers seem to work best with double bass, and my own ‘go to’ gig amp is the little TC Electronics BG250 208 combo which you’ll often see pop up on here for around £150 second hand. I use the EBS Stanley Clarke preamp pedal because on most gigs I am doubling either db/EUB with fretless or fretted electric bass.

Our gig for our acoustic trio was in a pub made out of three separate but connected rooms arranged in an L shape, where we play in the corner of the L. I’d spent the afternoon uploading a new profile to my DriveRack for just the two EV ZLX15 tops (no subs required), and I also built a completely new scene file in the X-Air XR18 for the trio rather than using a cutdown scene from the now defunct electric band. Result was a back-to-basics cleaner sound without the layering of previous tweaks and adjustments. Overall, I was very happy with the FOH sound, and this was also both my first gig using an acoustic upright double bass, and my first playing without any form of backline. Relying on the FOH sound for monitoring my bass playing was in hindsight a mistake, and for future trio gigs I will use my in-ears for personal monitoring.

Just to close out on this thread, following the purchase of Lilly, we played our first gig together on Saturday night up in deepest darkest Northumberland. As I was bringing the PA, I left my amp at home so this was a gig of two firsts, first full gig on acoustic double bass, and first gig without any form of backline. Relying solely on the FOH for monitoring was possibly a leap too far, so I will be using my IEM’s for the next outing, but other than that it was a massively pleasing experience and Lilly received a lot of compliments from the crowd comprising of friends of the band, locals, and others who had travelled to see us.

Thanks Nick, By experimentation, I think the fault lies right where the cable disappears in to the rubbery gunk, so I think its probably a right off

Does anyone know of someone who repairs Piezo double bass pickups? My Underwood has developed a fault in the wiring on the bass side element just where the cable enters the piezo element and it causes the pickup to cut out completely so I’m sure it’s some kind of short.

Does anyone know of someone who repairs Piezo double bass pickups? My Underwood has developed a fault in the wiring on the bass side element just where the cable enters the piezo element and it causes the pickup to cut out completely so I’m sure it’s some kind of short.

A gig of two firsts for me, first gig on a proper acoustic double bass, and first gig without any form of backline. Our female fronted acoustic trio played up in the wilds of Wanney at the Queens Head in Glanton Northumberland. It’s a strange place to play, the pub is essentially three inter-connected rooms laid out in an L shape and you play in the corner of the L to effectively two separate rooms. We had an enthusiastic crowd made up of locals and friends of the band, some of who had brought their instruments with them (12 string guitar, 6 string guitars, cajon, and even a cello) so things got a little ‘off piste’ at times with the various guest spots. Playing without backline was ‘interesting’ and next time I will definitely use my in-ears as I was struggling to really hear the E string and as a result I have a lovely pair of blisters on my plucking fingers. For the gear sluts, here is the obligatory ‘office’ photo 😎

Yes, but check pickup dimensions before you buy, not all pickups (especially J bass pickups) are the same size.

Thanks for this, I’ve been playing Simple Man for over 14 years with our Southern Rock tribute. Ed King’s bass lines on both Simple Man and Freebird use similar licks, although I have been accused of over playing on Simple Man when playing the original bass line 🤷‍♂️

My self assembly PJ five string has the stack pot arrangement from KiOgon and it’s very versatile. That said, my Fender Tony Franklin fretless PJ has conventional volume and tone and a three-way switch which works equally well but I suspect that the P & the J pickups are very well matched. Those Tonerider pickups are excellent, but be careful as some of their P pickups are very ‘hot’ and will easily overpower the J.

So having spent some money on a Gewa Prestige gig bag (money well spent, this thing looks fit for the road with plenty of padding and pockets galore), last night Lilly and I took part in an acoustic rehearsal. She sat so lovely along side two acoustic guitars, looking forward to gigging her next weekend (hopefully our singers laryngitis will have cleared before then 🤞).

Found this on the GSS site - input sensitivity 10kohm?

Are you driving the Sumo hard enough? Given that the output of any amplifier is governed by the ‘strength’ of the input signal, it sounds like you might need to turn the VT1 up a bit to give the Sumo something more to amplify?

There is certainly something very tactile about playing a double bass, and I can certainly confirm that there is a very pleasing interaction between bass and body. As I generally refuse to dance on account of my two left feet, I’d better not start dancing with Lilly or Mrs JPJ will get jealous 😂

Having finished a couple of guitars and basses using nitro in rattle cans, here’s my approach. 1) sand the body to 400 grit 2) apply the grain filler working the filler in with a plastic spatula across the grain 3) sand the body to 800 grit working slightly diagonally to the grain so as to avoid pulling the grain filler out of the grain. 4) apply sanding sealer, this will serve two purposes, firstly it will let you catch the light so you can see any areas that need more sanding or filling, and secondly it will cut down on the amount of primer you use. I normally knock the sanding sealer back to about 1200 grit before I apply the primer. 5) apply the number of coats of primer you need to get a good even finish with no exposed grain, sanding scratches, defects. Pay particular attention the the edges where the primer can sink into the open grain. 6) once happy with the primer coverage, wet sand to 1500 grit. Everything you apply from here on in will magnify any remaining defects so this is probably the most important stage. 7) apply your colour coat. I’d probably apply three coats around the edges, two to the back and three on the front, although as the Sherwood green is relatively pigment heavy, two good coats all over may be sufficient. If you haven’t sprayed nitro before I’d highly recommend practicing on some scrap wood as the line between enough coverage and enough to run a screw your finish is very very fine. 8 ) wet sand the colour coat to 2000 grit 9) Apply the clear coat, again probably two or three coats to build up enough coverage to wet sand without sanding through to the colour coat. Leave it at least two weeks to fully cure (finger nail test is the way of knowing for sure). 10) Wet sand through 2000, 2500, and finally 3000 grit. 11) buff with coarse, medium, and fine buffing compounds and then polish to final finish. To improve the spray pattern and reduce the ‘orange peel’ you invariably get with rattle cans, warm the paint before you spray by standing the can in a pot of warm water. Do not scrimp on the can shaking, you need the paint and propellant to be fully mixed to avoid spatter. Finally, health and safety - you need a really good professional filter mask as nitro is nasty stuff. You need the room you spray in to be warm and well ventilated with good light (preferably natural light). Don’t be tempted to spray out doors especially at this time of year, moisture in the air will cause your finish to go milky and there is nothing you can do other than stripping back the offending coat and starting again. Following my process I managed to achieve this on a black telecaster body - a finish I am rather proud of.