spencer.b

Mystery , anyone know what strings were about in the mid sixties?

3/4 , 7/8 etc is very vague ,(does anyone else get people asking what size your bass is then saying their mate's got a full size one ?) when I was looking at basses I realised that basses relative proportions vary loads, you get some with long string length and narrow ribs etc. most 3/4 basses are around 104 to 105cm string length.

Hmm tricky one , if it was for gigs I'd hire one but I can understand why you'd consider your taking bass for the studio. How much is the excess baggage charge? I would of thought you could get a pretty good instrument with an adjustable bridge and take your preferred strings, although I've had some awful gigs abroad on hired basses , last year in Rome I ended up with a bass so unplayable we had to cut all the fast tunes and even on medium swingers I was having to play a 2 feel badly. You could maybe see if the studio have connections for a hiring a bass from a local player as they tend to be better set up than hire company instruments. Classical players fly really expensive instruments all the time don't they? What sort of music do you play?

I've always hired a bass for gigs abroad, have you got a proper flightcase? how many gigs do you have over there?

Chadwick folding bass could go on the roof

I really really want a peacemaker too, I'm thinking about driving to frankfurt later this year and getting one. you definitely should get one, even though it's a lot of money they're relatively inexpensive as uprights go , go on ,it'll make you very happy sorry for your loss mate

I had a similar issue with a bass and I tried everything and ended up realising it was just an intrinsic quality of that bass , that said I have also basses that work best with a mix of strings , on my bass with a thin sounding G I found gut or nylon to be even worse , and actually ended up with a Spiro mittel which even though was very bright was a loud string and seemed to make the best of it . Unfortunately I suspect there's no easy fix. Have you outgrown the bass?

gut strings can have a bit of sustain, scott La faro used lightish gauge guts with a low action and he has some sustain [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30lkzeo-GVQ[/media] so to does Andy Simpkins of the three sounds [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjmQwnuqJQs[/media] and larry gales [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui01MZOeVHo[/media] I think these guys would of been using artone or golden spirals neither of which are still made but I think gamuts and pirastro chordas are fairly similar, guts can have a coarseness to them with this set up which I really like. If your just starting out I'd only go for guts if your sure thats your sound as it's a lot of messing about and money but it's the sound I hear for myself and I'm getting there with my set up ( big bass with gamuts plain G D wrapped E A and no pick up, well an ehrlund if I have to) That said i've got another bass with spiros and a realist

I love the sound of guts for jazz and I think it's a shame they've died out a bit. The majority of the classic recordings of the 50s and early 60s are on guts , Paul Chambers , Sam Jones Oscar Pettiford etc . They're a really expensive and it took me a long time to find the right brand and gauge but I love em.

If you're new to double bass I'd say try a few things out first, the price seems a bit steep if the bass was 2750 new, I'm not sure a set up and a broken pick up add any value. for £3000 you might find a decent old german bass which would appreciate in value. A while ago bassace was selling his upton and that's a really nice bass, might be worth a PM

The Ray Brown book is pretty good. I think beats 1and 3 are important ones for chord tones , like when you play a 2 feel then join them up with passing notes ( only one approach of many ) . There's a great site called jazz capacitor with loans of downloadable transcriptions , Ray Brown , Leroy Vinegar , PC etc , there a wonderful chambers solo on I Can't Give you anything but love that I got loads from in terms of enclosures and approach notes

Sounds obvious but my advice would be transcribe some of the greats playing the changes in question , even if it's only little fragments. Amazing slow downer or transcribe programmes are pretty good.

Thanks for the advice , Rabbie have you got any London gigs in the diary?

bit of a tangent but speaking of a big gut sound have you guys heard Andy Simpkins from the Three sounds and earl May from the Billy Taylor trio

this kind of thing [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fhB6FW0g14[/media] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfeeLgHvROA

hmm kays have a 42inch/106.68cm string length, I wonder how much that longer scale contributes to making a bass resonate well with gut strings, I mainly play jazz and bluegrass,(want a sound like Ben Wolfe, dennis Irwin, carlos Henriquez, larry gales with a bit of cousin jake and tom gray from the seldom scene ) so i want a bit more sustain than your average rockabilly set up,

I'm really keen on the peacemaker, my only concern is the string length is 105cm , 2/3 of an inch shorter than the cleveland and 1and 2/3 inch shorter than a standard (sorry for the mix of metric and imperial ). Rabbie what's the string length of yours.

Thanks for the advice guys, I've just facebook messaged duke for some dimensions and asked the wife if she fancies a driving holiday in germany this year. I checked out the standard on musical chairs it looks nice but quite a lot of money for a bass that might need a lot of work in years to come. any of you guys played a duke?

Got roped into watching by the missus and like 2 years ago the highlight for me was jamereo artis with Bruno Mars, great player. Sound was sh*t for Eliie Goulding but I'm not sure it's mockney to sing with english vowel sounds ?

Has anyone ever come across an american standard in the UK ? Has anyone imported a new standard ? In the last few years I've become all about that old school gut string big booming sound, I bought a big bryant that I've got guts and, it sounds great now, I'm thinking of selling my old german 3/4 and getting a big plywood bass. I've always loved Dennis Irwin's sound and I recently watched that youtube vid about his bass and was amazed it was a relatively inexpensive ply bass. I assume very few would of made it over the atlantic but I know there are some kays around. Anyone got any alternative ideas for a long string length big ply bass

Check out Ben Wolfe he absolutely kills it with 1 finger , solo at about 6 30 where he's playing 8ths. He's one of my favourites,gut strings, never uses a pick up and always has a great sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIBlMHCQQ78