BassBod

Alembic pots are very high quality, and not the type you can easily buy. On my Epic the volume turns more freely than the others, but I don't find it a problem. I'd suggest calling Alembic and ordering a replacement - they are hit and miss on email. It will cost a bit, but should be a push fit rather than soldering. If it isn't noisy or erratic I'd be tempted to live with it a bit longer....

Yes, that's the one. Does the job fine, runs on phantom power and has a high enough input impedance (without being so high it starts to produce interesting noises you don't want). John @ Orchid is always very easy to talk to, so give him a call?

I go against perceived wisdom...don't use eq on (electric) upright. After years of trying I found it was fine without! My general choice is Orchid Electronics active DI with mute button and tuner send - so I can kill the output when I want. A cheapish box but sounds fine.

Just a thought - another big variable is the cab. My Euphonic Audio cabs are very clear/unforgiving, depending on your preferences. They show up the hiss, a lot if the co-ax tweeter is turned beyond half way. My Bag End is an "older" voiced cab and you have to listen for it to hear any hiss at all. My guess is that modern speakers are more like the EA than the Bag End - people expect to hear more upper mid and detail than they did a few years ago?

Computer or camera cases are usually good options - or large sandwich boxes, even! I wouldn't put metal boxes (however light) into guitar gig bags.

I've used my EA 500 for a few years now and an Acoustic Image for about two years - to me and my aging ears there is an inherent hiss to these designs. I've also used a borrowed older Acoustic Image and a newer version - both were the same. Its not something you'd hear in a real setting, but it is very noticeable at home or in any very quiet situation. The hiss isn't on the preamp or DI, it seems to be a product of the power amp circuit. I asked EA about it and they said the level of noise does vary a bit from amp to amp, with variations in component values/quality (pretty normal for electronics?). If it was a problem they offered to replace some items on the circuit boards. My personal take on it is - older amps tend to hum, have very noisy fans and get hot...."digital" amps have a slight hiss that you can't generally hear outside your own front room, but are small light and powerful. To me, I can live with a bit of hiss for the other benefits. I'd use Thomann's replacement offer and see what the next one is like?

Looks good! I've become a real born-again-DiMarzio fan in the last few years, I love 'em...always sound great

That's the sort of experience you will remember for a long time....I've always heard he's a nice bloke.

Its not just Ashdowns. A lot of engineers won't use the XLR output on any amp...because of noise/high/low level issues. Have a search and you will find plenty of discussion on the subject here. It all depends whether you consider your amp's tone settings and sound (plus effects?) to be an essential part of "your" sound or not. My solution is to use a passive DI box from a preamp send of the amp, so they get the sound of my instrument, plus the sound of the preamp and eq settings....then they can do whatever they need to......

No direct experience of these two. But I've generally found that any "decent" active DI box will do a pretty good job with current pickups, and there is less need for eq etc than there used to be. I use an Orchid muting DI most of the time, does the impedance matching fine, gives me an on/off footswitch and a good DI. I also really liked the LR Baggs Para-DI, but it had a few issues. The tuner send needed a return cable (or something like that..can't remember the details), and the eq was voiced for guitars so only the lowest band did much. It also had a low-cut built in (non-switchable) which helped to avoid subby-boom on bass. Second hand these are very good value.

I much prefer that to anything orange...good job.

Hi Chris, And welcome to the dark side...its got you, if you're looking at pickup options. No hope now. Good news is there weren't many EUBs around in 1964, bad news is there were a lot of old lovely double basses...some even older. Can you post a photo of the bridge on your Aria? That will help give an idea of what would fit etc.

I had one years ago - short-ish scale? Not much balls to the sound, but very lively with a good snap to it. Great for on the bus/train etc. The Schaller pickup was a good 'un...

The basic fender bag is a thin cover - not much protection. Go for a Protec (£25?) or the Thomann fake brown leather (£22?) its all about the padding....

Lee's sound on the Spectrum album is just fantastic - and his control is amazing, playing his part perfectly so that everyone else sounds good. Thanks for the interview!

The compression and reverb help a lot - my Martin produces a similar high quality tone...just very very quietly!

Well, they do the job fine, hold settings etc but I couldn't say anythng other than that. I understand the five screw fitting isn't an exact "fender" spacing though so swapping around could be more difficult?

One thing I forgot to mention - the string earth (thru bridge) doesn't work with black plastic strings. I've never had a problem with buzz or noise, but its worth remembering.

I will directly quote my three year old son..."what say??" Nuff already