BigBeatNut

Inevitability for me. Been a BG player for longer than I care to remember, then discovered I loved fretless. About the same time someone introduced me to John Scofields music and in particular 'A Go Go' with Medeski Martin and Wood. After hearing Chris Wood on DB it was just a matter of time before I went for upright. I actually looked for an EUB for ages (thinking the real thing a non-starter from practicality point of view) but finally bought a 3/4 DB first after some arm twisting from my girlfriend, who (bless) thought a super-cheap upright would keep me happy. Didn't stop me from splashing out on an EUB a matter of months later Andy

[quote name='TPJ' post='437194' date='Mar 17 2009, 01:18 PM'][url="http://www.doublebassguide.com/?page_id=21"]http://www.doublebassguide.com/?page_id=21[/url] Also try TB here [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43100"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43100[/url][/quote] Good links .. thanks

(1) Ebay [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390035619710"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=390035619710[/url] [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370162910792"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=370162910792[/url] Admittedly these are in the U.S. but the Bob Gollihur offering is probably a good bet. (2) Your local luthier(s) will probably have a source ... and unless you're fitting it yourself you'll need to talk to them anyway.

[quote name='endorka' post='419967' date='Feb 26 2009, 11:32 AM']In any case, it is not really the action that makes the EUB more difficult to play than a normal double bass, it is the fact that irrespective of using a tripod or "end pin" stand, the neck of the instrument tends to move and shoogle around more than that of a normal DB. As a result, I find it harder to stay in tune when shifting, meaning I often have to supervise the shift by looking at my left hand, something not so necessary on a normal DB. The other aspect to the wobbly neck is that I find I have to grip the instrument harder with my left fingers and thumb, which of course is more tiring than the normal DB. The thing that stops the normal DB wobbling is the fact that you can hold the body of the instrument "look no hands" with your legs & torso, and it is really secure. The EUB just can't do this as well.[/quote] That 'neck wobble' you talk about might be true of some EUBs but I'd definitely dispute it being true of the one I've got. It's a BSX Allegro which has an endpin and a brace that positions the bass nicely for playing and completely stops any kind of neck wobble. It easily feels as stable against my body as the 3/4 upright does. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=1845"]This picture[/url] happens to show the brace pretty well. (It also shows that when I first acquired the bass my hand positioning left something to be desired). And as it happens, it's got a slimmer and more comfortable neck than my upright. I'm still a bit of an upright newb (neither EUB or DB has been gigged as yet) but the BSX seems like a goodie to me. In my search for an EUB I tried and rejected basses like the NS (felt wrong to have the bass locked in place on a tripod) and others that were endpin based, but just didn't have a comfortable brace (Warwick Triumph didn't work for me). That said, I'm not necessarily sure it's significantly easier to play than an upright to offer you much, Bilbo, but you're welcome to try it if you're ever in London. Andy

I've just had a proper introduction to Chris Minh Doky's music via the Nomad Diaries CD. [url="http://www.last.fm/music/Chris+Minh+Doky/Nomad+Diaries"]http://www.last.fm/music/Chris+Minh+Doky/Nomad+Diaries[/url] Lovin' it Andy

[quote name='jakesbass' post='410339' date='Feb 15 2009, 07:34 PM']Why is your flat dry? Radiators? above a shop? Find out and try to remedy. I think electric humidifiers are a waste of electricity as the air in a room is exchanged on average (if a chimney is present) roughly every 15-20 mins. I always have a bowl of water under my bass and keep it out of sunlight, never had any cracking. Keep it well away from radiators (if poss turn off in the room bass is in) and try to ensure there is water near it most of the time. If the water in the bowl dries up really quickly then you have a very dry atmosphere. I have one of those humidifiers (the green one in the pic) but I have never really needed to use it, but then I hate central heating and only use it in the very coldest weather. Jake[/quote] My flat is dry because it needs a lot of heating (open plan, high ceilings, large window area) and the only heating available is storage heaters. No chimneys so not a lot of air exchange going on. If I do encourage air exchange (open windows) at this time of year, humidity drops like a stone. Since the flat is open plan turning off heaters in the room the bass is in means turning off heaters pretty much everywhere. The bass is out of sunlight and is not close to any of the storage heaters. For an experiment I'll try keeping the heating lower and using bowls of water near the bass .... Thanks for the input, all. (and sorry for reply lag ... been away) Andy

Funnily enough ( ) I was researching the same thing on Google this afternoon. Here's the only link I found: [b][url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164856"]Boosey & Hawkes 400. Any good?[/url][/b]

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='403592' date='Feb 8 2009, 06:04 PM']oh my god... i've actually fallen in love..[/quote] Yeah, I spotted that one. Trouble is, they say it's a prototype, and a production one would be shorter scale, and not have the fifth string. So it's barely any longer than an Ashbory, and that's close to half the scale length of a standard 4-string bass. I'll bet it's much more expensive than an Ashbory ... for a limited use/holiday/travel bass

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' post='403607' date='Feb 8 2009, 06:26 PM']Wow! What a strange looking 'hollowbody'. It's lovely but not loud enough (ie yellow) [/quote] How about metallic gold ? (Not mine this one)

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='403564' date='Feb 8 2009, 05:34 PM']Why not one of [url="http://www.contrabass.co.uk/humidifier.htm"]these?[/url] Would probably work out a hell of a lot cheaper![/quote] Have you used one ? What was your experience ? I looked into those. The sum of my research was, unless you use one of these with the bass locked inside a case, they are (quoting from memory) "as effective as trying to humidify the Sahara with gnat piss". (I don't have a case, and if I did, I'm sure I would get sick of packing/unpacking every time I wanted to play it). If anyone here has different experience I'd love to hear it. Dunno, maybe I'm worrying about it too much given I'm in the UK climate, but people have commented that the air in my flat feels dry, and my upright (okay already with some faults in it) developed cracks last summer. Andy

Slightly late to the party, but here's my Lakie HB. True hollow, no center block.

FWIW, the one I currently have is described as an 'Evaporative Air Cooler' combined with '2000W heater with optional humidifier'. I've got all the controls set right and I am running the humidifier part. It's a big old beast and is going to be expensive to run. I'd hate to think that the answer is 'buy a bigger one'.

Does anyone here use a humidifier to keep reasonable conditions for a double bass ? I'd really like to hear your recommendations for brands, and probably more particularly a humidifier rating (is it in watts ?), suitable for a largeish open plan flat with high ceilings. My family clubbed together to get me one for Xmas. I've struggle to get it to do a reasonable job, and I've just accidentally discovered that having a hot bath with the bathroom door open is three times more effective than running the humidifier for 8 hours (but still not enough to get my flat up to the recommended realms of 40-45% humidity). BTW, I'm doing this because my upright bass (luckily no expensive investment as yet) developed cracks last summer and needed repairs. Any thoughts or advice gratefully received. Andy

Thanks for the all the input guys ... I've kind of put it on hold for the moment, though ... not likely to be gigging upright soon so my beaten up starter bass will do me for a while. Andy

[quote name='jakesbass' post='401808' date='Feb 6 2009, 09:58 AM']Not my cup of tea, it's a great tune, one I've enjoyed playing many times and it's a good tempo solidity challenge as most people take it at a quick pace so it really tests your stamina and how relaxed your technique is. It's not a good example really as it's probably just the 'fast bit' in a gig that will have contained a variety of feels and tempos. They are very capable players, the bass player is holding one hell of a tempo without breaking sweat and the (chord) changes are very clearly audible. Arturo Sandoval is a great player of the instrument but to my mind always over blows little room is left for taste and choice, but then I haven't seen or heard everything he's done. He can really play, though his taste does not line up with mine. Somebody mentioned Wayne Shorter..... Now [i][b]there's[/b][/i] a man who can choose notes!!!!!![/quote] Okay, seen a fair bit of comment on this video now, and this is a good lauchpad for my view. Note: This is about one video performance, not about one band or musician, one song, most definitely [i][b]NOT[/b][/i] about entire musical genre. I can't hear a key (tone center, whatever) I can't hear a chord progression, I can't detect a time signature, I have absolutely no idea where the one is (which means I can't tap my feet to it). It does have a bit of discernible melody where they slow down a bit. And that means that for me (and remember I'm only talking about MY reaction to ONE performance, and not trying to diss an entire genre) it holds about as much musical interest as a roomful of squalling babies .... and this despite the fact that those are a bunch of truly, awesomely talented musicians. Two more points on that from me. 1) I'm not an out-and-out jazz basher .... there's plenty of jazz I do like. 2) I'm intrigued by the fact that Jakesbass and others find some (or a lot) of value in this performance. This may be pointing to the fact that I have a diminished musical perception compared to some (e.g. I couldn't find the one in that piece, evidenced by inability to foot-tap). Andy

[quote name='lowdown' post='401830' date='Feb 6 2009, 10:18 AM']Thats what they say about anything thats not one. [six minor]? four and five.[/quote] Not fair, really, not in regard to me at least. I'm sure I could find examples of what I'd call noodling (jazz-noodling or whatever-noodling) over a twelve-bar or single chord and plenty of examples of non-noodling, beautiful jazz tunes over extremely non-obvious chord progressions ('Round Midnight', 'Idle moments'). Qualification: noodling means to me piece of music which is (1) instrumental and fast and (2) generates no emotional response (for me), and as result (for me) devolves into nothing more than a technical exercise, probably by extremely, even awesomely, talented musicians. If your emotional response to a given piece of music is different to mine (and that does seem to be the big differentiator here) then we're (reasonably) never going to agree on whether it's noodling or not. Andy

[quote name='BigBeatNut' post='400594' date='Feb 5 2009, 12:52 AM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSzWPNFX7sc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSzWPNFX7sc[/url][/quote] No more opinions from the Jazz aficionados ? I know it'll wind up the anti-noodling brigade, but I'm interested in knowing more about what the jazz peeps make of it. Andy

Mmmm ... my enthusiasm is waning a little ... thanks for the info, all

Bilbo (or anyone really, but particularly Bilbo, because I think we're more akin than I first thought) ... what do you think of this ? [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSzWPNFX7sc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSzWPNFX7sc[/url] Hesitated a bit about posting it, but I genuinely want to know (suddenly remembered that our drummer emailed me the link some time ago). Andy

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='400496' date='Feb 4 2009, 10:38 PM']For teh record, when I listen to jazz, I almost never respond to anything simply because it is complicated (some very hard stuff is very boring and emotionally unsatisfying). I react to good jazzin exactly the same way as I did Iron Maiden, Rush, Genesis, Yes, Motorhead etc when I was starting out.[/quote] So you are part of my group (3) ... well, well .... I may give Charlie Parker another shot ... possibly after some Art Tatum (which I know I like) to set the historical scene 1st. Andy

[quote name='silddx' post='400507' date='Feb 4 2009, 10:53 PM']It's strictly personal.[/quote] It is .... I think it stopped being an argument several posts ago. Just an exchange of opinions that's getting more interesting by the hour ...