SICbass

In situations like this, I always have to remind myself that I'll get over the money (it was only €80,-), but he will wake up every day being a c**t. Which of us is worse off?

Thanks, I will be doing this today.

I saw a pedal I was after for a decent price, but it was collection only and the guy lives about 190 km away. The ad was friendly and even had details like "It's marked with my preferred settings (see pics), but I can easily remove these at the buyer's request". He was a bit slow replying when I said I was interested, but he did finally respond. I said, a mate of mine is playing on your town in a few weeks - if I pay in advance (PayPal Family and Friends - my own suggestion 🤦‍♂️ ) can he pick it up then? "yeah, no problem, let's do that". I paid and it's been radio silence since then, both on eBay Small Ads and emails (he gave me his email for the PayPal transfer). No address and no contact phone number. Yesterday was the day for the pick-up and no sign of him. What gets me most about this, isn't that I got myself ripped off. It's the fact that, given that it was collection only (plus all the details etc.), it probably wasn't even a deliberate scammer. It looks like a legit seller who just saw an opportunity and took it. Sickening. May his next t*rd be a hedgehog.

I got the Shadow Rockabilly Pro and I absolutely love it. I am a pro bass player, but a relative novice on upright and I have "settled for" the old Shadow SH950 Double Bass Pickup (the one with the two "pickups", but no onboard eq.) for the last 18 years, and what a difference! Both for pizzicato and slapping. It's tons of fun. Granted, given my limited experience on upright, I don't have much by way of comparison, but it just made my Sunday, so.. result!

Thank you for the clarification. Like I say, I'm really an electric player who only really dabbles in upright, so I benefit from other people's experience. And, who knows, with an improved sound, maybe I'll finally turn more of my attention to da big bass? Just last week a very helpful violin maker was able to lower the action significantly and I'm enjoying the bass way more than I have in the past.

@Paddy Morris This is interesting, I have a question. I'm close to pulling the trigger on one of these, but I'm on a tight budget. Is the limiter an absolute must, or can I live with just using the gain on the neck pick-up channel for now? I'm one of those electric bass-players who just plays upright occasionally, but I'm preparing for a production where the bass will be heard through a fairly large PA-system.

What a relief.

That is just ice-cold. Bilbo won’t sleep for a month trying to decide that.

It does my heart good to know that there are people out there who are like that 👍

🤮 oh God, just the thought of it!

Weight please?

I saw them then too. Absolutely brilliant.

Never mind lad, we’re here for you.

There‘s always hope, right?

You just know that that was immediately copied and sent to most of my contacts.

Wow, this is super interesting... and has a ton of rabbit-hole potentail. I've put the synthetic E on the bass. It is very clear, and quite different to the other strings, but I'm sure I can even things out by working on my point of contact and attack with the right hand. Off to the shed as they say at SBL... Thanks for all your insights guys. This is clearly something that will take time and some application. I am open to, and very grateful for any other tips or suggestions you may have. Cheers, Paul

God these prices really are eye-watering, aren't they? Regarding your single string, thank you for your the suggestion. I think I'll try and figure something out here first. I'm in Germany. My idea was to do like you suggested and mix string types. Would it have to be E,A one type and D,G gut. I ask, 'cos I'm pretty happy with the ADG gut and could try using my synthetic E. Or is that likely to sound too uneven?

God, and I almost baulked at €200,- for my set of gut strings - ouch! The budget option is definitely more my deal. On Thomann an E and an A singles is gonna cost me a total of €150,- Forgive the question, but given their durability (and the prices), is there a market for secondhand DB strings? Or is that just too risky? Thanks for your reply - that's just the sort of insight and experience I don't have.

Hi All, I'm one of those bass -guitarists/permanent double bass newbies - i.e. I've owned a cheapo-but-playable plywood bass for years. I only ever pull it out to noodle on or when a show requires it #highriskofCarpaltunnelsyndrome. Preparing for a new show, I put on some gut strings that I've had for a few years. They sound lovely but for the dead E-string. Barry Bales talks about silver wrapped gut strings. He has half and half, wrapped and full gut on his basses. Can anyone recommend silver wrapped to try out for the E ans A strings? Cheers, Paul

Oooh that Bex pretty. Oh god no, GAS attack. Thanks for the tip.

Hi All, I have an Eastwood Classic 4, a Harley benton Beatbass and even a real Hofner Violin Bass (on loan). They all sound great, but have that typical, short-scale narrow neck. I can work with it, but it is a bit of a drag. This week, I finally played an Epihone Jack Casady and immediately... I was home. It is SO much more comfortable to play with the wider string spacing, but as many people say, more like a precision bass sound, than the typical semi-acoustic thump. I've tried looking at the spec of various basses on Thomann, and they generally just talk about scale length and nut width, which doesn't answer the question. Most are 41,5mm - 43 mm nut width, but the Jack Casady has the same nut width, so that clearly doesn't help assess the string width higher up the neck. My question: Can anyone tell me of other semi-acoustic basses with a similarly wide neck, that are more typical soundwise? Cheers, Paul

I foresee a flurry of new BC profile pictures.