dougal

I had the same set-up with a death metal band.

The solution was to take my otherwise normal carvin XB-75P:


Which has a 35.5" scale length. Buy some [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/2639-warwick_black_label_darklord_bass_strings"]warwick dark lord strings[/url] and tune it F# B E A D, (except go down a semi-tone so it's F A Eb Ab Db). Needed a new nut, and some coaxing to get the .175 through the hole in the back of the bass, but wasn't too bad.

Actually, the most annoying part was that I had to buy another entire set to get a matching D, so I now have 3 spare strings, which I'll probably never use...

I'm planning on going. Was't going to take my upright...

We're playing a fancy dress Halloween party - and inevitably we're looking to extend the song list a little. My starter for 10 is below. Any other suggestions.

Bear in mind we're a straighforward rock band and so suggestions of 'Thriller' and 'Monster mash' are fine but unrealistic...

Highway to Hell - ACDC
Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
Children of the Grave - Black Sabbath
War Pigs - Black Sabbath
Ghostbusters Theme - Soundtrack
Boris The Spider - The Who
Black Magic Woman - Santana
Don't fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Ghost Town - The Specials
Bat out of Hell - Meatloaf

[quote name='geoffbassist' post='604753' date='Sep 21 2009, 05:26 PM'][url="http://shop.ebay.co.uk/geoffbassist/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg="]http://shop.ebay.co.uk/geoffbassist/m.html...from=&_ipg=[/url]


im selling on some strings as ive decided to stick to Evahs and seem to have loads of spare strings in the draw!
all in great nick,
cheers geoff[/quote]

Time for me to start experimenting then :-)

[quote name='supabock' post='593266' date='Sep 8 2009, 08:45 PM']Just out of interest what EUB did you go to? What model of DB did you end up playing?[/quote]

I bought one in Japan: it was called the atelierz cub.

[url="http://www.atelierz.co.jp/cubpassive.htm"]http://www.atelierz.co.jp/cubpassive.htm[/url]



The bridge was a bit flatter:



Here they are together: as soon as I got the acoustic I neverplayed the EUB again.



My bass is a Zeller: the all solid model.

I rather like it (although there's no way I can afford it...)

Ritter can pretty much make any bass he wants to at this stage, and it'll almost certanly sell. Most seem to be asking 'Why?'. I would ask 'Why not?'

It does, after all, appear to be generating free publicity.

[quote name='teej' post='592522' date='Sep 7 2009, 10:43 PM']I took the leap something over 20 years ago, and pretty soon afterwards I was playing upright exclusively.[/quote]

Funny how that happens: of the eight-ish basses I own, it's the upright that gets played the most. There's something honest about you, a bow and a bass. No amps, no FX, no speakers: just a big wooden box & some strings. Love it. (I didn't believe them when they said 'Tone is in the fingers'.)

Back on topic I did electric=>EUB=>acoustic. If I was going to do it again I'd drop the whole EUB phase. It was easier to play, but I could only play pizz on it (arco was a non-starter, YMMV) and as soon as I started lessons (a must, I think on any instrument, especially one where you can easily knacker your muscules / tendons with bad technique) I wanted an acoustic.

Every time I type 'acoustic bass' I want to say 'proper'. So perhaps I'm biased...

Bought from Gwilym on this board two years ago: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=6007&st=0"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=6007&st=0[/url]

I've used it semi-regularly for rehearsals & gigs. I've replaced with a 4x10 which works better with the band I play with.

Pick-up from Egham preferred, or I can arrange a drop off within the M25 / Surrey area.

My spare bow is up for sale in the 'misc' section

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57999"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57999[/url]

D.

French double bass bow.



Made in Germany (according to the previous owner - I have no way of verifying this, and I can't see any maker's logo anywhere).
I'm looking for £90, collected from Egham in Surrey.

If you want me to ship this, I will include the case (bought new from Bob G:
[url="http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product/1420-BOW_CASES_FOR_BASS_BOWS.html"]http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product/1420-..._BASS_BOWS.html[/url] ) and shipping for £115.

More photos:

Frog:


Length & Balance Point:


Feel free to come over to try it out.

The weight is 148g.

Yeah. I do. PM me & I'll sort you out.

I have a carvin XB-75P (35.5" scale) with warwick dark lord strings tuned F#-B-E-A-D
[url="http://www.carvinmuseum.com/playersgallery/xb75.html"]http://www.carvinmuseum.com/playersgallery/xb75.html[/url] (second one down).

Never use it as the band I was playing with (6-strings dropped to 'C' - so I had it up a semi-tone & layed like a normal 5-string) has dissolved. Not an option if you don't like a 5 string though.

If I were you I'd go the 4-string with the bottom 4 of a 5 on it. Otherwise you'll have a normal 5-string with an extra 'high' string, which I don't go for, although there are those that do.

Powerball: I got mine from Maplin:
[url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=99237"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=99237[/url]

Looks like the same thing.

What sort of music are you going to play on said beast?

Post the same question in the Double Bass / EUB section of the site.

Get a lesson so you know how to play the thing without damaging yourself.

Get a powerball to warm down with: I was having some trouble with stiffness. Five minutes (slow) on the powerball after playing (both wrists, bowing's quite a work-out too) really helped.

Don't give up, it's so worth it.

Where are you located?

[url="http://open.spotify.com/user/g1ngerrevolution/playlist/4Qr2vDHqPHFPfy1KWEDCJa"]http://open.spotify.com/user/g1ngerrevolut...qPHFPfy1KWEDCJa[/url]

Comments? Songs / Artists that should be there but aren't?

When I went to Uni halls (in Salford; room 5M in Faraday) (too many years ago to mention...) I took my #1 bass, Sessionette 4x10 100w combo, a lead, a duvet & a pillow. I didn't have much room left for clothes in the car: not that that bothered me much!

These days I'd still take my #1 bass (although it's harder to choose which is #1 any more) and a bass pod, and use whatever I was given at the rehearsal room.

I'd have to agree with those who've replied before & say that I think a simulated speaker makes for a much more pleasant experience: as already mentioned all you layabout students will have laptops so I'd go:

POD --> USB --> Laptop (mix with mp3 playback)

I had the MOST fun at university. Try not to ingest too many narcotics and you'll be fine!

Michael Anthony (1954)

Urgh, unclean!

+1 for Malcolm Healey.

Repaired my bass, gave it a good set-up.

Super nice to boot.

His co-worker (not his wife, don't make that mistake, she doesn't like it - as I found to my cost) needs some getting used to. There was lots of "well there's not much point spending that much on a case for a bass of this quality".

Add another happy TU-2 user to the list.

My only complaint is that one I had (for years, sustained heavy abuse) started sounding like a boiling kettle one day when it was in-line. Easy enough to relocate to the tuner out on the head though.

Where do you pluck the bass? moving the plucking hand closer to the end of the neck may relieve pressure: but as with all the suggestions will also change the sound.

The other option is when you feel the blisters start to form, use a plectrum.

Final suggestion is to use an Asbury. Silicon strings==no blisters, surely?

My tech 21 sansamp thing:



Has a 'blend' knob. For really fuzzy tones (drive post-12 o'clock') I tend to roll this back to a 50-50 split so that the unaffected bass tone can be heard. Helps with definition wonderfully.

Means I have to be more careful with the level controls but it's pretty effective.

You could probalby do something similar if you put a fuzzbox in the fx loop in your amp?

My last major purchases have been through here or gumtree. The last new bass I bought came from bass central via an American cousin.

here:
bought two basses
bought two cabs
sold EUB
sold two basses
sold combo and 1x15 extension

gumtree:
bought amp
bought cab
bought double bass

Strings, rosin etc I used to buy from Thomann.de - but the exchange rate has made that less atrractive now.

Other on-line retailers used are GAK, Andersons & DV247.com

Might be worth reading this too (although it's less of a technical comparison which is what I think you're after):
[url="http://doublebassblog.org/2006/11/rabbath-versus-simandl-comparative.html"]http://doublebassblog.org/2006/11/rabbath-...omparative.html[/url]

I get confused by the talk of positions too: why we can't use (note from the E-string):
F = 1st posn
F# = 2nd posn
G = 3rd posn
is beyond me.

Simandl has these half positions, what are they about? Eh?!?!?

The six Rabbath positions center around harmonics. For example:
1st (B harmonic on G string under 4th finger)
3rd (D harmonic on G string under 1st finger)
4th (octave harmonic under thumb)
6th (double octave harmonic under thumb)

To be honest, I think the only way to sort out bad habits is to take some lessons.

UnplayedAll (a playlist that has every song from my library with a playcount of 0)

Right now it's the happy mondays.