Rabbie

Before you do anything, mark the current position of the soundpost (providing that is the sound you like). To do this, tape a pencil to a long object (like a wooden spoon!?*#!!), go in through the F hole and trace a light pencil mark around the base of the soundpost. Why? So if all fails ant the post falls over, you know where to put it back in. As for removing all strings at ones, keep some pressure on top of the bass: I like to make a little pile of books roughly same height as the bridge and tighten a couple of the strings on top, so the minimum of pressure prevents the post from falling. As already suggested, you need to keep the bass on its back.

Sorry Chris, didn't mean to make it confusing. More simply you may have got one note wrong, more likely to be something like E, F#, G#, A walking up to B, which would be the V chord before resolving back to E. All other possible explanations are a bit more jazzy. Now I have probably made it too basic and I may have missed your point, if so I am very sorry again.

PS- great to hear you are better and back to playing!

A bit of an awkward choice, which can also sound interesting in the right context. Musically speaking nothing is absolutely wrong. But you need to know what is the target note you are walking to, what key/mode you are in (at the very least if major or minor), what chord you are moving around to highlight. the ability to make these choices at tempo is what makes bass players more intelligent than almost anyone else on the planet (he he).

If you say you are "trying to amplify your double bass for recording" you may have to rethink the issue altogether. Using any amp to record a double bass is not ideal as you won't sound like a double bass at all. Put a half decent mic in front of the bridge, about a foot away and its job done (mic placement is an art which is probably for a different thread). Pickup-wise I am not criticising your setup (I had a BP100 for a long time), but however well you fix that pickup to the bridge, you may get a usable sound, but not the sound of your bass. Please don't use superglue. All the very best to you.

Sounds like an amazing plan. I'd need to win the lottery for that. Good choices I think. Edit: great choices IMO

I fear I'm not helping here, but whatever you choose today, and when the DB bug bites you, you will end up trying all of the afore mentioned strings plus many more before you settled on your "holy grail" string.... For a couple of months, then you'll try some more and finally settle on the real "holy grail" string for 6 months.... Then you'll suffer some more as you hear a great bassist sounding divine on a type of string, which you will rush to buy, only to discover you sound crap on it... And this will go round in circles... Your initial resolution to get cheap strings will turn into a twisted vortex whereby you start thinking that £200 for a set of strings is a bargain... Sounds like torture, but it's great fun: you will have a blast!

Babies love double basses Owen. For the past 2 years I have been practicing when my daughter is asleep, she never ever stirs. Its great to see how the sound of the bass to her is a comforting thing of normality as it is for music in general. You're gonna have a great time. PS- I played in Shetland in November once: living there at that time of year is not for the faint hearted...

You are totally right, it applies to all things as you say, not just playing bass. Be a healthy, serene person, and all things you do will improve as a result. You still need to practice scales though...