Rabbie

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1397550119' post='2424953'] My Latin to O level was taught by an England footballer who was our gym master but 'did' Latin on the side. [/quote] Brilliant!! Sorry to derail the thread but that is a gem.

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1397548250' post='2424929'] [i]Nil carborundum illegitimi.[/i] [/quote] Hopefully it's not a case of an illegittemi luthier, just a mistake. Illegittemi anyhow is "bas***d" only in the not being wanted by your mummy sense, not in the more common sense of the expletive as we use it... This is a very erudite place to be!

Snap Kev, posted same thing at the exact same time...

Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum Just to quote the Romans here... Basically anyone can make a mistake, but if they are arrogant about it and don't agree to fix it, it is then that I would consider shaming, but only of you are 1000% sure he was in the wrong, otherwise it is your name that could end up tarnished. I claim record for the first sentence in Latin to appear on Basschat...

He should cut you a new bridge with the pick up installed properly at no charge and no questions asked. There are not many DB players around and he cannot afford his name being shamed for something as basic as fitting some adjusters (which is all a full circle is). He gotta be pretty Bad or be having a pretty bad day to muck that up.

If you want to hear how it sounds I can link you to a couple of albums I have played it on, one with steels and one with guts. PM me if you wish

Can you not hire a bass there? It is a lot safer. A but if research will surely reveal a good music shop that could hire at reasonable rate. I have hired In the past and always found it a lot less stressful and not such a terrible compromise unless your setup requirements are very unusual and the music you play would be too tricky to execute on a bass you don't know.

I am the worst exponent of arco in the world. So don't take my word for it, but guts are bowable. In fact before steels that's kinda all they had. I know what you mean about the typical sound, doesn't bother me but again, I hardly ever bow.

Guts

I have heard from very good sources that you can deal with confidence with Tom. I have never met the gentleman, but I do know a very good musician friend of mine who has had work done by him and he was both excellent and cheap.

[quote name='jakenewmanbass' timestamp='1396118203' post='2410162'] I think it's worth pointing out that DB can leave you injury prone, so while it's true that there is no 'one correct way' it certainly is true that risk of injury should be minimised. I've been doing this a fair old time now now and I've known a few guys get tendonitis over the years. [/quote] +1

Great job fella! I agree with the comments. I'd say if you try to lift your elbow (i.e. dont let it drop), it'll be easier to straighten the wrist. It's amazing how much more hand strength you'll have by sorting that little thing out. The rest is practice and building up stamina.

Ok, you guys have successfully given me the heebie-jeebies... for many years I have travelled everywhere with just the MU insurance at best, but tonight I gave in and just insured my basses!

[quote name='paddy109' timestamp='1396019572' post='2409115'] Whats the contact details to buy a Duke? [/quote] [email protected]

I'm sure you already know but just in case...Musicians Union membership comes with free £2,000 instrument insurance. That may well just cover you.

Well I'm not the Incredible Hulk but it seems heavy to me. Probably not heavy enough to get overcharged on planes, but I' sure that the act of putting it on the roof of a car will cause a fair few dents. Ok I realise that writing it would make the roof collapse was a wild exaggeration: I am prone to those...

For what it's worth: I have played ply Strunals as borrowed basses on tour. Nothing wrong with them at all and you can have a very happy career playing one as ultimately it is your fingers that make the sound. However, there is no comparison to my Duke. Bearing in mind that my Duke was one of the very first Thomas had sold, and it has had time to settle to me and viceversa. The differences are enormous. Strunals, like Shens and other well made plys are produced like their solid and carved wood basses, only with cheap plywood as opposed to wood. The result is a constant awareness you are playing a student instrument. The Duke is the rolls Royce of plywoods in 2014. It is made specifically to highlight the characteristics of a plywood for roots music (yes including trad jazz, swing, bop). It is a professional instrument and unless you want to join a philharmonic, you will not fancy anything else if that's the kind of sound you love. Everyone who loves basses or works with basses, players, luthiers, sound engineers, have told me they have never heard a better sounding, louder and darker bass. My gigging bass is now a Chadwick Folding bass, which is excellent, but acoustically it bears no comparison to how good my Duke is. Recently I got rid of a lovely carved Wilfer bass, which was beautiful bowed, but for pizz and slap was not as good as the Duke for my purposes. It had a carved bass sound, fine for most, but if you want to swing and thump, you just cannot beat the direct oomph of a great ply. Taking a Fiat 500 to the best mechanic in the world, will not make it compete with a Porsche...So, Duke all the way for me. I think I'm actually gonna ask Thomas for commission! Most importantly of all, very very sorry indeed to hear about your loss mate.

[quote name='spencer.b' timestamp='1395689965' post='2405193'] Chadwick folding bass could go on the roof [/quote] And your roof will probably collapse: the buggar is super heavy!!