NickA

I'm spoiled. I have a MK2 Wal. Spent an afternoon in the gallery trying stingrays and liked them a lot, but the B was still "different" to the other strings; maybe careful setup and amp tweaking will do the trick ...certainly Tony Levin sounds ok on one 😂. Warwicks and Dingwalls good down there ..and a Sandberg Cali vm5 pretty good too..tho a bit bland compared to rays and wals. Appreciate this kind of exotica is not what the OP wants (yet) ..but doubt a £130 bass will really hack low B terribly well. Could be wrong...habeen before 😁

I may be ( and have been!) labelled a gear snob.... But personally, having tried a load of 5ers before taking the plunge, I'd say push the boat out and get something better, and try before you buy, like a used sire maybe; apart from being nicer to play it would retain some resale / trade in value too. I found the bottom B on most 5ers ( including fenders and stingrays!) is rather weak compared to the other strings and is not going to be better on a cheap one. Even a cheapy gives you the option, but if you need those low notes often you might need a fancier bass in the longer term ( or a 18" cab like tony levin's! 🤔) Meanwhile You'll probably find the neck rather wide. Needs decent technique to provide mobility and avoid rsi. No hooking thumb round neck as you'll not reach the B. "Proper" 5er playing is where you base your hand with 2nd finger on E on the B string then only go back to 1st position for notes below Eflat. Then you can play an E major scale all the way to D on the G string without changing position... and it's less of a stretch between notes too. However my particular 5er sounds better in 1st position..... String damping is suddenly an issue as you don't have enough left hand fingers to damp all the strings. Right hand damping is needed and learning floating thumb is a good way to do that. Having played 4 string instruments for 50 years. I still get lost on ocassion, eg finger the A string and pluck the E ( grrr!) takes practice to build familiarity. Good luck!

Another option is https://www.musicalchairs.info/sales all kinds of instruments for sale there; mostly clasical. ...although, I've singularly failed to sell a cello and some cello bows there; I guess that's because you need to try out such things and people don't want a journey to try just the one..unless it's something very special or very cheap. Reverb also ok .. pretty secure ( buyer pays reverb, seller ships, buyer receives, reverb pays seller ) ....whereas BC does rely on trust / reputation.

Made on Denmark St? I used to hang around there endlessly in the mid 80s and the only place making anything was Andy's Guitar workshop. I guess the "Andy" was Andy Preston, business partner of Mr May ( says google) They put a very nice ebony board on my self- fretlessed fake fender jazz. Unfortunately, they glued it on with araldite and when the truss rod failed no bugger could get the board off. New neck time. I had no idea my fake fender once had an overwater fingerboard.

Don't think of the dB as a solo instrument really. Not even keen on bass solos in jazz tbh. I did once see Eberhardt Weber live; it was brill. But does very clever use of a looper, chorus and reverb on an eub count as solo double bass? Cello on the other hand, well ....Bach 6 suites, Britten, Kodaly... ..off to widen my horizons, and thanks for the tips👍 Ps: I got a bollocking at school for messing with the music depts new synth... Despite being a kid who'd been bought an instrument and given lessons to play it ( dad was a cellist). Its just that some school teachers were ( are?) in it to be fontrol freaky with smaller people.

I guess they're a lot younger than me and don't remember the halcyon days of bass rich pop, funk and fusion ☹️.... or more to the point, know that their audience don't. oh I feel old.

bastards!! be nice if the sound in their heads wasn't always a passive precision with flats 😂🤣

I'm sure the dealers will be all over this auction, but y'know, put in a bid 70% of the ticket price and it may beat what a dealer will pay as theyll be hoping for a fat markup in their own shops. Amati will sting you for 22% of the hammer price plus VAT. So a £1000 bid would cost £1000 + £220 + £44 = £1264 plus delivery (plus vat)..caveat emptor. Whoever buys that Dodd cello bow will be paying around £4000 in comission and tax alone.

That one is really bad. The only specialist bow shop there is (was) in the UK. Glad it's retirement not bankruptcy. I see the stock is going to auction. "OUR HUGE SELECTION OF BOWS IS NOW BEING AUCTIONED by Amati Instruments Ltd., 10A Chandos Street, London, W1G 9DQ (2 minutes walk from the B.B.C’s Broadcasting House), 0207 099 7114." Doubt there will be any bargains once auctioneers fees are added, but worth a look. Most of the bows have bowspeeds price stickers on so you can see the approx value. https://app.amati.com/en/auction/1128-the-hamilton-caswell-retirement-sale-5th-6th-november

Thanks. Best wishes to David and Helen; hopefully things will work out ... Now Helen owns the company I guess David will have to do as he's told 😉

Yup, up for that. Thanks for picking up the mantle ...

Well, I've a community hall, nearby, in derby. Available quite often for a reasonable fee. Parkings a bit tight, but it has some ..and on road for a small fee. https://maps.app.goo.gl/9fuHa9czZ9U4LS4a8 Any good? Can enquire.

Website is still on line. I guess until liquidation starts they could still sell stuff... but pick up and pay in person might be wise. I've had various bits from them over the years (strings, rosin, a pickup, a bass bow) and a couple of minor repairs ( new cello end pin, bridge, sound post move, new bass end pin) all no frills decent work and they fixed up my orchestra's bass to playability.... never trusted them with anything too major tho as it was unclear who was actually doing the work.

It seems that Bassbags has gone belly up. A friend took his bass to them for restoration and sale on comission...then thought to check the company's finances. Failed to submit accounts so threatened with strike off. Heavily in debt; debt greater than value of stock. Now called in a liquidator. It's a real shame as they've been a useful local resource for me. Always friendly and full of advice and a useful place to buy bits and bobs. Anyway.... don't order anything from them, you'll probably not get it. ...but watch out for a liquidation sale of mid range basses!

No spoilers.... But Lars Ulrich and several others turned down the opportunity.

What a great idea.

It's good, it's fun, it's worth a punt. The McCartney cameo is odd, but doesn't spoil it. More constant smiles than big quotable jokes, but came out happier than when I went in. Count the number of Derek Small's ( identical ) basses. And the new drummer is great.

Excellent advice. thanks. From which it would appear that the sound post position on neither my bass nor my cello are completely optimal...however, bridge movements are simple on a cello and viable on a bass, but sound post adjustments are something I dare not attempt ( despite owning the " special tool" ). Meanwhile enjoying the new improved sound of my bass. Update: first jazz session with moved bridge and a pickup... not sure, it's gone rather dark; nice round sound but lacks attack and definition. Probably need to move the pickup around to find a new sweet spot ( it's a realist sound clip = very tweakable)

Took my bridge off to fix its adjusters....and forgot to mark where it had been. Experimentation time! The usual rule is, I think, to align the middle of the bridge with the f-hole notches... But that sounded rather soft and dull, warm but unexciting. Recalled that on my cello, it's harder to play but has a better tone with the bridge shifted down towards the tail piece ...but that made my bass sound softer and duller. Moving the bridge nearer the fingerboard brightened the tone and improved the attack... Also a bit harsh and "boxy". So back a bit and now it sounds better than ever. Are there any useful rules about where the bridge should go and what effect different placements have on the sound ?... or is every bass different and it's just a matter of experimentation?

Plus... I think it makes the bass sound better. If I dont play my dB for a few weeks it seems to stiffen up... A few hours of bow playing and it starts to sing again. Maybe I'm imagining it because it doesn't seem very logical..but it works for me 😁

It's usually not the bass playing itself; it's the bass playing showing up the effect of something else. Eg bad posture when typing at a computer. I've had: a frozen shoulder so I couldn't bow...that was triggered by falling off my bike. Left hand pins and needles making finguring hard... Sleeping with a hand behind my head. Right hand cramps ...that was resting my hand on the desk when using a mouse. Tennis elbow .. tennis initially, then....don't know but bass playing doesn't make it worse. Those clamp things help. Left hand rsi...that may have been over-practice on a fat necked 5 string electric bass. I think eBasses are far more injuries due to the angle they put in your left wrist. Sometimes a physio will sort this stuff out...but it's hit and miss. Think " what hurts,and how might I have hurt it?" Then stop doing that thing. Rest and stretches too.

Looks like they've tweaked the standard cobalt flats to compete with Thomastik jazz flats. If you get cobalt flats performance at thomastik prices then it's a poor deal 😂. I'm surprised to learn that pino uses flats but found that indeed..he's been using EB cobalt flats and thomastik jazz flats .. so, lively sounding flats. Well, on my two fretless basses, I currently have some eb cobalt flats and they're ok but have quite a distinctive tone that may take over the sound of your bass... and some thomastik jazz rounds ( not the flats) which are nice but very thin and rather floppy...and I'm not sure I like them, subtle and supple but flap against the fingerboard. I sure wouldn't blow 80 usd on strings for an 80 usd bass!

Is this a thing to do? My viola da gamba has natural gut strings but I never oiled them, so I checked it out and found it's not normal but some folk swear by it: https://www.joshlee415.com/blog/2019/7/28/oiling-gut-strings Almond oil recommended in another post.

https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/338769-bow-wood-identification/ You could ask this guy!

A couple of "fine pernambuco" bows. The top one is at least 80 years old, probably a lot older but it was made so thin that the wood cracked near the top. The bottom one is lovely wood, but it feels like lead in the hand! The thing to note is that thin even grain.