NickA

Don't think it's neo magnets. Pjb do neo (neo-powr) and ferrite (piranha) drivers allowing a direct comparison and it's the ferrite ones that sound brighter. Fashion maybe? If you have a full range, flat response HiFi cab you can always take some frequencies away. If you have a "dull thud" vintage cab it's harder to put stuff back? Can you not get the sound you want by tweaking eq ...and still save your back on physical weight?. Or do the "vintage" cabs "add" something (like the distortion and octaving you can get out a valve amp)?

1. Adjustable bridge .. definitely. I have mine high for max sensitivity when playing classical, keep it high for strength training and drop it right down for maximum mwah and minimum effort when playing jazz. 2. I'm in my 60s and it's gotten easier with practice (and decent setup) 3. the ONLY thing that touches the back of the bass's neck is your thumb! Squeezing your whole hand round it will make for hard work, not strengthen the right muscles and make changing position near impossible. One other thing is .. don't put too much spike out. If the neck is high above your shoulder then the blood runs from the important muscles and you lose strength; It doesn't look very cool but having the bass quite low generally makes it easier to play. Nut no higher than ear level so you're not reaching up above your head in half position This guy has it about right, but many classical bassists go lower.

My one of those actually had a full tapered shim ... I took it off and replaced it with a bit of sanded down lolly stick. I may have knocked a few £k off it's value, but it plays better and Andyjrr checked it out at a bass bash and declared it just fine. So yeh. For all people swoon about Wals, Wal & Pete knocked them out apace back in the day and they're usually a bit wonky.... still great basses tho. One day I'll get a new, and correctly angled, full shim fitted.

The shadow and Underwood slot-in piezos have the piezo bit encased in some plasticky stuff in a metal channel. Pretty robust. Use a file instead, if you have one the right thickness..or get a bit of wood the same thickness as the piezo.

Wrap the pickup in a bit of sand paper and grind it back and forth in the gap till the sides are parallel and the piezo is a loose fit. Then pack the gap with shims of veneer, I guess sax reed will do nicely..good idea, that will give a hard bright sound, cork ( mid way) or bicycle inner tube rubber if you wanted a softer sound. Generally, squeezing a piezo into too tight a gap will result in a hard clacky sound and more chance of feedback. A partial tight fit will buzz & rattle too. I upgraded from the shadow to a realist sound clamp and use it tightened lightly onto inner tube rubber...then again, I'm after a soft "Eddy Gomez" sort of sound, which the op likely isn't.

Suprisingly, different replay things accentuate different sounds and what sounds good through a HiFi may not sound so good through a bass amp - so I did both! So laptop into a PJB bighead running as a D2A converter into the big stereo (naim amp and neat motive 1 speakers, which a perhaps a bit too good at bass). from left to right C5 = boomy. C4 = much clearer and revealing a bit of distortion, bit bass light. C3 = like c4 only bassier. c2= nice dry uncoloured sound "hifi". c1 = middy, a bit brash. C2 is my fave. => the 15" is probably C5?, 1x 12" = C4, 2x12" = C3, 2x10 = C2, 1x10" =C1. Definitely guess work and personal bias, plus I admit to compromised hearing after 50+ years of orchestral and electric bass playing. Doing it again using the same D2A and a PJB flightcase combo. C5 that boominess sounds like room resonance now. C3 also has a tad of that - my own room may be reacting (the bass combo faces a different way to the HiFi). C1 is improved by the bass specific nature of the bass combo, but still the thinest sounding. It's a very personal thing tho isn't it? I share house band duties with another bass player who hates high frequencies in his sound, uses almost all neck pickup on his jazz bass and rolls off the tone on his amp. I'm always looking for a bit of zing and my Wal chucks out "gritty" mid band frequencies, especially when biased towards the bridge pickup. My double bass also needs a bit of a mid boost as the fundamentals are near sub-audible. He wants to be Ralph Armstrong, I want to be Hadrien Feraud!! And that has been an excellent bit of Saturday morning coffee time geekery 🙂 🙂

I've not listened yet ...but won't it depend on what we listen through 🙂 I guess headphone is best ..though I have two pairs which sound quite different. Then HiFi ( mine goes down to 25Hz ). Laptop speakers = not a hope. The PJB rig does bass frequencies really well, but will surely add colour of it's own ..not to mention room acoustics.

Mine has the neo drivers ..still quite heavy as the amps and casing are solidly built... but breaks down into two sections; the 150W top bit (a flightcase) is very portable and enough for rehearsals and acoustic gigs. The more recent pjb stuff with piranha ferrite drivers is heavier. Those tiny pjb amps: bass buddy, double four and micro 7..great practice amps, but you'd need to DI them into a pa or use the lineout into a powered cab for most gigs.

No issue with small speakers, they suffer less from distortion and manage higher frequencies better. You don't see 15" drivers in hifi speakers for good reason. The only problem is dispersion. The sound from small speakers spreads out more so projection is less good. Those little Markbass combos are really good. Much better for double bass than anything Ashdown make I reckon. Nice for practice but 45W will be quiet if anyone else is using amplification or the drummer is loud. My double bass rig has 5" speakers ...but there are 10 of them so projection's not an issue. (pjb, yes, and I do use it live). Not loud for its 400W rating and by today's standards not terribly light either. Sounds great tho.

Mine's a 4/4. 1880s German, 43.25" scale but not unmanageably deep. Eflat neck. Used to belong to the Netherlands National Radio Orchestra. I bought it because out of those available (in 1989) that I could afford ( all my savings) it sounded most like how I thought a double bass should sound. Deep and fat. It seemed like you got a better bass for your money by buying an unpopular 4/4 rather than a sought after 3/4 and the fashion then was for violin shoulders and corners where mine is viol shaped; I got a lot of bass for my money. I still love the sound of it; a bit unrefined perhaps but deep and sonorous. I've thought of changing to a 3/4 a few times, but those I've tried all sound a bit "cello"y, shorter on sustain and just don't have that big rich bottom E. I've also found that the long scale down-tunes to D A D G and C G D G really well for some orchestral stuff. I guess that if I wanted to play harder music ( beyond amateur orchestra and mainstream jazz) a shorter scale would help. Bassbags offered to cut the scale down to give it a D neck ..easier to play, same big body... but I didn't want it going under the knife, or to lose the easy access to higher notes at the neck.

But when you have one of these: https://contrabass.co.uk/products/5-string-double-bass-by-neuner-hornsteiner-mittenwald-anno-1880 It really deserves the best.

Thganks @Phil Starr for an excellent answer to my original question .. I may get myself a gnome as a backup .... unless (unlikely) a PJB bp-400 shows up cheap! I agree that the D800+ is basically unbeatable; it's probably the best amp I ever tried; class D or otherwise, but quite big and rather expensive. The bugera sounds like a good beast too ( and only £200:at bass Bros!!); through as it's trying to emulate a tube pre-amp it's suprising that it managees a clean sound - I guess frequency response and harmonic distortion are separate things .. ie it might have a flat response from input to output across the frequency range but it might also be generating harmonics at other frequencies (tube amps being typified .. and loved .. for their generation of even = octave harmonics). As it happens, neither of those amps are what I need at the moment (which is a small size, light weight and relatively cheap amp to power up the speakers of a PB300 cab - and no need for tone shaping as the pre in the flightcase that feeds it does all that. But it's good info for the future. Regarding impedance ... the measured 5.9Ohms at DC of my PB300's speaker array fits with its 6x 5" Neo drivers if those are truly 8Ohm (three parallel sets of two drivers in series = 2x8 / 3 = 5.3 ). I guess it's the same thing as the PJB 6B cab which also has 6x 5" neo drivers (but is just an unpowered cab) and which PJB say is 4Ohm net. No tweeters, so no cross-overs to complicate things. Speaker impedance as a function of frequency seems to be quite complicated, but I guess the manufacturers quote the minimum it's going to be across the useful frequency range. Whatever, I'm going to assume my cab is an easily driven 4Ohm one, so needs an amp that does 300W into 4Ohm.

Never noticed that on the cello....but they are mighty stretchy and take days to settle to staying anywhere near in tune; so yes. This is great advice. Ps: what music are you playing on what bass to choose eudoxa? Just curious.

Measured the pb300s speaker array today. DC resistance = 5.9ohm. Do you measure speaker impedance at DC? It will be higher at actual noise frequencies. Anyway, no worries for any 4ohm rated amp. As for the initial amp problem, pjb responded immediately to an email and put the pb300 amp designer on helping me diagnose the problem. Sadly we haven't found the cause yet and it may have to go to the states to get mended. THAT is a plus for buying Ashdown ... Back to needing a backup amp.

No-one else suggested this, so I'm Im probs talking out my derrière, but I don't think the string winding changes as soon as the silk starts. I'd give it a go and maybe even trim back the silks with a razor blade. Looks aside, the silks being over the nut may not matter. Still think eudoxas are lovely for bowed chamber music ( used to use them on my cello) but expense, delicacy, longevity and tuning stability have sent me back to synthetics. Rather dead for pizz anyway surely.

I went from cello to eBass to double bass. I play them as separate instruments, tho there is some read across between them. You can use simandl on electric, but it seems a waste of a finger, so I play dB simandle+, eBass one finger one fret (or lack of fret) and cello ...like a cello (quite different). The other change is the lack of position reference when you lose the D (or Eflat) reference at the neck; the eBass fingerboard just goes on and on so it's easy to get lost; I do need the occasional glance at my left hand to check where I am. Then again,you don't need to go into thumb position. Other than that, the transition shouldn't be too hard. Get a cheapo electric and try it ...tho finding a cheap fretless is harder ( I made my own with pliers and wood filler at first! I still struggle with frets.

I watched that in 1978 and thought "one day I'll get a double bass". Does the dB festival still run?

I could tune the whole thing in fourths and play it like a 6 string bass ... I guess; might need super heavy gauge for the bottom 3 strings which would be going down two tones. But then, I think,the chords in genuine viol music wouldn't work out. That earlymusicshop video says that much of the repertoire is written in tab so that you can play all kinds of scordatura without having to learn which note is on which fret with different tunings ... on the other hand you have to learn to read tab! I was intrigued to see that you can actually get fourth tuning 'cello string sets for bassists wanting to play the 'cello. Retuning a normal CGDA set to EADG might beabitmuch for a normal C string. I've played a couple of 'cello pieces that invovle tuning down,but not up (EG Bach 5, which has a tone de-tuned A string, and the Kodaly solo sonata (the easier bits!) which needs the C and G de-tuned a semi-tone) these are written as if you are playing with normal tuning, so you read it, plonk your fingers in the normal place ... and unexpected notes come out! Suprisingly easy to get used to and some strange and wonderful chords! My "fret gut" arrived today. I'd bought the wrong gauge (0.55mm and it should probably be 0.75mm) but tied it on and it works. Oh my ... different tunings, different temperaments through variable fret location, different gauges of string and different gauges of fret! A new clef and a possible need to learn TAB. Music used to be a whole lot more complicated than a 4/4 12-bar in E.

Errmm .... 'cello, 'cello, violincello. Medium size violin thing between a viola and a bass 🙂 What was I thinking about when I pressed post? It's a Viola da Gamba or Basse de Viol or Bass Viol. I think the Lyra Viols are a bit smaller and meant for playing really fancy stuff? (https://earlymusicshop.com/blogs/early-music-shop/introducing-the-lyra-viol). I knew almost nothing about Viols till this arrived and I had an ensuing long email conversation with Alison Crum who quite literally knows as much about viols as anyone in the universe (and has played with Jordi Savall no less). Evidently I'm, getting a bit keen as I just ordered 1.2m of "fret gut" to replace the missing fret and now have to learn to tie "fret knots" and adjust the fret position. Just read a long tract on tuning, in which the different types and flavours of 4ths was discussed at length. Ha, you thought a fourth is a fourth is a fourth ... not with Viols it seems. I recal my dad getting into a huff with a harpsichordist, because dad was playing open strings (as you should) but had tuned said open strings in even temperament instead of "just" temperament which meant he was micro-tones out of tune with the harpsichord; the harpsichord man refused to use even temper as "the cadences would not resolve properly". Whole nother world; I have trouble getting my jazz band colleagues to tune up at all 🙂

Brought my late dad's bass viol home to clean up and try to sell. But I'm getting quite attached to it. Should I learn to play it? Up side, they're amazing things played well. Downside, bass guitar, double bass and fellivto CELLO to practice and the damned thing takes ages to tune, goes out of tune all the time and you sometines have to adjust and replace the gut frets. It has weird D, G, C, E, A, D tuning and the best music for it is in the alto clef. sigh.

Good call..if I could find a used one ...£500 new at bass direct.

Nice rig Dan, with lots of options. I also got into pjb by getting a used flight case for very cheap off bass chat..but it's not loud and I missed the heft of my old trace rig when playing electric, so hunted down a used pb300. Together they are a great rig and either or both are lovely with double bass..if a bit "soft" for electric bass . you're right tho, I don't need a whole bass amp, a simple power amp will do; some on eBay; £120 for 400w into 4ohm. Might be worth a punt. tho...now you mention it... I have a qsc plx3602 sitting in a cupboard at work "offering up 775 Watts per side at 8 Ohms, and weighing in at a mere 21 lbs". The 21lbs is an issue, but it's a superb amp. And as I'm in charge of the cupboard.🙂

Yes I'd fit a ply or ally plate and a speakon socket. Maybe also a mains socket and a couple of mains outlets so I could power the amp and the flight case combo from one mains lead ..daisy chaining the amp input from the flghtcase line out. A lot of boxes to carry tho. Maybe the pb300 powered from an amp would be enough. I had the pb300 apart last week to fault find ( found nothing, but it sprang back to life) and forgot to measure the impedance. The six drivers are in three parallel sets of two in series, so if 8ohm each, the whole thing is 16/3 = 5.33 ohm. I'll check! The pjb d400 amp is 350W into 4ohm ( current limit ) and 200W in 8 ohms ( voltage limit ), so should be 300W into the 250W pb300. Perfect, and confirms that a d-800 is overkill. The d-400 is still £550 + tho, which is more than I'd hoped to spend on a temporary solution. Which is why I wondered if a gnome (or something) would do ...might even fit inside the pb300!? Thanks for the other suggestions ...quite heavy tho.

Tempted by those pb800s. ... But for a similar price theres a used d800+ for sale. If I chuck £700 at an amp I fear it would lead me into buying lots of cabs! Could get pricey!