NickA

Galvanized industrial flooring scratchplate!!

Went to see soft machine last year; Roy Babbington was playing a Squire PJ bass. You don't even need a fender if you're good enough! I do like my Warwick and Wals tho. Warwick's are crazy good value too if you buy second hand, depreciate like super cars from new tho ( goodness knows why, fashion I guess ).

Look at the CBSO and everyone is using a French bow; likewise the LSO, likewise my amateur outfit; in fact I've never even met any German bow users. Look at the Berlin Phil however and they are all using German bows. French bowers need not apply. Is it easier to hold? Less crampy? Evidently works just as well as the French sort, once you get the hang of it. Looks awkward to me.

Great Basses. You can do anything with one of those. They even put the "precision" pickup the right way round!

Sanderberg California vm. Nice bass. Tried a 5-string one one in wunjo, but it was a 35" scale and too big for my short fat hands. 😞

Stealth black stingray? Going to buy one of these one day 🙂

That BB 2000 I traded for the fretless Wal. Had some stupid one in one out only need two basses policy. Nuts.

Lucky your sound post didn't fall over too. Stuff of nightmares.

What do you DO to your bass that makes the bridge fall over? Never had that happen, despite smacking it on doorways now and then! Cool solution though and if you're using a may pickup won't change the sound much I guess. I think a totally acoustic player would have a fainting fit.

I find frets difficult tbh. Your finger positioning has to be as accurate as on a fretless to get an even tone. If you're a bit out on a fretless you're a bit out of tune and can correct, with frets you get a nasty clank or buzz or a completely wrong note. Fretted basses good for chords, slapping, tapping and endless sustain, fretless for the rest. I think, if you're a good fretted player then fretless will beveasy. If you have lousy technique and/or are used to looking at your fingers to hit the right note ( instead of at the music or at your fellow musicians); then fretless might be tough.

Before I got a 5 string I didn't understand the fuss about string damping either. On a 4 I just used my left hand. On a 5 you suddenly don't have enough fingers and it's easy to set a string ringing ... had to learn right hand damping and forced to admit it's really quite useful.

Raising an interesting question about picks (I never learned) .. how do you stop strings ringing on? Edge of right hand? In which case, extra string confusion apart, shouldn't be too hard to play a 5.

I never used right hand damping on my 4-strings, the left hand handled it all. On the 5 I've adopted this "floating thumb" thing (where your thumb lies on top of all the strings below the one you're playing) - almost the opposite of your technique. Still, even with the thumb in play; like you, I usually damp the B-string separately, but doing it with my ring finger on the B string to give me a position reference and my thumb damping the higher strings! A major problem for me was the extra string and the A string being in the middle of the fingerboard; I still hit the wrong string sometimes, playing a G instead of a C for instance; it's not the narrower string spacing, just the extra string! Anyway, there are evidently many ways to kill this particular cat ... and I'll give your method a go next time I deserve a break from "working at home" (aka idly browsing Basschat!)

Lee was playing a pro2e (with a pick?) and mine are customs played with fingers. Pull out the pick attack, all bridge pickup with the filter knob out and turned to 8 .... getting there I think. Just listened to two blood sugar etc recordings .. the live one's pretty harsh, but he's playing a stingray😄 Maybe depends what we're calling "aggressive". I'm still voting thumb tho.

Had my 5 a year now. Just getting the hang of it. You can't really just play it like a four, because damping methods most people use on a 4'leave the bottom B ringing on which muddies up the sound. Also you can't dig in to the E string easily because there's another string in the way. I've sorted damping ( floating thumb ) use the bottom D quite a lot and now starting to learn new fingerings that use all 5 strings and fewer shifts. Different beast to a four.

Wal aggressive? Mine aren't. Fat yes, aggressive, not really. Subtle and gentle beasts. Thumb has more growl than anything, even without the bridge pickup! Ryan Martines Vs Lawrence Cottle / Mick Karn / Percy Jones. I guess that bloke in tool sounds a bit aggressive, but it's all effects isn't it?

How do you play electric? Some of us use all four fingers on an electric bass .. but it's not possible on my 4/4 db; had to learn some proper simandl (and rabatt) techniques wher you use only 1st, 2nd and 4th finger a semi tone apart ( with occasional pivots to reach a finger down or up an extra semi tone)...if you already do that on electric then you're half way there. I just find the two instruments are quite different and didn't really manage to transfer much from one to the other .. tho it helps that the notes are (relatively) in the same place. NB: I have pretty short fingers too .. my female double bass playing friends have smaller hands but the same length fingers ..they also tend to play smaller basses ( mine is a whopper ).

A hurdygurdy with proper bowing? So I guessing you bow all the strings at once but the keys tune and push the strings up onto the bow? What about the sympathetic strings, are they bowed or just resonant ( like a viola dAmoure ) and do you have to retune them to play in different keys ( like nothumbian bagpipes) As for the electric version .. sympathetic strings synthesised? I love strange instruments. That early music shop in Bradford was alladins cave for me..

Itching to get mine raised as the g buzzes around c, c#, d.... Didn't bother me till we were locked down and could go to the bass menders.

I thought I'd kept in shape double bass wise and had been doing a bit of practice for the impromptu big band gig we were going to do on the upcoming VE day. Anyway, it was cancelled so the band leader decided we should all record our parts at home and he'd mix them into a virtual gig! It's 1940s swing, it's in three, four and (briefly) 5 flats. Lots of shifts and 1/2 position, quite fast too. I reckon I've done 15 odd takes into audacity, now my hand's ceased up and I can barely hold the strings down! Soak hands in hot water, lots of stretches, then right back at it till the muscles grow back .. I guess. Do those squeezy spring hand exercisers work?

Excellent article btw. Full of things I'd thought but never managed to put into words. Had me snorting into my glass of red.....nerd that I am.

Mention of Chick Corea reminds me . Stan Clarke! Why has no one mentioned Stanley? Best known as a funky slapper of Alembics, but he's a better double bassist. Check out the John Coltrane tribute on "Johnny McLaughlin Electric Guitarist" and "jazz n the garden" with Hiromi Uehara. He has massive hands, plays fast and is spot on in tune. His big trick is playing in unison with someone playing a much easier instrument ( Kai Ekhardt does that too, but only on an electric ). Not a hope of emulation, but hear and marvel.

Incomprehensible. But then, I feel the same way about battered 60 year old fenders. Might keep it as part of my pension fund!