NickA

Pickups make difference. Did you try your own and the tutor's bass without amplification? if he had a £400 schertler and you have a £25 shadow ..... Probably the bass tho . I can vouch for Bassace's Bryant with its new extra wide bridge. He gave me a go at a bass bash. Very playable. I've tried basses in dealers that were on sale for £12k to £20k that were not nicer to play ..tho often older and frequently smothered in repair work. If the one on musical chairs is really the same quality for £2800 it is a bargain indeed. My own bass is a big old German one (4/4 size but not unplayably deep in the chest). Valued 7-8£k. It's louder and fuller sounding than the bryant and has amazing sustain; but on the other hand I would not rate its playability. The hefty build, extra scale and consequent string tension mean It's really quite hard work. Basses I like the sound of as much, but which are smaller and easier to get a nice sound out, of seem to come in around 12k at dealers. If you try lots of basses you may find your soul mate. But easy to play Basses with a great sound don't come cheap. There's a reason your tutor's bass cost him 10k!: PS: just check your bridge and sound post haven't shifted. My bass felt awful for a few months, till I realised that smacking the bridge on a door frame leaving an orchestra rehearsal had shifted the bridge 5mm to one side - pushing it back made a surprisingly huge difference.

Googled bb5000 and the first result was "why are bb5000s so hard to find". I guess it's because 5 string basses weren't comon in the 80s. Anyway, the bb5000 appears to have a normal not a reverse p neck pickup (reverse being the "correct" way imho), so not quite a 5 string bb2000. I found a bb2004 which is an active bb2000 and a bb2005 which is a 5-string version .. but that one has two J pickups. The search continues.

I had a 1980s BB2000 for a while; traded it in against another bass and now really wish I'd kept it. Unusual in being a through neck and having a reverse P bridge pickup. For a passive bass it was awesomely clean and punchy. If I ever see one for sale, I probably buy it ... was there ever a 5-string version of that bass? If so I'm going hunting.

1. jebroad 2. Len_Derby 3. Jabba_the_gut 4. Spondonbassed - Hohner B2A, Steinberger Spirit XT25 5. Andyjr1515 6. Jimothe y 7. Mojo 8. Owen 9. Teebs 10. Josie 11. Aidan63 12. Frank Blank 13. petecarlton (newbie) 14. Bassman Sam. NR Custom built Thunderbird, Ashdown 2x10 combo, MM P-bass. 15. ChrisLovatt (bassbash virgin) 16. Stub Mandrel - Fender Pe rformer 17. Richard R. (newbie too). I'l l bring along my Brawley Artemis, if anyone is inte rested. 18. Marillionred - John Letts fretless 5, Warwick Dolphin SN 5, Michael Kelly Dragonfl y acoustic 5 (this one is for sale 🙂 ) 19. Skinnyman - only a possible at this stage but I'll try and make it with a BF One10, possibly one of their new GXII cabs, and a b donkey or two 20. LukeFRC Mesa Walkabout and a few Basses 21. Nick A: Wal custom fretless, Warwick dolphin pro1, bitsa with a very nice acg-eq-01 preamp in it. PJB flight case and pb300 ...

Bought mine (a Tanglwood rosewood reserve):to play at folk sessions ( where electrics are frowned upon or simply banned ) rather than lug a double bass to the pub. So quiet against a guitar a fiddle or two and a couple of squeeze boxes no one knew I was playing. ... maybe a good thing 🙂

Find my Warwick Dolphin ( active MEC pickups and 9v tronics) a bit "polite" sounding sometimes. Lovely sound and a joy to play but lacks a certain fundamental frequency THUMP. Was thinking of buying a Stingray!!! 🙂

Some people love those extensions. Better than a 5 string as you keep the string spacing and the neck width of a 4 string plus can still really DIG IN to a fat bottom E ( most often the lowest note you need). Drop tuners are an option but when you deploy them, all the other strings go out of tune. There is a lot of classical music that needs bottom D or C so mostly we retune to D A D G or C G D G between pieces. It's a pain and smaller basses suffer string flap when tuned down so low. an extension is probs the cure ... But UGLY, can't bring myself to adulterate my bass with one.

I've have spent many hours and GBP's trying to make my amplified double bass sound like that upright sound in my head !!

I will admit, the other week we started off playing "Triste" and I was obviously playing the wrong chords .. thought I'd maybe printed a Bflat chart .. nope, I'd dropped my left hand in 2nd instead of first position 😞

The cheap one has gone, the expensive one still there! Why don't people just sell them here instead? Bigger audience of actual bass players and no commission to pay.

Need to be a contortionist to see the dots mind .....

On one level I find the double bass easier to play .. just because I don't try to do anything too difficult on it. ( Cimadore's double bass concerto pales into insignificance compared to Donna Lee or Portrait of Tracey .... ) . You can save your fingers a bit by a) using either of index and middle finger; when changing strings you can change fingers now and then (spread the load), b) let the amp do the work, you don't need to play as hard as you think, c) practice short and often 'till your fingers harden up. I asked Alec Dankworth about this once - and he says even he gets blisters for the first few days after his annual 2 week holiday - but lots of practice is the key. .. and yes it is great fun and so much cooler than playing an electric ;¬)

I was going to say helicore hybrids too - as I have them on my (full scale length double bass) but have to tune the E down to a C (!) for an orchestra thing next week (Lyadov's Enchanted Lake with lots of low Dflats) and amazingly they still work. Should think standard Thomastic spiro-cores would be OK too as normally quite high tension.

Well you will certainly need to shift to 1,2,4 fingering and also need to play without ever looking at your fingers ... it's easier than you might think as when you slide your hand up the neck, as soon as your thumb hits the heel of the neck your first finger will fall on a fifth above the open string - ie B, E, A or D (though on some basses - mine included - you have to reach back a bit with your first finger to hit those notes as their necks are designed for better access to higher notes including an octave above the open string) One way to locate first position (first finger on F#, B, E or A) is to put a bit of elastoplast on the back of the neck where your thumb needs to sit (ie directly below where your 2nd finger is playing a Bflat on the G string). Then yhou can always find that position and by putting finger 4 where 2 was (with thumb on the plaster) can find half position etc etc. Probably have a few starter lessons with a decent bass player. I was a 'cellist before I was an electric bassist, before I was a double bassist ... so managed a combinaton of cello and e-bass combined with a copy of Simandl to work it out - still needed a few lessons to set me right when I reached around classical grad 7 and got stuck. Should probably have some more, but at present working out what notes of a chord to play in what order is proving more urgent than how to reach them! Yup, it's a totally different instrument basically .. Good luck

... and you don't seem many of THEM around! I would love an extra string on my pro1 ... or at least, a 5-stringer to hang next to it! Lucky man.

you don't see one for ages then loads come along at the same time ..... although, this one is listed twice, by the same person, at two different prices. I wonder what you get if you pay the extra £545 ! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Overwater-5-string-deluxe-progress-III-Custom/233131124588?hash=item3647b2a76c:g:9CIAAOSwBZ5cYGDE:rk:4:pf:1&frcectupt=true https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Overwater-5-string-deluxe-progress-III-Custom/233127274433?hash=item364777e7c1:g:Ov8AAOSw2QxcXEMU:rk:8:pf:0

Celeb endorsements are just off putting ... Makes me think it's the endorsement not the bass that's being paid for, when actually one might ask "why did the celeb sell it"?

hmmm .... stick an East P Retro in that and it would be a lovely bass indeed. On the other hand our fellow forumite Oldman will sell you a twin pickup active overwater (with an extra inch of neck) for much the same price. Tempted, been thinking about a 5-string ... but yet another boutique bass, shouldn't, not really ..... but still ....

Yup, visibility is fine (compared to the AstraVan I use for work, anyway). I wouldn't have believed it worked until someone on another thread pointed out the method. I will admit that my 4/4 bass is quite a slim one - not one of those HUGE fatties you can barely reach around - but who plays those anyway; everyone I know has a 3/4. I have an Octavia estate too, into which the double bass slides with ease with the seats down, but unless taking double bass, electric bass and the big amp too, the CitiGo is actually simpler, as no seats need dropping and the passenger seat reclines by flipping one lever, whereas the Octavia has a knob of many (many) turns to achieve the same thing.

My full size double bass fits in my Skoda CitiGo *with a PJB flightcase amp in the boot). The trick is to recline the front seat all the way; the bass then goes in bottom end first with the body resting on the vertical of the back seat, the neck then goes down the footwell. Check it out - 2 minutes in. Any car will do!

Bin there, done that, worked a treat. Sure a top notch soloist would not agree, but for my amateur classical scrapings and attempts at Jazz, it's fine. Certainly nicer than it used to be; easier to play, better pizz growl. Can't bow as loudly, but I have the biggest and loudest bass in the orchestra, so not really an issue.

Nailed it. I thought there was something odd about it. It's a huge slab of an instrument whereas I always think of Streamers as being quite svelte. Might sound fantastic of course ....