NickA

Laminate basses won't hold value too well as a new one will sound as good. Solid / Carved ones will do better as they generally improve with age .. or at least, people think they do.

This bass is mostly a noodling at home bass so lots of knobs to twiddle is a bonus! Once it has the full JE monty inside it tho, it may get out more. I find that with both the other basses, I have just a couple of favourite settings; an interesting one for playing at home and a more ordinary one for playing out. We shall see. Gone too far down the line now and have serious Electronics Acquisition Syndrome; I'll report back in a few weeks. And thanks folks for the info and encouragement.

Almost instant response from John (don't you love these small can-do craftsman based companies!) ... 9V rail to rail, no voltage step up, standard op-amps; should handle peak voltages + - 3.5V; if that's not enough I'll have to get someone to rout out space for an extra battery or one of these (9V in <=35V out). Now then, where's my oscilloscope! I have some memory that I did this before and the delanos peaked at + - 3V (big thumb slap on the E string ... though why I'd be slapping a fretless, not sure - bad habits).

I don't know much about ACG except that people rate them (him) ..and having just browsed their site, they look fantastic value compared to .. erm, say ... a modern Wal! I was suprised to see the ACG-EQ-01-4 for sale on John East's site as someone told me you could only get them with ACG basses. however, I see AC has moved on to a "DFM" pre-amp and that the EQ-01 is old hat in ACG terms. Still, to me it looks like the bee's knee's ... kind of Wal electronics with a Turbo. I've mailed Mr East to check that my Delano pickups won't over-load his 9V electronics tho. Pickups intended for electronics usually have a low output - and this was a limitation of my own designs; when fed by my previous single coil Kent Armstrong pickups, the pickup output voltage was higher than the little +4.5V op amps could manage. You can get around it (as Percy Jones did) by sticking a step-up circuit in line with the battery to make a local 12V or 18V off the 9V supply voltage - wouldn't put it past John East's designs to include that ... as they include everything else. Finger trembling over the "buy now" button whilst I wait for John's reply! (the seller of that 2nd hand one seems to have gone silent on us .. but thanks for the link)

For many years I've been fiddling about with some home made active electronics to create separate filters for each of two pickups, plus blend and volume. It's been fun, but the results were never reliable (crackle, pop, dead, buzz etc); whilst deciding what to build next, I ran across John East 's electronics and read several recommendations. This one http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/acg-eq01-4k.html is pretty much what I have been aiming at all these years. It seems to be a modernised version of what my Wal has inside it - ie filter per pickup, with a "Q-factor" control (the Wal has just a switch) and a variable high frequency pass through (again, the Wal has a "pick attack" switch which does the same thing). Has anyone got or tried this circuitry? Does anyone know of anyone else making similar? I'm on the verge of pushing the "buy" button, but all told with a set of nice knobs, VAT and delivery it's £241.. which is sort of the price of a whole bass! So need a bit of a push ;¬)

Here are my two. The brown one is my first bass, bought in 1981.....although everything except the tuners has now been replaced in a 35 year attempt to create a Wal/Warwick/Fender hybrid!! Currently passive (JB standard wiring, with an additional series / parallel switch) as when the latest pickups arrived I was too impatient to solder up the electronics. It's had a new lease of life since I fitted a set of EB cobalt flats and will probably be going active again soon. The Wal is ... well, a Wal, just like all the other Wal Customs in the world.

I have that bass's twin! W2716 July 86 singed by the man Wal himself. Facings could be from the same tree. Yours is in better nick tho, so I don't need to post mine. I have two small string trees tho and you have one big one. Maybe mine's a girl.

https://www.gear4music.com/Woodwind-Brass-Strings/Stentor-Conservatoire-Double-Bass-3-4/V0K?origin=product-ads&campaign=PLA+Shop+-+GENERIC&adgroup=GENERIC&medium=vertical_search&network=google&merchant_id=1279443&product_id=40196d1&product_country=GB&product_partition_id=127164593839&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn6-_r7T-2QIVyLftCh0tvA3tEAQYAiABEgKaZvD_BwE £2000. Decent bass, fully carved, ebony board, nice size ... bit short on character maybe, but you pay a lot extra for that! (https://www.doublebasses.co.uk/instruments-sale) If properly repaired - not too visible, no distortion to the top and no rattles or buzzes ... then the previous damage shouldn't count against it. But as you CAN buy them new, it won't have appreciated any. So around what you paid for it. Selling to a dealer, they will tell you it's a factory bass of little value and offer you a few 100 quid, before giving it a polish and a setup, then back on sale for £2500 ;¬)

Bach 6 on a double bass is a MAJOR feat ... it's near impossible on a 4 string cello for mere mortals; the allemande is about the hardest piece I've ever played on a cello in public (I can only hack my way though the rest, and never start to end without grinding to a halt) .. it was written for a short scale 5-string cello with a high C !! Thanks for the Joel quarrington link; I have a long train ride today and now have lots of reading ;¬)

Red Mitchell played the 'cello too I see. Must have had a small bass, huge hands or only played in 4th position or above! There's a big difference between the 34" of an electric and the 40+" of a double bass.

I was listening to Michael Manring's "The Enormous Room" the other day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra2KOyas )... which has the most amazing harmonics and chords every played on a bass ... and started messing with different tunings; eg tuning down the G string to F# yields some lovely major 7th type chords using harmonics. Then wondered if I could play the bass tuned like a 'cello ( C G D A) - after all, tuning in 4ths is really only because double basses are tuned in 4ths, and that is because a) they are descended from viols and b) they are too HUGE to finger when played in 5ths. An electric bass is a lot shorter scale, so why not tune in 5ths (bigger range, access to a low C). 'Cello tuning is only a partial success because the E has to go down to a C (floppy) and the G up to an A (tight) which is also probably not too good for the neck; maybe replacing the E with a B from a 5-string set and tuning it up would work. Also, standard 'cello technique involves a lot of extensions (eg playing a whole tone between first and second fingers so as to reach G# witha 4th finger on the D string etc) which is a bit too much of a stretch on a normal scale electric bass. Interesting (although, strangely, despite that I can play the 'cello in 'cello tuning, playing the e bass in 'cello tuning is confusing; as soon as I pick up an electric bass, my brain goes into 4ths!). Anwyay, what other tunings have people tried? Any good ones out there?

What on EARTH do all those knobs do XTof?

" We wanted a fully electric bass having nothing metal except for the tuners & frets" ... doesn't bode well for what's inside the pickups!

He's right you know. You can play anything if you really work it out and practice. But life is too short to work out and practice all the notes in Neilson's 5th. BTW provincial amateur orchestras don't get the best conductors; and anyway they have all those Violins (and back desk cellists) to worry about.

Denmark St. But it was two or three years back. Downstairs walls were lined with Shecters, which I'd never heard of at the time. I used to love Denmark st, it was a magnet for wasting any free hours in London; pretty much all gone now and it seems that Crossrail is killing the last of it (and HS2 killing my favourite curry houses and a really good pub near Euston). Anyway, enjoy the new bass - when you manage to get it.

For me: Bass heaven = The Enormous Room played by Michael Manring on his Zon hyperbass; Jaco's basslines on Joni Mitchell's Hejira; Percy Jones weaving beautiful chaos on Noddy goes to Sweden .. and you know, now and then, Mark King playing Sandstorm. Bass hell = some bloke, in a covers band, thumping out roots and fifths on a (relic-ed) passive precision fitted with flats But it strikes me that we're arguing more about tastes in music than about what bass players should do. If you like Jazz you want to hear a complex, ever moving bass-line that weaves around the harmonies of the music. If you like Rock then you probably want to hear a solid foundation with few frills or thrills - and doing either really really well, is heaven in its way. There are of course people who manage both kinds of playing almost simultaneously, for which I finger Richard Sinclair, Tony Levin and (a little left field) Steve Swallow - who's playing is never flashy and often harmonically weird, but all the same, somehow very special.

I spent a sunday morning in Westside's shop a couple of years ago, officially trying out AER amps. But they sat me in a bas(s)ment that was lined with Schecter basses so I couldn't help but try a "few". They are certainly very well made out of good quality materials and look really nice too. However I wasn't overly impressed with the sound, which was rather dull and "generic" (characterless). The ones I did like were those with the EMG pickups and a coil tap (effectively taking them to single pickups rather than Hs) - bit more life. Some of the "dullness" may have been down to the AER amps which are very accurate but a bit flat sounding (not much "zing" unless you press all the colour and contour buttons) and the fact that my amp of the time was a big heavy Trace GP12SMX thing that had zing in spades (but a certain lack of subtlety or accuracy). Anyways, a trip to Westside is a great idea, they were simultaneously helpful and non pushy, have a huge number of Schecter basses and will let you play with them until you're bored or buy one. Given your list of past basses, I can't see you'd find a Schecter an upgrade mind; IMHO a stingray would knock the socks off any of them (but then, I like Wals and you don't much so ...)

Wow, Phil, your conductor knows he has a bass section! Ours rarely looks in our direction unless a back of the desks 'cellist plays a bum note - upon which the back of the desk 'cellists will look over their shoulders in the hope of passing the blame! Though when we managed a section of 6 he did say how much he appreciated the solid foundation it gave the orchestra. Anyway, we (my bass section colleagues and I) reckon a lot of bass parts (especially early 19th century ones) are really cello parts with the basses expected to join in when they can. Come on now, in the time of Beethoven, many basses had only three, heavy, unresponsive, gut, strings. Either those guys were brilliant, the music sounded AWFUL or they faked it. If there are too many notes, just aim for the first of the group. Played Neilson's 5th a few months back - it has endless sequences of seemingly random chromatic bass notes at a very fast pace, mostly in groups of 6; so we decided to hit the first of each bunch of 6 and then make a rhythmic scrubbing sound for the rest of it. No-one knew ;¬) tho the conductor was miffed when I told him in the pub afterwards. Seriously tho, and under ideal circumstances, given sufficiently time; in legato runs, you should work out a fingering and try to play it properly, its often not as difficult as it seems. I'm learning Tchaikovsky's 6th at the moment, from a part that has been meticulously fingered by a previous user - it's a revelation, some of those fingerings really work well - so I'm going to use them! Sliding will sound wrong and it's probably better to play no note or a harmonious note than one that "falls under the fingers" and makes a discord. So play them all properly or pick some key notes and play only those. My (very amateur) opinion anyway. Won't wash in Phil's orchestra I imagine.

Depends on whether BEST means: "I like the sound best" or "most accurately creates a voltage proportional to string position". you can't accurately reproduce the "sound" of an electric bass as until you put pickups in, it makes the sound of one hand clapping. I agree with the harmonics thing tho. Are two soapbars ever going to sound like a PJ set? (the sims pickups aside, which can be made into J's, PJ's or "H" Soapbars by flicking a switch); something with coil taps would do it maybe; though the effect would be more JJ than PJ. NB: I like both the sound of my Wal and the sound of my Warwick (with the bridge soapbar pickup coil-tapped into a single) - so even that definition of "best" is a toughie ;¬)

dont know if they are "the best" but certainly the most flexible ... if you can't make your mind up! http://www.simscustom.com/pickups/ clever idea. IMHO Wal pickups are the best soapbars, but you can't buy them without the bass ... tho I see mr herrick makes something very similar.

Single cuts Gold hardware Lurid stained wood Unnecessary hardware ( pickup covers, thumb rests, pick guards ) Huge headstocks Strangely, given my love of curvaceous waxed wood bodies I don't like wooden pickup covers and knobs either. ... But will put up with any of it if it sounds good.