NickA

That's a very popular combination. I have silver wound dominants on my G and C ... the price of silver now makes tungsten a reasonable proposition. I've not tried it but reviews say they can be a bit brash and "metallic" sounding (no kidding, they're metal!). How are they? NB: my 'cello has a nice fat bottom (oer missus) but is a bit harsh at the top end already. I see Larsen also do a tunsgten set now .. Magnacore. Might give them a try as the dominants are a) shot, b) not very good. @Owen, certainly does. Dad stopped playing about 9 months ago saying he'd played everything he was ever going to play and he was only getting worse at it. We wondered what was going on. Then he got diagnosed with a brain tumour ... and now, whilst sitting about waiting for the inevitable, I'm going through 'cellos, bows, heaps of music etc etc. About which, 1970s "self fitting" De Jacques bridges anyone? Sound pretty awful, but £500 cheaper than getting it done properly!

Glad to hear the 'cello work has come good. When you get to sit and play for a while, you soon forget the cost 🙂 My dad's Forster (the £90k one!) has Larssens and he talked me into fitting the same to my 1900 FFC. Too bright, but they do come down a bit with a few hours of playing. The Forster deserves a set of eudoxas .. but it won't be me that fits them sadly. Dad's dying and the forster will have to go.

ignore me. I was trying to track down Andrew McGill ...messaged him on Facebook and he got straight back to me.

Well, I'm sitting in a room with a £1,500 'cello and a £90,000 'cello and can certainly say the £90,000 one has the edge. Not just the tone wood I guess.

That one I did get shot of ... kind of sadly as I sort of miss it. All those knobs and sliders ..ahh. All that weight and inability to play quietly .. not so much.

Very unusual. You have to scrap a Wal bass to get a pair of those... and why would you.

Bridge adjusters. I got Tim Batchelar to convert my old fixed bridge and it is an amazing improvement. Down for easy action and extra mwah when jazzing, up for extra tone and volume at orchestra. Go to any jazz gig and you'll see the bass has an adjustable bridge. The " proper" thing to do is fit a high enough bridge to get the best tone and volume, then get the fingerboard raised to give you the action you want....expensive but perfect if you're only going to play one kind of music on one kind of string.

You expect me to subject my HiFi to rockabilly? ...it was an android tablet, so you're close 🤣😂🤣

Give it a go. Surely less damage to be done on a tin bass than on a wooden one. I presume the sound post is wood not aluminium! My dad used to do sound posts on cellos all the time ...I have his special tool ..but have yet to try it. Seems like one of those hard to learn but invaluable skills one should have.

Sounds suprisingly good ...what can be heard behind the guitar and vocals. Need a volume control for your guitarist tho. More bass !!!! ( non bass players may not agree 🙂 )

Certainly not. I loved the sound of pirastro eudoxas on my cello and insisted on silver wound guts for years. But blackened fingers, endless retuning, short life and even having the silver wear through, come unwound and slice my finger .... was enough to shift to first synthetics, then back to steel. Cello now on steel Larsens, Double bass now on synthetic core Eva Ps. Plus you could spend the value of the bass on stings quite quickly! Eudoxas, RRP= £923 a set!!!!

https://gollihurmusic.com/string-identification-chart/ says they don't exist!! https://www.scribd.com/document/378931890/Strings-Color-Identification-Chart D'Addario preludes seems most likely; though the string identifiers have the peg box silks in a different order "Prelude strings are the educator’s preferred choice for student strings due to their unique blend of warm tone, durability, and value. Prelude strings have the warmest sound available in an affordable, steel core string design. Unaffected by temperature and humidity changes, they have excellent bow response."

Had to look these fretboard protectors thingies up. I'd thought the bass was fretless. 😁. So it's just to protect strings and frets from hitting eachother during transit? Only a few quid, but I guess a piece of stiff card would do the trick. Not that I've ever felt the need. https://www.thomann.de/gb/rockcare_framus_fret_protector_6.htm

Some time in the 1980s I talked to Ronald Prentice about getting a new bass built. Another maker told me "don't, his basses are really stiff, and he always tells people they open up with playing, and they don't"..... Nevertheless a Prentice bass would cost you £20k+ these days and they're well thought of... 40 years later! Generally true that older basses play better, but that's offset by wear and tear. Certainly you get a better bass for your money buying used..but probably have higher maintenance costs too. I really doubt these things affect an £800 Chinese factory bass tho. Tis what tis.

Bridge and soundpost position are related for sure. But you can improve the sound by moving the bridge up and down ..tailpiece direction for more grit, fingerboard direction for more mellow usually... without shifting the soundpost. If it's way off then maybe, but if the bridge is more or less centred on the f hole notches and you're happy with the sound then not worth it. ( mine works best with the bridge a tad south of the notches) My bridge bent in low humidity when I lived in Korea in 1995, local luthier flattened it. UK high humidity bent it back in 1999, bloke in Chapel-en-le-frith steamed it flat again. Didn't replace it till 2020. I guess if you were a top pro with a Strad or Amati then these tiny tweaks would be the percentage gains you'd want to get the best from a million quid instrument ... but your 1900 German and my 1900 french probably won't appreciate that level of detail.

NOTHING handles arco and pizz REALLY well, but equally well is viable. I had some D'Addario Hybrid strings which were playable but not great for either and bowed better the spiros which were brill for pizz. Recently bought eva pirazzis (sythetic core not real gut) and they sound good for arco and good enough for pizz that I don't swap them out for Jazz gigs, £230 a set though. Yes, that romberg bevelly thing is good for bowing; originally for bowing big fat guts, probably non-would ie naked guts. I've never had a problem with mine though .. and it is a bit of a help bowing really hard on the E-string - not that the opportunity arises that often!

The "Romberg bevel"!! Surprised to hear of that on a modern bass. Helps when bowing floppy bottom strings... You can really dig in ( my 1880s bass and my 1900 cello have it ). Don't need it frankly as I'm using higher tension modern strings. No use for pizz at all really. Wonder why they did that 🤔 Opening up? Probably not much at the price point, the wood is likely quite thick and inflexible. My dB does seem to go on strike if I don't play it for a bit tho. Play regularly, give it a good hard bowing ...who knows. Most improvement will likely come from increased hand strength from all the playing rather than changes to the wood.

Yes, that's too much for even a good quality bridge. Though some luthiers take a lot of care in ( unecessary?) shaping and prettification of the blank. Bass bags charged me £150 to fit a decent despau bridge last year - it's a bit rough and ready ( no fine sanding) but sounds good. I've done my own bridges a couple of times but it's a lot of dull work to get the feet right. New soundpost just cause the bridge is bent? Hmm. As for moving the bridge I do that lots anyway...tho I finally settled in the "best" spot. Scratches ...pah. old instruments have scratches. I do think some luthiers are a bit precious. Whatever, money spent...just enjoy the playing. 😁

Update. Thread closure. It's gone. Piano dealer in Cambridge took it away (very neatly and efficiently) for free.

I thought the double 4 was intended as a practice amp? Just not enough surface area to project double bass frequencies any distance ( ie why the double bass itself is so big!) I've got a pjb the flight case (4x 5") but even that is supposed to be used near a rear wall for bass reinforcement. It's very good with double bass tho still a bit quiet for anywhere bigger than a small pub. And as per another similar thread, all these tiny class d amps ( elf's gnomes etc ) paired with a modern light cab ( Barefaced, GR ) combine sound with portability too. Worth checking out.

Copy of a very nice Sandberg I think. Which is one of the better 5-strings out there. Weird that Fender got the p back to front... Sandberg and the odd Yamaha got it the right way round imo.

have to be a very big hole for my mums' baby(ish) grand. It's huge.

Oh, is this a "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" thread 🙂