Martin34

Hi. It's basically what's coming from the pickup. In my case the underfoot pickup gives a good bass fundamental, but I need to do some fine tweeting to try to get some realistic wood and string sound. I went through a polygons mini brute 3 with the 15' speaker. Last time I played there it was really boomy! I raised the amp onto a skateboard with rubber practice 'wheels' then set the EQ. I then got a really great sound out of a boomy room! Plus when you get the sound you want, you can play along, or make another loop, because at a certain point the amp will affect what's going through the pickup, feed back etc. But overall it's a great way to set your own EQ!

I recently bought a TC Ditto looper. It has a good sample sound, and while at a gig last weekend I realised I could loop a bass line, then leave it playing while adjusting the EQ on my amp. What a great solution, and certainly beats asking other musicians to 'play' your bass while trying to set EQ. And the sound doesn't have to be affected by the bass at all as you're only eq'ing the loop (which is the bass sound). I ended up getting a really good sound, and set the EQ to cancel out those boomy spots in the room, that you would never normally be able to experience. Plus the looper is a whole new world of bass exploration! Best £70 I've spent recently!

Well done for getting into the swing band stuff. I work with quite a few of the big bands as a dep in Lancashire. I've been on DB for about 1 1/2 years. Previously played electric and studied violin. So some major retraining for DB. Mainly used Simandl for the shifts/bowing etc, and Constructing Walking Jazz Bass Lines books for the swing and ability to play in hard to read keys eg Ab minor. The thing is with the swing stuff you need to be fluent in all the keys up into the second octave, which takes some serious study for shifts and knowing your way round the fingerboard. Also I tend to play along on my iPod to swing stuff like Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Billy Holiday etc. it's great for your ear and style development. And it's good to pick out little riffs and solos from the other instruments and get more of a feel for the chords. If your doing swing you'll need to be able to busk. I've often put the wrong piece of music on my stand, or its fallen off or blown away. And the you need to wing it and use your ears. And when your playing with 16 or so players and a vocalist it might not be just you who makes a mistake! But I absolutely love it and intend to keep with the standards for many years to come, as there is so many ways these can be played, rehashed, different lineups of musicians etc.

There is a company in the Netherlands called Rebel Pickups. They sell a pickup made of piezo foil that sits under the bridge foot. This pickup sounds great. Very similar in appearance to the Gage Realist, though made with a strip of foil, instead of discs, which pick up all the vibration going through the entire bridge foot. I have this pickup on both my basses. The pizz and Arco sound great. There may be some acoustic sound missing, due to the nature of the pickup, but I find it allows all the frequencies of the bass to cut through. I still manage to get plenty of growl and some gut like sounds cutting through. They sell for about £20 if you want to build it yourself, or about £60 if you buy it ready made. I made both of mine; not that difficult, just a bit of soldering. I would strongly recommend this pickup, and at £20 it's a bargain.