Staggering on

I use it for EB, EUB and DB and have never had a problem at home or at gigs. Easy to charge, small, simple to use, charge lasts a long time.👍

I used one of these and it definitely helped my left hand/wrist when I was playing my DB and EUB, not so much with EB. I have recovered enough that I don't use it now.

Definitely not fun to do but it helped in my case.👍

The Yamaha SLB 200 has a bridge that is similar in shape to a regular DB bridge but a bit smaller so it is large enough to find a spot for the tuner. I have also used it on the upper end of the rather odd reverse tailpiece and it works well there too. I don't think it would affect the piezo, it is under the bridge on the Yamaha. In the case of your EUB it might be tricky to find a large enough spot on the bridge to attach it to, I haven't actually seen an NXT in person so it's hard to tell if it would fit and then stay on. There is no tailpiece on your bass so that isn't an option. Some people put them on the headstock of a DB (I do on my EB) but I have had more success with it on the bridge. Sorry I can't be more helpful. On a personal note, you have a lot more will power or strength of character than I do, I could not leave a new bass in a box for 6 weeks, make sure you give us a review of it when you start playing.👍😊

D'Addario NS micro on the bridge of my DB and EUB(Yamaha SLB 200) and it is easy for me to see but almost invisible to anyone else. Very light and has long battery life. I also use it on guitar, mandolin and banjo.

Love it! I don't do anything as athletic as you but I love to be able to move around and never have to worry about tripping on cables and I can go almost anywhere. For about 3 years I've been using a Boss WL-20 and never had a problem, very small transmitter and receiver and easy to set up.

I'm enjoying all these posts about gigs and absolutely green with envy. Unfortunately over here there are almost no gigs yet except outdoors and those are rare and now that fall weather has arrived those gigs will end soon. Both my bands have been back to rehearsals for a while but only one potential gig so far, before Covid we would have up to 5 gigs a month between the two bands. Capacity limits for many venues are still low so they simply can't afford bands and in the case of the seven piece, we would be counted as occupants and therefore further reduce the number of paying customers allowed in. Most big concert bands and symphonies are rehearsing in sections only or doing it on line, no idea when regular concerts and shows will resume in Ontario. Sigh...🙁

Actually the Yamaha is very easy to put together or take apart, I can do it in a minute or less, it's well designed and very simple. I put a small hose clamp on the endpin as a stopper so when I assemble it there is no guessing, it is always at the same height. I like the "wings", they make it very easy to hold in the proper position and it feels the same as my Czech DB so it is easy to play either instrument.

Good points from everyone. It's good to remember that the people in the audience listen with their ears and their eyes, how you do what you do is important to the audience, as said above it's music and entertainment. In one of my bands two members show no real reactions to the music and rarely even smile. The drummer and I are much more animated on stage and as frontman I have spent a lot of time working on my between songs patter so things flow smoothly with no awkward moments. We are a swing/standards/jazz band and people love the stories about the songs we play and we move smoothly from song to song, of course this takes time to prepare but it is far better in my mind than silence between songs or a few mumbled words. The audience won't be having fun if you don't look like you are having fun, this approach has worked for me for 60 years and I can't wait to get back to gigging, we are rehearsing but not much live music in Canada yet.

Many of us have been there , done that, at least you were gigging and having a good time making music.👍 Over here most venues are still not open for live music but at least both of my bands are rehearsing and hoping we will be back to gigging soon.🙁

Sounds a lot like my story, and I am so glad I switched to DB, it's a whole new world of challenges and just plain fun. There are several sites that have string ID info, one of them is in the Bass Resource section of the Gollihur Music website, it's in the FAQ section under Strings. There are others on here who are much more knowledgeable about strings than I am and may be able to identify them if you give the colour of the silks on both ends of the strings and they can also recommend strings for the music you plan to play. There is definitely a market for used strings and they are often sold on Basschat. There is a huge variety of strings available and they make a major effect on the sound and playability, much more than on an electric bass so it pays to choose carefully. The Gollihur site has a lot of good advice about strings and they sell many types and give very thorough descriptions of the pros and cons and characteristics of the strings, not just repeating the manufacturer's blurb. It might be a good idea to have an experienced player and/or a luthier to look over your bass, these things are beasts to play compared to electric bass and a few adjustments can make a huge difference in the playability of your bass and make it a lot less difficult and frustrating to play. Good luck, it's a bit of a steep learning curve but I have never had so much fun playing music, upright is the way to go.😄

Duh, my fault this time.🙄 It should be [email protected] Sorry about that, this one should work...finally.😊

I received an email from John Hay and called him for more info about the endpin. It is available for $200 US and the email address that I posted earlier from another source is incorrect, you can reach him at [email protected].

If you can't reach him you might check with Paul at Stand Up Guy Bass in Toronto, his website has his contact info. Good luck, if you want me to call Paul just let me know.

I finally got the link, the luthier is John Hay in Lansing, Michigan and I bought the bass and endpin from Paul O'Connell in Toronto. Paul said you can reach John at [email protected] Good luck!

Good for you! I switched to upright at 69 and started with a Stagg and then moved up to a Yamaha SLB 200 which is a wonderful instrument and I use it for band rehearsals( two bands) and at gigs where space is very tight. In 2018 I travelled to England and attended the BC Double Bass Bash and three months later I bought a double bass and just a few weeks ago I traded for a better DB. I bought both DB's used and so far so good. I have been using DB for gigs and it is a lot of fun to play but it took a while to get anywhere near decent on it, a totally different beast compared to EB. If I were starting again I would go straight to DB, although the EUB can be a good choice provided it is similar to a DB in terms of neck, set up and strings, including string length. Good luck finding a suitable instrument but be warned, DB is seriously addictive! 😊

I'm working on it, I will get it from Paul at Stand up Guy Bass tomorrow(I hope), I can't find anything when I search. I was told it was a prototype(he made a few of them) and he wanted to see what kind of response he got before he produces more, it gets a definite thumbs up from me. I'll get back to you ASAP.

The thing sticking out from the tailpiece is the sending unit for my Boss wireless system, I have used it a lot at home and at gigs and I love it, great sound and easy to charge.

I have had a blonde Engelhardt ES9 ("Marilyn") for three years and much as I liked the lovely look of the bass that thin Kay/Engelhardt neck was starting to bother me and I was finding the full size neck on my Yamaha SLB 200 to be much easier to play. So...last weekend I made a one day 779km trip to Stand Up Guy Bass in Toronto to try out a blonde '70's Czech laminate bass. After some discussion we worked out a deal and he took my bass in part trade and put new Obligatos on the Czech bass and set it up the way I wanted it and "Peaches" came home with me. I have a silly thing about blonde basses and it seems most people know me not as "that old guy who plays bass" but as "that guy with the blonde bass" so I wanted to find a blonde. I need a ply bass due to the weather here and because it gets hauled around a lot and I hope this will be just what I need. So far I'm loving the sound and feel and it works well with the KNA DB1 pickup, no preamp, direct to the amp and since I always need an amp in my bands I'm happy. I had Zyex strings on my other bass and have them on the EUB so this is my first time with Obligatos and I'm liking the feel and response, I play pizz in my bands and only use the bow at home. The bass has aged to a butterscotch colour like most blonde basses and has a few marks but that's OK, it's 50 years old. I've included a photo of the endpin, it is a prototype made by John Hay, a luthier in Michigan and uses more modern technology than most endpins. Some of you will recognize a quality bicycle post clamp that holds the carbon fibre pin. It is adjustable and clamps all around the pin rather than at one spot and is very easy to operate and has worked well so far. He sent these to some of his luthier friends to try out and Paul at Stand Up Guy Bass had several and I got one on my new bass, I believe he plans to produce them in larger quantities in the future. It's not a beautiful bass and it's a long way from high end quality but I think "Peaches" will be the working bass I need.

That sounds like a good idea and I will be watching for it to see how you get on with the NXT. (My bass history is like yours, 30 years EB then a Stagg about six years ago, then a Yamaha SLB200 and finally DB and I'm loving it.)

Good to see this thread revived, I love hearing about gigs and it makes me pumped about getting out gigging again soon. My two bands started rehearsing a couple of weeks ago but we have no gigs booked yet, things here are still basically shut down in terms of music venues and unfortunately I live in a rural area with only a few venues nearby. Restaurants and pubs are now open but with limits on the number of people allowed in, same with patios...fingers crossed for some work soon!

It's great to see this thread come alive again, finally some positive news after all this time. 😊 It is still very quiet on the music scene here, both the bands I am in are having their first rehearsals this week since March 2020 and we are hoping for gigs but have nothing booked yet.

Our little jazz quartet got together tonight for the first time since our last gig on February 27 2020. We have no gigs booked yet, all of last year was cancelled and things are slowly opening up here with limited numbers both indoors and outside. The rehearsal was fun, good to be back playing music with other people again. 😊

A bit of an odd story, but after 20 years of marriage and a son my wife and I split in 1996( yeah, we're old) but she had always supported my musical things and came to some gigs, in fact we met at a gig I was playing. Around 2008 we met a few times for coffee and she helped me through the disastrous relationship I was in and we have become good fiends and partners of a sort. She lives 80km from me but spends a few days here every week or two, we travel together and just came home from a weekend visit to our son and his wife. In the last few years she has come to many gigs and always helps with the gear and gives advice re sound and set up and is a huge support for me. After years of guitar and EB playing I saw an ad in 2015 for an EUB some 300km away and she literally said "get into the car and go buy it" and I picked her up, made the trip and bought my first EUB which started me down the slippery slope. When I saw a better EUB a year or two later she said the same thing and I made and even longer trip to get that. By 2018 we had travelled to England twice and I had been a BC member for three years and I saw a double bass bash scheduled for 2018. Of course she said I should go and we made another trip to England. The organizers couldn't decide on a date for the bash and finally asked me when I was going to be in England and set a date based on that, I was thrilled. Then I was picked up by a BC member and had a wonderful day playing and talking about double basses and EUBs and meeting BC members. Two months after we got back to Canada I saw an ad for a DB and once again it was "get into the car and get it, NOW" and after a 13 hour round trip I came home with my beautiful blonde DB "Marilyn". She loves it and has made a bib for it and encourages me and supports me all the way and even likes listening to me practice, at least for a while. I joined BC after I got the first EUB so she is/was behind all my adventures in upright bass and loves BC almost as much as I do. I don't know where our relationship will go but it's been great for almost 15 years and I would not be where I am in terms of basses and bass playing without her and BC, I am very lucky.

I went from EB to a Stagg EUB and then upgraded to a Yamaha SLB200. At most gigs I use my DB but for rehearsals and gigs with very tight quarters I use the Yamaha and it does the job well. I play jazz standards in a quartet and septet and the bands like the EUB and although it doesn't sound exactly like a DB the audience doesn't hear much difference and I get a lot of "what is that thing?" questions. I use a Stagg stand to hold it between sets, secure and easy to use. It is certainly easier to transport than my DB and in most cases I run it direct into our Bose PA and can EQ with the SLB's built in preamp and the Bose. Works for me.