JoeEvans

Whether it's a democracy or not, you still have to pay your taxes to get public services...

I'm selling an Ibanez Axstar on here which has 11mm spacing at the nut and 17mm at the bridge, with a very slender neck all the way up. So they are out there... The disadvantage is that some find the plucking or picking harder with the closer string spacing.

I'm struggling to get my head around this given that every flat is also a sharp, eg B flat = A sharp...

I think all basses have their idiosyncrasies in terms of the tone on different parts of the neck, and in terms of what they need to give their best tone. Each instrument resonates in different ways at different pitches, with dead spots, lively spots and so on. My bass is reluctant to start a bowed note on an open A, for example. I think it's just part of getting to know the instrument and how to get the best out of it.

When I bought my first DB I got an older, used, solid top / plywood back and ribs, Eastern European model from the Double Bass Room for about £800 as I recall. I think I'd do the same now - you can sell it on again for what you paid for it, take it to a gig without stressing too much about it getting a knock, and it'll sound good and look the part.

Not sure about blue or black though, I think in general double basses just are all about the wood.

Yes, definitely strings too, they make a huge difference.

In all honesty, I think if you set up a proper blind test, very, very few people - perhaps none - could reliably guess scale length, make, model, body wood and fretboard wood for a set of basses. So much of the tone depends on pickups, electronics, amp type and amp settings.

Top left is going to look great when it's put together.

My short scale ACG is an absolute beast and amazing to play,so I can confirm that there's at least one good short scale bass in the world. 

Price drop! £90 for the Fishman and £70 for the Bass Max...

I've settled on a different mic and preamp combination for my DB so selling these - will take £160 posted for the two together.

Fishman Platinum Stage preamp - £90 posted

This is the simpler version of the Platinum Pro used by many double bassists. You get 3-band eq with a sweepable middle and a selector switch that sets the eq to cover either guitar or bass frequencies. Runs from phantom power, a 9v power supply or you can use a 9v battery. There's velcro on the back to put it on a pedal board - I've left this on but it would be easy to remove.

K&K Bass Max pickup - £70 posted

This is a very simple and convenient pickup that wedges under the bridge wing. The cable socket clips onto the afterlength of the strings. The sound is great - on my bass I get a very solid tone, perhaps a bit closer to fretless bass territory, with really excellent feedback resistance. I was using this with the Fishman and the combination would be perfect for someone playing DB in a reasonably loud band. 

If it was much darker than expected with a pickup you know, then as you say it sounds like it's just a very dark bass.

In my very limited experience the matching of pickups and mics to basses is very much on a case by case (or rather bass by bass) basis - every instrument needs something different and it's a matter of trial and error.

You could try both though, could work well by the sound of it. Ideally you'd want to be able to EQ each pickup differently, to bring out their best characteristics, so maybe using a very small mixer with decent channel EQ, or an elaborate preamp of some sort, but that's another gear rabbit hole and it might be easier to try sone other mics and pickups.

When I saw the thread title I Iiterally thought "what, for your drummer, hurr hurr hurr". 

It would be wireless from your guitar to the pedal chain. The pedals will still be running off mains. So no help with the buzz but might stop you from getting electrocuted!

Personally I would look at an RCD socket adapter instead, to deal with any safety risk. For the hum, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can step in but I believe there are filtered four-ways available to protect IT gear against dodgy mains that might be worth a look.

I feel a bit bad about the amount of self-promotion my friends and family get exposed to via my social media. I'm forever pushing some project via my own social media accounts in a desperate attempt to fill a venue or whatever, and it must get repetitive.

I use an ART Tube preamp with double bass; I have a gig coming up for bass guitar and I'm planning to just take the ART for that, no amp. I'm pretty confident that it will sound ok.

No idea but F and B flat are more common keys for bands with lots of brass, big band type arrangements.

You could always sit down with an instrument and go through YouTube or Spotify playing along with all the available versions.

If the desk has a low cut button (<50hz) on

each channel, which they often do, you could do worse than just hitting that on every channel.

I find that for double bass the real action is up around 100 to 200hz, and you can roll everything below this right back on your own amp (or with a low cut pedal).

A discussion about tuning that rapidly escalates into a fist fight - definitely takes me back to a couple of past studio sessions...

It's also possible that the singer's mic is picking up the bass and sending it through the PA, then the body of the bass resonates with the PA output, that comes out of your amp and back into the singer's mic, and you have a feedback loop. You could ask the sound engineer to roll off the bass on the vocal mic - you could probably wipe off everything below 150hz without it doing much harm for a female vocalist.

You could always buy my Ibanez Axstar, which is different in all kinds of ways but very 80s and also taking up space in my tiny office room.

On 22/03/2024 at 13:53, Obrienp said:

What’s a 4D bridge when it’s at home? Four dimensional? Sounds a bit sci-fi but I’m struggling to think what the fourth dimension could be.

The fourth dimension is indeed time. It's best left set to the present moment though, I accidentally gave mine a tweak and I'm not going to see it again until next June.

Here we go: 

On 21/03/2024 at 20:37, Muzz said:

Is that 3kg an exact? I'm on the hunt for something in that ballpark, weight-wise...

Hey Muzz, sorry for slow reply. It's 3kg on my kitchen scales so reasonably accurate. I'll check it this morning though.

Jean-Luc has it right. Reverb will charge VAT on the fees then send it to HMRC whether you have a VAT number or not. If you had one, you could reclaim that VAT, but the customer's VAT status is immaterial to the supplier.

Tell them you're a private seller and not registered for VAT, and to hurry up and pay out or you'll report them to HMRC.

As an aside, if anyone can think of a good name for a bluegrass band playing covers of 80s pop hits, that would be great.