JoeEvans

The pronunciation is just as you'd expect for a French regular verb.

They're all so busy doing scales and practicing solos in front of the mirror that they've got no time to chat.

I keep thinking about some kind of valve preamp, the kind that doesn't really do much except make things sound nicer in a way that's hard to define.

I've got an ART Tube MP - the one without the VU meter rather than the V3, but I think they're pretty much the same thing. Bass amps often don't provide a good response across the full frequency range - for obvious reasons they focus on the bass end... But double basses produce a lot of subtle harmonics higher up, and I've found that an active PA speaker can make the final sound more like a double bass and less like a bass guitar.

I would really recommend using an active PA speaker instead of a bass amp, with a double bass. I use a Turbosound ip300 which is about £330; there are lots of options available, although I do very much like the tone of Turbosound speakers myself. I go into this via an ART Tube MP preamp, which has no EQ but definitely improves the tone. But that's all coming from a mic (Prodipe Lanen) and you might need something different with a pickup. In all honesty the whole 'amplifying your double bass' thing is a deep rabbit hole. I was lucky enough to find a set-up that gets me exactly the sound I want without too much trouble, but it can take a lot of experiments, so buying secondhand kit you can sell on might be a good idea.

I think the invention of the internet created this new possibility whereby we can all share our opinions with each other, and we're all still reeling at the discovery that other people are genuinely not the same as us, like totally different things, do things completely differently, have utterly different politics, and yet are still somehow able to function in the world. So at the moment, a large amount of online activity is just people saying WTF to one another's opinions. I'm hoping that in due course everyone will get over it and we can move on to the next phase of whatever this process is.

Three-string double basses used to be common. You still see the odd old instrument with visible signs of having been converted to four from three. And there are a few ACG two-string basses out there, which must be excellent because they're ACGs.

When I switched my first double bass to a wooden pin and it improved the sound a lot. But the bass was quite small in the body so needed a long pin, and it only had an 8mm pin fitting so the end result was pretty wobbly. My current bass was definitely improved in sound by a wooden pin, but not by as much.

Yes, of course. I'm only making a light-hearted point - stretching across to the B-string on a 5 is just like stretching across to the E-string on a 6; you mentioned that you didn't like that stretch on a 6, so no doubt you can fully empathise with people who don't like it on a 5.

So you're saying you don't like stretching across an extra string...? 🤔

If you play a 5-string but not a 6-string, you already know the reason why some people play 4-string basses not 5s...

I would really recommend the Double Bass Room. I've bought two basses there, both times the owner (whose name I forget) was very friendly and helpful and basically left me in a room for a couple of hours with twenty-plus basses to find the right instrument. I don't think there's anywhere else in the UK where you can try that many basses for under £5k, and it was worth the trip for that experience alone. Realistically with any new bass you're going to end up getting some work done and maybe changing the strings, just to get it the way you want. So I don't think the set-up is super-important myself, as long as it's playable.

Counterpoint is a whole huge thing in classical music and I wouldn't really know where to start with that... I think I'd suggest finding beautiful melodies in any type of music and learning to play them on the bass, as the best place to start. Nobody but you can find out how to create music that you find beautiful. It might not be your cup of tea at all but have a listen to a band called The Gloaming. The fiddle player is a guy called Martin Hayes who is a genuine genius at finding extraordinary beauty in simple melodies. His album The Lonesome Touch (not with The Gloaming, just him and a guitarist called Dennis Cahill) is up there with Kind of Blue to my mind.

I think beauty in basslines comes from a sense of melody - not just defining the chords and rhythm by moving through the root notes, but finding a tuneful line that is compatible with, but different from, the main melody of the song. It's counterpoint, basically, so a study of that would be a good starting point. My perception is that to feel beautiful, the bass needs to define a more complex chordal form - getting some seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths in there as well as the 1-4-5. That means understanding harmony to some extent. I think a study of basslines that feel beautiful would also pick up the use of ornaments and incidentals - extra little details that highlight parts of a melody and adjust the harmony temporarily.

Are you looking for suggestions of beautiful basslines, or opinions on how to create a beautiful basslines?

That looks great... Wonder how much it will cost?

I think a double bass has plenty of stage presence of its own. You just need to look relaxed and suave, or failing that, inconspicuous.

I seem to remember that the Audix OM7 vocal mic is good for this situation - very directional, although the singer needs to get right up close to the mic to get the best from it. I think it's a common choice for very loud stages. Might be worth a try?

Two-part polyurethane yacht varnish is also incredibly hard-wearing and would be a lot easier to apply than epoxy - just prep, mask up the neck and do loads of coats, rubbing down with super-fine sandpaper in-between.

I used to own a (non-music) shop and I was always very welcoming when people came in just to browse, because although they think they're not going to buy anything, you know that deep down they do want to buy something or they wouldn't feel drawn to come in. Sometimes they'd come back a few times and just look around, and then you know that in due course they're very likely to buy. Browsers aren't time wasters, they're just the unripe fruit of the customer world, who need gentle ripening with the warm sunshine of the salesperson's welcome. If someone works in a shop and doesn't understand that, either they or the shop won't last long.

Have you still got the jazz? I'd be interested to know how well the coating has stood up - I've read mixed reports, some people saying that it got scuffed quite quickly.

Did it make much difference to the sound when you epoxied the fingerboard on your jazz?