neilp

I'm a musician. I have a day job these days that's nothing to do with music, but I play music so I'm a musician. Whether I'm any good at it is another question entirely. I may well be a bad musician (or "guitarist" as they're also known) but I'm still a musician

Come to the Bash, it all makes more sense when you can see where the weight is applied and where the forces are applied

"Playing Double Bass is either easy, or it's impossible" - love that quote! Gary Karr I think. What it comes down to is finding a way to make all the movements involved in playing come from your core. There's an almost spiritual moment when this starts to make sense and everything is suddenly much easier. Michael's videos explain this better than any I've seen

Wherever I lay my Hat, or The Chain

If I've understood your question, then yes you're right. Right about the key signature too

Formerly a full-time pro, I now have a 45-hour proper job, but still regard myself as a pro, try to have a pro attitude wherever I play, still a Union member etc. I have to say, this way is WAY more fun...

I gigged my new Smoothhound over the weekend too and it's the perfect system. Small, beautifully engineered and 100% transparent - to my ears in a gigging environment anyway. I love it, and the other guys are dead right about the service. Chris deserves to get very rich.....

If you could do it as well and as tight as Mr Clayton does it, root notes or not, you probably wouldn't still be playing in bar bands. In my opinion.......

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1470750780' post='3108146'] Surely anyone who's been playing for that long would be able to do something more impressive, and yet he doesn't. Isn't that remarkable restraint? Purely playing for the song and never once indulging yourself? Pretty impressive if you ask me ...although obviously he could be sh*te and playing at the top of his ability, we wouldn't know [/quote] If you've ever experienced U2 live you'll know how incredibly tight they are. Adam Clayton is definitely not sh*te. There are loads of bass players with impressive chops who couldn't do what he does anywhere near as well. Less is almost always more

it might help if there are any specific issues anyone wants to cover, maybe you could post them here so I can have a look for exercises/studies etc and have a think pre-bash? I can do a general thing, but with a small select group we might accomplish more if we're specific?

I'm happy to do a bit on bowing in general,and specifically French bow, although I have played with a German bow and still have a couple somewhere

That sums it up for me. Music isn't a technical exercise or a showcase. If the song needs root notes and the odd fifth, play that. If it needs Jaco (if the Jaco that played for Joni showed up, many more songs would need Jaco), get Jaco. It's music, do what works for the music

If you want to walk round in silence trying people's basses, come and do it. I certainly wouldn't want to stop you, and nor I suspect would anyone else. If you don't want to come, don't come, but why try to rubbish the whole thing. I'm busy, I've got classical gigs and electric bass gigs to prepare and practice for, but I regard this sort of get-together as part of the fun of being a bass player, even if it's not going to revolve around my needs. I'm driving from West Sussex to do it, and I'm looking forward to it

Happy to do that, I'll bring a few bows too. Q & A on bows/bowing might be easiest?

OK, so on the evidence of one rehearsal it's as good as you all said, if not better. No setup to be done, perfectly stable connection, switches on/off quick enough to swap instruments between songs with no problems. The sound is superb, almost completely uncoloured compared A/B with a 6 metre Fender cable, but then all my basses are active so that's sort of what I'd expect. Dynamic range is completely unaffected, so the kit is almost completely transparent. REALLY impressed. Love it, absolutely love it

I can see I'm going to be a bit of a misfit at this, being almost exclusively a classical player, but I'm coming anyway, to broaden my horizons and meet some new people, put faces to names and maybe come away with some new insights. I think we should all bear in mind that it's an impossible task for the organisers if we all demand exactly what we want. I'm hoping to play a few nice basses, meet some interesting folk and generally have a fun day. That'll do me

I ordered my Smoothhound Classic yesterday, and it's here! Spectacular service, thanks Chris. On first inspection, it's a beautifully designed, engineered and made bit of kit. VERY impressed so far. Rehearsing tonight and gigging Saturday, so we'll see, but I have no reason to suppose the performance will disappoint. I'll report post gig

Looking forward to this. Since I said I was coming, Meghan has acquired a beautiful Pete Barnaby mechanical C extension, and I've bought a Smooth hound wireless rig. If anyone's interested in trying that,I can bring it?

[quote name='barkin' timestamp='1469950783' post='3102149'] Nothing. A few blokes on a forum don't like it, 'tis all. /shrug/ [/quote] And sanity is restored. Only for a second mind cos this is the World Wide WundaWeb

Thanks, I'll have a look

I've been a Thomastik fan for many years - Spirocores and more recently Bel Cantos. I borrowed a bass recently from a pro friend which was strung with Velvet Compas 180s and the strings were gorgeous - soft, buttery, instant response and lovely rich sound under the bow. Now here's the thing. I really like the Bel Cantos, they seem to suit Meghan very well, but she's due a string change and I can't help wondering.... Velvets are expensive though. Anyone have any experience they want to share before I break out the wallet? Neil

If you want to do both classical and jazz I'd suggest Evah Pirazzis. They have a nice thump and growl for jazz and they bow pretty well too. I have a lightly used set you can have for a smallish consideration

I have a Contrabass Shoppe carbon bow as my fallback bow for when I don't want to use the thousands of pounds of artistry sitting in the other side of the bow case! It's a really good bow, fabulous value for money. I'd recommend it to anyone. In my experience you'd have to double the price to find a better Pernambuco bow.

We have two of the world's finest players here in the UK, David Heyes and Tom Martin. To be honest though, even Gary Karr was never a household name like,say, James Galway. You'd never get enough bums on seats at the Proms for a double bass performance. The Dittersdorf is a nice thing to play, but honestly doesn't stand up in quality against the well known concerti for other instruments. The greats didn't write for bass and orchestra, and there's a reason for that.