Owen

[sub]I have 3 students who have Gear4music basses. They are fine and dandy for the money. You will need new strings. Lowering the bridge is a 20 minute job with a set of needle files. Probably the fingerboard could do with true-ing, however, as I said, they are fine and dandy. They come with a big HSC. My first pupil sold hers on ebay for £140 so the bass cost about £220. Is a bass you would like to play the music of dead composers on with a symphony orchestra backing you? No. Will it be a cheap and cheerful entry into DB world? Yes.[/sub]

Feel the love, people!

I think you should use a Peavey IPR1600. It only weighs 7 pounds and it is great. But then I would say that http://basschat.co.uk/topic/162288-aguilar-db659-sold-peavey-ipr1600-skb-3u-x-rack-sold-l150/page__p__1595968__hl__peavey%20ipr__fromsearch__1#entry1595968

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1334853751' post='1622438'] Uhm, North Wales is close to Dublin, and so close to erm... any chance? Thought not [/quote] It's not often that where I live is central

I am on the 140B road at the moment. I honestly thought that they were Honeys but it turns out I was wrong. Oops. They are great and so far what I am happiest with. I just put a new set of Honeys on before the Gut experience and Daf suggested I tuned everything down a 4th and stuck a C on the top for a G to get the low tension thing. I did that tonight and am really digging it. The bow "grab" is slightly compromised, but I will let them settle before coming to any conclusions really.

I have been looking at the Cordes Lambert site but cannot actually make it work

I could host one in my Church hall but am at the top of North Wales and I guess off the beaten track. What would be great would be to have one with an acknowledged DB luthier on hand to advise on setups/repairs etc. Obv we would need to fund this if enough people were interested.

If only the arco thing was not an issue. Apparently Bottesini used to have G made of silk for arco tone but I cannot see that being a long term option. Perhaps I can have a seperate bass for guts! Surely that would be the BC way!

Did I miss this?

I had a very odd experience last night. I went to do a session and the singer turned up with a Double Bass in tow. I had done something for her before and she liked my playing but could not get the sound she wanted during mixing. To say I was taken aback is an understatement but I bit my tounge and went with the flow. The bass was the horrible-est school plywood bass you ever saw with one weed-whacker G, gut D and A and a REALLY thin metal E. I tried it and what do you know it recorded fantastically (after I reset the bridge). The guts just went down beautifully, nice weight and girth to the sound and no annoying sustain, just a well articulated low frequency event. Obv they bowed like.............um....... something unpleasant, but the recorded pizz sound was pretty addictive. The action was really low as well. The neck angle was a lot more shallow than mine and the whole thing seemed to be effortless to play. Projection? Nope. Acoustic tone? Nope. Recorded using an AKG 414? Just yummy. I have never played guts before and it was a revelation I would pay SERIOUS coin to get a response like the gut strings but with easy bowing. My bass is pretty well set up, but the ease of playing on the guts was quite something. There were rumblings about a DB bash recently. Is it still on? I think I need to try some other basses. Maybe mine just needs a different set up. Comments?

Thanks all. After all that I went and bought an AI which has no fan at all For the time being at least!

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/172785-extreme-wombling-valve-geekery/ These things are cluttering my desk. I will happily bin them if no one wants them for nothing.

I was at my recycling depot this morning and there was a huge old school circuit board full of valves. I obv took them all because ........... umm................... I have no idea what they are and if they are any use or anything. They seem to be loads ( 25 ish ) of 12FQ8 (made in USA - Wurlitzer) valves 12AX7 size, a couple of EL34 (?) bigger power amp valves and another smaller big one. That shows you how far out of my depth I am here. They are yours to mess around with if you want them for nowt. If they are any use then I guess a donation to the board would not go amiss Obv if they are THE ONES then I will need paying in Ritter basses.