Beer of the Bass

You brought it home on the train? That's dedication!

I noticed that you started similar threads on a couple of other forums. The difference in culture between the different forums is quite telling, especially where the guys on offset guitars praised Spitfire for his "classy and respectful" response and compared you to somebody criticising the Mona Lisa for not having a beard! On reflection, I think I like it better here...

There's a lot of Spiro enthusiasm on this thread! As a kid I first became aware of the double bass by listening to Danny Thompson on various records my parents had around, so that steel-string growl has probably shaped my perception of how a double bass is supposed to sound from an early age. Since this thread was started, I've changed from Mittels to Weichs (both in the 3/4 length). This was initially because I had the beginnings of a carpal tunnel problem with my left wrist which appeared to be triggered by playing guitar and electric bass. Even though the wrist pain has stopped since I revised my posture a little, the Weichs seem to suit my bass better so I think I'll be sticking with them. My bass has a thinner top than many and seems to respond best with a little less tension. On my bass, they're a little less bright and stringy and a little woodier sounding than the Mittels. With the string height a little higher, they get about as loud as the Mittels on my bass although it takes a different pizz stroke to bring it out of them. They respond much better with the bow too, which I'm using more and more with the project I'm playing with at the moment.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1407429265' post='2520490'] I think his question was if the impedance you're driving remains the same, but one cab has two drivers (total impedance 8 ohm), and the other has one (Also 8 Ohm), then is the 2 driver cab louder and, if so, why? [/quote] I've seen it suggested elsewhere (and in older forum posts by BFM) that the increase in sensitivity from coupling closely spaced woofers is 3dB, though only where they are spaced at less than 1/4 of the wavelength. So the quoted 6dB increase in SPL when adding a second cab or driver to a solid-state amp is 3dB from doubling the amps power output and 3dB from the increased sensitivity, if I've understood this correctly (and if I haven't, feel free to explain why!).

I love it! Shame I can't afford it...

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1407247361' post='2518722'] Would it not be the case that if you put it in 4 ohm mode and presented it with an 8 ohm load it wouldn't mind, just be less output, as per most other amps out there? The reduction in output would be more marked if it was in 2 ohm mode and you gave it 8 ohms to play through? Or am I showing my limited knowledge of valve amps - would it blow up and let the magic smoke out? Do people still make equipment that you need a doctorate in the care and usage of cranky, unpredictable machines to operate? [/quote] People do run SVTs into 8 ohm cabs and generally get away with it, but there is an increased risk attached. Running a valve amp from the 4 ohm tap into an 8 ohm load stresses the output transformer more than usual in addition to losing power, especially if you're driving the amp hard. Some amps will cope better with a mismatch than others, and too low a speaker impedance is generally safer than too high, unlike with solid state amps.

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1407178527' post='2518119'] Ooh, I do like hatpegs! [/quote] More hatpegs!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1407230451' post='2518471'] If I knew what this was about, I would moderate it's ass!! [/quote] Surely if you're looking at this thread, you must know!

[quote name='The Jaywalker' timestamp='1407170134' post='2518020'] I've heard bassists at polar opposite ends of the sonic scale, eg Arild Andersen and a US Grenadier acolyte (who assured me with pride that his action was "much higher") play my bass and get "their" sound with no difficulty. My action is 4mm on the g-side up to about 9mm on the e. Turns out it's almost identical to Arild's setup - and no-one can accuse him of having a small or weak tone! String height doesn't affect tone as much as volume. [/quote] That's definitely on the low side of things, but to be quite honest when I've heard you play I wouldn't have guessed it from your tone. It's certainly not that "exaggerated growl and lots of amp" kind of sound that was fashionable in the 70s. I've had mine a little below 6mm on the G when I had Spiro Mittels on, but for whatever reason I like my current Spiro Weichs a little higher at 8-10.5mm.

I like the shape - it's halfway between a BC Rich and something out of the Jetsons! What sort of pickups is it getting? Extra points for the rainbow flag backdrop too.

[quote name='Jus Lukin' timestamp='1407155305' post='2517818'] Is there any particular blend of waxes which is advisable, or is just plain candle wax acceptable? [/quote] 80% paraffin wax to 20% beeswax is the standard mixture. The beeswax keeps it a bit softer and less brittle once set.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1407151439' post='2517744'] But this guy seems like he could be untouchable by what I've read here. And he's backed by the Lord. [/quote] I would hope nobody is seen as untouchable, and threads like this are useful to have for information purposes. For me the terms and conditions combined with the prices and apparent eccentricity mean I wouldn't consider his stuff (I can only attach so much importance to a part of the instrument that doesn't make any noise), but I presume the priorities are different for some.

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1407147262' post='2517681'] Man, I'm in the wrong business. I'm off to buy a router and a drill. [/quote] To give the Spitfire guy some credit he does appear to be concocting the tort material himself in small batches, so I guess it's inevitable that the prices will be higher than companies who simply cut them out from ready made sheets. And a lot of his stuff looks great, even if his website copy is frankly bizzare in places! [url="http://spitfiretortoiseshellpickguards.wordpress.com/about/"]http://spitfiretortoiseshellpickguards.wordpress.com/about/[/url]

Is this for totally acoustic settings or mostly amplified? If it's the latter I'd suggest getting the most old-school magnetic pickup you can find as that will have a low-mid thickness that a piezo pickup or straight acoustic guitar doesn't have. Acoustically I'd seek out something with a large body, jumbo or dreadnought. You might want to experiment with different strings too, as nickel acoustic strings like the John Pearse pure nickel sets have a thick earthiness about them that's less zingy than bronze.

So you've got no ground wire going to the bridge at the moment? I strongly suspect that the buzz will go after you've fixed that. The polepieces on Jazz bass pickups are not grounded, and your body acts as an antenna for interference. When you touch the poles this is induced into the pickup windings. It's worse on one pickup than the other because on most pairs of Jazz pickups one has the hot end of the coil on the inside (close to the poles) while the other is connected the other way round. When the bridge ground is connected, your body is earthed via the strings and there is much less noise when touching the poles. The same thing can happen when using nylon tapewounds as those are non conductive on the outside and leave you un-grounded.

0.6mm veneer does the job very well. eBay has lots of small packs sold as samples or offcuts for a couple of pounds and you don't need very much of the stuff.

He'll be lucky to find somebody willing to pay that much, comply with his unusually demanding terms and conditions and collect it from Dumfries & Galloway on one day only...

That's a lot better preserved than my German flatback of similar vintage. There's a patch on the back of mine where the dark brown varnish has flaked off that suggests it was once a similar colour to yours. It's a good sounding bass though, better than anything else that was within my budget. It's had a new fingerboard and bridge since this photo was taken. It's wearing Spiro Weichs now, which seem to suit it better than the Mittels.

The one I can recall struggling with is Billy Cobham's Stratus. It's a simple line and not that hard to play, but it's constant 8th notes without a pause and keeping that up for five minutes while people solo is surprisingly taxing!

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1406662891' post='2513571'] Is this unusual then, or am I missing something really obvious? [/quote] Not all that unusual, just a fairly classic disco bassline nicely done. I can see why he gets as much work as he does.

Just in time for my gig tomorrow, I've got it done. Frets being polished after levelling and crowning. I went back and bevelled the edges a little more after this photo, as I realised they still felt a little prominent. I levelled them with sandpaper over a long sanding block, crowned them with a three-corner file and polished with various grades of wet and dry paper and one of those little fingernail polishers from Boots. They're just several grades of fine abrasive on a foam block and I find them very convenient for this job! I checked the fit of the neck in the neck pocket and found that it had ended up a touch narrower than the old neck, leaving a gap. It was a small gap and I could have left it, but I chose to fit some matching veneer along one side of the pocket to keep things snug. I had to enlarge the truss rod adjustment cavity a little, as the old neck had a wheel adjustment and the new one is an allen key type. I may make I plastic cover for the cavity, I'm not sure yet. Here's the headstock with all of it's hardware. I used a Hipshot three-string retainer as I felt the old round button didn't give a very good back-angle on the G-string. I cut the nut from a piece of Buffalo horn. I probably won't choose this material next time as the dust smells even worse than bone dust and it doesn't look much different from black plastic once its done. I tried to keep the level of the top fairly low so that only about half of the string sits in the slot. The finished bass plays better than it did before, the truss rod works well to adjust the relief and I prefer the smaller frets. There are a couple of blemishes like file marks, the less-than-invisible glue line and some spots where I should have spent longer finish sanding, but I guess those are part of the learning experience. I [i]think[/i] the stiffer neck has helped the B-string response, though it's hard to be definite about these things. With flatwounds there is a certain amount of thump (especially higher up the neck on the low strings), but the B does sound like it belongs with the other four. Of course, the issue with projects like this is that I'm all enthused about building stuff and wondering what I'll do next. Perhaps a cheeky five-string Ric-inspired bass...

I've potted pickups at home a few times, after dabbling in winding my own. I used about 80% paraffin wax in the form of white household candles and 20% beeswax in the form of those little sticks they stock in hardware shops. This was cheaper than buying bags of wax pellets for candle making. I put the wax in a plastic takeaway tub, which sat inside a metal oven dish of water with a rack to keep the tub off the bottom, heated with occasional bursts of a hob on its lowest setting. The temperature you want is hotter than a hot bath but cooler than a fresh cup of tea, where you can stick your fingers in without pain but not keep them there for a long time. A thermometer would have been a good idea, but really as long as it's hot enough to stay fully melted but not so hot as to cause a fire hazard it'll work.

That's a very tidy job, quite Burman-esque with the tagboards and neat lead-dress. Neater than the guitar amp I did for myself (which was in Fender style on eyelets), so I can appreciate the work that went into that.

That's very cool. Transformers for a 200 watter can't have been cheap!

Some kind of piezo pickup (like the Shadow pickups linked above) will be a little less natural sounding but much more feedback resistant than a mic, and is probably the best option in a louder band with drums. They really need some sort of dedicated Piezo preamp or a good active DI box with input impedance of 1M ohm or higher, as straight into a line input or using the wrong DI box they can sound terrible!