Beer of the Bass

I remember hearing this sort of thing as a teenager in the 90s, usually from similarly inexperienced teens trying too hard to sound authoritative! I guess it would have been the influence of Oasis and the like. I've switched to gigging with a 5 string in the past year or so and not had any negative comments, even in the sort of indie venues where skinny jeans and ironic hairstyles abound, so I had thought that this sort of nonsense had been buried, but I stand corrected.

I'd second the advice about finding someone for a few lessons and starting with whichever they use. Personally, this led me to the German bow, and I find I really can't get to grips with French at all.

A keyboard playing friend of mine went from a Mondeo Estate to a Zafira, and she's convinced she could get more in the Mondeo. Admittedly, if you're into your cars, a Mondeo is probably less fun than some of the others listed, but they do the job.

Guzzibass, how do you find the Bigsby/3-saddle tele bridge combination on your bitsa tele? I've got a similar setup on my cheapy Axl, and it seems to retain the tele sound and feel well enough, but I find I need to keep the saddles well lubricated with graphite from a pencil to keep it in tune. The last guitar I had with a roller bridge was a wobbly, rattly nightmare and never actually rolled when using the vibrato, so I guess the tele bridge is a reasonable compromise.

It turns out Santa has brought me a Monotron Duo. It seems fun so far, and my 13 year old stepson has been having fun with it too. I've been annoying the household sitting on the sofa playing the riff from Cars and trying to do Sabbath's Who Are You. I think it'll be a fun noisemaker when combined with my tape echo...

The 1-2-4 fingering (with the 4th finger supported by the 3rd) is from the Simandl method, one of the older standard texts. I was taught to use this fingering when I started playing, and I still do it. IIRC Ray Brown's book was based around this fingering system too, so it definitely has its adherents.

If I had to guess, I'd assume that's home made. The chunky neck pocket and weird taper to the neck are exactly what you get when you work with limited tooling and no experience! I've never seen a factory neck shaped quite like that as it approaches the heel.

If the socket is not holding the pins tightly, you can try re-tensioning the contacts. This link has about the clearest description of the process I can find. [url="http://swartamps.com/tech/socket_retention/"]http://swartamps.com/tech/socket_retention/[/url] I would add a caveat that if you don't know how to discharge the filter capacitors, don't go poking at the valve sockets with any conductive tool, even with the amp turned off. It may still be possible to get a shock from some of the pins on the valve sockets with the amp turned off.

[quote name='4ropebottom' timestamp='1355767188' post='1902483'] @Beer - Thanks. #5 was what bass you are playing. I didn't know that GK had an MB200 out. I've been playing the MB150. Thanks for the info. [/quote] My bass is an old German flatback with no name, from around the turn of the 20th century. I had a new adjustable bridge and ebony fingerboard put on a couple of years ago. The MB200 is a tiny class-D head, though I've heard that the EQ centres and general voicing are quite similar to the old MB combos. It's not at all flat sounding with everything at noon, but the controls have enough range to get it how I like it. Weirdly, I actually prefer it to the AI Clarus I used to have, which was very clean and clear sounding, but I found the EQ quite ineffective.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1355764402' post='1902427'] Most of the technical speaker discussions on TalkBass' DB forum suggest that smaller speaker sizes are better at conveying DB tones. The trendy cabs du jour are carrying 6" and 8" speakers while the Audiokinesis Thunderchild 12" also gets loads of good reviews. 15" cabs don't seem to get any support FWIW [/quote] I'm happy with my 1x10" Wizzy myself, but I do find the dichotomy between the bass guitar and double bass sides of Talkbass entertaining. On the bass guitar side, it is accepted as fact that driver size alone does not dictate how the cab will sound, yet on the double bass side, it is equally well accepted that 15"s are inherently unsuitable for double bass. It's hard to see how those two statements can both be correct. I suspect a good modern 1x15", tuned to avoid the boominess of some older designs could actually work very well for double bass.

1. Mostly original acoustic music with a guitarist (about 60:40% pizz/arco). Occasional folk-rock-ish stuff with a full band (mostly pizz). 2. 6, 7, 7.5, 8.5mm 3. Thomastik Spirocore Mittels 4/6. AKG C411 into the house PA for quiet acoustic stuff, Rev Solo II piezo into a GK MB200 and EA Wizzy 10 cab if there's a drummer. Where did number 5 go?

The cap is used as a high pass filter, but it works by allowing treble frequencies to bypass the volume pot so that the pot attenuates those frequencies less. So, it gives an apparent boost to the highs when the volume control is less than maximum. With the pot turned up full, the bright cap will make no difference.

Changing the capacitor will shift the cutoff point, but the cutoff point is not where you think it is. I think the 10M resistor can be more or less ignored in practice, as it's only there to discharge the capacitor and prevent clicks when the switch is engaged. When the bright switch is on, the 10M resistor is going to be in parallel with the lower side of the volume pot (between the wiper and ground), which will always be 1M or less, so 10M in parallel with 1M is not going to change things much. The trouble with trying to calculate the frequency from simple R C formulae is that R is affected both by the impedance of the stage driving it and the setting of the volume control. There's a calculator at [url="http://www.ampbooks.com/home/amplifier-calculators/bright-boost/"]http://www.ampbooks....s/bright-boost/[/url] which can be useful here. From my own experience of changing bright cap values, moving the frequency downwards can actually make things brighter sounding. It might be worth buying several values of cap in the right range and figuring out which one you like best. If you're happy that you can change it cleanly and reversibly, it's about the single cheapest, simplest tweak you can do to a preamp.

I've only got Speakons now, but here's a bump to get things a bit closer to the line.

The 3.9Mohm passive input on Ashdown MAG amps will take most piezo pickups quite happily, and I used to regularly use both my old tiltback MAG 200 112 combo and the MAG 300 115 combo that a local venue had as their house amp without difficulties. They're not the most hi-fi sounding thing out there, but you should be able to get workable results with that amp. It might be worth looking at the type of pickup and how well it is fitted - if it's the bridge wing type, the snugness of the fit is quite critical to getting a decent sound. If it's the type that fits over the top of the bridge with two clips (like the old Fishman BP100 or copies of it), those pretty much always sound awful IMO. I'd suggest identifying your pickup (perhaps post a picture of it) and check the fit of it before you go spending cash on preamps etc.

Personally, I value the presence of the various industry professionals (and a number of informed amateurs and DIYers) on this forum and their input probably saves a lot of people from costly trial and error with their gear. Having said that, participating in a forum called basschat then complaining that all this [i]chat[/i] from all these [i]bassists[/i] is cluttering up the place, as BFM appears to be doing, seems to miss the purpose of the forum somewhat.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1355240743' post='1895819'] If you ignore the replies from all those not actually in the loudspeaker business it's a lot shorter. [/quote] Can't have mere bassists chiming in on a bass forum now, can we?

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1355220922' post='1895435'] Absolutely but it's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase. I think we sound like we are and that's going to disappoint occasionally ! [/quote] It can also be true that some of the traits musicians regard as flaws in their own playing can just sound like part of its character to listeners. I have some friends whose band is doing fairly well, touring and making records for a label, as well as some fairly interesting collaborations. I was surprised that they still call me in to play bass on the string overdubs when they record, when they know a couple of more professional players who also live closer. I asked them about this and the response was that they specifically wanted me, sounding like I sound. I guess this suits their fairly eccentric, pastoral folk sort of sound better than a classical player with their big rich authoritative tone would.

I identify a third level - "It sounds like me on a bad day. I need to practice more!" This may just be me being overly self critical though. There have been a couple of times where I've heard players and been struck by the presence and character of their sound, rather than just their note choice, and been inspired to try and up my game a bit, though not necessarily to emulate them. I still maintain that this is a normal and healthy part of playing.

That's a very 70's set of modifications, what with the cream pickup covers and all the brass! The bridge pickup looks a bit wonky though, and it looks like the fingerboard might need some work. TBH I'd cheerfully keep the mods on a bass like that if it played well, but I wouldn't want to pay much more than it's been bid to at the moment.

This is the thing that puzzles me when threads pop up looking for "the double bass sound" from a bass guitar, as if there was only one! I don't think it's unhealthy to be concerned about your sound, as all of our musical ideas are filtered through it. But yes, there is a point of "close enough" where I can stop thinking about it and dedicate more of my attention to the actual music. Though that point can be quite elusive sometimes, especially when amplified.

On bass guitar, I've settled on the 0.88mm green Dunlop Tortex picks. Any lighter just feels to bendy for me and any heavier misses that "click" to the attack when palm muted. For electric guitar, I like the next gauge lighter, as I have a tendency to tense up my hand and play too hard at gigs, and a little flex in the pick seems to help me moderate that. I like the really heavy ones for my archtop acoustic guitar, either Dunlop Stubbies, 1.5mm pearloid ones from a local music shop, or a bizarre ebony and leather job I found in an old banjo case. Actually, I may have to give that one a go for bass...

Although, come to think of it, Terry Gregory played gypsy jazz influenced music quite effectively on acoustic bass guitar when I saw him with Martin Taylor a few years back. MTs music has never been quite to my taste, but the bass definitely worked for the style. I think it was down to feel and musicianship rather than any particular property of the instrument though.