Beer of the Bass

Sunday night bump: still around if anyone's interested...

I've thought about trying one of these for my fretless, but have never quite got round to it. I reckon the simplest way to use it would be to wire it to the ring of a stereo jack (with the magnetics wired to the tip) and use a Y-cable to a separate preamp or input of a multi-channel amp. I've no experience with these particular piezos, but most piezos on various instruments I've used are happy with an input of 1 megaohm or higher, and will get thin and midrange-peaky with any less.
As an example of the sound of bridge piezos, check out Steve Swallow, as he has only piezos on his basses and gets a pretty full range acoustic-ish tone. Some people don't like his high end, but I think that has as much to do with his pick style...

OK, just for some contrast, my double bass (late 19th century no-name flatback) is

4mm, 8.5mm and 8.5mm

at the 3rd, 12th and 17th fret equivalent positions. The strings are Thomastik spirocore mittels, which are fairly high tension with a spiral steel core and flat outer winding. At the end of the fingerboard the heights are 6.5mm on the G, to just under 9mm on the E. I think this is just a little on the high side of medium for steels, but not full-on high by (jazz) double bass standards. Players with gut strings will often go a bit higher...

Home made walnut thing, Dunlop 45-105 nickel roundwounds;
2mm, 3.5mm, 4mm.
Medium (was quite a bit higher until a couple of weeks ago)

Newly acquired Fender Highway One Jazz, 45-100 D'Addario Chromes flatwounds;
1mm, 2.5mm, 3mm.
This is low by my standards. It's still pretty much as it came from the shop, so I guess that's the factory spec.

Can measure my double bass if anyone's curious...

I'm going to move these two on, as I'm not using them at the moment -

Visual Sound Route 66 (Overdrive/Compression); 2 in 1 pedal, one side is a Tubescreamer style overdrive (with added bass boost), the other side is a compressor (which also does a clean boost and has a useful tone control). Used together, these provide a really versatile range of drive sounds, and the bass boost switch makes it much more bass friendly than a standard tubescreamer. I bought this new in 2004, but rarely need an overdriven sound for the bands I play with. The current version (in a smaller case) sells for £110-120, so [b]£50 posted[/b] looks like a good deal. It's in very clean condition, in the original box with manual, though the cardboard does have some cat tooth marks!

Behringer BDI21 amp modeller/DI; Handy bass EQ/Drive and DI. Cheekily based on the sansamp BDDI. Great condition, but without original packaging or manual. [b]Sold [/b]

Another quick bump as I'm now offering postage.

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='563193' date='Aug 7 2009, 11:33 PM'][url="http://edinburgh.gumtree.com/edinburgh/48/43145348.html"]thingy on gumtree[/url], i copied and pasted it then forgot what it was....[/quote]
[quote]Luke - that's a Westone Thunder, de-fretted so not getting the money he wants. I think it started at £200-ish; if it gets to £50 I might have a punt...[/quote]
That'd be mine - It's on here too.
The £200 one the other week was from someone else - that would be silly money even in my opinion.

Another quick question; does the midrange Q control adjust the centre frequency, or the width of the band boosted/cut?

[quote name='doctorbass' post='560645' date='Aug 4 2009, 09:26 PM']Thats a late 60s or early 70s Telecaster bass[/quote]

OK, fair enough! I'm no vintage Fender expert.
It [i]is[/i] a nice example of a single coil p-style bass in a band context though, and a cool video...

Here's the [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNzilDmPpCg"]The Meters[/url] with a 50's P. Cool stage clothes too - wish I could get away with a suit like that...

Nice! Reminds me of the old Golden Wonder cheese & onion packets

For electric solos, I think this is my favourite. It makes me grin from ear to ear each time:
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Loy55z4GpA&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Loy55z4GpA...feature=related[/url]

Ah well, I reckon they'll enjoy it!
-Martin

pm'd regarding Jazz. It looks lovely!

[quote]ps bad intonation or an iffy note? Shall I start a poll?[/quote]

Do you mean the flat-fifth sounding note at about 0:30? I kind of liked it...
It looks like an enjoyable gig - it's always nice to have the opportunity to play in daylight as opposed to darkened basements.

Gie'us a bump!
Would also consider trade (or p/ex for a nicer instrument) for something fretted that does the p-bass thing.

EDIT - Anyone fancy a punt if I offer postage? Say £120 posted, to clear some much needed space in my flat?

Up for sale is my Westone Thunder 1 (passive model) de-fretted bass, from the famous Matsumoku factory. Serial begins with 2 (I've read that this means 1982, but maybe our resident Japcrap experts can confirm this). It has an ash body with maple/walnut centre, bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and a single precision type pickup. This was built as a fretted bass but has been defretted and the slots filled with a lighter coloured wood veneer.
The bass is strung with Thomastik Jazz flatwounds and really sounds excellent - it has a really strong midrangey fretless "mwahh" tone, with p-bass chunkiness. The action at the 12th "fret" position is a little under 3mm across the board - it plays really comfortably.
The bass does show various battle scars and signs of use - there are various dings and general wear to the body, the knobs are not original and the truss rod cover is missing. A previous owner has also removed the Westone logo from the headstock (too unfashionable perhaps?), and the strap button has been moved to next to the neckplate. It hangs pretty well on a strap like this, so I've never felt inclined to shift it back to the original spot. But as a great sounding fretless, I think it's pretty much unbeatable at the price! I'm looking for £120. You can have a decent, newish gig bag with it too.
I would prefer this to be picked up from Edinburgh - that way you can check it out thoroughly and have a play. I'll look into postage if there's no local interest, but I'm a little wary as I only have a cardboard box - no hard case.

As it happens, I was rummaging through a drawer, and realised I still had the old set of Chromes I'd used a couple of years ago. I wasn't blown away by them when I had them on before (they were last on my fretless), but they're pretty good on my fretted bass.
The feel is exactly what I'm looking for, and they're thick and meaty sounding with a bit of definition. I'm reserving judgement until I've used them with my band though - I always find it hard to judge how a sound will work live when I'm playing at home.

Hi Dave, what's the input impedance on the small DI-EQ? If it's high enough to sound good with a piezo (1Mohm or greater), it'd be really useful to me and I'd be interested in one. Will they have the usual crazy paintjob? I'd be happy if it did...

That Queen Street pawn shop does have a funky looking well-worn EB3 with added Precision pickup at the moment - I couldn't make out the tag (tiny print!), but I'd guess it'll be ambitiously priced...

Hmm, so many choices! Thanks for the input. I'm enjoying the Thomastiks at home, but just know that with the band I'll end up digging in too hard and getting that lovely rubber band effect. I've used Rotosounds, Chromes and Ernie ball flats in the past, but all on different (and fretless) basses, so it's hard to equate that to how they might sound on my fretted bass.
I reckon I'm not quite ready to spring for the full Jamerson sound (foam mute plus well matured flats?), although that can be great in context. But with my bright sounding bass (heavy walnut body plus Darkstar pickup), I guess I can keep reasonable definition as long as there's some sustain there.

Are rotosounds still as rough feeling as they used to be? I had a set on my fretless about 10 years ago, and the roughness is all I can remember about them. I might give Chromes a try - if I like them I'll swap the TIs back to my fretless.
Are things like LaBellas and pyramids at the thumpier end of the spectrum?

Ooh yes, I've been eyeing that up too, but can't really justify spending that amount. Looks nice though, and they do seem like decent folk in that shop...

I'm not going to name any names, but I reckon you haven't properly encountered condescending, elitist shop staff until you've checked out certain classical string instrument shops! Even the surliest guitar salesman can only aspire to that sort of attitude...

On a whim, I decided to try out the Thomastik jazz flats that I use on my fretless on my fretted bass. I'm really digging the sound, but I can't quite get on with the low tension on this bass. I like the Thomastiks because they're nice and mellow sounding, with a distinct flatwound sound to the attack, but not too dead and thumpy. Are there any flats that have these properties with a little more tension? Or should I just stick with them for a while and see if I get used to it?