Beer of the Bass

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1498415444' post='3324417'] Ok, not basses but guitars. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (!) had 3 guitarists playing odd shaped guitars (Danelectro, Vox, etc) that had extra frets between certain notes so they could play some quarter-steps. For some songs they all switched to regular guitars with the front man on 12-string. Very odd, never seen this before, as the guitars appeared to be different makes I can only assume these were custom mods? Edit: Yup, this sheds some light on the subject: http://www.audiotechnology.com.au/wp/index.php/king-gizzards-lo-fi-gut-feeling/ [/quote] Ah, I've just heard them on the radio, been intrigued by the microtonal weirdness and looked them up. At first I thought they might be using an electric Saz or something like that.

Taking a wild guess about this, considering the following; -specifically looking for someone "level headed" -cautioning against "attitude, egos and weirdness" -not sharing the band name or links to material when it would be easy to do so I suspect their last bassist doesn't know they're leaving yet!

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1498208673' post='3323096'] I thought was a little flat. I'd expect an ad for a young originals band to have more spark about it. [/quote] Possibly, but adverts that try too hard to be quirky can be a turn-off too.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1497872864' post='3320960'] I'd love to see a soundy in my situation. I have a valve amp with no DI & have no DI pedals, so the only option is to mic me up. [/quote] They'll probably stick a knackered £10 Behringer DI in front of the amp, from past experience.

What about these guys? Same diameter, and you can get them in black, but the flattened shape is distinct enough that you could easily feel if you grabbed the wrong knob. [url="https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94_108_314&zenid=0g5bpmf24n71eta7f3elanj5r0"]https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=94_108_314&zenid=0g5bpmf24n71eta7f3elanj5r0[/url]

I have a C411pp, which I've usually used with an ART Tube MP. This doesn't allow for blending, but gives you a jack output for your amp and an XLR out for the PA as well as providing phantom power to the C411. I've also tried an ART Promix microphone mixer which runs on batteries, but somehow never sounded great. The Headway EDB-2 looks like the ideal thing to use, and can do the blending thing, but I've never quite got the cash together for one. If you can find a small mixer that has both phantom powered mic inputs and a High-Z instrument input you might be able to blend the C411 and pickup more cheaply. I've not seen many that have both on separate channels, but the Allen and Heath Zed 6 looks like it would do the job. There is quite a lot of scope for tweaking the C411 to taste just through positioning; if you move it closer to the bridge feet you get a little more high-end detail and less thump, more of a "pickup" sound, while it gets darker with broader dynamics (more mic-like?) further away.

I dug out my copy of the Ray Brown method (which is from 1963, not the late 50's as I'd thought). While he clearly has gut strings in the pictures, the closeups of his right hand don't look as if his action is punishingly high. It's higher than you'd have a set of Spiros, but he was playing in and out of thumb position, doing double-stop 10ths and things, and I think had his bass set up to allow for that. There is a kind of "Emperor's new clothes" thing around no-amp bassists where no-one wants to admit they couldn't always hear Mingus or other greats clearly. Actually, it goes on to this day if you look over on Talkbass!

[quote name='Pea Turgh' timestamp='1497792596' post='3320569'] I think I'll just go ahead and make the cab that has been tried and tested! I can keep the mahogany beast in the house to run my Pianet through. [/quote] Ooh, N, T or one of the other Pianets? I love those things, and have an N myself. I think I like it best through a guitar amp rather than bass or full-range amplification though. (Apologies for dragging the thread way off topic!)

I have a copy of Ray Brown's bass method which was written in the late 50s. That has some good close-up photos which look like he has plain gut on the D and G and wound gut on the E and A. Also notable in those photos are his big beautiful Italian bass with the hollow tuning keys, and his great suit jackets! I'm not sure of the exact date when steel strings started being used for jazz, though I'd guess they caught on and became ubiquitous through the 60s. From what I've read Thomastik made their steel Precision strings surprisingly early (they claim 1926), but those were stiff solid-core jobs, and I don't think jazzers started using steel strings until more flexible types were available in the late 50s. Lots of older bass players still rave about Lycon strings, which were one of the earlier flexible core steel sets available. Mingus sounds (to my ears, anyway) like he only adopted steel strings late in his career - I think he held out with the gut for longer than most.

[quote name='RichardH' timestamp='1497441141' post='3318144'] That sounds a good way to do - I had been thinking of using the phenolic sheet. The eyelets idea is genius - that way you can pass leads though the board rather than keep it all on the surface. I guess a punch tool might be needed too, though I wouldn't be suprised if that can be got around without too much trouble. If I go that way then I wouldn't mind knocking up a few blank boards for anyone else who wants to build a crossover. [/quote] I don't have the proper eyelet setting tool, but I've found it works OK to place them in drilled holes, turn the board over and splay the other side by tapping them with an old centre punch.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat, but the method I've been using to make eyelet boards for valve amps might be applicable to crossovers. I use 2mm phenolic sheet bought cheaply from eBay suppliers (easier to cut and drill than fibreglass, more resistant to soldering heat than ply) with brass haberdashery eyelets set into holes (easy to solder to, cheaper than turret terminals). Larger components are held in place with hot glue or cable ties.

Looks good. Have you had a chance to check it out with the s112s yet? I wonder if the HPF might do useful things for them. I had an Acoustic Image head with a variable HPF, and it was handy for getting a little extra loudness out of a small cab before it starts to complain. I tend to like what a bright switch does for the voicing of an amp too, so the features on this one look quite attractive.

How tight is the tolerance on a typical inductor? Is the difference between 0.56 and 0.6, or 0.17 and 0.18mH all that critical in this application?

If you cover Hawkwind, King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator, the pubs might hate it, but I'd come and see you!

I wonder which model the Ibanez I had in my teens was? It was through-neck and had the fake mudbucker, but the inlays were greyish and not sparkly.

It's a little DIY 1x10", made from birch ply and stained. I have a Faital 10FE200 in there which is a cheap driver with modest excursion, but has nice even mid response and decent treble for a single driver cab. I use it for double bass mostly, and my 1x12" cabs do the electric bass gigs.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1496778483' post='3313831'] I've never owned one [/quote] I've never owned a bass without one. The severity varies though - sometimes they're barely noticeable and not enough to be a problem. But they've all had one or two notes on the G string that sustain slightly differently due to neck resonance. Do some people only call it a dead spot when it's particularly severe?

Ah, I was thinking more of a utilitarian recording or low-volume gigging setting where the look and vibe are less of a consideration as long as it nails the sound. But for your context, the B15n would be a lot of fun to have around.

Trying one would be a good plan - if that's the sound you want and you don't need a whole lot of volume, it's a classic. Though there may be other routes to investigate for a low wattage valve amp with that kind of flavour. Do I remember you saying you were using a Barefaced Retro 2x10? One of the new Ampeg P50T heads on top of that would probably get you to a similar place, with more versatile EQ and useful features like a DI output. Or there are other heads which are going for a similar sound, like the EBS T90.

[quote name='neilp' timestamp='1496442406' post='3311555'] I have a fairly nice carbon German bow that I'll part with for a reasonable sum. Bought it cos I took on a pupil who had learnt German and didn't wan to change, and I needed to be able to demo stuff to him. He's moved away, so I no longer need it. PM me if interested Neil [/quote] Cheers for the offer. I had just ordered one of the Thomann carbon bows before I read your post, otherwise I'd have been tempted. However, their return policy is quite good, so if I don't like the feel or build quality of it when it arrives I'll drop you a PM.

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1496351388' post='3310824'] Tip facing split = a dab of glue. Wedge falling out = if it was having a re-hair the wedge would be out anyway. Don't buy a new one. Treat yourself to a rehair. Job done. [/quote] I did think about that, and I've had it rehaired once already about 6 years ago. But I think a rehair is £60 or so, the tip repair would probably be extra, and it starts to look uneconomical with a cheap bow like mine. I could attempt to glue it myself before having it rehaired, but I have a feeling they might not be happy about rehairing a bow with an amateur glued-up repair. It looks like the split facing is the reason the wedge is coming loose, because the crack widens as the bow is tightened, and can be pushed closed with the hair slackened off. [quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1496335461' post='3310681'] The Yita ones are well respected around these parts, Geoff 'Discover Double Bass' Chalmers made mine sing at the bash and Jake Newman bought one as his backup for West End gigs after trying mine too. [/quote] Doing a quick search, the Yita bows do have some favourable reviews. That would make me a bit happier about the idea of ordering from China, certainly. Though I'm also wondering about this cheap carbon bow from Thomann; [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_cbb01g_34_carbon_bassbow.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_cbb01g_34_carbon_bassbow.htm[/url] It's short, but it turns out that it's the same size as the one I've been using for years, which might help with familiarity.

I use the pinky a lot, but I tend to use double bass style fingering lower down the neck, where the hand spans three frets and the pinky is supported by the ring finger behind it.

Hmm, looking around at bows online, I'd never realised that the one I've been playing for years is not full size! Mine is 52cm hair length and 71.5cm long overall. This seems to be described as 1/2 size or 3/4 size depending on where I look. I'm not sure how I managed not to notice that...

I've used the same cheapie bow for more than 10 years, I bought it used for something like £30 but I believe it was one of the $99 jobs that Gollihur Music in the US used to sell. It is starting to flake out on me; the tip facing has split and the wedge is creeping out. I'm going to have to cross my fingers that it holds out for the two gigs I have in the next week, but I think I need to sort out another bow sharpish. I'd like to look at better bows at some point, but right now would not be the time. So which cheap German bows are worth looking at, up to about £100? The local string shops tend not to have much choice in German bows and the ones they do have are usually out of my range, so I'll probably be buying online. Thomann have a couple, either their own £50 carbon job or wooden bows labelled Gewa or Alfred Stingl. Lando Music in Germany have wooden bows labelled Gasparo that look like they might be OK; [url="http://www.kontrabass-atelier.de/bogen_e.html"]http://www.kontrabas...de/bogen_e.html[/url] Or there are various Chinese suppliers via eBay, although like the idea of going with a company in the UK or Europe so that it would be easier to send back it it's terrible! Any recommendations would be welcome.

[quote name='Thunderpaws' timestamp='1496179548' post='3309432'] Is it the volume of the port that matters? For example, if corner triangular prisms were used, should the volume of the prism be the same as the volume of the cylinder that makes a circular tube port? [/quote] Unfortunately, the relationship between port surface area and length for a given tuning frequency is a bit more complex than that, which is why most people use modelling software rather than working it out on paper. As the surface area increases, the length required increases too, so for example a 100mm diameter port needs to be longer than a 75mm diameter port would for the same tuning frequency.