Beer of the Bass

I think the current enthusiasm for pairs of 1x12" cabs is just because they're a useful combination of size, weight and output. I can't really hear a common tone across them.

[quote name='The Jaywalker' timestamp='1458748464' post='3010497'] PM me your email add and I'll PDF you some stuff that I've got on the jazz and classical vein ;-) [/quote] Cheers, I'll do that.☺

I should avoid these cheap bass modding threads. I don't have the space, the cash, or the need for another bass, but something in the back of my head is saying "Hmm, what if I picked up the HB 5-string Stingray copy and made a proper 2-band preamp for it?". I must resist!

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' timestamp='1458715891' post='3010039'] I would highly recommend heading over to www.discoverdoublebass.com It's headed by Geoff Chalmers of this parish and I've found it a wonderful thing for inspiration and focus. There are many free tutorial videos, of about 10 minutes in length, that present one idea at a time for you to work on. Really can't go wrong it. And also - Geoff is readily available here or via that website if you need further advice. [/quote] I've checked out one or two of Geoff's videos, but it would certainly be worth delving into them a little more deeply. There's certainly a lot of useful looking stuff there, and I like Geoff's sound and approach. [quote name='mtroun' timestamp='1458729086' post='3010178'] The best way to approach practicing though, is the simplest, practice for your next gig. If you haven't got a gig then have one at home, every day. My teacher makes me do this, by choosing 10 tunes (two sets of 5) to play and work on long term until they are really comfortable, at which point tunes can be substituted for others. For each tune you play the melody, walk for a chorus, solo for a chorus, go to the out head. You may not want to play the head if you're practicing a fast tune. Anything that comes up that needs practicing (like nailing particular corners of tunes) will need a bit of further examination after the 'gig'. Good luck! [/quote] Yes, I think the lack of a defined next gig is what I'm struggling with. I don't tend to work on sets of tunes in a focussed way unless they're for a gig, though sometimes when I've heard a tune that particularly grabs me I've spent some time figuring out what's going on. The last time I had a teacher he had me doing something similar; learning heads, getting down the basic harmony and transcribing some of the walking lines, which did help. I'm not great at doing that without someone prodding me each week though! [quote name='sarah thomas' timestamp='1458733688' post='3010250'] I find having a teacher for regular lessons keeps me going. Lately, really slowing down my playing and practising over a drone (I use a Cello Drones app) gives a meditative experience and improves intonation and ears into the bargain. Geoff Chalmers site is excellent, as stated above. My favourite book is John Goldsby's 'The Jazz Book' as it's got good exercises, an overview of influential players and points you in the direction of some great listening. [/quote] I could see how practicing over a drone could help with intonation, I'll have a go at that. I got into it for a while a few years ago, when I was living by myself and my practicing didn't annoy anyone! Come to think of it, I should perhaps try and find somewhere away from the house to practice now and again, as I have a pernickety neighbour who doesn't exactly complain, but always reminds me that he can hear me, in what feels like a passive-aggressive manner. This makes me just a bit uncomfortable about playing a lot at home, as I'm aware of him listening! Regarding books, I have Rufus Reid's book, which I should dig back out (I think it's still boxed after moving house). I'll see if I can find a copy of the Goldsby too.

I quite like the idea of using those printed hessian sacks that coffee is shipped in, if you're going for recycled materials. They're colourful looking, cheap and seem like they would work well as speaker cloth.

I've played double bass on and off since my late teens, which means I've been at it for somewhere around 15 years. Most of my playing has been in folky genres or with singer-songwriter types. Although I listen to a fair bit of jazz, I've never felt I'm at the level to do more than wing it, which I've done from time to time. Orchestral music is not much of an interest. I had a few lessons when I first started and a few more several years ago, so while I'm no virtuoso I have enough technique not to hurt myself and to produce a tone I'm usually quite happy with. Lately I've been without a steady musical project on the double bass, which is a situation I'm not used to. I've been finding it surprisingly difficult to keep my hand in, and when I do pull the bass out I find myself noodling over the same tired feeling phrases in a generally uninspired manner. I don't think I'm ready to just put it away and give it a rest for a while, so I've been thinking about how best to feel a bit more motivated and inspired to practice in a focused way. Thinking about things I could try, the following all seem like options; -Sit down and figure out a self-study approach and try to stick to it. Maybe using a book or two - recommendations welcome. -Make it a bit of a mission to find some new music and players to listen to in the hope that something gets me enthused -Seek out the right teacher to give me a bit of a boot up the bum (in a friendly manner, of course). -Blag my way into some sort of new musical situation, especially one which is slightly over my head. This sounds silly, but has worked for me before! I'm sure some of you will have found themselves in the same situation at some point, so I'd be curious to hear what has worked to get you out of that rut and any advice on the above (or any other approaches worth looking at).

Speaker cloth tends to have a fairly open weave, so maybe tweed would muffle things a bit, perhaps lose some treble? Probably a non-issue for a guitar combo though!

You may already know this, but August is absolutely the worst time to try and book a venue in Edinburgh, and a pretty tough time to try and promote a gig since the Festival is on and there will be literally hundreds of events going on at the same time. At any other time I would suggest looking at Henry's, Sneaky Pete's, Bannermans and the Wee Red Bar (depending on what sort of venue you're after), but August could be tricky.

Some of those pickups can be cool sounding - low output and a bit microphonic, but a clear single coil sound that's different from a Fender. I have an old Guyatone lap steel, and the shonky old pickups work well in that. I can't imagine putting up with the neck, tuners or bridge of one of these old guitars, but I can see how people might enjoy the sound. Yes, I'm probably an irredeemable hipster...

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1458045745' post='3004145'] He must be polite... because a Fender Twin will drown much bigger bass rigs than that without breaking a sweat I love the Fender Twin, but operators must be licensed [/quote] If the One10 has similar output to a typical 1x12", a Twin will be more than capable of burying it. I like Twins, and I'd have one if cash and space allowed, but I can only think of about three guitar gigs in the past five years where I would have really appreciated it!

Are you comparing a 2x10 rig to a 2x15 rig? If the latter sounds bigger, I'm not surprised.

The Thunderbird shape looks surprisingly natural with fanned frets, more so than some of their other models IMO. I like the way the bridge and upper frets end up in line with the slant of the body.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1457350946' post='2997543'] Seven posts and nobody has yet referred to it as a Dingray, so allow me. [/quote] Maybe they should have done a Sterl-Ding instead!

It's been a bit quiet on the gig and jamming front while the drummer moves house, so other than playing at whisper volume in my living room they've only been out once so far. They should see a bit more action in April and May. I've still got to try one with the double bass too.

Narrow string spacing, lines that flow and are echoed between parts of the instrument (body/pickguard/headstock) single coils, simple passive wiring, bridges without any protruding bits for comfortable palm muting, pickguards or control plates, thin natural finishes on understated woods. Bold solid colours can be good too, if it suits the overall aesthetic. Metal parts should be nickel or chrome.

Since the ECC83 is a dual triode, if they used a cathodyne phase inverter (which uses one triode) in the CTM15 the other triode could be part of the preamp. Though to have tone controls and enough gain to overdrive the preamp would require more stages than that. If the master volume is after that one triode in the preamp, they may have arranged the gain staging so that any preamp overdrive is coming from the valve, but it would still be more honest to describe it as a hybrid preamp.

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1457623779' post='3000308'] Depends how high you value your bass. One of my basses is a ply 'outdoor' bass and I do most things on it. The Martin and Bryant go to a luthier for everything. Have you any other luthier close to you? If you really feel you want to do the work could you not take off a couple of mm on the bridge face the 'gap' side, so flatness is not quite so critical. I'd suggest carefully marking a 2mm line and presenting it to a belt sander if you have one. [/quote] I couldn't remove material from the gap/foot side on these particular adjusters, as the shafts are fixed into the feet with the threaded part protruding. The wheels thread onto the shafts and the upper part of the bridge sits on the wheels, with a clearance hole for the shaft. I have access to a small belt sander, and if I finish it off with the long flat sanding block I use for levelling frets that should keep both legs flat and in the same plane. I think I'm going to give it a go...

[quote name='Jebo1' timestamp='1457648497' post='3000717'] Where are you based? [/quote] I'm in Edinburgh.

[quote name='IanA' timestamp='1457635486' post='3000525'] Do they still used that special snow effect foam in BF cabs? [/quote] Was there ever more than one report of this happening? Because to keep harping on about an issue that cropped up with one cab and was apparently resolved with a change of material seven years ago seems a bit ridiculous.

It doesn't look like anything commercially produced - I'd say it's a handmade one-off. As to age and quality it would very hard to say without seeing it close up.

When I got my current bass back in 2008 I had a new bridge with ebony adjusters fitted by a local luthier. Since I was playing unamplified a lot at the time and was into the whole "digging in" business, my default height was on the high side and the bridge doesn't go particularly low. I'm trying to play a bit more subtly now and get into thumb position a little more, so I'd like to take the string height at the end of the fingerboard about 1mm lower than the current lowest setting. My fingerboard is in good shape (it was replaced at the same time as the bridge), so I'm sure the bass should be able to handle a lower setup. This would be a quick job for a luthier, but the local guy has retired and the guy I've used for repairs more recently is a 100-mile round trip. It looks like something I could do myself if I'm careful about it. It seems that most people approach this by taking down the slots in the top of the bridge to the desired height, then re-shaping the crown so that the slots aren't excessively deep. On my bridge, it looks like it might be simpler to take about 2mm or so off the bridge legs above the adjuster, where the bridge rests on the wheels. It looks like if I mark it out carefully and take care to keep the surfaces flat, this shouldn't be too hard. Is there anything glaringly wrong with this approach?

The shape and colour remind me of the old plastic Maccaferri guitars - probably not something they were going for.

[quote name='andydye' timestamp='1457606176' post='3000016'] Here ya go...lovely bit of Walnut [/quote] The endpin looks great, very nicely made. If that were my bass I would get rid of that solid wire tailpiece hanger sharpish though - they're prone to breaking (which is terrifying!) and people often say that the bass opens up with a flexible braided cord.

In that price range your best bet may be to find a 70s British valve amp; Carlsbro, Selmer, Sound City and quite a few more. If it hasn't already been serviced and re-capped, you should budget a bit extra for that.

I'm sure the loudest things I've heard have been sound systems rather than bands. The old-school reggae systems generally aren't that bad as the mids and highs are almost an afterthought, but some of the ones that play dubstep at assorted hippy fests are way more than I can stand!