Beer of the Bass

I think Georgie Born did this with Henry Cow, also coming from a cello background. But unless your student is using a 30“ scale instrument, the amount of shifting needed to play typical lines in the lower register is already going to feel quite different from cello. And if she's at that standard on cello at 14, I suspect she'd pick up standard tuned bass guitar quite quickly anyway. Fifths tuned bass guitar could work well with the right strings, but if your student is interested in bass guitar then it would make sense to get familiar with the standard configuration first, as it would help understand the nature of the instrument.

I like valve amps for bass guitar, and have had a few different ones. I've never gigged with them on double bass, but I've used them at rehearsals a few times where it was just what I had with me. If you're staying within the headroom of the amp, it can sound very good. The character of it varies depending on amp and pickup choice, but in general they're a little more obviously amp-y sounding than most solid state amps, whether in a warm, rounded way or more mid-forward.

I'm thinking I might bring my Ampeg PF-50T for a little gig I'm doing next month, a trio with drums and low volume electric guitar, so I'll report back if I do.

This thread is from 2016 - I haven't looked at that shop in a while, but it's entirely possible their current stock aren't the same ones they carried 6 years ago. My warning people away from those wasn't about snobbery (otherwise I wouldn't have also recommended the lower end Stentors and older European laminated basses), it was simply because at the time I'd seen them stocking basses with major issues and ones of low quality that weren't good value for money.

2 hours ago, bartelby said:

Oh, Insane Clown Posse and their gibberish about magnets...

The odd thing with Insane Clown Posse is that Violent J in particular has proven to be quite a thoughtful and likeable person over the years, for example being willing to examine and express regret about their homophobic earlier lyrics. I don't get on with their music at all, but really, they seem like OK people.

Hybrid usually implies the back and sides are laminated, and the description of this one says it's all solid. Though I think there have been both hybrid and all solid Zeller models, so it'd depend if you can see the lamination layers at the edges of the sides.

My Ampeg PF-50T and pair of 1x12“ cabs are pretty well to my taste for what I do, and my band doesn't go wild with stage volume because we have brass and flute. If budget, transport and venue size was suitable I might be tempted to look at a V4B and one or two slightly larger cabs, but that wouldn't be an actual need - I could probably be fine with what I have.

I played with a fiddle player using the violin version. It could sound good, but was really variable in tone and output level as the band shifted around or got loose. And I'd imagine making it big enough for a bass wouldn't help with that.

2 hours ago, musicbassman said:

I guess some people assume that 'Squier' was just a dodgy misspelling that has somehow become stuck.

 

In actual fact, 'Squier' is the correct name of a very long established Japanese musical instrument company.

I understand that they used to make violins, back in the day.

I thought Fender's use of the name came from V. C. Squier, an American string manufacturer who were bought out by Fender in the 60s.

I've definitely seen a few sound guys spend the largest part of the soundcheck getting a massive kick sound to the full ability of the system, then everything else is almost an afterthought over the top. I don't know if this is a genre specific thing, or some sort of strange soundguy tunnel vision!

I wouldn't go too small - although I used to fit mine in a Fiesta and then various tiny rental and car club cars, I never liked the way it reduced visibility when upside down in the passenger seat, or the way it sat close above the handbrake and gearstick when put in from the boot with the back seats down. Currently we're keeping our 2007 Zafira going until it needs anything too expensive doing.

On 10/06/2022 at 16:19, Bassfinger said:

Titebond applied, neck and body clamped firmly - but not too firmly - and left alone in my warm workshop for 24 hours.

 

Meanitime, I've checked the rest of the gear.

 

Tuners are cheapo, but seem susprisingly positive and firm. I may yet keep these.

 

Bridge is a Musicman syle BBoT and is going in the bin. Ill use an Allparts Ricky bridge instead.

 

Can't really gauge the pups by just by looking. I may yet swap the bridge pickup for a Ricky style one, but if I did stick with J style I have an Entwistle that can go in. For the sake of a few quid I'll probably fit a Retrovibe neck pickup anyway.

 

Blue dye on order, watch this space!

 

 

 

It'd be worth checking you're happy with the string spacing of the Allparts bridge before you commit yourself to it. Rickenbackers are narrower spaced than most other four strings at the bridge, and not all modern day copies imitate that. You might find it leaves you with a lot of space at the edges of the fingerboard.

I think Mr Pastorius must just have liked appending "Of Doom" to things. There was the short-lived Trio Of Doom with John Mclaughlin and Tony Williams too.

1 hour ago, rushbo said:

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I think at this point, we need to hear from the good Captain Beefheart. In his "10 Commandments 0f Guitar", coming in at #8 is:

 

8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument
“You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.”

 

I'm pretty sure this applies to the bass, too. 

 

Would you argue with Captain Beefheart?  I mean, he died 11 years ago, but would you? 
 

As much as I love his music, being in his band sounded like an ordeal by all accounts!

I've never boiled them - I've found cleaning with isopropyl alcohol is effective if they need freshening up a little. Some people soak them, but just slackening them off a bit and wiping up and down them with an alcohol dunked cloth does about as well IMO. Though once they're really on their way out, nothing will buy you very long.

Though my current TI Jazz flatwound are coming up for 4 years without more than a simple wipe down, and I feel they're doing fine!

Was Holger Csukay's bass with Can a Musicmaster, or one of the other short scale Fenders?

That low-C mandocello range is fun to have, especially as it's a different sound to an open tuned guitar. I have my 10 string cittern (made by my classical guitar luthier brother) in unison CGDAD at the moment, so it's in mandocello/Irish bouzouki range.

And these are my two mandolins

The bowlback I've had since I was a teenager, it sounds sweet but I struggle with the tiny and V shaped neck. The other is a Sears catalogue model made by Harmony in Chicago, which is cheaply made, but the endearing, funky kind of cheap!

46 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

Explain to me the grommets please. I play octave mandola (mandolin if you’re an American) but I have never heard of these and have no idea what they are supposed to do. I always thought going from mandolin to bass or vice versus was kind of strange, I only knew of Chris Hillman and Dave Pegg who did it.

They just dampen the section of string behind the bridge that can otherwise ring annoyingly - especially noticeable recording with a close mic or amplified with a piezo pickup. On my mandolin I just have a strip of felt under the tailpiece cover to do the same job.

Looks smart! I really enjoy mandolin, though I tend towards more of a folky direction with it.

Oh, and about those grommets - are they any different from the ones from electronics suppliers? I've been using those (seen here on my cittern) and I've never been sure if "mandolin grommets" are just the same thing in a packet.

Though it's obviously not a mandolin, there are a few people on the Mandolin Cafe forum who have some knowledge of the various Catania makers, so they might have some insights.

And regarding the inlay, apparently many of the inlay designs used on these instruments were stock items from an inlay supplier's trade catalogue, so the same inlay as another instrument might only indicate the same inlay supplier rather than the same luthier.

2 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

He won't be wasting his life scouring the 'net for every possible copyright infringement. He pays people to do that for him.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing exactly that. He comes across as the sort these days!

We've been holding off from doing a proper launch gig for our album until we're sure the vinyl will have arrived. With the current supply issues, that keeps being pushed back too.

Yep, it's happened with my Hogmanay gig too. Seems there aren't hard restrictions saying they can't have live music, but once smaller venues have implemented all the guidelines it becomes unworkable to run the gigs.

I really like the older, curvier version of the Aria headstock, for some reason.

I've been experimenting with an LPF recently (a Schalltechnik Vong HPF +LPF pedal) to tame the extreme highs from a fuzz pedal I use. The fuzz sounds great through a tweeterless cab, but with a bass rig with a tweeter or through a DI, it's hard to manage. Though the Markbass VLE control also does that quite effectively the times I've used them.

I remember there was a tune dedicated to him on John Mclaughlin's Extrapolation, and the sleeve notes described him as "unjustly jailed with his brother Bunny". Though given the release date of the album, that must have been referring to the earlier drug possession charge.