Hanry

Thanks DaveFry - I did reach out to Alan and he tells me that "all Bassix basses accept 3/4 strings". Sorted!

Hello all, I started this thread in perhaps a less suitable sub-forum. To avoid splitting this, I will simply link to the other post here: Many thanks in advance to all respondents! Hanry

Thanks Pete! I was pondering which sub-forum may be more appropriate - I pondered wrong 😉

Thank you jrixn1 - I much appreciate that! I am hoping for some other responses yet, a sample size of "1" is not enough to allay my fears - but it's a start!

Hello chatters, A year ago I bought (through this fabulous site) a gorgeous Bassix upright bass. It needed a bit of fixing up, but I am growing some finger muscles now 🙂 I want to start using it in an orchestra and it currently has some finger-style strings on which don't respond much to the bow. Off I am, shopping for strings... The strings I can find for sale all say "3/4" or "4/4" - which is of course all about the swinging length of the string - but they never write on how long the actual string is. And with the Bassix, that might be a bit risky: from the bridge the strings wrap around the entire slab of wood and back up. From the ball-end to the bridge it's therefore about 12" / 30cm, which is a fair bit longer than on a traditional double bass. Granted, the headstock is a bit shorter than on a classical instrument, but still - I worry that 3/4 strings may be too short? If you have a common "3/4" string handy and could tell me the actual length end to end - or if you have experiences with basses like the Bassix and can recommend an affordable set of classical strings... I would be very grateful! Hanry

Late to the party, I am amused by the audience/latency discussion ;-) I have worked on stages from 3 x 2 meters (as a player) to roughly 50 x 20 meters (as a soundperson) and on some tours the guitarist was certainly using the entire width of the stage. That means that from his rig to his ears (them were the days, before IEM and all that) was a good 10ms of audio latency (whereas the Nady RF system was good ol' analogue and thus close enough to speed of light). Thing is, he had to adjust his playing to still be locked on to the drummer. I am not saying it is easy (refer to the stage sizes I am used to...) but he did not seem to even notice. Did the audience notice? Well, some geeks like me did, but most of them were standing just as far from the nearest speaker, so it did not matter where he stood, the sync was never *right*. And now, with youtube having ruined it completely, I would be surprised if it made any difference. If it bothers me (odd brain) I simply close my eyes and enjoy the music, or look at the singer ;-) As for the long cable runs - pedal boards have always been on huge cable looms. On the largest stages I worked on the safe cable runs were easily 100m from Nady receiver (with the Guitar Tech behind the amps) out to the pedal board and back. Once the signal has been buffered by the first active stage (Nady, or a booster, etc.) the capacitance is a fixed quantity that can be compensated for. You can get a line driver with a compensation pot (or as I have also known, always use the long cables and have a fixed EQ). I would much prefer that to anyone stepping on my cables. The thing about coax cables is that the distance between the inner and the outer matters - that's creating the capacitance. So even if the high heels aren't damaging the cable - they compress it, as does anyone else who steps on it. Cable is supposed to bounce, but sooner or later it takes on a new form. Now you have an impedance mismatch, reflections, HF loss... all worse then a well-kept long cable.

I have seen him several times and even though I can mouth along to some of the jokes, it is such a pleasure to be in his company... Go wherever he plays. The book is a good companion piece but nothing beats him playing a rolling, completely steady, groove on the bass while re-enacting a conversation with two voices, faces and mic-angles AND acrobatically miming how he is showing off his orange builders' boots on stage while out of his minds on drugs... Oh, and while I am at it, for those within easy travel to London, Mitch Benn (him of off the Now Show for many years) and his band are hosting a monthly Music-Comedy Club called "[url="http://www.phoenixcavendishsquare.co.uk/events/"]Distraction Club[/url]" - every first Tuesday of the month at the "Phoenix" in Cavendish Square near Oxford Circus. It is very good, and a very friendly cosy atmosphere! Guy Pratt once headlined there at very short notice, and I had my first ever asthma attack just from laughing so much! And for those of you further North, another one of the heroes of the Distraction Club is [url="https://silkythecomedian.com"]Silky[/url] - ok, so he does not play the bass but my oh my is he a crafty musician and storyteller - he is based in Leeds and is initiator of Music-Comedy night "[url="http://www.killforaseat.com"]Kill For A Seat[/url]" all over the North, Wales and occasionally the midlands. I am not associated (much, I lent Mitch the bass I can't get on with) with any of these acts, it's merely a public service announcement: We all need more laughs, and what better to mix it with than music?? Hanry

Whoa, thank you for having gathered all of these together! I am considering a right massaker with a guillotine to convert a headed bass to headless - you have provided strong coffee to the guillotineur!!