HumblePie

16 hours ago, NickA said:

Mention of Chick Corea reminds me .   Stan Clarke!   Why has no one mentioned Stanley?  Best known as a funky slapper of Alembics, but he's a better double bassist.  Check out the John Coltrane tribute on "Johnny McLaughlin Electric Guitarist" and "jazz n the garden" with Hiromi Uehara. He has massive hands, plays fast and is spot on in tune.  His big trick is playing in unison with someone playing a much easier instrument ( Kai Ekhardt does that too, but only on an electric ).  Not a hope of emulation, but hear and marvel.

 

Yes, and I like his upright playing much more than his electric playing.

This is a standout performance for me:

20 minutes ago, Boochooz said:

 

Pretty sure someone sold one for £2k only a few days ago on basschat.

Was that an US-build Fodera? I do believe it was a Japan-made "NYC" model.

These are the best ones I had on any bass: https://uptonbass.com/product/irving-sloane-bass-tuning-machines/

Lovely bass.

I think this article is mostly correct. I have studied classical music and Jazz, so I have experienced both sides. There are few players who can do both on a high level.

12 hours ago, Lunatique said:

Ear training is not my strongest suit. If something is clearly out of tune then I can definitely hear it, but in the context of multiple instruments playing together and in the hands of a professional musician playing melodically challenging music, I don't think I can hear the problems. Also, I think maybe jazz is more forgiving of intonation since so much of it relies on passing notes (which to non-jazz musicians sounds like sour notes) and there's so much modulation and key change and complex harmony, that if there are slight intonation issues, they'd likely just blend right in. 

How would y'all rate Eddie Gomez overall? He seems to be one of those upright bassists who sometimes makes it onto "best upright bassist" lists, and sometimes don't. Would he be considered middle-tier among other jazz upright bass players?

You can rank them any way you want basically, since there are no fixed criteria for ranking Jazz musicians.

I think every aspiring bass player should study Paul Chambers and Ray Brown.

Ron Carter, Eddie Gomez, Charlie Haden, Charles Mingus, Scott Lafaro, Jimmy Garrison, Gary Peacock, Dave Holland, Stanley Clarke are among the greats for shure, as are lots of other bassists I would consider "legends" or "veterans" like John Lee Clayton Jr. and, maybe one of the most gifted players, Nils Henning Orsted Petersen.

Christian McBride is among the most accomplished upright players right now, as is John Patitucci, Larry Grenadier is among them for shure.

Linda Oh is making a name for herself, Esperanza Spalding is one of the more recent upright prodigies, Ben Street is steadily among the new elite, as is Chris Minh Doky. Avishai Cohen is another more recently emerging players, he started as a sideman for Chick Corea and became a succesfull bandleader.

2 hours ago, NickA said:

Gomez and Haden intonation flaws?  Really?  I always counted them as particularly good; at least, compared to Ron Carter (who is often awful) and Mingus (who cared more about the music than the notes).  Need to get my ears recalibrated

Gomez on Joni Mitchel's "I've got a blue motel room" and with Bruford & Ralph Towner on "If summer had its ghosts" .. I love it and need to get more of him.

Meanwhile I'm just playing an el cheapo CD I bought from HMV (yes there ARE still CD shops!!) that has The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus on it (for about a fiver).  In places it sounds like Mingus was playing a laminated bass with tired gut strings on it, recorded using a mike wrapped in a wet cloth .. but Oh can Mingus swing a band a long behind him - sometimes intonation isn't all that.

PS: so much great music in this thread .. should take up a couple of weeks of self isolation (when it inevitably descends) quite nicely!! :¬)

 

They are not absolutely on point like the real A-list players. Ron Carter is hit and miss sometimes. I really don´t like the "smear" or playing everything with "glissandro", for me the intonation has to be on point- as a reference I studied classical music (vocals and upright), so I might have differect expectations for that.

Gomez is a good Jazz player, he has some flaws in his intonation, as did Charlie Haden.

You can use any steel string for decades, especially Spirocore seem to last very long, lots of players also like the sound of worn-in strings because they don´t have the sharp high end anymore.

Half of my string collection has been sold.

These are actually very good basses.

I saw your Brook bass for sale, it looks fantastic and sounds great. I have to mention that the back of the Cort is not flat, it has a very nice round back, but it is difficult to photograph, at least for me.

4 minutes ago, Brook_fan said:

Gosh, that looks lovely, especially that bridge. I’m intrigued as to what Elixir copper strings are as I didn’t know they made strings in copper. Do you have a link?

Robbie

Thanks for the reply, they are of course the bronze Elixir strings.

https://www.elixirstrings.com/guitar-strings/acoustic-bass-80-20-bronze-nanoweb-coating

Very cool strings, I like them very much.

The bass is indeed a bargain, it has everything you want in an acoustic bass.

This bass has a beautiful voice, I have strung it with the Thomastik Nickel roundwound strings which are a joy to play. Although the EQ is very versatile, it sounds best played in passive mode, the bridge pickup gives you that nice nasal tone you are looking for on a fretless bass. Also the action is set up very low for superb playability and lots of "mwah".

This bass has a nice low action and sounds like a 70s Fender bass with extended range and better playability. Sander DeGier has stopped making this model, if you would order one it would be well over 4000€ new.

Very good condition. It is the top-of-the-line model, was 998€ new.

-Jumbo-Body
-34" Scale
-solid spruce top
-rosewood body
-rosewood fretboard and rosewood headstock with binding
-Hipshot tuners
-Fishman Sonicore cable-pickup
-Prefix Plus Preamp
-High gloss finish
-luxurious case
-Elixir bronze strings

https://www.kristallbass.com/info/preise/

The English version does not seem to be working.

https://www.kristallbass.com/

Base price is EUR 3.850,– (this bass has some nice upgrades)

Basically, this priced as high as a brand new one.

Nice instrument, though.

I had 15 sets or so, I have been playing double bass for 15 years and had stored all the strings I used in three boxes, so I decided to get rid of most of the used strings I have. Usually I play Spirocore for about a year and then get new ones, same thing with Flexocor. I used Spirocore for Jazz pizz and Flexocor for bowing, but now I play Evah Pirazzi medium tension for pizz and Flexocor Deluxe for bowing.

These are very good, I played them on tour with a pro band.

J-neck, powerful pickups. The standard model had no-name pickups and a tortoise scratch plate.

23 hours ago, NickA said:

 

Nothing beats Spiro's for pizz.

My bass sounds great with full strength Spiro's.  But they're hard on the hands and don't bow well. So I'm forced to use hybrids unless there's only jazz coming up.

Quite interested in these as I tried some normal Evah's and found them a better bow & pluck compromise than my helicore hybrids.  but How much softer are the "weichs"?

Full scale length?

Pirastro only makes 4/4 strings, so they fit on any scale lenght pretty much. Helicore hybrids come in three gauges, Evah weich are like Helicore hybrid light. I think they sound way better than Helicore, richer and fuller tone. For bowing the Evah mittel are better though.

Probably the most used string for Jazz pizzicato along with the Spirocore light.

Had two very successfull trades in person with Ovi, highly recommended.

13 hours ago, NickA said:

Nearly bought another (smaller and fancier) bass last week (my hands aren't getting any bigger but they are getting stiffer with age) ... someone else got there before I made my mind up; so, the hunt begins (again) for a smaller and better bass.  Lizsop isn't the only person who might like to try that Martin ;¬)

The trouble with dealers is Mark Up and VAT.  A reasonable dealer's markup is "only" 15 - 20%, but then add 20% VAT on the sale and on the commission and £10,000 is only buying a £6944 bass !!  Now think of the markups applied by the likes of Turners and you don't seem to get much for your money (though the big dealers will haggle and do a good trade in deal to soften the blow!)

Of course what you should get from a dealer is a bass that is properly setup - usually to your custom requirements - and some come-back if something turns out to be wrong and of course if you bought a £7000 bass privately, you could then spend £3000 doing it up (maybe). 

What do we reckon.  Are dealers worth the extra cost?

 

PS: good story I read about the "worlds most expensive bass" (at least, it was in 1999): 

"a Venetian double bass by Domenico Montagnana of c.1747 which topped Sotheby’s sale when it sold to a professional musician for £140,000. Interestingly, despite the fact that this was well under the £250,000-350,000 estimate, it still set a new auction high for a double bass

“The bass world is notoriously difficult to sell to”, said Sotheby’s specialist .. “most basses tend to change hands privately between players and not sell at auction which made pricing difficult to predict. Our estimate reflected that we were hoping to attract a collector or institution. However, the world of the bass player felt our price was a little ambitious”.

So glad to read that :¬)  hope it's still true.

You can expect to pay 100%-300% more at a dealer. If you know what to look for and you have a good luthier that you Trust, you can save a lot of money buying a bass in the private market.