godathunder

Even with my none too special woodworking chops it only took a few hours to design and build one from some offcuts from the scrap pile

Loved his work on miles' tutu and jarre's zoolook. My ownership of a fretless sire with his name on the headstock is purely coincidental though

Saw joe bonomassa's rory gallagher tribute at the marquee in cork. Blistering gut churning visceral rock and roll - decent volume too (albeit not the best sound and a couple of technical issues but so what). The whole band were on fire, joe and lachy doley (keys) in particular. Bass was courtesy of Aongus Ralston of the waterboys although Gerry McAvoy also sat in for a couple of numbers. Bass was low, full and driving; not an especially articulate sound but that wasnt really the remit - it was perfect for the gig. It must also be noted that mr ralston is a sartorially elegant chap. unusual to see joe upstaged in that respect

Iron maiden in dublin - still awesome after all these years. not the best Ive seen them (no criticism, theyve just set such a high bar for live performance over the years) but if you asked me to draw up my dream setlist it'd be pretty close to this. New drummer seem to have settled in nicely, he's not quite as fluent sounding as nicko but he's only been with them for a couple of months, rather than nicko's 40+ years. Adrian smith dusted off his old Lado guitar, was a shame 'arry didnt dig his Lado bass out too - he was as flawless as ever - an absolute machine. not my footage but it gives the general gist of things - I was a bit irked by the cgi projected backdrop at first but it quickly won me over - it's probably the best Ive ever seen this sort of thing used. I was feeling positively seasick by the end of the ancient mariner

Have android sorted their latency problem these days? The older devices were absolutely unusable for real time audio (which was a shame, as they were my goto device for pretty much everything else mobile related)

Im going to try to arrange another lesson, largely because playing his was such a different experience and demands a playing style completely at odds with my setup My natural style is pretty busy and harmony via melody/counterpoint driven, which my bass seems suited to, so Id be interested to investigate a completely different style and setup. Living in a fairly rural area, Ive not found anything in the way of jazz sessions near me (although the annual bray jazz festival isnt that far away) but there are a few irish folk and trad sessions nearby. It would make sense to learn a style thats more in keeping with whats available locally. Then, of course, theres the matter of owning an appropriate tool for the job. Best have a look down the back of the sofa and establish my budget...........

Completely agree, I didnt intend my post to sound critical of him in the slightest. I found the lesson very useful and offered to pay for his time regardless but he wouldnt take my money

I had an interesting day yesterday. I had a lesson with the db tutor which was a combination of frustrating, affirming and eye opening. When I arrived, he asked me to play something so he could get an idea of my level. I played an adaption of Nature Boy Ive been using as a practice piece. He stopped me and told me I played at a higher level than him and he didnt know anyone who would be able to teach me. Fair play to him, he also refused payment for the lesson so we had a little bit of a jam and general chat instead. Very good for the ego but mildly frustrating because Im fairly aware of some of my shortcomings and dont really have a route to address them. The eye opening bit of it was that Ive come to the conclusion that, contrary to what I thought, I do not own a double bass but rather a hybrid instrument with the same scale length and tuning. Obviously he brought his bass along and I found it nigh on impossible to play for a combination of reasons. The body shape is vastly different from mine and my technique didnt really translate to being encumbered by the deeper body, position of the heel and presence of the instrument shoulders. The setup was also hugely different from mine - he aimed for the nut being slightly above his head rather than the eyebrow level Ive settled on. Also, whereas mine is setup with fairly high tension steels but a relatively low action, his was setup with lower tension nylons and a higher action. His playing tends more towards rockabilly slap at the bottom end of the instrument whereas mine is geared more towards walking lines and melodic excursions higher up the neck. He couldnt play his style on mine and vise versa. The real eye (ear?) opener was the difference in the sound of the instruments. Mine plays more like a second harmonic instrument - his had a very deep and resonant low end and considerably more volume whereas mine was much quieter and far more mid focused. In volume terms, mine struggled to keep up with his acoustic guitar. Obviously mine is primarily intended as an amplified instrument but I was really surprised at just how little volume it produced acoustically in that scenario. Id be interested to do an a/b test with mine amplified to the same level, especially as ive found my experiments so far result in a much boomier sound than the instrument's acoustic voice. Whereas his had more depth and power, I did find mine to be far more articulate and probably more suited to the style of playing I'm developing. So, in conclusion, hmmmmmmmmmm

Further progress and experimantation has occurred I cut a finalised bridge at last so the couple of pieces of 2x1 that had formed the temp have now been retired. I settled on a slightly higher action than Id used for the temp - I found it was sounding a little underwhelming and wasnt fighting back as much as I like. Originally I cut it a little high, intending to cut some channels for the strings but they seem rock solid without them and it turns out that I prefer the extra mm or two so Ill leave it as is The pickups that were with the bass turned out to be broken. I've managed to get them mostly functional again, although further repair to the cabling is required. More can be found here if youre interested (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/511670-pickup-id/) In the meantime, I found a fishman acoustic guitar pickup/mic/preamp for 20 quid and thought I may as well have a play with it temporarily to see what I could do with it. Not wanting to make any adaptions to the bass itself, I cut down the preamp to a more ergonomic shape and built a small box to house it. I fitted a couple of furniture protection pads which snugly hold it in place under the neck by friction alone. I extended the wiring, fitted the mic inside the body and made a temporary mount for the pickup (an undersaddle type) on the bridge. It sounded absolutely bloody awful - the mic is underwhelmingly ok but the piezo just honked and needed a ridiculous amount of upper mid eqd out of it (around -10db from 2-6k). It also sounded as if I was playing through an expander - the dynamics were horrifically exagerated and it picked up way too much of the body noise to be usable . I wrapped the piezo element in cloth and refitted it which improved matters somewhat in terms of eq and body noise but at best I can make it sound like a mediocre fretless bass guitar. Will experiment further before I completely discard the idea though. Once Id (semi)repaired the original pickup I retrofitted a selector switch to the preamp to allow me to connect the original pickup, which sounds far better but is still quite boomy and undefined. It also has a far higher output than the undersaddle pickup. I may need to pad it down a little as unless the battery is at full voltage it seems to overload the preamp slightly on the lower notes. The preamp itself is obviously not optimised for a bass and the eq isnt terribly useful but as a buffer/selector/gain stage/polarity switch/tuner its useful enough to earn its keep. I seem to recall I have a sennheiser dynamic clamp mic somewhere in the depths of one of my attic boxes that will probably sound better than the mic that came as part of the preamp so that will be the next experiment. I also built a stand for the bass out of some scraps from the woodpile. It seems much more dignified than just leaning it up against a cabinet in the corner In terms of actually playing, Ive been playing along to loads of jazz standard backing tracks on youtube and am starting to develop some (occasional) accuracy in my intonation at last. Ive also found someone willing to give me lessons on an adhoc basis although Ive not been able to start just yet. Its all terribly exciting though......

The soldering iron and magnifying glass payed dividends. Both of the solder joints to the piezo wafer had failed on the 1st pickup in line. It took a few tries to get a decent connection but I got it working. Predictably, after reassembling it,the joints pretty much immediately failed again so this time a cut down a piece of microbore pipe with a dremel type tool and reshaped it to form some strain relief.Lashings of epoxy completed its quest for solidity. Despite this, the connection to the 2nd pickup is intermittent. At some future point I'll make a joint in the cable instead. The jury is out on the sound at the moment, it seems a bit boomy and undefined but the preamp Im using isnt really suited. I'll continue this exciting story in the original thread https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/483271-shergold-electric-upright/

yeah, that was my feeling but I was just holding out a faint glimmer of hope that someone would identify them as some esoteric non piezo that needed some dc applied. Ah well, time to break out the soldering iron and magnifying glass

Ive finally got round to cutting a proper bridge for my Shergold project ( https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/483271-shergold-electric-upright/ ) and excitedly mounted the pickups only to find that silence ensues I assumed that theyre piezos so was expecting a pretty low output but this is zero output. Perhaps Im mistaken about them being piezos and they require a polarising voltage. The jack socket has a 4700pF capacitor wired in parallel across the terminals (Im assuming its for hf rolloff). Ive removed it but theres still no output. Theyre approx 27mm long and are made of a blue plastic inner with brass/copper folded around. Theyre from the 20th century Does anyone have any idea what the mystery pickups may be?

Id have thought a sansamp or its behringer clone would get you in the ballpark

Thats pretty much the height Ive settled at - I still have a tendancy to drift sharp but I think its just that Im expecting the fluency of 35 years of electric playing to instantly transfer to an instrument Ive only been playing for a few weeks rather than accepting that I need to put time into actually getting the basics right first Ive put some bits of tape on the side of the fingerboard, which helps with general positioning but, again, Im frustratingly imprecise. Mine has a heel at that position, which does help as a target but which also frustrates me because I've yet to adapt to the different hand position needed to play there. The current action is comfortable in the lower positions (up to about the 10th) but becomes increasingly uncomfortable for me past there. Again, Im used to a bass guitar so I think this is primarily a hand strength issue that I expect will lessen with practice. The unamplified volume seems decent as is but I dont have a full sized acoustic bass to compare to. Perhaps Ill increase the action as I become more proficient, I generally like my instruments to fight back a bit Unfortunately, mine has a much smaller bridge size (around 80mm) so an off the shelf adjustable bridge doesnt seem to exist - possibly in time Ill add making one to my extensive list of unrealised projects........ Anyway, realistically I need to take a few lessons and get the basics under my belt before concerning myself with most of this stuff

Ive found that Im starting to gravitate towards that hand position on the higher strings but still closer to 90deg on the lower strings. My wrist injury is making it difficult to put in any serious practice at the moment though Ive paid for all the notes. Im going to use all the notes - whether the tune needs it or not. I quite like to be able to play the melodies of songs so Id like to be able to extend my range but really, Im trying to run before I can walk here Again, Im trying to run before etc.... I quite like the higher harmonics (5,4,3ish,2.5ish etc); in a couple of keys you can play occasional harmonic chords that absolutely jump out. I guess that'll stay the preserve of the bass guitar with some drive/compression. Curiously, Im finding it easier to play pinch harmonics on it than naturals. Anyway, I should probably concentrate my efforts on playing cleanly and in tune at the lower end rather than trying to be a fancy pants (note to self, must stop watching those orsted pederson vids)