Woodwind

Only just seen your original post. My situation was fairly similar (a condensed history) - Started playing bass guitar in the late 90's as a teenager. Joined loads of bands of various genres over the next few years and got to a pretty high level of playing. Having developed tinnitus I moved away from amplified music and started playing the double bass in 2005. This was brutal! Becoming a complete beginner again. Musically I was advanced, but technically zero which is perhaps even more frustrating as you are aware you cannot manifest your ideas yourself. I was writing for my band which consisted of bass acoustic instruments (cello, bass clarinet, bassoon) and drums, which allowed me to play simpler parts while I got better on the instrument. 4 years of concentrated study later I developed very bad tendon problems and decided to move instruments again. Through writing for the bassoon I had completely fallen in love with it, or rather it's contrabass brother and decided to become the player I could never find for my ensemble. Hiring an instrument and tracking down a teacher who could understand why someone in their early 30's, who had never played a woodwind instrument before and had no interest in playing orchestral music would want to play the contrabassoon. Again it was brutal - just allowing myself to sound absolutely dreadful and practicing slowly every day. 14 years later it's my primary instrument that has led to all sorts of opportunities. I only really play solo these days, which would have been impossible for me to believe 20 years ago. So in short commit fully to the saxophone!!! Once in a band Make a feature of what you can play rather than struggling with what you can't yet manage. Focus on making a Wonderful sound. I'd much rather hear a few notes with beautiful tone and conviction, than squonking through many.

Thanks for that BigRedX, that's very encouraging to read. My main experience of Spotify is from my day job - it's on in the workshop all day. I don't use it so rely on my colleagues' taste and playlists. They all seem to get twitchy if tracks go on too long 🤣 For my next album, which I'll be self releasing next year, I may well get some tracks up on Spotify.

My last two albums have been put out by small tape labels. Both have sold out from the label and I sold my quota of each in a couple of shows (I would have sold more if I had them). I can't say for sure if I would have sold the same amount of CDs at my shows instead of tapes, but that speaks for the genre I occupy, then venues I perform in and the audience I get. Neither of the two labels put their music on Spotify. It's all Bandcamp. My biggest earner by a very long way was when some of my music was used in a film soundtrack back in 2021. The payment for that saved me in the midst of a very bleak year and the PRS payments that have come off the back of it are a great bonus. Similarly when my tracks have been played on Radio 3 in the past, the PRS payments have dwarfed anything I ever would have earned on streaming. As @BigRedX says having music on Spotify should be regarded as promotion for something else not as an earner in and of itself (although in my case my music would not fare well on Spotify - with minimum of 6 minutes a track, which makes up part of a longer form piece.)

Excellent! The crystal Baschet is such a cool instrument. For anyone familiar with the film Drive, Cliff Martinez used one extensively in the soundtrack - although that was not a bass focussed instrument like in this video

While we're on this tangent, I will say that contrabassoon is my primary instrument. Not the loudest of acoustic bass instruments, but quite a spectacular tone. Https://www.instagram.com/thomasstonemusic

You can't use the regular 4ths tuning strings for 5th tuning. Well you can, but as you found the result was too low tension. If you want to use this bass for fifths tuning you will need heavier gauge strings for what were the E and A strings and arguably something lighter for what was the G string.

I'm afraid devilment would get the better of me and I'd contact the seller using only: a) copy and paste questions b) ai generated text Have fun

I kept a bass tuned in fifths when I was writing for cello in my ensemble. I used 125 for the C, 85 for the G, 60 for the D and 30 for the A. On my bass this came very, very close to how my preferred 40-100 strings felt and responded. The low c sounded excellent! Of course it was an octave lower than cello, but the notation was the same. It was quite an interesting exercise to play my own bass lines on the 5ths tuned instrument, breaking out of usual patterns and see where this led with writing new parts.

I have use an electric drill in the past. I made a tool to fit my tuning keys and would just lock it in the chuck. Low speed, relatively high torque and you're up to tension very fast. However the next bit of string stretching and re-tensioning I'd go by hand.

Just clocking in briefly to thank everyone for their replies. Snowed under at work so will respond to you all properly asap

Excellent thank you!!!

I'm looking to find a physiotherapist or osteopath in the London/South East area that has a specialism for dealing with musicians. Pre pandemic I had a bit of a network of orchestral players ( I was a technician for their instruments), but I'm well out of that world now so not able to ask who they were able to use through their orchestras Has anyone on here got any pointers either from direct experience or through acquaintances. Woodwind is my primary musical voice, but I want to do more bass playing going forward and have some old tendon injuries that are becoming a problem with bass practice. I'd very much like to work with a specialist with my instrument in hand to see what can be done. I'm not going to waste my time with the NHS route nor go by Google results. Thanks in advance Thomas

Those recommended string heights are triggering my old tendon problems! 😬

Looks brilliant!! As for your old neck, I do like the idea that it lives on in a "museum". Chopping the headstock off to keep the serial number definitely has some merit though, but from a purely logistical point of view I don't think sending the whole neck back to you is worth it

Blimey, how bad a keyboard player is she?

Bass and synth bass doubled can sound really great. I suspect the original recording is exactly this. You'll have to be locked in together though and I fear that when the syncopation inevitably drifts it will be you who gets the blame 😞

I used them in the past. I liked the idea of a UK based company. I would never use them again. Correspondence on any issue I raised with them was non-existent. One issue was exactly the same as yours. It took over a month for some of my music to pass through their review system and I heard nothing from them when I queried this delay. Hope your issue does get resolved

The caramel river looks fantastic! Excited to see the finished neck (and bass)

Which fingerboard wood did you go for in the end?

Looks fantastic! Looking forward to hearing how you find it

In the late 90s My bass teacher had one of these basses and always used it passive. Sounded great!

My dream is to be able to travel to all my London based shows by bike. If I didn't live in a first floor flat with a winding staircase I would already own an Omnium cargo bike.

Ha yes, true!

I'm sorry to hear it was bad. I know he's deviated quite a bit from what he represented in his younger days, but always hoped he might still have an edge.... I just looked at the tour dates. Wow he's really packing the shows in over May and June. I wonder if people will walk out from every show?

I really liked the demo video so will be keen to hear your thoughts once you have played through the cab.