fatgoogle

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1371038953' post='2108926'] The bow hair colour subject is interesting. I read somewhere that brown hair may be the best compromise for db. Anybody tried it? I'm hoping that blonde, mermaid's hair might do the trick for me, if I can source some. [/quote] Its of interest to me to. From what ive experienced so far, for me anyways, a black hair but with lyrical qualities maybe. As in as much grip as black hair but less growl and scratch a bit more Jacqueline du pre playing the elgar concerto's. Another expense though at 60 a rehair for silver stallion and I imagine even more if the guy has to order in a spool of hair that he'll only use on one bow.

Have you thought about leaving it and just practicing until you build up strength? You are still very fresh to DB.

Ive used nymans, not a huge fan of it, id take it over petz though. God that was an awful rosin.

Sort of the opposite. Finding it surprisingly easy to play quiet legato passages with a lot of movement. Playing FF long notes is more tricky and requires more weight then im used to at the moment. For instance the opening of beethovens fifth, third mov is very easy and practical in one bow for some reason while that long extended loud wide B in the opening of the koussevitzky concerto is proving more challenging. Also the grip of the black hair makes pp notes very easy, not pressure or thought needed. Ill have to experiment with tempo's, see how much i can get out of one bow. Any recommendations for a very smooth rosin thats less sticky then pops(i think everything is less sticky then pops)

First time ive ever played black hair, i asked the guy who rehairs my bows about it and he said it was gimmicky in his opinion but im quite enjoying. Very growly and very quick to grip the string. Not as smooth or singie(i dont know if this is the correct word but im sure you get my point) as silver hair. For orchestral stuff i imagine ill be hooked on the black hair. It gets a bit raspy in thumb position but i might be using a bit too much hair compared with the silver. I imagine a smoother less sticky rosin then pops would work well on the black hair. Ill have to do some research. I have to say i love the short bow, very quick and bouncy and a lot of articulation in the notes especially on the top of them. I just have to be a bit more conservative in my movements. Also im very proud to say that even though the carbon bow isnt up to the level of these two bows it really does perform well. I think i payed €200 or so for it and i dont think for that price youll find a better bow. Defiantly worth checking out. Also been getting a lot of comparisons of wand tryouts from friends. Double bass/hogwarts i dunno.

Here's a pic of the bows. Bad iPhone quality but.. The one on the bottom is my carbon fiber yita music bow, next up a oldish German French bow with an ebony button. I presumed this had originally been a German bow but apparently that was just how it was made. Next is a 1920's French bow. I think i was told that this one was by quite a famous maker but only the stick was original now. The carbon fiber hair length is 22.25". But my favorite so far is the really short bow which is 19.5" so a big difference. The German one seems to balance the best, probably due to the extended button but i don't think its quiet there for me. Ive been trying them out with my usual practice routine and then playing the third movement of Beethoven's fifth and Koussevitzky Double bass concerto mov 1. Ill report back in a few days when ive had more time to play with them.

I Know a guy whos had gaffa tape over a small seam split for about two years now. He's just lazy.

I saw about 4 Germans out but I presume he must have more. Neither of the bows I have a are branded or rather brands didn't come into it. I have a maker for the short now scribbled down somewhere. Luckily I don't know a huge amount about bows and makers so it wasn't something that could sway me. Pure feel. And I don't mind the look of bows. The bass I was playing however played and sounded great but was ugly as hell. I don't know if I could of owned it.

I was told a lot of stories of bass's shipped to Germany, Denmark, South America etc on approval and then having to be shipped back. Sounds like. Huge amount of time and money. Ill post some pics and lengths later tonight if I can or Saturday for sure. The two I settled on are about 1500 each and floated my boat more then the 2500-3000 bows that I tried. Can't quite right a good review on my phone.

Will do. I have them for about a month so hopefully ill be able to make up my mind. Weird thing is they're two very different bows, ones quite short the other pretty long. Different weights as well yet these were my favourites. Still trying to get over that shop. Played a very nice German bass for the time I was there with low shoulders, very comfortable. And only 14 k......

Well just got back from a morning spent in the contrabass shop with tony trying out bows. I think I tried out about a dozen or so ranging from 900 to 3000. Whittled it down too two which I'm bringing back to Ireland to try out more. I'd recommend the contrabass shop to everyone. It is expensive but the service is great. Free coffee and biscuits too. And tony has so much knowledge and patience. And the bass's, possibly too many bass's. Some amazing examples. Ill post some pics of the bows later when im near a laptop. How do you decide between two bows? Sam

Check out Renaud Garcia Fons tiny desk concert on YouTube. I can't link it but I'm pretty sure there was some great looper action in that. http://youtu.be/2ZNKLUHeJtg somewhere in here pretty sure, could be wrong though.

Will do. On my phone for the week but as soon as I'm back ill put one up

[quote name='ubassman' timestamp='1370276812' post='2098487'] Sam, are you playing on the orange Belcantos at the mo ...maybe post some pictures? I like Obligatos and they are fine for Orchestral but for me don't have the depth of character of Belcantos - but they have a good pizz and are a great all round string. [/quote] Yep orange belcanto's. there not great for pizz for I've found the perfectly useable on gigs except for the e. my jazz pizz is a mixture of classical and jazz. Sort of a downward motion that works well with the a, d and g. Very excited going to the contrabass ago on Thursday.

Brilliant. I've only spirocores a and belcanto's so far in my few years of playing. Spirocores are rubbish IMO. The belcanto's are great. Very growly and a huge sound. They roll a tiny bit for me. I might change the e though as its not so good for pizz for me but the a,d and g are surprisingly pizz friendly. Would you recommend the obligatos for orchestral work at all?

It depends what you want. IMO EUB and DB are pretty different creatures. I know i couldn't substitute my DB for a EUB for any gig unless i felt that an EUB was better for the job.

A teacher of mine uses his realist straight into a sadowsky then a swr redhead. Great sound and never heard a peep of feedback.

Really enjoyed my first listen, especially the Private universe and trust tracks for me. I went to a Nick seymour masterclass last year, very interesting and a cool guy. Be great if you had a couple of 7" pressed.

Ill defiantly have to head over to some of these when i have the time/money. As far as i know there's about 5 of us studying double bass in Dublin all together so there's never any masterclass's over here. Which is a shame because that leaves me with about 3 people in the whole country who i enjoy getting lessons of. Cheers for all the links, i really have no excuse except lack of funds as i have so much family to stay with over there.

Ah ill be floating round eastern europe sleeping on benches at that point.

Very cruel indeed. If it had a single coil as well, well i still couldn't afford it.

Any free master class's during the first week of june over there?

[quote name='Hooligan69' timestamp='1359966677' post='1962491'] Hi all, been reading through this, and am potentialy looking at picking one of these up, is there anyone out there who can compare the EBS reidmar vs Markbass little mark III vs Gallien Krueger mb500? Ive been used to valve amps and am downsizing to as small a footprint as possible with the best tonal ranges . Thanks in advance [/quote] I bought a mb500 as i was worried about the wattage of the reidmar but after a year it really isnt the amp for me, not as transparent as i'd like, not enough top end and i hear less of my bass then i did with my old hartke lh500. Thinking of moving on my mb500 and getting a reidmar instead. Im all about the top end with a real tight low mid bottom.

This thread is killing me. One day i shall have a fiesta red precision with a rosewood fingerboard, tort pickguard, single coil at the bridge. Slightly sanded down neck. Ah. oh and stacked knobs. If anyone's feeling generous?

Brilliant. I've thinking about having this done on mine but I might just have the fingerboard taken down. Pics would be great.