TheRev

Has anyone tried the Presto Jazzicato Tungsten strings? My Spiro Weichs are getting a bit tired and I fancy trying something else as I've clearly forgotten how much money I spent on strings before I settled on the Spiros. I have the Presto Nylonwound on my carved bass and like them a lot, but need something brighter and more focussed for the ply working bass.

I'm in the second biggest Scrumpy'n'western band on the planet. As soon as the biggest scrumpy'n'western band on the planet retire, I'll have made it....

We stopped playing WMCs in 2015 and have been a much happier band ever since.

The hottest was an outdoor gig at the Bridport- West Bay carnival torchlight procession. We were set up on a flatbed trailer, a small distance away from the bonfire. Turns out it wasn't far enough away when the bonfire was lit. our guitarist couldn't actually play because the bridge on his guitar got too hot to touch. We had to stop and take cover from the heat until the fire had died down to mere 15ft flames before we could get back on stage. The coldest was on the patio of a house of one of the contestants on 'Come dine with Me'. It was April and below freezing. The producer had us in in position for about 30 minutes before the filming even started and then we had to do three run-throughs for camera angles etc. so that by the time came for the final take everyone's fingers were pretty much useless. The only person who was even close to warm was our mate in the furry badger suit.

The whole band use Sure Beta SM58s - mainly because when I joined I had a betaSM58 and everyone thought that it sounded much better than the SM58, so everyone bought one. I recently had to use a SM57 when one of our betaSM58s went briefly AWOL and I have to say that I quite liked the sound - the increased proximity effect really suited my voice.

There's a thread about them on Talkbass that petered out around June last year. The general gist was that Hammersmith got more orders than they could handle and pretty much ran away and hid. Bit of a shame really as this was the first electric bass to peak my interest in about 15 years.

The Hammersmith K4 is a rather tasty modern take on the Guild B301 https://m.facebook.com/hammersmithmusic/photos/a.1217679834915164.1073741829.1211584158858065/1621661441183666/?type=3

Get One of these? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-Bass-black-and-cerise-purple-velvet-Hard-Case-/112962224782 I know international touring bassists who swear by them.

There's no definitive size for 3/4, 1/2 etc, but if you measure the distance between the nut and the bridge, then around 41-42" will be a 3/4 and around the 38" mark will be a 1/2. My 3/4 Poller bass is 41.5" scale length More info here: https://www.gollihurmusic.com/faq/2-SIZES_DOUBLE_BASS_SIZING_FAQ.html

Bristol, 2011 The last audition I had was for a band that the drummer who was in my jazz band had joined about six months previously. The band had regular gigs but didn't have a bass player up to that point as there 'wasn't enough money to pay a fourth person'. Anyway, they wanted a double bass player and the drummer wanted me in the band so he booked a local rehearsal space and the singer/guitarist drove the 60 miles from his home to Bristol for the occasion (which he moaned about all the way through the audition). I'd learnt the songs from the album the band had just recorded - it was pretty easy as there was no bass on the album, so I could just do what I wanted and it was all Johnny Cash style G/C/D stuff. Easy peasy. The singer/frontman bailed out of the session half an hour before it was due to start as he'd forgotten he was supposed to be playing football. No problem says drummer, the guitarist can sing the other guys parts. The audition got underway and everything seemed good to me. The drummer was mostly playing along with the guitar as that's the sound they had evolved without a bass player, but the drummer and I had been playing jazz together for the past three years so I wasn't bothered about having to play along to a non-standard drum part. The guitarist wasn't happy though..... when the drummer asked him how he felt it was going, all he could say was 'I dunno - it's not what I was expecting'. Further questioning from the drummer revealed that he actually didn't know what to expect as he'd only ever done solo stuff and had never played in an actual band before this one and had never played with a bass player before. No problem says the drummer, we'll have a proper rehearsal next week, before the next gig with singer/frontman and we'll see how much better it is. Fast forward to next weeks rehearsal, the frontman/singer bails again because he has a hangover... so we go ahead anyway and rehearse the set. Drummer is happy, I'm reasonably happy but guitarist still doesn't know if I sound like he thinks he wants it to sound, even though he can't explain to me what that sound is. He's also demonstrating an alarming tendency to be unable to remember which key the songs should be in. Drummer reckons we're all sorted for the gig next week. I'm less convinced. Alarm bells should be ringing - I've not yet met this flaky singer/frontman who I'll meet for the first time at the gig next week and the guitarist is still being very non-committal about whether I'm in the band or not. it's only my faith in the drummer and his insistence that 'everything will be cool' that I'm not walking away - but it's not looking good from my perspective The gig comes round and I meet the singer/frontman for the first time. He's actually a pretty cool bloke and apologises for not being at the audition/rehearsal, but admits that as he's never been in a band with a bass player before, he would have no idea if I was any good or not and therefore would have no meaningful input to make. Fair enough really. The gig goes pretty well, the band's fans say they love the addition of bass, so I'm in if I want it..... 7 years later I'm still in this band. we do 60+ gigs a year and have released four albums. Not all auditions from hell end up staying in hell. The original guitarist is gone though - he whinged one too many times about having to drive to Bristol for 2 gigs and two rehearsals a year.

Sorry I can't come to this one chaps - looks like there's going to some seriously lovely basses in attendance.

Bugger. Forgot about that one. The big fat woofer pickup was a revelation. Add it to the list.

++1 to previous comments. What an amazingly well organised event - well done to all involved! Bass 'wants' from this year, in no particular order: Bassbod's white jazz Jabba's fretless (there's a queue for this) Woody's 8 string. And maybe a Barefaced 2x12, just to try for a bit...

The most annoying thing in my band quit just before a USA tour two years ago. It's been great since then.

My band can be quite sweary, when we're not playing in front of children and pensioners, but we like to feel that it's all in context. We advertise ourselves as 'family friendly - providing your family is like the family from Shameless' We do a Dorset-centric version of 'This Land' where one of the lyrics is 'F**k 'em! This land's for you and me!'. Always goes down a storm with the locals.

How do you get any work done?

And pickups, don't forget the money to be spent on pickups.

In That case I'll bring my FDeck HPF preamp and my Fishman Platimun Pro Analogue preamp.

I have an AI Contra extension cab that doesn't get much use - I could be persuaded to move it on for not very much money. PM me if you're interested. Dave.

The schematic is available to download - you can build it yourself or have someone else do it if you're electronically ham fisted. I think SFX have built a few of these for UK people?

Hmmm. I'm not so sure. I once had to use a venue rig which was an Ampeg SVT with an 8x10 and my Fdeck did not make it fine. It would undoubtedly have been even worse without the Fdeck.

I have a MAS45 and a MAS46. The 46 is a recent buy, so only done about 4 gigs with it. Think I've had the 45 for about 3 years and have done a couple of hundred gigs with it. They're great cabs in my experience, the only ones I've used that can give clean, separated notes with loud amplfied double bass. Dave