TheRev

That's a tasty bit of flame on the neck.

Hi Subthumper, What do you mean by clubs? Do you mean working men's clubs or dedicated music venues like The Fleece and The Exchange? As far as events and parties are concerned, my band gets bookings off the back of pubs or festivals that we've played and the person throwing the party has seen us before. We get events for the same reason and also because we're a niche act that comes out first or second on a Google search list. We don't use an agent by the way, we just play a lot of gigs and work hard on promotion. You don't mention the type of music you play, but unless you have a unique selling point that makes you stand out from all the other bands on your current pub circuit, you might find it difficult to get a promoter, agent or booker to notice you.

My 2p worth from a couple of years of gigging with a fairly loud band 1) If you don't already have one, get a high pass filter (HPF) and a phase reversal switch DI unit like the Fdeck or the Fishman Plat Pro. Stick it between your pickup and your amp input and roll off everything under 100Hz - this will remove most of the troublesome feedback causing frequencies. If you can give the sound engineer a feed directly from this you won't end up with 300W of sub bass coming through your monitor beacuse you won't be producing any sub bass in your signal to the desk. 2) Get your amp up off the floor and as close to ear height and to you as possible. The stage monitors will be supplying your bandmates with all the bass they need, so use your amp for your own [b]personal[/b] monitoring. On big stages I usually have mine to my left at the side of the stage on a keyboard stand at approx shoulder-head height so that's is firing sideways across the stage rather from front to back. I have the EQ set so I can hear the pitch clearly, rather than for my ideal DB tone - this may mean a nasal middly sound, but it's better than boom and out of tune... Your amp doesn't have to be loud - just loud enough for you to hear. Also, ask the sound dude to take most or all of the bass signal out of your monitor so that you haven't got your signal blasting up at the front of your bass. 3) As a last resort - cheat. I have a little sheet of white stick-on dots (about 3mm diameter) that I'll stick on the side of the fingerboard to show me where the main hand positions are. On echoey stages (I'm looking at you Mr Kyps in Poole!!) where despite all your efforts, your bass still sounds like an elastic band in a tunnel and when you're trying to pitch backing vocals, it's a real stress saver to just be able to glance to the left and see where G should be and know that your note will be in tune, evn if you can't actually hear it. Yeah, I feel a bit muso-guilty about using markers but the audience is there to have a good time, not appreciate my musical morals.

I'll send them out in the next day or so... Dave

Is Bristol too far away? I can think of a couple of venues that would suit.

I use a BigE MAS45 cab which is a cross-firing design and it's bloody brilliant. It replaced my BFN Omni10.5 - which is asking a lot of a cab..

Great band - will be seeing them tonight in Bristol.

If memory serves, the Thomann 11 basses are all laminate basses made in Romania at the Hora factory, the Thomann 1 basses are laminates made in the Strunal factory in the Czech Republic and the 111 basses are laminates made in China (don't know which factory though....)

I have Christopher bag like this one: http://www.thomann.de/gb/concord_pv502_kontrabasstasche_34.htm It has lots of padding where it counts! When my bass goes in the van, I just make sure that I'm the one who puts it in there - I just don't trust anyone else to do it properly. If there's loads of gear in the van, then the bass goes on its back (making sure its not resting on the scroll/neck), on top of everything else so that nothing can fall on top of it. If there's just a couple of guitars in the back, then it goes on its side with the bridge facing away from the side door. I usually pack coats/sleeping bags around the more vunerable areas if I can. The golden rule is that only you load and unload your bass...

Looking forward to the Stag and Hounds gig on Thursday- should be bringing some additional bodies as well. Dave

I had the same experience. I used to run my plat into the fx loop on my LMII but it's louder and a much better sound if I go in the instrument input. Been running it that way for a couple of years now with no problems. Dave

I wouldnt recommend the BP100, the Bassmax is a vastly superior sounding pickup. There's no reason why you can't hold off on buying a plat pro for now and see if the pickup sounds good to you going straight into your amp. You can save a bit more cash in the interim to buy a plat pro if you eventually decide you need it. Alternatively you could do a lot worse than a Fdeck HPF. Normally you'd have to import one from the USA but a basschatter is offering to build to order for atound £60.

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1393582035' post='2382124'] I find it slightly disturbing, Rev, that your 50's DB is called Jayne, that being my wife's name (with the unusual letter 'y' in the middle)! [/quote] The origin of the name is actually quite disturbing..... my bass is a 50/60s blonde that has had a broken neck. Jayne Mansfield was also a 50/60s blonde and you can look the rest up for yourselves.....

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1393542134' post='2381842'] Do people really do that? I did give one of my basses a jokey name, because it's German and it's a double bass I call it Uberbassenbassen, but it's not like I've decided "Oh it's definitely a Gloria"... [/quote] My double basses have names, but my electrics don't. Probably because double basses feel more like individuals and you hug them a lot more.

Ohh, that's nice.... The strings definitely aren't Honeys, they have blue silks. The Strunal basses ship with Saturn strings, so if the seller hasn't changed the strings that's probably what they are.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1393428745' post='2380191'] Is it still in the box? [/quote] Of course not, what would be the point of that? It's in a glass case.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1393420726' post='2379980'] Beautiful? It's a pain inducing money pit [/quote] Some people like that sort of thing.... My 50s ply hasn't cost me any money since I had the soundpost glued in.

You don't necessarily need a preamp with the bassmax but you might find you prefer the sound with one. I find it a bit honky without a preamp.

[quote name='Norm' timestamp='1393263830' post='2377968'] Yes, it was great to try all the diffrent kit. I've just had a handful of haddock slapped round my chops by checking the prices of s/h double basses! £12000 !!!! Sobered me up quick sharp. ;-) [/quote] Bollocks to that! Have a look Thwaite's of Watford website - they have a 'basses under £1500' section with a bunch of Hungarian basses and an East German Musima bass like mine.

[quote name='jimrs2k' timestamp='1393261975' post='2377933'] Norm, i really wanted a go on the upright, but i was too shy. Lol. Love the idea but a little short on the skills me thinks, but it sounded lush through my kit and am also very tempted to dip my toe into the upright world ? Need more disposable income,. Lol. [/quote] Aw mate, you should have had a go - no need to be shy about it. Im playing in the Forresters Arms in East Coker (about 6 miles from the bass bash venue) this coming Saturday, so if you want a go on the big bass, you're more than welcome to come along on Saturday night and have a wee play.

[quote name='Norm' timestamp='1393246094' post='2377668'] +1 TheRev, having a go on your superb double bass has sparked something, I'm going to have to start saving! [/quote] You're more than welcome mate. See you on the double bass forum very soon.....you belong to us now....

Cheers to Keith for arranging everything, what a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

I've got to detour via Glastonbury so I won't make the 12 o'clock start, but should be there by 1pm if that's OK? I'm bringing my ply double bass, a BigE MAS45 cab and the EA Doubler amp. Will also bring my Eminence EUB if I can fit it in on top of the baby's pram...

[quote name='Buzzy' timestamp='1392821457' post='2373098'] Any recommendations of a particular model would be welcome. I'm looking to play Blues/Country/Swing rather than Jazz or classical. [/quote] The Thomann 2W TN is very good value for money, but would take up most of your budget. Having said that, as long as you let the guys at Thomann know what you want in tems of setup when you prder, then your new bass should be playable right ot of the box without having to take it to a luthier first. You will eventually need to try new strings, but that's the sort of thing that you take time over - allow the strings to settle in and give them some proper playing time before you decide if they suit the bass or not. There are always plenty of second hand strings available on the for sale forums so you can experiment without having to shell out £150 each time. If you have 1K just for the bass, then my choice would be the Thomann 2W TN. Or, if you want to go ply, the Thomann 2 TN. The tineo wood (TN) back and sides apparntly give the bass more resonance than you would normally get from laminated maple. If your grand needs to cover the bass, pickup and a preamp then I'd be looking at the Thomann 1E (probably the blonde, cos, well, you would, wouldn't you?) which would leave enough of your budget for a Fishman Plat Pro and a K&K Bassmax pickup. Obviously it's not ideal to buy a bass without trying if first and you'd get better value for money if you hunted around for a nice old (50s or 60s) second hand ply bass, but you could be waiting a long time for one to turn up and then you'd need to know what to look for in terms of damage to make sure you didn't end up with something that was just fire wood waiting to happen. If you want a decent bass now, then you should be OK with the Thomann 2/Strunal basses -I've not read any bad reports about them during my search for information.