TheRev

OK, it's taken me a while to record these (and a bit longer to work out how to upload them), but here's the Innovation Rockabillys on my East German ply bass. The pickup is a K&K Bassmax, recorded straight into a Tascam DP004 [url="https://soundcloud.com/magners-1/rockabilly/s-ahDbG"]https://soundcloud.c...kabilly/s-ahDbG[/url] For comparison, I've also recorded the Innovation Super Silvers. [url="https://soundcloud.com/magners-1/silvers/s-FU6Dx"]https://soundcloud.com/magners-1/silvers/s-FU6Dx[/url]

Welcome, Bob. As Bilbo has said, there is a wealh of information for beginners lurking in this forum and. as with most things, there are no right or wrong answers, just advice.... Bob Pickard is spot on with his budget advice. £800 - £1500 will buy you something very useable, either used or new. Your budget should also include around £100ish for a set up to get the bass (new or used) working well for you. Then there's pickups, preamps, strings.... though some of that can wait until you've got a few months playing under your belt. Regarding new vs used: Thwaites in Watford has a grerat selection of laminated basses around the £1000 - £1500 mark and is well worth a visit. You can get the same basses for less by buying privately, but unless you know what to look for in terms of potential damage and defects, spending the extra money in a shop which will have sorted these things out for you is probably money well spent. There are a couple of reasonably priced new basses that are well regarded. The Thomann 2E hybrid bass is a rebadged Strunal for a smidge over £1000. I'm very tempted to get one of these myself as the carved top will (hopefully) provide a bit more tone and sustain than my lovely old laminate. If you are looking at theThomann hybrid basses, make sure you go for somthing with a carved top rather than 'solid'. A solid top is a sheet of solid timber which has been steamed and pressed into a curved shape. This is cheaper than carving a top to shape, but it's much more likely to want to return to being a flat piece of wood at some point in it's life. The Thomann 1E basses are laminates, but could still serve you well, especially the Tineo wood model, which is apparently very resonant for a ply bass The Gear4music 'Archer' basses are used by a few people on here (Bilbo?) and have a good reputation. Of course, the problem with buying new from the big superstores is that you can't try before you buy, unless you're willing to travel.

Top player. I was having a little noodle along to 'So what' this morning. Lovely.

First NYE off in 5 years. Guitarist wanted a break this year so I'm sat at home. Rather be gigging though...

1) Country/rockabilly. 2) About 8mm on the G, 11 on the E 3) Innovation Rockabilly 4) K&K Bassmax 5) Markbass LM2 with a BFM Omni 10.5 or Acoustic Image Ten2 Bass is a 50s or 60 laminate, probably one of the Musima factory basses.

Asked for this for Christmas.....didn't get it :-( If you want something doing....

The nut slots on my Eminence are about the depth/thickness of a business card - I think that's about as low as it can go before you get loads of buzzing. Bear in mind that your fingerboard will have to have the right profile lengthwise to get the setup as low as possible.

Last night was f#*in' storming! It was our traditional Christmas eve eve eve gig in one of our regular pubs in Bridport. All our regular crowd turned up in full on party mood and we kicked the arse out of the place. A fantastic end to a great year of gigs.

Yes, you're doomed! But that's OK, it's nice round these here parts.

Ha!! You're all sitting there, convincing yourselves that the EUB makes sense cos you haven't got a big enough room/flat/house/wife and that you don't think that you'll be able to handle an acoustic DB. You know what? Jazzers are known for having the smallest apartments....and what do jazzers play? That's right, double bass. Don't get me wrong, you'll love your Staggs for 5 or 6 months, then you'll find that you can actually play the thing....and then you'll think about changing the strings and the the next think you know you'll find yourself checking out the classifides for a seond hand double bass around the £1000 mark. I know, man, I've been there.....

Cheers Clarky. I might enquire about the big E cabs.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I won't be doing a lot of slapping, other than the odd track here and there. Clarky: I liked the look of the Crazy 88, but wasn't sure if it had enough oomph for what I need. I'm really really interested in Mike's new cab, The Big E MA45 but the 'buy' button on Big E's website isn't working and there's no contact info for Mike Arnopol on Talkbass. Out of interest, did it take a long time/lot of effort to get your Crazy 88 over from the USA? See, my problem with the Omni 10.5 is that I normally use it downward firing, like the Acoustic Image cabs. The apparent volume is less than but this is fine on small stages, and I can get a really nice woody sound. However on larger stages, I need to use it in the conventional forward firing orientation to get enough volume, but then I lose the woody, spread out sound and it gets a bit trebly and nasal. Is it my cab? I've been reading the acoustic coupling/mechanical coupling section on the Barefaced site -perhaps I need to pay a bit more attention to where I place my cab on stage and maybe buy a Gramma pad or something..

I think I'm going to buy a Barefaced Midget to use with my Scrumpy'n'Western band (replacing a BFM Omni 10.5 which struggles on larger stages). Should I go for the tweeter or non-tweeter version? Bear in mind that this will be used for country rooth-fifth type stuff - nothing happening up the dusty end of the fingerboard! Dave

If you do decide to change the stock strings (and you will....) I recommend you try a set of synthetic (i.e. nylon/perlon) strings rather than steel core. The softer attack and shorter sustaun of synthetic strings often work well with the rigidity of yer typical EUB to give a more BD-esque sound than you'd get with steels designed to work with a bit resonant box of a DB. A very good place to start would be Daf's Innnovation string trial page - try Honeys, Super Silvers or Rockabillys. I've just put a set of Super Silvers on my Eminence EUB and I suspect they'll be staying on there...

I used Wordpress to do this: WWW.Skimmityhitchers.com I splurged £60 on the 'Canvas' theme which had a lot more flexibility than the free themes. If you Google Wordpress themes, you can also find template themes for band websites, which may meet your needs with very little effort on your part.

Thomann? http://www.thomann.de/gb/schertler_acc_put_1.htm

I sent them to Missionary on October 8th.

Argh! I'm on tour that week....

Cheers Daf! I absoutley love the sound, feel and tension of the Rockabillys for my scrumpy'n'westen band, but sometimes i could do with a bit more detail on the G and D for my Jazzy trio. If the super Silvers don't do the job for both bands, then I'm just going to have to buy a second DB. I'll record some sound clips with the rockabillys vs the super silvers. Dave

Me please Daf! How do they compare to the Rockabillys?

Why not just ban her from the back room? Mrs Rev has a dressing room where all her shoes and most of the handbags live. It's also where I throw the stacks of scrap paper, old reciepts and junk mail that she likes to collect. I. in turn have a room where my basses, Hi Fi and Cds live. If she wants to go in there she has to make a formal application two weeks in advance, fully stating her requirements and intentions for going into my room.

Another SM58 Beta user here. They have the same robust build as the SM58 but sound much, much better.

I went for Rockabillys on my ply bass as they're perfect for my scrumpy'n'western band. I didn't find a set that suited my Eminence, but I'd like to try a set of Super Silvers as I really, really like the tension of the rockabillys.

Official vid for Skimmity pint song. Recorded at The Spice Ship and on location in Weymouth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovhQXPNvWTk&feature=youtube_gdata_player