TheRev

Is the NS NXT pretty much the same as the Wav?

I've played both the Wav and the SWB Lite and of the two I definitely preferred (and bought) the Aria.

The Wav was well built and sounded good but the neck felt a bit too flat to me. I also didn't like the marker dots on the fingerboard - they were more confusing to me than an aide to intonation. Finally, I didn't like playing it on a stand. I know you can buy a body brace/endpin stand type thing but it added quite a lot to the price.

The Aria was also well constructed and felt more DB-esque to me, probably due to the standard endpin/body brace and a much deeper neck and rounder fingerboard. This felt much more comfortable & natural to play and I warmed to the Aria immediately, wheras I never really felt any connection to the Wav.

I didn't get to try both back to back but after I bought the Aria I did get to play a Wav on a couple of occasions at jam nights. Straight out of the box, I would say that the Wav had the better sound but the Aria was vastly improved by replacing the stock strings with a set of Helicore Hybrids.

I think it's really all down to feel and personal preference when choosing between these two. I like to feel the notes vibrate and be able to move the bass around, so a bass on a stand was never going do it for me. I would suspect that if you're looking for a backup to your acoustic bass, you'll find the Aria more familiar than the Wav/NXT.

Dave

Have you considered either the Markbass Little Mark, F1 or Mark acoustic? Both 500W at 4Ohm and very, very light. Other lightweight options are the Genz Benz shuttle or the Ibanez Promethean.

The Acoustic Image amps are probably the best option for double bass as they're tonally transparent and will faithfully amplify your natural bass sound, but they aren't cheap.

Have you tried posting on Talkbass.com?

The double bass forum there has many more members and collective experience that we have here, so it's more likely thata someone over there will have experience of the basses you're looking for. Also, most of the members are Americans and are more likely to have dealings with Bob Gollihur.

I used a Peavey Black Widow 1x15 cab (4Ohm) with a Sessionbass head in a loud 3 piece pub rock band and it was great. Pleanty of volume and just the right ammount of thud without getting muddy. You can pick up secondhand Black Widow cabs for around £100 but they're definitley not lightweight.

2x10 cabs are OK as long as the band isn't too loud - I used a Hartke 210 with the Sessionbass in a folkie acoustic type band and it worked well. Nice compact rig, very portable but not capable of keeping up with a loud drummer.

[quote name='fatback' post='1060617' date='Dec 16 2010, 02:43 PM']+1000

My first bass was a Jedson too, and it nearly put off the instrument for life Can you imagine a Jedson through a Selmer What was I thinking of?

Don't waste your time. There's far better japcrap around than these. [/quote]


I wonder if we had the actual same bass? I grew up in Fermanagh and it seemed that bass player in the county before or since had owned my Jedson at some point!

If you're after something cheap and retro, check out the Hofner Galaxie. Dripping with 60s retro vibe and about £180 on Thomann.

Cheers chaps! Nymans it is then.
At least experimenting with rosin is a lot less expensive than experimenting with strings...

I'm starting to really work on my arco technique but my rosin (Pirastro I think) is very hard and needs warming to get it soft enough to apply to the bow. This is a bit of a pain, so can someone recommend me a suitable rosin?

Ta

Dave

My first bass was a Jedson and to be honest, it was s#*t. I got rid of it after about 6 months. No ammount of tweaking or restoration will make an essentially crap bass sound good, unless you replace the neck, body, hardware and electronics.....
If you're really, really not concerned about the sound and just want a retro looking bass to faff about with/spend money on, then fill your boots but it won't sound any better than your EB0 and a lot worse than the Jetking.

All IMHO of course....

Back when I had an Aria Lite One I tried a couple of sets of different strings.

The stock strings were really stiff and sounded a bit too much like a big fretless electric bass. There was good note definition on the E and A but the G was way too glassy.

Helicore hybrid mediums had much lower tension and a much better, mellower sound. I could get some reasonable DB sounds with good left hand and pizz technique. I like a bit of growl in my sound and this was easy with the A string but harder to find on the E. I missed some of the note definition I got on the E with the stock strings but the overall improvement in sound was worth the sacrifice.

Innovation Honeys had a lovely low tension with plenty of bounce and an even more woody BD-esque sound. I didn't notice any loss in note definition compared to the Helicores but by the time I switched to the Honeys, my techniuqe had improved a lot which probably compensated for the inherently less defined sound you'd expect with synthetic strings.

After that, I bought my Eminence and entered into a whole other world of string choices.....

Of the three sets I tried, I definitley preferred the Honeys. Synthetic or orchestral strings seem to suit stick type EUBs as they compensate for the naturally brighter tones of these basses.

Other strings you could look into are Corellis - much touted over on the Talkbass EUB forums or Velvet blues which are a budget set similar to the very lovely Velvet Animas.

Dave

I've seen these guys before - well worth a look for anyone in the area.

The Blue Lagoon is a class live venue too, got a gig there tomorrow night!

[quote name='macclad' post='1037785' date='Nov 26 2010, 02:01 PM']So to summarise,nylon core strings tend to be looser but are fatter than steel core,whereas steel core can have a a higher tension but they are generally not as thick??? Is this correct?[/quote]

As a general rule of thumb, yes.

But steel core strings can vary a lot in tension between solid steel core and braided core. Some players use solo tuning steel core strings detuned to concert pitch to get a suitably low tension.
As for thickness, the Velvet Garbos (silk core) on my Eminence are pretty thick and are almost the same size from the G to the E, which takes a bit of getting used to at first, but Velvet Animas are similar in thickness to a set of mmedium Helicore Hybrids.

[quote name='PURPOLARIS' post='1037002' date='Nov 25 2010, 09:41 PM']£230 for strings ? [/quote]


Oh yes. Could be worse, a set of proper orchestral gut strings can set you back £350 or more. Velvet are great though, well worth the money as long as I get a couple of years out of them.

If you've got £230 to spend, I can thoroughly recommend a set of Velvet Garbos. Nice, light, responsive strings with a great sound but not cheap....

I have a set of Helicore hybrids that were on my Aria EUB for about 6 months, still plenty of life left in them. Any use to you?

Have you checked that the bridge is sitting perfectly flat on the pickup following your string change? I've found that as the new strings settle in, the bridge tilts fractionally and loses contact with the Realist pickup.

I don't know about a popping noise but my Eminence certainly sounds very thin when this hapens.

I tried out an 2010 American Standard Jazz the other week and very, very impressed - lovely neck and a full rounded tone and completely different to the MIM Standard Jazz. I'm seriously considering trading in my Musicman Sterling.

Been a good year for me. Done 32 gigs so far, including a handfull of weddings and functions through word of mouth & events agencies so it seems that we're building up a decent reputation. my drummer has now committed himself and has recorded our new demo and is using his contacts with previous bands to get into some better venues, so it's looking pretty positive for next year.
On the down side, two of our regular (4 gigs a year with one and a regular monthly slot at another) venues have stopped putting on music as it's not commercially viable. They weren't well paid (£100) but they were nice little local pubs and the money mounted up over the year.
Still, onwards and upwards.

I've got an early 90s Bass Collection (look at the 'obscure musical backwaters' post in the bass guitars forum) which has been defretted, so it's lined, and fitted with EMG PJ pups and BTS active EQ. It doesn't get used much since I started playing double bass so I'm looking to move it on. The nut width is 40mm, but the neck profile is shallower than a P neck.
Sound like you sort of bag?

[quote name='Clarky' post='1002629' date='Oct 27 2010, 03:58 PM']So does anyone have a nice playing Eminence they wish to move on?[/quote]

Nope

I've had mine just over a year now and it's really starting to open up (aided by very good strings and improved technique).

I've just finished some recordings so if they're not hideously out of tune I'll post a link so you can hear what an Eminence sounds like.
For what it's worth, I bought my Eminence unseen and unplayed purely on recommendation from other users.

Ah- without a preamp it will definitely sound thin and weedy. The Realist pickup can be used straight into a bass amp, but it really needs to be a DB specific combo with the right input impedance. I always use a Fishman Platinum Pro with my Eminence.
I can't really comment on the set up as I went from the Aria to the Eminence via a month or so of a hired DB so I have only limited experience of what e real DB feels like. All I can say is that the Eminence felt much more like the hired DB than the Aria did.
The stock strings on the Eminence are Helicore hybrid mediums, which are a bit stiff. I've got Velvet Garbos on mine, which are much lighter to play and sound the dogs doodahs.

Did you try the Eminence plugged in? That's kinda how they're meant to be played.

I've owned an Aria and now own an Eminence. The Eminence feels and sounds much more like a double bass than the Aria did. IMHO of course....

what strings are you using on your Aria? The right kind of strings can go a long way to getting you on the way the proper DB sound. Having said that, no EUB is ever going to sound like an unamplified DB, just as no amplified DB is ever going to sound just like an unamplified DB, but you can get close enough to fool most punters and on a good night, you can even fool yourself. I've long since given up trying to 'sound' like I'm playing double bass and just concentrate on getting a decent sound that sits nicely in the mix - this always has a better outcome for the song, band & gig than having an 'authentic' DB sound.

Very very nice....

I'd prefer a bit more growl and a bit less thump in the bass sound but that's just me. The sound as it is fits pefectly with the track.

Are you in the Canteen for the jazz jam on Monday? I'm in town Monday night and if this is the sort of quality going on, i'll make a special effort to pop in.

[quote name='Zach' post='993832' date='Oct 19 2010, 05:46 PM']Have you got any recommendations for stuff with nice bits of DB to be listening to? Am also ignorant of most of the big names on upright, so some pointers for who to look at would also be cool.[/quote]

Everyone has their own no 1 players, but my personal faves are:

Jazz: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Bass by Mr Paul Chambers who is a total legend. Other jazz names to check out are Charles Mingus, Ray Brown and Dave Holland. A good modern jazz outfit to check out is E.S.T.
Folk: Anything with Danny Thompson, but to get started, Solid Air by John Martyn and anything by Pentangle. You should also check out Beth Orton's Central Reservation and Trailer Park albums with the wonderful Ali Friend on bass. While we're talking about Ali Friend, check out his latest folkie/acoustic band, Clayhill and especially the 'Mine at Last' CD.
Drum'n'bass: 'Brown paper bag' is a must listen (all hail Si Johns) as is anything and everything by Red Snapper (Ali Friend again).

Danny Thompson has had the most influence on my playing, as much through his playing philospohy as through his music, His emphasis is on tone, feel and notes, in that order. There's a very noce interview with him in the latest BGM.

I'm a rather diminuitive 5' 4'' and I can reach everything.

I rented from Cremona House on Park Row. Around £30 per month IIRC. There's a couple of Bristol based DB teachers on here so you won't be searching for too long.