EssentialTension

I'm playing a 'Day of the Dead' night tomorrow with [i]Bajo El Volcan Con Los Bastardos Ingles[/i].

I started answering but gave up quite quickly due to spelling mistakes, questions that made unwarranted assumptions, no relevant answer for me, personal questions, overlapping of categories, incorrect use of more than and less than symbols, etc etc. Sorry. I've never actually seen a 'survey monkey' questionnaire that was any use at all.

I'd love to know what are 'a slightly fuller tone', 'a tighter feel' and 'this slightly stronger sound' that Jamerson didn't have. Can anyone really tell in a blind test which bass has the higher mass bridge?

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1414767083' post='2593123'] Double bass bridges are quarter sawn maple and not particularly soft as woods go but the mass appears to be critical, as evidenced by the clip-on mutes orchestral players use for some passages - a fairly small amount of weight attached to the bridge can change the sound noticeably. I suspect maple was the best compromise available for balancing rigidity against weight while being hard enough and reasonably stable. However, a double bass bridge is coupling the strings to a thin and somewhat flexible soundboard on the front of a resonant chamber so may not be particularly analogous to a bass guitar bridge which anchors the strings to a solid slab of wood. [/quote] Yes, I didn't mean that it was not hard wood (as opposed to a softer wood) but either way it's softer than a BBOT or a Badass. Is there a more rigid and more high mass bridge for double bass? A sort of 'double badass'.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1414755913' post='2592928'] Anyone who has tried my upright with a mag pickup has agreed that there is more to it than metal strings moving around, so the sound of the whole instrument is to some extent important. As for the OP the answer is no not much. [/quote] Well, the way in which metal strings move may well be affected by the construction of the instrument but still an electromagnetic pickup wants moving metal not moving air or wood. Either way, there's no extra energy coming from anywhere once the string is plucked. Perhaps there's a reason double basses have soft wooden bridges ... so that the movement, the energy, of the string is more easily transferred to the body and so to the large sound box. My guess is that a more rigid bridge on a double bass would lead to the string ringing longer but the volume would be reduced because there would be less transfer of energy to the body/sound box. YMMV.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1414742398' post='2592755'] I don't think that is how resonance works, to add sustain you want the whole bass, neck, body and strings to vibrate as a single piece, the solid bridge anchored well lets the strings and body become one rather than the bbot acting like a sponge bouncing the strings vibrations around and jumbling them up, less extreme but the same thing as stuffing a sponge behind the strings. [/quote] Well, as I say, I am not a physicist so I'd be happy to be corrected by whoever actually knows the maths of this, however .... I can see how what you say would apply to the sustain of an acoustic instrument but I don't understand how it would apply to an electromagnetic pickup that looks for moving metal not vibrating wood. The player puts a certain amount of energy into the string by plucking it. From that point on there is no further energy added. The more of that energy that stays in the string the longer the string will vibrate, which is sustain. The more of that energy which drains away either to a sponge under the strings or to the bridge and then the body, the less energy there will be in the strings and so less sustain. Therefore, for greater sustain on an electric instrument you would need a non-spongy bridge that did not drain away the energy from the string. Now, possibly, these higher mass bridges, being more rigid and less spongy, do resist absorption of energy from the string ... so more sustain not by absorbing the energy of the string and passing it to the body wood but by not absorbing the energy of the plucked string in the first place.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1414709427' post='2592656'] ... As far as I understand it from a science point of view is that assists in the transference of the vibration to the body. It "should" be more rigid than a BBOT and therefore absorb less of the vibration. Which "in theory" should give you better sustain ... [/quote] I'm not a physicist but that sounds contradictory. If the bridge transfers more vibrations to the body then how is it possible that the bridge also absorbs less vibrations from the strings so that there is more sustain? Surely, either the vibrations stay in the strings for more sustain or they are transferred to the body for less sustain. Besides which I've never had a bass that needed more sustain. Muting and damping is much more often needed than more sustain - in my experience.

You should be careful but that's not the same as not doing it at all. Try a quarter turn anti-cockwise - not a couple of turns - and wait a couple of hours or till the next day to set the saddles.

I wouldn't waste my money.

Also Mustang: http://youtu.be/fnHaMPIa-F4

Story has it that this features a Fender Mustang bass: http://youtu.be/pJV81mdj1ic

34" scale tuned down to DGCF, capo at second fret and you have a 30.3" scale EADG bass.

[quote name='redstriper' timestamp='1413996474' post='2584648'] [size=4]Most reggae music fits this description perfectly [/size] [/quote] http://youtu.be/n6U-TGahwvs

http://youtu.be/WTQ3co-aQsc

http://youtu.be/nFvRvSxsW-I

http://youtu.be/R_B7QZ9iUMM

Why not just buy a used Squier Bass VI for about £200?

It is funny enough for several threads.

At least three threads on this now.

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1413564250' post='2579692'] ... that is akin to saying that we should translate everything on basschat into Latin to make us better linguists! Or that we should type all our responses in 1s and 0s to make us better computer scientists! [/quote] It's more akin to saying people should learn to read and write instead of merely speaking and perhaps using some kind of shorthand that is quite limited in what it can reproduce about the words spoken.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1413628281' post='2580268'] ... I can't believe the brand will ever disappear ... [/quote] It would seem unlikely. The brand name is itself a valuable asset that could be sold.

[quote name='TheSiberian' timestamp='1413626125' post='2580242'] Let's stay cool and criticise basses not people or their opinions ":0) Best [/quote] I'm cool, but I disagreed with you, that's all ... and you disagreed with me ... which as far as I am concerned, you should feel totally free to do. I'm all for opinions being criticised; otherwise there's no point in saying anything at all.

[quote name='TheSiberian' timestamp='1413624779' post='2580221'] This is the reason I am upset of all this trouble with regular Fender basses... Becsuse I like Fender as I like Harleys and Ampeg. But they shifted from doing honest basses to a fast food style brand. I know there is an army of Fender die hard fans overthere that are ready to get extatic on a chinese made Jazz Bass but it's just not me. If you don't want to hear critics... Than play some Custom Shop Fenders and maybe you'll feel the difference and you'll become more critic in the same time. Best [/quote] I'm quite happy to hear criticism of Fender - if you read what I wrote you'll see I criticised them too - but I didn't agree with your claim that they have consistently got worse since the 1970s and that's why I criticised your claim. But perhaps you don't want to hear critics.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1413623048' post='2580201'] Mercedes builds Mercs in China. So why not manufacture Fenders there as well. Becoming a boutique guitar builder , based in California, is not what Fender is all about. Fender's were created to be the Ford model T of the guitar world, affordable by Joe Public everywhere. [/quote] While I agree with the point you are making, in the 1970s a new Fender Precision bass cost the equivalent of several weeks wages for most people. It was a big outlay to buy a Fender. Which is why there were so many cheaper copies being sold.

It's funny enough for twice.