razze06

I also have one of these basses, and I swapped the original onboard preamp with a retrovibe stinger, and swapped the pickup for another, more vintage sounding one. Enormous improvement in output level and tone control. And minimal amount of soldering.

I got fired twice, once from an incarnation of my first band where I played bass until it folded, and joined in a later revival as 2nd guitarist. I wasn't good enough, apparently, as the pair of brothers playing drums and bass guitar were listening to too much jaco and jazz fusion stuff to be patient and appreciate my melodic arrangement skills Since then I've played with them on and off, after the bass player was caught eloping with the drummer's wife, who also happened to be his sister in law, and when the singer and drummer wouldn't have a falling out and stop playing for a while... The other time I was fired from a band I really liked playing in for the usual reason, lack of availability. Not entirely unfounded, as I had to say no to a few gigs in a row as I had to travel for work. They already replaced me with a bass player that they had before, who came back to the city with promises of airplay and gigs. No ill feelings now, but didn't love it at the time.

Have fun, I'm in Scotland (see OP)

OMG i've got a double bass now! https://youtu.be/KQZy70ao54U

New strings ordered. I shall report on inevitable tone improvement shortly

I've got a gig on thursday, Depending on my tone that night, i might be perusing the website of a certain musical equipment vendor...

Good advice, Thanks. I know I could and should improve my LH and RH technique a lot, and I knew about getting my RH closer to the end of the fingerboard to get more defined sound. I hadn't tried the LH thing you talk about, and I definitely press down fairly hard when I play. I shall practice. Despite all this, the acoustic sound is much better than the amped sound, which is the main source of my irritation. Perhaps different strings, as you say.

So I tried to follow your advice, and got different results... I switched side of the bridge for the K&K pickup, I cut the low freq rumble, and removed unwanted frequencies from the eq. I also stood on the other side of the room from the amp, to see if I could hear the lower freq better than when I stood right by it. Results: Just couldn't get a good sound out of the amp, so I ditched it and went through the room PA. The sound is thin, but at least it's pretty even across the range. Moving the pickup to the other side of the bridge caused a thinning of the sound, but the rumble of the E was clearly reduced, meaning I could dig in if I wanted to, without danger of destroying equipment I have a rather simple iphone video recording of what I sounded like. I don't like it very much... (The playing is pretty shocking, but it's a new song and I'm still learning it, so apologies for that) https://www.facebook.com/158199286951/videos/10154156165646952/

None. I am not sentimental about my kit. I have basses I like and love more than others, but they are all fair game if the needs come along, as long as I still have one to play.

Thanks you all for your good advice. I'll put to the test as many suggestions as I can on Thursday, and report back

Jaywalker, I'm looking for a little more presence, and more definition in the lower register. For gigging I normally use a PJB briefcase for small gigs, or whatever backline is provided. The latter case is where I am having problems, as I can eq with the PJB to get a better tone and presence. When I have to use somebody else's backline (including practice rooms), I struggle to get even volume from all the strings, and i lose a lot of mids. This results in booming at one end, and thin at the other, especially if I have to crank up the volume to hear myself better. I generally try to eq with a slight boost to the lower mids and "middle mids", forming a slightly wonky frown with the eq knobs ("upturned smile with crooked teeth"). So far, whenever possible I have tried to get some help with the low end from wall reflex, so I tended to put the amp on a low stand close to the back wall. Lately I've started to move the amp a little forward and away from the wall. I had thought for a while that the positioning of the pickup was wrong, as my bridge doesn't have flat slots, but the sound I get from it on my gigging amp is good, so I'm inclined to think there is nothing wrong with it... Considering that my main problem is with borrowed amps, I should get myself a nice preamp to help me along in those cases, and hope that works.

I wonder if anyone has got any suggestions to improve my amplified tone, especially in terms of increasing presence without increasing volume too much, and improving clarity of the E string. I use a KK bassmax pickup, direct into the amp. Do I really need to buy a preamp to shape the eq to bump up the nice mid frequencies, or are there any techniques or tricks to improve the tone to that effect? Do I need different strings? I've got some Innovation Golden Slaps on (I think), which have seen moderate use for about 6 months so far.

It all depends on how loud your drummer and guitarists are, ultimately. The PJB briefcase doesn't do deep lows at high volume, and its speakers are very close to the ground, so it works better for you if you lift it up somehow. Great for small spaces and sensible drummers

The added bonus i forgot to mention is that the combo is small, and I managed to fit it between the keys stand and the hi hat pedal

Just to report that i've done my first gig with my PJB briefcase (100W in two 4'' ceramic drivers), and loved it. I had the combo up on a small box (bout 5 inches up), foot and a half away from the back wall, with me almost directly in front of it. I played about one hour on double bass (piezo pickup, straight into the amp with no preamp), and then another half an hour of the T40. Very clean tone, especially nice with the DB. Personal monitoring was ok, but the sound was nice and rich further away into the crowd (ok, modest group) of punters. Volume was up to about 2/3 of the way, eq had a boost in the mids for clarity and personal monitoring. All i had to do when switching bass was to turn on the input padding and lower (!) the volume a little. Clearly not good if you do detuned sludge metal, but for funk/rock and swing it's great. Next time i'll have it even further up, or tilt it upwards for even better monitoring.

Am I the only one who carved a cork from a bottle of wine into cap for the spike?

If you're really not playing loud, and you like clean tones, PJB combos are fantastic. I use a pjb briefcase (2x5, 100w) with double bass and EUB and it sounds incredible. But quiet. Also, not super light, but it all depends on what you're used to. The shape of the combo is such that is not hard to carry, and it balances fairly well.

I think he made a typo and added an extra naught at the end. [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1453478476' post='2959890'] [color=#0000ff][i]"This fine instrument left the legendry Japanese Westone Factory in 1984 and was bought by a investor."[/i][/color] [size=5][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]So if we disregard the spelling mistake (presumably just a typo), we are left with:[/color][/font][/size][list] [*][size=5][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]The non-existent "Westone Factory" - has he [/color][color=#000000]not heard of Matsumoku?[/color][/font][/size] [*][size=5][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]Or is this why he describes it as "legendary", i.e. non-existent?[/color][/font][/size] [*][size=5][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]And how many investors were buying new, mass-produced Japanese guitars in 1984? And why?[/font][/size] [/list] [/quote] Well it is a rather fine instrument, if I says so myself. Tiny though, mine feels like a toy in my hands. I think he'll do well to replace "investor" with "my uncle, who then stuck in the loft behind the water tank and forgot about until he passed away and we cleared out his stuff"

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THUNDERTURD-toilet-seat-bass-/252169719762?hash=item3ab67c8fd2:g:214AAOSwhcJWIny9 I especially like the use of another pickup as thumbrest. Or bog roll holder. Bit of fun I suppose, interesting to show up with that at a highbrow jazz fusion gig