Andyalfa

I just got me a copy of this album and I concurr, Ink in the Well is Awesome. Hoever, Danny is only credited as playing on that one track. Might be better to download just that tune, if that's what you're getting the album for. That said, the rest of it is pretty good anyway. David Sylvian has one hell of a voice.

I get about 3-4 months out of mine, but it gets fairly light use. 2 hour practise with the band a week, one or two gigs a month plus the odd bit of noodling at home if we've got a new number to learn. That reminds me though, when I plug in earphones in for silent practise, I get an awful hiss from the pre-amp. Anyone else get this?

I saw Hot Club of Cowtown on Jools not long ago. Awesome slapping. Nice to see the bass player getting the round of applause after his solo.

By the way, thanks for the suggestions. It's amazing how quickly you can get up to £25 these days...

So, having taken ages to work my way round the HMV site and carefully made my choices, I find that I can't use my gift voucher online and have to go to a store instead. Bl00dy marvellous. Given my selection was anything but top 40 pop dross, what are the chances that my nearest store (Nuneaton) will have heard of, never mind carry any of the titles I want? Looks like a trip into the main store in Leicester or maybe Manchester when we are away for a short break soon. Oddly, I was able to order and pay for a book in Waterstone’s using a gift voucher, even though they are part of the same group. Go figure.

Life begins at 40 they say, so to celebrate my 10th birthday, I received a £25 voucher from HMV and am keen for some recommendations on what to buy. I love double bass and alreay have a good selection of stuff by Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Pault Chambers, Charles Mingus etc, but I was looking to expand in to work by contemporary DB players like Danny Thompson and Christian McBride. I just added the David Sylvian CD to my basket after reading the rave reviews about Danny Thompson's playing in a recent thread, but was hoping for some more gems that I've yet to find.

Don’t give up, hang on in there. I play in a “mature" (as in age) covers band and we did a wedding the other week. Set one was awful. Very few people in the room to start with and most of those had slowly drifted out by the end. We were getting thoroughly demoralized. It was only when we took our break we realised the situation. It was the first day in ages that had been bright and sunny, so everyone was outside drinking and chatting and enjoying the fresh air. We also noticed that there was a boys v girls footy match going on, with the bride playing a full part (wedding dress rolled up and wearing trainers), running round like a loony. How could we compete against the weather and entertainment like that? We delayed the start of our second set until it was dark and suddenly it all kicked off. We had the whole crowd jumping and dancing for the full 50 minutes. It was magic. It was like playing two different gigs. The thing I learned is that it’s not always your fault when a gig goes badly or no-one is watching. There may be other factors involved. Hang on to the fact that when people ARE there, they love to hear you play.

My bass hangs around belt buckle hieght. Recently I realised that the increasing beer gut altered the angle so I could no longer see the fretboard. A diet ensued...

Might be worth looking at one of these, though it wound change the EQ, just the relative volumes. [url="http://redonionsolutions.co.uk/AB/ABVol.htm"]http://redonionsolutions.co.uk/AB/ABVol.htm[/url]

+1 for Danny Thompson. What TONE. He did a brief solo, backing the Blind Boys of Alabama on Jools Holland which makes the hairs on my neck stand on end every time I hear it. He was also in a band called Pentagle, a top notch jazz/folk combo back in the late 60's. There was some footage of them on BBC4 recently showing yet another wonderful solo from Mr Thompson. Another contemporary to watch out for is Christian McBride. I acquired a recording of [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fingerpainting-Herbie-Hancock-Christian-McBride/dp/B0000047FK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1249545173&sr=1-1"]Fingerpainting: The Music of Herbie Hancock[/url] featuring Mr McBride, Nicholas Payton and Mark Whitfield. This is a cracking album from a virtuoso player. Well worth a listen. This thread is proving interesting reading. I currently have a Stagg EDB and while I was playing it last night, it all kind of gel'd. For the first time I felt like I actually "got" the instrument. of course, that's now started me thinking about getting a proper double. I know we haven't got the room, but I have abig birthday coming up and they look and sound soooo sexy...

I swap between my passive P and a Stagg electric upright with an active pre-amp. Both go through my Ashdown ABM. I use the passive/active button and the flat/shape button then swap instruments via an A/B foot switch. In a gig situation, that seems to manage the job fairly well. Both instruments sound so different to each other, slight variations in EQ don’t make a great deal of difference as far as the audience is concerned.

Depends what you mean by play, really. If it's play as in CD, it's usually something dubby/trancy like Jah Wobble or Bill Laswell. If it's play as in bass, it's inevitably blues. Usually something by Muddy Waters.

Hi. As Maxcat says, I had a rattly endpin which I fixed with bubble wrap. The details should be in the Stagg mega thread around page 12 or 13 I think. +1 on the damping too. I have a block of foam between the bridge and the tailpiece as well. A sock worked fine, but leaves you open to a bit of ribbing from the drummer. Being quite tall, I have the end pin almost all the way out, and although it flexes a bit during enthusiastic playing, it shouldn't feel loose and move about too much. If that's what is happening, you should get it checked.

I got into Ray Brown rather belatedly last year after a tip off from someone on Head-Fi forum. If you like him, it may be worth chacking out Ron Carter, Christian McBride and Paul "Kind of Blue" Chambers. These are the guys that persuaded me into the murky world of the Upright Bass.

Rather belatedly, here are the pictures of the stand in action, as promised. The first is folded, next to the Stagg in a Bag. [attachment=22476:stagg_1.jpg] Here it is set up. [attachment=22477:stagg_2.jpg] This one shows the bass in place [attachment=22478:stagg_3.jpg] A close up of the neck bit [attachment=22479:stagg_4.jpg] And the bottom. [attachment=22480:stagg_5.jpg] Both the neck bit and the bottom rest are height adjustable. I have it set to the end pin is just above the floor.

I'll see what I can do over the weekend. Trouble is, I only have a pre-guitarfiddled version at the moment. It could be a couple of years before the finished product is available...

[quote name='BassMunkee' post='351249' date='Dec 10 2008, 09:26 PM']>snigger<[/quote] Oh dear, I just realised...where's an embarrassed Smiley when you want one? So, in attempt to redeem myself, how about Into the Void by Geezer Butler, with the rest of Sabbath somewhere in the background)?

[quote name='51m0n' post='438329' date='Mar 18 2009, 03:06 PM']An impossibly anal guitarist? Well I've met enough who are ****holes Sorry, apologies to all those offended, I'll get my coat![/quote] No need to apologise, I was just going to ask if you knew him? Seriously though, he is very good, just a perfectionist. What he plays sounds great to me, but if he's not absolutely note perfect or he's slightly low in the mix, then he'll spend hours (and £'s) getting it just right. Fine if it was a general release we're selling, but not a 4 track demo. I think it sounds fantastic anyhow. Way better than the first one we did a while back. Even he said (on Sunday as we were leaving), "if they don't book us after hearing this, they don't deserve us". Sounds pretentious, but I have to say, I agree. I'll put a link on here to some clips if/when they get uploaded again...

As far as myself (and a couple of other people who've heard it) are concerned, it sounds fine. It does need mastering to get the levels right, but I doubt yer average pub landlord/happy couple would be able to tell, especially hearing the standalone disc rather than a back to back comparison. The way I feel is that I'm happy to put my name to it and if he wants to pay for extra studio time for his own personal satisfaction and listening pleasure, then so be it. I'd rather use the extra cash to get decent cases for imporived presentation.

Hey Maxcat, great new! I hope you have many more happy hours of playing. Kembo, the stand is for resting it on when you're not playing. I've not tried playing with it in the stand but I might give it a go later. I'll try and get a couple of pictures online too (both erect and flaccid as it were).

[quote name='lowdown' post='438258' date='Mar 18 2009, 01:50 PM']Just curious... Are you allowed to put covers up on My Space..?[/quote] Probably not, but we had 4 tracks from our last demo (old band line-up) on for a couple of years without a problem.

Bit up and down at the moment to be honest. Once again the band is causing me grief. We spent a pretty intense 20 or so hours in the studio last weekend, recording and mixing a new CD of covers for prospective venues and clients. I was delighted with the results and wanted to get the music on our MySpace page ASAP. I’m also keen to get the disk to a duplication service for mastering and copying so I can start passing it round. However, it seems that Mr Picky the lead guitarist wants to redo lots of fiddly little bits he’s not happy with (yet no-one else can hear) and told me to take them off. Now I’m not the most patient man and the thought of spending months tweaking every little backing twang will drive me mad. Things need to be kept in perspective. It’s not the new U2 album, it’s a 4 track demo. I say change the obvious bits, get the artwork sorted, get the copies done and get the fc*ker out there to tout for work! <and breathe> I feel better now.

Good luck.

I'd be gutted too if anything happened to mine. Amazing how quickly it's become one of the family. Given the fact that it sounds like a write off, you've nothing to lose by trying any of the first 4 options. Do you have instrument insurance at all?

As I tend to drive to gig, I wouldn't know. I'd imagine getting the end pin in the bottom slot could be a bit tricky though.