Greydad

Hi Guys, First post, so a brief introduction, I'm an amateur electric bassist, been playing on and off for 30 odd years, mostly rock/funk stuff and mostly original with previous bands, some studio recording experience, gigs from pubs to parties to Colchester free festival once (that was a buzz). I started playing fretless a few years ago and whilst hardly a master I'm just about ok to play live with it. Not much good at reading, mostly a do it by ear guy and pretty much self-taught. I have an opportunity to do some acoustic work with some friends but I've never been much taken with acoustic guitar-type basses. An exception to this is the Takamine TB10 but they are like rocking horse do-do and about £1600-2000 new. My musings on this have led me to consider a double bass for the first time - this was partly inspired by getting to know Richard at Cremona House in Bristol when I bought a bow from him for some bass experimentation and also seeing a band from Weston called the Cherry Pickers the other night. Also, I could buy an entry level DB for less than the Takamine, so why not go for the real thing? At least I have an estate car to move it around so that bit is taken care of. Note however I've never actually played one! Well, once at school when I was about 13. I've thought about it on and off for many years but sheer size and cost has put me off until now. Thus I've been doing the usual net thing and reading forums and stuff and I found several threads on here really useful, especially about the pros and cons of inexpensive double bases, so I've joined up and here I am. I live in Somerset but work in the centre of Bristol near Queens Square (hence walkable to Cremona!). So why have I posted in this thread? Well, I wondered if it would be possible to meet up with a real live double bass player in the area to talk it through, be shown some basic technique, get some advice etc before I wobble off and commit undisclosed sums on my next amateur music adventure. How will I cope going from 34/35in scale to 41? How will I cope with that high action? Can I do all the physical side of playing a DB compared to an electric? Will I ever get the intonation right? Would anyone volunteer to give a taster to a complete noobie? Thanks! Neil