Stentor Conservatoire. Advice Please 🙏

[Beer of the Bass]

Hmm, yeah, I suppose we don't want to derail too much from the OP and his bass.

I quite liked those Stentors when I've tried them, though the stock endpin isn't long enough for my height and where I like the bass to sit. The ones I'd played seemed quite articulate for pizz playing, possibly the petite shoulders and proportions help with that. 

And setup-wise there are points in between high tension steels and the lowest tension rockabilly slap strings, you don't have to go all the way to one end or the other if you want to explore a range of styles and still be slap-friendly. Someone else will have more specific recommendations, I'm firmly in the Spirocore camp and don't have much experience outside of it! 

Edited Sunday at 15:24 by Beer of the Bass

[NickA]

12 hours ago, The Guitar Weasel said:

the thing that has 'idiot wires'

Only 2 of my electric basses ( and an acoustic bass and a viola da gamba) have those.  I find they make things more difficult tbh.

 

11 hours ago, The Guitar Weasel said:

enjoying the bass rebuild thread.

We are!!! Don't go!!!

[Burns-bass]

8 hours ago, NickA said:

Only 2 of my electric basses ( and an acoustic bass and a viola da gamba) have those.  I find they make things more difficult tbh.

 

We are!!! Don't go!!!

Completely agree.

 

I assume you were offended by what I had written. If that’s the case hope you can accept an apology. It was all meant in a friendly way. 

 

This is the good part of the forum after all…

[The Guitar Weasel]

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

Completely agree.

 

I assume you were offended by what I had written. If that’s the case hope you can accept an apology. It was all meant in a friendly way. 

 

This is the good part of the forum after all…

Thank you @Burns-Bass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Duckyincarnate]

Congratulations on your new bass! My own Stentor took me from beginner to professional, and before that it did the same for another UK jazz bassist. I highly recommend some lessons with a double bass teacher, to get your left hand technique going. 

 

As someone who has had several playing related injuries over the years, I cannot recommend enough spending some time and effort on learning the basics of established technique. Other avenues exist, but good technique is effective, safe and speeds up learning in my personal experience. Enjoy the journey!

[NickA]

Anyone teach slapping?  Right hand technique ( decent pizz, let alone slap) is a mystery to most classically oriented bass teachers.

 

Being a classical and mainstream jazzer ..It's not something I'd ever wanted to do ( tho I admire the skill of some people who do it) but was in a big band playing Mingus' music this year and the parts were sometimes marked "slapped".  Well I tried but with highish tension strings it didn't work well.  Back in the day there were no amps, strings were gut and most of the players had to slap to be heard ... by the late 50s it was applied ironically or nostalgically, but those guys could do it.  Dying art?

[The Guitar Weasel]

47 minutes ago, NickA said:

Anyone teach slapping?  Right hand technique ( decent pizz, let alone slap) is a mystery to most classically oriented bass teachers.

 

Being a classical and mainstream jazzer ..It's not something I'd ever wanted to do ( tho I admire the skill of some people who do it) but was in a big band playing Mingus' music this year and the parts were sometimes marked "slapped".  Well I tried but with highish tension strings it didn't work well.  Back in the day there were no amps, strings were gut and most of the players had to slap to be heard ... by the late 50s it was applied ironically or nostalgically, but those guys could do it.  Dying art?

Firstly absolutely not a dying art by any means ... there are many many gigging psychobilly and rockabilly slap players - I went to an all day psychobilly festival a while ago where out of seven bands playing there were six slap players (and one lady with a Rickenbacker).

You have hit the nail on the head with the fact that there are VERY few teachers who have any clue about slap - and worse - a couple I have met regard it as 'not proper double bass playing' and somewhat look down their noses at it. 

Not everyone wants to play jazz or classical and and rockabilly appeared to be the OP's thing. To my mind for a rockabilly player there is infinitely more use in some of the YouTube slap lessons than in six months of learning stuff you have no desire to play from someone who doesn't get the genre you want to learn. Also learning about pickups and amplification (without feedback) is super important if you want to gig - and very few teachers have much of a clue about that.  

 

And as you said, high tension strings (and low jazz actions) are a sure way to screw up or at least not sound great slap playing.  I love jazz by the way ... just not me playing it 😉

Edited 14 hours ago by The Guitar Weasel

[NickA]

Good left hand technique from a teacher or ploughing through Simandl, (possibly the world's most boring book) is useful..helps you find the notes, stay in tune and play what you're thinking not what your hand will let you. 

 

But you can't learn everything from classical or (even) jazz musicians.

 

Nb: using "the evil 3rd finger" is de rigeur above the neck joint, as is using your thumb.  Rabath is all about whether you can move your hand without moving your thumb ( Simandl says don't), it doesn't involve using your ring finger below the neck joint... does it? Most people's hands are just too small to reach a semi tone with every finger.  Rabath is useful for some things and worth adopting at times at least .eg the bass line of boogie stop shuffle which is easy on a 34" scale electric but a workout on a 46" scale dB ( unless you have massive hands)! Pivots make it easy again.

 

Sorry thread drift.

[JazzyJ]

Well, thanks again for all the collective help /advice.

I have a jazz trio on the go, currently using a mix of electric fretted / fretless.

I've depped on a few gigs for a couple of rockabilly bands using a '76 Jazz whose DB players have  damaged themselves (building site related injuries). The other band is a 6 piece function covers band which is irrelevant here.

I do need a setup, strings and lessons but have sorted the correct height of the bass and stance sorted out for myself.

All the best  👍