My new bass journey ...

OilCityPickups

My Slaphappy Weedwhacker strings came yesterday evening, and this morning I embarked on the most stressful string change I think I've ever done on a musical instrument. It was like wrestling a highly strung wardrobe while treading on eggshells and horror stories of sound posts falling over ringing in my ears. 

Lordy some swearing ensued!!! The bridge fell over at one point while I was trying to ensure it was upright arggggghhhh. 
 





And fitted at last and in tune ... though like nylon classical guitar strings they are still stretching like a bastard. 

Playing is MUCH easier on the fingers and hands ... even if for the time being i have to stop and re-tune every five minutes! 
Some rattles have come to the fore in the bass (seemingly from the tailpiece/tailpiece wire/spike area) , but I put this sown to everything bedding in again ... I think the steel strings were the same ones fitted to the bass from new! 

As most folks who use Weedwackers would acknowledge, the overall bass volume/sustain goes down, especially on the E and A strings, but they are intended to be amplified really so that's not really of much concern.  

When I get further down the road in this I may try Weedwacker Pros that have a steel core in the E and A ... mind you, they are double the price, and I have to justify that by getting out and gigging. 

Al_Nico

Excellent choice. To add drama to any ordinary day simply play the Jaws riff, slowly increasing tempo, while squinting sideways at Miss P. Perkins.

UnclePsychosis

Honestly, I'm really jealous. Enjoy!

Your comment about fitting it in the car reminds me of the time when, as a teenage member of my school orchestra, I got put in the back of a black cab with two full size double basses. That was a laugh  I wasn't even a bass player back then! 

OilCityPickups

eBay ... £18 ... and a trip around the North Circular today got me a used Hercules double bass stand (80+ quid new) needs a new bit of rubber on the left front retaining 'buttress' but this thing is nuke proof!  

Funkfingers

Al_Nico said:

To add drama to any ordinary day, simply play the Jaws riff, slowly increasing tempo, while squinting sideways at Miss P. Perkins.

Uh-oh. You are asking a self-confessed Rockabilly slapper to use a bow. 

Al_Nico

Funkfingers said:

Al_Nico said:

To add drama to any ordinary day, simply play the Jaws riff, slowly increasing tempo, while squinting sideways at Miss P. Perkins.

Uh-oh. You are asking a self-confessed Rockabilly slapper to use a bow. 

Sorry about that. How about lighting a Hamlet cigar and playing Air on the G string? The plucked part I'm thinking.

Funkfingers

Al_Nico said:

The plucked part, I'm thinking.

Bold! Mr. Horne.

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

Al_Nico said:

The plucked part, I'm thinking.

Bold! Mr. Horne.

If some one is under 60 that will go right over their head! :-)

Funkfingers

Like a Polari missile. 

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

Like a Polari missile. 

Ooooooo you need a good slap round the lallies! 

Creed_Clicks

I love the sound of a double bass, they also sound wild with effects. Esbjorn Svensson Trio would have used one with a wah pedal etc. I think I might have seen a video of Marc Ford using one live. In a blues rock type scenario, it was drums, electric guitar and upright bass. Sounded really cool, that combination.

OilCityPickups

Creed_Clicks said:

I love the sound of a double bass, they also sound wild with effects. Esbjorn Svensson Trio would have used one with a wah pedal etc. I think I might have seen a video of Marc Ford using one live. In a blues rock type scenario, it was drums, electric guitar and upright bass. Sounded really cool, that combination.

The very fact that the double bass sound fantastic in everything from the classical orchestra, though jazz to rockabilly, rock and roll , psychobilly and horror punk is a reason in my book to both have one, and learn to play it. 

It's also a lovely decorative article and supremely tactile to hold and play. 

When I recover from the financial shock of buying mine ... amplification is next ... lots of it! 

Al_Nico

OilCityPickups said:

The very fact that the double bass sound fantastic in everything from the classical orchestra, though jazz to rockabilly, rock and roll , psychobilly and horror punk is a reason in my book to both have one, and learn to play it. 

It's also a lovely decorative article and supremely tactile to hold and play. 

When I recover from the financial shock of buying mine ... amplification is next ... lots of it! 

What's the theory behind amplifying a double bass? Are you looking to change the tone and dynamics, or trying to minimise amp coloration?

OilCityPickups

Al_Nico said:

OilCityPickups said:

The very fact that the double bass sound fantastic in everything from the classical orchestra, though jazz to rockabilly, rock and roll , psychobilly and horror punk is a reason in my book to both have one, and learn to play it. 

It's also a lovely decorative article and supremely tactile to hold and play. 

When I recover from the financial shock of buying mine ... amplification is next ... lots of it! 

What's the theory behind amplifying a double bass? Are you looking to change the tone and dynamics, or trying to minimise amp coloration?

It's different depending on what you are using it for. For Jazz etc with plucked strings a mic on the bridge and a very flat cure amp seems to be the order of the day. 
In the case of rockabilly - because of using low tension strings for slapping - you want to try and put back some of the grunt you took out while still keeping pretty close to an acoustic tone. Ideally you want plenty of treble to bring out that snare like slap. A lot of psychobilly players scoop a but I think. Still learning really.  The ability to take out certain frequencies to kill feedback is a must too. 
Mic wise I've pretty much settled on a Shadow Rockabilly Pro ... with its two mics, one for slapping under the fingerboard, and one on the bridge for grunt. It has a stereo preamp that can feed the slap separately to the main note - so technically you could use two amps ... though in practise that'd be overkill. I could go straight out to a PA of course, but that cuts down on control. 

MartinB

Al_Nico said:

What's the theory behind amplifying a double bass? Are you looking to change the tone and dynamics, or trying to minimise amp coloration?

It's a bit of a rabbit hole, rockabilly tends to embrace amplified sound and sometimes some quite large rigs. 

Jazzers have a range of approaches depending on style and era - some of the biggest names run both a piezo pickup into a backline amp for stage monitoring and a microphone into the FOH PA system. There's a school of purists who try and use no amp at all because that's how they did it in the heyday of bebop - nobody can really hear them much at most gigs, but there's a bit of an Emperor's New Clothes culture about saying so. Most working jazz bassists are more pragmatic, some are forever chasing new pickups, preamps and amps, some use trusty old standbys that have been around for decades, but usually quite compact setups.

OilCityPickups

MartinB said:

Al_Nico said:

What's the theory behind amplifying a double bass? Are you looking to change the tone and dynamics, or trying to minimise amp coloration?

It's a bit of a rabbit hole, rockabilly tends to embrace amplified sound and sometimes some quite large rigs. 

Jazzers have a range of approaches depending on style and era - some of the biggest names run both a piezo pickup into a backline amp for stage monitoring and a microphone into the FOH PA system. There's a school of purists who try and use no amp at all because that's how they did it in the heyday of bebop - nobody can really hear them much at most gigs, but there's a bit of an Emperor's New Clothes culture about saying so. Most working jazz bassists are more pragmatic, some are forever chasing new pickups, preamps and amps, some use trusty old standbys that have been around for decades, but usually quite compact setups.

Not to forget that for example Lee Rocker uses steel strings and two P Bass pickups for his main tone mixed with a Piezo for his slap. There are as many approaches as there are double bass players and lots of different 'signature sounds'. 

MartinB

OilCityPickups said:

Not to forget that for example Lee Rocker uses steel strings and two P Bass pickups for his main tone mixed with a Piezo for his slap. There are as many approaches as there are double bass players and lots of different 'signature sounds'. 

Yeah, he's definitely more towards embracing amplified tone as its own thing rather than striving to recreate an acoustic tone. It's great for the style he plays, though I'd imagine players outside of rockabilly would struggle if they were presented with that type of setup.

OilCityPickups

MartinB said:

OilCityPickups said:

Not to forget that for example Lee Rocker uses steel strings and two P Bass pickups for his main tone mixed with a Piezo for his slap. There are as many approaches as there are double bass players and lots of different 'signature sounds'. 

Yeah, he's definitely more towards embracing amplified tone as its own thing rather than striving to recreate an acoustic tone. It's great for the style he plays, though I'd imagine players outside of rockabilly would struggle if they were presented with that type of setup.

One of the reasons I hear in favour of the Shadow set up ... even jazzers find it' transparent ... and of course if you want to add colouration you can during amplification. 

OilCityPickups

Well a slip with a Stanley has put severe limitations on my Double bass practise - and schedule for actually gigging with it, 
Sliced myself neatly across the pad of my left hand index finger very deeply ... I bleed easily unfortunately and there was claret everywhere ... thought my workshop landlord who was doing some paperwork in his office was going to faint ... I had to ask him to open my first aid box as I was keeping pressure in my damaged digit. 

As chance would have it my Rotosound 4004 bass string arrived by courier ... I'm trying to cure the flubby useless bottom E that Weedwhackers are notorious for. The one Rotosound string costs as much as a whole set of Weedwhackers and is an orchestral favorite ... trouble is it goes boing and now makes the transition to the E from A sound like 'thub thub BOING' 

Manages to so some practise as a three fingered bassist ... practising triple slaps rather than fancy left hand gymnastics. 

Gurrrrrrr 

OilCityPickups

Finger healed and back into it ... and something weird has happened, my right hand has relaxed and my slapping has started to flow. 
I put in a silly amount of practise in yesterday - seven hours to be exact, and by the end of it I was able to slap triplets - how chuffed was I? But the biggest improvement was that I started singing and playing. Now I'm notorious in various bands I've been in on guitar for hating singing and playing at the same time, but for me at least it appears way easier to sing and play slap double bass ... or even just jazz style pizzicato. To me that's way odd, but fascinating. 

I now have a few goals and promises to move to and fulfil. 
When I can reliably triple slap and do drag triplets - which means if someone shouts 'bass solo' I can pull one off ... I will treat myself to a Shadow preamp. No goodies till I can do that though. 

Then I need to find myself a band in need of a doghouse bass player - Ideally I want to be gigging by Christmas. 

An amp will come when I have gigs lined up.