Rattles and adjustments

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Greg Clinkingbeard

Ken, Excellent advice and helpful explanation of how a bass changes with the seasons.
I'm sure this may cause disagreement, but in some areas the guy setting up basses for symphony players may not do as nice a setup if the player is playing jazz as a luthier specializing in that market. In my area there is a tendency for the jazz guys to to to one shop and the symphony players to go to the other.
I agree, it's essential that anyone working on a bass have years of experience and training and know what they are doing.

All the guys I have used in the past do work for all types of players. Music is not written in just one Key. A guy only able to set-up a Bass one way should find another Job!

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I understand what you're saying, but that's where you live. In KC it's a bit more specialized, not that the 'Symphony' shop doesn't do very nice work. From what I've seen here and from local reputation, the other place is a bit better for the jazz guys. KC may be the exception.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Greg Clinkingbeard

I understand what you're saying, but that's where you live. In KC it's a bit more specialized, not that the 'Symphony' shop doesn't do very nice work. From what I've seen here and from local reputation, the other place is a bit better for the jazz guys. KC may be the exception.

I have seen quite a varied preference of height, width and arch from both Orchestral and Jazz players. I will venture to say that there is no such thing as a Jazz or Classical set-up at all but rather just preferred set-up Specs.

[Bob Branstetter]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

I have seen quite a varied preference of height, width and arch from both Orchestral and Jazz players. I will venture to say that there is no such thing as a Jazz or Classical set-up at all but rather just preferred set-up Specs.

It looks to me like we are back into semantics again.

[Ken Smith]

On the Rattles, would that be 'one Snake or two'?

[stan haskins]

I was doing some recording last night with the Shen. The rattle has gotten incredibly irritating, so after about an hour I put a folded up washcloth between the tailpiece and the top. No more rattle! I guess that means the rattle is coming from my TP cable . . .

While there is a certain "muting " effect from the cloth, I found that in some ways, it evened out the tone (the A string is less wolfy, the open G not as abrasive). I did lose a little bit of volume, but the sound was better on the video, and it seemed like I was playing easier, too, by not needing to avoid rough-sounding notes.

Any thoughts? Does anybody intentionally mute their tailpiece?

[Jeff Tranauskas]

Originally Posted by stan haskins

I was doing some recording last night with the Shen. The rattle has gotten incredibly irritating, so after about an hour I put a folded up washcloth between the tailpiece and the top. No more rattle! I guess that means the rattle is coming from my TP cable . . .

While there is a certain "muting " effect from the cloth, I found that in some ways, it evened out the tone (the A string is less wolfy, the open G not as abrasive). I did lose a little bit of volume, but the sound was better on the video, and it seemed like I was playing easier, too, by not needing to avoid rough-sounding notes.

Any thoughts? Does anybody intentionally mute their tailpiece?

Stan,
I had a Shen 3/4 Willow that did the same thing. I muted the tailpiece with an old Tshirt. That worked well. On my Bulgarian bass I do the same thing. The rattle in my current tailpiece is due to my use of an electrical terminal block to anchor the cable. It was an adhoc repair that I made that never was properly addressed. So for now I just use the rolled up cotton cloth to quite the rattle. I have seen Edgar Meyer do the same thing.