Interesting bass (and history reminder)

[Joshua Phelps]

You are Always well educated on all the instruments you own & NOW I see why. The Internet is great but I miss the days when you had to go out in the world to seek knowledge & retrieve a book or seek out an individual that possessed the information you were after. The Internet is loaded with false information as well not like neatly packaged books that are either credible or not & if not then quickly written of by the community of whatever area of interests it contains.

Nice bass & neat to hear about the books.

On a side note it would be nice if you put up sounds clips or video with audio of the new basses you get. They are Simply eye candy for readers on the forum. It's like someone making a beautiful steak dinner then only allowing you to look at it w/o taking a bite haha

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Joshua Phelps

You are Always well educated on all the instruments you own & NOW I see why. The Internet is great but I miss the days when you had to go out in the world to seek knowledge & retrieve a book or seek out an individual that possessed the information you were after. The Internet is loaded with false information as well not like neatly packaged books that are either credible or not & if not then quickly written of by the community of whatever area of interests it contains.

Nice bass & neat to hear about the books.

On a side note it would be nice if you put up sounds clips or video with audio of the new basses you get. They are Simply eye candy for readers on the forum. It's like someone making a beautiful steak dinner then only allowing you to look at it w/o taking a bite haha

You cannot tell from clips which basses rattle the walls or shake your guts inside because of compression used to fit the speakers. Listen to some Jazz records with big name players. Then go play their bass in person. You will be disappointed. It is studio magic and amplifiers that make some of those basses sound good on recordings and in concert, not the basses.

The smoothness or sweetness of a bass cannot be felt thru speakers. You are limited to what the speaker can do. You need to play the bass and hear it live.

The Kreutzer feels great inside my body when I play it. It goes thru me. I can feel it on my knee and stomach depending on how I hold it. That is what I look for in a bass. Not a recording that is doctored up or compressed to fit a speaker.

Several years ago when I first fit my pickup to the Martini bass I had, the speaker nearly broke when I played the A string and the E just distorted it totally. The true fundamental was too thick a signal for the speaker to handle. THAT is what I am talking about. It it amplifies well and easily, it's a thin sounding bass!

[Joshua Phelps]

What type of pickups do you prefer for double bass?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Joshua Phelps

What type of pickups do you prefer for double bass?

I have been using a Shadow dual Piezo, similar to an underwood.

[Ken Smith]

Ok, I took her out Wednesday (10/10/12) for an Orchestra rehearsal. The Principal there asked me to cover his spot because he was unavailable. There are from 6-8 basses in that Orchestra, this concert is 6. Although I just sit in the back there, the Principal felt there was no one in the section that could lead other than me and I am basically just a guest when I am available.

The bass was more powerful than I had imagined and the lower two strings, more than adequate. The bass has a set of Pirastro Permanents now that are usually too bright for my ears but sound nice n smooth on this bass. I will keep them on for now.

I think for a mid 20th century made bass, it is as nice as anything Italian that I have seen. This is basically a Strad model in a true sense of the art.

Now I need a name for the bass, a nick name. Joey maybe?

[Joshua Phelps]

Basses are always Ladies according to the Italians. You can even see it in the shape of the Bass. Don't Break the Tradition of Lady Names Ken : )

[Ken Smith]

Joey can be a female as well. Look it up. The maker is Josef.

With the ballz this bass has, I think a unisex name might be the safe way to go!