Recent content by David Potts

Skin 1/2 an almond and rub over then wipe off.

Before you do anything radical you should examine the glue line between the fingerboard and the bass neck. If the glue is becoming/has become unstuck this will allow the scroll and peg box to be moved because the full movement of the heavy extended E string exerts quite a lot of force in all...

I'm sorry, Monobass.....and Donald Thompson

First, Monobass, Your first photo showed you to be in the least practical and ergonomic wayof sitting/standing by being directly behind the bass (looking down the deck of an aircraft carrier !) To flesh out your quote above I use the metaphor of the most natural way to clap your hands being...

Hi Donald, Andy Mopley started a discussion in this Orchestral Technique forum called Sitting vs Standing on May 5 2022. I threw my ideas into that. I would just add that you have three dimensional control of the bass in relation to how it rests on your body. I like to rest the corner of the...

To refresh my memory I looked up the passage in a score with sound on Youtube. At that speed and with a big crescendo I would work across to the G and D strings ASAP and not worry about the niceties of avoiding two open strings in succession. The fingering gets complicated in the third bar for...

Good on you for trying, Ed S. I am aware that there is at least one English and one Australian book of graded sight reading exercises and will try to find and post their specific titles. I have been playing orchestral music for just on 60 years and there is always some new music to challenge...

I am currently about to have my new bass (Gliga "Vasile" 3/4) professionally set up by The Bass Shop,Sydney. It has been crudely set up with an untreated bridge and a sound post with too many growth rings, both shaped and supplied by Gliga. Indications are that the sound will be rather bright...

Not joking, has someone been too close to the firewood and this is a piece of pine bark? Or some other tree bark. I cannot think of any bass timber that it could be.

As I understand it the legs are cut and drilled/tapped for the height adjusters without trimming off length. I have just bought a Despiau 2C treated 3/4 bridge whose arch is fairly low. The method described by Monobass above will add 7mm to the height of the arch therefore increasing the...

Having endured the wrath and death stare of a well known Dutch conductor for not using enough bow on the bottom string I quite agree with Gary Karr in the above Strad article. I feel that the weight of the E string dictates the use of the bow, not the other way around. The open E string vibrates...

The rattling of the F may be caused by a big groove in the fingerboard under the string or by a convex bump in the fingerboard between the F and the bridge. Tread carefully. Lowering the string groove in the nut may not solve your problem. If you have a steel ruler or even a kid's ruler you may...

Another one that has crept up on my left hand is mild to moderate carpal tunnel diagnos ed after 50something years of orchestral playing. My second finger started to "pop" as I bent it from straight to curved and back. Pop is my own description of a break like a soundless click in the smooth...

For quite a long time I used Original Flexicor on one bass and New Flexicor on the other, then along came D'Addario Medium Tension Orchestral. More lately I have settled on Bel Cantos for the orchestral playing in my community group. I no longer have the spare income to try other brands like...

From way back somewhere I was told that gut strings are more abrasive, more so than flat wound steel, in causing ruts (grooves) in the ebony fingerboard under the lower (1/2 and !st) positions. When I started playing in early 1963 my bass was strung with all gut, including the copper-wound E...