I did contact Ray and it appeared the shipping costs were higher which couldn’t be chosen from the webshop. Anyway: I order one now! Thanks again!
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Double Bass Baby Bass megathread
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You won't get the same effect in Rockabilly. The slap will be more of a thud. Plus you'll really have to get a bridge made that will take it higher off of the fretboard, but even with that, it's not hollowed out so the slap sound still will still be a thud and harder to achieve.
R&B, most definitely, (but again not the slap). Jazz, Country Blue Grass, excellent! Rock I don't see a problem with either. Polka and some European stuff... marvelous!
Still, go for it. Make your own style.
What's the base price of Ray's baby basses? On his website, I saw the cost of some upgrades but not the base prices themselves.
I'm thinking about a Corvann bass too — fyi, it's $1,800 incl. shipping here in the U.S. Not bad IMO. I'm guessing that Ray's basses will be higher.
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I've used my KK Baby Bass for mostly blues and sometimes americana stuff.
Ampeg made a couple 5 string Baby Basses and one 5 string Scroll bass in the '60's - in the late'90's a prototype Dan Armstrong style 5 string was made (low B/wood body) - but it did not go into production. Were you trying to hunt down one of those rarities?
Oops - I didn't realize I was on the Baby Bass page - thought I clicked on the Ampeg Club page
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I used to play a Baby Bass in an Irish band - I thought it worked great - and I did often do some slap rhythms. I used a contact pickup under the fingerboard - along with the stock pickup and a two channel preamp to dial it in.
Yeah I have seen a few of them with a pick-up on the fretboard. For the life of me, I didn't get it back in the day. But whatever floats your boat. A friend of mine had this on his. Strong sound but I'm not a fan. Sounded like an electric bass. He eventually removed it and gave it to me so I kept it in my collection.
Fretboard?
The second pickup made the slap sound like slap - instead of thump like you astutely said it would sound with the stock system.
Also, the string height is easily adjustable with an allen wrench on a Baby Bass - without changing the bridge.
I picked up a Ramirez BB, Carribean Series so wood body and bridge. The tailgut was stretched out, tailpiece was like 1 1/2'' from bridge. New tailgut was an easy fix. Put on spiro solo strings. The sound has started to come and go. More specifically the sound of the strings. I can tap the bridge or diaphragms and the sound comes through the amp but nothing from the strings. I angrily hit the metal plate and the string sound came back. Moving the pick ups up or down doesn't help only hitting the plate sometimes brings it back which I'm trying not to do.
Assuming that the pickup is like an Ampeg, the wiring is pretty easy. Check out the diagram in the manual http://maxbass.com/PDF/BABY_BASS_MANUAL.pdf
Hopefully the coils are solid. I'd also recommend contacting Mr. Ramirez.
I have to admit it looks kinda cool that way...LOL! (Not the playing kinda cool though)....Is that the sun or is the fingerboard not ebony?
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Hey does anyone here know what years the Baby Bass had a nut like this or a tail piece like in these pictures? Thanks in advance.
That’s an early one. Probably early 60’s. Serial number is under the tailpiece by the endpin.
I’m not sure. It was a Baby bass for sale that I was thinking about buying as a project but didn’t end up pulling the trigger. It just had a lot of different features compared to the ones I’ve seen in the past. Especially the nut.
Hi, I've been lurking on this thread for a while, this is my first time posting. I play electric and upright and recently got a used Sendel BB (Zorko/Ampeg size). The aluminum bridge is unusably high so I will have to get a wooden bridge. It seems like the K&K pickups are mentioned most often in this thread, which I do not have any experience. I'm a fan of the Gage Realist on tradition double bass and am curious if anyone has tried the Copperhead or anything like that? If you've got another pickup suggestion, I'm all ears.
