Field report
Took the bass out to Jazz club last night. Sat in with some great players. Probably ended up playing for about an hour over the following tunes;
Watermelon man
Watch what happens
Fly me to the moon
Outa nowhere
Stella by starlight
Gotta little girl (F blues)
All blues
I had to take it in an acoustic guitar gigbag, because I still haven't found a case big enough for it. The head stock was poking out the top with a hand towel wrapped around it. I contacted a music shop twice, but the supplier's still haven't got back to them about the length of their case. Hmm.
When I got there, people were pretty interested in it. The other bass player, Rick, had a quick go unplugged and commented on the strings and just how low the action is and how easy it feels to play. He didn't play it properly though because it he said it has too many string and would confuse him. LOL. Yeah I know that feeling.
Amp settings
I jumped in about halfway through the night. I guess the first thing I noticed was the radical difference in EQ needed for the bass as opposed to the Tune WB4 Rick uses. He's also using LaBella tapewounds, although his are black tape. He had the bass and high mids wound out. The 6 string sounded a lot better set flat. I was plugged into his AER Amp One. A crazy little amp that produces some amazing sounds for it's size. The 6 string sounded pretty enormous through it and everyone there commented on how good it sounded. It took me a bit to get it like I wanted. In the end, I had a touch of piezo, but mostly mag PUs. I've always liked the look of his Tune, but found it sounded sort of squidgy and rubbery. My bass didn't sound anything like that. A lot more articulate. The upper registers are also a lot more even and clear. Even high up on the C string it cuts.
Attack
What did surprise me is how polite the front of the note is. I guess I was expecting a bit more thump ala upright. It doesn't really do that without right hand muting and playing with your thumb. If you do mute, the thump is huge, but otherwise it's uber smooth. I guess some big nasty flatwounds might do that, but no one makes them for a 39 scale". Serves me right. LOL. I may let a little more relief back into the neck to bring the action up and give me some thump... or not. It's pretty sweet to play.
Scale
Which brings me the next thing. The scale length is much more akin to upright than electric in many ways. It's a struggle to play across 4 fingers below about the 6th fret position. Additionally, get to "farmer's corner" requires a serious stretch. I found myself playing a lot of low F's on the B string. Getting down low comfortably involved pulling the bass to my right, across my body, so the 24th fret position was beyond the middle of my torso. It's not heavy, but it is huge and you have to find a comfy way to reach the lower notes.
Intonation
I guess the biggest issue, and I knew it would be, was intonation. There were a few times when I just couldn't quite get in tune properly. "Outta Nowhere" was probably the one where I consistently struggled to find the sweet spot, even though the chords weren't particularly difficult. I had to sight transpose "fly me to the moon" up a full tone (step) and really that wasn't all that bad considering it was a new instrument with no markings. Strangely, taking solos was less of an issue than I thought it might be. Sure, there were a few off notes, but mostly, I just closed me eyes and tried to sing along with it. Not worrying about where the notes were, just playing them. Mostly, that seemed to work. So maybe I need to do that down lower. Course I think the reason that worked was because up higher on the board, you can play in 4 finger positions and it's a little more secure. What I came home realizing was I need to do some scales and find my patterns down low on the board. It's not impossible, but it will take some work. As I mentioned before, there are no dot markers. To be honest though, I'm in two minds as to whether they might have helped me last night or not.
Sore hands
By the end of an hour, my fore arms were pretty sore. I went indoor rock climbing (my preferred exercise apart from walking) for the first time in three months on Tuesday. So yesterday, my forearms were pretty sore before I got there. I purposely didn't take a guitar, because I knew bar chords would do me in. Overall, the bass was pretty kind to me. It doesn't require a lot of pressure. The neck profile is very flat, almost fence paling. That's been stretching my left thumb over the last few days and it was a little sore, but last night, it was fine. So maybe I'm just getting used to a different shape. Certainly standing and playing seems more comfy than sitting as far as my thumb goes. I guess time will tell.
Overall
At this point, I think if I was to start over again, I might drop the scale length back to 36-37 inches. But then I've never really played a bass that big. So it might be as bad as 39". The sound is not exactly what I was aiming for, but I can feel vibrations resonating through the upper body, even when unplugged. So the body is definitely effecting the sound. The overall sound is extremely rich with overtones. And it's a very organic sound too. Just not sure how much the structure is changing things. That was one of my fears with mag PUs. They really have a sound of their own. Anyhow, I'll keep playing it and do another report down the track. I have noticed one issue with buzzing/humming. It's not terrible, but I might have to shield the back of the pickups somehow. I think I'd likely build it with just one PU next time. I think 2 are effecting the piezo in ways I hadn't anticipated. Which is a bit of a shame. The extra PU allows me to get that Jaco tone, but I never used it last night anyway. I've tried playing "Jerry was a racecar driver" and "Tommy the cat" (by Primus), but I can't pull either off properly yet. It might even be a bit big for that. Ridiculous eh?
