I 'could', but buying a substitute that costs more than my DB just doesn't feel right.
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Double Bass CANCEL New EUB Day or "Some People DO Learn".
- Thread starter rickwolff
- Start date
I 'could', but buying a substitute that costs more than my DB just doesn't feel right.
Yes, there are gigs for bassists. However, start by ruling out the ones for Rock (70%?) and Country (25%?) and the ones expressing a preference for someone in their 20's or 30's (hey, I get it), I'm just guessing at those numbers, of course. Then factor in that there are far fewer jazz or acoustic gigs than there are bassists available, and you'll get an idea of what I'm up against. It probably sounds like I'm whining, but I really don't need anyone to feel sorry for me. Believe me, I've become intimately familiar with the five stages of grief recently, and I think I'm pretty well into the final stage of acceptance.
And I'll admit, much of the challenge is self-imposed. When we left Raleigh due to medical reasons, I left behind a trio (sometimes quartet +) that I had founded five years earlier. The music we played was exactly what I wanted to play, and I was successful in booking the band. The musicians were among the very best in the area. In a word, I was spoiled. I am making occasional forays into possible collaborations here, but so far, it's just really hard to get excited.
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Don Kaspar, the soul and conscience of Talkbass.
We now have our Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse...No more calls, please!
There are several things with a Stagg EDB that are bad.
You found one of them and solved it.
A different set of strings can help if you get black fingers from the stock ones. Might also sound better though soundwise the stock strings are not too bad (but the black fingers…).
A sponge between underlengths and body damps unwanted underlength resonance. I put a piece of cardboard below to save the finish from any solvents in the sponge.
The bridge is badly formed for equal height and the metal adjuster parts are too heavy. Better replace it with a wooden one.
The bridge and FB curvature is rather flat. String to string angle with the bow is close to my 5-string DB.
Also the E-string can easily jump off the bridge with a bit harder DB (and not EBG) pluck.
I solved partly by putting a thin shim in the lower neck pocket to raise the angle of the fingerboard a bit. Higher pressure on the bridge, less tendency to jump off, but higher pressure on the piezo wire (mine are still OK after at least eight years).
The truss rod is mostly dysfunctional. Planing the fingerboard is possible with the rosewood fingerboard (did that myself) but for the simpler one-piece-neck the laquer on the fingerboard surface might need to get removed completely (mostly for aesthetic reasons) without taking by lacquer off the sides.
For a more DB-like sound the bass boost must be dialed back completely.
But with any EUB, the body resonance is missing or too high and short. The only way to get a DB-like sound is using an electronic body resonator as a nice resonator chamber simulator and even the impulse response from a DB might need to be tweaked a bit for the pickup.
BTW, some bypassed most of the electronics (only keeping the impedance buffer part) of the Stagg and are more happy with the sound.
There are two internal volume pots for the two pickups below the bridge feet.
But you need both pickup signals since the bridge is fixed and cannot really move. With only one active pickup, the strings will not be represented equally well in the output signal.
Be cautious with the pots. I must have got a hard impact on the volume pot and it broke. Took me some time to find a replacement pot and also needed to replace the knob. Replaced both pots at once, just in case …
I don’t use the left shoulder support. The rubber coating stops my arm when going up in thumb position.
The right body support is not very stiff. Best would be to replace it with something stronger and more rigid.
But it helped me to bend the upper part in a large bow to get the upper end that touches the body a bit more away from the body so that upper and lower end pressing by the same amount. I also put some rubber foam around the part that touches my body. Sticks better than the rubber coating to the body. Did that with my Clevinger too.
I got my Stagg(s) with a little damage (split wood, but still well connected) for under US$200 each. Easy to repair and hardly visible afterwards. One is sitting in a different house of mine, one at home and the third is incomplete because I got it below US$100 for the rosewood FB neck only and had missing parts.
I didn’t get them for sound, but for experiments and a small more or less light travel instrument, mostly for practicing and jam sessions, but also used it once for teaching at the students home and as a backup for my Clevinger EUB.
I bought the Stagg because I wanted an EUB (for traveling/practicing and sound effects) but was very short on money.
Later I found the Clevinger 5-string used but for more than the money for all three Staggs together. I even tweaked the Clevinger (pickup, bridge angle, endpin) but also without most of my tweaks it was better than the Stagg.
Still all solid body EUBs with no resonance chamber. At best they sound like a simple DB with a lot of amplification.
Physics can’t be tricked. At least not completely.
It seems you went from the expensive better EUBs to the cheap ones with design flaws. Would not expect too much from them.
Maybe the Semi-Acoustic DB from Heiner Windelband (in Germany) is as close as possible to your expectations, but not cheap. But at least light and good sounding. Heiner builds DBs too, so he knows what a DB player wants.
A bit more voluminous that you might expect from an EUB. But could be played acoustically too (but missing the low end a bit).
Windelband Semi-Acoustic (scroll down)
You might ask Heiner who in the US bought one. Maybe you can go there and try it.
But it is as delicate as a DB for transport, not as rigid as a solid body EUB. The gigbag for it is good but also expensive.
I’m not sure if Heiner goes to the ISB with his instruments, but have seen him with a selection of his instruments at the european BASS convention the two times I went there.
You found one of them and solved it.
A different set of strings can help if you get black fingers from the stock ones. Might also sound better though soundwise the stock strings are not too bad (but the black fingers…).
A sponge between underlengths and body damps unwanted underlength resonance. I put a piece of cardboard below to save the finish from any solvents in the sponge.
The bridge is badly formed for equal height and the metal adjuster parts are too heavy. Better replace it with a wooden one.
The bridge and FB curvature is rather flat. String to string angle with the bow is close to my 5-string DB.
Also the E-string can easily jump off the bridge with a bit harder DB (and not EBG) pluck.
I solved partly by putting a thin shim in the lower neck pocket to raise the angle of the fingerboard a bit. Higher pressure on the bridge, less tendency to jump off, but higher pressure on the piezo wire (mine are still OK after at least eight years).
The truss rod is mostly dysfunctional. Planing the fingerboard is possible with the rosewood fingerboard (did that myself) but for the simpler one-piece-neck the laquer on the fingerboard surface might need to get removed completely (mostly for aesthetic reasons) without taking by lacquer off the sides.
For a more DB-like sound the bass boost must be dialed back completely.
But with any EUB, the body resonance is missing or too high and short. The only way to get a DB-like sound is using an electronic body resonator as a nice resonator chamber simulator and even the impulse response from a DB might need to be tweaked a bit for the pickup.
BTW, some bypassed most of the electronics (only keeping the impedance buffer part) of the Stagg and are more happy with the sound.
There are two internal volume pots for the two pickups below the bridge feet.
But you need both pickup signals since the bridge is fixed and cannot really move. With only one active pickup, the strings will not be represented equally well in the output signal.
Be cautious with the pots. I must have got a hard impact on the volume pot and it broke. Took me some time to find a replacement pot and also needed to replace the knob. Replaced both pots at once, just in case …
I don’t use the left shoulder support. The rubber coating stops my arm when going up in thumb position.
The right body support is not very stiff. Best would be to replace it with something stronger and more rigid.
But it helped me to bend the upper part in a large bow to get the upper end that touches the body a bit more away from the body so that upper and lower end pressing by the same amount. I also put some rubber foam around the part that touches my body. Sticks better than the rubber coating to the body. Did that with my Clevinger too.
I got my Stagg(s) with a little damage (split wood, but still well connected) for under US$200 each. Easy to repair and hardly visible afterwards. One is sitting in a different house of mine, one at home and the third is incomplete because I got it below US$100 for the rosewood FB neck only and had missing parts.
I didn’t get them for sound, but for experiments and a small more or less light travel instrument, mostly for practicing and jam sessions, but also used it once for teaching at the students home and as a backup for my Clevinger EUB.
I bought the Stagg because I wanted an EUB (for traveling/practicing and sound effects) but was very short on money.
Later I found the Clevinger 5-string used but for more than the money for all three Staggs together. I even tweaked the Clevinger (pickup, bridge angle, endpin) but also without most of my tweaks it was better than the Stagg.
Still all solid body EUBs with no resonance chamber. At best they sound like a simple DB with a lot of amplification.
Physics can’t be tricked. At least not completely.
It seems you went from the expensive better EUBs to the cheap ones with design flaws. Would not expect too much from them.
Maybe the Semi-Acoustic DB from Heiner Windelband (in Germany) is as close as possible to your expectations, but not cheap. But at least light and good sounding. Heiner builds DBs too, so he knows what a DB player wants.
A bit more voluminous that you might expect from an EUB. But could be played acoustically too (but missing the low end a bit).
Windelband Semi-Acoustic (scroll down)
You might ask Heiner who in the US bought one. Maybe you can go there and try it.
But it is as delicate as a DB for transport, not as rigid as a solid body EUB. The gigbag for it is good but also expensive.
I’m not sure if Heiner goes to the ISB with his instruments, but have seen him with a selection of his instruments at the european BASS convention the two times I went there.
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DoubleMIDI kindly recommended the Windelband Semi-Acoustic EUB. I found this clip by the luthier on Youtube:
I think this looks and SOUNDS amazing.
Check out his website:
I think this looks and SOUNDS amazing.
Check out his website:
I don’t think I’m being too intuitive here to suggest that as a luthier, he may only sell directly. There’s certainly a lot of website info.
His EUB sounds great. viel Glück
Vielen Dank, Yes, you're probably right. I did send him an email to find out if anyone owned one in the US that I could try. And, yes, I thought the bass sounded great.
basses & more - Heiner Windelband - Sünnenblink Musikwerkstatt
Heiner is a specialist in bass setups.
Had him do work on two of my instruments too.
Really nice guy, takes a lot of time to talk to you.
Heiner speaks English well. A lot of US bass professionals visit him. David Friesen had held workshops/concertos there several times if I remember correctly.
Heiner is a specialist in bass setups.
Had him do work on two of my instruments too.
Really nice guy, takes a lot of time to talk to you.
Didn‘t I say it is not cheap?
But if it can replace the big one that becomes too heavy to carry around it might be worth the money.
Just don‘t show up with it in a classical orchestra.
So, can anyone smuggle one of these in for me to avoid the ***** for me and the VAT? And since when does a Tax Add Value????
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How about a Chamber Orchestra? No? String Quartet?? Oh, what the hell, I'll never get into one of those anyway.
Weren’t you paying attention the other day?
Oh for crying out loud. Maybe just send me a complete list of words that are not allowed.
You may be able to get the VAT refunded, although there might be a wait. Different countries, different rules, so check before you buy.
