Yes I played it - very nice. Silky smooth. I played a number of the fretless basses present and all of them reminded me why I need to continue to play a fretted neck.
Your Douglas was by far the best playing Beatle bass I have ever picked up. I love the sound. Maybe not as versatile as a P bass, but when it fits a song, it fits very well.
Given your collection of fretless hollow bodies I'm guessing you play a fair amount of jazz or acoustic music. (?)
P.S. Anyone who wants to hear the tone of their bass relatively uncolored will appreciate the Thunderchild a great deal. I've heard a lot of upright players say that it's THE cab for that instrument. I imagine a hollow fretless would work just as well. What it does NOT do is add aggressive mids as most bass cabinets do. I didn't even realize this was happening with other cabinets because I kept comparing them to each other. Almost every other cabinet adds its own color and that's usually represented in the mids.
PDG- Actually, I play predominantly music theatre gigs. There's not much opportunity to play jazz in K-ville, and I don't know many of the players in the "acoustic" or Americana or whatever scene here. Since I don't own or play an upright bass, I'm very mindful that the older musical scores are written with an upright bass in mind, and so for a number of years, I have been sampling different electric basses that look like they could approximate the upright tone. I have not yet used the Zenith fretless, but it's fretted brother has served very well for three shows now, so I'm confident it will as well. It does have fretlines, which help a lot. I find that after a song gets going, my hand finds the notes, but it's nice to be able to locate the starting notes of a song visually before the song kicks off. That was a problem with the Douglas when I've tried it at rehearsals. The Zenith fretless also sounds terrific with the nylon tapewounds and with the piezo dialed in.
However, the Douglas fretless gets closest to an upright sound of any of the basses I have. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'll give it another go-around soon. Jonathan at The String Workshop in Oak Ridge did a great set-up on it. Jeff and I are both big fans of his work, Jeff has used him for years.
I tend to like a very mellow, woody sort of bass sound. I'm not much on a really bright, snappy tone on bass. I know the majority of players nowadays still love the modern, ultra-clean sound, but I like the sound of a mellow bass with flats or tapes, through a clean amp and cabinet, that doesn't have a lot of aggression to the high end but allows you to hear details of playing. So the Douglas through a TC cab would work great for me, but I can't say that for me, I would like the roundwound Dingwall tone through it- but that's just my tonal taste. However, Ethan playing the Dingwall Z through the TC would have been super- I don't think he did at the GTG, however.
I didn't do a lot of playing and trying out different basses at the GTG, because one of the main gear goals I had for the GTG was to try out your Thunderchild cabinet. I was quite impressed with the clear, natural sound. When you were playing the chordal pieces on your Ibanez through the TC, both Jeff and I were jaw-dropped. It sounded like there was zero intermodulation distortion. It was clear, and we could hear every note in each chord you played.
I had talked to Duke LeJeune on the phone previously that week. I told him I play music theatre mostly and am trying to get the most natural, un-ampy sound possible for my goal of getting the upright bass sound. He felt the 112AF would be just the ticket, and I'm probably going to move on getting him to build one for me.
When I move on the Thunderchild cab, and if it fits the tonal profile I am seeking, then I'll probably be selling the Dr.Bass 3012LF cabs and the EA Wizzy M-line 12. As you saw at the GTG, I have accumulated a lot of gear pieces, and now that I'm zeroing in on the instruments and amp setup that will serve best, I'll be clearing things out a bit.
Having said all that, I would also love to get into a really good rock/blues band! I still love J-bass profile instruments through a tube amp that's cranked up.
