I try and listen with my ears and not with my eyes...
That's what I did, and that's why I was disappointed. It sounded like crap.
Dude this is why you're supposed to DRINK on NYE. Possibly the TOP holiday for getting slammed. Had you celebrated properly even something as inappropriate as EB in 50's swing would not have bothered you.
This isn't a venue that serves alcoholic beverages... Which was actually part of the appeal for me on NYE... People out to enjoy the music and have fun with little chance of drunken drama occurring. And the swing they were playing was 30's-40's style, which the band usually do in a very authentic sounding way.
Sometimes it's good to turn off our need for everything to be our way and enjoy other people doing things their way.
This was inconsistent with "their way" in the past, and it just didn't sound good at all.
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Anyway, I returned to the same venue Friday night, where the performance for the evening was by a local big band (17 members I believe). The bassist was playing an upright bass with aid of an amplifier, and although there were a few notes that were consistently louder than the rest (because of resonant frequencies in the room and/or instrument), it sounded just fine.
During their set break, I moved to the other side of the room for a different view, and soon into their second set I tried to take a couple photos with my phone, and noticed that I couldn't see the bassist or his bass anymore. I changed my viewing spot a bit and then noticed it was because he had switched to a bass guitar for the second set. But it sounded good (something I knew was possible when measures are taken to ensure a sound compatible with the style). I couldn't get a great view of exactly what he was playing; it was dark in color, had a modern shape, a headless(?!) neck that was very narrow at the tip, and strings I couldn't really see against the finish of the bass (maybe black nylon tapes?). But the sound was very mellow, sat perfectly in the mix, and was very consistent through the whole second set.
At the end of their performance I went up to the stage to take a closer look at the bass and ask the bassist about it. It was fretless and headless and the strings did look like black nylon tapewound. The bridge looked interesting, it had a light colored strip/ridge with slots in it, no individual intonatable saddles. I told him how great I thought it sounded and asked him what kind of bass it was... It turns out it was one of these, made in Czechia:
Introducing the CR4 RADIUS bass guitar - NS Design
He said he wasn't using the magnetic pickups, just the piezo built into the bridge. He said that the bass was the closest thing he could find to give him the sound he wanted (i.e., something approximating the sound of his upright even if it wasn't identical). Reading the specs on the bass, it looks like it has a lot of onboard controls for tailoring the sound from the piezo pickup. Brand new, these things are almost $3500(!)...
No, a Canadian. Here they are called "Legions/Legion Halls". I was guessing "Veteran" for the V but was not really sure. Thank-you for responding!
I thought it might be "Veterans" but the FW was throwing me off and I wasn't sure. (I'm in Canada here, we have the same, known as "Legion Halls".
