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Double Bass NS Design NXT Megathread

#861
Boss Bass said:
Been practicing my arco playing at home on my NXT 4. I must get the string height up a bit higher for my G string. But I'm having fun trying to sound better.


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Way cool! I love my NS Omni for it's portability. One of the things one of my - best teachers - taught me, was to start with as much arm-weight on the bow as I could possibly muster and then back off. Sometimes, you're getting a "scratchy-tone" and the advice from my teacher helped me immensely. I love the bow and the arco sound for melodies and soloing but I'd encourage you to hook up with a competent arco teacher for some valuable technique pointers. I don't think you'll regret it because the more I work with the bow the more I love it's expressiveness, but, I also, seriously, seriously, appreciate it's demands.
 
#862
Tom Lane said:
Way cool! I love my NS Omni for it's portability. One of the things one of my - best teachers - taught me, was to start with as much arm-weight on the bow as I could possibly muster and then back off. Sometimes, you're getting a "scratchy-tone" and the advice from my teacher helped me immensely. I love the bow and the arco sound for melodies and soloing but I'd encourage you to hook up with a competent arco teacher for some valuable technique pointers. I don't think you'll regret it because the more I work with the bow the more I love it's expressiveness, but, I also, seriously, seriously, appreciate it's demands.
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Thank you. I was an orchestra student for many years, the upright is not new to me. I had some great teachers for my bass playing as I grew up. What happened in my life was that I was separated from the upright for many years. But now that I have one again, I decided to practice to get a good sound once again. It is not perfect playing with what I posted in the video, but I am ok with it.
 
#864
StompyJ said:
Hey guys! Proud new owner of a NXT 4 bass. I am looking to play primarily pizzicato jazz bass. Can you make any recs on strings/amps? also, what the endpin that people seem to like?

I can't speak for any of the strings except Traditionals. They sound night and day better than the stock strings, if you're attempting to get closer to organic tone.

All my time recently has been spent on electrics so I have yet to make the end pin investment. I can say that I am not a fan of the stock tripod.

Others will jump in with far better knowledge than I have.

Thanks!

-Eric
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#865
StompyJ said:
Hey guys! Proud new owner of a NXT 4 bass. I am looking to play primarily pizzicato jazz bass. Can you make any recs on strings/amps? also, what the endpin that people seem to like?

Thanks!

-Eric
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I can't comment on the strings or amps, but it seems as though the tripod stands are most popular, but I think that might depend on whether you're primarily an upright player or BG player. I play upright and I'm very happy with my peg stand for my Omni because it allows me to move the instrument with me. YMMV, yadda, yadda.
 
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#866
StompyJ said:
Hey guys! Proud new owner of a NXT 4 bass. I am looking to play primarily pizzicato jazz bass. Can you make any recs on strings/amps? also, what the endpin that people seem to like?
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I like the tripod stand because it lets me leave the instrument set up while I walk away.
I do not like the Contemporary strings - I find they're too bright for me and create a 'fretless BG' sound which is not itself objectionable, but fretless BG is already my primary instrument. I moved to the Traditionals and a bit of open-cell foam at the bridge, and find it makes a much more convincing upright sound for what I'm looking for (contemporary bluegrass). I keep it it for arco too, and for me, it creates a more convincing DB vibe. Mostly, I'm using a GK amp through a 112, but I get basically the same sound through the big rig too...
 
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#868
Almost any kind of soft foam rubber will do. Couch-cushion foam from the craft store, weatherstripping foam from the home store...
There are 2 kinds of foam - when the little bubbles remain intact, it's a closed-cell foam. When they don't, it's open-cell. They have different characteristics under certain conditions, none of which are relevant here ;-)...

Open-cell is good for air filters and on-ear headphones and such. It's also frequently encountered in packing materials for delicate electronic stuff, which is where I snagged my piece. A picture:
foam.jpg

Too much or too stiff will change the intonation, but it's cheap so you just play with it until you get an effect you like. Despite what looks like a big honkin' chunk in there, I still have pretty good sustain. More than real DB even, probably, but I'm leaving it alone for now.
 
#869
NXT player for a little over a year here. I switched to the Traditional strings and found them much better. Last night I just put on a set of Obligatos and replaced the tuners with Hipshots but I can't really comment on them yet as they are still stretching out and haven't quite gotten them in tune yet (gig Saturday morning!). They do feel nice on the fingers (synthetic gut core with a really thin steel wrap). I found it important to use a preamp with the super high 10MegOhm input. This eliminates the clangyness that can be in the piezo otherwise. I bought a Radial Bassbone OD but there are less expensive options. The Radial Tonebone v2 now has the pz switch and some of the other radial products, but there are much simpler options like the fdeck and others. Look for one made for piezos with the high impedance input. When I turn mine off there is a noticeable difference. There are some heads with this feature built in as well, such as the Acoustic Image line. If you are coming from a DB background you probably already understand this but I played electric and it took awhile to figure all this put. I had an old cab that was really low-mid muddy (but sounded OK with my P) and have been much happier with my new Bergantino NV115 although I also liked the slightly smaller and less expensive Berg HD112 (I think I will eventually get one for a slightly smaller rig). I would have liked to try some of the Aguilar 112 cabs but have not had a chance. I think the NXT benefits from a very clean, flat, hi-fi sounding cab. I also recently bought an Aguilar Tonehammer 500 and like it, but the preamp and the cabinet are the more important parts of the signal chain. I have never had a problem with the standard tripod, my only wish would be to allow it to sit lower so I could sit down and practice but have gotten used to standing up.

For me transitioning to playing the NXT was pretty easy, getting it to sound how I want has been a little bit of a journey. Best of luck!
 
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#872
I use a piece of foam that's about an inch wide and just thick enough to press firmly on the underside of the strings. I can adjust the amount of sustain by sliding it towards the fingerboard.

I also use the traditional strings and love them. I use a Zoom A-3 pedal as a preamp and modeler to get a pretty accurate upright tone.
 
#873
Last night I grabbed an NXT4 from BassNW here in Seattle. This is my first foray into the world of playing upright, and this was a more logical choice for me than an acoustic upright despite the obvious tone and playing/technique differences. I'd like to add an acoustic at some point in the future, but this is a great starting point for me in the meantime. I've learned that with only an electric bass guitar background I'm an absolute beginner on this thing outside of being able to pull off a convincing root-fifth thing with lots of ghost notes and chromatics in between. I'm looking forward to the challenge of learning a new instrument. I'm planning on grabbing the K&M stand and end pin, as well as a bow although I know nothing about bows and will be researching that heavily before buying.

No pics no bass...
image_1.jpg
 
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#876
silky smoove said:
Last night I grabbed an NXT4 from BassNW here in Seattle. This is my first foray into the world of playing upright, and this was a more logical choice for me than an acoustic upright despite the obvious tone and playing/technique differences.
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Welcome aboard. I'd agree that the NXT is a good way to move from BG. There is some good info here as well as at Gollimur Music's site. Best of luck and enjoy the journey,
 
#878
silky smoove said:
Yep. K&M makes a stand that accepts the NS endpin stand. Play with the endpin, and then you sort of "rack it" onto the K&M stand. It's a pretty slick system.
Invalid Link Removed
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Thanks for that link !
My NXT-5 came with those parts (in addition to the tripod stand, which I have been using) and I had no idea how they all worked together !

I did have to make a repair to the tripod stand - I suppose I should make a new thread...
The original fabrication uses aluminum blind ('Pop') rivets to retain the bottom straps to the central tube, and one end (unsurprisingly) sheared off. I replaced them all with Allen screws and locknuts...
 

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