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Double Bass String neurosis

M

Marcus Johnson

Nov 28, 2001
8,533
96
Maui
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#1
I had a mildly interesting episode last night... A guy came in to my gig under the influence of more than a little alcohol, and immediately said, "you need to use some electronics, can't hear ya", pointing at the unused Bose PA (Spiros, unamped). I said, "I don't agree", he got mildly miffed that a mere bassist had the gall to lock horns with a hotel guest, but I quietly said "just listen", which he did, more or less. As it turns out, on the next tune, everything fell into place, and I accidentally played one of those solos for the ages. When we were done, he said "I heard that", and afterwards, he was my byotch for the rest of the set.

Couldn't help but wonder if things would have been different if I still had Animas on there. This is a big room, and people used to come up to me from miles away and say "you sound great". There was never any question of covering a room sonically.

It got me thinking about the difference in the player's perception of the bass' sound and volume versus the actual sound that reaches the audience. I guess I'm not even looking for any responses or validation; but....feel free.:D

This s**t drives me nuts sometimes. I think I need an intervention.

ps....still thinking about Olivs....life is short ;)
 
#2
My perceptions of my tone, my playing, and the general vibe of the gig are rarely correlated with the actual occurrence.

I'm always amazed at the disparity when I notice it.

I thought the Belcanto's sounded like sh-t out front. They didn't. Got as many compliments on them as the Animas. Some days I thought the Spirocore Starks were killing. The recordings had them lost in the mist.

On the demos I've been doing the last severals days I've been playing guts. To me they sound noisy and goofy and out of tune.

On the recordings they sound great. Fat warm and big as a house.

Go figure.

The more I know the less I know.
 
#3
I had that experience with Flexicores. Loved the feel, loved the sound of them at home. Couldn't really deal with them on the gig, But, someone sat in on bass bass one night and from the back of the room, they cut right through as sounded full and round. If they had sounded like that to me, over the bass on the stand, I would have been home.

Will probably try them again someday.

Weird.
 
#5
I really liked playing the animas, even if they were hard to bow. I loved the feel and the tone. But then I did an A/B recording test at home between the animas and a set of belcantos, and I was surprised how little difference I heard on the recording. Playing the things was like night and day--but hearing them was more like a cloudy day and an overcast day.

Now I'm back to spiros--they are a little louder on my bass than the animas, and a little easier to bow
 
#6
Marcus Johnson said:
It got me thinking about the difference in the player's perception of the bass' sound and volume versus the actual sound that reaches the audience. I guess I'm not even looking for any responses or validation; but....feel free.:D

This s**t drives me nuts sometimes. I think I need an intervention.
Click to expand...

I've found that so much depends on the room acoustics and the relative volume of the band ... the size of the audience ... the humidity level ... and so on.

I've been impressed by the sheer volume of Animas but they never worked for me, I guess my bass likes the tension. I started using Spirocores for the combination of acoustic volume, brightness, and bowability - I play acoustic as often as possible and I find the audience can often hear me better than I can hear myself on stage. FWIW I get a big fat recorded sound out of them too.

If that doesn't make you feel better there's always this (not usually quoted in its entirety):

Gertrude Stein said:
Clarity is of no importance because nobody listens and nobody knows what you mean no matter what you mean, nor how clearly you mean what you mean. But if you have vitality enough of knowing enough of what you mean, somebody and sometime and sometimes a great many will have to realize that you know what you mean and so they will agree that you mean what you know, what you know you mean, which is as near as anybody can come to understanding any one.
Click to expand...
 
#7
Heh...thanks for that last bit, Dave. I'll read it again tomorrow morning when I'm a little less fuzzy. Gertrude Stein on TB... gotta love it.

So...as it turns out, I had a chance to hear my bass, unamped with the Spiros tonight, played by a guy who turned out to not really be a very good double bassist. He was plucking the strings very timidly with a bass guitar kind of approach, and his left hand was really messed up; barely pressing the strings at all, this guy was really struggling. Nevertheless, the bass sounded fat and loud, and really warm and balanced. I figured that it must be okay when I play it, since I know at least a thing or two about pulling sound out of a bass. Maybe I overanalyzed it on the previous night.
 
#8
I love this thread, and the recent "bowability of spiros" threads. My Dominants are fading (for jazz pizz) after a mere 4 months and I'm thinking about changing to spiros, but I'm 90% orchestra player. My bass also likes a lower tension string and I'm thinking about getting radical and putting on a set of Weichs with a Mittel long-E, but I'm worried that I won't be heard in my orchestra (since I'm the only DB). But after reading this thread and the recent spiro threads that claim "spiros roar when bowed", maybe I should't worry about it.
 
#9
I think if I lived in Maui, I wouldn't care in the least about my strings. I'd be like, "Hey, I live in Maui and you don't." But then again, I guess the novelty of living in Maui would wear off after the first 20 years and I'd be back to caring about my strings ;)
 
#10
JimmyM said:
I think if I lived in Maui, I wouldn't care in the least about my strings. I'd be like, "Hey, I live in Maui and you don't." But then again, I guess the novelty of living in Maui would wear off after the first 20 years and I'd be back to caring about my strings ;)
Click to expand...
Grass is always greener wherever I'm not.

Then again I live in hell. Anything is looking up.
 
#12
Phil, I agree. I've been to Columbus several times, and it is indeed hell. Actually, it's more like purgatory. Not bad enough to be hell, not good enough to be heaven. But then again, Marcus' 20 years have expired so he cares about his strings again, so who says he's not in hell in Maui?

Oh, who am I kidding? Marcus has the life all over all of us. Where's that suicide emoticon?
:bawl:
 
#13
__Jump_Off_a_Cliff___Emoticon_by_neek_zique.gif
 

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