Double Bass Tail Wire Length / Tailpiece Position

[drurb]

Not everyone has the same ears or senses. I play two different Basses for someone and they tell me they hear no difference while it is night and day to me.

This is quite interesting in and of itself. Pathology aside, it really is the case that, for practical purposes, we all DO have the same ears. The capabilities of the normal auditory system are astonishingly uniform across a number of fundamental measures. Yes, there are areas where there are inter-individual differences.

Your example is actually quite interesting and important. What is really going on is that you have LEARNED which aspects of the physical waveforms reaching your ears must be attended to in order to hear the difference. You have learned to discriminate. It is not that your ears are different from those who seem not to make the discrimination. They just do not know for what to listen!

One of the skills in psychoacoustics is to design and/or use a procedure that causes the listener to "focus in" on the relevant discrimination quickly.

So, it's a matter of the cortex, not the ears.

 

[JimmyM]

I don't think you can say that at all, dude. People's ears are not uniform. Some people are hard of hearing. Some people have frequencies that are fried. I just had a good lesson in that when comparing different electric bass pickups. There were people who could tell big differences in pickups while I thought all but a couple sounded identical.

 

[Jeff Bollbach]

At first I thought DRURB might be SilverSorcerer but after reading all these posts I see he is much less sanctimonious and shrill.
I will miss the term psycho-acoustics [mebbe the hyphen legitimized our use], and I hope we can come up with a suitable successor, [listener bias may be accurate but it just doesn't have the same humourous derision]. Anyway my favorite story that describes it was told to me by my mentor, Xiao-Houng Luo. --
A violinist brings his instrument to the shop of the master luthier and tells the front man that the violin is very choked. He feels the master is the only one who can remedy it. The violin is brought to the back where the master is meditating. After a while the master looks over at the violin, picks it up and plucks a few notes. He shrugs, puts it back and continues meditating. The violin is brought back out to the front and given to the customer. He plays a bit and exclaims ecstatically, "Much, much better!"

 

[christ andronis]

So there you have it. "Listener bias," "golden ears," and "charlatans."

...and "scientists" who KNOW the earth is only 10,00 years old!!?!

 

[drurb]

I don't think you can say that at all, dude. People's ears are not uniform. Some people are hard of hearing. Some people have frequencies that are fried. I just had a good lesson in that when comparing different electric bass pickups. There were people who could tell big differences in pickups while I thought all but a couple sounded identical.

Please, please notice that I said, "pathologies aside."

 

[drurb]

At first I thought DRURB might be SilverSorcerer but after reading all these posts I see he is much less sanctimonious and shrill.

Thank you, I think.

 

[drurb]

...and "scientists" who KNOW the earth is only 10,00 years old!!?!

Absolutely!

 

[JimmyM]

Please, please notice that I said, "pathologies aside."

Oh, I wasn't sure what that meant. Now I get what you meant from the context. Sometimes I need it spelled out in little 2-cent words

Thanks!

 

[Rob Knight]

Pathology aside,

You missed out on a fine opportunity to use Otologically normal. Now if I can just think of an excuse to squeeze presbycousis in somewhere. Oh, there it is.

 

[drurb]

You missed out on a fine opportunity to use Otologically normal. Now if I can just think of an excuse to squeeze presbycousis in somewhere. Oh, there it is.

Hey, glad you found a place for it! Of course, otologically-normal would refer to the ear itself, that is the peripheral transducer.

Presybycusis-- interesting. Known to many as "age-related" hearing loss. Recent findings indicate that it may not be age-related at all! It may be exposure-time related, which correlates well with age.

Maybe we should have a hearing thread. Somehow continuing this in a thread about tailpieces might anger the moderator gods.

 

[Mike Crumpton]

Oh maybe but its but a small diversion in TB terms and I for one am glad for it & I guess others are too.

 

[arnoldschnitzer]

Voodooacoustics?

 

[Bruce Jackson]

I like "psychotic acoustics!"

 

[Eric Jackson]

Charlatacoustics, when practiced by a sales person.
Narcissacoustics, when practiced on ones' self.
Or jes' plain ol' Snake Oil Acoustics.

 

[robgrow]

Thanks everyone (I think ). I really didn't mean to start such a hot debate... I was just trying to get some info about setup.

Installing a new endpin, which is a larger diameter than the old one, resulted in the tailpiece being a lot closer to the saddle on one of my basses. After I played it for a few days, I realized I didn't like the way the bass felt with the taipiece so close to the saddle. It seemed a little choked. After installing a longer tail wire, thus moving the taipiece a little further from the saddle, everything seems to be fine again.

 

[arnoldschnitzer]

No one cares about your endpin and tailpiece. We're on to something important here!

 

[Paul Warburton]

No one cares about your endpin and tailpiece, or you! . We're on to something important here!

 

[robgrow]

No one cares about your endpin and tailpiece. We're on to something important here!

Arnold thanks for your explanation that the tailpiece is a damper. That made perfect sense.

 

[KSB - Ken Smith]

Only when it sweats does my Tailpiece get Damper!!

 

[Batbass]

Do someone have any idea about how 'tune' the afterlenght?

Thanks in advance for any advice from you.

Mauro