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Double Bass The official talkbass newbie's guide to buying a double bass.

#23
crowsmengegus said:
There are some very useful articles from Arnold Schitzer here: AES Fine Instruments (discusses process of finding/buying and setup)

and some articles from David Gage here: Link Removed (discusses setup, humidity, bows, strings)

It might be worth incorporating these somehow as further reading....
Click to expand...

We could do a resource link list? The Andrew Anderson videos (you tube) would be extremely helpful to a newbie plus other resources out there.
 
#28
Howdy y'all!

I've been playing electric Bass for a few years now and am coming to round off by doing my grade 8 after Christmas, I decided that once I have that out of the way I can really explore more aspects of bass, the bands I play in don't cover jazz that much so I got listening and in no time fell in love with the double bass. As a Christmas present my dad has rented me a DB and it's fantastic! I just thought I'd ask all you veterans on what to do if I got serious with it, as i've read they are pretty pricy, I'm not sure weather to continue to rent or maybe purchase one, could you guys offer help? Any brands I should check out? (I'm only 15 so nothing too fancy) any DB players to look at and any books with some nice pieces for a beginner who's fingers are blistered like hell? :)

Many thanks,

Tom
 
#29
Mr pickelz said:
Howdy y'all!

I've been playing electric Bass for a few years now and am coming to round off by doing my grade 8 after Christmas, I decided that once I have that out of the way I can really explore more aspects of bass, the bands I play in don't cover jazz that much so I got listening and in no time fell in love with the double bass. As a Christmas present my dad has rented me a DB and it's fantastic! I just thought I'd ask all you veterans on what to do if I got serious with it, as i've read they are pretty pricy, I'm not sure weather to continue to rent or maybe purchase one, could you guys offer help? Any brands I should check out? (I'm only 15 so nothing too fancy) any DB players to look at and any books with some nice pieces for a beginner who's fingers are blistered like hell? :)

Many thanks,

Tom
Click to expand...

not sure if trolling...

:D

or hasn't read the Newbie's guide.
 
#30
Mr pickelz said:
Howdy y'all!

I've been playing electric Bass for a few years now and am coming to round off by doing my grade 8 after Christmas, I decided that once I have that out of the way I can really explore more aspects of bass, the bands I play in don't cover jazz that much so I got listening and in no time fell in love with the double bass. As a Christmas present my dad has rented me a DB and it's fantastic! I just thought I'd ask all you veterans on what to do if I got serious with it, as i've read they are pretty pricy, I'm not sure weather to continue to rent or maybe purchase one, could you guys offer help? Any brands I should check out? (I'm only 15 so nothing too fancy) any DB players to look at and any books with some nice pieces for a beginner who's fingers are blistered like hell? :)

Many thanks,

Tom
Click to expand...

Yes, my first opportunity. Try this:

NEWBIE'S GUIDE TO BUYING A DOUBLE BASS

Actually, we don't have anything on recommended listening and recommended books for beginners in the "guide"....yet. Pretty soon the guide will be so comprehensive we'll have no need for the talkbass forums anymore.... ;)
 
#33
Someone deleted my wiki comments regarding bass body size and it's importance in choosing an instrument. Maybe the person who did this could respond with a reason.

Also, what is the protocol for deleting postings in the wiki? It seems to me that if they are not patently false, there is no reason for good information to be deleted. Mods?
 
#34
Thank you for this posting. I bought a DB last August. I did not find this site until I bought the bass. I thought I did okay and after reading the information on this posting I now know that I did it correctly.
I bought a double bass from Ken Smith. It is one of his asian imports that he had in stock for over five years. It really has had a chance to get acclimatized to the northeast.
 
#35
Good resource.

A couple of comments.

1. Much of the information is a bit US-centric. Is it worth separating that out a bit?
2. I suggest expanding the box section to include a comment on French vs German bows. I can't write this really as I have only studied using French, but I could cowrite it with someone who has studied German.
3. I suggest a section on strings. I could write something but I am happy if someone more knowledgable wants to.
4. I suggest a section on pickups and amplifying the bass. Is there someone with the expertise to write that?
 
#36
Eric Hochberg said:
Someone deleted my wiki comments regarding bass body size and it's importance in choosing an instrument. Maybe the person who did this could respond with a reason.

Also, what is the protocol for deleting postings in the wiki? It seems to me that if they are not patently false, there is no reason for good information to be deleted. Mods?
Click to expand...

I asked about this. It seems to be the nature of a wiki. As it stands, anyone can add anything, even if most of us think it's nonsense. That's countered by the ability to delete. I guess it just reaches a point of consensus. I wondered if some should have more "rights" than others but that seems to go against the democratic nature of the beast. A double-edged sword, I guess.

fingerbun said:
Good resource.

A couple of comments.

1. Much of the information is a bit US-centric. Is it worth separating that out a bit?
2. I suggest expanding the box section to include a comment on French vs German bows. I can't write this really as I have only studied using French, but I could cowrite it with someone who has studied German.
3. I suggest a section on strings. I could write something but I am happy if someone more knowledgable wants to.
4. I suggest a section on pickups and amplifying the bass. Is there someone with the expertise to write that?
Click to expand...

I thought about writing an amplification section but decided against it because I thought it would depart too far from the intent of the wiki. As I saw it, it was advice on buying a double bass. Perhaps separate wikis on strings and amplification would be more appropriate. They could be located in their respective forum section headings. That would be my preference anyway but I'm happy to go with the flow.
 
#38
Jan 2nd: cleaned up some grammar and language for clarity.

@ eric: what did you write? do you have a copy? it might have been the manner in which it was written, and not the information itself ( i didn't do it, but I try to assume the best in people). in which case, I say we rework and resubmit.

@ fingerbun: you could start collecting info for Australia, and perhaps we can find other people for other countries. there are a lot of folks from America here, so the wiki represents that, but if knowledgeable people from other countries submit content we should include them.

cheers,

eerbrev
 
#39
Eric, you can click on "history" and go back to look at or compare any of the old versions. It might have been me that deleted it, I hacked up the section on size trying to make it concise (without throwing away anything important...) It's sort of the nature of the wiki. Take a minute to add it back in, and I promise I won't delete it again.

I guess the idea of the wiki is to iterate over and over to make it better. Only if we get stuck in a loop are we in trouble (delete, add, delete again, add again, etc.)
 
#40
Another thing is, if you want to write a section on "recommended listening" or "amplification" or whatever I say go for it. We can later make a separate page and link to it, or even create a larger "talkbass advice" page to link to various wiki pages. The size and scope of the thing is only limited by what people want to spend time writing (maybe no one will read it, but that's never stopped anybody on online forums before ;) )
 

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