Double Bassin’

Got my Double Bass the other day, as a present for my 18th, even though its not until the 27th as it was decided that it was more convienient to get it now rather than later.

I haven’t played it yet as I haven’t had a chance to set it up (put the bridge in place and tune it) but it looks awesome. I’ve spent quite a few times today standing with it to get used to the size. Its a 3/4 size bass, and although it has an adjustable end pin, its pretty much to right size for a person my height.

It came around 11am, in a huge cardboard box. The bass itself was inside a hard case, which is literally taller than our ceiling. I thought this would be too big but luckily, there was a gig bag thrown in, so I don’t have to use the hard case. The hard case came free by the way, and since I don’t need it, there’s no space for it for a start, I can sell that for around £120.

The bass is lighter than I thought it would be, and was surprised when I was actually able to lift it at all! Although, a double bass is a fragile instrument, and although I’m going to take care of it, I can’t help fretting. It can’t be stored in a place where it is too hot, the glue holding the pieces together would melt, and I can’t have it somewhere where its too cold, the wood would warp. I need to clean it every now and then too, but since its made of wood, any wood polish will do.

I hope the action isn’t too high once I set it up. If it was a regular bass all I would have to do is adjust the bridge or neck, in this case, if high action was the problem, I would have to take the bridge and sand it down until it was the desired size.

EDIT: I need sandpaper, or better yet, an adjustable bridge. I tuned to G string up to a G, but it was buzzy, so I assume I’ve tuned it to the wrong octave, which makes sense, otherwise the E string would be so loose, it would be unplayable. Of course, it was naive of me to think I’d be able to put the bridge in place, tune the strings, and be able to play straight away, but I’d prefer to learn how to setup a double bass myself, rather than wussing out and spending £60+ for a luthier to do it for me. Once I do have it set up and playable, expect piccys.

800 x 600 and Recent Rec. Session

My computer has been playing up every day for the last year and a half, by just generally being slow, and since I get aggravated and inpatient fairly quickly about things, its been kicked and attacked with a screwdriver on numerous occasions.

I would get some more RAM (I only have 256mb of the stuff), but I’m finding it hard to find any that’s compatible, so instead, I changed my resolution from 1024 x 768, down to 800 x 600, and so far, its been a good move, the computer seems to be running better. I don’t know why I didn’t just think of doing it in the first place.

Onto the recent (Sunday) recording session. It went alright I think, apart from the fact I woke up feeling quite ill and had to drag myself there. We managed to make four recordings all around one microphone, we tried recording the parts individually, but encountered a problem.

First we recorded a guide track, all of us around one microphone, although when it came to recording the drums, we only wanted to HEAR the guide track and record the drums separately, but what happened was it recorded both of them together, so we had a guide track, and another track composed of drums and the guide track together. Not what we wanted. That’s what you get with DIY recording I suppose. I’ve encountered the problem before, but I’ve forgotten how to resolve it.

The plan is to record one song to go on a local compilation CD, and according to our drummer (who knows the person organising the compilation), most of the recordings this person has been given are fairly poor. We have another few weeks, so we can have another stab at it…