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| Double bass | |
| Instrument: | Shen 7/8 gamba-shaped Willow flatback |
| Bows: | Snakewood German bow weighing in at 157 grams & Snakewood Baroque Bow weighing in at 117 grams |
| Strings: | Velvet Anima G, Garbo D and Anima A and Anima extended C |
| Bass-mounted mic: | Applied Microphone Technology (AMT) SP25B |
| Stand-mounted mic: | Audix D-4 |
| Pickup: | Fishman Full Circle |
| Amplification | |
| Amplifier: | Acoustic Image Clarus SL |
| Speaker: | Euphonic Audio Wizzy 10 |
| Preamp: | HPF-Pre |
Read further for detailed information about my gear setup.
Why should we care about gear?A necessary part of playing an instrument is having the right equipment and gear to do the job. Yes it is true that with the bass a lot of the sound you get comes from your technique but there are limits. No bassist can make thin, steel strings and a really, bright bass sound like gut strings on a mature, quality instrument. And even if you get a great acoustic sound with your bass, the sound of that same instrument through an amplifier can be very different.
I care very deeply about sound. As Ray Brown said, "The best thing you can do with this instrument is to get a good sound." It's why I go through all the pain of playing double bass in the first place. If I didn't care about the sound then I might as well just be playing bass lines on an electric bass guitar or a keyboard. For many years, my sound concept was what you might call a "classic or vintage" jazz sound like Paul Chambers, Jimmy Blanton or Charles Mingus playing on gut. The only way to get that kind of sound is to play on gut strings. I still love that sound but it's not the most versatile. In fact it can be downright annoying to deal with in certain circumstances such as those where there is a high level of ambient noise. Nowadays I'm tending more to a what I'd call a "modern old school" sound like Ray Brown playing steel or Peter Washington. Regardless of one's concept of sound, it's very important to have a strong acoustic sound and not rely on amplification as a crutch. I do have a very loud acoustic sound which I get by using loud strings, a decently high string height off the fingerboard and simply by playing as loud as I can. However there are times when I have no choice but to use amplification. For this reason I've found it necessary to spend a fair bit of time learning about the gear would help me produce more volume without losing the sound I work so hard to produce.
Double bass
My current bass is a Shen 7/8 gamba-shaped Willow flatback. You can view photos and details by clicking on the thumbnail to the left.
This is the third bass I've owned and my purchase of it is notable for many reasons. This is the first bass that I have ever purchased as a completely new instrument. It's also a flatback. Flatback basses can have unique sonic qualities but they are generally more prone to structural shifting as a result of changes in climate (although see below for an explanation about the special design of the back on this bass). All the other basses I've ever owned were roundbacks and they were at least 15 - 20 years old when I got them. This bass is made in China and price-wise, it was a step-down from my previous Italian bass which you can read about by clicking on the thumbnail to the right.
So why did I give up a beautiful Italian bass for a less expensive Chinese-made instrument? The Maggini copy was a beautiful and very satisfying instrument to play but I felt that it was much better for orchestral work than for jazz. It had an amazing resonance that is not matched by this instrument (at least right now anyway) but it tended to get boomy, especially with gut strings and the problem was highlighted with amplification.
What I decided to do is to get an instrument dedicated mostly to jazz which is what I spend most of my time playing. More specifically, an instrument that works well when played pizzicato (pulling on the strings with the fingers) as opposed to arco (under the bow). This bass does sound very nice under the bow but it doesn't have the huge organ-like bottom end of the Italian bass I gave up. However it has a very loud, clear and focused punch. That helps me to play with minimal amplification or ideally with none at all.
All things being equal, there is no substitute for moving a large volume of air and the bigger the bass, the greater the volume of air. This bass is very large yet it's very easy to handle as the shoulders are sloped and the overstand is generous. Also, the back and sides are made from Willow which is a lighter wood than Maple. With the Willow flatback, the sound is both warm (especially for a new bass) and it has excellent projection. The bass is a sight to behold with beautiful wood grain, excellent construction and a lovely oil varnish. If you want a big bass and you want and/or can deal with owning a flatback, I'm not sure there's a better deal to be had than this amazing offering from Shen. I've played basses that were two or more times the price of this bass and weren't as well constructed and finished, nor did they play or sound as nice. That said, I've played a number of other Shens including the 3/4 Willow flatback, their large 3/4 Rogeri Willow roundback, and 3/4 and 7/8 Maple roundbacks and I didn't like any of them. This bass however is something special in my opinion.
I had a C extension fitted to this bass by Arnold Schnitzer who is one of the best luthiers in New York. Arnold also did the setup work on the bass and he set it up with my heavy-handed style of pizz playing in mind. My Italian bass had a fully chromatic extension fitted by Bill Merchant, another top New York luthier. With this bass I opted for only two latches - one for the E of course and another for the low D. This arrangement is not only fine for an instrument which is used mostly for jazz - I find it better. If I was playing a lot of orchestral parts with this bass, I'd think about getting latches for the E flat and D flat. For jazz, I found that the E flat and D flat latches tended to just get in the way. I also found that when the extension is set to E flat or D flat, the bass is sort of confused and does not resonate very well - a problem highlighted with amplification. Fingering the E flat or D flat on the extension is not a problem and works fine as long as they are not part of some complicated passage (which may often be the case with orchestral music).
I mentioned previously that flatbacks are more prone to structural problems as a result of climactic changes. One of the great things about my Shen is that it uses a special design with an X brace and the back is arched slightly over the X. So in effect part of the back is like a small roundback although the entire back itself is very much a flatback. You actually get the best of both worlds with this design - some of the structural stability of a roundback with the sonic qualities of a flatback.
StringsStrings are one of the many variables that contribute to the sound of a bass. The big surprise for those that know me, is that as of July 2008, I am no longer playing on gut strings. Until the mid-20th century, everyone played bass on gut strings made from sheep intestines. Nowadays, most people play on steel or synthetic strings although many people are returning to gut. Gut strings can be a pain sometimes. Compared to steel or synthetic strings, they cost a lot more, tend to go out of tune more easily, are harder to articulate both under the fingers and with the bow, and have less definition which makes it harder to be heard especially in high volume situations. They also have a very specific sound which can be both good and bad. For example playing unwound gut strings with the bow in an orchestral section of steel string players simply does not work at all. So why do people play on gut strings? Because they have a sound and a feel that is very hard to replicate with any other kind of material. And sometimes people want to relive the experience of the past, like driving classic cars.
I played on gut strings for many years and I believe I was quite instrumental in helping Dan Larson's Gamut strings to become popular amongst jazz bassists. Now I have to admit to being totally gutless as I am now playing on a combination of Velvet's Garbo and Anima strings. I tried the first generation of the Animas about six years and these new strings are quite different. The Animas have very much a hybrid sound with a tone that has the warmth, depth, and complexity of gut, yet with the definition of steel strings. The Animas are quite unusual in a number of ways. The core is silk and Velvet figures that as a natural fibre, its properties are somewhat similar to gut. It certainly has a very similar elasticity. You can really dig into these strings. The windings are made from copper which produces a warmer tone than steel or nickel. Unlike most steel strings, the windings are not flat but begin life rounded and are then polished to an almost smooth finish on the outside. However the side wrapped around the core is still rounded so they are sometimes called half-wounds or ground-wounds. The Garbos are very similar to the Animas except that they have a thicker core and less metal. The Garbo G has a polyamid (nylon) sleeve which makes it impossible to bow and that's why I'm not using it. Polyamid is appears in combination with copper in the windings on the Anima G and Garbo D but for all intents and purposes the windings feel and look like copper-only windings. The tension of all Velvet strings in a set is the same with the theory being that this lets the instrument itself speak more naturally.
I'm currently using an Anima G, Garbo D and Anima A and Anima extended C. The reason I'm using the Garbo D is that I found the Anima D didn't have enough mass for my liking. On my bass the sound has less volume than I would have liked. The Garbo D is a beautiful match for the Anima G, at least on my bass. My current setup has the following string heights from fingerboard (in mm) for G, D, A, and E (C extension with E latch closed): 7, 8, 9, 10. During the winter the string heights tend to be about 1 mm lower on each string.
This chart contains information about strings I've tried.
Although I am no longer playing gut strings, I am still leaving all my information about gut strings on this page because I know it is useful to a lot of people. Over the years I've received countless e-mails and phone calls from bassists wanting to talk about gut strings! The most important thing to remember is that not all gut strings are the same. Not only are there different types of gut strings but I definitely feel that lower quality gut strings are not worth bothering with. You get what you pay for.
Extreme gut: For the full experience use unwound gut on G and D and wound gut on A and E. The best strings come from dedicated gut string makers such as made by Dan Larson (under the Gamut Strings banner), Damian Dlugolecki and Aquila. All of these makers only make gut strings and they make them to order. They offer many different options including a range of gauges, materials (such as different metal for the windings), and construction (different types of twisting and such things as loading the gut with minerals or twisting metal in with the gut). I've not actually tried the Dlugolecki or Aquila strings but on spec alone the Gamuts were the only choice for me. For example Damian does not make varnished strings (and possibly Aquila does not either). Varnishing makes the strings much easier to maintain (they wear down less quickly and don't have to be sanded or oiled much if at all) and the sound is less coarse under the bow. The Pirastro Chordas and the strings by Labella are in this category of "extreme gut" but they are of much lower quality in my opinion and they don't offer any of the different options that the dedicated gut string makers do. Even further down the scale are Efrano and similar el cheapo guts. One problem with all these sets is that the wound strings have round windings which not only have a very specific sound but they wear down your fingerboard a lot quicker and are also very rough on your fingers.
Moderate gut: For a less extreme experience, use wound gut on all four strings. The Olivs and Eudoxas by Pirastro are the best of these. I played Olivs on G and D and Eudoxas on A and E for many years. These strings have a lot of the gut tone but can also blend well with a section of steel strings in an orchestra and have a less extreme sound and feel. The windings are flat which is nice under the fingers. Pirastro also make a set called "Pizzicato" which are all wound but the windings are more round than flat. They are also have the option of a nylon-wound G string. As the name suggests, they are not very easy to bow (the metal or the nylon).
For about four years I used the Gamut Lyon G and D unwound gut strings made by Dan Larson. Specifically these are his Lyon strings and I used them in varnished form and with a "Light Plus" gauge on the G string and the "Light" gauge on the D string. I found these to be very high quality gut strings. The tone is beautiful and clear and that helps with intonation. For the bottom two strings (A and the extended C) I used Pirastro Permanent (steel) strings. These match the Gamut guts very well.
I found that a gut + steel setup gave me the gut sound and feel with some advantages. Firstly, I had some strings with stable tuning as reference points for tuning the guts which go out of tune all the time. Secondly, with the steel strings on the bottom, the sound is a little more "modern" and cuts through and sounds more appropriate for most situations I play in. Thirdly, the strings are easy to maintain. Varnished guts only need occasional sanding and/or oiling. I had a lot of trouble in the past with the windings on wound gut strings (Pirastro Olivs and Eudoxas) coming apart and separating from the gut core. With this setup there are no wound gut strings to deal with. The steel strings are of course flatwound so there are no roundwounds to deal with either. Finally, the total cost of such a setup is not too expensive. Wound gut strings like Pirastro's Olivs and Eudoxas are very expensive and especially so for the bottom strings. Steel strings are dirt-cheap by comparison and although the Gamut guts are expensive for G and D strings, the total cost of the set is reasonable when you use steel for the bottom two strings. Another issue if you have an extension on your bass as I do is that gut extension strings are either horribly expensive (Eudoxa is available as a special order) or they simply don't make them (neither Dan, Damian or Aquila's machines can wind strings that long).
Bow
My main bow is a wonderful Snakewood German bow weighing 157 grams. I had previously played French bow (and still have one) and I bought this bow with the intention of experimenting with German bow and I've played German since. I've used black hair for many years on all my bows and I had this bow rehaired accordingly. I find especially for gut that black hair works better for me. The extra weight of this bow also helps with the large gauge gut strings.
I also managed to get my hands on this wonderful Baroque style bow which weighs 117 grams. I'll probably get black hair on this bow too.
For a number of years I've been using Oak rosin. Oak was originally made by Gaston Brohan and was very popular in its day and used by such players as Paul Chambers, Anton Torello and his sons, Fred Zimmerman, Roger Scott, and Phil Karp. When Gaston Brohan died in 1968, the rosin was no longer available. Arnold Gregorian is now manufacturing the rosin using the original receipe and it has quickly become a very popular product again. The entire New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera bass sections are presently using Oak. It works especially well with gut strings which of course were in use when the rosin was originally being produced by Gaston Brohan. I have all the grades but find myself using the soft almost exclusively except in the hottest, humid conditions.
Recording and amplificationAlthough I try to play without amplification whenever I can, it is a necessary evil for jazz gigs with large ensembles or in noisy places or large venues (including outdoors). Amplifying a double bass is quite complicated and I've spent a lot of time researching and trying out different pieces of equipment.
Fundamentally, there are two ways to get a recorded or amplified sound of the bass. You either reproduce the sound or you create it. To reproduce the sound, you need the most accurate components in the signal chain so that they do not alter the sound in any way. As soon as you employ something that alters the sound, you need something else to counteract that change. For example, if you use a not-so-great pickup that makes the sound harsh, you need to somehow soften the tone. Some people do this by using a tube preamp or by mixing the pickup signal with the signal from a mic inside the bass. This is typically achieved by inserting the mic through an f-hole or placing it on the end of the endpin that is inserted into the bass. The sound of a mic inside the bass is typically very mushy and boomy and is quite useless on its own but can be useful to counteract the harshness of a pickup. Of course this assumes that you are happy with the acoustic sound of your bass to begin with. In some cases, people actually want a recorded or amplified sound that is different to the instrument. Consequently they will try and create a sound although it will be based to some degree on the acoustic sound of the instrument.
My strategy has always been to firstly get the acoustic sound I want. There are times when I absolutely want that sound reproduced. For example, if I'm playing a concert with the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra, that old school unamplified gut string sound is essential to the style of music that we often play. The music was written to account for that kind of bass sound so everything works out well. To reproduce the sound of the bass, I rely mostly on the acoustic sound of the instrument and where amplification is necessary, I rely mostly on a microphone. On the other hand, there are times when I'm playing in a club or at a function in a room full of people. The ambient noise level is high and the band is providing background music. My old school gut string tone is not easily heard in situations like that so my primary concern is cutting through the wall of sound and being heard. In that case I need to and can afford to rely more on a pickup. It won't necessarily reproduce the acoustic sound of the instrument but that works out fine as a more strident tone is often what I need to be heard.
In general I dislike playing with amplification. It's just more gear to have to drag along and it adds more components in the signal chain between the bass under my fingers and what people hear when I play. I typically play about 50% of my gigs with no amplification and whenever I can do that it makes me very happy.
Using a microphone in live situationsUsing a microphone in a live situation is very different to using one in a studio. A lot of people try to use a mic in a live situation once and have problems and then they give up. On the other hand, there are guys who don't even own a pickup and rely entirely on a microphone. They are willing to take the time to make a mic for them. One important thing to note about using a mic is that you really need to have a strong acoustic sound to begin with. If your acoustic sound is weak, you will have to use more gain and that will bring you that much closer to the point of feedback.
Most of the time I use the Applied Microphone Technology (AMT) SP25B which is dedicated bass mic designed specifically for live sound reproduction. This is actually my second AMT SP25B. I had one that I upgraded to the tailpiece mount and kept it permanently on the bass. I am now using the standard SP25B which has the body mount bracket. The difference between the SP25B and S25B is that the SP25B has the "super" preamp with additional outputs and the capability for AC power.
Because the AMT is mounted on the bass, the sound is more consistent even if you tend to move the bass around a lot while you play. That also reduces any chance that you might hit the mic with the bass or the bow or even your hands. As a backup, I also have a stand-mounted mic which is an Audix D-4. The sound is more full-bodied than the AMT but there's more likelihood of bleed especially in a live situation. The setup and teardown time is also longer than with the AMT and I have to bring a small stand with a boom.
PickupOn the Shen I am using a Fishman Full Circle which is a piezo system mounted in a bridge-height adjuster. Previously I was using it with an Epifani UL-110 and it sounded great. Recently I've switched to using the Euphonic Audio Wizzy 10 and it doesn't sound as good as the Wizzy has a harsher sound.
A lot of bassists are now using the Full circle. The installation is simple and clean and the price is great. Over the years I've used most of the best transducers on the market including the Dyn-B and the Vektor and while they all can sound good in certain situations and on certain instruments, I've found that relying solely on a transducer for every kind of playing situation simply cannot work if you want the best possible reproduction of your sound. For everyday gigs I can rely on just the Full Circle but for concert gigs I usually send the AMT to the house and/or blend it with the Full Circle into my stage setup. For recording in the studio, I use two mics - one near the f hole (but not too close) to get most of the sound and another near the fingerboard to get some of the string handling noise.
Amplifier and speakerThe amplifier I use is an Acoustic Image Clarus SL. It's a one-channel amplifier (with two inputs) that puts out 350 watts into a 2 ohm load. At just 40 oz it's an amazingly impressive box. With this amplifier I am using an Euphonic Audio Wizzy 10 which is a very compact enclosure weighing only 16.7 lbs. Thus the total weight of amplifier and speaker is less than 20 lbs which is great. The Wizzy 10 has a single 10" coaxial driver. I do miss having a real tweeter (and the high end frequency response on the Wizzy 10 is considerably less than on the Wizzy 12) but I do so love the size and weight of the cabinet. The sound is very mid-range heavy but the lows are very clear and focused.
Other stuffAnother component in my signal chain is a neat little box made by Francis Deck, a bassist in Madison, WI. The HPF-Pre is a little preamp designed primarily to give bassists access to a high-pass filter and phase reversal switch. The filter is useful for taming low end problems that cannot or should not be correct by EQ. That includes getting rid of rumbling, boominess and infrasonic (non-audible) frequencies that can rob your amp of power. At some point, Francis realised that he could not sell his unit outside of the U.S. (as detailed on his website). I was fortunate to get one of the units before that.
Previously used gearHere is a list of some gear that I've used previously. Feel free to ask me about my experiences with any of it.