Dlog

(original bass blog here)

The suitcase bass has been in active testing for about 4 months now. I play it in Cicada Omega, and a jazzy trio called Dizzynest, and with Daisy Hill, an old-timey-country-bluegrass quartet, (bass, acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle.) The bass sounds great in all three contexts.

There were and still are some kinks to work out….>

The wiring was trickier than you’d expect. The grounding issue was a challenge for some reason. The handle is breaking, but that can be replaced. The pool cue foot broke off, some of the threads stripped out. I have been using a metal shower rod with a crutch stopper on the bottom, it looks horrible. Still working on that. Turns out the cue we used was from the 70’s and no one makes them anymore, or anything with the same thread pitch, for that matter. And there is some wear and tear that i will need to patch up. And i still need to re-sand and finish the wood parts and etch the brass.

Recently i hung an MXL condenser microphone inside the bass and recorded a couple of tracks. It sounds beautiful inside. More accoustic, like a real upright bass. So one of the next goals is to find a decent upright condenser mic and install it. I’d like to integrate it into the wiring so that i can mix all the sounds. (Look out, Todd.)

I have been playing the bass through a 375 watt Acoustic™ amplifier (solid state) with two 15 inch speakers in the cabinet. i love the low end. i like to feel it in the chest. But last friday we played with GravelRoad in seattle. They let us use some of their equipment so we didnt have to haul all of our stuff up there. I played the bass through a 4 tube Ampeg™ with four 10 inch speakers. I really liked the punch they gave to the upper mids and highs. So i am considering seriously getting maybe a two-10 cabinet to augment what i am using. Ideally, and in the long run, i would like to have 1200 watts (tube), two 15’s, two 12’s, and two 10’s.

Anyone out there with suggestions about any of this?

peace