But for thumpy walking bass lines played with pick the strings are not that perfect.

The Powerpopper
Still with Rotos, but now amplified with a ’78 Acoustic 220 (with a mid-80s H&K Basskick 15
cab). No fx, eq slightly working in the low and high mid freq’s.
Different animal. Very huge fundamental (‘Bass on switched’), but also very smooth with the
pick. Together with the both guitars it provides a really butt shakin’ base for the sound of the
band.
After the first recording session (02/2010) – I swear…I love this bass!

Setup was simple: HH Bass Baby amp, a HK red box between the amp and the cab, no effects and the first channel only little boosted in the bass frequency department. The song needed some rough, fundamental bass, with a extremely laid back groove. I took three basses to the recording session:

• Reverend Rumblefish 5L,
• a old Jazzbass with CS pups
• the Hofner.

Each bass’ sounding very vintage, but the Höfner got that 60s attitude, while the Rev provides a really smooth funky sound.

((..to be honest – we recorded the song again with the old jazz because the vintage, thump’n'growl did not match the song like the angry-young-man jazzbass sound does…but I STILL LOVE THIS BASS. Period)

Coming back to my main idea to play rockabilly shows with that bass and after a couple of
rehearsals and recording sessions I swapped the swingbass66 roundwounds for some
jazzbass77 flatwounds, because i did not like the sound of walking bass lines with pick, they
could be even more… mmmmmh…thumpy.

The idea was to implement a neck /both series /both parallel/ bridge pickup dial without changing the switchboard.

The volumen was replaced with the ITC 4-er and moved together with the tone pot to the stacked concentric control.

The first 2 shows were successful!

DEAD HIFI‘s brit:flat:4….finally…. Finished!

(..soon..)

To create a nice pixies-esce sound with some MCLUSKY attitude I run the bass into the
passive input of an HAO Rust RIDE, both outputs of the HAO into a LS-2 (Mix 70/30), into a
Sovtek/Orion Big Muff PI, into something looking like Wooly Lee Majors but called ITC IRON MAN, into a TubeAmpPunisher called ITC (ORANGE THING)1 - into an old ’77 Acoustic 220 amp which drives a 15′HK speaker.

Beside that I have two options – I can switch the EQ of the Acoustic 220 on/off to give me additional definition (and tuning the fuzz’z to the location) and Iam able loop the whole overdrive / fuzz chain and route the bass signal thru a optical compressor directly into the Acoustic220 to have a clean, punchy bass signal on demand.

The HAO provides a mild overdrive, while the Big Muff Pi and the ITC IRON MAN create the rage. The ITC (ORANGE THING)1 is only to provide an extra boost and compression on demand.

THE DETROIT ROCKS (2009-on going)
gallien krueger 400RB (80s model) – red box – SAD 2/12H cab – ITC Phantone Machine
(Preamp) – optical compressor – 50s 7ender Re Issue Precision w/ 7ender US vintage pup
(for upright) 1970 KAY/Engelhardt double bass – K&K Dual Preamp (Upton Revolution Solo II
(bridge), Schaller Oyster 735 (neck)) – Yamaha NE-1
And now to something completely different, as Mr. Cleese would say…
For the TDR setup I want to have a very, very vintage sound.

Needless to say that the precision bass is stringed with a set of flatwounds.
I know – the combination of a old GK and a very modern 2/12 cab is not that vintage like a old
valve top and and 4/12 would be, but I wanted something nice, cool and small. Enough power
for all situations, but also easy to handle. I end up with the beloved 400RB in combination
with the ITC PHANTONE MACHINE – a replica of the old SB-12 preamp, which adds more dirt and tubish-ness to the growling 400RB. For the double bass I swap the Phantone Machine for a NE-1 which I also use together with the GK eq as notch filter. The cab provides a really
smooth vintage sound (with switched off horn), not to bright and with a good overall
definition. All in all a very compact rig with lots of sound and power. Don’t think 240W are not
enough – keep in mind there are not metal-headz around in a rockabilly band.

ME / THEM / BOTH (2006-2008)
hartke 3500 – red box – custom 2/10 cab – h&k 15 cab- tube screamer 9 w/ 808 mod- Ibanez
Blazer w/ SD QP – Frankenstein 7ender Jazzbass (heavy alder body, 60s pups, Schaller
bridge, s-1 switch)
After the good experiences I made with the combination of the ol’3500 and the 808, I used
nearly the same setup for the recording of the first M/T/B ep again. The only difference was
that I was using a Red Box Pro instead of the mic/di combination. Again the TS was used for
more dirt.

For the second EP I swapped the precision for a old 80s Jazzbass and pick to get more
eighties attitude and the bass sound more in direction of something like Pixies, Sonic Youth,
Talking Heads.

Live I started to play around with several overdrive and fuzz pedals and several PJ basses:
Yamaha BB1000, Fender Precision Special (‘Cowpoke’) and a Schecter Robert DeLeo 5.
Most of the sound came from an modified and overdriven SB12-preamp (ITC PHANTONE MACHINE) which I was running directly into an mid 80s Hughes and Kettner Basskick 505.

I put the Red Box between the output of the amp and the cab, because of the very good results we made during the recording sessions.
I also started to play around with different sting types, especially with flatwounds and
half-rounds in these days.

poverty jet set (2006)
hartke 3500 – custom 2’10 cab – tube micro – room micro – di – tube screamer 808- Ibanez
Blazer w/ SD QP – Frankenstein 7ender Jazzbass (heavy body, 60s pups, Schaller bridge)

There was something I realized very sadly by the time we’re recording ‘The Robin Masters‘.
Back then I was a very proud user of one of the first 20th Anniversary Ken Taylor 5
Signatures from the german company Sandberg and I was completely pleased by the
handling and the look of this bass. Nice white body combined with a top-notch maple neck
and two humbucker. Great! We started recording with that bass and after we listened to the
first bass tracks I went back home to get my old dirty precision. The KT always sound like a
Mr-Miller-Wanna-Be-Slapbass, in other words it sounded like a hospital smell. As tour
instrument – very durable & useful. For the recording of a independent album – forget it! The
same experience I made with several models of these company. I like the look, the used
finish is great, but I tend to love an old precision or jazz more. I think because of the
pup-config, the electronics and the huge bridge they tend to sound to modern for my smack.

In the end the whole album was recorded with the following setup:
Precision or Jazzbass (both equipped with nickels) – Tubescreamer 808 – Hartke3500 -
Custom 2’10 cab. (1) Clean, DI / (2) tube mic in front of the 2’10
The 808 only was used for some more drive during the chorus parts.

Cameron (2005)
hartke3500 – – sansamp bddi – Ibanez Blazer w/ SD QP
For my work with Cameron I preferred a very reduced setup. That was a precision and a
sansamp.

Since that time I did not like the bddi’s ;)
For the work with Cameron I swapped the  Blazer’s  stock DiMarzio pup for a
Quarter-Pounder, because I did not like the sound of the 122 together with the BDDI.
More / less dirt with the knob and the rest with fingers and precision. Live I used the available
cabs and if no amp was on stage I used my ol’3500.

DEAD HIFI brit:flat:4

FENDER 50s PRECISION

IBANEZ BLAZER BL-800

SX SJB-57 (DH modded)

Vintage Modified TB (DH modded)

2  TV Jones pickups for a nice Duesenberg

DH rec:doll:mod

A custom control plate for a jazz with a strat insert, ITC 5′er off- neck -parallel-seriell-bridge and ITC DIAL-A-TONE 6

DH x’er:mod

A custom pickguard and ITC 3′ er neck – both – bridge, passive /active via volume pot

ITC x’er

(to be cont.)

For MONK my beloved 70s Engelhardt double bass I was looking for a proper and powerful pickup combination.

First thing I found out: there are as much approaches on the planet as thoughts about evil.

Because of the focus of my band (-Rockabilly) I need something loud and also I need to have a second pickup for the neck just for the clickclacke-dee-clack noises.

To be honest I did not test any pickup before, because there are too much approaches and each is way expensive and (very important) most of them need modifications on the bridge.

I visited a lot of gigs in the past and every time a double bass was used I checked the pickup system and compared that to the sound of the band and often I had a chat with the bass player. That’s not quite as good as playing around with several systems but it’s way better than reading thru different boards. I found out that I did not like the sound of a magnetic pickup, though I love the handling, but in the end it just sound like a better fretless bass and not like a upright. All upright sounds I really dig had piezo pups mounted and a proper eq behind it. So I went for a piezo+piezo solution too.

In the end I’ve choose the Upton Revolution Solo II. Why? I listened to rockabilly and jazz concerts with double bass player who used that pup and it sounded good in both categories. For the neck I have choosen a Schaller Oyster. No special reason for that – I don’t care much for the sound of the click because it’s more or less a acoustic accent.

THE PREAMP: DH rockabilly:riot:1

(soon)

COMP each pickup separately

(soon)

EQ’ing or How I got used to my WP3-7

(soon)

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