The AmsterBass bass meeting takes place at the Conservatorium Amsterdam, and offers performanes and workshops with Dominique Di Piazza, Reggie Washington, and others. (Mostly Electric Bassguitar relates, not Doublebass.)
The European Bass Day is held at Viersen/Germany, and features a trade show and performances. (Mostly electric bassguitar, not doublebass related.) Festhalle Viersen, Hermann-Hülser-Platz, 41747 Viersen, Germany. Headliner: Richard Bona Group.
Chuck Treager, bass luthier and author, has published a new book: Coda to “Setup and Repair of the Double bass” – New Sound Setup Discoveries & Repair Tips.
With it’s 64 pages, Coda is a much thinner book than Traeger’s first volume, but also filled to bursting with Double Bass know-how, too. Many chapters reference to the first volume, but feature many new ideas and observations. In some issues, Traeger even correct himself or specify particular details. Being written as a sequel, Coda can also be read without knowing the first volume – for inspiratition and fresh ideas for double bassrepairs and sound optimization.
Contents:
The endpin – mightier than the sound post
How to make the bass louder and responsive
Simplifying mode matching
making a bass brighter or darker
more about sound posts
and many more ….
Chuck Traeger: “About the title, the dictionary definition of the word “coda” is:
music; A: a concluding passage, the function of which is to bring a composition to a cogent and well-proportioned close. My wife, June, suggested this title because that is exactly what I am doing here. This booklet is the conclusion of my research and my writing. It is not that there is no more to be done. It is that at eighty three I am running out of the time to do it.”
The book is available from Henry Strobel’s website, or (in Europe) also at www.JonasLohse.de.
Edit: I accidentally found an ooold photo of the author Chuck Traeger, which was taken in 1948 for the Down Beat magazine: http://memory.loc.gov
Today’s free mp3 download at AllAboutJazz.com: I hear a rhapsody from Piece of Jade with Scott LaFaro (bass), Don Friedman (piano), Pete LaRoca (drums); recorded in New York City 1961.
The Encuentro Internacional de Contrabajo, a double bass festival, will take place in october at Bogota (Columbia). “We are extremly honoured and happy since Maestro Gary Karr will not only be among our invited Doublebassists but we will be dedicating the encouter to him!” says Moisès Bertran, Director Conservatorio de Música/Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The Filarmonic Orchestra of Bogotá will host the National Doublebass Competition during that time, too. Beside Gary Karr, the Universtity of Bogota has invited the double bassists Ivan Sztankov, Bernard Cazauran, Ilko Rusev, Hernando Segura and Jonathan Camps.
The bass’ (and cello’s) endpins usually don’t get glued in – as both the plug and the hole are conical, the endpin gets just plugged into the body. But some endpin plugs are really a challenge to get loose again. The best way I found so far is to use a hammer without handle. I screw the rubber tip off, slide the hammer onto the endpin, and screw on a large washer (as I don’t want to damage the rubber tip). Usually, it takes just two or three blows with the hammer to get the whole endpin assembly out off the bass’ body again.
Phil Jones’ briefcase was already an unconventional bass amp before: with its two 5″ speakers and a variety of powering options, it is already quite different to other amps on the market. You can run the Briefcase from 110/220V, from your car’s battery or a internal battery. The built-in battery gives you about an hour of playing time. To charge the battery, simply plug the Briefcase into an AC power supply.
Phil Jones’ newest version of the Briefcase goes one step further: it’s solar powered. It uses solar panels, instead of your electrical outlet, to charge the internal battery. Charge time is 10 hours of sunlight to get the battery ready for 1 hour of playing time. Of course, it still runs with 110V/220V, too.
The picture shows Phil Jones’ prototype, but he plans to built about 10 solar powered Briefcases to start: “There has to be at least 10 people in the world who want to be totally off the grid and play bass!”
The Briefcase is available at www.kontrabass-atelier.de
Massimo Biolcati has released an early (0.3 beta) version of his new software, the iRealBook Editor.
This Mac OS X software runs on your Mac only (not on your iPhone), but is a very helpful tool for the iRealBook iPhone App.
Feautures:
• Create and edit iReal Book songs on the Mac (OS X 10.5 Leopard minimum required)
• Many times faster and easier than using the editor on the iPhone/iPod
• Open song and playlists you’ve sent from your iPhone/iPod directly from the Apple Mail on your Mac
• Send the new songs to your iPhone/iPod via Apple Mail
• Save the songs to your Mac
• Full Copy and Paste support (Also between open songs)
• Full Undo support
iRealBook Editor is available for free download at www.irealbook.net
Next weekend, a great double bass event will take place at Scandinavia: the 1. Swedish Bass Days. From Sept. 5.–6., many basses (e. g. Christopher and Eminence), strings (Presto and others), pickups and amps can be tried and compared at Torsåkers Bygdegård (near Gävle). Visitors can register at the website of Nils Palm/Bontracasso.
Ehrlund pickup
Type: contact microphone (?)
Mode: passive
Preamp: opt.
The contact pickup is mounted with an adhesive material (tack-it) to the instrument’s top, preferably near the bridge. The material is applied to the 3 corners with small balls, 3-5 mm.
A high impedance input or preamp is recommended (and available by the manufacturer).
www.ehrlund.se
available at www.kontrabass-atelier.de
