Peter Morgan,double bass player:gear

I use two wonderful Czechoslovakian flat back double basses, both very small in body size and string length. This came about almost by accident, but is now very much by design. Both instruments have shortened necks and inlaid boxwood dot markers.

My double basses are maintained by Roger Dawson.

My bows are all original Dragonetti bows. I originally taught myself using this style of bow and have returned to my first love, after playing a modern German bow for some years.

Over the years I have become fascinated with what can loosely be described as Dragonetti bows and have collected several. I hope to be able to show you my collection soon, along with photos of other rare bows that I have found including some unseen bows from museum collections that I have been lucky enough to inspect. (well I think I'm lucky, the curators seem to think I'm rather odd to be interested !!!)

For amplified playing I play with a low string height. I use a Fishman BP 100 for pizz and a K & K Bass Max for arco, I find that the Bass Max must be fitted to the treble side of the bridge for the best arco sound. I'm sorry to say that a good arco sound means, de facto a bad pizz sound. I switch between them with a Dave Hall custom pedal.

For acoustic playing or recording, because these pickups act as mutes, I usually remove them and raise the string height.

My amplifiers are all old Polytones: two Minibrutes, one Teenybrute and one Brain.

For years I played Fender Precision bass guitars, but relatively recently I have switched to short scale instruments. I now use a lovely white Fender Mustang and a Fender BG 32 acoustic bass guitar, both strung with Newtone strings.

I am also now playing the amazing Kala U-bass, I am totally inspired by this unique instrument and I am using it on just about all of my gigs. For those of you who don't know, this is a contrabass ukulele! It may be a novelty in the truest sense, but actually is a marvellous serious bass instrument. I love it! (see images at bottom of Photo Gallery page)