I switched from electric bass to upright about a dozen years ago. My Fender has gathered a good deal of dust in the closet. Last night I was visitng a friend who wanted me to try his new electric bass. It was like a time machine. I played scales, melodies, songs I hadn't thought of in years. Curious if others around here have tried to go back.

I started out on electric too about 1974. Bought my first upright 25 years later (1999), and since then just about all my gigs call for the big bass.

But last week I took my old PRS fretless slab to a jazz gig, mostly because I was having trouble with lower back pain, and didn't want to haul the DB around and stand for 4 hours.

Man, I really enjoyed playing the fretless after such a long time away from it. I leapt too far on a couple wide interval jumps up the neck, but actually I enjoyed the heck out of it. The upper register stuff was a breeze. Same for load in and load out.

But I did miss the physical presence and sound of the DB. Thursday night I'm back in the saddle at the same place, this time on upright (and lots of Advil).

Anywho, I was surprised how easy and enjoyable it was to go back for just a spell.

"Get back, Jojo."

Playing upright doesn't confer some kind of saintliness or moral superiority. What do you hear in your head? What sound coalesces meaning out of chaos for you?

Play that.

Another player who went from EBG to DB.

I never stopped playing the EBG 100%, I was doubling on most gigs but more and more were DB only.

This past year I started doing some EBG only gigs again and all the time I had spent on DB resulted in a real quantum leap in my EBG playing. What used to be torture to play is now effortless.

Nice feeling:hyper:

Playing upright doesn't confer some kind of saintliness or moral superiority. What do you hear in your head? What sound coalesces meaning out of chaos for you?

Play that.
I agree, this thread should be called sidestepping, not backsliding. Personally, I do a lot of doubling, and I know what I want to sound Like when I play upright, and I know what sound I like when I play BG. I get paid to do both. :)

Yeah, me too.

I still enjoy it all, and don't look down on one vs. the other at all. I didn't mean to create that impression.

Heck, I play at my church for free just because I want to volunteer my time & talent for something that I think is important, and because it's something I want to be a part of. Plus it's a rare chance for me to play EB, and I look forward to playing it, just like I look forward to playing my DB on my other gigs.

I guess I spent too much time in the bluegrass world where plugged in was considered a sin. The electric began to feel like a guilty pleasure.

My DB skills are slowly advancing while my BG skills atrophy. Maybe if I do more BG gigs my skills will come back but right now even simple stuff I know well is awkward on BG. I still use the BG for portability but I decided to give up and order an Ergo EUB.

I consider myself a bass player, and my instruments are only tools. I use the proper tool for the job at hand, and I don't worry about anything past that.

After I switched to double bass for my gigs about 3 years ago I didn't play my electric at all. But a few months ago I had my bass in the shop to repair a seam and had to take out the ole' Alembic 5 string for a week - and I had some serious rough spots in my playing.

I guess the main issue was on very intricately composed sections where I unfortunately rely on pure muscle memory - and sometimes it just doesn't translate to playing with the bass in a different position - so the fluidity of my playing suffered as I had to think through the composed sections instead of just letting them flow.

But at the same time I LOVE that Alembic, its such a wonderful instrument and now I feel the need to play it more.

It's interesting. I didn't really have that problem too much. Picking up the fretless after several breaks of several years apiece, I felt right at home after about the first 15 seconds. Truth be told, my fretless has dot position markers on the side of the neck, which I rely on pretty heavily, then and now.

I did notice that I don't use my ring finger on my left hand any more until I'm up past the 12th "fret", a definite carry over from DB.

Maybe my muscle memory from all those years playing the EB just never went away, kinda like riding a bike.

I wish the same were true for my DB skills. After a week vacation with no instrument to play, that first day back seems almost like torture to my fingers, wrists, and ears. It gets better after a day or two.

I suppose I need another decade or two of DB playing. (Let's hope!)

After I switched to double bass for my gigs about 3 years ago I didn't play my electric at all. But a few months ago I had my bass in the shop to repair a seam and had to take out the ole' Alembic 5 string for a week - and I had some serious rough spots in my playing.

I guess the main issue was on very intricately composed sections where I unfortunately rely on pure muscle memory - and sometimes it just doesn't translate to playing with the bass in a different position - so the fluidity of my playing suffered as I had to think through the composed sections instead of just letting them flow.

But at the same time I LOVE that Alembic, its such a wonderful instrument and now I feel the need to play it more.
Don't ever let an instrument as beautiful as an Alembic sit and pick up dust :(.


I very rarely played BG after I picked up the double bass. For about a year, I played it VERY occasionally...the only thing that really atrophied was my ability to slap, which I don't really miss and really don't care too much about. However, from near the end of April and and up until the end of May, I was playing the slab in two musicals and it was getting WAY more show/shed time than the DB. It was a nice reaquaintance, but it wasn't long after that I went back to my old habits of DB practice 95%, slab 5%.

My girlfriend bought me a beautiful acoustic BG last October after not owning one for 11 years. I played one gig with it with the Guitarist Henry Kaiser playing a 6 string acoustic guitar. Mostly I use it to comp behind my students and to work out the chords to tunes.
It is good to have it around. It feels more natural to play than a full on electric because of the resonance.
It was good to concentrate on double bass for the last decade but having one I realize it is kind of lame to not own an instrument I spent so much time learning to play.
I took it on a week long trip over xmas and learned two important things:
1. BG is way easier to practice than double bass and
2. It does not help your DB technique much! when I got back I had to work really hard to get the DB back together.