Balkan Bass?

mikesusangray · #1 07-13-2009, 05:00 AM

Hi guys!

I'm just another e-Bass player who dreams of playing the DB - and loves to watch people play it. Last week I was in a restaurant in northern Serbia when a gypsy band appeared. There were five of them (bass, two guitars, violin, accordion) and they were putting on quite the show - but I couldn't make heads or tails of the bass player's instrument.

The neck looked short and was completely flat and - as far as I could tell - it either had ground-down frets or filled-in lines (like on fretted E-Bass that's been converted to frettless). (Maybe the frets were even still there, but the way the player's hands were moving, it didn't look like it.) The bridge was extremely low (less than half the normal height) and flat - bowing wouldn't have been an option. There was no tailpiece - the strings went all the way to the bottom and disappeared around the end.

That's all I was able to see of it. Since I don't speak any of the local languages, I was feeling a bit shy about asking him about his instrument. Just when I was gathering my courage, the band got into a rather heated discussion (by their standards, I think - by mine it was one heck of a fight) and stormed out of the restaurant.

Can anyone tell me what the thing was?? I've been googling and searching this forum for a a good half-hour, and I'm not making any progress!

Mike

bassist14 · #2 07-13-2009, 05:13 AM

hi mike

try to google "tamburica" (try different spellings) or "berda"

tomshepp · #3 07-13-2009, 05:15 AM

Sounds like a guitarron. It's used historically in Mariachi bands.

TenorClef · #4 07-13-2009, 05:28 AM

A Berda

mikesusangray · #5 07-13-2009, 05:39 AM

Yes! - That's it:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berda

It was a funny looking thing, but it was getting the job done. (It had four strings, btw.)

tomshepp · #6 07-13-2009, 05:58 AM

The guy from the US has no clue.

tonybassboss · #7 07-13-2009, 06:01 AM

Indeed!

mikesusangray · #8 07-13-2009, 08:13 AM

I'm curious: Anybody out there play one of these things?

According to the German Wikipedia article it's a Hungarian and southern slavic thing, so maybe there are some people here doing folk music who do - though I can't see any particular advantages over a normal db.

(That is - one advantage leaps to the eye:it would be the easy option for us e-bass fellas - though something tells me that folks wouldn't be too impressed seeing me on stage with a fretted db ... )

TenorClef · #9 07-13-2009, 01:42 PM

just buy a double bass and be done with it

Its not that tough to make the cross over from bass guitar to double bass I did it, their tuned the same, you plot out the notes the same way, the notes are a little further apart and you got to use the side of your hand/finger to get the sound but their begins the fun!

**Matthew Tucker** · #10 07-14-2009, 01:32 AM

Its probably just an easier thing to lug around than one of these:

Imagine trying to get THAT into the front seat of a sedan.

Caoimhín · #11 07-14-2009, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

Its probably just an easier thing to lug around than one of these:

Imagine trying to get THAT into the front seat of a sedan.

Is it too early in the day or is my perspective mangled? Is that guy to the left of the bass standing??

TenorClef · #12 07-14-2009, 07:32 AM

He's either a dwarf or he's kneeling for the shot.