Bass for a 3 year old?

J Vlaming · #1 01-23-2004, 08:00 AM

My son has taken to grabbing my old beater classical guitar and trying to play it lake a double bass - just like Pop! So I was thinking that perhaps I would try to get him a small cello and set it up like a mini-bass. Have any of you folks tried something like this before??

Chasarms · #2 01-23-2004, 09:42 AM

Never seen such a thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't a great thing to try.

I don't know how big your three year old is, (mine is only 38" tall) but I would think even a cello would be kind of big. Maybe a 1/2 cello?

If you think he could handle something in the 30-35" string length range, you could use EBG flatwound strings on it and it should tune to pitch with fairly comfortable tension. If you have to go with a shorter string length, maybe try picking up a 5-string set and using the B,E,A,D tuned E-A-D-G. That ought keep them from being too flabby.

greene · #3 01-23-2004, 04:13 PM

How about a 1/4 size bass ?

greene · #4 01-23-2004, 04:17 PM

Or a 1/10 ?

J Vlaming · #5 01-23-2004, 04:52 PM

What are the dimensions of a 1/8 or 1/10th?? Thanks!

Bob Branstetter · #6 01-23-2004, 05:11 PM

Here's a site that has the dimensions for the Andreas Zeller line of basses including 1/8 and 1/10th sizes.

Zeller basses

greene · #7 01-23-2004, 05:22 PM

Now that you have the sizes if you're ever interested the answer is yes I do have 1/10 size basses.. as well as 1/4 size .. not sure if I have an 1/8 size though. I'll look into it.

Jeff Bollbach · #8 01-23-2004, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by greene
Now that you have the sizes if you're ever interested the answer is yes I do have 1/10 size basses.. as well as 1/4 size .. not sure if I have an 1/8 size though. I'll look into it.

Hello and welcome to talk bass, If you are interested in all or some things bass I'm sure you will love it here as well as all of us do. A very community minded place on the internet. A word of caution though, historically TBDB has not been very hospitable to those whose sole intent is to sell something. I notice that the majority of your posts seem to lean in that direction. You might be better off contacting people by PM or e-mail if you feel that they might be interested. Of course you run the risk of being perceived as spam in that case.

Mark Corben · #9 01-24-2004, 03:34 PM

There is an 1/8th size DB for sale on ebay.co.uk at the moment:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...category=16222
Dimensions:

Length 55ins

Back to bridge 14ins

Widest part 20ins

Hope this may help.

Rimas · #10 01-25-2004, 12:31 AM

My private instructor is a cello player, and his 'beater' cello is a full size cello which was once converted to a bass for a beginner. It has bass machines instead of pegs on it, and always gets double looks.

just a tidbit.

Paul Warburton · #11 01-25-2004, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by J Vlaming
My son has taken to grabbing my old beater classical guitar and trying to play it lake a double bass - just like Pop! So I was thinking that perhaps I would try to get him a small cello and set it up like a mini-bass. Have any of you folks tried something like this before??

Again, check the search feature....We had several threads on the jazz bass/cello players that have made records tuning a cello like a bass and using it as a solo instrument. People like: Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, Red Mitchell, Percy Heath, Sam Jones and on and on! I think it would be a great idea for a kid!

Alex Scott · #12 02-02-2004, 06:42 PM

I have a five year old student who uses a cello that is as big as a bass his size would be, and just tuned the cello strings like a bass, it works pretty well, but had some pretty nice cello strings. I think it is a 1/4 size and he is not very tall, but it is bigger than if he was playing it as a cello, because I didn't want him to get bad habits by being able to reach too many notes. His hand just reaches from teh a to b on the g string with 1st and 4th finger.