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09-10-2007, 06:17 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Cornwall, UK. | | | upright with frets? is there such a thing?
i play bass guitar and very rarely get the chance to play double bass.
i was just curious wether anyone has tried putting frets on a double bass and what sort of sounds it produced?
Thanks.
Bass_Junkie.
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09-10-2007, 06:18 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Mexico | | | If I remember correctly, the Viola De Gamba is a cello sized instrument with 5 or 7 frets... Don't know about a double bass sized instrument.
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Last edited by Uncle Ernie : 09-10-2007 at 06:21 PM.
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09-10-2007, 06:40 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New Fairfield, CT | | I have seen, at a museum, a double bass-sized fretted instrument, from around the baroque era if memory serves. But memory doesn't often serve me very well.
It was somewhere in NYC: possibly Museum of Natural History or maybe the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Naturally I have no recollection of what it was called.
It may just have been a giant gamba.
But such a beast does exist.
Update:
couldn't find anything on AMNH web site, but I did find a VDG on the Met's site: http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_Ar...tem=1982%2E324
That's cello-sized, as mentioned before -- with six strings -- I'm ALMOST sure I saw something bigger when I was there last. The photos offered are "specially selected."
Last edited by MingusAmongUs : 09-10-2007 at 06:47 PM.
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09-10-2007, 07:31 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Ypsilanti, MI | | Oh man, I've been waiting for this thread! Early music is my thing, I am a (former) lute player... Viola Da Gamba's are pretty sweet. But yes, they are more cello sized.
Believe it or not, there were bass gambas. Didn't know exactly if they were called a Gamba, but they did have frets. I can't remember the time period either, but I believe it was more of a baroque thing. I think it was kind of a joke though, they always fell out of tune and sounded pretty awful. Only the people who were deemed useless at more techincal instruments were given the bass. So I read.
And for basses with frets, you can always check out this: http://bluegrassbassplace.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=526. Either that's one big mando, or one small lady! |
09-10-2007, 07:33 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Urbana, IL | | | Barker basses make an upright style electric... That's the closest that I have seen.
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09-10-2007, 07:40 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Toledo, Ohio | | | Wasn't there a thread about this awhile ago??
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If you want to shake the floor and frighten the cellists, you might want to try this bass
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09-10-2007, 09:06 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2005 Location: Dallas, TX | | Quote:
Originally Posted by alanbarnosky  Oh man, I've been waiting for this thread! Early music is my thing, I am a (former) lute player... Viola Da Gamba's are pretty sweet. But yes, they are more cello sized.
Believe it or not, there were bass gambas. Didn't know exactly if they were called a Gamba, but they did have frets. I can't remember the time period either, but I believe it was more of a baroque thing. I think it was kind of a joke though, they always fell out of tune and sounded pretty awful. Only the people who were deemed useless at more techincal instruments were given the bass. So I read. | It's called a violone, and the frets are not like the modern steel wire embedded in the fingerboard in slabs or guitars. Instead, they were strips of gut, tied around the neck.
Chris |
09-10-2007, 09:14 PM
|  | Moderator Moderator | | Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Bloomington, IN | | Quote:
Originally Posted by CPike It's called a violone, and the frets are not like the modern steel wire embedded in the fingerboard in slabs or guitars. Instead, they were strips of gut, tied around the neck.... | ...and anyone can purchase fret gut from someone like Dan Larsen, the guy who makes Gamut gut strings, and tie it on to their double bass to see what it would be like. I don't know if the gut frets would work as well with steel strings as they do with gut strings, but maybe somebody's up for a little experimentation? |
09-11-2007, 10:24 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Atlanta, GA USA | | This one is the size of a double bass: http://www.mdw.ac.at/I105/orpheon/Se.../vo-venez_.htm 
When most double basses are new and haven't been set up, the nut slots are shallow and there is plenty of room to add the frets if you are so inclined. Just tie them on.
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09-14-2007, 03:58 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: the end of the section | | I'd be interested to hear what these gut fretted instruments sound like, either recorded or in person. Come on, somebody has to have one, let's have it!  |
09-14-2007, 05:05 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Atlanta, GA USA | | If you go to this link, you will here a bass continuo part being played arco on such an instrument. This is an authentic Telemann performance with either genuine baroque instruments or reproductions strung with gut strings. The deepest sounds of the ensemble are the ones to listen for. It is a really cool almost ancient kind of sound. It takes one back in time.
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