What makes an electric bass guitar sound different from an electric upright bass?

[cyberprimate]

Apart from pickups?

[RickenBoogie]

Really?? Size for one.

[Scott1]

The lenght of the strings; body construction; what else?

[FunkyMan]

Different strings, string tension, place of the pickup, design of pickup, string height, electronics, wood, IMO

[thesilence]

well for starters the size of the body and the fact that a DB body is hollow

[PJSShearer]

Here's a Guitar analogy - compare and contrast the sounds these two make:

Fender Telecaster
Gibson ES175

[tangentmusic]

Originally Posted by PJSShearer

Here's a Guitar analogy - compare and contrast the sounds these two make:

Fender Telecaster
Gibson ES175

Bingo.... No brainer

[Thaos627]

wow is this a serious question? basicly everything makes them different. wood, hollow, strings, bridge and tailpiece separate, and my favorite the F holes

[Roy Vogt]

The typical fretless electric bass has a 30-35" scale length. While there are some shorter scale instruments, most Electric Upright Basses are in the 41-42" range. The exceptions are some of the Kydd Basses, The Dean and some of the other "neck" basses, the NS Cello/Bass hybrid, and some of the early Fleischman basses (see Dave Pomeroy's "Beast"). That, in combination with the pickups, neck, strings gives you a different sound.

[ggunn]

Never mind...

[JtheJazzMan]

Theres a lot of variation in electric double basses. Some are like guitars, just with a solid body, solid neck and fingerboard, with a shallow bridge, others are more like a double bass with a floating fingerboard, a traditional wooden DB bridge, and sometimes a small hollow body. All these effect tone.

[BigOldHarry]

frets leap to mind...

[thebrain]

A DB is in the violin family. An electric bass is in the guitar (lute) family.

EDIT, you said electric upright. In that case pickups and frets.

[Flaked Beans]

I have this one:





it sounds nothing like any of my electric basses. oh, 42" scale, thomastik spirocore strings.

[edit] 28mm string spacing at the bridge.

[cyberprimate]

I always like the guys who take the piss at my question. That "you're dumb, i'm higher than you" moment of thrill.

The Gibson archtop guitar vs Fender solid guitar analogy doesn't really work. Both have frets, the Telecaster has a longer neck than Gibson's, none is using a piezo pickup. But i understand the analogy though.

Looks like one single difference in construction (fret vs freless, long vs short scale, piezo vs pickup, etc…) is not enough to explain the whole difference. It's the addition of all.

[cnltb]

What makes a Tuba sound different from a trumpet?

[Christov]

There are a lot of reasons 'why' they sound different. However, the original Precision bass was designed to 'emulate' the sound of the upright bass. Look at an upright bass with flatwound strings, a wooden bridge and tailpiece, much different than a steel bridge, frets, and roundwound strings!! An upright bass has a fundamental pitch or tone, but a quick decay, so there is not much sustain. This makes the upright more of a 'rhythmic' instrument, but with a clear defined pitch. Some electric basses give you this ability still, however. The original Fender basses used 'foam rubber' inside of the bridge covers to 'damp' the strings to reduce sustain. My Rickenbacker has a rubber 'bridge' that can be raised up to the strings to do the same thing. If you are trying to have a bass that sounds 'close' to an upright, I would start with a P bass. Good luck.

[Bassmickeyd]

The Kidd el upright which is 34" sounds to me more like a electric bass guitar than the el upright it's trying to mirror. ..... Though anyone who has heard Jaco's recording of his 5-string acoustic bass guitar would have to admit it sounds more like an upright than anything else.

[mongo2]

Originally Posted by Flaked Beans

I have this one:





it sounds nothing like any of my electric basses. oh, 42" scale, thomastik spirocore strings.

[edit] 28mm string spacing at the bridge.

I have the CR4M and when using the EMGs it can sound very much like an electric bass. Not so much with just the piezos

I've also built myself a couple of 30" and 34" scale solidbody EUBs with fretted and fretless necks. They sound like electric basses but are much easier for me to play with zero concerns about the weight of the instrument.

[cyberprimate]

Is there a wooden Fender bass bridge on the market? (Wood saddles not the whole bridge unit)

On an archtop guitar changing a wood bridge for a metal bridge makes it sound very different.