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Double Bass afterlength, wolf tone, swirly overtones

Jeff Schwartz

Jeff Schwartz

Jun 9, 2005
72
11
58
Los Angeles
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#1
In the last couple of weeks I have noticed a phenomenon with my bass which I do not think I have seen discussed here before.

I'm playing a Martin shop bass with Evah Pirazzis and a Kolstein tailpiece. I've been experimenting with tuning the afterlengths - I have seen two octaves and a fourth above the string recommended but I'd need a longer tailpiece cable to get that high. After trying a bunch of other intervals, I ended up with G B E A (low to high), which seems to enhance the overall resonance a bit and has substantially tamed my wolf. However, I now hear swirly high flanger-like overtones when I dig in arco, especially in the middle register (eg. Beethoven 9 recitative). Very strange! Has anyone else experienced this? I'm going to take my bass in to LA Bassworks in the next couple of weeks, but wondered if the group mind could help out.
 
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#2
Are these the tones of the afterlength or your strings tuning?

You might want to try a much lighter tailpiece especially if you have one of those giant Martin 4/4 basses. something like a Marvin or Pecanac might work well for this instrument.

These strange overtones might just need some TLC from a custom tailpiece. If youre not into the whole wire looks there are the Frirsz tail pieces which can help open up that sound and eliminate the wolfs. Are you noticing the bass sounding very tight, almost like it never broke in?
 
#3
Afterlength! I play the old-fashioned E A D G, though I do have a C extension. Breaking-in is an interesting question: the bass is 8 years old but was sitting in a shop for the first six of those. It had a very full sound when I got it (it is the larger Martin model, 4/4 or 7/8, depending on who you ask) but seems to grow the more I play it.

It sounds like I should try a couple of other tailpieces. My teacher didn't love the Kolstein either - simpler may be better. I'm not sold on afterlength tuning but since the tailpiece came on there, I might as well try it out...
 
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#4
Jeff Schwartz said:
Afterlength! I play the old-fashioned E A D G, though I do have a C extension. Breaking-in is an interesting question: the bass is 8 years old but was sitting in a shop for the first six of those. It had a very full sound when I got it (it is the larger Martin model, 4/4 or 7/8, depending on who you ask) but seems to grow the more I play it.

It sounds like I should try a couple of other tailpieces. My teacher didn't love the Kolstein either - simpler may be better. I'm not sold on afterlength tuning but since the tailpiece came on there, I might as well try it out...
Click to expand...

Those Kolstein Tailpieces are really great, however they're heavy and not right for every bass. Some of the tailpieces above are great choices, you may also want to try a boxwood tailpiece on top of those. Those big Martins are monsters! They're great basses, it may be better to grab a lighter tailpiece just to try, some are very inexpensive, others really expensive. You also might want to try string combos, if youre using for example all spiros with that tailpiece it might just be too overwhelming for the bass, and it might just need less tension and weight on the top.
 

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