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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
- Start date
Sounds great! I'm an ex-double bassist so pardon the beginner question.
I also like your pizz tone a lot. Is it a result of higher action, strings, technique, some combination? I'm trying to parse what @steubig said.
Since I never shared it here, here's my double-bass story. I started on double bass at age 10 in elementary school. I was a big kid, it made sense. I liked the instrument but had the typical conflicts with parents about the mechanistic classical music practice routines. I have a little patience for that at 52 but did not at 10. And the parts for double bass in school orchestra were pretty dull once I got good enough to do something with the instrument. I stopped being in orchestra at 15, because at 14 my parents got me my first bass guitar. I kept going on and off with the double bass until 18. The sad part is that my family was able to rent a double bass from the public school district for $10 a year. I bet those days are long gone.
I still love the instrument though -- its physics and sound fascinate me.
I also like your pizz tone a lot. Is it a result of higher action, strings, technique, some combination? I'm trying to parse what @steubig said.
Since I never shared it here, here's my double-bass story. I started on double bass at age 10 in elementary school. I was a big kid, it made sense. I liked the instrument but had the typical conflicts with parents about the mechanistic classical music practice routines. I have a little patience for that at 52 but did not at 10. And the parts for double bass in school orchestra were pretty dull once I got good enough to do something with the instrument. I stopped being in orchestra at 15, because at 14 my parents got me my first bass guitar. I kept going on and off with the double bass until 18. The sad part is that my family was able to rent a double bass from the public school district for $10 a year. I bet those days are long gone.
I still love the instrument though -- its physics and sound fascinate me.
Thanx again, @JES! I believe my pizz tone is the result of a relatively high action (although not nearly as high as some of the gut string players out there) and the fact that I try to use as much of the surface of my fingers when plucking the strings, keeping the plucking fingers as parallel to the strings as possible. I do have very small hands, though, and am relatively small (for a Dutch guy). I use Thomastik Spirocore Mittel strings, so nothing fancy there, either, and while my bass is nice, it isn't anything exceptional, either (I play a 1988 Pavlovski bass), which BTW is a 3/4 scale bass.
It is interesting to read your double bass history, JES. I did not start playing the double bass until I was 20 years old (and I am 52 now, too). I did already play bass guitar before starting on the double bass (which I don't anymore, although I do play electric upright bass as well, with a lot of effects, which is fun!). I guess my 32 years experience of playing the double bass also helped a bit in achieving a solid tone ;-)
It is interesting to read your double bass history, JES. I did not start playing the double bass until I was 20 years old (and I am 52 now, too). I did already play bass guitar before starting on the double bass (which I don't anymore, although I do play electric upright bass as well, with a lot of effects, which is fun!). I guess my 32 years experience of playing the double bass also helped a bit in achieving a solid tone ;-)
hmmm?
i think i was saying i like lower (not to say the lowest) action cause i’m a wimp. and that’s for both upright and bass guitar. (i gave an old friend a guitar recently and he remarked that he was going to have to raise the action, so i’m apparently a low guy across the boards)
I hit a “i’m getting old moment” last month.
Had to go down one gauge for my flats, not plyaying them as much and i’m getting wimpier with age.
Jeez I was using 50-105 flats when I played upright lot and during my flats only phase.
this time I went from 100-45 to 95-40 for EADG tuning this time.
(goes into corner in foetal position).
i always get confused by the 3/4 bass thing. isn’t that just what people normally consider a standard double bass? (i assume you don’t mean something along the lines of wilbert de joode’s bass.)
i mean the following in the best way: your sound reminded me a lot of dave holland’s sound.
yep, 3/4 is the “standard” ishhh size.
played a bigger one once, forget if it was a 7/8 or something but man was HUGE!!!!
for me it’s always been a battle to get the right balance of being able to play the notes i want at speed and then with a good sound. imo, there are certain sounds/techniques that are impossible to do with high action (same with low action). it’s always a struggle with the string.
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Dave Holland is one of my favorite players, and I love his sound, so I very much appreciate your qualification! And yes, 3/4 is a standard double bass, at least for jazz and improv players. In orchestras you will find a lot of 7/8 and full scale basses.
Wasnt Dave using a special travel intrument for the past few years??
He would play a broomstick and still sound freakin amazing.
I would think so! Sounds like your experience is the converse of mine. I'd be curious to hear your pizz (almost wrote "pizza") sound on the electric upright. My wife has been agitating for years for me to get an NS EUB, which of course sounds totally different from an acoustic upright. I have been reticent.
@ugly -- I think gauges and tensions vary a lot depending on flat brand. What are you using?
Speaking of string tension issues, I had a very interesting discovery Tuesday night. Long-time thread readers will know I have hand and foot syndrome which leads to very sensitive nerves in the hands and that I wear gloves to play bass. I restrung the bass in my dad rock back with Dunlop flats, which aren't high tension per se but much less noodle-like than the Thomastik Jazz flats. I am not 100% convinced on the sound (but "brand new unbroken-in flats isn't really a sound so I will have to wait and see) but they were in fact less painful to play pizz and way more fun to play with a pick. I liked the stainless steel feel through my gloves too. I might try Fender flats next. Also, we ended practice with waves of feedback, which never happens in this band. Was super fun.
I use Daddario strings on everything.
Tried every brand out there, turns out I prefer the lamest most common brand available.
Flats atm are 40-95 Chromes on my EADG jazz bass. Still a set on 45-100 I might put on another bass, but I dont need anything in EADG currently.....so......
My flats get the Eucerine cream treatment 100% of the time. I love my flats and I love dead as dead can be.
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Gauges for my other tunings
CFBbEb is 60-125
BEAD is 65-130 or a 135 if I tune down to ADGC
Always rounds for low tunings.
Haven’t used flats on a low B for over 10 years.
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love dave's sound (especially in the 70s era)
when you say "improv," do you mean like free or the "new dutch swing" thing?
i'm always confused about the size thing (that's what she said . . . . sorry!). when i was in university orchestra, i just remember 3/4 basses—and my teachers (l.a. phil and l.a. chamber orch) also seemed to use 3/4. (iirc, this was 70s/80s)
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my double bass journey, 1970-2023 (!): started as ebass player at 14, dabbled in upright as a teen, toured as a guitar player for three years in my early 20s and got sick of it, went back to school to take classical double bass and learn about classical music (playing jazz, rock, etc., on both ebass and db at the same time), got my degree in db performance and realized that getting a masters so i could be 8th chair in a not-great orchestra seemed less enticing than being in a rock band, formed rock band thinking i'd play db in community orchestras when i hit 50 (that was 16 years ago!, so not gonna happen), got into 6-string ebass and then tried 6-string eub (difficult to bow), decided ebass was a better fit both playing and compositionally, every once in a while i think about restarting but then bring the db out to remind me how bad i am at it (even did some recording of it two years ago).
The most important advantages of the thick Eucerine cream treatment is that it’s very simple, non toxic and won’t damage any part of the bass if some ends up on the wood etc….
I smear the strings with a generous coating when the strings are installed since the windings « open up » and let the cream reach the core of the string easily.
Repeat until level of « deadness » is achieved
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that if someone wants less tension in their strings, short scale is another part of the equation.
I'm no short scale absolutist though...after all my 28.6" scale Mikro sits right next to my 37-34" scale Dingwall.
I'm no short scale absolutist though...after all my 28.6" scale Mikro sits right next to my 37-34" scale Dingwall.
Thank you for sharing your db history, @steubig!
Both, actually. During my conservatory days I played full scale basses quite a lot, but only in orchestras.
Both, actually. During my conservatory days I played full scale basses quite a lot, but only in orchestras.
Not personally, and I have never played with them., but I know of them.
