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Bass guitar with upright like tone?

#121
Having played both double bass and electric bass on gigs for many years now, I can say this:
You can't even make a double bass sound 100% like a double bass on a gig once you add a pickup and a preamp and an amplifier and speakers.
So, my totally devalued .02 worth of opinion is that there are several pretty valid ways to make an amplified electric bass sound like an amplified double bass.
I'm currently using a Rob Allen MB2-5 for that.
 
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#123
CaseyVancouver said:
No 1 Talkbass rule is 'respect your fellow members'.
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Oh please. If respect was so important to you, you'd have bothered to treat those of us discussing this topic in earnest with respect in the first place.

From the OP on down, everyone has acknowledged that an electric solidbody bass is never going to sound exactly like a double bass. You decided to ignore what I and others have written and be an unhelpful troll, and now you're mad because I highlighted the fact that you are trolling.

And I never said a single thing that negatively characterised double bassists as a generalised class, only people like you who just cannot resist attempting to bash us for trying to achieve a double bass "like" tone.
 
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#126
Rich-read your post and replies would like to respond with something no one else touched on.Charlie Haden was playing an acoustic instrument set up for maximum tone and projection. Do the same for your solid body instrument. High action and perfect intonation! Then break it in with lots of scale work.The rest will take care of itself for you!good luck
 
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#128
I heard the Brubeck Brother last year and they were terrific. The bass sounded like a bass. It was electric. It worked with the drums and everyone else. What else would you want? I'm lucky enough to see them next weekend with David Benoit.

The last concert I saw had a DB for every song except one where the bassist played a Modulus. It sounded better to me than his DB.
 
#129
chadds said:
Your opinion.

I've done it in the studio and fooled a classical string player with a '51 Tele RI. Remember that bass was designed to sound like an upright. Then we started making them do the wild thing culminating with Ron Wood in the Jeff Beck Group doing "Spanish Boots." About as far from an upright sound as you can get.
I've done it live jazz gig where I had a Roscoe LG 5 with rounds through an EA iAmp 800 through two CxL112s. I did not have an Ashbory with me. So I made that bass sound like an upright. The band complimented me by saying they never heard an EB sound like an upright before. They normally play with upright players.
Could be that I've played upright since 9th grade, 1965 and Ashborys, Guild and Dearmond since they were introduced. Sound is in your intention and manifested through your hands.

Could be that the curmudgeon doth protest too loudly. :)
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Ron Wood, bass on Beckola, one of the wildest rocking-est bass sounds I've ever heard, love that album for his wild bass playing, he should have stuck with the bass. The bass in the end of Spanish Boots really rocks, I think I've posted here somewhere before. He used a Tele bass and a Marshall Major head, that bass was for sale in London 8 or 10 years ago.
 
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#130
walking Bass said:
I heard the Brubeck Brother last year and they were terrific. The bass sounded like a bass. It was electric. It worked with the drums and everyone else. What else would you want? I'm lucky enough to see them next weekend with David Benoit.

The last concert I saw had a DB for every song except one where the bassist played a Modulus. It sounded better to me than his DB.
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Was Chris Brubeck on bass? I posted a few clips of him somewhere in the 5th(?) page I think, he gets the most authentic upright sound I have ever heard from an electric bass, and he uses a 1969 fretless Rickenbacker, check out the videos, amazing sound, close your eyes and it is an upright, he's a monster player anyway.
 
#133
bobyoung53 said:
Was Chris Brubeck on bass? I posted a few clips of him somewhere in the 5th(?) page I think, he gets the most authentic upright sound I have ever heard from an electric bass, and he uses a 1969 fretless Rickenbacker, check out the videos, amazing sound, close your eyes and it is an upright, he's a monster player anyway.
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Yes, with his brother on drums. I recall his mentioning he had a chance to mentor with Paul Chambers. His tone was great, his musicianship exemplary and he was very pleasant host. I've listened to a lot of bass players in the last few years and Chris was certainly among the best and among the few playing electric. DB is greatly overrated and most often sounds pretty bad in most venues in comparison to guys like Chris. Every time I now see a DB, I feel disappointed.
 
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#134
DC-59 2.JPG VB-100 with Roto88s.JPG '94 Gretsch G6119B.JPG As long as I've been playing (since 1968), I've never tried to fake an upright bass with a solid body bass guitar. Just never entered my mind to try, I guess... However, I've been able to get close enough - to make me happy, anyway - with the first two of these... Danelectro DC59 (semi-hollow body) with La Bella DTFs, and the bridge p/u rolled mostly off; and a MIK Rogue VB-100 (hollow body), with Roto TruBass 88 tapes, again with the bridge p/u rolled about halfway off. IMO, the Rogue gets most of the way there - if I try playing it like a an upright, and not a bass guitar. The Dano? Eh, not quite so much (I think it's those lipstick single coils fighting me); but, IMO, it's in the ball park. But, the Gretsch Broadkaster? Don't know why, but even with that big hollow body, it's never come anywhere close. I have no idea why... But, in any case, unlike some others apparently do, I've never seen this as the Holy Grail of bass playing, anyhow...:whistle:
 
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#136
walking Bass said:
Yes, with his brother on drums. I recall his mentioning he had a chance to mentor with Paul Chambers. His tone was great, his musicianship exemplary and he was very pleasant host. I've listened to a lot of bass players in the last few years and Chris was certainly among the best and among the few playing electric. DB is greatly overrated and most often sounds pretty bad in most venues in comparison to guys like Chris. Every time I now see a DB, I feel disappointed.
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When I posted this I hadn't realized you were the one who had liked the videos I posted last week. I guess with all the posters here saying it's next to impossible for a solid body electric or any electric actually to convincingly sound like an upright proves that a lot of people don't read through threads before they post.
 
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#137
Listen to the first 15 seconds of this Rachael Yamagata tune on a decent stereo or headphones:


Gotta admit, nothing quite like it. Some are close though. The Kay 162 and the vintage Guild (with the Darkstar/Bisonics) are pretty close from where I stand.

However, what constitutes pretty close is in the ear of the beholder. Remember the audio clip web challenge from last year yanni or laurel? We each pick out audio details and subtleties differently.

YMMV
 
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