Bass guitar with upright string tension

[JazznFunk]

I was taught a good portion of your tone on upright comes from how you pluck the note and to use the side of your finger not the tip like playing electric. I tried Rotosound flats and liked them but I decided to take them off my bass because it is a 66 P bass and the tension was high enough to concern me but playing them was not an issue. I often use T.I. flats and I have 2 string through body P basses one a 53 and one a Dusty Hill. On the 53 the tension seems much higher than on the Dusty Hill? go figure. A good string for you to try would be Fender Flats they are not quite as high tension as the Rotos

Your first sentence is mostly correct, and half of the equation. Using the side/length of your finger to help pull the tone out on upright is important, but the actual force to pull that note out comes from your whole arm (and shoulder.... and core) if you do it right. The rest of your tone on upright comes from your left hand technique as well. But yes, 'picking at' the string is a surefire way to have a milquetoast tone on upright. That being said, I tend to bring a bit of that technique over to electric as well in how I approach my right hand plucking. I don't pluck notes on electric with just the tips of my finger.... I get more of the pad and side of the finger into it as well.

I don't desire to have any strings on an electric, even my P-Bass, which sound or feel like an upright. I have an upright for that. My P-Bass wears light gauge Lakland Joe Osborn flats.... essentially GHS Precision Flats with a slightly different gauge winding.

 

[Pirate Captain]

When I was learning Upright at school, we were allowed occasionally to bring our electrics in. I had a Hofner HS 185 with Roto Trubass strings. They were .065 - .115, a bit heavy for me. But other guy in my class who had an electric had this thing: a Commodore. The string height made it unplayable for me. The strings were like bridge cables, and half an inch off the board at 12th fret.

not sure who made the one I had (it had a scroll headstock and capstan-style truss rod adjustment)...wish I still had it, tbh, if only for the nostalgia factor

 

[matthewbrown]

A couple things:

1) a multi piece neck is not any stiffer than a 1 piece one.

2) When you put really high tension strings on a skinny neck, it’s gonna bow. It sounds more like an upright because, with the neck bowed, fret clank disappears.

You can get the same result with light strings and a high setup.

A couple things:

1) a multi piece neck is not any stiffer than a 1 piece one.

2) When you put really high tension strings on a skinny neck, it’s gonna bow. It sounds more like an upright because, with the neck bowed, fret clank disappears.

You can get the same result with light strings and a high setup.

IME, the heavier strings make a significant difference in the tone of this bass, and they have not proved a problem for my hands. I used to favor TI flats, but no longer, not for this instrument. I have never had any neck go bad using LaBella Deep Talkin' Flatwounds, and I've used them for years on many of my basses, including some with skinny necks.

I can't say much about neck stiffness, especially about the 5-piece necks, but why go to the trouble of making a 5-piece neck if the result isn't better? Luthiers favor quarter-sawn wood for necks when they don't use laminate ones for this reason, as I understand it. The point of a 5-piece neck is to prevent it from twisting. The only bass neck I ever had go bad (with regular gauge strings, no less) was a cheap Ibby with a one-piece neck that began to twist. Any bowing can be offset by the truss rod mechanism. YMMV, but I've never had a problem, and I've been playing bass for 50 years now.

 

[micguy]

A multi piece neck, IF you orient things right, will tend to warp against itself” - it can be warp bucking, so to speak. Quarter sawn wood is, for slightly different reasons, less likely to warp than rift sawn. Stiffness is another thing, and multi piece or quarter sawn is not a benefit there (despite a lot of folks thinking it is).