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Double Bass Bit by the bug

#21
For anyone out there who has done it... how hard is it for an eletric (fretted) player of 13+ years to adapt to upright? ...or more importantly to fretless?

Just from the few minutes I played the Dean... I could tell fretless takes some learning... but man is it fun! :D

It's not that I want to switch completely. I don't even think an upright would fit in with my current band. It might be nice to throw it in for an occassional song though. Just curious as to how hard the transition is for oridinary joes.
 
#22
I've been playing electric bass for 15 years, dabbled for a VERY short period of time on an atrocious Kay DB (needed surgery nevermind a decent setup) and quickly gave up due to the horrible setup on it. Until recently, I hadn't really touched a DB. I just got my ergo a couple of weeks ago, got some pointers from a DB player and was on my way. granted i'm still kind of cheating due to the dot markers, but I can hold my own at rehearsal now. Now keep in mind the DB is a totally different beast than the electric bass. your hands will hurt at first due to the different string height and tension. but once you get past that, its well worth it. to be honest, i don't know if I can go back to playing electric bass. I'm hooked.
 
#23
Well that's good news. :) It might be a little while before I can afford one though. I need a new cabinet for my live rig first... and of course I should be making bigger payments on my student loans... but we all know how that goes. ;) Anyway... once the cab is paid off, my next big purchase will be an EUB. I'm hooked on the Ergos... I read all the megathreads and looked at all the others, but nobody can compete for the price.
 
#24
I'm gonna buy a new cab this month... then my next purchase will probably be an EUB, maybe as soon as next month. I'm really leaning towards the Ergo... but I had a thought I wanted to run past everyone.

An Ergo is a 3/4 scale upright… completely different than any bass I’ve ever played. So I’d have to learn the new scale, get used to fretless, get used to the uneven bridge, and get used to the upright style of playing before I could play it well. Maybe the reason the Dean felt so natural and fun to play is because it is basically a fretless bass guitar turned upright. The scale is the same and the bridge is the same. So I could probably learn it a lot faster, and then step up to an Ergo if I like it.

But then again… the Dean is not truly going to give me the upright sound. It's upright-ish… but not a true upright sound. I dunno… what do you guys think? I’m just leery about paying $650 for an instrument that I’m not even sure if I can play.
 
#26
Don't get it if you just want a bass guitar that sounds different. It's like saying you wish a trumpet sounded more like a trombone -- they're different instruments.

of course, knowing trumpet means that picking up a trombone will go much faster. You learned how to play bass guitar -- there's no reason you couldn't learn to play double bass. Just don't expect to be at the same skill level within the first week.
 
#27
Very true fellas... I know it's not going to be a quick transition. If I wanna play upright, I might as well learn on a real EUB and not a fretless bass guitar turned vertical. If I was to get the Dean now and then get the Ergo down the road... I'd still have a learning curve now and later. It's probably just better to take them both on at once.
 
#31
portaflexer said:
Huh? :hmm:
Click to expand...

a quick google search:

The Roman roads were essential for the growth of the Roman empire, by enabling the Romans to move armies. A proverb says that "all roads lead to Rome." Roman roads were designed that way to hinder provinces organising resistance against the Empire. At its peak, the Roman road system spanned 85,000 km and contained about 372 links.

It's a metaphor for you self professed gradual transistion from fretless bass to playing acoustic upright. An old saying is "All Roads Lead To Rome". Meant as encouragement.

Maybe you should get out and talk to non musician people or read some books or something.

And Jaco did some gigs (some of his last) in Rome as well. According to Micheal Moore, he played the holy s....t out of the acoustic upright as well.

Huh? mmmmmmm......to you too!:D
 
#32
I guess I'm not as literate as some of the other folks on here. In any case... it guess it wasn't just a phase because I keep going back to the Ergo site and drooling over that thing. I have a job lined up in June that is going to pay $500 cash under the table. I'm thinking about just biting the bullet and getting one next month. :)
 
#33
If you go with something closer to 3/4 size.. Learning to play a 42" scale upright neck is a ton of fun. Little painful at first but completely worth it. Just don't expect the world of your self UB wise and you'll enjoy it and get better over time.

It becomes quickly obvious there are techniques specific to playing a 42" scale neck that you have to learn. Many of them will just come naturally as long as you know some basics (Traditional UB hand and finger postions).
 
#34
Well... I got the cash, so now I'm about $150 short of an Ergo and I should have that by Friday. :D

I think I'm gonna go with a Classic finish 4 string... I'm not sure about the action though. I'm thinking medium, but I'm not really sure because I've never played a "real" upright. Any advice here would help... thanks.
 
#36
That's just it... Jesse said I have 3 choices for action height... high, medium, or low.

He said the low action plays/sounds a little more like a fretless bass guitar and a high action is more like a true upright.

That's why I said medium... somewhere in between I guess? Since I've never played either... it's just a guess. ;)

For the other Ergo owners out there... how did you order yours? Are you happy with it?
 
#40
The Ergo has joined the family.

basses.jpg


I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who suggested the Ergo on this thread. If it wasn't for TalkBass (and this thread in particular) I probably never would've found the Ergo and I probably would've bought the Dean I linked to in the original post. Thanks guys. ;)
 

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