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Double Bass Does your one bass does everything equally well?

E

Ed S

Nov 14, 2019
1,983
3,032
#1
In the thread about "diminishing returns", several folk said, "play your 'good bass' all the time." Then - either in that thread or another - someone said something like, "The best bass is not always the best bass for every situation."

How many of you play different styles/venues, and have a single bass that is wonderful in all? Or have you set your single bass up so it is "good enough" in various settings? What specific factors do you imagine contribute to make your bass a perfect chameleon? (To my dismay, I suspect skill as a player plays a role... :()

Me, I've got 2 basses set up quite differently, a hybrid for bowing/classical, and a ply for bluegrass/oldtime/Americana. Either would do a "good enough" job at the other style, but I prefer having 2 "specialists."

Maybe if I get bored over the winter, I'll slap my guts on my hybrid, and REALLY confuse myself! :D
 
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#2
I've got only one double bass. Poor me. :D

Actually I'm pretty happy with how my Alcoa is setup. I'm deeply into bluegrass and it sounds actually pretty great for that. I also dabble with old jazz and a little swing, some country/jazz fusion, and with a little rockabilly; for those genre it does fine. It's really got a hot-rod setup for rockabilly, coincidentally the genre which gets the least of my time, but that same setup also works very nicely for everything else I do.

What my Alcoa is not setup for is orchestra, but since I play by ear, neither am I.

That said, I do bow often in practice and occasionally on stage, and this DB does well enough with arco that I'm not afraid to do so. But tone-wise with synthetic strings and technically with gut-high action, I wouldn't try to make a living with the bow with either this DB or with this bassist.

I've spoken about metallic tone with my Alcoa frequently, but having heard a number of wooden double basses that have steel strings on them, I've come to the conclusion that my hot-rod Alcoa with its acoustic paint applied over the inside of the back table, its powder-coat finish and its synthetic strings sounds no more metallic than most wooden DBs with steel strings. I've heard some very metallic sounding wooden DBs wearing steel strings.

Worth mentioning, with my Alcoa, I'm pretty glad I only have one DB. But I do have lots of other kinds of instruments that I play.
 
#5
I struggled with this for a while after realizing it was ridiculous to try to justify keeping 8+ uprights. I’ve whittled down the fleet to 2: a ply with gut for most pizz stuff and a hybrid with steel for my pizz/arco ambitions.

… the problem is they’re both only 4 strings and I want more upper range, dang it. Will probably trade them both up for a single 5 (or 6?) string fully carved bass.
 
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#7
At first I was thinking the greater the difference between the style of music, the greater the compromise you would to have to endure.
for example the setup difference between slap and orchestral would be pretty great.
But then I thought of baroque gut setup.

So prob the best chameleon is good sounding bass with decent gut strings, and adjusters.
 
#10
At one time I had one for orchestra playing and one for jazz and other for pizz playing. The orch bass sounded great but was structurally temperamental and I ended up using it less and less. I came to the conclusion that having one instrument that I could trust was less stressful and simpler all the way around- fewer string and maintenance not to mention insurance concerns and more space in the studio. The search for decent hybrid strings took a while and is always open for revision but I'm happy with my choice until I'm convinced there's something better. I have an old gut-strung Kay for roots-style playing and such but I'm rarely called to play music like that. It's fun when I am, but it doesn't happen very often, so my main bass is essentially it.
 
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#15
My old bass does it all pretty well. I used to want more low end and after it got restored the low end opened up. It is punchy for pizz and sings easy under the bow.
I might adjust the action if I had something going drastically one way or the other and even go as far as putting on a thicker E string.
My second bass is a travel bass so it needs to be set up close to the old bass. Unfortunately it makes it a lesser if sturdier bass. I play out on it when not flying with it, mainly to keep a good relationship with it.
 
#16
My wallet says my bass does everything well enough :D! From a setup standpoint my bass is capable of pretty low action (4.6 to 6 mm) without buzzing pizz or arco. Sounds great pizz and as a laminate still manages to sound not too boxy on arco, though on our vid lesson the other day my teacher bowed a note on his bass that gave me the Joneses for a carved bass in a bad way. Unfortunately one thing it doesn’t do well is the slap rockabilly thing since I have the action so low, and that seems to be the thing my kid has gotten into recently so I have to do some trickery with my electric bass to do that stuff with him. Maybe one day I can setup my current bass with some guts and high action for that stuff and a mythical Geoff Chalmers style carved bass will come my way that I can setup like what I have now.
 
#18
I have two basses; a hybrid and a recently acquired fully carved Eastman Busetto. I have them both set up identically - same strings, same action - but I’m guessing the carved bass would be the choice for purely arco or classical music (though the hybrid would do fine and was all I played on everything for many years).

I think now my choice of which to bring is based on where the gig is since, as I mentioned, they are set up the same. If I’m exposed to the elements or some other similarly “challenging” environment then I’ll likely grab the hybrid. I’m probably echoing many folks here when I say that how versatile a bass is has a lot to do with setup and choice of strings.
 
#19
Ed S said:
In the thread about "diminishing returns", several folk said, "play your 'good bass' all the time." Then - either in that thread or another - someone said something like, "The best bass is not always the best bass for every situation."

How many of you play different styles/venues, and have a single bass that is wonderful in all? Or have you set your single bass up so it is "good enough" in various settings? What specific factors do you imagine contribute to make your bass a perfect chameleon? (To my dismay, I suspect skill as a player plays a role... :()

Me, I've got 2 basses set up quite differently, a hybrid for bowing/classical, and a ply for bluegrass/oldtime/Americana. Either would do a "good enough" job at the other style, but I prefer having 2 "specialists."

Maybe if I get bored over the winter, I'll slap my guts on my hybrid, and REALLY confuse myself! :D
Click to expand...


it's an interesting topic.

Many really fine basses really will do everything well. Allow for string changes and you can do everything very very well with one bass.

but inherently, an ideal orchestra bass and an ideal solo bass are different. for this reason alone no one bass logically should "do it all just as well."

but many really do. I suppose it depends on your metrics. how closely you are listening and how fussy of a person you are will play into whether or not you think your bass can do it all- it's not the bass.

I have a great young bass student who's playing some real repertoire. he's in early high school. He plays a very nice laminate bass. In his mind, it's a "Great bass for everything." he plays solos, jazz, orchestra, and chamber music on it. He thinks that because he can play the music and it doesn't sound "bad." His metrics for what a solo, orchestra, or jazz bass should be are just not very refined - not should they at his age!

and the reverse is of course true. Most of our basses we claim are great for solo music, someone who plays concertos with orchestra would likely deem them less than ideal. Their metrics for what a solo bass should be are extremely particular. The specialist is going to have higher standards than most of us who do a bit of everything.

The projection needed for 'real' solo playing is hard to achieve i think. My bass sounds stunning in that higher register, and it's certainly not quiet. but would edgar meyer, or gary karr, be happy with it in a recital? I honestly don't know. Is it more than adequate for anything I will ever do? absolutely yes.
 
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#20
groooooove said:
...he plays solos, jazz, orchestra, and chamber music on it. ...
Click to expand...

I know nothing about jazz, so I'm not sure what sort of instrument/setup is primo for that. I've attended camps where the instructors played quite impressive BG and jazz on the same bass, so I assume there is considerable overlap. Of course, there is also the fact that these guys are pros and could make just about ANYTHING sound good. ;)

I split my time between mostly pizz BG/oldtime/Americana, and mostly arco chamber music. My 2 basses are set up quite differently. I readily acknowledge my personal deficiencies, but really feel either bass would have shortcomings if I tried to set it up to do both equally well. If I did, I fear the "equally well" would be a lower level of performance than each does now set up for its unique function.
 
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