• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Double Bass Dot Inlays: Taking the Easy way out?

Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson

Supporting Member
Jan 12, 2005
13,006
556
39
Toronto, Ontario
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: Elixir® Strings
#1
Hey guys

I'm new to upright, but I'm thinking about an Upton bass. Cheap, they seem well-built.

Anyway, they offer Dot Inlays on the side. What do you guys think? Think it'd be better for a beginner to have them? Or not have them?
 
#2
I don't consider it the easy way out. I think it's easier to learn how to play without them, learn how to use established techniques and your ears to tell you where your fingers belong, and save the money that you'll spend on bodywork from cranking your head over at that weird angle so you can see if your fingers are lining up with some little dots.

IMHO.
 
#5
i've an upton hybrid with the dots. firstly, the inlaids couldn't be more discrete: dark wood dots against ebony. you know they're there, but the rest of the world won't notice. secondly, once in a great while during the sturm und drang of those guitars i'll actually look at them, but for the most part i don't ... maybe it's a security blanket thing for someone moving from the slabworld to civilization.

jeff.
 
#7
i had dots on my bass... i imagibe they are still there..? :eyebrow:

1. they are not the same as having dots on a (horizontal) Electric Bass... because you are looking down the double bass neck obliquely rather that pretty much straight down on it, and it is just easier to ignore them than work out where your hand needs to be to compensate for the position of the dot..! :confused:
2. you will ignore them anyway... :hmm: and
3. there is no substitute for working on a good left hand 'shape' in navigating the fingerboard. :D

i found that i had an electric bass technique when i played double, and an instructor knocked this out of me and my intonation has never been better as a result... not that its that good now... :crying: but this has nothing to do with dots :rollno:

IMO... don't do it...!!!! (especially if its gonna cost you extra..?)
 
#9
It's not a sin to use dots. You won't go straight to bass hell. As many would point out, Edgar Meyer uses 'em.

But I'm with Marcus on this -- it really won't make your life any easier at the beginning of your DB career. In fact, I think it will make it harder. With or without dots, you're going to have to hear your intonation on almost every note you'll ever play on the DB and use your left hand to adjust a whole bunch of those notes. That's simply the way this instrument is and that will never change for you or any other bass player.

Edgar is at the opposite end of the spectrum compared to a beginner. A player like him is using the marker not as a crutch, a thing he can't do without -- he's using them as another tool in his kit to achieve the amazing things he does. Big leaps, challenging fingerings at fast tempo -- the markers facilitate some of that stuff. The markers didn't get him there, but as a Master who is there, he's got his reasons. They are probably pretty different reasons than what a beginner might look for.
 
#10
Someone like Edgar Meyer may be playing some solo repertoire where he's required to start a passage cold in thumb position, etc. This is probably where the markers are useful.

You can't read music, or follow a conductor, and look at markers on your neck at the same time. I don't think it's a sin to have them for occasional reference, but you really can't use them much anyway.

Intonation is something that you may want to adjust according to the key you're in , the passage or scale that you're playing, the intonation of the other musicians you're playing with, or simply you're personal taste. The note locations aren't absolute for all situations.

Sometimes it's necessary to make changes to the position of the bridge or nut. This will affect where the harmonics (and therefore the dots) are located.

So I'd probably say don't have permanent markers. Maybe use
something removable like grease pencil or stick-on dots if you want some kind of marker.
 
#12
Thanks for your replies guys.
I don't think I'll go with the dot inlays. They would only have been on the side of the neck, but I don't think I will.

Thankfully, I play a fretless electric bass, so my ear is developed enough to hear difference in intonation.
 
#14
Scottgun said:
No dots. If you need a reminder, make a pencil mark on the fingerboard. It will disappear after a while and after it has served its purpose.
Click to expand...

Although we sell and install dots that is exactly what I do. Sometimes Ill find a room thats just dead around a certain frequency on my bass....then the band gets even louder (after break and drinks) and I start finding myself thinking was I really on that F....? Little old number 2 and next time around I'm sure to be on!
 
#15
When I first started playing upright, my dad put some adhesive dots on the back of the neck for me so I'd know where to put my thumb. When the dots were new, I could feel them well enough that they were relatively helpful; the more I played, the less I needed them.

I considered Pop a bass god and recall having wondered, as an ungainly teenager, how he knew where to put 'em. Thanks for stirring up some Fond memories.
 
#17
An important thing to take note of: If you are having dots installed, get as light a material for the dots as you can find. In dark settings, it will be very difficult to "Spot the Dots" on the side of the fingerboard. Upton Bass' dot materials are way too dark. They look great, but play a gig with them, and you'll be playing sans dots. After a while you will get used to playing without them anyway.
Mike
 
#18
dmperry24 said:
An important thing to take note of: If you are having dots installed, get as light a material for the dots as you can find. In dark settings, it will be very difficult to "Spot the Dots" on the side of the fingerboard. Upton Bass' dot materials are way too dark. They look great, but play a gig with them, and you'll be playing sans dots. After a while you will get used to playing without them anyway.
Mike
Click to expand...

Some will use metal (I forget which) because it is smaller, but catches and reflects light more.

I'm just starting out and my teacher is against using marks and for most part I have going without them, sometimes if I keep missing a shift I will do the pencil mark. But I feel going without is helping, making me listen more and focus on my shifts.

I wonder how many markers do people put on. I read somewhere Edgar Meyer just has three markers on his bass. I spoke a luthier and he said Edgar has marks and markers all over his bass.
 
#19
It's very important not to use the dots as a crutch, if you get them. And then, if you do get them, be careful when you look not to turn your shoulders so much that you get yourself into a bad playing position.

I doubt if Edgar actually looks at his dots very much (the hand is quicker than the eye!), and I even heard a rumour (that's "rumor" for the Yanks in the audience...) that he just got them put on for a laugh and they're not actually the right place at all. Can anyone confirm or refute?...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back