Double Bass How to make my bass "looser"

[Sam Dingle]

I'm wondering if this makes sense. I have an old juzek 7/8ths bass that i bought from a good friend and was well known by a lot of our mutual friends. I've had it a year and basically changed a lot of things on it, new bridge, new sound post, new pickup, threw a C extension on it etc. Only thing that has stayed the same is I still use 4/4 medium spirocore strings (which is all this bass has known for the last 20 years)

sent a few videos to friends who know the bass and they all say it sounds like its playing "tight". Not just me playing it either. Raising and lowering the string height doesn't change it. there not a ton of air behind the notes. Wondering what could be the cause of this if anything? Only other huge change I can think of is that it came from NYC down to New Orleans. I can supply video to see if it sounds tight to yall.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Could be a ton of things. Moisture. Soundpost. Strings. Neck angle. Saddle height. Plate thickness. Heavy cleats reinforcing all those repaired cracks. Maybe the bass bar crack wasn’t repaired right. Sprung bass bar adding tension to the top. It could not have settled in yet after the changes you made to it.

 

[Sam Dingle]

Could be a ton of things. Moisture. Soundpost. Strings. Neck angle. Saddle height. Plate thickness. Heavy cleats reinforcing all those repaired cracks. Maybe the bass bar crack wasn’t repaired right. Sprung bass bar adding tension to the top. It could not have settled in yet after the changes you made to it.

Changes were all made last September. Could it still be settling?

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Absolutely. Give it two years before you freak out.

 

[Co.]

You might try a shorter soundpost. Makes a huge difference.

 

[Matthias Hacker]

Yes, maybe a shorter soundpost, and/or setting the soundpost more towards the south. Where is it placed, distance between Bridge foot and soundpost? Though opinions may vary, I´d say the distance should be at least 1/2 of the soundpost´s diameter, maybe better when it´s the whole diameter.

 

[Don Hergert]

Absolutely. Give it two years before you freak out.

Probably ^^this^^ more than anything else, but if you're in a rush, different strings would probably change tone and/or feel more quickly and more easily than anything. There might also be some exploitable relationship between string tension and soundpost configuration.

If it's more of a general feel question, perhaps the fingerboard relief isn't just right for your preferred strings?

 

[turf3]

How are people deciding from a video how your bass is playing? What is your own personal assessement of how it's playing?

The only thing I would add is that it might take a while for your own personal approach to the strings to get attuned to what the instrument wants. I know that with my bass, if I just try to "pull harder" it doesn't really get much louder or more resonant, but if I relax and make my pizzicato "match" the speed and force of attack that's best for the strings and bass, then I get a lot more sound and more resonant sound out of it. So you may just need to play it in and let your hands and body get accustomed to the changes in the setup.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

Could it be that the soundpost has been fallen at a luthier when installing the extension and that it was reset by the luthier. Might be the most probable explanation for me.
Putting the soundpost just a little bit closer to the center of the bass makes it more loose because of the shape of the top (and maybe also back).

On my bass it once were too percussive on the higher strings (putting the soundpost south helped) and too tight (shortening the soundpost helped). But that was the decision of and done by my luthier.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Give it to Jed Kriegel, he's a freaking genius.

 

[james condino]

worry less, practice more....

 

[Povl Carstensen]

Loosen the soundpost (move it a bit south, tw the middle), a bit longer tail gut, make sure nut grooves are as low as "possible", "softer" tail gut (I use gut), time. Soft is a main objective for me. I like a soft attack to the sound and feel, so I use plain gut strings. But after a major repair two years ago, my bass certainly felt "firmer". Better definition of sound, but not as deep or "big". Whether time or the changes I made (above), made the biggest difference, I do not know.