Although my bass is now around 15 years old, it is relatively fresh and spends long periods of time un-played. It had no cracks. I am an amateur and my bass time depends on how busy I am in other areas. Regrettably it was not used at all over covid.
For the past few months I have been playing a lot, we have a concert tomorrow and I have been practicing quite hard; Beethoven's Pastoral is quite demanding.
I have posted before about my bass, stating that it sounds good, I am happy with it, but it doesn't respond and resonate when played like some basses do.
Well, staring only about a week ago, the bass seems to have got noticeably louder, resonates a lot more and the sound, especially on the D and G strings is different, more hollow and almost cavernous. It's difficult to describe some of these sounds. The conductor appeared to be almost physically knocked over when I played a particular note on the D string last night. The sound is dark, woody and resonant. I don't seem to have to put in any effort now to get a big volume. I have made no changes in years to either strings, sound post or technique.
I wonder is there something going wrong, like a seam starting to open or has the sound post shifted (a 150 mile return journey for every rehearsal), or maybe the bass is just now starting to open up and become alive and responsive?
Strange that it is happening so suddenly. My practice now includes me getting the bass perfectly tuned before hand, using plenty of Pops rosin, avoiding open strings on slower notes and am working on getting more sound and articulation in the important especially forte passages. Maybe because the bass is resonating more now, it is going through puberty, it's voice is breaking and it's becoming a man? But I'm not yet sure it's a healthy sound. I once tried a light, wittner tail piece on a cheaper bass; my bass now is starting to remind me of this. Any ideas or similar experiences?
For the past few months I have been playing a lot, we have a concert tomorrow and I have been practicing quite hard; Beethoven's Pastoral is quite demanding.
I have posted before about my bass, stating that it sounds good, I am happy with it, but it doesn't respond and resonate when played like some basses do.
Well, staring only about a week ago, the bass seems to have got noticeably louder, resonates a lot more and the sound, especially on the D and G strings is different, more hollow and almost cavernous. It's difficult to describe some of these sounds. The conductor appeared to be almost physically knocked over when I played a particular note on the D string last night. The sound is dark, woody and resonant. I don't seem to have to put in any effort now to get a big volume. I have made no changes in years to either strings, sound post or technique.
I wonder is there something going wrong, like a seam starting to open or has the sound post shifted (a 150 mile return journey for every rehearsal), or maybe the bass is just now starting to open up and become alive and responsive?
Strange that it is happening so suddenly. My practice now includes me getting the bass perfectly tuned before hand, using plenty of Pops rosin, avoiding open strings on slower notes and am working on getting more sound and articulation in the important especially forte passages. Maybe because the bass is resonating more now, it is going through puberty, it's voice is breaking and it's becoming a man? But I'm not yet sure it's a healthy sound. I once tried a light, wittner tail piece on a cheaper bass; my bass now is starting to remind me of this. Any ideas or similar experiences?
