Playing upright style

[Randy Howard]

I learned playing bass on an upright. For a few years now I have been messing around with fretless electric guitars but I find myself gravitating toward the upright position when playing. Most often at home I stand the bass on the back of my living room couch and play it pretty much vertically. I have tried a guitar strap but it just feels uncomfortable and the full weight of the instrument is on me. I find the position to be very limiting as well. Classical guitar players sit and use an upright position, why not bass?

Has anyone seen someone play an electric bass in the upright position? Is there possibly a stand made that allows this playing position?

 

[Pacman]

Classical guitarists play with the instrument's neck at around 45 degrees. Double bass is completely vertical, not really the same at all. Did you ever consider an electric upright?

 

[Randy Howard]

Classical guitarists play with the instrument's neck at around 45 degrees. Double bass is completely vertical, not really the same at all. Did you ever consider an electric upright?

Double bass definitely is not necessarily played vertically unless perhaps when playing arco in a symphony, and even then it is tilted back into the player for stability. Neither is classical played at a precise 45 degree angle. I think you have missed the point of my question. And yes, of course I have considered an electric upright.

 

[Lee Moses]

I think you have missed the point of my question.

I think most of us will. I'm not sure what you find attractive about EBG if you don't like the way they're designed to play. There's nothing wrong with a different approach, but don't get too bent out of shape when someone trying to help you doesn't understand exactly what you are trying to do or why you are trying to do it.

There are some electric basses that are designed to bridge the gap, e.g. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Pacman]

Double bass definitely is not necessarily played vertically unless perhaps when playing arco in a symphony, and even then it is tilted back into the player for stability. Neither is classical played at a precise 45 degree angle. I think you have missed the point of my question. And yes, of course I have considered an electric upright.

I didn't miss the point of your question, I'm just pointing out that classical guitar and double bass are played in extraordinarily different positions. Unlike when you stated that "Classical guitar players sit and use an upright position, why not bass?"

 

[Randy Howard]

I didn't miss the point of your question, I'm just pointing out that classical guitar and double bass are played in extraordinarily different positions. Unlike when you stated that "Classical guitar players sit and use an upright position, why not bass?"

So what I am hearing so far is that no one appears to have knowledge of an EBG played in an upright style? That is all I wanted to know.

 

[Randy Howard]

I think most of us will. I'm not sure what you find attractive about EBG if you don't like the way they're designed to play. There's nothing wrong with a different approach, but don't get too bent out of shape when someone trying to help you doesn't understand exactly what you are trying to do or why you are trying to do it.

There are some electric basses that are designed to bridge the gap, e.g. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

There are such a diversity of EBG's that playing one upright makes sense to me. Most (if not all) electric uprights have tone limitations as they all seem to try to emulate an upright sound. I am trying to expand the possibilities of choice of tone while still playing in an upright position.

 

[CatSquare]

I don't know that there's much knowledge to be had on the matter - turn the neck up and play, what more is there to it? I do it sometimes on the couch too, but it only works on the middle frets, the lower notes become hard to reach way up there. I think you probably don't see people doing this often because there are EUBs that fill the need more readily, and because the strap buttons on a bass guitar aren't made to support them this way. You almost have to get one of those long endpins attached to your bass, or get one of those stands that holds it for you. If you want to do all of that because you like playing a bass guitar upright-style, go for it! I would!

 

[Lee Moses]

There are such a diversity of EBG's that playing one upright makes sense to me. Most (if not all) electric uprights have tone limitations as they all seem to try to emulate an upright sound. I am trying to expand the possibilities of choice of tone while still playing in an upright position.

Have you tried a magnetic pickup on an upright or EUB?

 

[Randy Howard]

I don't know that there's much knowledge to be had on the matter - turn the neck up and play, what more is there to it? I do it sometimes on the couch too, but it only works on the middle frets, the lower notes become hard to reach way up there. I think you probably don't see people doing this often because there are EUBs that fill the need more readily, and because the strap buttons on a bass guitar aren't made to support them this way. You almost have to get one of those long endpins attached to your bass, or get one of those stands that holds it for you. If you want to do all of that because you like playing a bass guitar upright-style, go for it! I would!

Now you are catching on! If everyone would read my original post carefully this is exactly what I was asking about. Thanks CatSquare.

 

[Randy Howard]

Have you tried a magnetic pickup on an upright or EUB?

Well, yes, sort of. I have a piezo pickup on my URB wedged in the scroll of the bridge. It is tonally uncolored so just provides a link to the amp. It still sounds like an URB without many options for tone adjustment. I have a Godin A4 fretless on order so maybe that will get me where I want to go. I think a Rob Allen might be better but they are so spendy. Dragging around an URB is not all that fun. I did that for years.

 

[Randy Howard]

I don't know that there's much knowledge to be had on the matter - turn the neck up and play, what more is there to it? I do it sometimes on the couch too, but it only works on the middle frets, the lower notes become hard to reach way up there. I think you probably don't see people doing this often because there are EUBs that fill the need more readily, and because the strap buttons on a bass guitar aren't made to support them this way. You almost have to get one of those long endpins attached to your bass, or get one of those stands that holds it for you. If you want to do all of that because you like playing a bass guitar upright-style, go for it! I would!

CatSquare, have you actually seen a stand that will support a guitar in an upright position?

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Robert Deleo plays upright style. He just tilts his neck to the sky. The way he frets and holds the neck straight up always made me think he was an upright player at heart. I would not play the thing standing, like an upright. It would be far too uncomfortable and limiting to play for me.

 

[Randy Howard]

Robert Deleo plays upright style. He just tilts his neck to the sky. The way he frets and holds the neck straight up always made me think he was an upright player at heart. I would not play the thing standing, like an upright. It would be far too uncomfortable and limiting to play for me.

Yeah, that is more like it. I have tried doing that with a strap but the balance of the guitar keeps sliding the guitar down into a horizontal position. Don't understand why this would be a limiting position though. It seems much more natural to me. Would you explain? Thanks.

 

[Jeff Bonny]

I'm also coming from the double bass and for many years I played a very "upright-like" acoustic bass guitar that never worked well for me in a horizontal position mainly due to its depth and highly radiused fingerboard. After much experimenting I found a fully upright position to be impractical for a couple of reasons. A) it kinda requires an endpin to really pull off well otherwise you really end up reaching for the low notes and B) it's not that bio-mechanically useful with a bass guitar. Without the upper bout to control the bass with your hips you end up using your left hand which creates obvious issues. I found a more classical guitar 45 degree-ish kind of approach to work well and over a number of years experimented with straps, footstools and support devises to achieve this.

Straps are dependent on the location of where the buttons attach to the body and are not a very flexible solution. If it works for you great but it never did for me.

Footstools are generally inexpensive, readily available and do work but like a lot of people I didn't like the asymmetry of the hips they cause. They also don't work with a high stool.

A "guitar support" was the solution for me and I tried almost everything available at the time which was well over ten models. Pictured here is the Ergoplay which was very solid and I liked a lot. The Invalid Link Removed is what I settled on though as it was simple, more easily positioned and folded down allowing it stay more or less permanently mounted. For a solidbody bass this will be a factor as the suction cups on most of these things are too big to adhere to the thinner depth of the body and they need to be affixed some other way. I did screw the Gitano on to my old warhorse P-bass at one point but most people aren't going to want to put holes in their instruments.

One that came out after I parted with this bass and I've not tried is the Kris Barnett Adjustable Magnetic Guitar Support. It looks very similar in function to the Ergoplay and is designed to attach with magnets inside the body. You could easily experiment with rare earth magnets attached to your bass with double sided tape and there's flexible magnetic strip stuff out there too for a more clean, compact install. With a little messing around you could install just about any available support with magnets.

Here are a Invalid Link Removed that are available (btw i'm not endorsing this company in any way they just seem to have a lot of good ones available). Something like the Invalid Link Removed (that i have not tried) which cradles the instrument might work for you. Or the Invalid Link Removed that clamps on and could be modified for a thinner body. I did mess around with shimming this one onto an electric bass but didn't like it enough to butcher the clamp and cut it down to fit without shims.

Honestly though after all this I've found with a solidbody bass guitar played at 20-30 degrees and raising the strap to where I have comfortable access to the whole fingerboard works as well as anything. At some point I accepted that in many ways the bass guitar has different bio-mechanical issues to overcome than the double bass does and just accepted it for what it is.

 

[Joshua Pickenpaugh]

Check out the strap situation that bassist Bunny Brunel uses; the portion that would usually attach to the bottom of the bass attaches to the TOP of the bottom portion of the bass. Seems to give him a more "vertical" playing position. Alain Caron plays EBG with a vertical playing position as well.

Side note: both of these guys are great URB players. So there's that.

 

[Randy Howard]

I'm also coming from the double bass and for many years I played a very "upright-like" acoustic bass guitar that never worked well for me in a horizontal position mainly due to its depth and highly radiused fingerboard. After much experimenting I found a fully upright position to be impractical for a couple of reasons. A) it kinda requires an endpin to really pull off well otherwise you really end up reaching for the low notes and B) it's not that bio-mechanically useful with a bass guitar. Without the upper bout to control the bass with your hips you end up using your left hand which creates obvious issues. I found a more classical guitar 45 degree-ish kind of approach to work well and over a number of years experimented with straps, footstools and support devises to achieve this.

Straps are dependent on the location of where the buttons attach to the body and are not a very flexible solution. If it works for you great but it never did for me.

Footstools are generally inexpensive, readily available and do work but like a lot of people I didn't like the asymmetry of the hips they cause. They also don't work with a high stool.

A "guitar support" was the solution for me and I tried almost everything available at the time which was well over ten models. Pictured here is the Ergoplay which was very solid and I liked a lot. The Invalid Link Removed is what I settled on though as it was simple, more easily positioned and folded down allowing it stay more or less permanently mounted. For a solidbody bass this will be a factor as the suction cups on most of these things are too big to adhere to the thinner depth of the body and they need to be affixed some other way. I did screw the Gitano on to my old warhorse P-bass at one point but most people aren't going to want to put holes in their instruments.
View attachment 605184

One that came out after I parted with this bass and I've not tried is the Kris Barnett Adjustable Magnetic Guitar Support. It looks very similar in function to the Ergoplay and is designed to attach with magnets inside the body. You could easily experiment with rare earth magnets attached to your bass with double sided tape and there's flexible magnetic strip stuff out there too for a more clean, compact install. With a little messing around you could install just about any available support with magnets.

Here are a Invalid Link Removed that are available (btw i'm not endorsing this company in any way they just seem to have a lot of good ones available). Something like the Invalid Link Removed (that i have not tried) which cradles the instrument might work for you. Or the Invalid Link Removed that clamps on and could be modified for a thinner body. I did mess around with shimming this one onto an electric bass but didn't like it enough to butcher the clamp and cut it down to fit without shims.

Honestly though after all this I've found with a solidbody bass guitar played at 20-30 degrees and raising the strap to where I have comfortable access to the whole fingerboard works as well as anything. At some point I accepted that in many ways the bass guitar has different bio-mechanical issues to overcome than the double bass does and just accepted it for what it is.

Great post Jeff. Thank you for your efforts!

 

[FretNoMore]

I've sometimes, mostly for fun when a song originally is played on a double bass, put the bass on my bar stool in front of me and played it like an upright. I find it makes you go for different notes, thinking more like an upright player so to speak, and with the different plucking technique, but it sure looks funny.

 

[lfmn16]

So what I am hearing so far is that no one appears to have knowledge of an EBG played in an upright style? That is all I wanted to know.

Being snippy to people trying to help is probably not the best way to get useful feedback.

You may ask the question but you don't get to control the responses.

 

[Jeff Bonny]

Being snippy to people trying to help is probably not the best way to get useful feedback.

I agree with you but answering questions with armchair commentary instead of experience based opinions that speak directly to the question that was asked isn't really "useful feedback". It can be frustrating to get that when you're just looking for a straight answer.