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Playing upright style

#41
I don't know how applicable you'll find this but John Stowell plays guitar with an almost vertical neck. Notice how little his wrist breaks which seems to allow his fingers to move in a very mechanically efficient way. And all the technical stuff aside he plays beautifully.
 
#42
Jeff Bonny said:
I don't know how applicable you'll find this but John Stowell plays guitar with an almost vertical neck. Notice how little his wrist breaks which seems to allow his fingers to move in a very mechanically efficient way. And all the technical stuff aside he plays beautifully.
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Exactly!! It is just a much more ergonomic position! No broken wrists. Look, his head and ears are right next to the instrument and I know damn well he is listening to it acoustically as he plays. The body of the guitar is pressed against him and he "feels" what he is playing.
 
#43
vmabus said:
I have tried, and failed, to think of a reason that a fretless should cost $100 more than fretted.
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I've wondered about this myself, but just now reading your post something came to me that might be the answer, might be...

A fretless board has to be impeccably planed for all the points on the fingerboard to ring out true.
A fretted board doesn't need as much detailed attention to the board itself as a lot of that refinement is addressed to dressing the frets.

Maybe it takes more effort/hours to dress the fretless board perfectly than it does to dress frets. Certainly from a square-millimetre perspective there is more area to be dressed on fretless than frets.

Maybe, perhaps? I don't know. I'm not a luthier, just taking a blindfolded random shot in a dark room, and probably shootin' blanks... :laugh:


lfmn16 said:
Being snippy to people trying to help is probably not the best way to get useful feedback. :rollno:

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

You have made similar comments in other threads where I thought the OP was being snippy with respondents, and I commend you for sticking up for the respondents. Jeff Bonny agreed with you regarding this matter as well, and I've never seen him offer anything other than generous advice in his posts just as he has done here, and he also made a valid point from an OP's perspective. So I don't understand why you say "don't get snippy", then turn around and got snippy with one of the people you were a moment earlier defending, to the point of threatening to put him on your ignore list.

You are trying to help people, Bonny is trying to help people. I'm trying to help people. The OP may have been a little snippy or may not have been a lot snippy depending on how you interpret the responses, but please don't be so quick to add people to your ignore list as you may just miss out on some useful info. Walk a mile in another man's moccasins...

:::::::::::::::::

Finally on topic... vertical bass players: I was going to suggest Deleo from STP, but DiabolusInMusic beat me to it.

Also check out the Moses "Vertical Jump" bass, which is intended to be played in either horizontal or vertical positions.

Moses-Vertical-Jump-Bass-Cobalt-Blue-620x340.jpg

Moses-Vertical-Jump-Bass-Clear-.jpg
 
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#44
Randy Howard said:
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.
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I remember seeing a few "Latin" bands on TV in the 1970's in which the bassist put a slab bass in a complete vertical position on top of something, maybe their amp--- probably the way they learned, mimicking an Ampeg.
 
#47
Randy Howard said:
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.
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A guy around here used to play like that. He propped up his BG on his amp.

Stands like that have come and gone as both DIY and commercial products. They may be back. A well-crafted search should tell you.
 
#49
lfmn16 said:
I may have misread his post. It wouldn't be the first time I've done that.
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Even if we do completely disagree on this one (which I doubt) I have to say I've liked your posts in the past and I'd hate not to have any future interaction. Like a lot of people I write how I speak and I'm just not good enough at it to always capture the the humor, intentional irony and even self mockery that's integral to my in person MO.
 
#50
A couple basses come to mind the Takamine TB10 which is very similar to Jeff's bass. I have never been able to locate a Takamine to play, there are a number of them out there. The barker does not seem comfortable to me but I've never played one. NS Omni bass which I do play is very nice and can be played with an end pin, stand or a strap. I find it fairly comfortable to play and does bridge the gap between my double bass and electric basses, both in sound and feel. That being said I am very comfortable on both DB and electric and my use of the Omni bass is not really an ergonomics thing.
 
#51
I see no reason ... it's just theatrics. If you look at how most bass guitarists handle their bass in the upright position you should note the angle of the wrist ... play like that a few years and you'll have problems with your hand. Why not just get an upright bass and learn how to play it? And ... almost vertical is not vertical ... 45' vs 90' ... all classical guitarists play at an angle as in the post above ... and the angle of their wrists are good.
 
#53
I started on electric but my upright technique has carried over onto my electric playing. Specifically, I use crab-claw a lot in lower positions, and I use thumb position about the 12th fret often (kind of like Steve Bailey)

Sounds like you would probably be a good candidate for a stand so you don't have to play with a strap. Then you can adjust at any angle you like. The only disadvantage is you might prefer a different angle for higher and lower positions, and that won't be an option.

Also check our basses like the Epiphone Rumblecat or Viola Bass, they are featherlight at only about 3-4 pounds.

As mentioned, Bill Wyman used to play electric vertical.
 
#54
Rayjay said:
I started on electric but my upright technique has carried over onto my electric playing. Specifically, I use crab-claw a lot in lower positions, and I use thumb position about the 12th fret often (kind of like Steve Bailey)

Sounds like you would probably be a good candidate for a stand so you don't have to play with a strap. Then you can adjust at any angle you like. The only disadvantage is you might prefer a different angle for higher and lower positions, and that won't be an option.

Also check our basses like the Epiphone Rumblecat or Viola Bass, they are featherlight at only about 3-4 pounds.

As mentioned, Bill Wyman used to play electric vertical.
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I was thinking something like a drummers cymbal stand fitted with a felt lined shallow metal or wood dish with a hole in it. Then a short metal stub on the guitar where the lower strap button usually is. Adjust the stand for a comfortable height, plop the guitar into the loose fitting hole and you would have all the freedom of movement you could possibly want.
 
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#55
RustyAxe said:
I see no reason ... it's just theatrics. If you look at how most bass guitarists handle their bass in the upright position you should note the angle of the wrist ... play like that a few years and you'll have problems with your hand. Why not just get an upright bass and learn how to play it? And ... almost vertical is not vertical ... 45' vs 90' ... all classical guitarists play at an angle as in the post above ... and the angle of their wrists are good.
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I don't disagree with the thrust of what you're saying but I think you're somewhat missing the point. First off the OP does play the upright and seems to be wanting to take everything that makes mechanical sense about playing the big bass and see how much transfers to the bass guitar which is far from an exercise in "theatrics". I went through this process and to me it's perfectly logical. I think given enough time and effort on the bass guitar he'll come to the conclusion both you and I seem to have which is that it's is a different beast and should be approached on its own terms. But taking every step of that journey firsthand is the only way he'll learn this.
 
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#56
Jeff Bonny said:
I don't disagree with the thrust of what you're saying but I think you're somewhat missing the point. First off the OP does play the upright and seems to be wanting to take everything that makes mechanical sense about playing the big bass and see how much transfers to the bass guitar which is far from an exercise in "theatrics". I went through this process and to me it's perfectly logical. I think given enough time and effort on the bass guitar he'll come to the conclusion both you and I seem to have which is that it's is a different beast and should be approached on its own terms. But taking every step of that journey firsthand is the only way he'll learn this.
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Thank you Jeff. I think you said that rather well.
 
#57
I started on upright, and am now learning slab. Playing slab in an upright way has felt most natural to me in what is a very awkward feeling. Just recently, the guitarist that I'm starting a new project with said he wants me to play electric bass instead of my upright. I'm going to have to work my butt off to get to a comfortable enough place where I can gig a slab with the confidence of my upright (on which I'm by no means accomplished yet, just more comfortable with it).

So long as I've got good technique and playing in a way that isn't physically harmful, I don't care if it looks theatrical. In fact, I welcome if it does.



dgrizzly said:
efe678a48efb40c59c5c5e3a5160296c.png


Some guys were talking about using an endpin stand on an acoustic bass guitar over in this thread:
adding end pin stand to a typical ABG (ala Takamine TB10) | TalkBass.com
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Awesome. One of my all time favourite ABGs (most of which I'm not a fan of).
 
#58
Got my new bass! The Godin A4 fretless. Very nice build quality, could cost more. It plays differently than any of the other fretless I own. Very expressive with a lot of tonal options dependent on how it is fretted and plucked. The piezo bridge is very upright sounding. The humbucker isn't all that much different but it does allow a somewhat spanky sound if you mess with the EQ. Like a new girlfriend, I need to discover what she likes. So far so good...

Randy
 
#59
The limitation is in how you support the bass. With a strap, you can get a pretty high angle, like Bill Wyman, but you're always going to be a bit short of the angle of an upright. Also, if you do use a high angle with a strap, I'd thoroughly evaluate your top strap button to make sure the strap doesn't slip off.

Also need to consider that an upright doesn't sit straight across the front of your body the way a bass guitar does, it leans in at an angle; i.e., you don't stand directly behind an upright, you're off to the side a little bit so you're able to keep your fretting wrist more straight.

I think the main thing to understand is that the bass guitar was originally conceived to allow guitar players to play bass; it wasn't ever designed to be a compact alternative for upright players. So if you really want a more upright feel, you'll be better served to move towards something designed to do that, like an electric upright bass.
 
#60
This far in and no pics of the Omni?
3Q-Bass-Cello-lg-black.jpg


I'm interested in this too. It seems to me that the left hand has much more natural range vertically than horizontally - but most EBG's are not suited to it. Need not only an endpin but some body contact points as others have mentioned. I'm toying with ideas on this for my next build. The endpin I can figure out. The body contact points I'm kinda at a loss for without any URB experience.
 

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