Double Bass Setup question

[tb-player]

My bass plays pretty well (I play pizz with the vary occasional arco). A recent setup made a ton of difference. However, I think I'd like the neck to have almost no curve... almost straight, so the action can be really low & avoid the string bottoming out at the end of the fingerboard. As a primarily electric player, I tend to like a straight neck and low action. Is that a thing on upright?

 

[Don Hergert]

Your luthier can make that and other adjustments, but mostly relief is dictated by the thickness and tension of the strings.

Unlike most fretted stringed instruments, relief on a double bass (and most other viol family instruments) cannot be adjusted by adjusting a truss rod. Wood has to be removed from the fingerboard.

With that in mind, given that there is only so much wood on a fingerboard, most of us think very carefully about strings before asking for this kind of service.

 

[Brad_Pearson]

Ive experimented with this a lot over the years (Guitar tech for a living, recently folks around town have been recommending me for double bass work).

I find %99 of basses I've come across, IMO, have too much scoop, and a resulting ramp up at the end of the board that chokes thumb position with a lower string height (most of the basses that have been brought to me are not necessarily the nicest).

I like to shape boards with a little ramp a the nut end, that becomes flat around the octave, then stays flat up to the end of the board.

Think of it like the nut and unsupported section of the fingerboard being pulled forward by the nut, while the rest stays straight. I actually don't like a super low action, I find it gets in the way of the right hand. But I can set medium-low tension strings (Olive, sprio weich) 5/6mm-7/8mm off the end of board and play hard (often with no amp in rehearsals) with no issues. Bowing works fine but I don't do, and haven't practiced orchestral rep in many years, but I suspect I could raise the adjusters a little and play fine.

I make electric bass necks follow this same logic by adding slight fallaway to the upper frets when needed. Most of the time though, with a well made neck, I don't need to.

 

[james condino]

Electric basses and the people who play them at a high level are very different animals than double basses and the people who play them at a very high level; similarly with the ability to work on them. I build and play both and generally find them to not have much in common, although they perform similar roles in a band context.

A double bass can be setup in almost any manner you can ask for, but there are very distinct pros and cons to all of the differences, especially when considering amplified use or not. You will often lose a tremendous amount of volume once you go past a certain point of low action, but there is something very interesting in the growl and sustain that comes out. The bigger challenge is finding the right person to do the work based on your ability to communicate well the specifics of what you want and why. Not every bass will respond the same, and not every pragmatic "luthier" will do what you ask, so you need to be able to accept the consequences. Like Don said, you can't put the wood removed back...

 

[Stuart.C]

I had the camber (scoop) reduced on my Strunal ply and it made a huge difference in ease of playability, and added a growl the bass was previously lacking. Mine was a pretty large scoop, really effected ease in the middle of the FB.

I did it primarily to help playability, and less so for tone. but the ability to use higher tension spiro meds with a low height did wonders for both.

I would say measure your current camber, if you are noticing it chances are it is on the high side. I would say go for it.
If you are already in the normal to lower range I would say look else where (strings) for
improvements

 

[Eric Hochberg]

Keep in mind that in the thumb positions as you get higher with a perfectly straight board the string height will most likely get higher to the end. It may not bottom out, but it may be much more difficult to stop the notes and play up there.