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Double Bass small electric which sounds like an upright?

#101
ShadowGroover said:
Interesting thread.

• Bass and tone being sought are found and presented as a thread premise.

• Then, they are disqualified for multiple reasons.

• Many good-faith ideas, alternatives, recommendations, and successful experiences are offered.

• They are summarily dismissed.

• The sought-after-but-disqualified instrument is mentioned repeatedly in rebuttal.

• A circular logic pattern is established and continued.

Conclusion: that which is sought after exists, but is not wanted. If only frogs had wings. .
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Maybe a little over critical... The OP has been frustrated with not being able to break through our ideas with his ideas. Those of us who have responded have been frustrated at times too. That said, there are some ideas which are being thoughtfully considered. And in reality, any real results of any thread suggestions may never be known -- but the thread can still be helpful to the OP and to other readers in the future.
 
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#102
A piezo pickup and an electronic resonance body simulation might get close. Of course with suitable strings and a playing technique and position similar to a DB.
The magnetic pickup color the sound and it is hard to impossible to get that out. Therefor the piezo pickup (which has its own problems like the high input impedance needed for it).
A small sound chamber has higher resonance frequencies and that sounds unnatural for a DB. Either adding lower resonances electronically or modeling all resonances electronically with an instrument without resonating chamber should get closer to the DB sound.
A damped string would be helpful (like a tape wound string). But the energy loss that happens on a DB is hard to get. Most dampers damp the highs a lot and the lows almost mit at all which is different to the damping of a DB string in a DB body.
 
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#103
There are gigs where a 3/4 size Double Bass is impractical. My solution was to purchase a Kolstine Busetto w/detachable neck which is roughly an 1/8 size with a standard scale neck. I also own a one of the original Godin Acoustibasses. If you close your eye’s has a similar tonal quality to a DB. In my thinking a fretless horizontal neck Bass takes a different playing technique and will sound different. Just my take. Ultimately, to my ears a 34” scale Double Bass with a small body sounds like a Jazz Cello i.e. Oscar Pettiford or Ron Carter.:)
 
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#104
jzucker said:
Looking for something along the lines of the marcustico or "the base". An electric bass that can be "worn" with a strap and played horizontally.

Not looking for muted flatwounds on a rickenbacker. I'm actually looking for something that you could do a jazz gig with and get the sound of an upright bass. Something along the lines of these:

Considering the marcustico but there's a 5 month wait and he recommends 60% humidity and the warranty is void if anyone other than Marcus does any work on it which is a bit inconvenient considering he's 4000 miles from me!

Just found out about "the base" today but I have no idea what the price is...
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Not exactly a "small electric", but neither is the "bace".
Also, it's yet another Euro product...

 
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#105
Carl Hillman said:
Not exactly a "small electric", but neither is the "bace".
Also, it's yet another Euro product...

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yeah, it sounds great. In my mind, the archtop/DB bridge is one of the key parts to getting a DB sound. I have tried many piezo basses and never felt any of them got a real DB vibe although the godin sounds really good to me. I love the rob allen basses and I've never tried one with tapewounds but with rounds, they just sound like a hollowbody fretless.
 
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#106
s-l1600.jpg
jzucker said:
yeah, it sounds great. In my mind, the archtop/DB bridge is one of the key parts to getting a DB sound. I have tried many piezo basses and never felt any of them got a real DB vibe although the godin sounds really good to me. I love the rob allen basses and I've never tried one with tapewounds but with rounds, they just sound like a hollowbody fretless.
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Agreed, and many of those instruments are very cumbersome to play like a bass guitar because of their oversized bodies. I almost bought a Takamine TB10 it's really just a single cutaway cello. You're right about the Godin's in general. The original fretless Acoustibass sounds the best to me. Way better than the newer ones. Just my take.
 
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#107
@jzucker i don’t think that I’ve ever heard/played a rob allen with anything but nylon tape wounds. I imagine that the rounds would have a completely different vibe. Same with the Rick turner Renaissance I used to have. It came with round bronze strings and sounded like a Jaco bass. When I put TI flats on it, after consulting with Rick turner, it was night and day.
 
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#108
bherman said:
@jzucker i don’t think that I’ve ever heard/played a rob allen with anything but nylon tape wounds. I imagine that the rounds would have a completely different vibe. Same with the Rick turner Renaissance I used to have. It came with round bronze strings and sounded like a Jaco bass. When I put TI flats on it, after consulting with Rick turner, it was night and day.
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i can't remember what was on the rob allen i tried. Are there any clips on youtube that demonstrate a more upright vibe? So far, in this thread - the most impressive small basses that have an upright vibe to them have been deeper, arched-spruce top instruments with a DB type bridge.
 
#109
There is a builder, here on TB I think, that built a bass with a similar sound of that Marcussio in the OP. He even had a YouTube video of a Jazz tune with it.

It was sunburst fretless. I can't remember the name of the bass, but maybe someone in the BG side remembers.

Maybe @bholder knows what bass it is. Let's see.
 
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#110
J_Bass said:
There is a builder, here on TB I think, that built a bass with a similar sound of that Marcussio in the OP. He even had a YouTube video of a Jazz tune with it.

It was sunburst fretless. I can't remember the name of the bass, but maybe someone in the BG side remembers.

Maybe @bholder knows what bass it is. Let's see.
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thanks. I heard there were some similar basses made in the states.
 
#112
jzucker said:
i can't remember what was on the rob allen i tried. Are there any clips on youtube that demonstrate a more upright vibe? So far, in this thread - the most impressive small basses that have an upright vibe to them have been deeper, arched-spruce top instruments with a DB type bridge.
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Not sure I’ll look. Just going by my experience. I worked hard to make both the Rob Allen and Renaissance work for me and largely succeeded. I sold the Ren because it had a skinny 1 1/2” neck they didn’t fit my hands well. Wish that I didn’t sell the rob allen but it was at a time that I was really into playing DB and didn’t see the need for it. Now they’re 2x the price and at 66 yrs old I’m seeing where I’m starting to have limitations with playing DB.
 
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#113
J_Bass said:
There is a builder, here on TB I think, that built a bass with a similar sound of that Marcussio in the OP. He even had a YouTube video of a Jazz tune with it.

It was sunburst fretless. I can't remember the name of the bass, but maybe someone in the BG side remembers.

Maybe @bholder knows what bass it is. Let's see.
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Well that reminds me of both the Christopher DBG and the Wendler Electrocoustic... (pics on other pc)

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#117
jzucker said:
i can't remember what was on the rob allen i tried. Are there any clips on youtube that demonstrate a more upright vibe? So far, in this thread - the most impressive small basses that have an upright vibe to them have been deeper, arched-spruce top instruments with a DB type bridge.
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Well, this has been working well for me at gigs and in the studio:

9DDCD03E-DC90-4EDD-8E05-42083252C961.jpeg


The Arco Acoustic Bass Guitar

This is something I recorded with it as an experiment last year - Dropbox - Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood" for two basses.m4v - Simplify your life
 
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#120
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