Double Bass Take me to school - Bowing on EUB

[Huy Nguyen]

Can you learn to bow on EUB? Yes.

Good news bad news.

Good news. Yes you can. I’ll currently doing it and self teaching through a number of videos but I would still get a teacher (don’t do what I’m doing). I’m forced to as I have a young child and can only practice in the early hours. During daylight I have no time for lessons. And I’m too stubborn and in a path I know exactly what I want.

Bad news, I would not do it in anything that doesn’t have a ~41” scale length. If you want the skills to be transferable to a real DB, a EB on a stick ain’t gonna do it. So much of Arco on upright is because of the scale length. Even better if you get something that looks and feels like a DB. The dimensions and balance of the instrument matter too.

I’ve had an NS designs bass before and those don’t cut it. Skip anything that has a tripod imo. YMMV.

 

[mrvan]

If you are trying to ultimately play a 3/4 acoustic upright, then the UB-804 won't really get you very far. There are just too many things that are different (scale length, string action, instrument bouts, etc.). On the other hand, you do have an instrument that can be played with a bow which you already like. If you are willing to forgo the idea of developing skills that will be directly transferrable to a full acoustic upright, you can get some fantastic sounds out of what you have. Will it sound like an orchestral bass? No. Might the sound be something you want or like? Quite possibly.

I've been playing (ok - learning on) a NS Design Omni (tuned in fifths CDGAE) primarily in arco for a little while, and I'll agree that there are some issues. It is very, very easy to get the harmonics rather than the fundamental (at least on the Omni - I've never played an Upswing). This means that there can be quite a bit of horrid sounding squeaking, but adjusting bow speed, pressure and the contact point (how far above the bridge you are playing) can help. Vibrato is another issue for those instruments that are not up against your body in some way. The Omni wobbles too much on the tripod stand (and I've got the better stand!) to allow a good vibrato. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with that. The solution will probably be some sort of brace between the headstock and my shoulder.

I do think that you can get a reasonable good resonant arco tone on a 34" scale EUB. It is just probably harder and not the same as a full acoustic upright and you shouldn't expect to be able to simply pick up the latter after playing the former.