Double Bass Tapping on upright? Not for the faint-hearted!

[Les Fret]

I am doing some tapping on my new electric upright lately. Why not? I got this EUB since a few weeks. Playing a Goa Trance track of my band here. It's great for playing fast sequencer-like bass line. What do think?

 

[Sean Riddle]

It’s hard but real cool! Mark Dresser was the first person I saw use tapping on double bass. Here’s a solo piece of his that uses some tapping halfway through the piece.

 

[Les Fret]

It’s hard but real cool! Mark Dresser was the first person I saw use tapping on double bass. Here’s a solo piece of his that uses some tapping halfway through the piece.

Ok cool! Sounds different than what I do though. But good to hear that other people do it too.

 

[buldog5151bass]

With a sequencer/looper, you could do some very cool things with that live.

 

[damonsmith]

Dresser, Barry Guy, Reuben Radding and few others have done it. I do it sparingly, I do a thing with left hand tapping and the screw end of the German bow in the right that has a nice percussive sound. That line sounds great, super clean.

 

[Les Fret]

With a sequencer/looper, you could do some very cool things with that live.

I do this live. It's a part of a new track from an Indian psy trance group from me, where I also play sitar.

 

[Les Fret]

Dresser, Barry Guy, Reuben Radding and few others have done it. I do it sparingly, I do a thing with left hand tapping and the screw end of the German bow in the right that has a nice percussive sound. That line sounds great, super clean.

Thanks. OK cool! Yes you can have fun with the end of the bow screw too. I have to try that some more. On acoustic upright you have lots more of these extended techniques that you can apply than on electric upright. But on EUB you can experiment more with effects. I like both.

 

[damonsmith]

Thanks. OK cool! Yes you can have fun with the end of the bow screw too. I have to try that some more. On acoustic upright you have lots more of these extended techniques that you can apply than on electric upright. But on EUB you can experiment more with effects. I like both.

As long as they don't involve the body they all work on both. The overtones will behave a big differently, but they all come through. I wish I still had a working EUB. It is a great sound.

 

[Les Fret]

As long as they don't involve the body they all work on both. The overtones will behave a big differently, but they all come through. I wish I still had a working EUB. It is a great sound.

Yes the body of the acoustic has a big advantage for extended techniques. Also because the EUB doesn’t pick up all subtle things and percussive sounds that you can get on acoustic. But the EUB has some advantages too, especially with effect pedals.

 

[damonsmith]

Yes the body of the acoustic has a big advantage for extended techniques. Also because the EUB doesn’t pick up all subtle things and percussive sounds that you can get on acoustic. But the EUB has some advantages too, especially with effect pedals.

I found it to pick up nearly everything, sometimes more. After the guitarists running them all into the ground and looping 'cellists, effects are a pretty dead end, though some have luck with it.

 

[Les Fret]

I found it to pick up nearly everything, sometimes more. After the guitarists running them all into the ground and looping 'cellists, effects are a pretty dead end, though some have luck with it.

Yes sometimes it even picks up too much. When you hit close to the bridge for example. Anyway, lots of sounds to explore!!

 

[Jason Sypher]

I do not hear anything that sounds like a bass but who cares! I’m so acoustically entrenched this just sounds incredible to me. How in the world to get those sounds from strings? MIDI? Signal processing? I’m a big Aphex Twin fan. Reminded me of that. Really fun!

 

[Les Fret]

I do not hear anything that sounds like a bass but who cares! I’m so acoustically entrenched this just sounds incredible to me. How in the world to get those sounds from strings? MIDI? Signal processing? I’m a big Aphex Twin fan. Reminded me of that. Really fun!

Thanks. Well it sounds like a sequencer synth bass, that's how it was intended. Not like an acoustic upright.
No Midi, just the bass straight in an envelope filter and slight overdrive, that's it. The sound is created mostly with the tapping. Yes, love Aphex Twin too and Squarepusher and lot more adventurous EDM.

 

[David Joynson]

I am doing some tapping on my new electric upright lately. Why not? I got this EUB since a few weeks. Playing a Goa Trance track of my band here. It's great for playing fast sequencer-like bass line. What do think?

Very Eatstatic!