Double Bass Thinking of trying an Upright

[Jay Corwin]

I did some searching before I posted this, so please don't flame me.

Guys - I've been a bass guitarist for the better part of 15 years now, and have had the itch to try uprights for a while now. I don't know anything about them though (except for what I'm reading in this forum). I would like something small, and inexpensive. I've read that those Dean uprights are just fretless bass guitar necks on a stand. Right now I can't really find space for a full size upright in the house though.

Is there an instrument out there that is good starter +gig worthy...almost in between the two types (BG & DB)? Does anyone have any realistic recommendations, or am I just out of my league here?

Thx in advance.

 

[pthorstenson]

A good place to start might be a NS Wav4 electric upright. Upright feel without the space issues. For an actual upright bass, Opinions vary widely here but plan on spending at least $1000 $1500 to get a playable 3/4 upright bass. If you are serious about giving this a try, I would suggest that you stay away from the $499 cheapies. I owned a Shen SB80 at one point and that was a great intro bass.

PJ

 

[Jay Corwin]

A good place to start might be a NS Wav4 electric upright. Upright feel without the space issues. For an actual upright bass, Opinions vary widely here but plan on spending at least $1000 $1500 to get a playable 3/4 upright bass. If you are serious about giving this a try, I would suggest that you stay away from the $499 cheapies. I owned a Shen SB80 at one point and that was a great intro bass.

PJ

That is one of the models that has position markers correct?

 

[Ed Fuqua]

It all depends on the way you want to go. There are a few things that are bigger versions of the fretless bass on a stick - the NS stuff, Yamaha silent bass etc. - in that they don't try at all to bring over DB stuff (like the bridge, overstand relationship etc.) and some that do - Eminence, Alter Ego, Kolstein travel bass etc.

Then there's the whole cut down travel bass thang - Czech Ease, Charton, Hamm etc. which are actual uprights that have some design elements that make them transportable.
From the difference in approach, my supposition is that the difference is because someone is making basses that they are marketing to electric bassists who have an interest in playing upright and someone else is making basses that they are marketing to double bassists who need an instrument that they can travel with.

Given the above considerations - again it all depends on which way you want to go. If you're hearing something that's a deeper version of a fretless and has all of the ease of use of a BG (not much of change of physical approach, you want to change the sound/volume/etc you just twist some knobs) then go for one of the first class. The physical approach is going to be something a lot more familiar to you as a bass guitarist.

But the reality is, an upright really doesn't take up THAT much more room than a stick bass. I know plenty of guys that live in studio apartments up here that, as long as they have a free corner to stand the bass up in, they're fine. If you've got room for a 4-10 cabinet, you've got enough room for an upright. And there is something to developing the physical approach to get a warm, centered, projecting acoustic sound out of an actual DB that you don't really get to when you work with an electric instrument. So (if you're looking to go the second route) I don't tend to recommend getting an EUB as a "transition" instrument from BG to DB. If you want to paint the barn red, go ahead and paint it red. You don't need to paint it blue as an intermediate step.

 

[damonsmith]

I mostly agree with Ed, what I would add is you can often get a better instrument for the money with an EUB than a cheap double bass. Just get one that full scale and fully bowable. Then it will be useful in the future. If you can afford a good double bass then as Ed says, "paint the barn red".

If you do go the EUB route, get a good teacher and try use their double bass at lessons (at least part of the time), that helps show you what you are trying to get out of the EUB, the more you dig in and play an EUB like double bass the better it will sound.