Double Bass Unamplified Volume

[Paul Warburton]

Wow, that whole post is right on.

Hey, Marcus....I done good in this here thread here dint I?
Not all silly like usual neither, huh.
Didn't even piss anybody off neither, did I?
Nope, no TB refraction points on this sucker fer me. YAY!

 

[M Ramsey]

Hey, Marcus....I done good in this here thread here dint I?
Not all silly like usual neither, huh.
Didn't even piss anybody off neither, did I?
Nope, no TB refraction points on this sucker fer me. YAY!

Paul, you are SO the man by giving out this info. What you described (getting the meat on or into the string) is exactly how I approach playing the bass.

I came to it by happen chance and then I asked a couple of bass heroes about their technique.

Mark Hembree was a bass player for Bill Monroe in the late 70's-early 80's. He was also the original bass player for The Nashville Bluegrass Band, founded about 1984. He now resides in the Minnesota area, I believe, and plays in some sort of string swing band.

He told me of using the knuckle of the index finger when playing on the E string. I still do it to this day. The really funny part of that is the fact that when I was discussing this with him, I wasn't even playing the bass and remembered to try the technique when I came to it as my primary instrument several years later. I also use the side of my index finger WAY more than I do the pads (or tips) of my fingers.

The very best our instruments can sound is from the fingers, through the string, through the body of the instrument, through the air and then to our ears. Nothing can touch the natural sound of a good upright bass.

But, as I've said before, it is a very physical instrument to play, requiring strength and stamina.

I've often referred to playing bass as trying to make music on a piece of furniture.

 

[Paul Warburton]

Yeah, Mike....and looking at the formed calluses on your pluckers is a perfect barometer of how you play the bass. That pretty much tells the whole story. Like you, my index callus goes from the first joint and around to the side up pretty much the length of the side of it. On my middle finger, just pretty much on the pad.
Also, Ray Brown used to talk about "matching fingers". He meant that the pressure you use in holding down the notes on the string in the left fingers should match the amount of pull you put in with your pluckers.