Double Bass What is the highest note that you can play without harmonics?

[Don Kasper]

and QueeQueg I am quite unable to work into this thread.

So, are you telling me you don't have a leg to stand on??
I'll clam up now....

 

[GretschWretch]

So, are you telling me you don't have a leg to stand on??
I'll clam up now....

I'm afraid this is Ahab-it I've acquired.

 

[porkynuggets]

As some here have alluded to, the range doesn't matter much as the upper most notes don't tend to sound all that good, at least not when I play them.

Glad it's not just me...

 

[Don Hergert]

So, are you telling me you don't have a leg to stand on??
I'll clam up now....

You guys are giving me a haddock.

 

[Neon Scribe]

As some here have alluded to, the range doesn't matter much as the upper most notes don't tend to sound all that good, at least not when I play them.

Indeed! The question isn't "how high can you play?", it's "how high should you play?" Why does the double bass exist? Basically, it adds some extra heft to the string section, an extra octave below the cello. It turns out that a single bass in a mixed ensemble playing pizzicato does something different. It becomes a percussion instrument, a tuned drum adding a rhythmic pulse to the harmonic foundation. For these purposes, the useful range of the instrument is roughly up to the octave of the G string. But it's built just like all the other string instruments! There's a fingerboard that gives access to an entire range above that, and every professional and many amateur bass players learn how to produce sounds in that range. It is very difficult, however, to play in this range with pitch accuracy, volume, and sustain. Very few of even the greatest players can maintain pitch accuracy in this range. It's as if there are two different instruments: the bass, where accompaniment is played in an ensemble that is often heard more by the other players than by the audience, and the high range, where solos are played because everyone in the ensemble has to have a chance to play a solo, no matter how difficult it is to hear.

 

[loukash]

The fingerboard on my bass has the range of 2 octaves plus the 6th. Since I tune in D-G-C-F, it's a D.
That said…

• Can I play up there so that it sounds good?
  Nope.
  As a DB noob, I'm staying away from the thumb position for the time being, be it primarily because it hurts…
  
  
• Do I play that high D?
  Um… yes.
  Does it sound good?
  Um… nope.
  So why do I play it up there?
  Because with one band, we have a song called "Flies"…
  And yep, this is also the only time I ever use a bow, albeit just an old violin one.
  (For the record, my "fly buzz" always makes the drummer laugh out loud)

 

[Quentin MCB]

Good arco players can get a usable sound above the 2nd octave G, as mentioned in this thread, but I'm not sure I've ever heard a pizzicato player going that high. IME pizz is useless past the 2nd G, and really rough past the D (1 oct + a 5th). Bass setup can alleviate that (with super light and low strings à la Eddie Gomez)




Here Lorraine Campet plays a Eb at 2:34 (but her bass is solo tuned, so that would be the position of a C# on a regular bass)

 

[Lionel Albert]

A very very sharp Bb ! Let's say it's a B natural.
When the string action was very high, it was a C !

 

[Ketbass]

This whole thread makes me feel better. I consistently can hit the A on then G string after the octave but find anything beyond the B on my bass useless. I try to make good solos below the octaves on any string and that’s hard enough.

 

[fdeck]

My range is a lot less when I'm wearing my ill-fitting tux.