Any upright bass players on Gearslutz forums?

[hollywood_steve]

Although I just know that it will be a huge money pit, and I have no idea where I will find the time needed to do things right, I really want to give upright playing a shot. I've been playing my old Fenders for over 25 years now, so I know my way around the neck, but I wonder how much of that knowledge will be useful versus how much will need to be "unlearned" to play upright correctly?

When it comes to buying an instrument, I've read several articles about the trade-offs between a good plywood bass versus a cheap carved bass. But I haven't made any decisions and I'm thinking that I'd like to know a ittle more about things before I spend the money. I was wondering if its possible to rent an upright for a month or two to help get an idea of what I'm getting into and maybe help me with a few deceions that I'll need to make.

Is it common for stringed instrument shops to rent instruments by the month? Any idea (rough guess is fine) what an upright would rent for? Any other suggestions?

[Dave Martin]

WEll, I'd suggest that you call around concerning a rental - typically (at least in my immediate circle of acquaintances), most of the grassers prefer plywood basses - American Standards and Kay's. The jazz guys are more prone to carved top basses.
As far as learning and unlearning stuff, I'd STRONGLY suggest that you get the Simandl bass method. The hand positions and fingerings I learned from that book 35 years ago are what I usually use on electric...

And then, just play. As often as you can. And have fun!

[BrianBrian]

Does playing a virtual upright in Trilogy count?

Indeed, most rental places rent by the month. I have never rented an upright, but I have rented guitars, cellos, and violins from places that rent/sell uprights and they were all monthly rentals. What's great is that some rental places allow you to transfer most of the rental fees towards the final cost of the instrument if you decide to purchase it later. I have no idea what upright rentals cost, but I'm sure you could call a few of the placest nearest to you and ask.

[hollywood_steve]

Thanks, guys. Dave, I'm curious, when you studied from the Simandl book all those years ago, did you already have a lot of experience playing electric, or were you starting with a "clean slate?" I'm just wondering how much of my existing knowledge will be useful and how much is just going to get in the way of learning upright the correct way?

[Dave Martin]

Yeah, I'd say that most of what you already know can translate into the Simandl book. And some of it will make clear what you've been doing. I was playing electric before I started playing acoustic bass....

[Berolzheimer]

For rentals try Thomas Metzler in Glendale or Stein on Vine in, of course, Hollywood.

[Universal Audio]

I was in the same situation a couple of years ago. I've had a '66 P-bass for 25 years and always wanted an upright. I decided to rent one at a local shop to see how easy it was to learn, and discovered they had a rent to own deal on a decent 3/4 plywood model ($55/mo, and 3 months could be applied to the purchase).

I was surprised how easy it was to play; it only took me about 2 weeks to get up to speed on it. Not only is it a blast to play, I can maintain my finger strength a lot easier for my other guitars and basses.

I re-strung it with Tomastic-Infeld Spirocore strings, and what had been a tubby rowboat became a real instrument. These strings made such a *HUGE* difference in the sound and feel, I can't spew enough superlatives about them.

After trying the Fishman and a few other single piezo type pickups, I chose a K&K Bass Master Pro pickup set and a Raven Labs preamp from Bob Gollihur ( http://www.urbbob.com ) for live work, and I can get louder than I want before feedback in most situations. For recording, I mix this with a small condenser mic (KM84, etc.) placed about 18" away from the fingerboard and aimed about 45 degrees down to where the neck meets the body (this gives a good mix of body and fingerboard for a real present tone).

Before I restrung it and experimened with the pickups/mics, I'd thought this bass couldn't really sound that good, but I've been happily surprised. I've played several other plywood and more expensive carved spruce basses, and the biggest differences I noticed were in the effort required to bring out the instrument's tone, and the sound levels they produce. The spruce basses were usually louder, but I found each bass had it's own "tone threshold". I don't know what else to call it, but there's a point where each bass produces its optimal sound. It took me a while to figure this out, but once I did, it was like "Helloo Baby! That's the sound I was looking for!"

Of all the instruments I've played, I've had the most fun playing the upright. Plus, you can always use it as a rowboat.

[Berolzheimer]

Me, to a bass player in a session:"Do you also play upright?"

Reply: "No, I usually play sitting down."