Anyone play Bass here

[porgy]

I play Bass as well as a Tele, but I am looking for a different sound in my Bass, other than that flat boom electric bass sound. What sound effects do you recommend for an electric bass. I tried to get a Bass Fiddle sound by putting a damper material between the neck and pickup, sounds O.K. but not exactly what I am looking for. I kind of want a slap bass and a bass fiddle sound, but i am up for recommendations, yea I know, buy a Bass fiddle. Not in my wallet right now.

[Lerb21]

We do have "The Bass Place" here on the forum.

Just sayin'...

I've only played electric bass all my live, and I could never really get too much of an upright out of it. My suggestion is, just as you say, to snoop around and find one.

Yeah, they are expensive...

[Wardpike]

+1 on bass place. Musicman Stingray is a good answer to a new bass sound, tho!

[Tim Armstrong]

Nope, no bass players around here!!! (hint: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/bass-place/ )



Tim

[Dave Hopping]

Try a fretless.The smooth fingerboard makes it sound just a little more like an upright,and having to pay attention to where your LH fingers are will give you a whole new perspective on what's cool about playing bass.JMHO-YMMV,try a fretless without fret-lines.There's just something about working without a net.......

[sixstringbastard]

Flatwound strings and a piece of foam under the strings near the bridge with the tone knob rolled back a bit will approximate an upright sound. Notice I say approximate because nothing really sounds as sweet and wooden as an upright bass.

[dan1952]

Listen to Joey Spampinato with NRBQ - Danelectro or Jerry Jones bass with flat wounds. Sounds just like an upright bass.

[dan1952]

Originally Posted by sixstringbastard

Flatwound strings and a piece of foam under the strings near the bridge with the tone knob rolled back a bit will approximate an upright sound. Notice I say approximate because nothing really sounds as sweet and wooden as an upright bass.

You're right, nothing really sounds like an upright, but Joey S. comes close!

[redstringuitar]

Some electric basses used to have piano-like dampers for each string just in front of the bridge, made it sound like an upright, but you need to work on amp settings too.

[Tim Armstrong]

I found that really dead flatwounds (in this case, LaBella Beatle Bass strings on a Rogue copy) were quite convincing, as they just went "thump" with no sustain (and not a lot of note definition, either!).

Not that I was really wanting that effect....

Tim

[Old Cane]

I may be way off here (because, well, that's just normal for me) but isn't there some sort of model out there for this? I know my roland micro cube has some good guitar models and I bet the bass cube has an upright bass model. So, that means I bet somebody makes a multi-effects unit, in case you don't want to buy a new amp, that has just what you're looking for without having to make a bunch of changes to your bass. Then again, making changes my be a lot of fun.

[Sl8e]

I'm a bassist. I played original music from 1982-94 mainly in the Philadelphia area. I've recorded a few albums in bands and as a session player. Here's some of my solo work.

http://www.myspace.com/basqueindigo

http://www.myspace.com/servorex

I was a staple at a club called the Galaxy in Somerdale N.J. back in the mid to late 80's and early 90's. I've played all of the Philadelphia area night spots from back then as well. The Galaxy was the musician's hangout. If you made it there, you were good. You had to be.

Anyway, I've been playing fretless bass since 91. I strongly suggest not using flatwounds. I know round wounds tend to dig into a board but that's the way it goes when you go fretless. You never want to limit your ability to add tones to your tool box. Flatwounds take away lots of treble. This is why the guitar gods gave you a tone knob. Roll it off and you have no treble. If you don't get any flexibility then you need to expand to a 500k pot. Where your plucking hand is matters too. If you're back by the bridge, high end is brought out. up by the neck you have instant upright if you also have the front pickup on.

The goal of playing bass is to get what ever sound you need on the fly. All things are possible if you know how. There's always a way.

Effects: Tremelo is good, Wah, Chorus, Compression, and my favorite the Octave under with the bridge pickup on and the tone rolled back about 10%.

You want to hear the best bassist ever check out Jaco on you tube. He's impossible. He also got the upright sound out of a 62 jazz with roundwounds.

[porgy]

This thread was moved from "Bad Dog Cafe." Sorry, I forgot there was a Bass place here. SI8e I listened to some of your stuff, you got it down tight. Sounds good, real good. Actually I do those things your talking about, I place me thumping hand in different positions on the body of the bass, and I do get the feel I usually am looking for. I'm just kind of wanting to experiment, I am also thinking of a decent effects box, and I know some of you probably shy from this, and I understand, ts better to feel it than to copy it. Actually I am a standup bassist from the heart, I learned to play on a Bass fiddle. I use to jam with a guy in highschool, many moons ago, and he was an excellent musician, he played piano like a dream. He would play boogie woogie, rock and roll solos on the piano and I would pound away on that bass fiddle in the music room, and it was a great feeling. To me there is nothing better than playing a bass fiddle and jamming with a piano player playing the boogie woogie, man it sure was fun. And everyone loved listening to it, that was the best part, knowing that others liked it. I like electric also, but my tastes are changing. I've owned a few Basses in my life time. The one I have now is a washburn, an older model, but it has a decent sound. And it plays decent, has a nice long neck on it, and it feels like a bass. Not my best choice for a Bass. But, it gets me by. I bought it on the cheap, did some work on it. I may get me a standup bass sometime in the future. I've also considered the electric standup basses, anyone have any ideas on these, they may be just like the fretless basses only standup and not resting on your lap. I've noticed some people are going for the shorter neck basses these days, but I couldn't get use to a short neck, it just wouldn't feel right. Thanks for info. I'll check out some of the ideas you have.

[uglycustard]

I use rotosound tru-bass strings which are a nylon flatwound string with a bit of sponge between the bridge and the rear pickup on my 62 RI jazz bass.
It worked for Herbie Flowers anyhow,on all those fantastic sessions.

[Paul in Colorado]

Jack Casady gets an upright kind of tone. He uses an Epi Jack Casady model that is a copy of the Gibson Les Paul Bass from the '70's. Don't know what kind of strings he uses today, but he told us Pyramid when we asked him what stings he used in the early '70's.

[Sl8e]

Originally Posted by porgy

This thread was moved from "Bad Dog Cafe." Sorry, I forgot there was a Bass place here. SI8e I listened to some of your stuff, you got it down tight. Sounds good, real good. Actually I do those things your talking about, I place me thumping hand in different positions on the body of the bass, and I do get the feel I usually am looking for. I'm just kind of wanting to experiment, I am also thinking of a decent effects box, and I know some of you probably shy from this, and I understand, ts better to feel it than to copy it. Actually I am a standup bassist from the heart, I learned to play on a Bass fiddle. I use to jam with a guy in highschool, many moons ago, and he was an excellent musician, he played piano like a dream. He would play boogie woogie, rock and roll solos on the piano and I would pound away on that bass fiddle in the music room, and it was a great feeling. To me there is nothing better than playing a bass fiddle and jamming with a piano player playing the boogie woogie, man it sure was fun. And everyone loved listening to it, that was the best part, knowing that others liked it. I like electric also, but my tastes are changing. I've owned a few Basses in my life time. The one I have now is a washburn, an older model, but it has a decent sound. And it plays decent, has a nice long neck on it, and it feels like a bass. Not my best choice for a Bass. But, it gets me by. I bought it on the cheap, did some work on it. I may get me a standup bass sometime in the future. I've also considered the electric standup basses, anyone have any ideas on these, they may be just like the fretless basses only standup and not resting on your lap. I've noticed some people are going for the shorter neck basses these days, but I couldn't get use to a short neck, it just wouldn't feel right. Thanks for info. I'll check out some of the ideas you have.

the box: digitech pb50 or 80 is good.

If you were raised on a fretless/fiddle bass you have half the battle won.

I think Guild makes a stand up electric that is reasonable. You're still going to shell out some scratch for one unless you get real lucky on craig'slist.

Get a decent neck, nip the frets out, fill them in with a good body filler.

Sand and sand some more to about 1200 grit.

make a real thin line body with just volume,tone and jack.

Make some sort of mounting bracket on the back of the body and buy a ride symbol stand. Instant upright.

I think Frankensteins are the way to go anyway. who stays with stock anyway?

It's your axe. Custom is Funk-shway. aaahh grasshopper there is hope for you yet. walk across the bug zapper and snatch the pebbles.

[porgy]

Hey! Hey! Thanks for info. If I were to do anything as far as a bass guitfiddle is concerned, it would be to buy another one. Used or new. I have tried some of the newer basses on the market, and i think they have come out with some really neat playing basses. I use to think the Fender Bass was the only way to go. I use to own a Precision Bass, and I really liked it, wish I had kept it, it would be worth some bucks today. But, anyhow some of the newer models are cool other than fender. I would just have to shop around, and the fretless might be a good choice, I'll check out the string thing and see about adapting the nylon or the steel wound, I think mine are flat wound. The digitech box sounds like a good choice. I have read some bad reviews on digitech bass boxes, but I use digitech for my Tele and I get some cool sounds, so I don't know why all the bad reviews on it.

[guubasa]

Something that has not been mentioned yet is getting an upright sound out of your electric by using your thumb. Leo originally designed the P bass to be played with your thumb, hence the finger rest, also called a "tug bar", located on the pickguard slightly south of the G string. In those days the P came stock with huge LaBella flat wounds and damping material under the bridge cover. Leo was trying for an upright sound out of the P bass and it was real close with the amps of the day.

These days whatever bass with whatever strings will be closer to an upright sound if played with the thumb. A modern trick is to put the heel of your plucking hand across all strings slightly in front of the bridge then pluck with the thumb. By adjusting the pressure of the hand and it's location you can really get close.

Brought to you by a geezer bass player who started on bass in 1961, has never stopped and currently is playing bass in a geezer rock band and a geezer blues band. Life is good.

[Dave Hopping]

Another upright sim can be had by bracing your right thumb on the bass side of the fingerboard and playing with the side of your first finger.Works a little easier if you lengthen the strap some,because you end up with the neck going more towards the vertical,which leaves your RH fingers pointing towards the floor,like upright players'.

[porgy]

Something that has not been mentioned yet is getting an upright sound out of your electric by using your thumb. Leo originally designed the P bass to be played with your thumb, hence the finger rest, also called a "tug bar", located on the pickguard slightly south of the G string. In those days the P came stock with huge LaBella flat wounds and damping material under the bridge cover. Leo was trying for an upright sound out of the P bass and it was real close with the amps of the day.

I never knew that. I owned that precision bass for years and never knew that, I had always wondered what it was for. Back in the day, I used a pick, today I use both depending how I feel like picking, or plucking. The bass players I use to know, most dead now, played a slap bass style. that's what they called it, I never really got the hang of slap bass, today I mainly use my fingers, and thumb, occasional a pick.