7. Instead of flatwounds, use tapewounds. You get that that same clack from the strings you get from an upright. They also sound great even out of that context. Labella makes 3 different types of tapewounds in various gages; all of them are supremely underrated.
As something of an upright player myself, you are spot on about using open strings, also on that note, try to keep everything lower and at the first four frets, the reason being that it's easier to have good intonation down there, so upright players do it most of the time.
I cannot express how right you are about that last bit. I always found it so hard to keep good intonation when I go higher than an Octave above the G string. (Even the high G could be iffy)
Good tips! It helps that from the mid 60s through 1990s upright guys were subconsciously trying to sound like electric players...using steel spirocore strings with lots of sustain and brightness and crappy pickups through electric bass amps. In recent years they're going back to gut sounding strings and more accurate amplification. I'm an upright guy who sucks at electric bass.
The "Jazz 101" course is the best one so far. I bought a lifetime membership. Scott is a superb teacher and I have doubled my bass chops in the first year.
About 10 years ago, after 24 years of playing the electric bass, I decided to take some formal lessons. It happened that my teacher was primarily an uprighter. Her taught me to use open strings whenever I could. The explanation for the more frequent use in uprights was that you don't run the risk to get out of tune, at least for e-a-d-g!
I own a Carvin fretless with a passive/active switch that turns the pickups passive. I was able to satisfy my jazz bandmates simply by switching to passive and rolling back the treble pot. It was really pretty amazing how different the sound was, not to mention how happy they were to hear the "upright" sound with the band. But I'll definitely try plucking closer to the neck. That's an easy switch.
Excellent video as always! Not overly keen on the tone being rolled right down. Uprights do possess significant amounts of presence. Massive changes in upright sound depending upon how it's played. Some players literally pop the strings like you would an electric bass. It's very aggressive on the fingerboard but the tone is far from dull. The other thing to remember with uprights is that they're acoustic instruments. How they're miked up makes huge changes to the tone, whether live or recorded. Piezo pickups are very versatile but complemented with a directional mic aimed vaguely at players plucking hand. As with everything bass, try phase inverting one source and see if that gives improved response.
My experience was a bit different. I use a 2007 American Deluxe Jazz Bass fretless. A fretless adds that nice wooden sound. The neck pickup is the one to use, the bridge pickup has too much electric bass sound and sounds best when the strings are plucked close to the bridge. The bass came factory with flats, but somehow it sounded "dead", as someone commented earlier, a "dumb plop". I put halfrounds on it and suddenly the bass came to life. It also adds much more sustain which is cool when playing slow stuff. I pluck the strings on the neck between 17th and 19th fret, one sometimes two fingers. With flats I also had real problems with recording some frequencies seemed boosted. With the halfrounds it seems more balanced to me. Probably all a matter of taste.
I use coated rounds (DR Black Beauties) on one of my fretlesses. I like the feel a lot better and they growl a lot more than flats, especially with finger vibrato. The coating cuts some of the higher overtones and helps cut down on how much it chews the board. I'll probably remove them on my other fretless, too.
To emulate an upright bass, I also play with the fatty part of my finger and sometimes the thumb. One thing that I use is similar to pulling a handkerchief under the strings close to the bridge. Cuts the sustain and gives a fatter sound. i also am making, again, a device made from a "fluffy" shoestring. It passes above and below the strings and have a small fastener thru the shoestring between each string. I pull it all the way against the bridge when I am not using it. It doesnt noticeably affect the string sustain or tone. When I need it, I slide it into position. Position depends on the string used and simply tempering the tone and feel. The I normally play the strings between the bridge and heel of the neck. might sound crazy but I have used it for years and it truly gives a great sound.
To play the upright bit in King Crimson's RED, I used some nasty overdrive, octave divider, and played an octave up on my Rickenbacker, with a pick. It worked surprisingly well (but maybe it wouldn't for 'cocktail' jazz). I have a short-scale semi-hollow-body Micro-Frets bass (with flatwounds) which sounds very upright, especially when bowed. I saw Dave Brubeck once, with his son playing a fretless Rickenbacker - very nice acoustic tone.
nice one for mentioning tapewounds! i've been using them for a few years, I discovered them in the search for a jazz-friendly bass tone. tapewounds, p-basses and jazz go really well together.
I try to go for this kind of sound a lot with my fretless. I think having slightly higher action helps a lot with this kind of tone as well! But yea~ great tips. Learned a lot of these over the years through trial and error. Would have been nice to have had this video way back when :p
I'm glad you mentioned the sweet spot of the tone knob. Double bass has a bit of treble so rolling the pot all the way off will not give you the upright sound. Excellent lesson, keep it up!
Scott mentioned "tape wound" strings. I've had Rotosound RS885LD (.065 -.130) on my 5-string for about a year. I love 'em... for playing with a local Square Dance band and playing country-ish tunes. Adding some of Scott's "tricks" makes the tone sound even more "warm."
Great video, giving a lot of hints regarding the use of playing techniques or the use of the right string type etc. In the end, it's much more then just an overview of "upright sound emulation" but an introduction to multiple techniques that can be used in all kinds of playing situations! Just great.
Nice video! A cool exercise to get the open strings thing is to play 12 bar blues in F or B flat using only the first 4 frets on the fingerboard (half and first position for you doublebass players out there). And try playing it without using the third finger on the left hand to emulate the hand positioning of an upright player.
Hi Scott!! I feel fantastic when i learn from you,,but i feel so good when you show me that i`m doing it right by instinct. I love your videos,thank you very much!!
For years I have been using flatwounds. I also use a sponge under the stings at the bridge, which is very important to my sound. And I also play over the fretboard with the tone rolled off. It is about as close to sounding like my upright as I can get. I also use 15 inch speakers and dial my amp in as close to a B-15 as possible
What you said plus touch of octaver and a touch of delay, keyword: touch. Tapewounds, Goldilocks guage. And the Bill Lawrence P-46 pickup And try foam blocks between the E and A and D and G, rather than foam under the strings or between the strings and the bridge cover. (BTW Fender's glued on neoprene mutes in the bridge cover only muted A, D and G. Give that a whirl.)
I use a hollowbody bass, flatwound strings, a foam block back by the bridge, and a couple stages of very selective EQ. Which gets you almost all the way there. The bit you don't get is "mwah". I've been using a Strymon Deco pedal (a tape style double tracker) to introduce a small amount of flange / comb filtering by blending a touch of pitch wobble and a tiny (~3ms) delay with the dry signal. I'm pretty sure the physical properties of the fretless 'mwah' - string vibrating against the fingerboard very close to the end of the sounding length - is a kind of comb filtering in the upper harmonics, which is why this can be an effective way to simulate it. It is difficult to get it subtle enough, but when it works it sounds great.
Knew Victor a little and he played with my Dad and The King Snake Studios crew in Florida. He did a few dates with Dad and the tremendous Hammond B3 & guitar player Lucky Peterson as well. RIP VB
Some good advice, but a few bits of feedback. 1. I think using a palm mute and playing closer to the neck is going to be tough, so I’d rather suggest a foam mute at the bridge. 2. Flatwounds work well, but so do tapewounds. 3. Raising the action a little more so that you don’t get so much fret bark/buzz would also bring you closer to getting an upright tone.
Put a little foam block under strings by the bridge. That combined with the finger technique, playing up on the neck, rolling the tone back, and changing your phrasing ( more open notes and where you're playing your notes on the fingerboard). Those techniques and that little piece of foam make sure I never have to lug around an upright, it's also what my fretless is dedicated for.
I put a set of Rotosound 88 nylon strings and Steve Harris signature pickups on my p-bass, and it really helped tonally. That, and proper right hand technique!
Funny that this came up in my feed. I was able to turn my fretless bass into a really nice sounding upright using an MX5 pedal and a couple of Impulse Responses. Plus it works really well with my NS Design upright. It's got that nice deep upright overtones and timbre.
Another thing instead of palm muting, you can put a piece of sponge under the strings at the bridge, and then play higher up on the neck, it sounds really nice and mellow.
My secret to playing electric bass and simulating upright is to VISUALIZE myself playing the upright. My plucking style and timing between plucks approximates the more deliberate timing of finding the right location on the upright fingerboard
I think one should try plucking the strings with the side part of their pointing finger. My double bass teacher showed me this technique on double bass and it allows a player to pluck the strings much softer and deeper. Double bass players also hold their instruments upright so standard bass player position (the guitar lying perpendicularly to player's body) does not let the players pluck with the side of their fingers.
I am brand new to bass. Picked electric because everything I learned said acoustic was "meh" but I love the upright thuddy sound. Man, could listen to you play all day. Don't know if my 64 yr old hands could ever play half as well.
Not a real suggestion for anyone else but I occasionally find when I'm playing guitar in my dressing gown, the sleeve drags on the strings, giving it quite an authentic 'upright' sound. It'd look a bit odd on stage though.
Another method is to try and replicate the sound of a fret less basically by using your fretting hand fingers to play over the frets rather than behind, well just close enough to not make it buzz. :D
I would also mention: in stead of muting strings with your plucking hand you could also stick a piece of foam there. Especially on a Precision-style bass you should have space for that. Another thing that I think you did not mention is the effect of string height. Raising the action of your instrument will make you sound and play more like an upright player (granted, that's not an ad hoc solution that works during a session). And last but not least: fretless. To sum it all up: take a fretless bass, put flatwounds, raise the action, stick a piece of foam (not too thick, you will get intonation problems), use a lot of open strings (also to help you stay playing in tune;). And listen to upright players. Voila.
Maybe I would add a seventh one, that is a more general point than your 6th advice: to use upright fingerings, i.e. not only open strings, but also playing the same positions. On an upright the first position on the E string is index finger on the F, middle finger on the F# and pinky on the G. If you shift string, you keep the same finger. If you play G then C or C then G you use the pinky for both notes, what is a bit difficult at higher tempo. It make a little mute between the two notes, typical of the upright sound. You keep three notes positions up to the 7th or so position. And use open strings for shifting, even if the note is not in the scale.
3:20 It's funny you mention that. I naturally settle over the end of the fretboard. I really had to teach myself to move to the pickups, and if I don't consciously think about it I just end up back over the freatboard again. It's always been fine for the type of sound I wanted anyway, so it's not been that important to learn it. Actually I typically also just use one finger too. I'm self tought and that's just kinda how it ended up. Weird that
There's a video of Larry Klein doing a bass solo in Freddie Hubbard's band in the 1970s, with a Precision, and he really made it sound like a double-bass -- it made me think "why do double basses still exist?".
7 лет назад
Awesome as always Scott! Cheers and happy holidays!
very thorough analyses of the 'mechanical' part of it! I only miss tips for getting closer to that sound using amp/eq/effects adjustments as well. does anybody have any suggestions?
i would suggest not only play the open strings but also play with upright fingerings, that's what i'm doing in this situation, it's a good way to understand how those lines are built on the old recordings..... .... the book of Ray Brown is very useful.... i often use also my cheap fretless acoustic bass ( with cutaway ) .... higher action and flatwound strings also why not ?
Upright strings are normally flats. Also i usually use 5th fret notes instead of open strings on my electric due to them sounding less trebley and i roll waay onto the low freqs and off of the mids and treble due to the trebleyness of a double bass not carrying into the audience as strong as an electric. And i could just use my upright which i always bring. One thing id like to see you try is recreating an arco double bass sound on an electric.
Nice video Scott, however, you missed one thing, and that is the type of string you use... I would HIGHLY recommend using flatwound, or even better yet, tapewounds... You get a MUCH warmer tone out of those. A good tip as well, and this is courtesy of Adam Neely, is that you can use an octave pedal, and solo the low/fundamental frequencies. It actually works!
Tom Warrington when he was with Buddy Rich and Chris Brubeck came pretty close. CHRIS `BRUBECK COMES AMAZINGLY CLOSE TO AN UPRIGHT SOUND! They both used fretless basses and played right on the edge of the neck. Flats for Tom and I think Rotososounds (TAPEWOUNDS METHINKS) on Brubeck
1. Use flat strings and fretless bass 2. Raise the strings as high as possible above the neck. 3. Play in position over the 24th fret. 4. Use POSITION and CONFIGURATION of pickups like a Warwick Thumb -5 5. Enjoy the sound of the upright bass)))))
Scott's Bass Lessons Double Basses are very expensive & they really have to lower their price so they're more affordable by using machines to build them. The Fender P Bass & J Bass were originally made to replace the Double Bass cause they're much easier to carry.
Hi, could you please tell me the title of the backing track you're using for this lesson? I think I've heard it before but I can't remember where. I loved it!
I used to play upright bass... and normally play over the fretboard.. though when I pluck the stings closer to the bridge I get a tighter sound... so playing lower on the fretboard on an electric bass should generally provide a similar tonal aspect.
It should be something for a pedal maker. Rolling of the top doesn't give the true timbre but a pedal should be able to. Think if the advantages, have you seen an upright, taken it on transport, you know what I mean. Taking a p-bass is much safer. At times I put a capo on F or whatever and now a have a better reason for doing so. I'm a bit blown away of the flood of videos coming out of this channel. I really don't think so but, are people on something?
Very good video. It is difficult to emulate acoustic upright bass sound with an electric bass. The upright bass sound comes from vibrating wooden sound board. This acoustic sound is amplified in a huge resonating chamber. In electric bass the only wooden part with significant vibrations is the headstock. I developed a clip on passive amplifier, which amplifies headstock vibrations. So you get the sound of vibrating wood. My device is not practical for live gigs (I am working on it) but good for practicing or recording.
Hi Scott and thanks a lot for the tips! Would having a neck pickup, like on an EB-0 or EB-3, help in achieving an upright sound? Thanks in advance, ~Gabriele
i defretted a bass years ago and i put some thick hardwood-floors oil polyurethane coatings (took close to a year to fully cure and sand flat), probably not as hard/rigid as epoxy... with some flat-wounds on it and a few 'tricks' as mr Scott was sharing, one could really mistake it's sound for an 'oopright' :}
You forgot to mention that fretless basses are a lot closer to an upright tonally as well so if you have one use that in combination with all these techniques.
Hi Scott I'm an average guitar player who wants to learn a little bass to become a better musician and to be able to jam a little with friends and to record bass parts for demos. My songs range from melodic/folky through indie/jangly/Beatles/Squeeze/The Jam to more rocky (not metal). Some soul/funk influences too. I 've tried some full scale basses mainly P, J and PJ style,. I think the PJ covers what I want to do best. But I'm worried about neck size. I don't have particularly long fingers and I've obviously got on better with J necks better than P necks. But most full scale PJ basses seem to come with P necks rather than J necks. (Squier Standard Precision special - no longer being produced - is an exception. But not too many of these around for sale...). But even with a full scale J neck - those stretches are pretty tough. I have also tried a short scale PJ bass (Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar SS). This has a pretty skinny neck which doesn't get much wider as you progress up the neck. This is far more comfortable to play - but to my ears doesn't sound as good as the full scale instruments (this could be down to pickups and setup to some extent). In my situation could you advise what I should do in terms of buying my first bass? I'm not sure if I'm worrying needlessly about not being able to make those stretches after a while or whether I would just be better off with a short scale instrument.. Big thanks Mike Norman
