faking upright bass with an electric?

[Packy]

I've used the $200 Rogue Violin bass(AMAZING bass for WAY CHEAP), with flatwounds, DI and an SDC pointing in the bridge area. The mic gave it a nice woody flavor, and I think if played right it could pass for an upright. The imitation probably wouldn't hold up if the part was really exposed, though. I'm gonna try this with the Carol Kaye foam, maybe that'll work even better. Good luck!

[TheStevens]

HowBout a DI treated with an impulse file of an upright bass sample?
I can send the impulse file to you if you like, and you can apply it with S.I.R.
It aint the real thing, but I like it sometimes...


Jason L

I just tried this, it's awesome! Except insead of DI, I applied it to the track I recorded a while ago, with the fretless bass guitar with flatwounds and foam upright on the floor, with a boundary mic a few inches behind it and an SDC out front to pick up string/finger noise. Convoluting the boundary mic and leaving the other alone sounded best at the time. I later tried it with a DI but it didn't sound as good, even though it still sounded really cool!

[Harry]

I play an upright and it's a lot of fun but a bitch to get a good sound from..
I'm sure my self taught technique has a lot to do with it.
But anyway.... I like to play a fretless Fender Jazz with it resting on a stool so I'm holding it like an upright.
It really feels a lot like playing an upright,so the riffs come off like that,but without that hollow boomy sound of the "Big Beast"
Plus you can pull this off with a band in the room playing with you...this is what's really tough about the upright.The kick drum hits once and it's all over for the upright.

Harry

[HedgeCore]

I've gotten a good upright-ish sound by pitch-shifting an acoustic guitar down an octave... of course you should adjust your technique accordingly: pluck the strings, and try to slide up and down the frets smoothly, and mute often to avoid the long decay.

[gungadin]

MANY THANKS to Rodgre for reminding me of the Ashbory basses! Last time I saw one of those for sale it was cheap. Seems like a fun bass to own.

Also, +1 on the palm-muting technique. You won't get the "wood" sound, but killing the sustain takes away alot of the electric bass sound. I usually use the pinky side of my hand to mute and play the strings with my thumb.

-Andy

[@?,*???&?]

Cut a strip of foam about 1" to 3/4" of an inch wide and about the same thickness. Use a fretless bass and push this foam right up near the bridge to dampen the strings. You'll get a good degree of thump without the resonance. In the right application, you may fool many people.

The foam trick is something I've used many times on sessions. Some Gretsch instruments and various guitars from the past have had such felt dampeners mounted on them- I am thinking of the White Falcon in particular.

Anyhow, experiment. Should be cool.

[Pedal Boy]

another vote for the Guild Ashbory rubber-stringed wonder. I got one years ago at a store I worked with for cheap and it is unbelievably close (at least in my recording context which isn't straight-ahead jazz or anything).
There's one on ebay but it is currently $400.

That said, I did get one of the Bodon box basses which I'm only putting together now. For $50, it was worth it for me.

[A-Barr]

I love how there are always a million different "right" answers to every question on this board.

I have tried this too, not so much going for a literal imitation of an upright, but taking the mic'ed unplugged bass as its own instrument that lends an upright, or at least acoustic feel.

My advice would be a ribbon mic wherever it sounds best. Sometimes that's the 12th fret, sometimes it's the body above the bridge. You can close-mic it for proximity effect/more bass. I find the trick is to avoid ALL fret noise, a lot of this has to do with playing technique, and flatwounds on a fretless would also help a lot but sometimes you have to work with what you have. FWIW, contrary to other reports here, I have had no luck at all getting this to sound good with condensors, for me those gave a ton of fret noise and very little thump/boom, while ribbons basically exhibited opposite characteristics. The Chinese ribbon mic's seem to be extra good at this due to their loose tuning and low, low resonant frequencies, then again the R121 worked great with it's super smoothed out top end.

[weatherbox]

Flatwounds, sort of. Go all the way. Tapewounds. I have tapes on my Telecaster Bass and with an iPod velvety holder thing woven into the strings near the bridge, the tone down to 6, and the compressor lightly clamping down after the initial pluck, it gets about as close as I'd expect an electric bass is going to get.

the downer is that tapewounds pretty much give you ONLY that one sound. Probably better for people who own multiple basses...

[Kindly Killer]

The foam thing gives great thump, dull attack, and fast decay. I use that for what it is, but I don't think of it as an URB sound. IMO the main contributors to URB sound are the scale length and the strings.

If you're on a super tight budget and can't come up with $1.5k-$2k for a cheap Engelhardt, I would say a synth is the way to go. The one in the Digidesign XPand! synth is plenty good enough for a part in a mix. I wouldn't feature it for a long solo, but it sounds good thumping out a line.

Then there is the EUB. The NS EUBs are great for the money. Or if you have any woodworking skill at all, you can make one with lumberyard woods. I am making one right now with alder body, maple neck and bridge, and bubinga fingerboard. The most expensive part is the pickup, a Bass Max, which is what Azola uses.

BTW bass viol/contrabass/URB is much different from bass guitar. Don't expect all your chops to translate instantly. It will take a while to get into it. And don't expect to record yourself playing with a bow for a while.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

The closest I've ever come is using this thing -

It's made out of lamp parts and a silver serving tray with bungie cord strings. With a little tweeking it sounds very close.

[Skipwave]

I put together a Bogdon box bass a week ago. It is cool sounding, but rather dull compared to the real thing.... even a rented student model upright.

Still, lots of fun for around $50.

[Brett Siler]

The closest I've ever come is using this thing -

It's made out of lamp parts and a silver serving tray with bungie cord strings. With a little tweeking it sounds very close.

That fucking rules!!!!

[Kindly Killer]

The closest I've ever come is using this thing -

It's made out of lamp parts and a silver serving tray with bungie cord strings. With a little tweeking it sounds very close.

Killer! Have you made a cigar box guitar? I saw Luther Dickenson of NMAS play one with a slide; it was hilarious and badass at the same time.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

The closest I've ever come is using this thing -

It's made out of lamp parts and a silver serving tray with bungie cord strings. With a little tweeking it sounds very close.

Killer! Have you made a cigar box guitar? I saw Luther Dickenson of NMAS play one with a slide; it was hilarious and badass at the same time.

I didn't make it. It's made by a Toronto artist names Iner Souster. I'm making a record using his instruments. Here he is with something he calls the Sunflower Of Death -


You can see more of his instruments here - http://inersouster.blogspot.com/