Is there any way to make electric bass sound more like upright bass?

Nola

Well-known member
i think herbie flower's/walk on the wildside and all the basslines (richard davis) on van morrison astral weeks are some of the best bass tone ever. almost every bass line i love is on an acoustic upright bass. i realize a lot of that is the player, but the instrument itself sounds real organic and nice. is there any way to at least somewhat simulate those tones on an electric bass? i was thinking flat wounds, tone knob rolled off, and maybe incorporate subtle bends/slides? what about eq? i have a good quality p-bass.
 
I think that most of that upright character is in the attack and very short sustain of an upright. I've heard of people using a piece of sponge under the strings near the bridge to simulate that kind of sound, but I tried it and had about zero luck.

One of the local music shops has one of those Kala bass ukes. The strings are so freaky, they look and feel like some sort of rubber. They're just big, giant black rubbery strings on this little tiny ukulele, it's a weird thing to play. I sure couldn't make it sound like that guy in the video though...kumbaya was about as far as I got.
 
I think that most of that upright character is in the attack and very short sustain of an upright. I've heard of people using a piece of sponge under the strings near the bridge to simulate that kind of sound.

that's a good idea, too, tadpui. i forgot about putting foam under there. i did that in the past and it does dull it a lot and kill sustain. i will try that.
 
I wouldn't remove the frets personally, simply because I wouldn't know where to put my fingers. Those Kala u basses aren't that expensive. I've heard mostly good things about them except, like Tad, some can't get used to the feel of the strings. They've sounded pretty great all the clips I've heard. They make a bunch of different models. Might be on my radar screen.
 
I wouldn't remove the frets personally, simply because I wouldn't know where to put my fingers. Those Kala u basses aren't that expensive. I've heard mostly good things about them except, like Tad, some can't get used to the feel of the strings. They've sounded pretty great all the clips I've heard. They make a bunch of different models. Might be on my radar screen.

I think i'd just remove the frets and then force myself to practice with more to learn the pitches. it could be good in that sense. i really like the slides and micro pitches on upright bass so i'd want the frets gone, even if it means more work.
I played one in a shop today, and i haven't been to the shop in like a year, and i told the owner "this thing is so cool i will be back tomorrow to play it more!", so it's so weird that you mention it.
 
I do have to give props to Kala as a brand though. They're inexpensive little instruments, but they're surprisingly high quality. I bought my wife one of their ukes, and the fit and finish on it is pretty remarkable. The top looks like solid spruce and not laminate, which is surprising. It blows away her baritone uke from Mitchell, which has f'd up frets, even though it looks nice.

This guy is trying a few things to get a P-bass to sound like an upright. I can't say that he gets close, but at least you can hear him trying a few different things:

 
in part 1 he uses the thumb instead of fingers and that seems to help a bit. it's still lacking the "hollow" sound of the upright (and the kala), but the tone is close.
 
thanks tadpui i am going to watch that now. how do you like your new preamp?

Still waiting for it to ship. I watched the thing for a month, and the day I pull the trigger on it the seller was out of town for a week. Supposedly going to ship today or tomorrow. It's killing me...spiritually and financially :)
 
I used to play an upright bass in a psychobilly band. Then I switched to electrics because, let's be real, they're just easier to deal with, and I got pretty close to that sound with a late 60s hollow Epiphone Rivoli with dead flatwounds and a mute near the bridge.
 
I haven't really tried, but it strikes me that sponges under the strings etc are only going to get you so far - and that a better approach might be to find a way to mute the string to cut the sustain at the bridge saddles - using something other than metal.
 
An electric bass is easier but you can't lay it on the floor, on its edge, and get on top of it and act like you're swiming, stand on it, and all the other cool shit that Lee Rocker used to do....live...at stray cats shows.

Brian is phenomenal guitarist but, Lee , the bass player, always stole the show IMO. To be fair to Brian, almost all rockabilly acts that feature an upright bassist have a flamboyant bassist who is a master of crowd rousing theatrics. It's pretty much an expected staple of a rockabilly show.
 
If you have a dealer in your area, try a Gold Tone Microbass fretless. Those are about as close as you can get with an electric. They still have the funky rubber stings, and they're quite sticky when new but after you play it for a while they lose most of the stickiness.
 
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