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

jimistone said:
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.
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Quoted for thruth

So I just picked up my first upright and started recording with it. So the big things that I noticed about that tone is there isn't as much sustain. There seems to be a lot of string noise. (like, the string hitting the fretboard is very loud relative to an electric). And the tone itself is more "pure", so low notes get lost easily

I've tried the rubber-string uke-basses. They usually are fretless (though marked). They're hard to slide on; your fingers really stick to those strings.
 
Nola said:
how did they sound relative to an upright, acoustic bass?
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Just my humble opinion:

I started playing/writing on a vintage upright 20ish years ago. It was a rockabilly blues band, as as Jimistone stated it was as much about flailing it around and entertaining with it as much as the sound.

As I grew out of that style over time, and have moved much more into a singer/songwriter role, I recently happened to pick up a GT Microbass.

The strings take some getting used to, but the sound is a reasonable "upright" sound without the pain in the ass of lugging one around. I like it.

Having said all this, I wouldn't do a rockabilly show with one, but I think blues or anything else would be fine.
 
Nola said:
how did they sound relative to an upright, acoustic bass?
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Y'know. Now that I think about it, I don't know that I ever plugged one in. I basically picked it up. Played around for a second. Said, "huh. I hate this." and put it back down. :D
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Y'know. Now that I think about it, I don't know that I ever plugged one in. I basically picked it up. Played around for a second. Said, "huh. I hate this." and put it back down. :D
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funny, i picked it up, played it for a second, and said, "i love this." haha.
 
I tried foam near the bridge and it sounds awesome...just the tone I want kinda like upright bass mixed with rock bass, but it's causing the strings to go sharp. Ugh
 
Robus said:
Gotta retune it with the foam in, like you would with a capo.
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i tried that, but it still didn't work for some reason.

is there a certain foam to use? is putting it under the string instead of over it okay?
 
Just finished watching jaco on netflix and thought of this thread. It's about jaco pastorious a jazz player who played a fretless electric bass. Good documentary but I'm not sure I'll ever feel like an adequate musician again having seen it heh
 
Haha, it's on my list to watch. I'm just waiting for the right time...and judging by what you said, I might have to wait until after I finish recording my project this weekend. Nothing like an inferiority complex to really stall a home recording project :D
 
Nola said:
i tried that, but it still didn't work for some reason.

is there a certain foam to use? is putting it under the string instead of over it okay?
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How thick is the piece of foam? If it's too thick one way, it will raise the strings higher off the fret-board, slightly lengthening the strings and messing with your intonation. If it's too thick the other way, it will effectively make your bridge move closer to the neck, slightly shortening the strings and messing with your intonation.
 
The GoldTone Microbass strings get significantly less sticky with use. I picked mine up on the way to some road gigs and hated it halfway through the first set. I've been playing it consistently for the last year and the strings get kind of a hard sheen to them and are much easier to play. Even more so with Kala/Aquila strings such as Pahoehoes or Silver Rumblers.

I'm actually using the GoldTone for about half of the set with an aggressive alternative band I gig with. Nice, thumpy bottom and get a decent grind when necessary by running it through a Behringer BDI21.
 
easlern said:
Just finished watching jaco on netflix and thought of this thread. It's about jaco pastorious a jazz player who played a fretless electric bass. Good documentary but I'm not sure I'll ever feel like an adequate musician again having seen it heh
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i saw that a few weeks ago. it was amazing, and that guy who killed him sucks.

he was obviously a virtuoso, BUT, the one thing i noticed is like every song he played in (at least in the documentary) was in E. i'm not sure he could play in any other key. joni mitchell mentioned she was playing with him and he wasn't playing in the same key as her, and she implied it was because he was losing it mentally, but i wonder if it's because he only knew E!

after watching the documentary i listened to his albums on youtube and wasn't too impressed with the songs, either, and i like jazz so it wasn't that. the songs just didn't really do much other than bass noodling. i guess the albums were a platform to showcase his bass playing instead of good songs. a couple were good, though.
also, i notice that his live material was the best. when it was just him with bass or him with bass and drum. i almost wish they just recorded those live albums and released those as the final because those recordings were awesome.

easlern, did you see this girl? i felt so inferior after watching this, more than even Jaco because her song is good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNxO9MpQ2vA

(ps. i don't watch that awful show but i came across that)
 
Tadpui said:
Haha, it's on my list to watch. I'm just waiting for the right time...and judging by what you said, I might have to wait until after I finish recording my project this weekend. Nothing like an inferiority complex to really stall a home recording project :D
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haha.
well, really this is the way i look at all of this: talent/virtuoso is great, but only if you can write. it's really it's all about applying the talent. there are amazing songs by people with no musical ability at all yet who have immense writing ability. if you have strong songs don't even think about jaco. how is that new preamp?
 
Nola said:
haha.
well, really this is the way i look at all of this: talent/virtuoso is great, but only if you can write. it's really it's all about applying the talent. there are amazing songs by people with no musical ability at all yet who have immense writing ability. if you have strong songs don't even think about jaco. how is that new preamp?
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I watched the Jaco documentary this afternoon. I really enjoyed it since I didn't know anything about the guy other than his name, his signature bass, and like one song from weather report that I heard in college. A fascinating study in the struggle between virtuosity, artistic creativity, and the business expectations of the industry. Too bad his last few years were plagued with alcoholism, bipolar and label disinterest.

Oh, and the new preamp is amazeballs. Gave it a workout this weekend, and it is hands-down better at making music than I am :). It feels like a bit of a sin to send my attempts at singing through it. It makes my mics sound amazing. Like some sort of black magic inside that ugly blue box. It's freakishly flattering...it sounds like all of the albums that we've all heard.

So yeah...I like it :D
 
Tadpui said:
Haha, it's on my list to watch. I'm just waiting for the right time...and judging by what you said, I might have to wait until after I finish recording my project this weekend. Nothing like an inferiority complex to really stall a home recording project :D
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Hey, Jaco is Jaco. A master at what he did.
Some people are just out of our league. We just have to accept that and carry on anyway.
:D
 
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