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So, why is that we are DB and EUB players?


ubassman
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Porobably my Australian sense of humour.
Thats not a bass, THIS! is a bass. :)

Always get funny looks from guitar players who are carrying thiers slung on thier backs...MAN SIZE.

Ive always liked the look and sound, opportunity never arose to learn till now

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[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1370157564' post='2096958']
Intonation. the tone and attack/decay profile of the note is sheer beauty to me and makes electric bass sound agricultural by comparison
[/quote]

Definitely the sound - as above. It is just the coolest sound of all strung instruments especially when the intonation is just fractionally out.

I only wish I'd started learning earlier!

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Stubbornness and rebellion. I started out playing clarinet because that's what my school teachers thought I should do after learning recorder. Of course, clarinets were common as muck and so I wasn't overly inspired! Then I saw a film where there was a female double bass player. It looked awesome, and so different! Then I lucked out, because it just so happened that 1) someone we knew was selling a double bass for not very much money because they could no longer play it, and 2) the local Young Musicians organisation in the town where I lived were offering free double bass lessons to school kids willing to learn, on the condition that they agreed to play in their orchestras. My dad took some persuading (he could foresee the transportation difficulties and practical issues of size that as a youth didn't concern me)! Of course double bass was always in more demand for orchestral work than clarinet ever was, so although it wasn't my first instrument, it became my main instrument. I love playing it - the deep sound, the physicality of playing it, and the way it looks :)

Edited by MandShef
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Recorded my gedo for the first time yesterday, j tone and plat pro set to the recommended arco/pizz settings as I only got the plat pro the day before and haven't played with it yet, sounded ok through the studio headphones but then when we played it back through the monitors, WOW! Total fluke to get that sound, just a shame my playing doesn't live up to the same standard :)

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I suppose I could talk about the richness, complexity and dynamics of the sound produced, all of which are valid. But in truth when I started out the 'bottom' instrument was the DB and BGs hadn't really come into the country. Jazz was the popular music of choice for anyone with a brain and the first rockers, Elvis, Bill Haley etc all used uprights. I had a Fender Jazz in the early sixties - wish I still had it now - and apart from a few short periods with covers bands it's the DB that is 'my' instrument. It is heartwarming to read on this forum how many people enjoy playing the DB and to hear of those whose love affair is just starting.

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The genres of music I like have dictated it really. Even when I was playing in a straight rock band I remember being 20 and going into a music shop to look at upright basses. I always wanted one even if (at the time) the plan was to have something in the house I couldn't play at all. At 40 some of my favourite gigs I've played have been on the upright bass.

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I bought my DB about 3 months ago and can't leave it alone. I've mangled my fingers and standing up all the time is giving my back some real grief but I've played at a jazz jam and I'm now completely hooked. I'm really a jazz pianist but I've hardly touched the piano since I tasted bassness. Oh, and iReal B - what an app!

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Curiosity. The desire to explore all bass-related possibilities - fretless, 5-string, short scale, looong scale, and combinations of some or all the above! I still haven't had the honour of meeting a lefty double bass, though, as opposed to an EUB. Which obviously means: GAS lives on! :rolleyes: :D :P

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Always being in love with the bass sound, the double/EUB to me is the pinnacle of the bass tone, I never knew it was possible for me to be able to afford one so always admired them from afar.....I am now a loving owner of a Stagg (I know it's a budget EUB) but it delivers so much more richness in the sound.

The double bass sound is so smooth & rich. I always see it as a different instrument to the Bass guitar, my issue with my stagg is that every time I play it, I spend more time playing little licks just to hear the slides........hmmmm warm slidey bass-iness !!!!

My mate refers to the EUB as "Sexual chocolate" and when he says that, he does it in a bad Barry White voice .....yep I have some very strange mates :D

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The sound of course. Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. :)

There's also the neverendingness of the effort to learn to play. Longer than my likely lifetime.

And cos it's cool.

And did I mention that it's cool?

And the cool thing. :D

Edited by fatback
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[quote name='keeponehandloose' timestamp='1370260999' post='2098162']
i wanted to be able to spend hundreds (thousands??) of pounds on strings and pickups,
and buy oversized cars for a period of 25 years or more.
Double bass was the only thing I could find that fitted the bill.
[/quote]
Glad you picked the DE/EUB route instead of kidnapping Dolphins

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I saw my first live rockabilly band at the age of 14-ish.... and thought that the upright bass was the coolest instrument I had ever seen....and I wanted one.

Only took me 34 years, but I finally got one. And It turns out that its the coolest thing to play too. Im obsessed...I admit it :blush:

Luckily (??????) Im unemployed at the moment, so I can spend time playing it every day.

It is by far the best money I have ever spent on anything....ever B)

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[quote name='ChrisF' timestamp='1370272587' post='2098388']
I saw my first live rockabilly band at the age of 14-ish.... and thought that the upright bass was the coolest instrument I had ever seen....and I wanted one.
Who was the band?
Only took me 34 years, but I finally got one. And It turns out that its the coolest thing to play too. Im obsessed...I admit it :blush:

Luckily (??????) Im unemployed at the moment, so I can spend time playing it every day.

It is by far the best money I have ever spent on anything....ever B)
[/quote]

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[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1370157564' post='2096958']
Intonation. Noone in the audience knows I'm horribly out :)

But really (boring time) the tone and attack/decay profile of the note is sheer beauty to me and makes electric bass sound agricultural by comparison
[/quote]

This.
I've never played a DB, and have no desire to indulge in that side of things (won't fit in the car, will have feedback issues, too expensive etc.), but my EUB has such as lovely tone to it (and you can tinker with it, as it's active).
The low B is lovely. It's a fiver, BTW.

Still hankering after an electric cello and maybe a Chapman Stick, but either of these will require some serious graft just to get a noise from them at all! :D

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