How do?

Well, you know I got the NS Wav in September and it spent a week at the luthiers getting the fingerboard just right. I took a risk and took it down to my jazz gig last night with LV Project..ended up playing it for nearly 2 hours walking, solos, funk etc. It was a blast to play and the bandleader preferred it to the sound of my Wal. Don't know how to feel about that as I've always been banging on about how electric bass is completely appropriate for jazz.

I dug the Wal out for Spain and a soul set at the end of the night but I must say I really enjoyed gigging on electric upright. I learned a lot more on the gig than in any practice session at home too!

The audience loved the thing: there is definitely something the audiences love about the physicality and the theatre of the upright bass.

A couple of funky tunes, warts and all, from last nights gig.
Must get one of the straightahead cuts up too!
http://soundcloud.com/philwbass/red-baron-2
http://soundcloud.com/philwbass/summertime-18

I gotta play this thing again!

OK, a straightahead one - Autumn Leaves following the head and bass solo in an impromptu 3/4 which I don't think entirely worked I put the thing squarely back on 4!

http://soundcloud.com/philwbass/autumn-leaves-12

That thing sounds pretty wicked! Loved Red Baron.

Thank you!

Can't listen right now, but your "audience loved it" comment made me think. I wonder if having something "upright" helps differentiate it from a guitar? It's a visual, not auditory thing.

Glad you had fun with it - I'll listen when I can get headphones on...

Tom

+1
That bass does sound very cool!

Hmm...good thought.
I've had many people (even guitar players!) mistake my 6-string bass for a skinny-string "lead" guitar when they first see it.
People seem to think that an upright instrument is classier and think of it as a true bass.

It's interesting. A good part of it must be the visual perception and associations. It does sound more like an acoustic upright though despite being a hybrid. I think that the audience like the scale of the thing - and the sheer drama of some guy using that huge fingerboard to play. There were a lot of people in the audience taking photos and video.

Mind you, they've probably never seen and electric upright before.

There's a definite visual thing when using an upright bass. You could MIDI it and have it sound like a fretted electric and people would still ohh and ahh over it because of how it looks.

Midi an EUB to sound like a fretted? Now that's mad. Interesting social experiment though.

Davo

Well you could be playing one of these. That would bring some interresting visual perceptions.
http://xstrange.com/bassbanjo.htm

Actually, I think it's kind of cool.

I messed around with the electric upright through my Line 6 DL4 looper and some other effects. Some nice sounds there.

http://philwbass.posterous.com/electric-upright-bass-improvisations

http://philwbass.posterous.com/electric-upright-bass-improvisations-part-2

Phil, on a related topic, what did you have done to the neck?

I had the fingerboard smoothed down, they did a decent job. Then I had to loosen the truss rod a lot to add more relief. Works pretty well now. I think it'll work better with slightly thicker URB strings.

The strings and if you raise the bridge all the way it seems to give it a more URB-like tone (and feel). More percussive and faster decay. If that's what you want.

I had the bridge at its highest since I bought it. I was surprised it didn't go higher. I still don't get the tone on the G string I am looking for but I'm getting there.

I'm determined to take only the upright to next Friday's jazz gig but I haven't quite got the fingering down for Spain or 500 miles high yet.

Yeah, the action's not quite there but it approaches the mark.

I had talked to Ned Steinberger himself when I was having the broken tuner issue. They told me if I sent the bridge in (I, too, have the same G string issue), they would build some wood up on the bridge and send it back. The piezo is inside the body of the bass, so once you loosen the strings, the bridge pretty much just slides out. I imagine any competent wood working or furniture shop could do the job same day.

Phil, you have all week to get it together, you can do it!

Wally

Yeah, I already learned it, to a fashion! Still I miss the Wal so might just play the next gig on that for a change. Feels so tiny now after playing the upright every day!

Thanks for the tip! I'll look into that!