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Any Upright Bass slappers here?


voneville

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I'm looking for a student model Upright to play. Can anyone recomend a descent one that can take the abuse of pyschobilly and rockabilly with a lot of slapping? Also, what size is better, 3/4 or 4/4? I've played electric bass for a long time, and have farted around with uprights. I've been keeping my eyes out, but haven't seen anything used for under 800 bucks.

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When you get a fine sounding 3/4 urb (you'll have to play a couple first), get a set of nylon strings. They're dirt cheap, sound decent, and are especially forgiving on the hands when you are going to be doing slap stuff. I used to have a set on my urb when I played in a Dixieland band and needed to slap.

 

As for kind, if you can find an old Kay that's cheap, that'll work. I have a student model Englehardt which has served me well.

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Hmm.. I guess I kinda figured I was the only one playing psychobilly stuff on this forum since Cory departed. Bass girl 9 has one too, but I havent seen her for a while neither.

www.rockabillybass.com has a better froum for hthis type of qestion, but it doesnt have a lot of traffic so you need to be patient.

 

But if there is any lessons I have learned since 91 when i got mine, its this...

You need way more power to amplify this thing than you though.

You need to grunt through the pain and develop good calouses.

Gut strings are good, but steel ones with magnetic pickups give you more 'note' than gut, so either deal witht the pain or realise that most people wont be able to pick out what you are playing.

I been useing labella black, gut wound steels for three years now and they suoit pretty well.. definition of a steelcore with a gut wind.

 

Good luck and let me know if I can help you any.

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Originally posted by D Aussie

Hmm.. I guess I kinda figured I was the only one playing psychobilly stuff on this forum since Cory departed.

 

 

Not playing any full out rockabilly, but I've been dipping my toes into the Honky Tonk, Outlaw Country stuff lately. Getting the hang of the slappin, it just sort of happened. It's a blast.

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Originally posted by D Aussie

Hmm.. I guess I kinda figured I was the only one playing psychobilly stuff on this forum since Cory departed. Bass girl 9 has one too, but I havent seen her for a while neither.

www.rockabillybass.com
has a better froum for hthis type of qestion, but it doesnt have a lot of traffic so you need to be patient.


But if there is any lessons I have learned since 91 when i got mine, its this...

You need way more power to amplify this thing than you though.

You need to grunt through the pain and develop good calouses.

Gut strings are good, but steel ones with magnetic pickups give you more 'note' than gut, so either deal witht the pain or realise that most people wont be able to pick out what you are playing.

I been useing labella black, gut wound steels for three years now and they suoit pretty well.. definition of a steelcore with a gut wind.


Good luck and let me know if I can help you any.

 

I've been playing bass and guitar for 15 years, and I'm an ironworker, so calluses are already in place. I've seen some on ebay, but I'm worried that they are crap boxes. My friend had a Yamaha student model I used to slap around when I was at his house. And then there was the one in Jazz band at my Jr Highschool that actually got me kicked out of class! (I guess doing the lee rocker bass riding thing was frowned upon in Jazz Circles). I'm actually half assed descent at it because I can already play an URB Thanks for the advice, I'll definatley check that out website.

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Originally posted by voneville

I'm looking for a student model Upright to play. Can anyone recomend a descent one that can take the abuse of pyschobilly and rockabilly with a lot of slapping? Also, what size is better, 3/4 or 4/4? I've played electric bass for a long time, and have farted around with uprights. I've been keeping my eyes out, but haven't seen anything used for under 800 bucks.

 

An URB slapper that I know started out with a chinese cheapy that he got off ebay for around $600.

 

Self taught & pretty good after a year, he special ordered the rock-a-billy special - a King Double Bass. The ones that the Stray Cats Lee Rocker plays. I understand these are prefered because they are reinforced, for standing on um' & other antics. Cool.

 

http://www.straycats.com

 

http://www.kingdoublebass.com

 

 

 

:cool:

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