Upright Bass

Perhaps it's just me but I find the double bass to be one of the coolest instruments in existence.

Oh how true that is.

I can only guess that it would be at least moderately difficult to really get going with one. Especially if you're not really accustomed to the fret-less set up. Teachers are the way to go for sure. Good luck!

My nephew, who is now in college studying music, made the switch from violin to upright bass when he was around 14. He now plays in jazz ensembles and orchestras, but he started playing violin at around 5, so the transition for him was not that bad. Might be tough to pick up as an adult, but that might be the fun & challenge of it!

I think they're a bit pricey too. You might want to look at one of those acoustic-electric "stick" basses. They're a lot cheaper, and a lot easier to transport.

i don't know how to use a bow, but as for plucking, it's been pretty intuitive for me the times i've played one.

I know they have those cheapie Chinese or Indonesian made uprights on eBay (even lefties!), but...I dunno if you'd want to go that cheap.

Maybe with a good setup? They look like they're basically dipped in varnish though; probably bulletproof and you could use it as a raft in case you're playing a gig on a boat and it hits an iceberg or something. But even then, these are around $700.

Upright bass can be fun - I had to play one in a string methods course in college - but I can honestly say that it was the hardest of all strings instruments I have ever played to this day (including guitar and electric bass). :shock:

I don't have terribly long fingers (I do okay on my strat copy which has a fairly thin neck, and even a five string electric bass) but the distance between notes on the neck of an upright bass is sometimes difficult to span. Bigger hands would help there. Also, you do have to get used to the fretless playing, especially when you can't really look at your left hand to ensure accuracy, seeing as its somewhere behind your left ear. I have great appreciation for good upright bass players.............and tuba players.

Mostly I agree with what was said before, a good teacher will help.

Oh....and practice. muscle memory muscle memory muscle memory muscle memory muscle memory

Good luck. :wink:

Word of advice from me, dont get a cheap chinese bass or even really use that to first try out on. It will still be fun but you will go mental trying to fix everything on the bass, Im on my 3rd upright now, first one was a ccb that i bought from ebay just because I couldnt afford anything better even though everyone told me to wait to get a decent one. Overall I dont regret it completely because it got me hooked and was fun to beat on but it ended up costing me more than a good bass would have to begin with. I think in total it ended up being like 1200-1300 bucks canadian sunk into it in total when i got rid of it.

my current bass I got used and it needed the fingerboard planed before it was really playable, even with that being done it was about 1500 canadian in total but is a very good quality bass and will probably last for many years without any more work needing to be done, the tone is countless times better and it is atleast twice as loud as that ccb was.

also one of the best things I like about upright is standing on it and tricks in general haha, try that on a ccb and your gonna fall through it unless you weight like 50 pounds.

anyways hope that helps.

and for how hard to learn I dont find them that bad, I think it would be better to learn without markings but you can always get a chromatic tuner and stickers to mark where notes are on the neck to learn with but if you have played bass before you can most likely already tell by ear, just a matter of adjusting to where they are on the neck.