upright bass sound

[drew_half_empty]

is there any way to get an upright bass sound from a guitar-style one?

like some sort of pedal that i have no idea about, or a compressor/acoustic simulator combo, or something like that?

 

[Mincer]

Re: upright bass sound

no, but a guitar synth will nail it. an octave/harmonizer pedal will sound like an upright bass from mars.

 

[fusion101]

Re: upright bass sound

a synth will make u sound like a upright bass played with a pick, i'm just very skeptical of any synth to be able to sound like a upright because the great alive sound that u get when u really slap pluck the sh!t out of the bass cant be copied, and i've never heard one bass/guitar synth that could do it.

 

[Mincer]

Re: upright bass sound

actually, as synth doesn't translate the pick attack, it just triggers a sample of a bass played with fingers. you can pick the string anyway you want- with a pick, fingers, or a baseball bat, it doesn't matter. also, by layering different samples with velocity switching, you can get that acoustic 'slap' sound too.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: upright bass sound

the guy from the NRBQ gets a pretty good upright sound. Just watch
Keith Richards Chuck Berry tribute. Other than that, I'd say start with
a fretless bass and tweak you amp to get a deep resonating sound?

 

[Tom M]

Re: upright bass sound

Fretless P-bass + Flatwound strings + high action + foam mutes on the bridge = upright sound.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: upright bass sound

tom - thats too expensive, i have a j-bass, and no money

whats a good synth? preferably a cheap one that does that well, i don't care about other sounds

 

[italic zero]

Re: upright bass sound

I think a piezo would be the first step.

 

[Mincer]

Re: upright bass sound

I think a piezo would be the first step.

actually, no, you can get a roland GK2a hex pickup, and a GR-1/09/30/33/20 guitar synth and have lots of sounds for just a few hundred. beats having to buy a full blown keyboard synth and learning how to use it. you can also try some software synths as well- a roland gk-2a pickup, a roland GI-10/20 midi converter and a software synth or sampler will get you there too.

 

[Norman_T]

Re: upright bass sound

tom - thats too expensive, i have a j-bass, and no money

whats a good synth? preferably a cheap one that does that well, i don't care about other sounds

If that's all that you have then one of the best ways to try and achieve this is to file down the frets on your bass so that you have a fretless. You don't have to do all of them just up to the 5th fret and make the frets smooth to the board. Use your neck pup to get more of a woody sound and back off one on the tone controls particularly the bridge.

If you do not have a bass pre-amp then make sure your bass amp does not have to much on the treble or middle and you may have to boost the bass a tad. Play with you fingers - first and second - will help and up to 5 frets on all strings. Flatwound strings may help but you may have to go up a gauge in thickness and may not find them to your taste as they tend to be very dull for doing other things.

It might be cheaper/easier? if you went out and got a fretless bass - however be warned playing a fretless bass is not that easy as you have to be spot on when playing.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: upright bass sound

so theres not just a pedal to do it? I really wanna keep my frets how they are...and not change my pickups, it'd just be cool to have an upright sound for a couple songs here & there

 

[Mincer]

Re: upright bass sound

nope, no pedal will do it...no electric bass, frets or not, will sound like an upright. the best advice is to get a checp keyboard and play that for a few songs.