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When I studied music at Mellansel Folk High School ("Mellansels Folkhögskola") I had the jazz piano as my major instrument. However, my teacher played upright bass as his major instrument. I was inspired by him a lot and decided to start playing upright bass as my secondary instrument. Since an upright is quite expensive I couldn't buy any instrument for practice. Once again, I took an idea from my teacher; he owned an ELECTRIC upright bass(i.e. EUB) that felt really nice to play. "Yes, that's the it!" I thought, and started to build an EUB.
I have a friend and former co-member in a jazz/folk music band where he played upright and I played piano. His name is Niclas "Pebbe" Nordin. After trying the bass he wanted to buy it, and I thought "Well, he can have it. I'll build me another later on - an improved one". I already have some new drawings and plans on the next bass. But, as I don't play bass that much anymore I don't feel any panic building me a new one. Some day I think I will but I don't know when...
I built the bass in solid maple because of the timbre of the wood. Unfortunately, this resulted in a quite heavy instrument.The head has the shape of an ordinary bass and I used Gotho®'s machine heads. The neck has a little guide at the top that helps Your hand to feel the right position. I kept some space under the fingerboard for the feel of freedom while playing in the upper register. To keep the bass small in size, yet in full 3/4 lenght, I made the bridge half the height of a acoustic upright. Now I had no use of the string holder at the end of the strings. So I let the string bolt be positioned at the back of the body and the strings goes through holes to the front. This solution both shortens and flattens the over all size. 
The electronics are Underwood® acoustic bass piezo pickups. I found them really sensitive in the whole register from bass to the discant. It's preferable to use an pre-amp since the output from the pickups is quite weak (for instance EBS-1®, or Fishman®). Note: It doesnt sound like an acoustic upright, though. But it's not intended to either. An EUB sounds like an EUB! Try to get the hold of an EUB in a music store and try it for yourself.The three legged stand made by a mix of drumstands from Yamaha®, Pearl® and Premier® is an alteration made by the present owner of the bass. Originally I equipped the bass with two legs at the bottom of the bass like an upside-down V. That construction didn't work so good. The bass tended to "walk" away when tilting it sideways. Also, since the owner prefers to sit while playing, the stand is much better because it's easy to adjust for the best playing position. EUB manufacturers: [Clevinger] , [Fichter] , [ZETA] , [Buckdancer] , [More...] All material on these pages except where mentioned, © Copyright 1998, Magnus Persson |
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