Prices for double basses are all over the map. You can find cheaply-made Chinese ones for less than 1000 USD, and as always, you get only what you paid for. At the opposite end, hand-carved instruments from the early 19th century and earlier have been known to fetch as much as 100,000 USD if in excellent condition.

Generally speaking, as a bass ages its tone will mature as well, becoming thicker and richer with time. This of course, is dependent on the woods used in the instrument and the way in which it was crafted. Basses may be carved from solid chunks of wood, which up until the mid-20th century, was the only way they were crafted, or built up from laminated woods (sort of like plywood, but not the same). Carved instruments are somewhat fragile and prone to cracking if exposed to too-rapid temperature changes or insufficient humidity. Laminated basses are more durable than carved models, important if one gigs a lot, but not as rich tone-wise (subjective opinion on my part). My experience is that a carved instrument will spend more time visiting the luthier than will the laminated model.

In either case, my experience is that it takes a minimum of 12-15 years for a new instrument to start to develop its character and tone. My bass was made in 1953 and sounds like thunder in the low end, with a harmonically rich upper range. It's the aging of the wood that does this, as well as the magic of a good luthier when the instrument is crafted. The instrument that Jeff Laughton (Dr. Jefyll) has is also "mature"—I don't know the exact age—and has a very thick and rich sound (Jeff can describe it more—I've heard it in recordings). Bottom line is I always recommend looking at used instruments, not new ones.

I can't comment on how easy or difficult the bass is to learn because that is highly dependent on the aptitude of the prospective player. Music comes very naturally to me, so when I first started studying the instrument it didn't seem to be all that difficult to understand. Developing one's chops takes a lot of practice, as it is a fretless instrument. However, playing at jams and open mikes helps in that area.

Outside of orchestral playing, which is where I started, the double bass is widely used in jazz, blues, Bluegrass, rockabilly, country-and-western, Latin, and swing. There are instances of the double bass being used in rock 'n roll, although there are technical issues involved in amplifying it to the bowel blockage clearing volume rockers like to use.

As for the five string instrument, I would avoid it until you get proficient on a four string model. The fifth string is either a low B that is three octaves and a half-note below middle C (about 30 Hz) or a C one octave below middle C, the latter often used by soloists looking to play high in the instrument's range. On a four string instrument, the lowest string is tuned to an E that is two octaves and a sixth below middle C (about 40 Hz). I've never owned a five string bass, but have played one. I find it strange, mostly due to the wider fingerboard. Not really my cup of tea.

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..unless it has the C extension which makes it go down to three full octaves below middle C, right? (and one octave below the cello). I've seen the C extensions in orchestras, but never been up close to one.

I read many years ago that what makes the instrument sound better when it gets old is a kind of bacteria that eats the resins in the wood, leaving it more free to vibrate in all the rich overtones.

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.. at least for solid wood acoustic guitars the improvement with age doesn't seem to come unless the instrument is actually played. The more, the better. Without the vibrations not much seems to happen with age. Because of this you'll see attempts to "open" instruments by placing them in front of big loudspeakers 24x7 for a long time, for example. Does it work? Nobody will agree on a definite answer, of course. Some still claim the whole aging improvement is a myth. As for myself, I believe my first solid top guitar did change its sound quite a lot from when it was new. A superb all solid wood acoustic that I bought second hand sounds the same now as it did 15 years ago. My gf has two harps, the brand new one sounds to me as it has improved its bass tones over its first month.

It may still be all imagination, of course.

-Tor

Right. That low C is equivalent to the lowest note in a 16 foot rank of a pipe organ (about 32 Hz), same as the lowest C on the piano. Outside of orchestras the C extension is seldom used.


Dunno about that one, but it sounds like as good a theory as any other.

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Yes, the vibration to which the wood is exposed has a significant role in the aging process, which I should have mentioned in my earlier post.

I recall some years ago looking at a nice carved bass that had been in storage for some 20 years without being played. The original owner had bought it new, lost interest after a year or two and put it into storage. Much later, he passed away, his widow was disposing of his possessions and I learned of the instrument. When I went to examine and play it I was surprised at how it sounded "new" and lacked any punch (I decided against purchasing it). I'm guessing that not having been played all those years was the cause of the weak sound.

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I tune my bass guitar down to A, which matches the lowest note on the piano. I like both the sound & the feel of the strings being looser (I just use mediums, not specially heavy strings), and it gives more useful range in the middle of the neck even if I don't go down to the very bottom. The interesting thing is, that low A is much clearer tonally than on a piano, where that note often just turns to mush.


Or it could be the lack of exposure to light, air, or temperature swings, if it's been locked up in its case. Sounds like some 50-year experiments need to be done.

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I don't think a decade or two will have much effect, but a century or two does. I can just imagine that Stradivarius, not knowing about the bacteria, just knew from experience that somehow the ol' wood pile out back that had been there for a few generations always seemed to make the best instruments.

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The lower notes have a real musical impact, there's no doubt about it!

I'm not keen to switch to a 5-string instrument, but luckily there's an alternative that works very well (for fretted and fretless bass guitar, at least -- it's untested on my upright bass). I purchase strings intended for a 5-string bass guitar, and I throw away the skinny one (the G). The remaining four strings are installed with their intended tunings, namely D, A, E and -- way down in the basement! -- B ! (If you're listening on a laptop, this is a note you won't hear.)

[@ WhiteFlame -- As I prepare to post this, I see you have a different solution -- can you elaborate please?]

My upright bass is a Hofner from the 40s or 50s, hardly top-tier but featuring solid wood construction at least. I feel lucky to own such a thing, but I routinely experience "bass envy" when I hear a truly fine instrument. I won't try to describe the sound of my bass, as BDD suggests, but here are two samples.

• from a casually recorded live show, "I'm Down To My Last Cigarette". (you may wish to boost the volume on this one)
• a studio rendition of "Guabi Guabi."

Guabi Guabi is a nonsense-lyrics traditional tune, arranged circa 2000 by Michael "Earnie" Taylor for his CD, Folk 'n' Western. The instrumental portion of this tune features a bass duet -- upright and fretless electric.

cheers,
Jeff

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Dunno. It was in a padded gig bag when I saw it, which is not air-tight by any means. Storage was in a closet in the owner's home.

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Oh, I didn't mean for you to try describe the sound, just the instrument itself.


Haven't hear Guabi Guabi before. Like that one. You can tell in the duet which is the "real" bass.

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Yeah, in french we have a saying that says "cheap is always too expensive", i.e. you'd better take more time saving money and buy an expensive model of something rather than buy the cheap model.


Thanks for the recommandation, and anyway as a complete beginer with that type of instrument it would take quite a while before being able to play it good enough.


I am only used to being part of large bands (chors and brassbands) where the group is more important than each of it's members. I have no idea what it is like to be a member of a jazz or rock group with only 4-5 members and each of them who counts. The problem is that those groups are never long lasting as the depart of any member means the end of the group, and also that such groups are closed to arrivals of new members (i.e. if they already have a bassist they don't need a second), so it's extremely though to find a place in a group I guess. Unless you plan the thing very early with friends and decide who learns to play which instruments, but again that's tricky. The ideal would be to know a group whose bassist have to leave and convince themselves that you can replace him, but they'd want you to be skilled, you can't come in as a newbie.

As for amplification I'd be more interested in upright basses as opposed to electric bass guitars because they don't need any. I'm not into all those amplifiers stuff, very complicated and in the end having them is as space consuming as a full sized contrabass, only they require electric current which limits in space where you can play.

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In my point of view, the very role of a bass is to play low notes. If it cannot reach notes as low as a piano, it is sort of pointless to have a bassist in the 1st place, because you could just play the bassline on a piano for example, or a synthesizer.

That being said I didn't know about C-extentions, they look as good if not better than 5 string basses, since it allows playing the instrument "traditionally" while reaching lower notes.


For me I would get the assumption it is easy to play but I might be wrong that's why I'm asking. There is no wind and mouth related difficulties as in brass instruments, and no poliphonic difficulties as in piano (well there is some places where a bassist can play multiple notes simultaneously but that's the exception not the rule). For me I belive the difficulties would be to hold the instrument correctly, to know where to put your fingers on the fretboard to produce correctly pitched notes, and to know which string to use when. The rest is trivial, if you plug a string the note will always be here, unlike in a brass instrument where you can blow in but not get the note you planned, or get it wrong pitched (this actually happens all the time).

I don't even understand why basses have multiple strings, in theory only one string could suffice as you play one note at a time, besides, there is many notes that can be pulled with more than one string (or even with all 4 of them), so how do you decide which string do you use to play it?


Interesting trick! The obvious disadvantage is that you won't be able to reach notes as high, and that you will come with a non-standard instrument, switching from it to other basses will be very hard to say the least.

As for laptops I'm pretty sure they filter out low notes in general, not just the lower B. It's physically impossible to produce low sounds with a small sized speaker.

Of course, it completely depends on the types of songs you're playing. Some chords and/or notes can be played more than one way, and the choice is based on the tempo and the context. Here's an advanced pop example ... good luck playing that on one string without destroying your left arm!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7iJCcnAuPQ

I don't know if international viewers can use the link above. If not just plug "youtube rio duran duran bass cover" into your favorite search engine.

For some fast bass pizzicato in classical bass, see "March of the Toy Soldiers" from the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmlEmi2HxjY .

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What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

It's not anything different. Standard set of 4 medium(!) gauge bass strings, tuned down to A-D-G-C, 1 whole step below a 5-string bass's 4 lowest strings. I've been pondering shifting to a cello-style tuning in 5ths, instead of the guitar-standard 4ths, but I honestly don't play all that much high up. Playing above the 12th fret on the C string reaches far enough for lighter parts. Anything higher would really be outside the range of bass in the mix.

On my 6-string cello, which is tuned in 5ths, the open strings reach from F1 to E4. (F1 = just a half step higher than 4-string bass's lowest E, E4 = highest open string on a standard 6-string guitar). The range is really handy, covering bass, cello, and violin, but the bass guitar doesn't often need wide range in a full band setting.


The technical training required for the basics of bass playing are mostly in the left hand, developing strength, accuracy, and how to hold the string such that the note is solid (it's very easy for the note to just fart out because you're not holding it right, especially with fretted instruments). But bass is pretty simple (ie, low complexity) which is nice. You get a lot of freedom as well, as you tend to own that frequency range, while the other instruments are battling vocals for volume in the mid-range.


Not even up to the point of the video linked above, just doing basic 1st-5th-octave jumps would be very difficult if you had to fly your hand up and down a single string, instead of simply hitting adjacent higher-tuned strings.


And that's why God made headphones , which incidentally are small and can produce very low audible notes. You can't move a roomful of air in low frequencies with a small speaker (well, I guess Bose would beg to differ), but moving an ear canal's worth of air isn't a problem.

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There are many reasons for having multiple strings, although you can get away with fewer (there are Asian string instruments with only three, or even just two strings. And then there's Seasick Steve, a blues guitarist with a 3-string guitar). But even if you play only "one note at time", you may want to play arpeggios (a quick succession of notes of a chord). That's hard to do on a single string, and you don't get the sound of fading notes. And lastly, there's the limited range of a single string. One octave up is half the string, and then there's not much left.

Check out this video with a guitarist and a bass player, both playing only single notes. Imagine trying to do any of that with just a single string.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI-1sq5dFD4
As for how to decide which string to play, look at the guitarist in the video. There are patterns. And they allow you to move from note to note with the least amount of hand movement, among other things.

Not hard, because if I understood Jeff correctly the instrument is still tuned the same way relatively, just lower. So you can play the same patterns as usual, it'll sound the same, just lower pitched (it's a bigger change if you tune the strings differently, and many guitarists do. I met one who played fiddle music on guitar, he changed the tuning for *every tune* he played. By that I mean the relative tuning between strings. He used so many different tunings I lost count. As for myself, I have enough with two, or three at most.)

-Tor