If the 'Verb was still recording we would have piano and synth all over the place as bass instruments. A lot of our personal demos have pianos, synth, or some other instrument used as bass and often in addition to an electric bass. Sold my Minimoog, but plenty of other synths to get a synth bass, the just happened to excel at that.

I'm particularly attracted to using a piano as a bass.

Bass ukulele isn't a ukulele. It uses the same tuning as a bass, doesn't have the re-entrant tuning that makes a ukulele a ukulele. It is a small acoustic bass guitar. I hate ukulele culture... Ukulele has a really great timbre but people use it for gee whizingness. Frustating...

Altar wrote:

I like the U Bass just because it has a great cool sound, not because it looks like a uke or whatever. I'm interested in trying silicone strings on an acoustic bass guitar, to see if it sounds similar. Oh, and I just remembered that the pyronauts have an upright bass player.

Tape wound strings on an electric bass are cool as well.

There was a surf band some time ago called The Ultras. Their bassist used an upright and the guitarist used a Gibson ES335 (I think) with a wonder bar on it. Great band and great sound.

Either you surf, or you fight.

I'd like to get my hands on a Ashbory rubber string bass. Ideally for home recording but i wouldn't underestimate it's capabilities for live work.

Bass ukulele isn't a ukulele. It uses the same tuning as a bass, doesn't have the re-entrant tuning that makes a ukulele a ukulele. It is a small acoustic bass guitar. I hate ukulele culture... Ukulele has a really great timbre but people use it for gee whizingness. Frustating...

Here's an example of the U-Bass, and my uke on a surf tune. Is the U-Bass a uke? We'll it is as much a uke as a baritone uke is (tuned like a guitar). The U-bass uses a baritone ukulele body.

...off topic

As far as tuning ukes go, some are tuned with the high 4th string, and some are tuned with a low 4th string.

As Jake said, Gee Whizingness can certainly be frustrating, unless it's done like Roy Smeck! ...and for the record, I love Tiny Tim (though most people who play uke today don't).

...back to topic

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

That was extremely cool and not at all expected. Do you have a way of perhaps recording something with it in a typical surf setting(an electric guitarist an drummer) anytime soon? I'd love to hear in place of a bass.

Again, very cool, thanks for sharing!

IMO.

Hi Altar, (and Happy New Year to all!)

You mentioned Upright bass in your post so here's a video with a great view of an upright bass on surf/intro tunes in my Los Toronados band (Jesse Hernandez on bass, Duff Paulsen drums). Using an upright bass definitely changes the pace and feel of these songs. I think it works great for a trio because the right-hand pulling, snapping and slapping of the strings techniques adds a nice bit of rhythm in addition to the bass notes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1566QX-OFDA

Altar wrote:

That was extremely cool and not at all expected. Do you have a way of perhaps recording something with it in a typical surf setting(an electric guitarist an drummer) anytime soon? I'd love to hear in place of a bass.

Again, very cool, thanks for sharing!

Probably not in the near future. To me it sounds closer to an upright than an electric bass.

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

tubesNtweed wrote:

Rubber string bass? That's crazy! So if you break a "string", do you tell the audience you have to take a minute to "look for another rubber"?

There's no answer to that, at least i don't have one!

The Ashbory was partly invented by a luthier who lived just down the road from me. The story goes that he had a plugged-in guitar laying flat on his bench and while chatting to a friend over a cup of tea he twanged an elastic band over the pickup. The sound could be heard through the speaker which suprised them because they thought only metallic strings could affect a magnetic pickup.

Last edited: Jan 02, 2013 09:19:54

crumble wrote:

The Ashbory was partly invented by a luthier who lived just down the road from me. The story goes that he had a plugged-in guitar laying flat on his bench and while chatting to a friend over a cup of tea he twanged an elastic band over the pickup. The sound could be heard through the speaker which suprised them because they thought only metallic strings could affect a magnetic pickup.

Probably not entirely related to the above, but one time we played support to a rockabilly band called Cowboy and the Corpse, and I commented on the bass player's bright green strings. "It's strimmer cord" She replied. Which it was - bright green plastic strimmer cord. Sounded fine on an upright bass.

http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/

Last edited: Jan 04, 2013 04:02:36