Fretless, Double (Upright) Bass..?

[olieoliver]

Another thread sparked my curiosity and I pose a survey to fellow bass (and guitar/bass) musicians here;
  How many here also play Upright bass, (sometimes called string bass, double bass) or also play a fretless bass.
   I play both upright and fretless, although my upright skills are REAAAl rusty especially my bow work. I prefer fretted electric but enjoy the other two.
 
Just curious.  
 
Olie

[811952]

I've spent lotso time on both fretless electric and upright.  My arco isn't what it once was.  I haven't gigged with either in a couple of years, but the upright leans in the corner of the landing leading to our loft, and thusly gets poked, prodded and played quite often.  Not often enough to do any good though..  
 
At Thanksgiving we were having a discussion about cadences, resolutions and such.  The ultra-convenient upright on the stairs was called into action several times to demonstrate for the non-musical among us..
 
John

[inthelows]

I've played fretless longer than fretted. Upright came first than in 75 a p-bass started the electric frenzie I'm still possessed by. At one point I had a fretless Jazz bass and fretless Ovation Typhoon bass.
You saw this earlier olie so I'll post it again.
This is a 1969 Schroetter made in Germany. I still play it on gigs. Nothing beats variety.
NLP

 
(Message edited by inthelows on December 05, 2006)

[darkstar01]

i mainly play upright, especially lately, what with college auditions and such. i've noticed that when i go back to electric, frets kind of freak me out.... which scares me, because Dark Star is fretted, but oh well...
i definitely prefer upright, and most of my favorite bass players are upright players.  
austin

[applejuice]

I love playing upright, it's not what I am best at but I enjoy it a great deal.

[richbass939]

I play upright quite a bit at home but mainly electric.  I played about 10 of the songs at last weekend's gig on upright.  My hands and forearms can't take much more than that.  
My upright is German, circa 1910.  Here is a link to most of our collection.  The pic is before I got my Epic 5.
http://club.alembic.com/Images/411/14898.html?1159396936
Rich

[inthelows]

RICH - Love the pics. In another thread I posted what I did above and was accused of showing off! I like to see other stuff. I left out the violins and mandolins. You've got a great collection going there. Is that a 3/4 bass? I read the other thread, violin info ..very nice.
NLP

[Bradley Young]

I really want to learn to play Double Bass.
 
I'm playing fretless on a regular basis, and I really like it.
 
Bradley

[richbass939]

Normand, I would like to see the violins and mandolins.  I love all musical instruments. If you don't want to post your pictures on the club you could e-mail me with them.  I think other club members would like to see them.  It's interesting that you would be accused of showing off.  This is the club of the best (in my opinion) and certainly not the least expensive of all the basses and guitars.  I think it goes without saying that the members here generally have some nice stuff.
Thanks for the compliment on our collection.  We are proud of it for sure.  The bass is a 3/4.  The scale is about 41.  Are 7/8 and 4/4 basses just thicker in the body or is there more to it? I really don't know much about uprights.  I just like the feel and sound of this one.
Rich

[wayne]

Upright is my first love - and still my preference.  Get a couple of chances a year these days to play it and they are rarely the classical that I love.  
 
Beyond that, I've found myself playing the fretless on a much more regular basis than fretted.  It just feels better.  Besides, the wife says a stringed instrument just doesn't look right with frets. There's something about that huge expanse of pure black Ebony .......
 
C-Ya........wayne

[hankster]

I play upright - both electric upright and acoustic.  I learned upright before I switched to bass guitar.
 
My arco playing stinks, although at one point I could play a good chunk of the usual symphonic repertoire (28 years ago or so...)
 
I think that fretless bass guitar and upright bass are completely different - what I call the transverse basses (fretted or fretless) to me have much more in common with one another than transverse fretless does with an upright.
 
These days I play mainly my upright electric on jazz or swing gigs, and my fretted Alembic on R & B/funk gigs.  I don't think I have a preference for the one over the other.
 
Rick