The (unofficial) Upright Bass Showcase Thread

[hankster]

Casey, that recording sounds great.  I remember Vancouver fondly - when I lived out West Rene Worst was the young guy to beat - is he still around?  I also remember playing the Brandenburgs, or some of them, at Capilano College when I was in the University of Victoria string ensemble in 76 or 77.  Your recording brought back some memories for me.

I used a Don Underwood pickup that I bought from Don directly by mail in '77 or so until it gave up the ghost - I liked it, so I bought another one.  Still does the job, although I usually use my NS electric upright these days.  I remember the De Armond system well - and not fondly!  I also remember a system that was actually built into the bridge...but I can't remember the name.

[David Houck]

The Hot Five recording was nice.

[nosimplehighway]

Not a great photo, but these are my uprights:
Yamaha SLB-200 and 1968 Kay M3

[growlypants]

Looks like that Yamaha has lost some serious weight!!  (Which is my way of joking that I know NOTHING about uprights.)

[edwardofhuncote]

Oooh, I like that old Kay! 

I posted this on a shop thread a couple years ago, but here is my Dad's '51 Kay M1B, in the hands of its original owner, Buddy Yearwood. Cousin Buddy (my 2nd Cousin) was a weekend warrior like me back in the 50's and 60's, playing all over east-central North Carolina with a variety of country acts of the day. When he retired from playing, the old Kay was strung down and stored in a closet, until finally my Dad got him to part with it. These days, my Ol' Man is gigging it pretty regular. 

[nosimplehighway]

Thanks guys,
The Yamaha is a pretty nice EUB. Sounds great. 3/4 scale. "Semi-hollow" by their specs because of the large chamber under the bridge. Onboard preamp. Breaks down to a reasonable size. Carries easily. I don't play it much these days. I'll get bored and break it out again. The Kay is what I play now. It's a 1/4 size bass. Easier for me because I've always been an electric bassist and the neck and string spacing are more suited to my hands. Has a beautiful voice, but when I show up for bluegrass jams, I have to put up with about 5 minutes of ribbing from the other players because of its smaller size (where's the rest of it?). After they calm down, they always admit that it sounds pretty dern good. I put a Barcus-Berry transducer on it some time ago and later found a Schatten mini-pre...not the "premium" setup for electrifying an upright, but to my ears, that setup sounds as good as a lot of other more expensive setups. In fact, I haven't heard anything that sounds all that great for electrifying an upright.

[CaseyVancouver]

Kays bring back memories for me.

It was my first upright, used it on my first jazz gigs, '72-74. I bought the bass for about $150 and took it home on the public bus haha! I recall the bus driver stopped the packed bus on Granville Street downtown Vancouver. Granville is the main street in a city of 600,000 people.  I was a 17 year old with crazy long blonde hair (like Jack Casady) he looked at me, paused for a second and I could read his mind. He was thinking 'do I let this long haired kid on my bus with that thing' and then with a nod ...'hop on'. No words spoken but that is what he was thinking for sure 

It was a nice clean and good sounding Kay. Should of kept it. In those days 2 or 3 gigs could pay for an upright.