Not just the best explanation of characteristics to look for in buying a string bass, but the best and most useful explanation I’ve seen of any stringed instrument. I applaud your efforts!
Unquestionably, the best, most informative video, I have currently seen on the beginner's introduction to the upright bass. Thank you, very much Vielen Dank!
Great video with very useful information! I would like to start with double bass lessons and so i am gathering information about it. You really took your time in the video to explain all about buying a first upright bass. Thank you very much!
Thanks Hervé. For me, walking in into a specialised dealer's shop close to me (in Frankfurt), I instantly fell in love with the cheapest Romanian carved bass they had there. But that was a bit out of my price range, and hard to justify to spend almost 3k as a beginner, so I got lucky and got a really nicely setup plywood (same brand as the dealers also had), together with some extras for about 1.2k - an exceptional value. Have it since ten months now, and love it more each day. So I did as you say here in your very good advice, thanks for that... Additional costs: I replaced the Presto Nylon strings on it with Spiro Lights, and I'm also looking for some nice but not too expensive French bow next...
Brilliant video. Intelligent. In the jazz guitar world it’s generally accepted that laminate is less prone to amplification feed back than carved wood. Also a well made laminate guitar is better than a badly made solid carved wood instrument in my experience. So most working players will use a decent laminate guitar with amplification. I know they are very different beasts to double bass but it’s a valid comparison I think.
There are so many variables that you also need to trust your instincts. There should be an emotional connection between instrument and player. For some, the color of the laquer will be of major importance :)
Hervé, thanks for the video! it's a great double bass channel ☺️ I add my experience with my cheap double bass for the ones how are thinking about buying one. In 2008 I bought a cheap chinese Cremona sb-1 in order to start studying at the music conservatory. The first three years it was ok for playing studies and small pieces, but in 2011 I started to play high intonation concerts and I decided to take the bass to a Luthier (Alberto Solari) and he changed the tailpiece and bridge and he made an extraordinary work given a short action between the fingerboard and nut. For strings I chose Thomastik spirocore solo. In 2016 I was playing Bottesini's n°2 for my final concert at the conservatory with that bass. So, in my personal experience, if it's your first bass + the bass is in really good shape + you have it set it up by a professional = you are getting a nice instrument to starting to feel this beautiful sensation of being a double bass player ❣️
Hi Hernán, thank you very much! Great to hear that you have been successful with a cheap bass! Yes, sometimes you can be lucky with these basses. And you confirm the importance of a good setup.Cheers!
As an oktavist looking for a double bass this was most useful. I have plans on using it with vocals which is something I haven't heard before and have been eager to try out.
@@stringmatrix Well, you might know it better as basso profondo. Which is technically wrong because they often can't sing lower than B0. However, usually in the low bass world Basso Profondo (Least resonant voice), Okatavist (moderate resonance), and Contra-Bass (most resonant and widest sounding voice) all mean the same thing their just different flavors of tone and timber. I would classify as a basso profondo/oktavist, I'm somewhere in the middle.
I owned an acoustic upright for 20years, and if i had to do it all over again, I would buy an electric upright . I reccommend an NS Design WAV. It also has all the dots (small) on the fingerboard. Itis easier to transport or just sit in your chair and practice your playing unamplified.
I’m looking to purchase my first upright bass, and this video was wonderfully informative and answered all my questions and concerns. I’ve currently got my eye on a used Shen SB88 for a fair price. I’ll see if the seller will agree to meet at a local upright store to have it looked over first. If things seem good then it just might come home with me.
Thank you very much for this great video!! Very good to keep your points of attention in mind while searching a double bass. It all sounds logical, great to find all tips in one video.
Great video, unfortunately basses are still a bit expensive compared to other strings instruments, my case I had to study until university with a plywood Korean made doublebass
Very informative video, thanks a lot for all the work! Watching it on my iPad I have to confess I couldn‘t hear big differences between the plywood bass and the carved ones - in a band context I wouldn‘t for the love of god be able to tell the difference. :-)
Super vidéo Merci !!! L'extrait musical à la fin est vraiment très beau, du coup je suis entrain d'écouter le disque. Belle musique et très joli son de contrebasse...aaaaaah le boyaux :)
@@stringmatrix Et non malheureusement pas encore sur Spotify. Je n'ai enregistré qu'en tant que sideman sur des disques auto-produits qui ont une petite dizaine d'années et ne sont pas en ligne. Je pense que 2021 (max 2022) sera l'année de l'enregistrement de mes compos. A suivre.
@@jazzcontrebasse Oui j'étais dans une situation similaire, et l'album en duo est une première tentative de me présenter comme artiste. Ça fait du bien et je prépare le prochain où j'essayerai de faire plus de pub/promo.
Hi. You helped me to identify some specs about my double bass. But I need some help, just to be sure about the wood and maybe the origin so I can buy it, Could you help me?
Hello! I really appreciate this video. It’s really hard for me to determine the quality of this bass I am looking at currently. The bass is a 5/8 european flatback made of maple from the ~1870s? I have some audio clips of the bass being played but my ear is not good enough to understand the quality. Do you mind helping me with this? I would really appreciate it.
very good video , thank you . you don't realy speak about " la touche "(fingerboard) , la mienne est en érable..pas aussi dur que l'ébène. bonne quand même. j'aurais voulu en savoir plus sur ça et: pourquoi certain donne une courbe a la touche ? merci beaucoup
Bonjour, je n'ai pas beaucoup d'expérience avec des touches autres que l'ébène. A mon avis le cordes "creusent" plus rapidement si ce n'est pas de l'ébène et ça donne des "bruits". En ce qui concerne la courbe je ne m'y connais pas vraiment non plus. Il faudrait que je fasse des interviews avec des luthiers pour avoir des infos, ce serait un bon plan pour une vidéo!
@@stringmatrix oui ,expliquer le mouvement d'une corde et expliquer la forme courber d'une touche pour donner libre court a la corde peut être le sujet d'une super vidéo comme tu sais le faire!!!😀👍 merci pour ta réponse, je pense la même chose
Sehr hilfreiches Video, vielen Dank. Hast du Erfahrung bezüglich der massiven Thomann Kontrabässe? Soweit ich weiß werden diese in Rumänien von Hora gefertigt. Sehr preisgünstig, durchgängig gute Bewertung, aber ich frage mich schon ob ich da an der falschen Stelle spare..
Danke Norman! Ich glaube, dass ich mal einen Hora gespielt habe und sehr angetan war. Ich weiß aber nicht, wie sich diese Instrumente entwickeln. Aber mein erster Eindruck war: Gutes Instrument, mit einem guten Setup ist das schon eine prima solide Sache.
@@stringmatrix Hallo, ich hab den Hora (3/4) mittlerweile schon und kann sagen das er wirklich chic und prima ist. Demnächst neuer Stachel (zu kurz für mich) und evtl. Perpetuals drauf (Hora hat recht dunklen Klang) und dann ist das ein überraschend gutes Instrument. Auch bei der Saitenwahl hat mir deine Stringmatrix immens geholfen. Vielen Dank
What’s the difference between a tololoche and a double bass ? My bridge on my tololoche snapped in half and I’m trying to buy a new bridge but all I see are double bass ones :/
I didn't know about tololoche until I read your comment. Seems to be very similar to double bass. But even for double bass you can't just buy a "double bass bridge" and put it on the bass. First you need a "raw" bridge which has to be ok for your bass (height, distance of feet etc...). Then you have to work on the raw bridge and shape it (especially the feet but also the rest) to make a good bridge.
As far as I know, tololoche isn't as standardized and has different features depending on who built it. Also I think they are tuned A to C not E to G right? The G string being the second highest
Would it be wrong to buy a student bass or beginner bass if your just trying to learn or get a feel for the double bass but not looking to be professional? If nothing else I believe it’s a beautiful piece of furniture I don’t mean to sound silly but it is .
Basically there is nothing wrong with this idea. But, as said in the video, with a cheap bass you have a risk that after some time either some hardware parts don't work properly or the wood "changes" in some way and this can alter the sound or the playability of the bass in a negative way. But that's not a general rule. You may have luck with a beginner bass that doesn't alter after a couple of years.
@@stringmatrix is it possible to find a place that can properly set up the bass for me ? I noticed some music stores do not even sell basses anymore. I tried Sam Ash and Guitar Center
@@saintanthony7718 I don't know where you live, but the best way is to ask some professional bass players in your town who they can recommend. It's true big shops often don't fix/ set up basses. It's better to go to specialized luthiers.
Interressantes Video, aber leider stellenweise alle paar Sekunden ein Schnitt, teilweise mehrere Schnitte im Satz, du ruckelst hinund her und ich kann da kaum folgen. Also ich fand das sehr störend. Übrigens ich hatte vor 11 Jahren Glück mit einem China Bass für 600€, aber auch erst im zweiten Anlauf und ich kenne einen, der mußte seinen Chinabass erstmal zum Setup wegschaffen. Mittlerweile muss man wohl wenigstens 800€ in die Hand nehmen, ich hätte aber keine Skrupel, so einen Bass bei bestimmten Händlern zu kaufen, die sich um das Setup kümmern. Beim Kauf jemanden mitnehmen, der Ahnung hat ist am Besten. Gruß Herb
Great video. I like this guy, he is both relaxing and a serious person. He sounds German?, I like Germans. Do not like the video editing. All the little cuts are hard to watch.
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
Not just the best explanation of characteristics to look for in buying a string bass, but the best and most useful explanation I’ve seen of any stringed instrument. I applaud your efforts!
Thank you very much!
Wooooowww, is this the best explainer video about doublebasses on youtube? YES it is!
So nice thanks very much!!
thanks for this great video. oh and by the way, "the shape of slices of salmon" that's an avantgarde song title right there
Haha yes right, thanks for this idea, I'll have to compose that song!!
@@stringmatrix do you have a video on writing for double bass
Unquestionably, the best, most informative video, I have currently seen on the beginner's introduction to the upright bass. Thank you, very much Vielen Dank!
Thank you very much for your comment Terry! Happy that you appreciate my work!
Great video with very useful information! I would like to start with double bass lessons and so i am gathering information about it. You really took your time in the video to explain all about buying a first upright bass. Thank you very much!
I am glad that my video helped you, thanks for the message!
Thanks Hervé. For me, walking in into a specialised dealer's shop close to me (in Frankfurt), I instantly fell in love with the cheapest Romanian carved bass they had there. But that was a bit out of my price range, and hard to justify to spend almost 3k as a beginner, so I got lucky and got a really nicely setup plywood (same brand as the dealers also had), together with some extras for about 1.2k - an exceptional value. Have it since ten months now, and love it more each day. So I did as you say here in your very good advice, thanks for that...
Additional costs: I replaced the Presto Nylon strings on it with Spiro Lights, and I'm also looking for some nice but not too expensive French bow next...
Thanks. I figured out from your video I bought 2 great Basses. 1 carved - 1 hybrid.
Not gonna lie, I watch your videos just to hear you play :D
Love the content!
Thank you so much!!
Looking for my first bass....very helpful! Thanks!
Even though I have played 3/4 size bass for many years I always discover something I didn't know before from your videos.
Thanks very much!
Today it was the D neck vs the E flat neck. Mine is a D neck, but I never knew there were alternates.
I don't care what bass you play. You sound great. Charley Haden would be proud of you!
Thank you so much for this wonderful kudo!!
Excellent content sir, fine presentation. The difference between quarter sawn plywood and laminate was an education for me.
Thank you so much for your advice!
Brilliant video. Intelligent.
In the jazz guitar world it’s generally accepted that laminate is less prone to amplification feed back than carved wood. Also a well made laminate guitar is better than a badly made solid carved wood instrument in my experience. So most working players will use a decent laminate guitar with amplification.
I know they are very different beasts to double bass but it’s a valid comparison I think.
Thank you! Yes i definitely agree!
Yours tips are awesome, thank you very much!
There are so many variables that you also need to trust your instincts. There should be an emotional connection between instrument and player. For some, the color of the laquer will be of major importance :)
I agree!! Another interesting thing: When I just see a bass, I often have a "vision" of it's sound and many times my instinct was right.
Hervé, thanks for the video! it's a great double bass channel ☺️ I add my experience with my cheap double bass for the ones how are thinking about buying one. In 2008 I bought a cheap chinese Cremona sb-1 in order to start studying at the music conservatory. The first three years it was ok for playing studies and small pieces, but in 2011 I started to play high intonation concerts and I decided to take the bass to a Luthier (Alberto Solari) and he changed the tailpiece and bridge and he made an extraordinary work given a short action between the fingerboard and nut. For strings I chose Thomastik spirocore solo. In 2016 I was playing Bottesini's n°2 for my final concert at the conservatory with that bass. So, in my personal experience, if it's your first bass + the bass is in really good shape + you have it set it up by a professional = you are getting a nice instrument to starting to feel this beautiful sensation of being a double bass player ❣️
Hi Hernán, thank you very much! Great to hear that you have been successful with a cheap bass! Yes, sometimes you can be lucky with these basses. And you confirm the importance of a good setup.Cheers!
Thanks for making this video alot of this info isn't made known unless you hang around seasoned bassists.
Philadelphia's Mummer string bands MARCH with dbl. bases.
thanks for taking the time to be helpful to me and others.
thank you so much for your video. i got all the information i wanted know about upright bass!
Thank you for this great video! So informative and helpful!
I also see you have the Evah Pirazzi E and A with the Olive gut D and G. Great sounding set! I have that set on my bass at the moment
Yes that's a really nice combination.
Thank you for your comprehensive videos! Like it!😉👋🏻
Thank you so much for explaining all of this. This was very helpful!!!
Very informative thanks 👍🏼
Excellent overview 👍
Nice and useful piece of advice.
Great lesson, I play bass guitar, just for fun, and I’m thinking about having one upright double bass. Your guide lines were so valuable! Thanks!
Thank you for your feedback!
thanks for the talk...i found it very interesting and will watch again
Thank you so much, your videos are great and are so clear and concise.
Best, Kev.
Thank you very much!
As an oktavist looking for a double bass this was most useful. I have plans on using it with vocals which is something I haven't heard before and have been eager to try out.
Sounds very interesting! I had to Google what an oktavist is, good luck with this project!
@@stringmatrix Well, you might know it better as basso profondo. Which is technically wrong because they often can't sing lower than B0. However, usually in the low bass world Basso Profondo (Least resonant voice), Okatavist (moderate resonance), and Contra-Bass (most resonant and widest sounding voice) all mean the same thing their just different flavors of tone and timber. I would classify as a basso profondo/oktavist, I'm somewhere in the middle.
@@patrickcrabb6212 I hope I'll get an opportunity to hear your voice!
Your video is very informative! Thank you for all of the great tips.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video!
I am looking at a few 3/4 sxcale.. just to do a Rock a Billy finish on it.! mainly a keybordist-guitarist and a studio in back! 2022
Great sound in the very opener of the video (violin shaped one?).
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!! It's so useful!!!
Excellent video!
I owned an acoustic upright for 20years, and if i had to do it all over again, I would buy an electric upright . I reccommend an NS Design WAV. It also has all the dots (small) on the fingerboard. Itis easier to transport or just sit in your chair and practice your playing unamplified.
I’m looking to purchase my first upright bass, and this video was wonderfully informative and answered all my questions and concerns.
I’ve currently got my eye on a used Shen SB88 for a fair price. I’ll see if the seller will agree to meet at a local upright store to have it looked over first. If things seem good then it just might come home with me.
Sounds good! Good luck James!
Thank you very much for this great video!! Very good to keep your points of attention in mind while searching a double bass. It all sounds logical, great to find all tips in one video.
Thank you Andreas!
Very useful, thank you
Great video, unfortunately basses are still a bit expensive compared to other strings instruments, my case I had to study until university with a plywood Korean made doublebass
Very informative video, thanks a lot for all the work! Watching it on my iPad I have to confess I couldn‘t hear big differences between the plywood bass and the carved ones - in a band context I wouldn‘t for the love of god be able to tell the difference. :-)
Super vidéo Merci !!! L'extrait musical à la fin est vraiment très beau, du coup je suis entrain d'écouter le disque. Belle musique et très joli son de contrebasse...aaaaaah le boyaux :)
Oh merci beaucoup ! Est-ce qu'il y a moyen de t'écouter sur Spotify etc?
@@stringmatrix Et non malheureusement pas encore sur Spotify. Je n'ai enregistré qu'en tant que sideman sur des disques auto-produits qui ont une petite dizaine d'années et ne sont pas en ligne. Je pense que 2021 (max 2022) sera l'année de l'enregistrement de mes compos. A suivre.
@@jazzcontrebasse Oui j'étais dans une situation similaire, et l'album en duo est une première tentative de me présenter comme artiste. Ça fait du bien et je prépare le prochain où j'essayerai de faire plus de pub/promo.
@@stringmatrix Yes ! en tout cas ce disque en duo est une réussite !!! Bravo 👏
@@jazzcontrebasse Merci beaucoup, ça me fait vraiment plaisir !
Hi. You helped me to identify some specs about my double bass. But I need some help, just to be sure about the wood and maybe the origin so I can buy it, Could you help me?
Master bassist
Hello! I really appreciate this video. It’s really hard for me to determine the quality of this bass I am looking at currently. The bass is a 5/8 european flatback made of maple from the ~1870s? I have some audio clips of the bass being played but my ear is not good enough to understand the quality. Do you mind helping me with this? I would really appreciate it.
It will probably be very difficult to rate the bass with soundclips. But if I can help somehow, just send me an email (check my website).
very good video , thank you . you don't realy speak about " la touche "(fingerboard) , la mienne est en érable..pas aussi dur que l'ébène. bonne quand même.
j'aurais voulu en savoir plus sur ça et: pourquoi certain donne une courbe a la touche ?
merci beaucoup
Bonjour, je n'ai pas beaucoup d'expérience avec des touches autres que l'ébène. A mon avis le cordes "creusent" plus rapidement si ce n'est pas de l'ébène et ça donne des "bruits". En ce qui concerne la courbe je ne m'y connais pas vraiment non plus. Il faudrait que je fasse des interviews avec des luthiers pour avoir des infos, ce serait un bon plan pour une vidéo!
@@stringmatrix oui ,expliquer le mouvement d'une corde et expliquer la forme courber d'une touche pour donner libre court a la corde peut être le sujet d'une super vidéo comme tu sais le faire!!!😀👍 merci pour ta réponse, je pense la même chose
Herzlichen Dank!
Sehr hilfreiches Video, vielen Dank. Hast du Erfahrung bezüglich der massiven Thomann Kontrabässe? Soweit ich weiß werden diese in Rumänien von Hora gefertigt. Sehr preisgünstig, durchgängig gute Bewertung, aber ich frage mich schon ob ich da an der falschen Stelle spare..
Danke Norman! Ich glaube, dass ich mal einen Hora gespielt habe und sehr angetan war. Ich weiß aber nicht, wie sich diese Instrumente entwickeln. Aber mein erster Eindruck war: Gutes Instrument, mit einem guten Setup ist das schon eine prima solide Sache.
@@stringmatrix Hallo, ich hab den Hora (3/4) mittlerweile schon und kann sagen das er wirklich chic und prima ist. Demnächst neuer Stachel (zu kurz für mich) und evtl. Perpetuals drauf (Hora hat recht dunklen Klang) und dann ist das ein überraschend gutes Instrument. Auch bei der Saitenwahl hat mir deine Stringmatrix immens geholfen. Vielen Dank
What’s the difference between a tololoche and a double bass ? My bridge on my tololoche snapped in half and I’m trying to buy a new bridge but all I see are double bass ones :/
I didn't know about tololoche until I read your comment. Seems to be very similar to double bass. But even for double bass you can't just buy a "double bass bridge" and put it on the bass. First you need a "raw" bridge which has to be ok for your bass (height, distance of feet etc...). Then you have to work on the raw bridge and shape it (especially the feet but also the rest) to make a good bridge.
As far as I know, tololoche isn't as standardized and has different features depending on who built it. Also I think they are tuned A to C not E to G right? The G string being the second highest
Do you have some suggestion around 2000 euros?
Would have been hilarious if he said, if you need to know the price, pick a different instrument that you can afford.
Would it be wrong to buy a student bass or beginner bass if your just trying to learn or get a feel for the double bass but not looking to be professional? If nothing else I believe it’s a beautiful piece of furniture I don’t mean to sound silly but it is .
Basically there is nothing wrong with this idea. But, as said in the video, with a cheap bass you have a risk that after some time either some hardware parts don't work properly or the wood "changes" in some way and this can alter the sound or the playability of the bass in a negative way. But that's not a general rule. You may have luck with a beginner bass that doesn't alter after a couple of years.
@@stringmatrix is it possible to find a place that can properly set up the bass for me ? I noticed some music stores do not even sell basses anymore. I tried Sam Ash and Guitar Center
@@saintanthony7718 I don't know where you live, but the best way is to ask some professional bass players in your town who they can recommend. It's true big shops often don't fix/ set up basses. It's better to go to specialized luthiers.
“A bass with a round back has a more solid construction than a flat back.” You can say that again! 🍑 Hey-o!
Haha 😃 no hidden message intended.....
i don’t know any upright players tho
Interressantes Video, aber leider stellenweise alle paar Sekunden ein Schnitt, teilweise mehrere Schnitte im Satz, du ruckelst hinund her und ich kann da kaum folgen. Also ich fand das sehr störend.
Übrigens ich hatte vor 11 Jahren Glück mit einem China Bass für 600€, aber auch erst im zweiten Anlauf und ich kenne einen, der mußte seinen Chinabass erstmal zum Setup wegschaffen. Mittlerweile muss man wohl wenigstens 800€ in die Hand nehmen, ich hätte aber keine Skrupel, so einen Bass bei bestimmten Händlern zu kaufen, die sich um das Setup kümmern. Beim Kauf jemanden mitnehmen, der Ahnung hat ist am Besten.
Gruß Herb
Ich bin nicht der geborene Englisch Moderator... Ich hatte auch keinen ausgeschriebenen Skript. Vielleicht mache ich das in Zukunft.
Great video. I like this guy, he is both relaxing and a serious person. He sounds German?, I like Germans.
Do not like the video editing. All the little cuts are hard to watch.
Many thanks! Very useful