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Set Up Archives

Things to Know About the Bridge on Your Upright Bass
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Things to Know About the Bridge on Your Upright Bass

Having a properly set up bridge on your upright is an important factor in the playability, sound and the long-term health of your instrument. Here are some things every upright player should know: The internal, not external, notches you see on the F-holes determine the proper distance of the bridge from the fingerboard. They should correspond, more or less, to...

Heavy Music with a Hollow Body Bass?
Ask Damian Erskine

Heavy Music with a Hollow Body Bass?

Q: Here’s my problem: I’m a big fan of archtop guitars and I love the lighter tonal quality. I also don’t like playing solid body basses since they don’t go well with my slightly weaker left shoulder (which is made worse since I’m left-handed but play right-handed). That’s not the real problem though. The big problem is that the band...

Low Action on a Bass: The Pros & Cons
Ask Damian Erskine

Low Action on a Bass: The Pros & Cons

Q: I was at a bass players’ get-together a while back, and I noticed the other cats have their action set really low, and some used ramps like yourself. A lot of high dollar basses too. I thought “this is too low for me”, and I was pulling too hard. My basses feel good to me, and I like a...

Butter Strings: A Guide to Finding the Best Bass Strings for You
Ask Damian Erskine

Butter Strings: A Guide to Finding the Best Bass Strings for You

Q: What’s the best way to smoothen up my playing? I notice that a lot of bass players play like the strings are made of wool. I play a basic 4-string Cort G-series model, but I always get the feeling the strings are way to hard/high to play smoothly, or when I lower them, they make a lousy sound because...

Getting to Know Your Bass: How Many Strings Does It Take to Screw In A Lightbulb?
Getting to Know Your Bass

Getting to Know Your Bass: How Many Strings Does It Take to Screw In A Lightbulb?

Ok, this column’s title is a bad joke (feel free to come up with you own punch line). In the past few columns of this “Getting To Know” series, we’ve examined a number of topics that relate to what your instrument can do, why you prefer it, and how that impacts your playing ability on the instrument. After discussing tone...

Getting to Know Your Bass: How Your Bass’s Action Influences What You Can Do
Getting to Know Your Bass

Getting to Know Your Bass: How Your Bass’s Action Influences What You Can Do

Keeping up with Getting to Know Your Bass series, today we’ll take a look at the action of your bass and how that influences what you can play. While your action doesn’t necessarily impact your note choice, it certainly factors into the amount of force necessary to play the instrument and the techniques that you use while playing. Ultimately, you...

Upright Bass Set Up for Playability and Sound – Part 2
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Upright Bass Set Up for Playability and Sound – Part 2

This is part 2 of this series by Dr. D. Check out Part 1. Set Up for Sound In terms of sound, there are any number of things that can affect the volume, sustain and tone of your instrument. The bottom line is that everything you do to the instrument matters. Strings matter. Tailpiece length matters. Tailpiece weight matters. Tailpiece...

Upright Bass Set Up for Playability and Sound
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Upright Bass Set Up for Playability and Sound

I thought I would address a question left on No Treble’s Facebook page regarding string action on upright and volume discrepancies between different strings by talking a bit about set up on the upright bass. When someone talks about getting the upright bass set up, they are referring to a number of things, from bridge height to curve of the...