electric upright

[Specialsauce]

i just had a few questions about electric upright.

First: Can you go to a music college for electric upright?

Second: How much will an electric upright cost?

Third: Can you run it through a regular bass amp? is a bigger amp required?

Last: Can i transfer my knowledge of the bass guitar to the upright? will i need a teacher?

Thanks in advance.

[fingerstyle]

Originally Posted by Specialsauce

i just had a few questions about electric upright.

First: Can you go to a music college for electric upright?

Second: How much will an electric upright cost?

Third: Can you run it through a regular bass amp? is a bigger amp required?

Last: Can i transfer my knowledge of the bass guitar to the upright? will i need a teacher?

Thanks in advance.

The electric upright is a substitute for the acoustic double/upright bass. Music colleges teach electrc bass and upright bass, and it is assumed that the elctric upright is just the same as an acoustic upright, so yes music colleges would accept you on electric upright, but you would study the same things as an upright bass student.

An electric upright can cost ALOT. The cheapest, good quality one I've found is the Spector NS4 which goes for about 5000 AUS.

Yes you can run it thru a regular bass amp.

And yes, there are transferable skills between electric and upright. But, technique is VERY important on upright, and theres no way you will develop good technique without a teacher's assistance.

[Chaos]

upright is very difficult compared to the bass guitar, if you decide to go through with learning how to play, brace yourself and don't expect anything like bass guitar.

you DEFINITELY WILL need a GOOD teacher to learn how to play and when you mean electric upright, I don't know what you mean but you can buy a pick up and put it on an upright, and have that run into a bass guitar amplifier.

I'm still pretty new to all of this, havic should post in this thread.

also get a technique book called Franz Simandl's new technique for double bass

Something like that.


edit: about the transferable skills, the only things that seemed to transfer over for me was a rough idea of where notes are and finger speed.

[fingerstyle]

Ther TS talking about dedicated Electric Upright basses, i.e. the ones that have no bodies and such. I think that's what he's referring to.

[psbassplayer]

idk if colleges accept that. thats a good question.

Peace

-psbass

[fingerstyle]

They wouldn't accept it for classical studies, but they would for jazz.

[psbassplayer]

which ones?

[HaVIC5]

1. While fingerstyle's conclusion is reasonable, in general, music college will not accept you on electric upright. Acoustic upright itself is much, much different in feel and tone to electric upright. Think of it as the difference between classical nylon acoustic and electric archtop. While a valid instrument (I think so, at any rate), most jazz and classical academic circles look upon the electric upright as a novelty and would not teach you on electric upright. I've never heard of a school, with the very very slight possibility of an exception with Berklee, that would do this.

2. I've seen anywhere from 600 to 6,000. I'd advise getting a "real" upright first before electric upright, but that's just me. My bass teacher has both and brings the electric on gigs where portability is key.

3. Regular amps are perfectly fine.

4. For electric upright, you probably won't need a teacher so much as on acoustic upright. Like Chaos said, you'll need a good teacher, mainly to prevent injury and sustain the best economy of motion, since the instrument is among the most physically demanding of all instruments to play.

[psbassplayer]

thats wat i thought^^^^

[fingerstyle]

Originally Posted by HaVIC5

1. While fingerstyle's conclusion is reasonable, in general, music college will not accept you on electric upright. Acoustic upright itself is much, much different in feel and tone to electric upright. Think of it as the difference between classical nylon acoustic and electric archtop. While a valid instrument (I think so, at any rate), most academic circles look upon the electric upright as a novelty and would not teach you on electric upright. I've never heard of a school, with the very very slight possibility of Berklee, that would do this.

Thanks for that insight.

Yes, you're right, the electric is more for acoustic double bass players looking for something else, and not an instrument on its own.

However, from what I've seen, students can get into a music college on an upright, and at a later date decide to change their instrument. Ie, I might get in on a four string bass, but later on I might buy myself a 7 string.