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Double Bass
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Equipment
I play a 3/4 size bass by Andreas Zeller of Prague with a solid spruce top, a plywood back and an ebony fingerboard. I use Thomastik Dominant orchestral gauge strings and a French pattern bow by Knoll.
The top of the bass was split by a drunken idiot falling on it at a pub gig, and the neck has been broken at the heel and repaired, but that was my fault.
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The bass is wired up with a Fishman B - 100 peizo-ceramic pickup and a Fishman BP - 100 pre-amp.
Fishman are a great company. I recently had to contact Joe B., their technical wizard for some information about repairing my preamp, and he just stuck some parts in an envelope for me and posted them to me airmail from the States at no charge. I don't know of another company that would do that for me and turn it around in less than a fortnight. I am beaming loads of good karma their way.
Bass Guitar
I play an Ibanez Road Star II four-string bass. It's black, as if you hadn't guessed. It has four strings on it, but I can't remember what kind they are.
Electronics
That lot is connected to three Korg pedals, a TU-2 tuner pedal, a BF-2 flanger pedal (more effective at bass frequencies than a chorus pedal) and an LS-2 line selector for switching between double bass and bass guitar.
They're all strung together with home-made OFC cables fitted with Neutrik 6.32mm connectors. I tried using lead-free solder the first time I put them together, but it seems to be adhesion-free as well as lead-free. Conclusive proof that heavy metal still rules...
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The whole lot goes into a Hartke HS-1200 Kickback bass amplifier via a DBX MC6 mini-compressor. I'm on the lookout for a decent quality valve amplifier head of around 50 watts RMS. If you have any ideas, let me know
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The double bass is the largest instrument of the viol family: the violin; the viola; the 'cello (violoncello to give it its Sunday name); and the double bass. There are conflicting theories as to why it is called the double bass, but I favour the one that says that it was originally supposed to play the 'cello part in an orchestra, except an octave down (twice as bassy: double bass). The French, Italians and Germans know it as the counter-bass (contrabasse, contrabasso, kontrabass), which would tend to support that theory. In brass band terminology this 'octave down' part is known as the pedal bass, perhaps a reference to the role that the pedals play in a church organ? Anyway, some time in the 18th century it became acceptable, or fashionable, to have a separate bass line in a piece of music, so instead of playing the cello part an octave down, the double bass took on a life of its own. It is now even a solo instrument with classical concertos and jazz pieces in which it plays the main themes.
The rest of the viol family are tuned in 7ths: 7 semitones difference between each string. The violin is tuned to G (lowest); D; A; E (highest), the 'cello to C (lowest); G; D; A (highest). There is a problem in that respect with the double bass, however. The human hand cannot span seven semitones on a string the length of a double bass string. So the double bass is tuned in fifths. This is the same as the tuning of the bottom four strings of a guitar (or the strings of a bass guitar). Another physical limitation is the strength required to hold the strings down on the fingerboard: if played improperly, the double bass can cause carpal tunnel damage, or distort the metacarpal bones of younger players. So technique is not just about sounding right: bad technique can cripple you.
Simandl and Rabbath
Simandl and Rabbath are the two main theorists of double bass left hand technique, and they conflict with each other (of course). This is a bit like the choice between Rangers and Celtic; the Beatles and the Stones; or Gibsonians and all the rest of the psychologists: You are one or the other, and if you're one, the other is just plain wrong.
Simandl used extension fingerings where Rabbath did not. Simandl used the index finger of the left hand to cover the first two semitones of any string in any hand position, keeping the thumb still until you move to the next position up or down the fingerboard. Rabbath only used three fingers: the index; the middle; and the ring finger and pinkie together (the two distal phalanges use the same muscles in the forearm, so that makes sense), and used more positions on the fingerboard. Simandlists (Simandlistas?) claim that their system is the best to learn with and should therefore be taught to all double bass students. Rabbath-ists (apologies to any Iraqis reading this) say that the Rabbath method is best suited to human physiology, and the hand positions correspond to the natural harmonics of the strings, so even though it is more difficult to learn it produces a more natural and sustainable playing style.
I learnt to play bass by watching videos of old jazz players and just doing what felt right. I do not follow either of the above styles, and it's not because I'm a rebel and I refuse to conform to anyone else's rules: it's because I am poorly educated. I've been playing for over ten years and I've never had a lesson. So get some lessons and don't be a half-arsed amateur like me.
French and German pattern bows
There are two distinct types of bass bow: the French pattern; and the German pattern. The French pattern is like a violin or cello bow: you hold it along the stick part of the bow with the knuckles of your right hand parallel to the stick. A German pattern bow has a much deeper frog (the part of the bow that connects the horsehair at the bottom end, and which is moved to control the tension of the bow), and you hold it with your fingers on the frog and your thumb over the top of the stick.
The German pattern bow is on the top; the French pattern bow is on the bottom.
The volume of a bass note is controlled to a great degree by the pressure of the bow on the string rather than the speed at which it is moving across the string, so with a French pattern bow, the forefinger does all the work, but with a German pattern bow the thumb does all the work. I favour the French bow because I started on the 'cello, so I already had some technique going there.
Bass bows can come with either black or white horsehair: the black is a coarser hair and creates a louder sound, but the tone is not so smooth; the white hair is finer and produces a smoother but quieter tone.
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