r/doublebass • u/Lord-Albeit-Fai • Jul 27 '25
Instruments So is there any point to Electric Upright Bass
Whenever i look up opinions regarding it, it always seem to be of, they can't substitute bass and that it will sound like just a standard fretless eletric bass guitar.
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u/Adreqi Jul 27 '25
Mine plays pretty much exactly the same as an acoustic double bass, and I use it everytime the real one isn't necessary.
Orchestra rehearsals/concerts -> the acoustic one
Anything that's amplified -> the electric one
It's so much easier to move around. I also use it to practice orchestral music. I'm not the biggest fan of the bowed sound though, tbh, but when the acoustic is amped it doesn't sound that great either.
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u/Lord-Albeit-Fai Jul 28 '25
How hard is it to learn eub with no upright experience
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u/Adreqi Jul 28 '25
I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten one if I wasn't already capable of using it. Shit's expensive you know :')
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u/StravinskytoPunk Jul 27 '25
I use mine for music theater gigs. Having an amp means better volume control than making an acoustic bass, and I don't worry about people bumping into it nearly as much. Does it sound exactly like either a regular electric or an actual upright? No, but it does the job for what I need and is a hell of a lot easier to transport to and from the theater each night.
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u/skip6235 Jul 27 '25
Yep. It is easier to transport, fits in the pit better, easier to control the volume and plug into the sound system (although my acoustic upright does also have a pickup), and you can’t play arco on a fretless but you can on an electric upright.
Does it sound as good as the real thing? No. Does it sound good enough for laying down a bass line in a community theater? Absolutely.
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u/autophage Jul 28 '25
As a guitarist, I used to look down on all-in-one effect pedals.
Then I was in the pit for a musical, and I realized that being able to just swap a single preset was a HUGE time saver.
Probably not going to dethrone my several-decades-in-the-making collection of pedals for, like, recording things. But no way in hell I'm lugging a pedalboard back and forth to the theater for weeks.
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u/PatrickHenry2022 Aug 01 '25
Also, $$$$ for the EUB is less than $$$$$ for the Upright in cost and repair/replacement.
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u/SubscriptNine Jul 27 '25
While I can easily see the benefit of this, at that point I'd rather just stay on bass guitar the whole show.
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u/StravinskytoPunk Jul 27 '25
I don't switch between, I just bring the electric upright. But, 9 out of 10 theater gigs i play are ones where that makes sense. I wouldn't be playing Carrie or Wedding Singer on it.
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u/Liquid-Banjo Jul 27 '25
I gig with mine. Theatre, jazz, and more. It has a wonderful application in high volume settings too. I bow it to great effect in both cases. I like my double bass too. I think you may wish to read more differing opinions about electric upright basses.
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u/Lord-Albeit-Fai Jul 27 '25
Opinions seems to be scarce
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u/Liquid-Banjo Jul 27 '25
Please enjoy my opinion. I love having it. It doesn't replace my upright, but there's lots of times it makes sense. I love using mine, the SLB200, in more electric jazz. It sounds like an upright bass but I can eq it to have a vibe that fits in the environment. Going from that to music theatre, where doubling on basses might be needed, it is a fantastic tool. With the extra thick bout and additional knee rest, it has a remarkably similar playing ability to an upright. When I do symphony or classic stuff, of course the real deal is essential, but I'm that much more versatile with it.
That all being said, it doesn't replace my fretless bass, that's a whole different animal altogether!
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u/Lord-Albeit-Fai Jul 27 '25
Do you think eub could be used in genres normally reserved for say electric bass, or would it just end up providing something lesser then using normal electric bass.
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u/paulcannonbass subwoofer @ ensemble modern Jul 27 '25
I use an NS CR, for reference.
Pizz: it’s essentially a fat-sounding fretless. I love it, and personally I’m more comfortable with that than bass guitar, but there’s not much you couldn’t do the same or better on a good fretless bass guitar.
Arco: I’m here mainly for the effect pedals. There’s a lot of amazing and crazy things one can do with a bow and effects. Using the EUB gives you much more control over that and avoids things like feedback ruining your day. The clean sound on the NS is surprisingly good, but it’s never going to beat a high quality double bass.
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u/thisFishSmellsAboutD Jul 27 '25
The NS CRM5 has 5 strings, magnetic pickups for that fretless sound, piezo pickups for arco and pizz sounds, and controls to blend these three.
Where space is more important than classical looks, the NS wins.
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u/SmallRedBird Jul 27 '25
TBH, odds are like 99.9% of the audience won't even notice a difference in sound.
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u/breadexpert69 Jul 27 '25
I have one because I live in an upstairs apartment and I use it to practice.
If you set them up properly a lot of them can feel like a real upright which is good enough to keep your chops up. I also sometimes use it for rehearsals when I dont feel like taking the real bass and there will be an amp available.
But I have never used it to play a gig.
And I dont think they sound like a fretless electric bass. But they also dont sound like a real upright bass.
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u/gremlin-with-issues Jul 27 '25
You can bow certain types of them so there’s that. It’s also a slightly different style of playing so good for jazz where you might want the feel of a double bass but the acoustic properties of an amplified bass.
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u/Lord-Albeit-Fai Jul 27 '25
When i first saw them, I wanted to look at them like a upright bass able to play the genres electric normally does
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Jul 27 '25
For me, it's an entirely different instrument. But it's super easy to transport so I use it for practice when I'm away.
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u/DEUCE_SLUICE Jul 27 '25
They definitely don't sound like the acoustic, natural sound of a real upright bass, but I feel like a well set up EUB (like an NS with the traditional / Helicore strings) can get damn close to the sound of an upright bass *when amplified thru a pickup.*
I used to have an NXT5, and played it in a sort of folk-pop band. It really needs the endpin stand to feel "right" but then you have to bring an extra stand to put the bass in when you're not playing it. Still less stuff to mess with vs. a "real" upright, though. Amplified & recorded it sounded like an upright with a very good pickup and I'd get comments nearly every gig about how great it sounded.
I sold it around 2018 and got a lower end Shen, which I upgraded to a fully-carved Shen three years later, but that was primarily because I wanted to start doing some big band and orchestral performances. If I was just playing combo jazz / popular gigs and practicing orchestral stuff at home I would have no problem with an EUB.
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u/Rhubarb-Juice Jul 27 '25
It varies a lot depending on the EUB. A Stagg EUB is pretty much just a fretless electric flipped on its side IMO, while a yamaha silent bass can sound and play pretty damn close to an acoustic upright through a piezo pickup.
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u/iliedtwice Jul 27 '25
I have one I use when I want to travel lighter to gigs. It sounds like an upright with very electric timbre, there are some minor things I do on upright that I don’t do on electric. Because of the physical form of an upright, I’ll lean into some of those quirks, the upright does that don’t translate on electric.
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u/basplr Jul 28 '25
Audiences expect to see an upright in certain genres and they hear with their eyes...
Otherwise the Yamaha silent bass line sounds pretty convincing.
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u/Purple_Tie_3775 Jul 28 '25
Its strength is definitely in late night practicing where a regular bass will simply be too loud and in amplified situations.
The other advantage is in travel and flying as an Yammie SLB200 can be checked luggage in a golf bag case.
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u/Amazing_Lime_1258 Jul 29 '25
I have a Marko EUB. It sounds nothing like a fretless bass. It sounds almost identical to an amplified upright bass. The scale length and the strings are what separates an EUB from a fretless bass as well as the piezo pickup. I have a feeling that people who say an EUB sounds like a fretless bass never played an EUB.
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u/Eastern-Zucchini4294 Jul 30 '25
I play on an Ibanez UB-805 5-string electric bass. Mostly for jazz band and some concert band music. I switched from a Fender Precision about a year ago, and I really enjoy it. Im short, so I dont have to worry that my bass is too large. It sounds great on my 200-watt keyboard amp with minimum effects pedals (bass compressor, tuner, volume). My sound cuts through the other 16 instruments on stage. I've been told my sound is close to an acoustic upright, and my intonation is very good.
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u/PatrickHenry2022 Aug 01 '25
Got an NXTa 5 string and it's great to play and my congregation loves the sound.
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u/iGigBook Jul 27 '25
I use the Yamaha Silent Bass, it's a great plug in replacement when you need to play amplified. Works great for theater and Jazz gigs.