I am a double bassist and bass guitarist. I have played BG for longer than I have DB, but I play both with their respective techniques and nuances. I want to start playing in my high school’s orchestra again and I want to buy something to practice at home. An employee at a local music store was trying to sell me an Ibanez ub804. I noticed that the neck was not as curved and the scale length was shorter. Should I get one of these to practice, and how well would it translate to a real DB?
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Double Bass Ibanez EUB to DB
- Thread starter cWEED
- Start date
A less curved bridge/fingerboard is not good for bowing. You will often catch a second string. It might be a good training for a 5-string but these are not very common in the US.
The Stagg is similar in this and I try to avoid using it for bowing.
I‘m not very familiar with the Ibanez, but I think it is a solid body, so no resonance chamber. This will make bowed notes more difficult to start. So any kind of resonance chamber or moving top/bridge is better if you want to practice with the bow.
Don‘t use tripod mounted EUBs, the DB you are getting to play doesn‘t have one. The Clevinger with the angled endpin close to the bridge is not good either. I rebuilt mine to have it straight in line with the neck.
You also need to check the body support. It should not bend or move and stick to your clothes, not glide over them. But you can wrap something around it.
The common sense here is that you will be happier with and pay less for a real (cheap plywood or hybrid) DB. Specially for bowing I think that too.
The Stagg is similar in this and I try to avoid using it for bowing.
I‘m not very familiar with the Ibanez, but I think it is a solid body, so no resonance chamber. This will make bowed notes more difficult to start. So any kind of resonance chamber or moving top/bridge is better if you want to practice with the bow.
Don‘t use tripod mounted EUBs, the DB you are getting to play doesn‘t have one. The Clevinger with the angled endpin close to the bridge is not good either. I rebuilt mine to have it straight in line with the neck.
You also need to check the body support. It should not bend or move and stick to your clothes, not glide over them. But you can wrap something around it.
The common sense here is that you will be happier with and pay less for a real (cheap plywood or hybrid) DB. Specially for bowing I think that too.
I have to agree with DoubleMIDI: unless noise levels are an issue or you also want to add EUB to your repertoire, you'll be better of with a cheap second-hand plywood acoustic.
Practising DB on a BG's scale length doesn't seem like such a great thing to me. You didn't mention whether playing arco is a factor, but if it is, you'll also want to consider that. I haven't found EUB to be more difficult to bow myself, but I have noticed that my WAV4 sounds awful under the bow. My Stico sounds very nice, at least to my ears... but that's way out of a student's budget.
There was a thread about the UB804 when it came out; you'll probably find it worthwhile to search for it and read through it, to see whether anybody here bought one and shared their experiences with it.
Practising DB on a BG's scale length doesn't seem like such a great thing to me. You didn't mention whether playing arco is a factor, but if it is, you'll also want to consider that. I haven't found EUB to be more difficult to bow myself, but I have noticed that my WAV4 sounds awful under the bow. My Stico sounds very nice, at least to my ears... but that's way out of a student's budget.
There was a thread about the UB804 when it came out; you'll probably find it worthwhile to search for it and read through it, to see whether anybody here bought one and shared their experiences with it.
Love my UB804, easier to get a good tone than my NSdesign NXT and with Thomastik Infeld jazz flat wounds is outstanding at bowing. It's my third EUB and my favorite. I am still keeping the NXT. As far as 34 inch scale, so what. I do not own a nice Double Bass, in fact have been using the same Meisal Plywood 3/4 bass since my mom bought it for me in 1966. At 63 years old it's a hell of lot easier to carry an EUB to a big band gig and rehearsal. However, Provided the next musical I'm in is not cancelled because of the Pandemic I plan on using the Meisal.
Depends on what you are trying to practice. If the idea is just to learn the material, well, maybe. Working on fingerings, position shifts, etc.? Nope.
The constant ergonomic adjustment between scale lengths and the tiny body (there's no need to actually play in thumb position on a stick bass) make it a bad idea in my view. Either get a full sized EUB or as suggested above, a plywood beater.
What instrument do you use at school?
The constant ergonomic adjustment between scale lengths and the tiny body (there's no need to actually play in thumb position on a stick bass) make it a bad idea in my view. Either get a full sized EUB or as suggested above, a plywood beater.
What instrument do you use at school?
I’ve played electric bass since about the mid-70’s and started learning how to play upright 3 yrs ago. I agree with the others that the Ibanez EUB at a 34” scale length is really not an appropriate substitute for practicing towards playing on a full scale upright scale, and you certainly can’t play arco on it due to lack of curvature. I had a Stagg EUB, it was just OK for use as my practice beach bass I’d take to my cottage, but it allowed me to practice without schlepping a 3/4 upright. About a year ago I found a used Yamaha SLB 200 EUB cheap on eBay that had some issues. It has a chambered body, a 41” string length, good curvature to play arco, it sounds pretty good with the Zyex strings I put on it amplified and it is loud enough, especially playing arco, to practice without amplification. But new, I think the Yamaha is very pricey, and my 200 did not come with the body frame which is a major reason I got it so cheap. If you have the room at home for practicing and won’t need to move it, why not buy a laminate upright for use at home. You can get an Engelhardt or other laminated upright cheaper then a good EUB that properly emulates an upright, at least for scale length. Otherwise keep your eyes open for a good used EUB that is close to the scale length of the upright you perform with at school.
The ibanez no, it's more like a fretless BG held upright. It's best to practice on the instrument you will be performing on, I don't know why you wouldn't be able to take your instrument home to practice. Palatino, Emminence, and Yamaha make EUBs that are more analogous to DBs, but EUB is still kind of its own thing, especially when you're talking classical music. If they aren't letting you bring the school bass home, measure the scale length, and find a cheap DB to buy or rent, my .02.
Any that has a curved fingerboard and true scale. There are EUBs made by Yamaha, NS Design, Clevinger, Palatino, etc. The Ergo's pick up fails right away, otherwise they would be great.
EUBs are good for loud concerts, travel and silent practice. I can't say the same for plywood basses!