Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has communicated birthday wishes via phone message, email, or on their journals! You are a wonderful and loving bunch of people, and I am honoured to call you all my friends.
The weather is lovely, which is a gift in and of itself. My birthday celebration began a wee bit early; last night, in fact, when t! and I went to to hang out with Jes, the bassist of local Celtic band Squidjigger, and I came home with a new friend. Almost exactly thirteen years to the day after I bought my cello, a new bass instrument has entered my life.
She is a Vantage fretless bass, model number 330b (we think), with a lovely grained rosewood fingerboard, satin-finished neck, and a deep emerald-green stained body. She hasn’t told me her name yet, although I suspect one. She’s about ten years old but has only been played a handful of times, and never gigged, so she is in almost original condition. The jack is a bit finicky and she needs a tune-up, but that’s standard maintenance.
There is an entire subculture of basses with cello tuning, called tenor basses. Bet you didn’t know that. I didn’t until I started researching it idly a couple of weeks ago, because I can’t even conceive of finding the time or brain space with which to learn new fingering and scale system on an instrument with different strings. I knew that if I was ever to play an electric bass, I would want to up- or downtune it to cello tuning, because then all my fingering would be the same. And then… a fretless bass showed up on Craiglist at a really excellent price. (I didn’t even know there were such things as fretless basses. Shows how much attention I paid at the instrument and lutherie exhibit downtown last year. Although to be fair, I was searching for electric cellos to test, not looking at basses.) The idea of fretless appealed to me because I can’t stand the idea, sound, or feel of frets under a string when I play. It’s not like I was actively seeking a bass. It was just a vague if-ever thing sitting in the back of my mind that put up its hand and cleared its throat diffidently when I saw the listing.
I tested it with a clear mind, ready to say no if it felt wrong or if I was at all uncomfortable with the instrument or the situation, but from the moment Jes handed it to me and I put it on my lap it felt balanced. Usually when people hand me guitars I feel awkward and as if I have to hold them in place or keep them from falling. t! says the moment he saw me holding it he knew it was going home with me, but I don’t know when I decided it was actually mine. I think I slowly grew into it over the evening, as I explored the feel and sound of it, and talked with t! and Jes about basses and styles and makes and music in general. Aside from acquiring the new instrument I made a new friend, because Jes is a freelance writer-theatre-music person like I am, and we intend to stay in touch. I knew things were going well when no one made noises about wrapping things up once I’d sat with the bass for a little bit. We ended up spending two and a half hours there. He has handsome cats, and lovebirds too.
Also, the bass is pretty. I wouldn’t have even looked twice at the ad if the pictures had shown it to be a loud colour, a strange shape, or painted oddly. I wish the picture did her more justice; she has a pretty glow thanks to the varnish, and the flash seems to have pointed out fingerprints that I was certain I’d polished away. She is pretty, and she feels good in my hands. And she was astonishingly inexpensive. Anything is cheap in comparison to the price scale of the cello, but this was half the price of what decent quality fretless basses start at in store, and certainly more than acceptable for an instrument that will be experimental, never my primary focus, and may be played twice a month. t! sent me home with a practice amp, too, so I don’t need to invest in anything more.
Adele feels very kindly towards her new younger sister; no scraps or arguments or snits. All is well.
Hope you have a very happy birthday. Many happy returns (and exchanges)! :)
Thank you!
Wonderful to hear from you! How are things with you? How’s the family?
My, she is pretty. Everyone girl should be so lucky as to buy herself an emerald (fretless bass) for her birthday!
Happy birthday! (Everyone’s beaten me to it, but that hardly matters, does it?)
What a lovely base. :)
Rosy: Right on! If the emeralds can’t be precious gems, then they can be other things.
Phnee: Thank you! I thought of you when I saw her in person, because her deeper tones are forest green. :)
What a wonderful birthday present—she is, indeed, lovely!!
Apologies for not wishing you Happy Birthday sooner. I hope you have a great one.
MLG
Thanks, Marc!
So cool…
If you are going to use to a different tuning (assuming the bass is currently in standard turning) then you really should have it setup properly. When you take it in for the setup tell them what tuning you want and they should put the right gauge strings on and adjust the neck and intonation for that tuning. Make sure you remember the string gauges so you get the right ones next time you change strings.
You shouldn’t have to adjust the neck and intonation again unless you change the string gauge or tuning.
Come to think of it, you probably don’t really have to adjust intonation on a fretless bass as you can adjust your fingers instead. By intonation I mean: Is the twelfth fret in tune with the open string? With no frets that probably is as much of a problem. Anyway, the neck should be adjusted as to not be warped because of the higher or lower tuning.
Do you think you’ll use a pick or fingers?
It has to be taken in anyway because it’s never been officially set up, and it needs new strings because these are the original set Jes put on when he got it ten years ago. I was going to talk to Jimi’s about maybe using the strings from a five-string bass set and shifting them one down to get better tension and sound in the new tuning. It currently has regular steel strings but Jes recommended flat-wound so as not to scratch the fingerboard, and after trying one of t!’s basses with flat-wounds I really prefer the feel of them. I’m OCD about keeping string envelopes for future reference re. gauges, so that won’t be a problem.
Adjusting fingers — I could use a capo, couldn’t I? That never occurred to me as a regular ongoing option as an alternative to retuning. When I retuned it this morning the low string ended up at a really loose tension and it’s hard to get sound out of it. A capo would solve that.
I’m not sure about pick vs fingers yet. Probably both at various times, depending on what kind of sound I want. I’ve tried playing it with the finger cap I use on the cello for Julia and without, and at the moment I prefer without, but different songs call for different techniques. I haven’t played steady pizzicato in a while either, so my fingertips are complaining somewhat about experimenting with the bass today; my calluses aren’t what they used to be!
You can probably tell Jimi’s to give you a cello tuning and they’ll get the proper gauge strings so the tension is correct. Or they’ll at least get you tuned to fourths with proper tension, and then you can use a capo to get the proper tuning.
Bass strings are probably a lot cheaper then cello strings, (although still not as cheap as guitar strings :( ), so it’s easier to experiment with gauges and tuning.
Except cellos are tuned in fifths. This is one of the Interesting Issues and why I want to mess around with it. I may end up sticking with the fourths in the end; who knows?
Bass strings are much, much less expensive. Bass set: around $35. My cello set: $200 before tax. Lots of room to play around.
Happy happy birthday! I hope you had a wonderful one. I love the bass, what a pretty colour! By the way, due to some people i do not want reading my blog i have set it on private, and people need to be approved to read it. If you send me your email that you sign into blogger with i can approve you.
Hope all is well!
Sigh, I had meant “fifths” and wrote “fourths” and realized as I was walking home. Stupid brain.
Very well, thanks! As you know, life with a baby is always an adventure. I’m really enjoying it.
This is a bit after the fact since the original blog entry was eight years ago but I just bought this exact bass yesterday as a birthday present to myself. Same colour and a fretless too :) I play multiple instruments (guitar being my main one) and have several basses but I’ve always wanted a fretless. Do you still have this bass? I also bought it for much cheaper than I expected to pay. I can’t wait to string it up (in standard tuning) :)
Hi Howard! I sold the bass just this past spring, actually. She was beautiful, and I loved her, but she just wasn’t being played, and she deserved better. I hope yours brings you much joy!