4 Ways To Get An Upright Sound From Your Electric Bass

Sometimes you just need that upright bass sound.

Maybe it’s when you’re playing some walking jazz bass lines, a bluegrass 2-feel or if you just want to feel like you’re rocking a stadium with Mumford And Sons.

It’s alright - there’s no judgement here…

However, even though an electric bass and an upright share the same function and range, in terms of the actual sound they produce, they’re night and day.

The upright is very dark, with a very ‘explosive’ sound. There’s this huge spike of sound at the very start and the sound very quickly dies.

The electric though has a much brighter sound (especially if you’re using roundwound strings) and has a longer ‘tail’ of sound. You hit a note on electric and that sucker can go for days.

Not literally, but you get the point, right?

Once you know what the difference in sound between the upright and electric, you can start taking your existing electric bass sound and slowly bring it towards sounding more like an upright.

In today’s lesson, I’ve got 4 super practical things you can do to get an upright sound on electric bass without changing your gear at all.

Use the same bass, the same strings, the same amp and get a completely different sound.

Of course, you’ll hardly ever get an electric bass to sound exactly like an upright. If someone booked me for an upright bass gig and I showed up with the electric, they’d probably be pissed, even if I did do all the things I talk about in the video.

You can get reasonably close to an upright sound though, and this video will help.

If you’re wanting to play electric with more of an upright sound, you may be wanting to play some walking bass lines, and if that’s the case, then make sure you check out my lesson all about 5 Plug-And-Play walking bass line formulas that you can use over any chord progression at all:

These are bass line formulas that even the best bass players in the world use all the time and they’re really simple to get started with.

Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!

Cheers,

Luke

[kingstumble]

For years I was convinced that the reason a double bass sounded so different to an electric was the much longer scale length. But then I heard a ukulele bass which had a very short scale length---somewhere around 20 inches, and this was the closest to a double bass I had heard, so my theory was blown out of the water!

[Duderino]

I recently figured out some of these techniques while trying to get that upright tone. I find that playing through the neck pickup of my jazz bass also helps achieve that sound.

[TheKINGisComing]

I've watched many videos on how to make an electric sound like an upright. This is the best one I've seen so far as both explaining and achieving the closest sound. Thanks man!

[TadTadd]

P-bass + flatwounds, totally rolled-off tone, playing close to the neck, and some folded up felt under the strings by the bridge. It gives me a mix of upright bass and 60's thump. To each his own--I'm sure the guys who like their high end shudder when they hear my muddy bass.

[michaelsnedden]

Luke, your videos are the best! They are to the point and totally practical and doable. My upright is at the luthier's right now getting some work done and I have to play a bluegrass gig. What a perfect video! Exactly what I needed! Thank you!

[naiyalexic]

Haha RAD! I've used the foam trick just like that! Love it. Putting flatwounds on the bass helps.

[kimdz]

Great things about bass, as always, but I really like your dog! 🐕❤

[joshuahenry]

I put some cloth near the bridge. Definitely the easiest way if you don’t want to adjust your playing. Great vid. Thanks 🙏🏼

[mityakiselev]

Might I add trying flatwound or even tapewound strings, they make a bit of a difference in terms of timbre, IMHO the round wire on regular strings makes it ring way more than upright does

[Catteries]

Luke, your timing for this lesson is is spot on !!! After your '' Playing by Ear '' video which has spurned me on, I am now trying to play along to some old Billie Holiday recordings such as '' Pennies from Heaven '' and '' The very thought of you. '' Although this is enjoyable I thought my Electric Bass Guitar doesn't sound quite right with these old recordings. Well, it does now. Thank you for another brilliant video.

[rossmurray]

The Missus showed me her palm muting technique when I asked if I could cut up her last sponge.

[RockStarOscarStern]

Omni Bass Strings should do the trick.

[Manu-xyyp]

my ukelele bass sounds almost similar because it has thick silicone strings which makes it like an acoustic tapewound, the also added wooden buzz gives it that similar feel, but it’s never exactly the same as the classic upright sound

[EvertAlbers]

Using velcro gets you a lot closer to an acoustic sound than foam. Additionally, you can adjust the velcro’s position while playing.

[travisreed]

The Sponge Is Absolutely Brilliant But That Dogs Face Near The End Totally Takes The Cake 

Well Done
Cheers

[ebencharles]

You can also adjust settings on your amp

[ianmackenzie]

I still changed to flats. Made a big difference in addition to foam/sponge.

[hbrookes]

Also..felt picks for that tic tac sound!

[truthpopup]

A different approach would be to use a MIDI bass to control a synth that plays acoustic bass sound samples.

[rafenord]

I use an almost short scale Kent/ Hagström with horrible sustain and moderately thick and pretty old flatwounds..then I play like he does over the fretboard (using a traditional double bass stroke using the entire finger) then I use a cheap Impulse Response of an Upright Bass form 3Sigma loaded in my daw or my Kemper(there are pedals for this as well) which makes it sound very woody and thumpy. It goes a long way. I may buy another old Kent and make it fretless as well..