BeowulfKingsley

Hello everybody...this is Todd from the wilds of Michigan in the US. I've been playing electric bass for a long time...the majority of my 58 years, my God! I should be a lot better player by now. But I've had some fun doing it, lucked out and got in some good bands, played all around the States, the UK and most of Europe too. These days I'm spending a lot of time playing upright...a friend of mine retrieved an old bass from an abandonded apartment and gave it to me, turned out to be an old Kay from the 40s, so I figured the Universe was giving me a message (plus I'd been working on upright on the side for a while). These days I'm playing with a great band that's doing lots of Swing, Rockabilly, Blues and Country stuff, and they're letting me write and do a lot of singing as well for some unfathomable reason. So I'm having a great time, and learning a lot about this new (to me) instrument! Nice to make it here, and hope you can put up with all my dumb questions.

It seems that the only real difference between the fretted version of this instrument and an electric bass is the fact that the fingerboard is rounded enough to bow. But with frets on it, a lot of the articulation of the upright is not available...bowing a fretted instrument is a different thing for sure, although the viola da gamba has frets and sounds interesting. It really depends on whether the arco factor is enough for you to want the axe. But will it have the articulation and tonal possibilities of an upright? No. It'll be a different instrument altogether, and only you can decide whether it's gonna be a voice you can use. Hey, it might be great!