Fretted double basses
Rev. Andy
A while ago I was at an Eastern European music camp and I saw a couple
of Hungarian folk groups with upright basses with frets. Does anyone
know if these are recent innovations (the Precision Double Bass) or
traditional instruments? The rest of the band played tamburitsas, sort
of smaller guitars but with between 5 and loads of strings, all of
which were fretted.
Hey, there was also an _enormous_ bass balalaika (the triangular
Russian instument) which was played with a pick that was at least 6
inches across!
Rev. Andy
nick odell
<an...@dance.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Greetings Earthlings,
>
>A while ago I was at an Eastern European music camp and I saw a couple
>of Hungarian folk groups with upright basses with frets. Does anyone
>know if these are recent innovations (the Precision Double Bass) or
>traditional instruments? The rest of the band played tamburitsas, sort
>of smaller guitars but with between 5 and loads of strings, all of
>which were fretted.
The Double Bass is the one instrument in the violin family that isn't.
(A member of the violin family, that is.) It's a bass viol. This is
even more conspicuous with the flat-back versions where the only
difference from a viol is that the "C" holes have been replaced with
"f" holes. Many of the larger viols were fretted (viola de gamba for
example) with moveable gut frets tied around the neck in a similar way
to the lute. Fixed metal frets only started to become popular after
the equal temperament scale came into use.
Nick
--
real e-mail is themusic dot workshop at ntlworld dot com
Stan Barr
>Greetings Earthlings,
>
>Russian instument) which was played with a pick that was at least 6
>inches across!
>
See also Gibson's Style J mando bass of the 1920s and their bass banjo of
1931. Both had frets...the P-Bass weren't the first!
--
Cheers,
Stan Barr st...@dial.pipex.com
The future was never like this!