Author Topic: 20" scale second octave bass  (Read 2438 times)

Basvarken

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Chris P.

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2018, 02:35:00 AM »
Cool. It reminds me a bit of those piccolo basses.

amptech

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2018, 01:35:46 AM »
Again with the upside down fender jack socket. Where is the world going?  :sad:

ilan

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2018, 06:04:19 AM »
Cool. It reminds me a bit of those piccolo basses.
No no no. Piccolo bass is the opposite. Guitar range (low 4 strings) but 34" scale neck, a combination that gives it a special timbre.
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Highlander

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2018, 11:55:33 AM »
Was it Stanley Clarke coined that expression in the 70's...? seem to remember it on some of his earlier works...
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Chris P.

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2018, 12:30:59 PM »
Ow, yes, I played the Alembic of Armand Sabal-Lecco once with those strings. But there was another tiny bass you had to play with an octaver. Let me think...

ilan

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2018, 01:29:20 PM »
A friend of mine once pulled the frets off an Ibanez SDGR series bass, strung it with piccolo strings and tuned it in fifths. He got something between piccolo bass and cello guitar. Cool sounding instrument but the fifths drove me crazy trying to play it.
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Dave W

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2018, 07:16:00 PM »
"piccolo bass" -- not a bass.

Doesn't matter that is has the scale length of a bass guitar. Bass is a tonal range. If the instrument isn't tuned to the bass range, it's not a bass.

ilan

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2018, 12:34:00 AM »
Piccolo bass is in fact bass register. What we call "bass guitar" is really a contrabass register instrument. It's written like a bass instrument but actually is transposed an octave. 5-string basses (and of course multi-string monstrosities with an F# string) go into subcontrabass register.
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Dave W

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2018, 08:16:56 PM »
Details, details. Technically you're correct but you know what I mean. It's not in the note range commonly identified as the range of a bass instrument.

4stringer77

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2018, 07:23:05 AM »
I thought you had to be at least as far south as Costa Rica to be considered in the subcontrabass range.  :rolleyes:
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ilan

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2018, 09:11:01 AM »
Details, details. Technically you're correct but you know what I mean. It's not in the note range commonly identified as the range of a bass instrument.
I agree that if you don't supply a low end harmonic backbone to the music then you are not playing bass. OTOH is a guitarist playing through an octaver, considered a bass player? He's in the bass range. But he's playing like a guitarist.
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Chris P.

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2018, 10:03:38 AM »
That's a nice discussion. Last year I saw four different bands in a month in which the bass player played bass on keys and bass guitar. So a P or any other bass for some songs and a Moog Phatty / Novation Bass Station or other keys for other songs. I found that quite interesting so I asked a contributor to my magazine to make a synth special. He interviewed some players who used both and we made an article about it. Always nice to see other instruments used. Also think The Band and tuba:)

Dave W

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #13 on: February 12, 2018, 10:45:23 AM »
I should take up playing bassoon.

uwe

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Re: 20" scale second octave bass
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2018, 04:35:17 PM »
If that helps with your mood swings, I'm all for it. (ducking)
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