4 Ways To Get An Upright Sound From Your Electric Bass

►► FREE: Discover which walking bass line formulas the absolute BEST bass players in the world use (and then make them your secret weapon) →    • Walking Bass Line Lesson: 5 Plug-And-...  

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:

   • Walking Bass Line Lesson: 5 Plug-And-...  

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

P.S. If you’re ready to take your walking bass lines to the next level, make sure you check out my video 5 Plug-And-Play Walking Bass Line Formulas →    • Walking Bass Line Lesson: 5 Plug-And-...