its bass blasphemy but yes i dare say it about the classic!

[kevins]

the mutes and the pickups combined together make it sound exactly like an upright. it is of course blasphemy to say it but i heard it with my own ears today and it was most a most terrifying realization. i had it playing through an ampeg of sorts and the thing sounded identical to an upright. if i heard it on recording i would not be able to tell a difference...and this was with round wounds...i dare not think of how wonderful it would sound with flats.


if somewhere offered a trade in for my 3eq with four strings plus 300 bucks id take that in a heartbeat. what a gorgeous sounding bass...im vowing not to look at any seafoam green classics(which is the color i played on) for a few weeks because impulse is gonna find me eventually...


not to into the finished necks though, the unfinished ones felt strangely a lot smoother to me.

but did want to tell anyone whos looking for an upright sound to steer clear of the electric uprights and give this one a chance to do what it can

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

That was the original idea of the mutes back in the early days...for an electric Bass to sound like an upright

 

[kevins]

i know! and they nailed it!

 

[Vintage7]

And you can dial them in just a bit, to get a more controlled sustain.
When you need a little less attack on roundwound strings, but not quite flatwound sounding.

 

[Powman]

Oh crap, now I am GASing for a classic!

 

[five7]

We all are!

 

[bassmonkeee]

Actually, mutes only sound "exactly like an upright" to someone who has never really heard, or played, an upright. No amount of muting can make a 34" scale solid body bass sound "exactly" like a 41" scale hollow body. An electric upright will come closer in pretty much every way to the sound of an actual upright bass than the classic stingrays ever could due to the strings used, the pickup system, the scale length, etc. And, that's from someone who has used a muting system on his Musicman Bongo for the last 3+ years in concert with flats. Honestly, my Bongo with the BassMute and piezos comes closer to nailing an "upright like" tone than any bass solely relying on a magnetic pickup.


And, mutes weren't originally designed to simulate an upright. They were intended to cut the upper frequencies so as not to blow the early primitive bass amps by sending too wide of a frequency range to them and to quicken the decay of the note.


I love the sound of basses with mutes and flats, but they don't sound like an upright.

 

[kevins]

Actually, mutes only sound "exactly like an upright" to someone who has never really heard, or played, an upright. No amount of muting can make a 34" scale solid body bass sound "exactly" like a 41" scale hollow body. An electric upright will come closer in pretty much every way to the sound of an actual upright bass than the classic stingrays ever could due to the strings used, the pickup system, the scale length, etc. And, that's from someone who has used a muting system on his Musicman Bongo for the last 3+ years in concert with flats. Honestly, my Bongo with the BassMute and piezos comes closer to nailing an "upright like" tone than any bass solely relying on a magnetic pickup.


And, mutes weren't originally designed to simulate an upright. They were intended to cut the upper frequencies so as not to blow the early primitive bass amps by sending too wide of a frequency range to them and to quicken the decay of the note.


I love the sound of basses with mutes and flats, but they don't sound like an upright.

i haven't heard an upright in years so that might be my problem here. and thinking back on that 25,000 upright i got to pluck a few times but not really get used to i think yes there may have been a larger difference. but it did sound awfully close to me, or at least as close as it gets. i may have jumped the gun and been excited about the classic's amazing ammount of versatility.

id probobly have to own an upright and play on one for a long time to be able to pick out the difference better than i can...but i did enjoy the as close to an upright an electric can get like sounds
however i do have a question for you! and i shall pm you it!

 

[T Alan]

Actually, mutes only sound "exactly like an upright" to someone who has never really heard, or played, an upright. No amount of muting can make a 34" scale solid body bass sound "exactly" like a 41" scale hollow body. An electric upright will come closer in pretty much every way to the sound of an actual upright bass than the classic stingrays ever could due to the strings used, the pickup system, the scale length, etc. And, that's from someone who has used a muting system on his Musicman Bongo for the last 3+ years in concert with flats. Honestly, my Bongo with the BassMute and piezos comes closer to nailing an "upright like" tone than any bass solely relying on a magnetic pickup.


And, mutes weren't originally designed to simulate an upright. They were intended to cut the upper frequencies so as not to blow the early primitive bass amps by sending too wide of a frequency range to them and to quicken the decay of the note.


I love the sound of basses with mutes and flats, but they don't sound like an upright.

This.

 

[bassmonkeee]

i haven't heard an upright in years so that might be my problem here. and thinking back on that 25,000 upright i got to pluck a few times but not really get used to i think yes there may have been a larger difference. but it did sound awfully close to me, or at least as close as it gets. i may have jumped the gun and been excited about the classic's amazing ammount of versatility.

id probobly have to own an upright and play on one for a long time to be able to pick out the difference better than i can...but i did enjoy the as close to an upright an electric can get like sounds
however i do have a question for you! and i shall pm you it!

To be fair--if someone needs an "upright like tone" on one tune at a gig, this is much better expenditure of cash than buying an electric upright that will go unused and unloved. But, it ain't going to take the place of an upright, or even an electric upright if someone is looking for one of those.

PM responded to, too.

 

[Ken Baker]

id probobly have to own an upright and play on one for a long time to be able to pick out the difference better than i can...but i did enjoy the as close to an upright an electric can get like sounds

You might get a better feel for upright by listening to one rather than playing it. The player stands beside and slightly behind the body, but the sound projects out the front (primarily). Without amplification, they can be amazingly loud when bowed.

And for all of our hooting and hollering over the thump our electrics produce, few things penetrate like the thump of a good upright when pizz'd. It's almost like the thud of a muted kick drum. My son plays a very good German upright at university, and that thump cuts through a full and raging low brass section.

Ken...