Each upright bass has its own set of complicated dynamics (its “personality”), and it’s difficult to determine an absolute cause and effect for a specific characteristic of an instrument’s tone. Empirical data collected on one instrument simply does not always hold true on another.
A topic of much debate is how the endpin and tailpiece affect an upright bass’s feel and sound. The endpin and tailpiece certainly do influence feel and sound, and the materials from which they are made also affect the instrument’s structural integrity.
In general, lighter, stiffer endpins absorb less of the instrument’s vibration. A 10mm solid endpin shaft and a 5/8" hollow-tube-type endpin have about the same effect on sound production: Both are good, practical endpins. In my opinion, 10mm carbon-fiber shafts, which are very stiff and very light, sound best. I set up an experiment with three endpins where I was able to change them rapidly on the same bass to get a good comparison. I noticed that the carbon-fiber shaft helped the bass sound louder and clearer, with less sound absorption—particularly with the bow. It wasn’t a night-and-day difference, but a difference nonetheless.
Bassist Michael Moore recently told me about an incident he experienced earlier this year during a Chesky Records session. Chesky likes to record with only microphones and acoustic instruments in particular acoustical environments that fit the ensemble being recorded. On this date the sound within the studio was being highly scrutinized, because they were recording with only one microphone. While the engineers were trying to get the perfect blend, Michael was told to try moving the bass three inches here and then three inches there; finally it was suggested that he take the rubber tip off his endpin shaft and dig the sharp metal tip into the wood floor. The bass’s presence with respect to the other instruments was noticeably enhanced. Although Mike couldn’t hear the change from his playing position, all of the other musicians agreed that the sound was louder, cleaner, and more defined. In this case, Mike’s bass was more directly coupled to the floor, allowing the floor to actually amplify the sound. When you stick the endpin into the floor, it seems to stiffen the endpin, which prevents it from absorbing sound vibrations from the body. This effect can vary, depending on the floor and what’s below it.
Tailpiece Weight & Length The tailpiece—the long, paddle-shaped piece of wood that anchors the strings behind the bridge—is important to an upright’s sound and feel. Traditionally, string-bass tailpieces are made of ebony (which is heavy) or a lighter white wood such as pear or maple. A heavier tailpiece dampens the sound and makes the tone darker, while a lighter tailpiece brightens the tone and perhaps makes the bass a little louder.
In December ’02 I wrote about wolf tones—notes on the bass that vibrate in a spasmodic way, limiting sustain and inducing fingerboard clatter. One way to reduce this problem is to place a weight between the tailpiece and bridge. Similarly, a heavier tailpiece can help tame a wolf tone. Along with this correction will come a slight darkening and dampening of the sound.
Alan Molitz of the Toronto Canada Opera Company has a wonderful English bass that had a persistent wolf-tone problem. His luthier installed a very long tailpiece made of rosewood, which is heavy; this caused the wolf tone to “float away into the air somewhere,” as he described it. The tailpiece almost completely eliminated the wolf tone. A tailpiece that’s longer is, of course, heavier—but it also results in less distance between the tailpiece and the bridge. Innovative instrument designer Ned Steinberger feels that the distance between the bridge and tailpiece is significant because the tailpiece vibrates with the bridge—and this movement is directly affected by the placement of the tailpiece mass. The closer the tailpiece is to the bridge, the more weight is placed on the bridge, causing a greater effect on the bridge’s movement. Ned notes that a wolf tone means that some resonances are improperly in phase and thus are reinforcing each other—so making a change that causes these resonances to go out of phase with each other tends to be beneficial. Any changes to your bass will have pros and cons, though, and should be dealt with on an individual basis.
Tailpiece Wire I believe the tailpiece dynamic consists of the sum of three factors: string length from bridge to tailpiece, the tailpiece itself,
and the tailpiece wire, which attaches the tailpiece to the endpin. The stiffness of the tailpiece wire is an important aspect of the tailpiece setup. Certainly the tailpiece wire should be flexible. Recently my shop has been using 1/8" cord made of Kevlar and nylon, with very good results. Both Mike Weatherly and Sprocket Royer, who work with me, tried this fabric cord and said their basses felt and sounded more open—and both of them are rational and knowledgeable and not easily swayed. Fabric cord is a lot easier to install than other tailpiece wires, too. Mike Pecanic’s Web site (www.mikepecanicmusic.com) is one place to buy fabric tailpiece wire; others include Lemur Music (www.lemur-music.com) and Velvet Strings (www.velvetstrings.com).
Compensated Tailpieces A compensated tailpiece (Fig. 1) has a greater distance between the bridge and the tailpiece at the lower strings. The idea is to loosen the lower strings’ feel and allow more flexibility. Contemporary compensated tailpieces originated with Epiphone archtop jazz guitars—Epiphone called this kind of tailpiece the “Frequensator.” New York guitar luthier Manny Salvador says the design does work on guitars, but upright basses—with their heavy strings, arched bridge tops, and true acoustic sound production—are very different. In an upright bass, evenness of tension can best be attained through proper string selection and by changing the neck angle and bass bar construction. Still, some bassists have liked the results they got from a compensated tailpiece. If you can pay your luthier for the time to try one out, with purchase upon approval, it could be a good, inexpensive way to resolve an uneven string-tension problem. I have found the effect minimal. Unlike on a guitar, on an upright bass, many times the top strings are too tight. Someday I’m going to try a reverse compensated tailpiece. Hey, it just might work.
Luthier to the brightest lights of upright bass, New York City’s David Gage invites your upright-bass questions at eppis@aol.com
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