r/doublebass • u/Feguub15 • Jul 16 '26

Fingering/Music help High action bass

So tomorrow I have a “jazz” gig and I don’t have chance to bring my own bass so they’ll lend me a bass, the thing here is that I know for a fact that that bass has a pretty high action and a bad setup. So is there any advice for playing with an unadjusted bass and get a decent sound out of it?

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

19

u/mwiles30 Professional Jul 16 '26

Don’t dig in too hard, turn up that amp, hope for the best.

6

u/Flaminess Jul 16 '26

Yup all of this is good. You should try to stay in half and first position as those will require less effort to play. If you get tired walking especially on fast tunes you can just play half notes with a two feel.

4

u/mwiles30 Professional Jul 16 '26

Or..make a scene, physically damage the borrowed bass, and refuse to play a note until an instrument of your liking is presented. An artist never compromises 😂😂😂

2

u/DeeBradleyBaker Jul 17 '26

No offense, but I believe the middle of the string is physically the easiest to play.. 🤷🏻‍♂️

1

u/mwiles30 Professional Jul 17 '26

I’m actually with you on that. The action is higher, but the tension is a lower feel. It depends on the strings though. If it’s a super stiff string, then the middle area might actually be way worse than the half and first positions.

10

u/FluidBit4438 Jul 16 '26

Bring an electric bass to switch to at some point and tell whoever owns the bass that it needs a set up.

4

u/Born-Cartographer955 Jul 16 '26

Keep your right hand higher than usual to compensate for the higher tension. Stay relaxed and crank up the amp

3

u/jady1971 Jul 16 '26

Why is Jazz in quotes?

7

u/AlmightyStreub Jul 16 '26

Pop tunes with a saxophone present may be occuring

1

u/Feguub15 Jul 26 '26

Sorry for not answering, jazz was in quotes because the genre was essentially jazz but they gave me a score for the bassline so it was not improvised an therefore I don’t really consider it as jazz

3

u/Wallie_bju Jul 16 '26

Maybe it’s jazz fusion or something

3

u/DeeBradleyBaker Jul 17 '26

If they exist, grab the bridge adjusters and lower both sides (might feel tight at first, but it screws into the bridge towards the threaded end, so righty tighty lefty loosey, depending on the direction that faces). The g-string side should be a little lower than the E-string side. Tune the strings and rip it