........ Warwick Triumph upright. ...... she
does make it sound pretty good at points,
pushing between a fretless electric sound
and a full upright sound.
`
Well, that *is* the sound of EUBs in general.
They don't sound like an octave geetar nor do
they sound like an acoustic double bass viol.
Much of the inimicable sound of a DBV is due
to voice-of-the-box. Kinda like the droning of
bagpipes is part of their overall character, yet
not actually part of the melody that the player
is playing on the chanter, the "droning" of the
acoustic box of a DBV is rather independent of
the material being played ... yet that sound is
an identifying characteristic of the instrument.
-----------------------------------
You can produce the DBV "drone" without even
touching the strings. Wipe the box with a cloth
and you'll hear it. Yes, the DBV player controls
the drone via piz attack or arco technique just
as the piper controls his drone thru technique
in "pumping" the bag. But in both cases, voice
of the drone "is whatever it is". It merges with
the 'controlled' music produced by the player,
yet it is pretty much operating independent of
the player's melodic control.
Anyhoot, an EUB plays like an electric DBV, in
the 'mechanical' sense, but minus The Box, its
voice will likewise be minus The Drone. You can
make a sturdy ordinary box to set between your
endpin and the floor, and such box will need its
own PU and its own amp channel, but it will get
your EUB very close to that DBV sound. OK, it's
almost as clunky as lugging the real thing, but
less fragile, lower maintenance, and depending
on your choice of EUB, also easier to play.
My stick-style EUB, played on hardwood floor
above a basement, sounds more "URB-esque"
with its endpin at least 3 feet from the nearest
bearing wall. That's the resonnance of the floor
"talking back" to the strings, or piezo, or both.
It stops happening too close to a wall.
`
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