Electric Upright Bass - Genres and Performers

Genres and Performers

The Ampeg 'baby bass' has been popular in Cuban music since the 1960s being used by such performers as Cachao Lopez and Andy Gonzalez. Sting played a Dutch-made 'Van Zalinge' on some recordings. Eberhard Weber played an EUB on the 1975 album Yellow Fields, using a combination of modes and raga-like riffs using the sustained tone of the EUB. Weber also drummed on the EUB, making a variety of percussive sounds. In free improvised music/avant garde jazz the Japanese bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa used a self-made 5-string EUB. More recently the Portuguse bassist Margarida Garcia has concentrated on the EUB in electro-acoustic improvisation. Houston based musician Damon Smith uses a 7 string Ergo EUB tuned (low to high) BEADGCF for free jazz and improvised music.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Les Claypool used the EUB in several of his bands. Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam also regularly uses EUBs. In heavy metal, bassists such as Felipe Andreoli of Angra use EUBs; Andreoli uses a Brazilian-made D'Alegria instrument. Tony Levin plays an NS Electric Upright Bass, sometimes with pizzicato and sometimes with a bow. Italian bassist Don Bachi of Bandabardò regularly plays a plucked EUB. Jazz musician Brian Torff uses EUB, often incorporating percussive effects in his playing. Rob Wasserman uses a 6 string EUB in wide range of rock contexts such as Ratdog.

In their 2008 tour, Queen + Paul Rodgers's touring bassist Danny Miranda played an EUB while performing "'39", followed by a "bass solo" by both Roger Taylor and Danny Miranda with Roger using his drumsticks as fingers in the strings. The Japanese band MUCC's bassist YUKKE used an electric upright bass during the promotional tours for their album Gokusai on the track "25ji no Yuutsu".