Electric Upright Bass Database

NS Design - NSDB CR4-M

• Vintage: 2003
• Number of Strings: 4
  • Custom strings used
• Bowable: Yes
• Position Markers: Yes
• Playable Seated: Yes
• Balance While Playing: (8/10)

I've had this bass for about three months now, and it's great. I got it because I often find myself playing in pubs/bars/restaurants with limited space, where my conventional upright is vulnerable to beer damage, drunks falling over it, and other potentially expensive hazards. Also, I live in a first floor flat and lugging a 3/4 size DB up and down the stairs is an activity which rapidly loses its appeal. With the NS and the Gallien amp you can almost walk to a gig.

It didn't take me long to get used to the bass. It plays like a cross between a fretless bass and a DB: it comes with custom D'Addario strings which are quite light. I like them, but you might prefer to replace them with conventional strings. Adjusting the action is dead easy, just turn the two allen screws accessible from the back of the instrument. Those who like to "dig in" can easily raise the string height to something approaching a DB.

Purists say the NS is almost too easy to play, and too much like a fretless bass guitar turned through 90 degrees; I disagree. It has a sound all of its own and with the vast range of the on-board pre amp, you can get anything from a mighty acoustic thump to a sweet fretless buzz. Bags of sustain, and it sounds good arco too (though you do have to flick a little switch to get the best sound. Tricky half way through a song.).

Players used to a DB might find the lack of a heel and upper bout disorienting, but the position markers help no end and those migrating from guitar shouldn't have a problem - apart from it being the wrong way up...

(I notice from their website that NS have started making a "traditional" model with a brass button on the back of the neck and higher action so now there's no excuse.)

There are just one or two drawbacks:
1. Yes, it's expensive - especially when compared to a bass guitar(you could get two American Std Jazz Basses for the same money).
2. As other reviewers have pointed out, the finish is vulnerable to scratches.
3. You always have to use an amp (but then again I have to use one with my UB 90% of the time anyhow).
4. The gig bag's a bit insubstantial (but fine with a bit of extra padding).
5. Don't forget the spare batteries.
6. Dealing with the line of people who queue up after gig to ask what that amazing sounding instrument is (and what an amateur like me is doing playing it).

But these are very minor grumbles. I'd say the NSDB is an extremely playable, well built instrument and if you're in the market for an EUB it's worthy of serious consideration.