Electric Upright Bass Database

Alter Ego - Figaro

• Vintage: 2004
• Number of Strings: 4
  • Double bass strings compatible
  • Tuned in: 4th
• Bowable: Yes
• Thumb Reference: D
• Playable Seated: Yes
• Balance While Playing: (10/10)
• Transportability: (10/10)

I just spent a month and a half with the Alter Ego (http://www.alter-ego.it/bass.htm...), and have it at home now. I have much good to say about it.

This story was that the producer of the Three Irish Tenors needed to get around my having my bass on the show because of travel considerations. After dismissing renting basses in different towns, we decided on purchasing an EUB, if I could find one that I thought would work. The gig is predominantly arco.

I tried a the Azola, The Eminence, Gage's Half-a-Bass, etc., and finally arrived at a list of four. The Alter Ego on top, two of the Azolas (one unplayed by me) and, finally, the Eminence. I told him that if he got the Alter Ego that I'd buy it from him, and the other three would be his alone after the tour.

Some details:

    * The AE has an I-beam type body, with the front attached only at the top and the bottom. This allows the front to move more like a real bass. My thought here is that it would sound even better if they thinned the front out a bit.
    * The bridge is more like a 5/8 or 1/2 sized bridge, but a real bass bridge. You can place the bridge anywhere you like for you desired string length.
    * It has two Realist-type pickups, one under each foot of the bridge. These stay on the bridge when the bass is apart, and also has a Schertler. The Schertler is great for arco, but lacks presence and clarity for pizz, and the E-side Realist-ish is harsh (Underwoodish) with the bow, but does well pizz. The G-side Realist-ish is pretty terrible.
    * The pickups connect to an onboard preamp that allows you to blend the pickups and turn on and off the Schertler. This runs on a 9-volt battery, which requires a screwdriver to open the box to replace it. Luckily I think battery replacements is probably a once-a-year ordeal -- and then just for good measure.
    * Disassembly takes about 2 minutes, complete disassembly is about 5 minutes. The partial assembly is just a couple of minutes, and complete assembly -- including fussing around with the bridge and strings, is less than ten. It takes an hour so to settle down (tonewise) after complete assembly.

My overall impression was way-favorable. With the bolt-on shoulders and back-piece, you wouldn't notice much that you weren't playing a real bass -- by feel. It balances much like a real bass and the shoulders were adjustable enough that I could make it feel pretty close, in shoulder size, to my bass. Tonewise the sound is as good as you could expect out of a bass through an amp. The Realisty pickups are more direct sounding than the Realist, but this is due to the 'top' of the bass being thick, as I mentioned above. With the bow I found it more resistant than my real bass, but by lightening up with the right hand I found it pretty friendly, ultimately.

With the Walter Woods and the Ampeb PB112, I was able to find numerous combinations of pickup balance options that gave a good pizzicato sound. Including using only one of either pickups. For Arco it works only really well with the balance all the way toward the Schertler or with the Realist-ish disconnected (but you lose some of the presence on the D and G strings this way).

For regular travel, the bass breaks down pretty quickly into a shoulder bag and moves easily. I was able to stow it in an airline-size coat closet on the tour bus. For flying, the neck un-bolts and the whole thing fits into a flight case desiged for golf clubs. The airlines put this under the plane with no extra baggage hassles. My one complaint about the soft case is that it doesn't protect all of the pieces very well from each other, allowing the tuning keys to scratch-up the left shoulder piece. The right shoulder I managed to fit in the soft bag by wrapping it in an old t-shirt and putting between the body and the strings, above the bridge. There is also a soft bag that holds the bass when it's completely broken down, but I don't have mine yet. The soft-bags are pretty low-quality and I expect to have to figure out a better solution at some point.

Things that could be better:

    * The endpin is not notched.
    * The bags are cheapos.
    * The shoulders could stand more adjustment. The shoulders on my 7/8 bass are pretty unfriendly and I could duplicate this well with the AE. For someone with a small, slope-shouldered bass I think that he might have a hard time recreating the feel of his real bass.
    * The tailpiece provided is a bit long and if you want 41 1/2" or more in string length you'll have to go with a new one.
    * The bridge tends to get knocked easily when moving the bass around in the soft bag. This could be solved both with a better soft bag, and also by roughing up the finish under the feet of the bridge when you find your spot so that it doesn't move so easily.

Also I'd like to add that I didn't get any chance to fuss with the thing before we hit the road. Therefore I had a few minor issues. One was the string-length problem. I was able to place the bridge so that I had 41 1/2", but as a result the strings were quite low and the floss was touching the bottom plane of the bridge. To exasperate this I installed Spirocore Solos just before I left. Thus I had to tip-toe, particularly with the bow. To get a corresponding timbre to what you get from your real bass, I would recommend going with strings that are one step darker than what you use normally. To get the string length and height that you want you're going to have to replace the bridge if the one provided is too short. Adjusters would be a huge PIA, but the instrument doesn't change much, if at all, with temp/altitude/humidty so an adjustable bridge would be unnecessary anyhow.