Electric Upright Bass Database

Framus^* - 1950's upright black/chrome

• Vintage: 1979
• Number of Strings: 4
  • Custom strings used
• Thumb Reference: D
• Balance While Playing: (6/10)

I find the Framus has a much thicker neck than a good acoustic. This is noticable when you first play it. It's always been hard to balance / support with the peg leg spike and original chrome chest support. Both now lost and I have to play sitting down with bass sitting on a yellow pages.

Right hand position is not very comfortable with no room for the thumb to slip behind the fingerboard as on acoustic. This leads to a right hand playing position more akin to that for bass guitar.

The fingerboard profile is unhelpful being similar to a classical bass neck with the 'dropped' E string. On an acoustic bass this helps bowing but here it's useless as the top three strings (A D G) have no angle ( lined up flat) so bowing is impossible.

The sound is very pleasing. Fretless jaco bass on steroids. The bridge is solid brass. When I aquired the bass it already had several grooves on each section of the bridge.