Upright Bass Parts

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Don Rovero and we're here now to continue on with our lessons on learning to play the upright bass. First thing we're going to learn is about the different parts of the bass. Obviously, the biggest part here is the body of the instrument. On the body, you'll find the bridge. The strings pass over the bridge, down to a tail piece, and the ends of the strings are fastened in here, and continues on down to your tail piece wire, which goes around the end pin. And the end pin is adjustable up or down depending on how tall you are. Continuing back up the body, you'll see that this bass is actually fitted with a bow quiver and that's not part of the bass, but it's just added on. We have the F holes where the sound comes out of the instrument. Continuing on up, we see the neck joins the body at the top. The fingerboard, where we play the notes upon, starts at the top here and continues on past the end of the neck, almost down to the bridge. At the top of the fingerboard, we have the nut. This is the other point where the strings stop from the bridge to the nut. Continuing on up, this is the peg box. The tuning keys are mounted on here. You'll notice the bass doesn't have pegs like a violin. The string tension is too high, so we use geared tuners. And the top is mounted with a scroll, which is purely decorative. The back of the body is much like the front. It can be flat or it can be curved out. You'll notice there are no holes on the back. And the sides are carved so that you have these ribs and that way you can make the bass fit right into you, if you need to have it held with no balance, which is really what you want to do. This bridge is also fitted with adjusters so you can take the bridge up higher or lower, if you need to do that, and we can discuss more on that later. And those are the parts of the bass."