Hi and welcome to another Discover Double Bass video! My name is Geoff Chalmers
and i'm here with one of the faculty from discoverdoublebass.com it's Dr
Marcos Machado. I know he doesn't like it when I call him doctor, so that's why I'm
throwing it in there but he is actually a professor of Music at the University
of Southern Mississippi and he's also filmed of course about left hand
technique for Discover Double Bass. Now we've been filming all week and Marcos
bought his own bass with him he flew across from the u.s. to the UK and he
bought this beautiful instrument and it's a little bit smaller than normal so we want to discuss the double bass and whether you need some kind of
enormous instrument to get a big sound what the benefits are from playing a
smaller instrument yeah so first of all tell me about who the makers are this
beautiful double bass this is a beautiful instrument made by Italian
Brazilian maker Andrea Spada he lives in Rio de Janeiro
he's a very very talented maker as you can you can probably see yeah it's
absolutely stunning yes and what's the this is a replica of another instrument
you own yes I have a very old instrument made by David Tecchler
yeah from Rome the bass is around 1700 so it's a very powerful instrument but
it's difficult to travel with it it reacts to changes of humidity and all
that so I was performing in Brazil in miniaturise and andreas Baader came down
to watch the performance and he fell in love with that instrument and we decided
to make a copy so it's a it's based on my bass with Andrea Spada own
shape ideas but the idea was for me to have a an instrument that has the same
dimensions that my bass as you mentioned the business is a little bit smaller
because Tecchler it made basses similar to what Maggini did Maggini has also
very small bass is beautiful basses powerful bases so size doesn't matter
sometimes yes other kinds for sure it matters
and I played all my life bigger basses even for a few years I had
a 7/8 bass that I yeah all my technique was developed on that bass actually and
but now I'm very happy with this a small base it's very easy to travel with it so
this is a 5/8 sorry this is a half-size by this it's not 5/8 it's a hybrid
you can call 5/8
body with you know
it's very hard with basses
but it's a very small bass, has a around a hundred centimeters or even less ninety seven
eight or something like this yeah so straight that's the string
length fair yes yes so it's a very small base but with a beautiful sound a
powerful sound what can we just have a quick look at the back as well as two
legs go do something over and see if we can get this on on some of the cameras I
don't know whether whether or not we can catch that but yeah it really is
stunning in what what it's surprising about the base because of its size is
the power has a big sound yeah especially on the low register it has
big deep big bass you know it's very powerful instrument and I love the
eveness of the tone across the register perhaps you could just play for us
you can see it's very it's a very even instrument and that sounds very
well-balanced across the strings yeah I'm absolutely noticed that when we're
talking about playing using different fingerings and when you're he's doing
that they will all just sounded so so yeah so even exactly I tell you briefly
what strings you have on here I see you've got a mix yeah he strings is very
personal things I've been using Spirocores on the bottom two strings for
quite sometime now I'm I think, that I'm pretty set on that yeah top strings I
keep changing you know I go from Belcantos to sometimes Flexocore Passione or Deluxe
looks yeah so I'm very flexible with the top two strings depending of what I'm
doing if I'm solving with Orchestra if I need more power if I'm playing Bach
cello suite I will change to different set of strings so I'm constantly
changing and searching and of course this is orchestra tuning you're in at
the moment yes and is your other bass in solo tuning and you just kind of mix it
up depending on what the repertoire needs yeah most of the time I'm in solo
tuning because that's why what I've been doing the most but uh yes sometimes I
use Orchestra tuning like I did for these tutorials yeah well this really is
an absolutely beautiful bass and would you recommend going for slightly smaller
instrument I mean we're kind of joking around a little bit with this the size
thing but I mean this five eight you know it's not it's yet it's out say it's
not exactly doesn't fit neatly into a kind of box but will list the dimensions
below this video and of course we'll link to Andrea's website because I think
he's an absolutely wonderful job I mean this is small enough that you're able to
fly with this bass without having the neck coming off as well yes I think I
did I did a set up that I think is very interesting so since the the bass is
smaller I have a hard case for it and then I have a 4/4 soft case a big case
that I I used to protect a hard case so it's a very good setup
it's a little bit psychologically also it
works great because when people see that they see that's a fragile instrument and
for transportation makes it makes a big difference also I was expecting you to
be at the airport with a large kind of trunk base trunk and I'm sure that when
the handlers are put loading them in and out they just see it as cargo it's just
a hard plastic cover they can throw it in and out of the plane a lot of what
have you but because yours is a hard case that's in a soft case and that
really means that it just looks like a large regular double size double base
doesn't it and I've seen that they've seen how they handle the bays in the
handle with lots of care because they think is if something not as sturdy as a
hard case I think the shape is well we were discussing in earlier about how
methd a sees what that have the neck coming off they fold down to a kind of
suitcase size thing which again you can kind of pick up and throw quite easily
if you that's why they break so many trailers right yeah the cello they can
throw it can throw it but with this because the neck still on they've got to
actually they like it isn't an easy lift in that way you can't pick it in the
shape is exactly and so it kind of looks for more fragile as well whereas in fact
as a hard case inside the soft case exactly and these these with these basic
has more than 100 international trips for sure Wow and no problem so far no
problem and I've dropped I drop the base a couple times well I really appreciate
you bringing it across because it's been fantastic to hear you play and also we
didn't want to say that Marcus tried out my bass which is a regular 3/4 size
instrument with a more conventional string length and you know you played
everything that you could play on this really to blues we talked about that in
difference of a couple inches when you distribute that across the whole neck
it's very little so but the benefits of having a small instrument in terms of
portability and weight and just obviously flying with it it really it
kind of it's a very cool thing and that's a wonderful double bass and I
really appreciate you bringing it across in great work to andreas Baader thank
you that's great so thanks for watching I hope you found that engaging and we've
given you something to think about in terms of instruments that you don't need
to be playing these huge double basses and that's the wonderful thing about the
world of double basses that there's so much variety you know if you're playing
the fiddle they're all pretty much the same size aren't they the double bass
it's a whole different journey so we hope you've enjoyed this and if you want
to learn more from Marcos please check out his videos over at
discoverdoublebass.com