For bassists

The upright double bass was rare in early string bands; it tended to be too big and expensive, and some bands used the more portable cello. By the time bluegrass music emerged, the upright bass had become more common, and it is now valued in bluegrass both for its sound and for its appearance. It remains, however, more of a handful to carry around than the electric bass guitar.

Mark Zandveld, bassist, artist, and luthier from Hoorn in the Netherlands, has recently devised The Bace (a Bass Cello), which is essentially a cello body fitted with the neck of a fretless electric bass. Several videos are on the website and on YouTube, all of which show the instrument being played like a bass guitar - though it can be played as an upright, and has a much more acoustic sound than the bass guitars shown for comparison here. In the travel version, the neck can be detached and the whole instrument carried in a fairly compact case. The Bace is also on Facebook.

© Richard Hawkins