Editing Double bass (section)

==Use in bluegrass and country==<!-- This section is linked from Bluegrass music and [[Jim & Jesse]]-->
{{See also|List of double bassists in popular music}}
The string bass is the most commonly used bass instrument in bluegrass music and is almost always plucked, though some modern bluegrass bassists have also used a bow. The bluegrass bassist is part of the rhythm section, and is responsible for keeping a steady beat, whether fast, slow, in {{music|time|4|4}}, {{music|time|2|4}} or {{music|time|3|4}} time.  The bass also maintains the chord progression and harmony. The Engelhardt-Link (formerly [[Kay Musical Instrument Company|Kay]]) brands of plywood laminate basses have long been popular choices for bluegrass bassists. Most bluegrass bassists use the {{frac|3|4}} size bass, but the full-size and {{frac|5|8}} size basses are also used.
[[File:Double bass Uncle Charlie's Smokehouse Crozet VA June 2008.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Upright bass used by a bluegrass group; the cable for a piezoelectric pickup can be seen extending from the bridge.]]

Early pre-bluegrass traditional music was often accompanied by the cello. The cellist Natalie Haas points out that in the US, you can find "...old photographs, and even old recordings, of American string bands with cello". However, "The cello dropped out of sight in folk music, and became associated with the orchestra."<ref>[http://www.allthingsstrings.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=21495 Looming Large: What's a cello got to do with a famous fiddler's tale? By Natalie Haas] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103024640/http://www.allthingsstrings.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=21495 |date=3 January 2011 }}</ref> The cello did not reappear in bluegrass until the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. Some contemporary bluegrass bands favor the electric bass, because it is easier to transport than the large and somewhat fragile upright bass. However, the bass guitar has a different musical sound. Many musicians feel the slower attack and percussive, woody tone of the upright bass gives it a more "earthy" or "natural" sound than an electric bass, particularly when gut strings are used.

Common rhythms in bluegrass bass playing involve (with some exceptions) plucking on beats 1 and 3 in {{music|time|4|4}} time; beats 1 and 2 in {{music|time|2|4}} time, and on the downbeat in {{music|time|3|4}} time (waltz time). Bluegrass bass lines are usually simple, typically staying on the root and fifth of each chord throughout most of a song. There are two main exceptions to this rule. Bluegrass bassists often do a diatonic ''walkup'' or ''[[walkdown]],'' in which they play every beat of a bar for one or two bars, typically when there is a chord change. In addition, if a bass player is given a solo, they may play a [[walking bass]] line with a note on every beat or play a pentatonic scale-influenced bassline.

[[File:Riders Bass.jpg|thumb|right|Country music bassist "Too Slim" ([[Fred LaBour]] of [[Riders in the Sky (band)|Riders in the Sky]]) performing in Ponca City, Oklahoma, in 2008]]
An early bluegrass bassist to rise to prominence was Howard Watts (also known as Cedric Rainwater), who played with [[Bill Monroe]]'s Blue Grass Boys beginning in 1944.<ref name="watts">[http://doodah.net/bgb/HowardCedricRainwaterWatts.html ''Howard "Cedric Rainwater" Watts''], Stewart Evans</ref> The classical bassist [[Edgar Meyer]] has frequently branched out into [[Progressive bluegrass|newgrass]], old-time, jazz, and other genres.
"My all-time favorite is [[Todd Phillips (musician)|Todd Phillips]]", proclaimed Union Station bassist Barry Bales in April 2005. "He brought a completely different way of thinking about and playing bluegrass.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Johnston|first1=Richard|title=Barry Bales Expands The Spectrum With Alison Krauss & Union Station|url=http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/barry-bales-expands-the-spectrum-with-alison-krauss--union-station/17886|website=Guitar Player|publisher=NewBay Media, LLC|access-date=18 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131185628/http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/barry-bales-expands-the-spectrum-with-alison-krauss--union-station/17886|archive-date=31 January 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

An upright bass was the standard bass instrument in traditional [[country western music]]. While the upright bass is still occasionally used in [[country music]], the electric bass has largely replaced its bigger cousin in country music, especially in the more pop-infused country styles of the 1990s and 2000s, such as new country.

===Slap-style bass===
Slap-style bass is sometimes used in bluegrass bass playing. When bluegrass bass players slap the string by pulling it until it hits the fingerboard or hit the strings against the fingerboard, it adds the high-pitched percussive "clack" or "slap" sound to the low-pitched bass notes, sounding much like the clacks of a tap dancer. Slapping is a subject of minor controversy in the bluegrass scene. Even slapping experts such as [[Mike Bub]] say, "Don't slap on every gig", or in songs where it is not appropriate. As well, bluegrass bassists who play slap-style on live shows often slap less on records. Bub and his mentor [[Jerry McCoury]] rarely do slap bass on recordings. While bassists such as Jack Cook slap bass on the occasional faster "Clinch Mountain Boys song", bassists such as Gene Libbea, [[Missy Raines]], Jenny Keel, and [[Barry Bales]] [rarely] slap bass.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibluegrass.com/vi_posting3.CFM?p__i=1004&p__r=&p__a=bass|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030511071642/http://www.ibluegrass.com/vi_posting3.CFM?p__i=1004&p__r=&p__a=bass|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 May 2003|title=Bluegrass Music: iBluegrass.com, Your #1 Source for Bluegrass|date=11 May 2003}}</ref>

Bluegrass bassist Mark Schatz, who teaches slap bass in his ''Intermediate Bluegrass Bass'' DVD acknowledges that slap bass "...has not been stylistically very predominant in the music I have recorded". He notes that "Even in traditional bluegrass slap bass only appears sporadically and most of what I've done has been on the more contemporary side of that (Tony Rice, Tim O'Brien)." Schatz states that he would be "...&nbsp;more likely to use it [slap] in a live situation than on a recording—for a solo or to punctuate a particular place in a song or tune where I wouldn't be obliterating someone's solo".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rockabillybass.com/markschatz.htm |title=Learn How to Play Bass Guitar With Free Online Lessons |publisher=Rockabillybass.com |date=2015-04-10 |access-date=2015-12-23}}</ref> Another bluegrass method, ''Learn to Play Bluegrass Bass'', by Earl Gately, also teaches bluegrass slap bass technique. German bassist Didi Beck plays rapid triplet slaps, as demonstrated in this video.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5f9pTVpdsU | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/d5f9pTVpdsU| archive-date=2021-10-30|title=The Art of Slap Bass Presents DIDI BECK |via=YouTube |date=2010-03-31 |access-date=2015-12-23}}{{cbignore}}</ref> <!-- Listen to 1:37 on this video...it is truly humbling...he is a master of slap bass!!!! -->