Hip Shot | Joseph Conyers, Double bass

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Similar in look to a fine tuner on a violin or cello, a hip shot is a contraption for that bass that goes on top of the tailpiece and holds the string. The hipshot has a lever on the front of it so that when you open it,you can change the pitch of the string. As you may have seen in my extension video, the lowest note a regular four string bass can go down to is an E. Extensions were created so that we could play down to a low C, exactly one full octave below the cello. Five-string basses, like the ones that are commonly played in Europe, go all the way down to a low B. So, when we add the hipshot to our low C string, we can tune it down one half step which allows us to open the lever and go down to a low B like our 5-string bass counterparts. Though we don’t play low B’s too often, there are some great opportunities in the repertoire for them. Some examples are Rachmaninoff’s second symphony, Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony and “Romeo and Juliet,” Brahms’ third symphony, and Shostakovich’s fifth symphony just to name a few.


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