Electric Upright Bass Database

Henk van Zalinge^* - van Zalinge bas

• Vintage: 1983
• Number of Strings: 4
  • Double bass strings compatible
• Bowable: Yes
• Thumb Reference: E♭
• Position Markers: Yes
• Playable Seated: Yes
• Balance While Playing: (8/10)

Henk van Zalinge was an Dutch mechanical engineer who also played the double bass. In the early seventies he constructed an EUB for himself. The bass he made was quite good looking, sort of banana shaped, and sounding great. Some professional bass-players commissioned him to produce a copy for them, among them Dutch bass-players Rob Langereis and Daan Gaillard. Sting is also known to have played such a van Zalinge bass, touring in the early eighties.

The word spread and Henk van Zalinge even started a production line. Aproximately 265 instruments were made.

The instrument that I have is not numbered, I was told it used to belong to Rob Langereis. It has an inscripted "6-'74 H" on the top of the body under the fingerboard. I interpret this as a date and initial, so I guess it is one of the first, made by Henk van Zalinge himself.

The instrument sounds really great, has good balance and (since I replaced the strings) plays comfortly. A problem is the noises you get from touching the fingerboard with the right hand, as they get picked up by the piezo-element under the bridge.