What I do

This Blog discusses my journey as a local bassist. I talk about all things bass, gigs, writing and recording, gear, and the perpetual search for that "tone."


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Friday, November 30, 2018

Dissecting my Playing - Part One

For many years my bass playing was like a bull in a china shop; bombastic, sloppy, all over the place, imprecise, uneven, and just embarrassing.  In the beginning this was a product of both my excitement to play live and my need to be heard in a group setting when playing with drums and two guitarists.  It seemed that back in those days I could never hear myself  in the mix.  Over time I improved that situation but for the longest time my solution was to play harder which translated to a lot of sloppiness.  There were a number of things I did to improve it and I will touch on some of those things here.




After getting fired from a band for asking too many questions and challenging the lies I was encountering I found myself with some time on my hands.  After taking some time off I returned to playing.  I thought it might be a good idea to do some back to the basics practicing as well as learn some standard cover songs while looking for my next gig.  This involved headphones in order to not subject my saintly wife to the audio assault from the basement.  Imagine my shock and dismay when I discovered that what I was hearing in my mind was nothing close to the garbage coming through the headphones.

Step one for me was to slow it all down and analyze every aspect of every note I was playing.  Consistency from one note to another was a serious issue.  This is still an issue I continue to work on but not as glaring an issue as when I started addressing it.  Along with the consistency issue I paid critical attention to the attack, body, and end of each note.  This was HUGE.  Depending on where, how hard, and what method I use to strike a note this could be all over the place.  Striking or hitting the strings hard would be louder but hitting or striking too hard was over driving the pickups and distorting my sound.  I spent months listening to and critiquing my technique both while playing and by listening to recordings of my playing a few days later.  It struck me how I heard (in my mind) one thing and heard entirely another thing a few days later when listening to a recording of it.

I read an article awhile back that really resonated with me and I want to summarize the gist of it here.  It was an interview with a bassist who played with Prince for a number of years.  When asked what she learned from Prince that had the most impact on her as a musician her response was a close to an epiphany as I will ever get.  She said Prince once said at a rehearsal that the most important member of the band was the space between the notes. 

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Current Basses

Talk to any bass player and given enough time the conversation turns to the basses they have in their stable.  Most bassists I know have at least one back up bass and many have more than that.  Being a weekend warrior I have a difficult time justifying owning a lot of basses although I do own two at the moment.

I own two nearly identical ESP-LTD B5E's purchased about two years apart.  As referenced in an earlier post I made the move from four string to five strings to accommodate the lower tunings of the band I was in at the time.  I did not have any interest in going back and fourth between the two tunings and so I made the decision to stick with the five string bass.  Over time I sold off my four string basses to good homes and had just the ESP-LTD B5E.

I was (and still am) playing in a prog/hard rock band with my best friend for several years and had always had the thought in the back of my mind that it would be a good plan to have an identical back up bass "just in case."  Just recently I joined a second band that is tuned to C standard rather than B standard.  I had a strong aversion to tuning a bass up and down for each time I played with either of the bands.  Add to that the intonation nightmare that would have been sure to ensue and the addition of a second identical bass to my stable seemed justified.



So now I have one bass tuned to B standard and a second identical bass tuned to C standard.  It may seem a bit far-fetched to some but it works for me and I like it.  I still need to get another case because it looks like my two bands will be gigging together soon.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Pedalboard

For the longest time I avoided pedals like the plague.  I fancied myself some sort of "purist" in that the only pedal I would use was a tuner.  Back in the eighties I used a Boss stereo chorus guitar pedal and an old Big Muff Pi perhaps entertaining delusions of grandeur ala Cliff Burton.  Then I went through a period of only playing through a head and a cabinet and no pedals up until about four years ago.

My best friend and I were in a band and he was (is) a total gear head.  Not to the extent that he was at the cutting edge of every new faze but he did keep up with the newest stuff.  When he moved from a Boss ME-80 to a Line 6 he graciously bestowed the ME-80 upon me to fiddle with.  For me, having limited experience with pedals, it was a steep learning curve and in retrospect it was a wasted gift. I ended up giving it back to him and reverted back to the "no pedals" policy.

A little over a year ago I got caught up in the pedal craze with the release of the Zoom B3n and found myself the owner of such a pedal.  This one was more intuitive for me and since it was specifically designed for bass it made sense to me.  I spent hours exploring the patches and amp models.  It opened the gates for creativity.  I loved it but live I just could not make it work.  It did not cut through the mix.  Disappointed I returned to the drawing board and to the straight head and cabinet setup.

I spent a lot of time considering what I wanted to accomplish from a live environment perspective.  I was familiar with the differences in the bedroom tone (and in my case the headphone tone as well) and what actually presented in the live mix.  What I was seeking to achieve was a livable balance between the bedroom tone and live tone.  What I achieved was better than I had hoped - in fact I believe I may have achieved the perfect tone in the process.

I will talk more about this in an upcoming post after I talk about personal technique and how I set up my bass but for now I will leave you with this gratuitous pedal shot.



Personal Style and Technique

I have noticed that people make essentially the same comment or observation after seeing me play.  It usually goes something along the lines of "You have a very unique style/way of playing bass" or "how did you learn to play bass like that?"  I am hoping these comments are positive observations and not veiled "you are doing it wrong" statements.

I never was comfortable using a plectrum and finger style just came naturally to me.  I have never taken formal lessons on bass so my technique developed as a result of my interpretation of the styles of a wide range of musicians I admired.  One interesting thing I have found over the years is that four people can observe the same musician and try to recreate the style of that musician and end up producing four different styles.  That's the beauty of creativity.  The galloping of Steve Harris and the typewriter fingers of John Entwistle are perhaps most evident in my technique but nearly every artist out there including drummers, singers, guitarists, pianists, and everything I hear have influenced my playing.  



I think perhaps the most influential of my experiences was as a child opening the lid to our piano at home and watching the hammers strike the strings.  The mental image of the operation inside the piano has stayed with me ever since.  This is where I think the "unique style/way of playing bass" comments are coming from. Overall my style is a combination of tapping, plucking, crude slapping and popping, and finger style.  It probably has no chance of entering into the realm of "proper" technique but it works for me and feels natural.  In the end I think that is what is special about bassists who do not use plectrums.  The individual anatomy of our hands coupled with our interpretation of what we are playing gives each of us a unique and special style.  

Saturday, November 24, 2018

My First Bass

The very first bass I bought was a Carvin V440T that I bought in 1986 at the urging of my best friend who played guitar.  It was an eighties thing and looking back now seems ostentatious especially in light the fact that I did not even know how to play it.

It was a very well-made instrument and crazy expensive.  I think I paid over a thousand dollars for it which was a lot of money back then.  While the tremolo was an interesting piece of gear to have I rarely used it and as I developed as a bassist and became more focused on tuning I found that it impacted my tuning.

I left music for a number of years to start a family and never gave music a second thought until my best friend, who had continued to play music, dragged me back into it about five years ago. The band we were in at the time was into drop tuning and as they dropped lower and lower I was less able to properly intonate the bass.  Ultimately I ended up buying a new ESP -LTD 204SM and then as tunings dropped even lower an ESP-LTD B5E.

The Carvin V440T was sold earlier this year with mixed emotions.  While I play five string basses exclusively now I will always remember my first bass fondly.