Bass Player 2014 Vol.25 No6 June

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Volume 25, Number 6

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June 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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B A SS N O T ES DE P A R T M E N T s

10 COMMUNITY The Real World, Dig My Rig, Court of Opinion 14 EXPO That’s what Friends are for 28 NEW GEAR Peavey, Barefaced Audio, Ampeg & more 82 BOBBY'S BASSMENT Acoustic pursuits

16 Scott Reader Setting sail with Fireball Ministry

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Paul McCartney

On the heels of Macca’s Grammy appearance, Don Was analyzes the McCartney legacy 50 years after the Beatles landed in America. By Chris Jisi

Jack Bruce

The tremendously influential Cream bassist steps out with his first solo CD in a decade. By Freddy Villano

Amp basics

The history of amplification technology, from all-tube monstrosities to ultralight techno-wonders. By Jonathan Herrera

Elvis Costello’s “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”

The always-inspired Bruce Thomas transforms a humble rocker into a masterpiece. By Brian Fox

Cover Photo: REX USA/ITV/Rex Bass Player (ISSN 1050-785X) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus a Holiday issue to follow the December issue, by NewBay Media LLC, 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA and at additional mailing offices. Canadian GST No. R13288078, Customer No. 2116057, Agreement No. 40011901. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bass Player, Box 469069, Escondido, CA 92046.

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Stu Cook Down on the corner with Creedance Clearwater Revival 20 Miles Schuman Bass-talking prodigy 22 Tony Smith “Klaw”-ing his way to the top 24 BP RECOMMENDS

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W o o d s h e d SO U N D R OO M

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MARY McCARTNEY

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58 TecAmp Puma 1000 Head & Virtue Cabinet 60 Sandberg California TM Bass

62 JAZZ CONCEPTS From fly footprints to cash

66 Blues You Can Use What’s Dunn is Dunn

More Power. More Tone. www.bassplayer.com Vol. 25, No. 6, June 2014 Editorial Director Michael Molenda, [email protected] Editor Brian Fox, [email protected] Consulting Editor Karl Coryat Senior Contributing Editors E. E. Bradman, Chris Jisi Contributing Editor Ed Friedland Staff Writer Jimmy Leslie Art Director Paul Haggard Production Manager Amy Santana

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Publisher Joe Perry [email protected], (212) 378-0464 Advertising Director, Eastern Region, Midwest & Europe Jeff Donnenwerth,[email protected], (770) 643-1425 Advertising Director, Western Region & Asia Mari Deetz [email protected], (650) 238-0344 Advertising Sales, Eastern Accounts Anna Blumenthal [email protected], (646) 723-5404 Specialty Sales Advertising, West Michelle Eigen [email protected], (650) 238-0325 Specialty Sales Advertising, East Jon Brudner [email protected], (917) 281-4721

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THE NEWBAY MUSIC GROUP VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Bill Amstutz GROUP PUBLISHER: Bob Ziltz EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Brad Tolinski SENIOR FINANCIAL ANALYST: Bob Jenkins PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT MANAGER: Beatrice Kim GROUP MARKETING DIRECTOR: Christopher Campana MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGNER: Tim Tsuruda IT TECH: Bill Brooks CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR: Crystal Hudson CONSUMER MARKETING COORDINATOR: Dominique Rennell FULFILLMENT COORDINATOR: Ulises Cabrera OFFICES SERVICES COORDINATOR: Mara Hampson ADVISORY BOARD Kenny Aaronson, Jeff Andrews, Steve Bailey, Victor Bailey, Jeff Berlin, Brian Bromberg, Jack Bruce, Ron Carter, Phil Chen, Stanley Clarke, Art Davis, Nathan East, Mark Egan, Andy Gonzalez, Barry Green, Charlie Haden, Stuart Hamm, David Hungate, Anthony Jackson, Darryl Jones, Dave LaRue, Will Lee, Michael Manring, Christian McBride, Marcus Miller, Pino Palladino, John Patitucci, Josh Paul, Dave Pomeroy, Chuck Rainey, Rufus Reid, Steve Rodby, Billy Sheehan, Lee Sklar, Steve Swallow, Gerald Veasley, Rob Wasserman, Verdine White, Gary Willis, Doug Wimbish, Victor Wooten

Please direct all advertising and editorial inquiries to: BASS PLAYER, 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066 (650) 238-0260; FAX (650) 238-0261; [email protected] Subscription orders, inquiries, address changes, and Back Issues: BASS PLAYER, P.O. Box 469069, Escondido, CA 92046-9069. For quickest service, telephone: 800-234-1831 or (760) 291-1537. bassplayer@ pcspublink.com List rental: (914) 925-2449, [email protected] For custom reprints & e-prints please contact our reprint coordinator at Wright’s Media: (877) 652-5295 or [email protected] NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE President & CEO Steve Palm Chief Financial Officer Paul Mastronardi Controller Jack Liedke Vice President, Digital Strategy & Operations Robert Ames Vice President, Audience Development Denise Robbins Vice President, Content & Marketing Anthony Savona IT Director Anthony Verbanic Vice President Human Resources Ray Vollmer BASS PLAYER is a registered trademark of NewBay Media LLC. All material published in BASS PLAYER is copyrighted © 2014 by NewBay Media LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in BASS PLAYER is prohibited without written permission. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product information is subject to change; publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. All listed model numbers and product names are manufacturers’ registered trademarks. Published in the U.S.A. Follow BASS PLAYER online at:

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ANDY CICHON Billy Joel / Shania Twain / Shotgun Wedding

NEW! V-4B

NEW! SVT-212AV

IT’S STILL ROCK AND ROLL TO ME Behind virtually every great artist and history’s most enduring songs is a bass player who counts on Ampeg to deliver the very best tone possible. Whether it’s pop, rock or country, Andy conquers any genre and delivers flawless tone no matter with whom he shares the stage. And the Ampeg V-4B is the only amp he turns to for perfection every time. From amazingly portable and value-loaded combos to arena-rattling SVT rigs, Ampeg will have your fans saying, “You’ve got us feeling alright.”

THE ROUND SOUND ampeg.com

Photo by Sandrine Lee

Copyright © 2013 LOUD Technologies Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Tending The Fire

Brian Fox

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Putting together an issue of Bass Player is not unlike catering a meal for a big group of friends; you want to strike that balance between comfortable and exciting, sweet and savory, hot and cool. Some months, I function like the caterer, allowing my staff of cooks to do what they do best— write about all things bass. Other months, I act more like a meddlesome client, barging into the kitchen and insisting on seasoning the food to my taste. Like any issue, this month’s wouldn’t happen without delicious dishes whipped up the likes of Chris Jisi, Jonathan Herrera, and Freddy Villano—let alone sauce masters like Ed Friedland, John Goldsby, and E.E. Bradman. But I butted my head into this month’s schedule more than I normally do. Whether that’s a good thing or bad remains to be seen, but I had a blast doing it. I’ve been lucky to meet and interview a host of “celebrity” bass players in my years at BP, and with few exceptions, those experiences have been thrilling, humbling, and occasionally terrifying. For my contributions this month, I turned my attention from rock stars to relatively unsung stylists in pop, rock, and metal. This is where I am happiest. Whether it was talking tone with Scott Reeder, whose early work with Kyuss helped define the stoner rock genre; revisiting the roots of rock with Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook, born on the Bay by way of the bayou; or learning from Attractions arpeggio acrobat Bruce Thomas the profound ways a well-crafted bass line can shape and support a song, this month’s work on the mag leaves me desperate for more time to do what I love most: play bass. As with any 21st century publication, BP has an online and social media presence that needs constant attention. In a recent daily post, I commemorated what would have been the 251st birthday of Domenico Dragonetti—“Il Drago”—one of the earliest composers to dedicate himself to writing specifically for double bass. Not being terribly familiar with his work, I began to investigate. While I have always loved Bach, and have taken a crack at learning a few of his cello suites, I immediately fell in love with Dragonetti’s work; here were stirring, beautiful compositions written for my instrument. As Dragonetti was one of the first upright bass virtuosi, I have my work cut out for me. But for the coming weeks, my path is charted. I know full well that all the time and effort I will invest into learning even one of his compositions won’t advance my career, or put me on stages larger than my backyard patio, but I don’t care. As one who’s battled the occasional bass burnout, I’m just thrilled to have rekindled the fire. I hope you find something in this issue that does the same for you.

TIMELINE

COURT OF OPINION

Transcription requests …

Go!

Join the conversation at facebook.com/bassplayermag. Metallica’s “Call of Cthulu”—easily Cliff Burton’s finest work, and yet he is so buried in the mix it’s almost impossible to make out! —Jeremy Kaplan “Lucky Seven” by Chris Squire. —Noel Alsop

This M This Month onth In In Bass: Bass: —Stephen Cleary

June

Anything from Bruce Thomas. Also, an accurate transcription

2ND

Bassist, producer, bandleader, and educator Matthew Garrison born, 1970.

of the Who’s “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” —Tim Dever

4TH

Sting and the Police begin a four-week run at the top of the U.K. charts

“Digital Man” by Rush, please.

with “Every Breath You Take,” “Glide,” by Pleasure. —Jared Jones

Punk icon and Ramones bass man Dee Dee Ramone dies,

6TH

Session stalwart and Chapman Stick pioneer Tony Levin born, Slayer’s Tom Araya born,

2010.

“Tommy the Cat,” by Primus.

1983.

5TH

8TH

2002.

1946; 1962. Isley Brothers bassist Marvin Isley dies,

Bill Wyman releases Monkey Grip, the first solo album by a Rolling Stone,

1974.

—Clint Wilson

13TH

Bolstered by stellar bass work from Nathan East, Marcus Miller, and Randy Jackson, Whitney Houston’s Whitney album rocks the top of the charts,

“Vibrator,” by Terence Trent D’Arby.

1987. Flea’s upfront bass line on “You Oughta Know” helps push Alanis 1995.

—Martin Wriedt Grønvaldt

Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill to No. 1,

14TH

Bassist, producer, and session king Marcus Miller born, 1959.

“Change (in the House of Flies),” by Deftones.

16TH

Suzi Quatro has her first No. 1 single with “Can the Can,” 1973.

—Matt Murray

17TH

Studio bass icon and educator Chuck Rainey born,

18TH

Songwriter, bass god, and former Beatle Paul McCartney born,

20TH

Beach Boys leader and sometime live bassist Brian Wilson born, 1942;

Michael Manring, “The Enormous Room.”

Duran Duran bass man John Taylor born,

—Zen Rubrica

1942.

Van Halen bassist and harmony vocalist Michael Anthony born, 1955;

—Bubs Barney

“IGY,” “Snowbound,” or “Florida Room” by Donald Fagen.

1940.

23RD

1960.

Jazz bass master and photographer Milt Hinton born, 1910; studio titan,

harmonic innovator, and 6-string bass father Anthony Jackson born, 1952.

25TH

The Beatles started a two-week run at the top of the U.S. singles chart with “Paperback Writer,” 1966. Thanks to John Lennon demanding to know

why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett record was much louder than the

Willie Weeks’ bass solo on “Voices Inside” from Donny Hathaway’s Live album. [Note: Check out our August '05 issue and dig into this one!]

bass on any Beatles records, Paul’s bass parts were louder than usual.

26TH 27TH

John Entwistle dies in Las Vegas one day before the Who’s tour begins,

2002.

“Bleed,” by Meshuggah. —Johannes Vittus Ossi Claesson

Bop and avant-garde jazz bassist and New School professor Reggie

Workman born, 1937.

—Townsend MB

30TH

Fusion, jazz, and funk icon Stanley Clarke born, 1951. He released his

smash hit School Days album in June 1976.

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LEARN PLAY

C The Real World

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Home base Copenhagen, Denmark Occupation Web design teacher, musician Gigs TOP Jam Basses Fretted Celinder Custom 6, fretless Celinder

FACE

Thorkil Christensen

Rigs My large rig: Aguilar DB 659 into a Yamaha Power

Custom 6, Fender P-Bass (Diamond Series) amp (I’m looking to replace that setup with an

LINK

Aguilar DB 751), Eden 4x10 cabinet; my club/small rig is an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 and two Aguilar SL 112 1x12 cabinets

Effects Emma DiscumBOBulator (for funky wah/synth-

COMMUNITY

bass sound), Aguilar Octamizer

Heroes & inspiration Anthony Jackson, Gary Willis, Jaco Pastorius, Paul Jackson, Alphonso Johnson, Francis “Rocco” Prestia

Contact [email protected] How did you come to play bass? Having a father who is a professional musician,

What’s a lesson you’ve learned along the way?

What are your musical goals?

To be the bass player and to groove! Like so

One of my dreams has come true: I have always

I guess it was in my genes to pick up an

many other young players, I have been obsessed

wanted to play in a great Tower Of Power

instrument. And the bass kind of picked me.

with playing fast. I think it comes from growing

cover band. I want to get more into doing my

I just love that thing!

up on Jaco and Tower Of Power’s Rocco Prestia.

own stuff, whether it’s funk, which I love, or

I focused on speed. Technique is great, but

jazz-fusion, which I also really love. I just want

it’s a tool. Now I’m focusing on making my

to play all the time!

playing more fluid and more legato with longer notes while trying to keep up some speed because of the band I play in. Want to introduce yourself? Find submission guidelines at bassplayer.com/realworld. Get selected for The Real World and receive a set of D’Addario EXL170 bass strings and a T-shirt. All those who submit will receive D’Addario’s FretBuzz newsletter.

DIG MY RIG!

H e r e ’ s a p i c t u r e o f m y r i g at t h e B o u l d e r Theater back in March. It’s a ’67 Guild Starfire with Alembic Series II pickups and electronics, run in stereo with the bass pickup going to a ’67 Fender Showman and a Sunn 200S cabinet (the ones graced with the Courtenay Pollock tie-dyes) and the treble pickup going to a ’67 Fender Bandmaster and another Sunn 200S cabinet. I rebuilt both amplifiers and included Mercury Magnetic output transformers to allow for various speaker cabinet impedances. —E dw i n Hurwi tz

Got a rig you think we’d dig? Send a photo and description to [email protected].

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Digitech is Distributed by U.S. Music Corp., A Division of Jam Industries, LTD. 1000 Corporate Grove Dr. | Buffalo Grove, IL. 60089 | 800.877.6863

Jeni Mastin/Cameron Hood

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Vancouver Groovers Earlier this year, members of the Vancouver Bass Players Facebook group converged on Vancouver Community College to pose for this epic group shot—and they couldn't all fit! Can you top this, Toronto? What about you, Houston? C'mon, Boston! You got this, Gotham?



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Sun & Sail Club, Fireball Ministry

Scott Reeder

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By Brian Fox

Desert To Sea

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Since settling into a sprawling ranch in the high desert of Southern California, Scott Reeder might spend the typical day as such: get up, feed the horses, mend a fence or two, shoot video for Sun & Sail Club—his new outfit with Fu Manchu’s guitarist Bob Balch and drummer Scott Reeder—and then head into his studio to lay down bass tracks for buddies like Dave Grohl or Jake E. Lee. Not a bad way to do it. Reeder first left his mark on the sludgy, stony metal scene so apropos of the desert with the Obsessed and Kyuss back in the ’90s, and was one of eight players auditioned to replace Jason Newsted in Metallica. Scott may not have gotten that gig, but no matter—his status as a badass free agent has lead to work with Sun & Sail Club and Red Dragon Cartel, and on Dave Grohl’s GRAMMY Award-winning Sound City soundtrack. Most recently, Scott was asked to join Fireball Ministry as they set sail on Motörhead’s MotorBoat cruise, which will bring a shipload of rock & roll to the high seas this Fall.

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How did the Fireball Ministry gig come your way? I did a recording with them maybe a year or so ago, and we talked about doing some shows in the future. So we’re doing on the cruise in September, and a couple other things. I’m really excited about that. What do you like about the band from a bass perspective? It’s very Sabbath-y, which is right up my alley. And there’s plenty of room for improvisation on the bass parts. It should be perfect for me. You play left-handed basses strung with the higher strings on top. How did you come to play that way? That’s from picking up my dad’s guitars when I was a kid and just flipping them over to play lefty. How has your technique developed over time? I played drums and trombone as a kid. When I started bass at 16, my style was pretty aggressive, taking the percussive

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Sun & Sail Club, Mannequin [Satin Records, 2013]

Basses Warwick Thumb Bolt-on, Warwick Katana Rig 1971 Ampeg SVT, EQUIP

Hartke Kilo and 8x10 cabinets Strings Dean Markley Blue Steels Effects Zoom B3, Hovercraft Ionostrofear fuzz, Pigronix Disnortion, Pigtronix Envelope Phaser

part of drumming and the melodic sense I was learning on trombone. Drums and trombone both play a huge part in why I play the way I do, tapping the strings like piano hammers, etc. And all the slides I do—trombone damage, for sure! You have a fondness for old Ampeg SVTs. What are some of your go-to heads? I bought a 1970 SVT back in 1985 and played it for years. In the Kyuss days I had a slightly newer SVT—I think it was a 1971. That was the one I used from Welcome to Sky Valley [Elektra, 1994] on. Tone wise, I’d just crank the bass, mid, and treble controls all the way up, and put the volume around 3. That’s pretty loud, but if you turn past 3 or 4, it gets real ugly. When I did a tour with Attika7 a couple years ago, I needed a sound I could control a little more, so I got a Hartke. It’s plenty loud, and it’s clean enough so I can play with all kinds of pedals. I’ve been comfortable with my SVT sound for my whole life, but switching to the Hartke has opened up a whole new world of tones. It’s kind of daunting. How did you get involved with Sun & Sail Club? They came to the Sanctuary without a bass player—I think they had ulterior motives! [Laughs.] The first track was mind-bogglingly insane. I asked Bob who was going to play bass, and he said he didn’t know yet. I asked if I could take a stab at it, and they were cool with that. I’m really glad. This is my first full-length record in ages. Actually, one of the bass lines on Mannequin was directly influenced by Bass Player LIVE! in 2012. I was working on “I’m Not Upside Down,” and I was getting frustrated trying to think of something clever to play. I had just seen “Family Man” Barrett play at Bass Player LIVE!, so I thought, What would Family Man do? I took a shot at a reggae kind of thing, and it became my favorite song on the record. You have a guest spot on “War Machine,” a track from the new Red Dragon Cartel album. How did that come about? I’ve known [Red Dragon Cartel drummer] Jonas Fairley for years, and when he asked if I’d be interested in playing, I said, “Hell yeah!” They sent me stems, but no explicit direction. I talked to the engineer, and he just said, “Do what you do.” I figured they meant for

me to do what I did 20 years ago. I don’t get stoned very often, but I did for that one and went just went crazy! What tunings do you tend to use? It’s all over the place. How did that start? Kyuss didn’t own tuners. I remember my first show with them was the record release for Blues for the Red Sun [Dali, 1992]. They got up on stage and tuned at full volume. I was like, Man, this can’t happen again…. The tuning on that record hovered around B standard [BEAD]. Back then I was playing a Rickenbacker with medium gauge strings, which got pretty floppy. Do you use many drop tunings, or are they mostly standard? Drop tunings throw me off. Fireball alternates between Eb standard (EbAbDbGb) and drop Db tunings, but I’ve tried to do it all with my Warwick Katana in standard tuning. Do you have a string preference? I’ve been using Dean Markley Blue Steels for at least 20 years. They just sent some of their newer stuff, and I’m liking their NickelSteel Bass strings. They’re staying brighter longer. I’ve been beating the hell out of them for a couple weeks, and they’re staying in tune. So I might switch. How did the session for the Sound City song “From Can to Can’t” come together? Dave sent me a demo, and I had about a week to chew on it. I walked into the session and there were [producer/ engineers] Butch Vig and James Brown at the console. It was high stress, but totally cool. The session was filmed, as well. Yes. At first I didn’t realize there were cameras hidden in the corners of the room. When I was tracking, they had handheld cameras in front of my face. There’s a point it the song when I pluck an octave—a nod to Cheap Trick— and you can see my hand trembling! We were recording to tape, so it was high pressure, but good pressure. Butch was really good about pushing me: “Man, I think you could play that part just a little better. Mix it up. Make it a little different from the chorus before that.” I learned a lot that day. It was a blast. And then what came after that was even crazier. That song went to No. 1 on the rock charts in the States, and then the album won a GRAMMY for Best Soundtrack. It was amazing to be part of that. BP

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Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Singles Collection [Fantasy,

Creedence Clearwater Revisited

2009]

Stu Cook Rev’d Up By Brian Fox

|

Bass Mike Lull PJ5 with Seymour Duncan pickups and

Photogr aph By Jeff Dow

Stellartone ToneStyler Rig Aguilar Tone

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Hammer 500, SWR Goliath III 4x10 cabinets EQUIP

Imagine the San Francisco Bay Area circa 1967, and any number of landmark moments in rock & roll history come to mind—the Grateful Dead on the steps at 710 Ashbury St., Jefferson Airplane expanding minds at the Fillmore, Janis Joplin belting it out at the Human Be-In. Of course, there was more to the local music scene than free love and flowers. Across the Bay, greasy East Bay beats were heating up at the hands of players like Larry Graham, Francis Prestia, and Paul Jackson. Up around the bend in sleepy El Cerrito, California, an entirely different flavor of swamp-soaked grooves was percolating courtesy of Tom and John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook, better known as Creedence Clearwater Revival. CCR would crank out seven albums and a number of hit singles until internal tension ripped the band apart in 1972. Cook and drummer “Cosmo” Clifford moved on to play together in the Don Harrison Band, and Stu took the place of bassist Jerry Scheff in the pop country band Southern Pacific in 1986. In 1995, Cook and Clifford teamed up to form Creedence Clearwater Revisited. After a few years in fits and starts, CCRev is back on the road this year, playing all the classics to an ever-expanding fan base. How did you get your start in music? My first instrument was trumpet, and I played piano in the Blue Velvets, which was the instrumental trio John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and I had in junior high school. I switched to rhythm guitar, and then I finally rented a Fender P-Bass from Leo’s Music in Oakland back in the mid ’60s. I liked bass—you played one note at a time, and you got paid as much as everybody else! What was the music you were raised on? The San Francisco Bay Area saw a huge transformation during World War II. People came from all over the country to work in the ports and bases, and they brought their music with them. In the East Bay, there was a lot of R&B, and at night, we could hear the country station broadcasting from Sacramento. So we had an outrageous cross-section of urban and rural music as kids. Creedence came up alongside the bands that defined the San Francisco Sound. Did you consider yourselves part of that community? We did, but we weren’t part of the San Francisco scene per se. We were East Bay boys, and what we were doing was different. We were raised on AM radio—two-three-minute length songs. We could jam a song, but we weren’t a jam band.

Strings Dunlop Nickel, .045–.130 Picks Dunlop Jazz II Effects Wren & Cuff Pickle Pie B, MXR Bass Envelope Filter, MXR Bass Chorus Deluxe, DigiTech HT-6 PolyChromatic Tuner Other Planet Waves cables and accessories  Flash back to Stu’s 1972 interview with Guitar Player. bassplayer.com/

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Miles “The Shoe” Schuman Sole Power By BRIAN FOX

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P hotograph B y B rownwyn H erb, R owen P hotography

For the rock & roll elite strutting the red carpet at Bass Player LIVE! 2014, one junior journalist was sure to stand out: 14-year-old Miles “The Shoe” Schuman. After a fortuitous meeting with Rudy Sarzo at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp—before he was even old enough to attend—Schuman was inspired to start his own online radio show. He’s since become a regular at the Camp, and built an impressive catalogue of interviews with A-listers on bass and beyond. You’re a bass player yourself. How did you get your start? I’ve been playing since I was about eight. Now I take lessons with Robert Sarzo, Rudy’s brother. We get together when he’s not on the road with Geoff Tate’s Queensrÿche. How did you get started with the radio show? A family friend who is a radio host stayed at our house once and did his show from there. I wanted to start my own show, so I looked online and found Blog Talk Radio. Rudy was my first interview, and then I interviewed a bunch of councilors from the Fantasy Camp. Eventually the show became the top rock show on Blog Talk Radio. What’s your setup? It’s pretty simple: I have a Mac computer, a 4-channel mixer, INFO and a microphone. I do it through Spreaker, which has a virtual DJ console, and I take call-ins through Skype. What kinds of experiences have you had at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp? I’ve played “War Machine” [by AC/DC] with Gene Simons singing, and I got to teach Dave Ellefson the bass line to “God of Thunder” [by Kiss]. Learning from the legends and getting to play with them is amazing. The Shoe With What’s next for you? Miles Schuman [milestheshoe.com] I’ve started writing music with a singer from a big Canadian rock band—I’d rather not say the name just yet. And my radio show recently changed to a longer format on the CMS Radio NetBass Peavey work. You can find everything I’m up to on Facebook, Twitter, Cirrus, Epiphone and my website, milestheshoe.com. BP Thunderbird Pro

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How has your approach to bass tone changed through the years? Back then, there was not a lot of note definition. These days, I like a more full-frequency tone; it needs to be centered somewhere in the lower midrange so it has its own space. Now I play with a pick, because I’m looking for note definition. I like Dunlop Jazz II picks—they’re a little bit smaller than typical picks, but real pointy. I like that it’s a precision tool. Where in the CCR set list do you use effects? I use a Pickle Pie B on the signature riff on “Suzie Q,” and I use it a little bit on “Born On The Bayou.” I also use chorus in “Long As I Can See the Light,” “Midnight Special,” and “Feelin’ Blue.” On my Tone Hammer head, I run the gain down and the drive up, which gives some great distortion. As it turns out, adding a bit of grind makes everything blend better. And girls love distortion, you know— especially on the bass! You and Cosmo have played together for more than 50 years. How would you characterize the pocket you create? We keep it simple, so there’s a lot of room to groove. Who are some of the players you keep an eye out for? I really admire guys like Bryan Beller and Damian Erskine and of course, the generation before with Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. Those guys knock me out not only with their talent, but with the way they’ve adapted and incorporated devices. It’s largely a young man’s game out there, and I have to admit being too comfortable sometimes. I’m glad that Cosmo and I still have a job—we tell each other that we’re on the Senior Rock Tour! There’s nothing wrong with that. There really isn’t. We’re having the time of our lives. It’s so great to see so many Creedence fans, younger ones especially, around the world. We’re really blessed. Fogerty wrote some great songs for the band with a great catalog and continued airplay and ever-growing fan base. I think we probably have more fans now than we did back in the heyday. As Chris Rock would say, “Cornbread—ain’t nothing wrong with that!” BP

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the

PRS

Grainger Bass

Alex Al

Wyzard

Rhonda Smith

Kevin Walker

Gary Grainger

In 2003 Gary Grainger sat down with our engineers and helped us create the genesis of the Grainger Bass. Originally available only through Private Stock, the Grainger 4 and Grainger 5 are now available from our core line in an elegant and simplified configuration. This instrument has become the go-to bass for many of today's top musicians. Because of the extraordinary woodwork, hardware and proprietary pre-amp, these basses have all the tone, clarity, power and feel a player needs.

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Tony Smith Klaw Daddy BY JIMMY LESLIE

LISTEN

Tony (left) applies “the klaw” while Victor takes a peek.

Tony Smith, Beneath the Shadows [Varese SaraBande, 2014], Try

|

[Varese SaraBande, 2012]

What is the origin of your klaw technique? When I was ten years old I became intrigued by the sound of my dad’s guitar playing in church, so I asked him to show me how to play. He taught me how to hold a guitar, and then came the moment that started it all for me—he told me that the way to strum a guitar was by going up and down with your thumb. After a few years I started watching Hee Haw, starring Roy Clark on banjo. Watching Roy and other banjo players inspired me to try using my index and middle fingers in conjunction with my thumb.

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Basses Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass V, Roland GR-55 EQUIP

Can you describe the basics? I start by double-thumbing, down and up, on one of the lower strings, and then I pluck the top string with my index finger. Next I’ll double-thumb on a low string again, and then pluck with my middle finger. The result is a continuous sound, like a freight train. I mix up the motion depending on the notes I want to hear and the groove I’m going for, but it’s essentially based on that principle. It provides the forward motion, and then I’ll add accents made of octaves or other intervals by simultaneously grabbing a note on a low string with my thumb and a note on the top string with either my index or middle finger. Victor Wooten does some similar stuff. How does your technique differ from his? I plant my pinkie on the bass to stabilize my hand, and that allows me to use just the joint of my thumb for my double-thumbing motion. Victor doesn’t plant his pinkie; his is more of a full thumb motion. And the way I incorporate my index and middle fingers with doublethumbing to provide a constant flow is completely different from anything I’ve ever seen Victor do. BP

Guitar Synth Strings GHS Strings w/custom shop gauges (.040–.126) Rig Hartke LH1000 head, Hartke HyDrive 410 & 115 cabinets See Tony demonstrate his “klaw” technique. bassplayer.com/

CONNECT

LAS VEGAS-BASED TONY SMITH IS A GROOVE virtuoso who clogged the aisles at this year's NAMM Show, as rubberneckers marvelled at Tony's unique “klaw” technique, an economic approach to plucking aimed at perpetual propulsion. “Shortcut,” from Smith’s new CD, Beneath the Shadows, is an interesting example of how he applies his technique in a contemporary jazz context. “Tryin’ to Find My Baby,” from his 1998 release A Cosmic Odyssey, is a good place to hear it in funky blues context.

june2014

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B JOSÉ JAMES

DEATH

While You Were Sleeping [Blue Note]

Death III [Drag City]

TAKUYA KURODA Rising Son [Blue Note] From Brooklyn to the Bowery, Kansas City-born doubler Solomon Dorsey has been a rising groove force in Gotham. Now he shares his plucking, production, and pen perspective on two highly anticipated discs. As the touring bassist with hip-hop/jazz vocal sensation José James, Dorsey steps into the recording role his main bass influence, Pino Palladino, filled on James’ acclaimed 2013 CD, No Beginning No End. This time out, the always-reaching baritone crooner adds a rock edge to his signature contemporary R&B blend of electronica and organic rhythm section. “Angel” launches the 12-track disc with guitarist Brad Allen William’s Hendrix haze and Dorsey’s deep, staccato throb buffeting James’ Bill Withers-meets-Gil-Scott Heron vocal. “Anywhere You Go” (with its driving guitar riff and complementary accented bass line) and the sub-bass-powered “Without U” mine the dark, industrial intensity of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. In contrast, Solomon mans synth bass for the trippy, acoustic guitar-induced title-track (one of three songs he co-wrote), and his bed of acoustic and synth bass is the backbone of vocalist Becca Stevens’ sparse, haunting “Dragon.” The instrumental interlude “Salaam” serves as Solomon’s sonic shout-out, as he percolates with Pino-style broken bass lines and ear-bending fills. Japanese trumpeter/arranger Takuya Kuroda, another key member of the James team, takes the “lead vocal” role on his dramatic debut (produced by James, who guests on a faithful cover of Roy Ayers’ ’70s classic “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”). Key to the fervent flow here is the steady rhythm section of Dorsey, Marcus Miller keyboardist Kris Bowers (also a mainstay on James’ CD), and kinetic drummer Nate Smith. Joined by guitarist Lionel Loueke, they man the integrated groove of “Afro Blue” before stretching with conversational ideas behind the soloists. Similarly, the hiphop bounce of “Piri Piri” and Afro-samba groove of “Mala” find Solomon and Smith finishing each other’s phrases in support mode, with Solomon stepping forward to engage solos by trombonist Corey King, Kuroda, and Bowers. With so many tools on display, the stage is nicely set for Dorsey’s planned solo endeavor. —CHRIS JISI THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS Dylan’s Gospel [Light In The Attic] Just weeks before he became a member of Elvis Presley’s touring TCB Band in 1969, Jerry Scheff laid down rock-solid lines on this set of Bob Dylan classics recorded at an African-American church in Los Angeles. Scheff ’s thick Fender tone is high up in the mix on songs like “Lay Lady Lay” and “I Shall Be Released,” supporting and grooving the 27-piece choir, and it’s a revelation to hear how naturally Dylan’s tunes work in an old-school black gospel context. —E.E. BRADMAN

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They’re called power trios for a reason—and the three Hackney brothers, collectively known as Death, had a hell of a reason. Led by frontman/bassist Bobby Hackney, who on this third dip into the band’s lost catalog can alternate between sawtoothed precision (on the garage boogie “North Street”) and a languid swing (“We Are Only People”), Death built a protopunk bridge that essentially connected the Stooges and Funkadelic. Now, decades later, a rediscovery binge has finally vaulted the band into the spotlight. — B I LL M U R PH Y ZIGGY MARLEY Fly Rasta [Tuff Gong Worldwide] Even with four bassists in effect—including session aces Abraham Laboriel, Dave Wilder, Guy Erez, and longtime touring vet Pablo Stennett—and influences as farflung as rock, jazz, and R&B, Ziggy Marley’s fifth solo outing flows with remarkable continuity. Highlights include the loping funk of “Moving Forward,” with syncopated runs that would make Family Man Barrett proud, and the blistering title track, which features U-Roy toasting heavy over a classic one-drop reggae line. — B I L L MU RPHY BLACK LIPS

Underneath the Rainbow [Vice] With Dap-Kings guitarist Tom Brenneck at the controls, the Lips finally have a sound—fat, analog and tape-saturated—that does justice to their three-minute nuggets of garage-psych dystopia. Jared Swilley holds a firm lowend groove throughout, whether he’s sawing away Sterling Morrison-style on the Velvety “Make You Mine” or laying into a raucous basement grind on the outstandingly catchy “Dandelion Dust.” — BI LL MU R PH Y OWL

The Right Thing [Overit] Between playing bass in the Cult and working with Mick Jagger, Ozzy Osbourne, and Scott Weiland, Chris Wyse has had an impressive career as a sideman. His true passion, however, lies with his experimental rock band Owl, where his bass shines as the lead instrument. On this hard-hitting album, Owl’s second, Wyse’s picking and tapping over his bowed upright lines and lead riffs put his creative approach on full display while confirming his prowess as a diverse bass player. — J ON D’AU RI A PAT METHENY UNITY GROUP Kin (←→) [Metheny Group] Metheny’s compositions have become increasingly complex and intricate over the years, so it’s only natural that his latest album would continue that trend. Upright bassist Ben Williams’ interplay with drummer Antonio Sanchez

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B springs to life on songs like “Genealogy,” where the duo’s connection through long measures and musical tongue twisters is seamless. Williams also steps up on “We Go On” and “Rise Up,” building cinematic crescendos with his intricate walking lines. —JON D’AURIA

BADBADNOTGOOD III [Innovative Leisure] Right from the opening track of this young Torontobased trio’s third album, Chester Hansen makes his presence felt with an intricate bass line that sets the stage. BBNG’s jazz-meets-hip-hop vibe provides the perfect platform for Hansen’s tremendous skill on upright and electric bass, and his lines and solos are quick to steal the show on songs like “Kaleidoscope” and “Hedron.” Whether he’s stringing together cordial compositions or blazing melodic runs over soulful breakbeats, Hansen is a beast on this tremendous new album of instrumental originals. —JON D’AURI A

ROTO’S MAGIC ACT

Into the Unknown

[Innovative Leisure] On his second album, multi-instrumentalist James “Roto” Rotondi enlists the skills of a handful bassists, including up-and-coming session dude Mike Chiavaro,

Joan Osborne bass man Richard Hammond, and New Bohemians/Critters Buggin vet Brad Houser, who bring strong lines and thick tone to Roto’s power-pop meets alt-country sound. Highlights include “Circus Clown” and “South,” two great examples of the tight, pocket grooves that fuel Roto’s Southern twang. —JON D’AURIA

DAMIAN ERSKINE

The Improvisor’s Path (Exploring the Bassist’s Path to Mastery)

[notneK Music] In this follow-up to his previous book, Right-Hand Drive, seasoned bassist and acclaimed educator Damian Erskine goes well beyond the conventional methods of teaching improvisation within the context of jazz harmony. By being frank about his own practice regimen and establishing relatable connections, Erskine—who’s an adjunct professor at Portland State when he’s not on the road—excels at making complex concepts graspable even to novice bassists, covering everything from scales and modes, chords on bass, and rhythm to odd meters, soloing, and phrasing. Each concept comes with plenty of in-depth background, every bit of theory is explained in practical terms, and each chapter includes charts for readers to play through. Erskine is highly articulate, very experienced, and refreshingly generous with his wisdom, and readers will quickly find that they’ll gain as much from his personal insights as they will from hitting the charts. A labor of love, and a future classic. — J O N D ’AU R I A BP

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BAREFACED AUDIO Big Baby II & Big Twin II Cabinets U.K.-based Barefaced’s update of its flagship Big Baby and Big Twin amps means redeveloped internal bracing, a new A12XN550 speaker driver, custom punched steel grilles, tough new handles and feet, steel backplates with Speakon/q"-jack inputs, and stronger enclosures. The best part? The 800-watt Big Baby II 1x12 weighs 27 pounds, and the 1,600-watt Big Twin II 2x12 is a backfriendly 48 pounds. List Big Baby II, $1,200; Big Twin II, $1,819 Contact barefacedbass.com

AMPEG BA Series Bass Combo Amp series Besides front-facing controls, a 60-degree monitoring angle for better clarity, all-metal chassis, and front-panel backlighting, Ampeg’s new BA combos—the BA-108 1x8, BA-110 1x10, BA112 1x12, BA-115 1x15, and BA-210 2x10—all feature the Bass Scrambler overdrive circuit with separate DRIVE

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IZOTOPE RX 3 If you’ve ever recorded into your computer, you’ll appreciate the ability to deal with buzz, hum, or noise related to mikes, noisy pickups, and pedal noises. With its diverse set of audio repair and restoration tools, iZotope RX 3 software aims to help players and engineers clean up audio, separate noise from musical elements, and stretch or shorten certain passages or adjust pitch. Street $300 Contact isotope.com

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THE BASS THAT

CHANGED AMERICA DON WAS CHANNELS SIR PAUL McCARTNEY FOR THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED AMERICA: A GRAMMY SALUTE TO THE BEATLES

LARRY BUSACCA/GETTY IMAGES

BY CHRIS JISI

THE EVENTS SET IN MOTION BY THE Beatles’ U.S. television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, on February 9, 1964, changed this nation’s musical and social landscape from the ground up. For bassists, of course, that’s a literal reference, as Paul McCartney—via his Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass, and later his Rickenbacker 4001S-LH—forged the template for rock and pop bass playing. Among the time-honored devices and concepts Macca innovated or adapted and refined (and thus passed on to the rest of us) include the bass line as a counter-melody, or sub-hook (“Come Together” being the ultimate example); the

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REX USA/ITV/Rex

bassplayer.com / j u n e 2 0 1 4

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Med. rock ballad

F#m

F#m/B

Ex. 1a

= 80

A

E

E etc.

H

9 11

9 Med. rock ballad

Ex. 1b

= 80

11

9 11 9

9 11

11

7

9

8

9

6

9

9

9

6

9

= 57

9

9 (7)

9

7

6

6 6

6 6 6

Ab/Bb

6

6

6 8

8

6 6

6

8

8

8

6

Cm

3

Am

1 2

8

4

6

9

Db

1 1 1 Rock ballad

9 6

etc.

7

B

7

5

3 3

Am/G

5

3 3 3

F#m7b5

1 3 3

5

Fmaj7

3 3 3 3

4

Am

9

6 (7)

9

(6)

Eb

4 4

6

6 8

Ab

Ex. 2B

= 106

9 9 9 9 9 6

9

7

Eb

6 Medium R&B

6

7

Ex. 2a

= 106

H

H

E

7 Medium R&B

11 11 11 11 11 9

(6) G7

3 (6) 6

6

4

6

4 6

1.

Am/G

D

3

5 3

3 5

5

3

5

3 1

E

2nd time

Ex. 3A

9 9 9 7 7 7

7 7 7 5 5 5

2.

C

8

7 7 5 5

9 9 9 7 7 7

7 7 7 5 5 5

7 7 7 7 7 9 9 9 9 9 5 5 5 5 5 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

7 5

3 2 3 5 7 7 7 9

A

6

7 9

C#m

6 F#m

C#m

Bm

E

Ex. 3b

= 57

5 5 5 3 3 3

E

3 3 3 Rock ballad

7 7 7 4 4 4

7

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7

9

7

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7 11

9

7

7

9

7

9

7 11

9

7

7

9

2

2

4 5

6

7 7

7 9 9

9

6 6

6 7

9

McCartney

Don’t Let Him Down As if playing Paul McCartney’s brilliant bass parts in front of him wasn’t daunting enough, Don Was also had to tackle a James Jamerson gem, all while maintaining his musical director role. Ex. 1a approximates 4 bars of McCartney’s chorus bass line from the Beatles’ January 30, 1969 live performance of “Don’t Let Me Down” on the roof of Apple Records in London. Using his Höfner, Macca played a busier bass line than the studio version, and the band (including Billy Preston on electric piano) played the song about four clicks faster. Lay back in the pocket and make those notes fat. Ex. 1b recalls the first four bars of the second verse, where Macca doubles George Harrison’s outstanding counterpoint guitar part (the notes in brackets are played by Harrison only). Ex. 2a approaches James Jamerson’s typical three-bar verse figure on Stevie Wonder’s 1970 cover of “We Can Work It Out.” Keep the drive of the straight-16ths while also minding the swinging lilt of the overall feel. Ex. 2b begins with a pickup to the second half of the bridge (six bars in). Dig Jamerson’s signature syncopation and his ear-grabbing use of the dominant 7th in the Ab chord and the bluesy flatted 3rd (Bb) against the G7 chord. Finally, Ex. 3a resembles McCartney’s typical eight-bar A-section figure on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Dig Paul’s overdriven fifths, widely believed to have been played with a pick on a ’66 Fender Jazz Bass. Ex. 3b recalls the first 4 bars of the bridge, speculated to be doubled by Paul or George on a Fender Bass VI. Be mindful of all the scoops and slides into notes and don’t rush.

CS

use of non-root tones (3rds, 5ths, 7ths) as the root (creating “slash chords”); the use of chromatic and passing tones for both voice-leading and intentional dissonance; singing and playing independent vocal and bass lines; upper-register fills; tasteful use of space; double-tracking and overdubbing bass parts; doubling piano and guitar lines; pick-playing; utilizing dead and ghost notes; and placing the feel in various parts of the pocket. That’s not to mention his innate ability to see the instrument as a composer and arranger, as well as a rhythm section member. Or as Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover summed up in his Bass Player cover story [October ’13], “Paul has the lyrical sensibility to say something profound on the bass that doesn’t get in the way of anything else in the song.” With the 50th Anniversary of the Fab Four’s first foray stateside upon us, what more relevant way to celebrate than via a televised tribute show? Filmed at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, site of the 56th Annual Grammy Awards the previous day, The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute To The Beatles featured more than a dozen artists covering 21 Beatles songs, including honorees McCartney and Ringo Starr [see set list, page 38]. Musical directing the affair was über-producer, Blue Note Records President, and bassist Don Was, who selected and led a house band that boasted drummer Kenny Aronoff, guitarists Steve Lukather and Peter Frampton, keyboardists Greg Phillinganes, Chris Caswell, and Rami Jaffe, percussionist Lenny Castro, three backing vocalists, and three horns. While Was handled the bulk of the bass work, the bottom was also held down by Mickey Madden with Maroon 5, Ben McKee with Imagine Dragons, Michael Bradford with the Eurythmics, Brian Ray with McCartney’s band, and, yes, Paul himself, plucking his Höfner. We asked Was to reflect upon the event; from learning Beatles bass lines and performing the songs to interacting with Sir Paul, the greatest of them all. How were you hired for the show and what was your role? Ken Ehrlich, who’s one of the all-time great producer/directors of music television shows, called and offered me the gig. He’s produced the Grammys since 1980 and is an expert at pulling off these very complex, multi-artist shows. Ken and his organization chose the performers and worked out the song selection. I was responsible for making sure that each artist was ready for CBS Prime Time TV at the end of their 30 minute rehearsal—by whatever means necessary! The most important part of the job was casting the

bassplayer.com / j u n e 2 0 1 4 WW_CS839_2,375x9,75_USA.indd 1

33 12.03.14 11:37

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PAUL McCartney

right musicians: They had to be amazing players who could be totally countedon to respect the songs and inspire the singers. They had to be positive cats who were graceful and cool under pressure, who loved The Beatles, and who’d show up on a cold soundstage at 8am and—without complaining—plug-in and play the heck out of those songs every single time we ran them down. Everyone in that band was stellar and I was very honored to play alongside them. Let’s talk about your gear. I played a P-Bass that Nate White had specially prepared for me at the Fender Custom Shop. It’s basically a relic of a 1964 Precision with old vintage electronics, and I have La Bella Deep Talkin’ flatwounds on it. They used some really sweet wood and, as fate would have it, the bass came out sounding just about as good as any of my vintage models—yet, I can take it anywhere without having to hire an armed guard to keep an eye on it! I plugged into an Ampeg SVT; if it’s a newer head, I usually like the truck to take the direct signal off the back of the amp, but that wasn’t an option on this show. I brought an Acme Wolf Box DI that John McBride from Blackbird Studios in Nashville gave me as a gift; they’re made by the legendary Detroit engineer, Dr. Ed Wolfrum, and employ the same transformer and components that were utilized in the ’60s for the DIs that he built for the original Motown Studios. My buddy Al Schmidt mixed the TV broadcast, and I was very pleased with the bass sound he got. My string bass was made in Mexico; I picked it up at Stein On Vine in 1993. We know nothing about its origin. It was beat up when I got it, and it’s in worse shape now. I mean, actually held together by duct tape in a few spots! I played

it at the Bass Player LIVE! concert, and I’ve used it on a whole lotta records. It records quite well; very rich low end with a nice point bubbling on the top of each note. What was your approach to playing Paul McCartney’s bass lines, and how did you prepare? I felt it was imperative to capture the essence of Paul’s bass parts. His bass playing is so innovative and influential; he is the rock and roll equivalent of James Jamerson—weaving incredible melodic lead lines, holding down the low end, and functioning as a percussionist with complex syncopation. It would’ve been disrespectful to play those songs in front of him and cavalierly toss-off a “light” version of his work. We all owe so much to those guys and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to express my humble gratitude through deed rather than words. So I really put my heart into it. We got the multi-tracks, isolated the bass, and I went to school on McCartney. We also did music-minus-one mixes without his bass, and I sat in my bedroom and practiced all night with the Beatles—just like when I was 14! In addition, I checked out recent videos of Paul

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PAUL McCartney

and his band on YouTube to see how he or Brian [Ray] currently play the songs, so we could determine which elements stood the test of time for him. It was a lot of fun and very inspiring. My ultimate conclusion: Paul is a total bass genius. Did you do anything tone or technique-wise to cover Paul’s Beatle Bass sound on a P-Bass? There’s only one Paul; nobody plays like him or sounds like him—even with the same gear. Strapping on a Höfner and trying to mimic his tone would’ve been a losing proposition—the musical equivalent of wearing a Beatle wig for the broadcast! I just tried to distill the essence of his parts and then play them as best as I could. Paul plays those songs better than anyone ever will. He was awesome during his set. I watched him play “I Saw Her Standing There” while singing the syncopated melody, without missing a single 8th-note in the bass part. It blew my mind. How does anyone develop that kind of independence and pull off both parts so brilliantly? You really got inside of “Something.” What was your process and take-away? I played it over and over and over until the part was burned indelibly into my soul! Certain sections of the part are sacred and nobody should mess with them. But there are also portions that were clearly of-the-moment, and lend themselves to interpretation. Paul’s choice of notes is staggering. Check out the first bar: It’s got kind of a rhythmic 16th-note feel, jumping the octave. But he switches up at the end of the measure with this ascending line up to the fifth against the C major 7 chord on the downbeat of the second measure, followed

by a melodic response to the vocal—it’s so wistful and heart-wrenching. The whole first section of the verse is this crazy ride of alternating rhythm and ingenious melodicism. Then you get to the “Don’t want to leave her now…” section, and the bass goes into this amazing melodic counterpoint line that really is right out of Mozart’s bag of tricks. It’s so deep; how does that combination of notes and rhythm just fly off of someone’s fingers? You’ve got to be humbled by that kind of musicianship [Note: You can find a complete bass transcription of “Something” in the April ’06 issue of BP.] You cited “Hey Bulldog” as the hardest part to get a handle on. How did you arrive at the bass line you played? I kind of rose to the level of my incompetence on that one! Paul’s performance on the studio version is totally adrenalized, uninhibited, and driven by an almost manic power. I was able to find the position on the neck where the shapes made sense, but I was unable to make those notes simultaneously drive the song like he did. Being from Detroit, I opted for groove mode and decided to sort of sit on

the tonic and slam out 8th notes, knowing full well that whatever intensity may have been lacking in the bass would be compensated for by Dave Grohl’s incredible energy on the drums. He digs in so deep it’s almost frightening; the only other musician I’ve played with who has that kind of startling intensity is Iggy Pop. It’s like having someone throw a molotov cocktail through your bedroom window at 4AM! Dave and Iggy embody the primordial essence of rock and roll! [Note: You'll find a complete bass transcription of “Hey Bulldog” in the August ’09 issue.] Did you do the same kind of listening research to play James Jamerson’s bass part on Stevie’s 1970 cover of “We Can Work It Out”? Well, it was a very big deal for a Detroit boy to be playing Jamerson’s bass part with Stevie Wonder! It was a little intimidating with him sitting five feet away from my amp, knowing he could hear every freaking note! But I got over that in rehearsal and was able to enjoy the moment. Jamerson is my hero. We’ve all sat with our ears up to the speakers trying to figure out what he was playing. Over the years, I’ve found it way more rewarding to internalize the spirit and framework of his parts and then find my own way to walk the song’s path rather than to simply regurgitate Jamerson’s notes verbatim. Greg Phillinganes spent years playing live with Stevie and he really helped our band get the arrangement right. Even so, I spent considerable time playing along with the record (and a bunch of live YouTube performances) to reach the point where I felt comfortable getting up and interpreting a Jamerson part with Stevie Wonder. To be honest, it was one of the greatest thrills of my life. What led you to play upright on “Yesterday”? Katy Perry had staged a huge production one night earlier on the Grammys and wanted to change things up about 180 degrees. To her credit, she understood that the Beatles show was about music, not spectacle, and she was determined to keep it as intimate and unaffected as possible. When we rehearsed, she wanted to run it without the PA just to make sure that mere volume would not be mistaken for emotional energy. The upright has the warmth and natural wood vibration that seemed to suit the mood, so I picked it up and she dug it. in fact, we were striving for such intimacy that even whole notes on the low end seemed overpowering and I ended up laying-out for two-thirds of the song. I give Katy a whole lotta props for that performance. Tackling “Yesterday” was a risky proposition. She was fearless and cut through to the emotional core of the song. I was standing less

than a foot away from her and was moved by her interpretation; she’s a great singer. Did anything stand out to you having to learn and play the bass lines for “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “As My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Yellow Submarine”? Right before we played “Dont Let Me Down” on the show, they projected a film clip of the Beatles

performing it at their rooftop farewell concert in London. Paul played an entirely different groove than the one he played on the record, which has a reggae-like feel. On the spot, I shifted up to the rooftop groove to maintain continuity. It kept me on my toes and in the moment, which is always good for the music. John [Mayer] and Keith’s [Urban] extended soloing on the end presented an opportunity to

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LEGENDARY MUSIC STRINGS SINCE 1958

BOB HARDY

FRANZ FERDINAND - ROTOSOUND PLAYER

CS

PAUL McCartney

build and improvise on McCartney’s rhythms. At the first rehearsal, we jammed on the ending for about 25 minutes and it was transcendental; those guys are amazing musicians and they play really well together. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was full of surprises when I isolated the bass track. I had no idea that Paul was strumming two-note chords— fifths—all the way through the verse section. Then he breaks into that brilliant counter melody in the “I don’t know how…” bridge. He also doubled that bridge bass line an octave up on what sounds like a Rickenbacker 12-string; it’s amazing. You played “Photograph” with Ringo for the Grammy Awards; did you check out that track beforehand, too? Ringo asked me to be the MD for his Grammy performance, so about two weeks before the show it seemed prudent to give a listen to the original recording of “Photograph.” I was blown away! It’s a great record; I think it’s Richard Perry’s greatest production. We had to perform up to the level of that track and, the more you listen to it, the more you realize how complex and intricate the arrangement is. I believe Jack Nitzsche was responsible for the orchestration. If you saw the show, you may have noticed that we had a whole lotta folks up on stage and, were it not for Chris Caswell’s

unique ability to perform several parts at once on his keyboards, there could have been twice as many hands on deck. In the end I think we got it just right. Klaus Voorman’s original bass part is sublime. I found no need to deviate from it. The Grammy Awards are an interesting event: Although it’s watched by like 80 million people, it feels kind of small and intimate when you’re there; it’s like a high school talent show. You’re seated among a whole bunch of people you know and then someone comes to take you around to the back of the stage and you play your little song and go back and sit down again! it’s quite relaxed and I was able to savor the moment and dig the whole scene. Did Paul say anything to you bass-related during the whole process? We got to hang out a bit and had a couple of really nice conversations. We talked a lot about bass and I hope I didn’t gush too much over his brilliance. I did get the distinct sense that he is not as impressed with his own musicianship as we are, which is a refreshing and admirable quality. While he is certainly aware of the global impact of his music, his perspective has, of course, been tinted by the mundane reality of having actually lived in the eye of the hurricane. And in the end, his humility through all of the hoopla is as inspirational as his musical accomplishments. BP

All Together Now The GRAMMY Salute Set List 1) “All My Loving” and “Ticket to Ride” - Maroon 5 [Mickey Madden: black Rickenbacker] 2) “Don’t Let Me Down” - John Mayer & Keith Urban [Don Was: P-Bass] 3) “In My Life” - Ed Sheeran [no bass] 4) “Revolution” - Imagine Dragons [Ben McKee: white Stambaugh Designs 4-string Chambered Bass] 5) “We Can Work It Out” - Stevie Wonder [Don Was] 6) “Let It Be” - Alicia Keys & John Legend [no bass] 7) “Yesterday” - Katy Perry [Don Was on upright] 8) “The Fool on the Hill” - Eurythmics (Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart) [Michael Bradford: Gibson EB-5] 9) “Hey Bulldog” - Jeff Lynne & Dave Grohl [Don Was] 10) “Here Comes the Sun” - Pharrell Williams & Brad Paisley [Don Was]

WORLD FAMOUS MUSIC STRINGS

11) “Something” - Joe Walsh, Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison [Don Was] 12) “As My Guitar Gently Weeps” - Gary Clarke, Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl [Don Was] 13) “Matchbox,” “Boys,” and “Yellow Submarine” - Ringo Starr [Don Was]

WWW.ROTOSOUND.COM

14) “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Get Back,” and “Birthday” - Paul McCartney [Paul on his

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Hofner]

TWITTER.COM/ROTOSOUND_UK

15) Paul & Ringo Finale: “Magical Mystery Tour” [Paul] “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” [Paul], “With a Little Help from My Friends” [Paul] “Hey Jude” [Brian Ray on his Epiphone

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Looking Sideways After a ten-year studio hiatus, Jack Bruce roars back on Silver Rails. By Freddy Villano From the mid ’60s to the early ’70s, Jack Bruce was as influential to the development of the electric bass in rock & roll as Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar. Long before Jaco Pastorius broke all of the rules, Bruce was already forging new paths by breaking away from the simple root–5 patterns typically associated with the instrument at that time. As the bassist and vocalist for Cream, Bruce’s barking tone and freewheeling style revolutionized the way the instrument was used. Peers like Paul McCartney and James Jamerson were also pushing the instrument’s boundaries in the ’60s, but no one embodied what the bass was capable of in a rock band more than Jack Bruce. Cream classics like “Crossroads,” “Strange Brew,” and “Politician” feature an unabashed and bombastic, yet highly musical and adventurous, approach to the instrument. His influence is perhaps best exemplified in the playing

Photo by Marek Hoffman



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JACK BRUCE

Bruce (left) with Leslie West.

“Candlelight” has a bit of a New Orleans thing going on. “Drone”? Well, that’s me, the kind of stuff I always end up doing. But I think it’s a little friendlier on this album. When I was young, some of my albums were quite grim and serious. But writing now at my advanced age, I have a kind of ironic sense of humor— looking sideways. I think that’s why nowadays there’s much more brightness in those dark corners. Despite the varying musical styles, there is cohesiveness to the overall sound. Did you use a core group of musicians? I used the rhythm section from my blues band, Frank Tontoh on drums and Tony Remy on guitar, and also the horn section. I didn’t hire the piano player

because I wanted to do that myself. I also have a bass player in my touring band, but I thought I might as well play the bass myself since it’s cheaper. Did you write specific songs with the guest musicians in mind? I definitely wanted the particular guitar players, like Phil Manzanera on “Candlelight.” I worked with him a couple of years ago when we went to Cuba, and I’ve really liked his playing ever since. He just took my little demo away for about a week and came back and played that amazing guitar part. For “Rusty Lady,” I really wanted Robin Trower to play on that because it’s right up his alley. Do you write on bass? I tend to write in my head and then I’ll sit down at the piano, but if it’s something like “Rusty Lady” or “Drone,” obviously I’m going to play that on the bass. For the more piano-oriented songs I’ll get the idea and then I’ll home in on the form by sitting down at the piano. What first attracted you to the bass? I come from a ridiculously poor background and couldn’t afford any instruments—the only one that was free at my school was this big old tub of a

I’m totally digging the sound on stage; so much presence and no feedback problems at very loud volumes. I’m spreading the word on this great pickup. —Tony Garnier, Bassist and Musical Director for Bob Dylan

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JACK BRUCE

double bass. So I just started playing around with that. And then my dad, who was a great jazz fan, took me to hear a couple of things. The first thing was the Modern Jazz Quartet with Percy Heath on bass, and I couldn’t believe the sound he was getting out of that instrument. Then I heard Ray Brown and was basically hooked. I wanted to become the Scott LaFaro of my time. When did you transition to electric bass? A great jazz guitar player from Jamaica named Ernest Ranglin asked me to play on an EP of his [Ernest Ranglin & the G.B.’s, Black Swan, 1964], but he said it had to be a bass guitar, so I simply borrowed one from a music shop and fell in love with it. It was so much easier to carry about—and it was loud. On 1966’s Fresh Cream, you played a Fender Bass VI before famously adopting the Gibson EB-3. The Fender Bass VI is quite simply almost impossible to play. I played that in the Graham Bond Organisation, and when John McLaughlin left, we didn’t have a guitar player, so in my innocent, young way I thought, “I’ll get myself a six-string bass.” I tended to play a lot of little guitar licks on it. The first electric bass I ever had was a Japanese Top 20, and it electrocuted me at the 100 Club in London. I thought my number was up—the four strings were burned right across the palm of my hand. It was terrible. After that I got the Bass VI, and then I found the EB-3, which was a great instrument to play with Cream. It’s almost more of a guitar than a bass. That became my thing for a while. Why was it more like a guitar? For one, it’s short scale. And I used to play those really light La Bella strings,

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so I could bend them in the same way that you can bend the strings on the guitar. We were doing these improvisations and I didn’t want to be playing a very big Fender or something; I wanted something I could create my own sound on, something different from what most of the other guys at the time were using. When did you transition to fretless? I got a fretless Plexiglas bass from Dan Armstrong in the mid ’70s, and I realized that I should be playing fretless. The first fretless I fell in love with was built by Stuart Spector. And then I discovered Warwick, and I’ve been with them ever since. I love the precision of their instruments. The ones I love most are my fretless Brazilian rosewood Thumb Bass [most Thumb Basses are made of bubinga] and the new Jack Bruce Survivor. I had the idea of making the Survivor look a little like an EB-3, but with Warwick’s precision and technology. What basses did you use on Silver Rails? I’m playing a combination of the Brazilian rosewood fretless, the new Signature Series, and my ’50s Gibson EB-1. Of the three basses, how did you decide on

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which to use for a particular tune? Each track suggests the particular bass. For example, the distorted tone of “Drone” shouts out for the EB-1, while the descending vocal in “Reach for the Night” needs the mellowness of the Brazilian rosewood fretless. Were there any advantages to the 34"-scale Spector and Warwick basses versus the shortscale EB-3? Well, no. I come from the double bass, so when I switched to the long-scale basses it was very natural for me. It wasn’t a problem for me to play the EB-3, either—I would bend the neck and bounce it off the floor and do all of the silly things you used to do in the ’60s, and it always came back wanting more. Did playing unlined fretless necks come naturally because of the double bass, too? Yes, to a certain extent. It’s quite difficult sometimes if you’re singing some high note and you’ve got to hit a convincing bass note and you haven’t got frets. On my fretless bass I have what I call “landing lights” [LEDs], so out of the corner of my eye I can see the shape of the neck. Sometimes it’s difficult because they are red LED lights, and certain lighting situations cancel that color right out. Then you’re on your own. Do you have any advice for developing one’s intonation on fretless? Practice. There’s no shortcut, is there? You can’t just say, “Yeah, if you do this it’s going to work.” A lot of people don’t take to it at all. But I think it’s a beautiful thing, especially if you’re singing, because the intonation between the voice and the fretless can be quite interesting. But for anybody starting out, I’ve got no magical solution. Practice, man. Get in the woodshed. What about the challenges of singing and playing? The first time I had a problem with that was when Cream did “Politician.” The very first time we did it, we were recording at the BBC. I just had the riff and Pete Brown had written some lyrics. At the time, the BBC had 3-track recording, so the song was improvised and recorded separately—I overdubbed the vocals, in other words. And when I came to play it with the band, I realized I couldn’t. It was simply a matter of working it until I got it, and that was a breakthrough because after that I was able to do a lot more where the vocal and the bass part were in opposition. It’s just like being a drummer and having independence. You don’t want to think about what you’re playing; you just want to feel it. In order to be free with it, it takes a bit of work.

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Cream of Cream [Hal Leonard], featuring Gary Moore and Gary Husband. bassplayer.com/june2014

You also use different amps nowadays. Why did you use Marshall guitar amps in the ’60s? In those days there weren’t a lot of choices for big amps. We nicked the idea of using Marshalls from the Who; they were the first guys I ever saw using those stacks. I think Eric [Clapton] said, “That’s what we should do.” I used different things for a while, like Crown and Gallien-Krueger. Hartke was basically formed to make those speakers with aluminum cones for Jaco and myself. I’ve never gone away from them, because they work for me. How so? It’s not that I play that loud—I play very intensely. I’m not a light player. I use a sort of double-bass approach, still to this day, and you need something that’s going to stand up to that. You had a fairly distorted tone back in the ’60s, less so nowadays. Is that conscious decision? Distortion was the sound of then. It was very hard-driven for various reasons. I think when I did “Apostrophe” [Apostrophe, DiscReet, 1974] with Frank Zappa, he took that to the next level. It was the fartiest bass sound I ever had. I like it to feel

driven, but I don’t like too much distortion, unless it’s something like in the song “Drone” when I deliberately go for that. Speaking of “Drone,” what are you using on that tune? That’s a very small Hartke amp, just one 12" speaker, and the distortion effect is from a guy in Japan who came up to me after a concert once and handed it to me. I’m still using it. I don’t know what his name is or what it’s called, but it’s great. Never look a gift horse in the mouth! Felix Pappalardi produced Cream’s Disraeli Gears [Atco, 1967]. Having a similar background, did you two hit it off? We really hit it off, because we were so similar in many ways. We were both rock bass players who came from a classical background. He played viola and pocket trumpet and different things. We did a lot of the arrangements on the Cream songs that actually had arrangements. When you hear things like recorders, trumpets, viola, Mellotron—that would be Felix and me. He also worked on my first solo album, Songs for a Tailor [Atco, 1969]. As a classically trained composer and musician turned rock & roll improvisationalist, what’s your view of the bass guitar’s role in music? One of the functions of the bass is to make the song sound good, and if you’re just playing all over, it’s not going to work. Even with Cream, I wasn’t really playing a lot of notes on the recordings. I had to be relatively functional, but there are very creative ways you can do that. Look at James Jamerson, for example—he was a very melodic player. That’s what I’ve always aimed for. BP

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The Low End Landscape

Ampeg and Fender quickly dominated the burgeoning bass amp industry. The earliest bass amp, 1949’s Ampeg Super 800, was designed to complement Ampeg’s innovative acoustic bass pickup, but the seeds for bass guitar amplification were sown. On the heels of the P-Bass debut was the 1952 release of the Fender Bassman, a 50-watt amp with a single 15" speaker. In 1954, Fender updated the Bassman with a 4x10 speaker configuration and an upgraded circuit. Meanwhile, Ampeg continued to evolve its lineup, culminating in one of the most important amps of all time, 1960’s B-15 Portaflex. During the mid ’60s, other manufacturers started making their own amps. England’s Marshall and Hiwatt were early pioneers in high-output amplification, and the loud rock bands of the mid to late ’60s quickly took to their 50- and 100-watt heads and large 4x12 cabinets. Ampeg SVT-VR

Acoustic 360/361

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The Birth Of Solid-State Although the transistor had been integrated into radios and other small amplifiers since the early ’50s, it wasn’t until the mid-tolate ’60s that solid-state amps began to steal market-share from the all-tube predecessors mentioned above. Solid-state amplifiers have important advantages over tubes (which in Britain are called valves), particularly their durability and portability. Instead of relatively hot and fragile vacuum tubes, solid-state amps use small, rugged transistors. They’re also generally lighter than tube amps of comparable power, because solid-state amps don’t require an output transformer, often the heaviest component in a tube amp. Vox released one of the earliest solid-state bass amps, the T.60. The company had engineers on staff experienced with transistor technology because of the Vox Continental Organ, so it was well poised to make the leap to solid-state. The T.60’s 40 watts powered an innovative closed-back 1x15 + 1x12 speaker cabinet, which included a crossover to filter low frequencies out of the 12" speaker’s output. Although the T.60 developed a reputation for unreliability, Vox continued to be an important solid-state brand through the ’60s, in part because of brilliant endorsement deals with major acts of the day, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and James Brown. By the mid to late ’60s, a few other manufacturers joined the solid-state bass amp fray, including Univox, Kustom, Sears Silvertone, Acoustic Control Corporation, and more. Many of these amps were deemed unreliable, but the technology was developing rapidly. In 1968, RCA—then among the world’s most influential electrical engineering firms—released a paper describing important developments in solid-state amplifiers, helping the technology flourish even further among smaller amp manufacturers. The ’60s was also the decade when many iconic bass-amp innovators started their careers, including Russ Allee and Roger Smith of AMP and Steve Rabe, founder of SWR. Bob Gallien, the man behind Gallien-Krueger, designed one of the decade’s most

Amplification 101

How Do Tubes Work? To put the emergence of solid-

one. Thus, the simple two-ele-

DC flows in only one direction.

adding an additional element to

state amplifiers into context, it’s

ment tube (plate and cathode)

Since diodes only allow current to

the tube, a control grid. The con-

important to understand the tech-

is called a “diode” (short for “di-

flow in one direction, a diode can

trol grid is placed between the

nology behind an all-tube amplifi-

electrode”). The cathode is made

convert the AC from the wall into

anode and the cathode, regulat-

er. Prior to amplification, electrical

of a material that sheds electrons

DC. When used this way, a diode

ing the flow of electrons from the

devices were passive, only able to

when heated. Electrons have a

tube is called a “rectifier” (the con-

cathode to the anode. When an

subtract from a signal. Vacuum

negative charge, so when the

version of AC to DC is called rec-

appropriate negative voltage is

tubes allowed electronic devices

cathode is heated and a positive

tification). Tube amps need DC to

applied to the grid, it can effec-

to add gain (amplification) to a

charge is applied to the anode,

function, so a rectifier creates this

tively “turn off” the tube, prevent-

signal, resulting in some of the

electrons flow from the cathode

type of current for use throughout

ing electrons from making their

20th century’s most important

to the anode. Critically, electrons

the amp. It performs this function

way to the anode. (This voltage is

inventions. These included radio,

do not flow from the anode to the

in concert with other components

a tube’s bias.) When an AC signal

radar, recording devices, and yes,

cathode. Thus, a diode allows cur-

in the power supply, including a

is applied to the grid, however,

bass amps—all devices that re-

rent to flow in only one direction.

transformer for modulating the

the grid allows electrons to flow.

quire gain to operate, and there-

What’s the point, you may ask?

voltage of the wall power, and fil-

Since the output of a bass pickup

fore required vacuum tubes, until

A diode is a critical component of

ter capacitors that help smooth

is AC (in fact, all audio signals are

the transistor’s invention in 1947.

an amplifier’s power supply, the

out the DC emerging from the rec-

AC), applying a small audio sig-

A vacuum tube consists of a

part of an amp that manages the

tifier. In contemporary tube amps,

nal to the grid results in a much

sealed envelope, usually glass,

power coming from the wall. Wall

tube diodes are often replaced by

larger fluctuation in the anode

which contains a number of ele-

power emerges from a socket as

solid-state components that per-

current. A small signal voltage is

ments. The air is removed from

an alternating current (AC), the

form the same function, but some

controlling the creation of a large

the tube to allow the free flow of

polarity of which changes 60

players still prefer the sound of a

current; this is amplification. The

electricity between the compo-

times per second. If plotted on a

tube rectifier.

simplest amplifier tube is a triode,

nents. The simplest tubes contain

graph, the power would look like a

The other role of a tube in an

so called because of its three ac-

three elements: an anode (also

sine wave, with peaks and valleys

amplifier is amplification itself.

tive components (anode, cath-

called the “plate”), cathode, and

equidistant from a centerline. One

Whereas rectifier tubes simply

ode, and grid). Some tubes, called

heater. Naming conventions ig-

way to imagine AC as compared

convert AC to DC, the rest of the

tetrodes and pentodes, add addi-

nore the heater as an element,

to direct current (DC) is that AC

tubes in an amp add gain to the

tional grids to further filter and

since nearly all tubes contain

flows forward and backward, while

signal. They accomplish this by

regulate the flow of current.

powerful solid-state amps, the GMT 226B. When the owner of the local music store where Gallien worked suggested that he focus on bass amps instead of the much more crowded guitar amp field, Gallien saw the opportunity. His innovative concepts and rugged engineering would yield some of the most important amps in history.



Showdown: Tubes Vs. Transistors As with the music the amps were used for, the 1970s would be a critical decade in the bass’s evolution. The Ampeg SVT, released in 1969, would prove to be the dominant amp of the ’70s, and to its many fans, it continues this dominance today. The SVT (short

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The Low End Landscape

Amplification 101

Amplifier Class There are a number of methods

inefficient and their accompany-

its time in a low-power state. The

for designing an amplifier’s out-

ing power supplies large and hot.

resulting DC signals are then re-

put section, whether it’s tube or

They have a cult following among

combined to constitute an ampli-

solid-state. Each type or “topol-

some guitar players and hi-fi pur-

fied audio signal proportional to

ogy” is categorized according to

ists for their perceived higher-

the input signal. This process in-

its output class. In bass amps, the

fidelity sound, but at the output

troduces some distortion, but the

primary output classes in use are

levels required for bass, they’re of

distortion is mitigated in a well-

Class AB and Class D (the latter

little practical use.

designed Class AB output stage.

used only in solid-state amps).

Until the dawn of Class D, Class

Class AB topologies are also re-

To understand Class AB power

AB was by far the most prominent

ferred to as “push–pull” amps,

amps, let’s take a quick look at

amp topology in bass amps. In a

because of the phase inversion

the simplest power amp topol-

Class AB amp, the audio signal is

integral to their operation.

ogy, Class A.

Hartley Peavey with an early Class D amplifier.

divided into two halves. An audio

Class D amps exclusively use

In a Class A amp, the active

signal being a form of alternating

solid-state output devices, typi-

amplifying component—whether

current, it has positive and nega-

cally MOSFETs, a specially de-

this signal consists of on-and-off

tube or transistor—remains con-

tive phases. A section of the amp

signed form of transistor. Through

pulses only, and not the complex

ducting at all times. The com-

called the phase inverter divides

a

pulse-width

undulations of a typical analog

ponent is idling or “biased” such

the audio signal and sends the

modulation (PWM), Class D amps

audio signal, the output devices

that its base level of operation is

positive side to one or more out-

produce a high-frequency series

can operate like switches, either

roughly half of the operating cur-

put devices (solid-state or tube)

of pulses, the duration of each

fully on or fully off. This results in

rent. That means that even at low

and the negative half to another

being proportional to the input

extremely high efficiency. After

signal levels, a significant amount

set of output devices. Since each

signal’s level at that moment. In

the amplification, a lowpass filter

of the power-supply voltage must

array of output devices is only re-

this way, a high-frequency signal

removes the high-frequency con-

be applied to the tube or tran-

sponsible for amplifying half the

can act as a “carrier” for the low-

tent to reveal the low-frequency

sistor. This makes Class A amps

audio signal, it can spend half of

frequency bass signal. Because

audio.

function

for Super Valve Technology) was leagues ahead of its all-tube contemporaries. Bill Hughes’ design offered 300 watts of power at a time when most amps struggled to eclipse 100, and its accompanying cabinet featured eight 10" speakers in an innovative sealed and baffled design. It was the first amp to really allow bass players the volume and projection to compete with the screaming electric guitars and thunderous drums of the era’s rock music. Fender, Sunn, and Acoustic were the decade’s other dominant bass amp manufacturers, some with designs originally released in the late ’60s. The Fender Dual Showman, while not technically a purpose-built bass amp, found much favor for its sweet tone, large

called

2x15 cabinet, and durability. Sunn’s Coliseum head, an all-tube monstrosity that rivaled the SVT for girth and complexity, could be seen on many loud stages, especially among the era’s top British bands. On the other side of the technological spectrum was Acoustic’s 360 stack, consisting of the Model 360 preamp and 361 powered cabinet. Released in late 1968, the solid-state Acoustic stack was one of the most coveted rigs among period bass players. While not as powerful as the Ampeg and Sunn amps, the Acoustic’s clever design, solid-state immediacy, and unusual tone-shaping circuit helped it stand out. The 361 cabinet was at least as important as the 360 preamp to the rig’s unique sound: It included a rear-firing horn and single 18" speaker, and was legendary for its projection into large rooms. It would become a key part of the tone of bass greats like John Paul Jones, Larry Graham, and Jaco Pastorius.

The Rise Of Hi-Fi Mesa/Boogie Bass 400+

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By the end of the ’70s and into the ’80s, solid-state technology had come a long way from its unreliable beginnings. Engineers

Six landmark high-powered heads (clockwise from left): GallienKreuger 800RB, Eden WT-800, Ashdown ABM 1000, Carvin B1500, Traynor YBA 200, and Hartke LH500.

were extracting unprecedented levels of power from amps, with much of the early effort focused on PA-style power amps. PA (public address) amps must be powerful enough to drive fullbandwidth sound through large arrays of speakers, and solid-state amps offered enough power, plus substantially increased reliability and portability compared to tube amps. Meanwhile, the bass’s role in music changed substantially; the advent of synthesizers, the emergence of electronic dance music, and the dawn of digital recording all had a huge impact on the instrument’s tone as well as players’ techniques. Many bassists who had been content with the rich and thick sound of their SVTs, B-15s, and Acoustic 360s now craved greater clarity, speed, and power to better suit the era’s music. The same fidelity that marked the period’s popular hi-fi home stereo gear became an increasing priority for bass players. Many manufacturers flourished in the ’80s, contributing essential amps to the industry. Former Acoustic Control Corporation engineer Russ Allee formed AMP (Amplified Musical Products) in 1981, soon hiring fellow Acoustic cohort Steve Rabe to help design the AMP 420 bass head. While not a huge seller at the time, AMP’s modern approach to solid-state design would be hugely influential, and Allee would continue to be a major figure in bass amp design for years to come. Steve Rabe founded SWR in 1984. His mission was for a bass amp that mimicked the full-range, detailed sound of studio monitors. Building on the solid-state experience he gained at Acoustic and AMP, Rabe’s first amplifier, the PB-200, could be described as one of the earliest truly modern bass heads, with many features that continue to be commonplace in today’s heads. A “hybrid” amp, the PB-200 employed a single 12AX7 tube in its preamp section, for buffering and driving the input. It incorporated an “Aural Enhancer” circuit, a variable EQ contour controlled by a single knob that boosts lows and highs and cuts mids as it’s turned up. It also boasted a semi-parametric EQ section, a bi-amp function



(allowing highs and lows to be amplified separately), and a balanced xlr output. Realizing that SWR needed a bass cabinet to sell alongside its hot new head, Rabe turned to David Nordschow of Eden Electronics for assistance. Then better known for PA-style cabinets, the first Eden design for SWR would radically change cabinet design through the decade. The Goliath I cabinet, with its 4x10 + horn configuration, was capable of high volume—but it was also articulate, quick, and blessed with extended high-frequency response thanks to its built-in tweeter. Subsequent Goliath speaker designs would move in-house, but Nordschow’s early influence was critical to their development. Nordschow saw an opportunity for Eden to expand into amplifier design. An early partnership with famed audio engineer James Demeter yielded the VT-40 head, a kind of hybrid of Demeter’s VTB-201s preamp and a 400-watt solid-state power amp. Eden continues to be a major force in bass amps today, as does DNA (David Nordschow Amplification), which Nordschow launched after his split from Eden. After its early success and innovation with the 226B, GallienKrueger had more tricks up its sleeve. In 1982 it debuted the 800RB, an iconic head renowned for its durability and clever circuit, which included a built in DI and bi-amp capabilities. It also introduced the essential feature set that would characterize GK’s later, more powerful designs. Mesa/Boogie was also an emergent powerhouse during the ’80s, first gaining fame with its complex and flexible line of alltube guitar combo amps. It also released one of the few truly innovative all-tube bass heads of the ’80s, the Bass 400, and its more powerful successor, the Bass 400+.

The Modern Age Until the 1990s, the evolution of the bass amp featured just a

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55

F

The Low End Landscape

A new breed of featherweight heads (clockwise from left): Warwick LWA 1000, TC Electronic RH750, Orange Terror Bass, Fender Rumble 200, Aguilar Tone Hammer 500, EBS Reidmar.

handful of key players. Applying the same scrutiny to the explosion of bass amp manufacturers in the ’90s and beyond would take up most of this magazine. Rather than illuminate the history of each of these important contributors, let’s focus instead on the technological developments that characterize today’s bass amps. From the ’90s onward, solid-state amps became the vastly dominant technology. While many manufacturers continued to produce all-tube models, the advantages of solid-state were significant, especially when power, durability, and cost were factors. There were also new entrants into the industry, plus legacy companies that began to make a bigger presence in bass. A bass player could choose amps from a multitude of manufacturers— companies like Aguilar Amplification, Ashdown Engineering, EBS, Genz-Benz, Epifani, Euphonic Audio, Hartke, Ibanez, MarkBass, Peavey, Orange, Tech 21, Traynor, Warwick, Yamaha, Phil Jones Bass, TC Electronic, and more. The biggest technological advances in bass amplification address the age-old problem of weight and portability. For decades, loud amps were heavy, and so were the cabinets capable of contending with their high output. Now, it is not uncommon to find 1,000watt heads weighing less than ten pounds. Let’s take a closer look at the technology behind the weight savings.

Light Amps: Class D & SMPS Ultralight amps predominantly make use of two key pieces of technology. First, the power amps generally operate in a Class D topology (see sidebar, page 54). Peavey was a big innovator in this realm, releasing the first Class D amp for live audio applications in 1984. Class D amps achieve much greater efficiency than conventional Class AB amplifiers, so less output power is wasted as heat, and more of the input power is converted directly into sound. The resulting amps require fewer output devices, less heat-sinking, and a physically smaller power supply. The industry approached the technology tentatively in the early 2000s, but now virtually every manufacturer (except for the hardcore all-tube specialists) makes at least one bass head that utilizes a Class D power amp.

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The other critical component of today’s ultra-lightweight amps is the switched-mode power supply (SMPS). All amplifiers require a section of the circuit dedicated to converting the line power (from the wall) to the appropriate voltage, current, and phase for the operation of the amp; this conversion is done by the power supply. In a traditional linear power supply, AC (alternating current) line power is regulated at the frequency it exits the wall, 60Hz in America. To contend with this low-frequency power, a large power transformer, consisting of iron laminations and copper windings, is required. Additionally, an array of other discrete components, like high-voltage capacitors, resistors, and inductors are required to filter and smooth the power for distribution through the amp. Linear power supplies are not particularly efficient, losing energy as heat and as a consequence of voltage regulation.

SMPS designs take a different route. First, an SMPS rectifies the AC line power into DC (direct current). Then, a “chopper circuit” or “switching regulator” converts the DC signal back into AC, but at a much higher frequency than its original 60Hz. This frequency is typically above the audible spectrum (20kHz) and can go as high as 100kHz in some SMPS amps. Finally, the high-frequency current hits a transformer again to step the voltage down or up for appropriate use in the amp. The trick is that since the power is at such a high frequency, a much smaller power transformer is necessary than the bulky iron anchors used in linear power supplies. The reasons get deep into physics-class territory, but suffice it to say that an SMPS can nearly eliminate the weight a transformer contributes to the overall heft of a bass head. Coupled with a lightweight and efficient Class D power amp, you get the insanely lightweight heads of today. Today's bass amps are smaller, lighter, and mopre powerful than ever before. So are speaker cabinets, which now make extensive use of lightweight neodymium magnets. Innovation may be a constant, but the current crop of technology feels like it's at a point of temporary stasis, with the focus going toward further refinement and cost reduction. Given how capable today's amps are, it's a wonder what may come next BP

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58

Sandberg California TM Bass By Ed Friedland

|

Across the Atlantic, there exists an entire world of bass building that many U.S. players know nothing about. For years, Euro builders have challenged the status quo with cuttingedge designs that meld ergonomics, eye-grabbing style, and stateof-the-art electronics. Germany’s Sandberg Guitars has definitely made a mark in this genre with its Euro-centric Custom, Panther, and Bullet series basses. With its California line of instruments, Sandberg takes the classic Fender bass platform and adds some Teutonic flair. Like its American inspiration, the California series comes in two basic flavors: The V models are Precision-based, while the T series have their roots firmly planted in Jazz Bass territory. The review instrument was a TM model, the M indicating the presence of a Music Man-style humbucker in the bridge position. The body follows classic lines, and the neck is securely affixed with six counter-sunk bolts. The 34"-scale fingerboard (35" on 5-string models) is slightly flatter than on a typical Fender. The review bass had the blank fingerboard that many wood fetishists prefer (position dots can be found along the top edge of the neck), but dots or block inlays are available options. The nut width is the J standard of 1.5", and its nicely rounded profile felt great in the hand. The zero-fret gives the open strings a tone more consistent with fretted notes, relegating the nut to string-holder duty only. The bass

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received Sandberg’s Hardcore Aged relic process, which replicates the wear and tear of 30 years of stage use. The yellowed varnish simulates long-term exposure to secondhand smoke, and even the nickel hardware is oxidized to give it a worn patina. Sandberg also offers a Soft Aged option with subtler notes, and a Hardcore Aged Masterpiece process that includes “strongly aged” hardware, fingerboard aging, as well as a vibration treatment that is said to coax a more vintage tone out of the wood. The metalwork on the California TM is impressive in its own right. The Sandberg bridge is a hefty chunk of brass, with individual locking saddles and separate allen-screw adjustments for height, spacing, and intonation. The mass contributes to the TM’s excellent sustain, and the sculpted contours give it a sexy Art Deco look. The open-gear tuners have the classic cloverleaf keys, and feature a unique allen screw at the bottom of the shaft to adjust the tension. The knurled control knobs have appealing double lines engraved as position markers, and like the control plate, also receive the aging process. Another small touch that adds to the overall cool factor is the metallic Sandberg logo embedded in the body near the neck joint—it’s purely cosmetic, but très classy. While the California TM’s chassis is pure Americana, the power plant is strictly Euro-turbo. The Delano pickup set has the grind and grit of traditional Alnico V designs, but they spark up quickly

California Dreaming As a longtime “Jazz Bass guy,” I found playing the California TM to be a familiar experience—the look, feel, and tones were all classic J. In active mode, the Glock preamp makes dialing in the coveted modern



S

SPECIFICATIONS California TM Bass Street As tested: $2,760; stock: $2,150 (gig bag included)

sandberg

J slap tone a breeze, but it can just as easily deliver the big thump. In passive operation, the bass speaks with an articulate midrange that carves out its place in the mix. When bypassing the preamp, the treble knob works as a passive tone control, giving you the full range of shading. I was less impressed with the bridge pickup’s “StingRay tone”; while it is in the ballpark, the TM’s dead-on J-Bass sounds overshadow its Music Man palette. When blending the two pickups, the humbucker tends to dominate, and as expected, there is a volume jump. While not totally accurate as a MM clone, the humbucker has excellent cutting power and can turn your cooperative J into an attention hog with the flip of a switch. The construction quality is top-notch, and the end result is an instrument with tonal integrity: All of the notes vibrate freely, and in particular the low E has the authority to lay down the law. Sandberg’s aging process produces credible results, and with the wide range of available finishes, exotic tops, and wood choices, you can customize your build in virtually any direction. Sandberg’s handy online configuration tool is a fun, practical way to visualize your dream bass. While Sandberg is relatively new to the U.S. market, for the past 28 years, it’s been a sought-after European brand, particularly loved for its interpretations of American classics. In the crowded “Leo lookalike” market, the Sandberg’s California T series basses are true Uber Fenders. BP

Pros Classic J-Bass tones, excellent build and features Cons Hybrid Bridge pickup is not quite “MM” enough Bottom Line Killer J-style bass capable of delivering vintage or modern tones. Contact sandberg-guitars.com Construction Bolt-on Body Alder Neck Canadian hard rock maple Neck width at nut 1.5" Fingerboard Rosewood Fingerboard radius 14"

SPECS

when you apply the shimmering highs of the bass/ treble preamp, built by Glockenklang and modified for Sandberg. The TM pickup configuration (first popularized by Lakland) allows you to switch from the classic J-Bass tone to a StingRay vibe with the flip of a switch and turn of a knob. With the coil tap in single mode, the bridge humbucker’s rear coil is blended with the single-coil pickup for perfect J-Bass tone. While Sandberg usually outfits the bass with a Delano JMVC 4 FE/M2 Neck pickup (split-coil humbucker) and MC4 FE Bridge Dual Coil humbucker, the review bass came with Delano’s swanky Hybrid 4 Bridge and matching JC4 AL-H set. The Hybrid 4 pickup’s rear coil has a set of dual polepieces that match the single-coil J neck pickup; they combine to create the classic hum-free tone of two reverse-wound/reverse-polarity singlecoils. The front coil of the bridge pickup uses 9.5mm polepieces like the StingRay, helping the pickup get close to the signature MM tone in dual-coil operation. To tote your fraulein around in style, the included Sandberg gig bag is a well-designed hybrid hard/soft case that offers great protection, ample storage, and carrying comfort.

Frets 22 Nut Graphite w/zero-fret Pickups Delano Hybrid System Preamp Glockenklang/Sandberg, boost/cut Controls Volume, blend, treble (±18dB @ 8kHz), bass (±14dB @ 40Hz) Tuners Sandberg Bridge Sandberg Weight 9.5 lbs Made in Germany

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TecAmp

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Puma 1000 Head & Virtue Cabinet

SOUNDROOM

B y J o n at h a n H e r r e r a

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The German knack for engineering is well known. Without wading too deeply into cultural stereotypes, there are good reasons so much prestige is attached to German brands like BMW, Leica, and Krups. The TecAmp Puma 1000 head and Virtue cabinet should elevate TecAmp to similar status, at least among bass players. Each is exceptionally clever and stuffed with useful features, yet it’s also musical, soulful, and ultimately inspiring. The man behind TecAmp, Thomas Eich, is a bass player. He started the company in 1986, initially under the Tech-Bassline brand. Unhappy with the period’s bass cabinets, his first products were cabs that he thought better captured the sound he sought. By 1990, he had released his first amp. In 2000, the company released the industry’s first neodymium-speaker-loaded cabinet. By 2007, the name was changed to TecAmp, and the Puma line of lightweight heads was born. Each features a Class D power amp and switched-mode-power-supply (SMPS) to achieve its impressive power-to-weight ratio.

Puma 1000 In the dozens of bass amps I’ve reviewed over the years, the lack of some key feature seemed inevitable; I’d often scratch my head at the seemingly pointless exclusion of a mute switch, input pad, or tuner output. The Puma packs into its small chassis nearly every feature imaginable in a bass amp. Remarkably, it accomplishes the feat without cluttering the front panel to the point of incomprehensibility. The controls are sensibly laid out and well labeled. The Puma’s preamp is fairly straightforward. A gain knob governs the input, and it’s accompanied by a –10dB pad switch for high-output basses. Working left-to-right, next up is the Puma’s clever taste knob. When set at 12 o’clock, it has no effect on the amp’s tone. Rolled counterclockwise toward dry, a filter subtly rolls off low frequencies and boosts the midrange. Spun the other direction toward rich, the high-end gets softer and less clicky. I love these one-knob EQ contours on heads, especially when they’re geared more toward midrange emphasis and treble reduction, as that’s a stylistically more useful tone these days than the scooped-mids/hyped-treble days of yore. The TecAmp’s EQ is a basic but effective affair. Shelving lo and hi filters bracket a pair of peaking midrange filters. The lo filter has a 70Hz cutoff, arguably on the slightly high side, but then I discovered the bass boost button, with its 12dB of boost at 30Hz, and realized the voicing was a thoughtful choice. The Puma also has a hi boost, which adds 12dB at 10kHz, providing a shimmery sheen for brighter styles. The Puma 1000 has two tricks up its sleeve to manage gain staging and

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transient response. First, there’s a smooth-sounding compressor. The oneknob-job does the trick, enhancing the attack and immediacy of propulsive playing. It’s accompanied by an attack time switch, which controls how quickly the compressor latches onto the signal. The other basic trick for good tone is the inclusion of a master volume and an input clip light. This allows a player to properly use the gain control to maximize headroom and raise the signal-to-noise ratio, leaving the overall volume up to the master knob. The Puma is jam-packed with extra goodies. It has an effects loop with a mix control, a tuner output, a q" jack for a footswitch that can be used with the mute function or the compressor, r" jacks for headphones and an external audio input, and an xlr DI output with a pre/post switch. The Puma’s other integral quality is its stereo power amp. Rare on a head of this size, the Puma houses two 500-watt power amps that can be used separately or bridged to deliver 1,000 watts into a single cabinet. Each channel gets its own rear-panel volume control, and channel b includes a switch that engages a lowpass filter at 200Hz. This clever little bi-amping trick offers the ability to dedicate a cabinet as a subwoofer—a quick recipe for truly big tone. (It’s also the perfect source to drive TecAmp’s Pleasure Board, a tactile transducer that requires a powerful low-frequency output to operate.) The Puma’s basic sonic personality, with all the tone-shaping controls set flat, is dry, clean, and powerful. Bridged or not, the amp has ample energy in reserve—it never felt like it broke a sweat, even when I was really pushing it hard. Thankfully, the taste filter substantially funkifies the overall clean presentation of the Puma’s sound, adding color and warmth as it’s turned in the rich direction. The amp has a pleasant if slightly shy midrange, sizzling highs, and tight and controlled lows. The midrange shyness is easily corrected with a mild boost of the lo mid control, but I wouldn’t describe the Puma as having a particularly colorful personality. That buzzword “hi-fi” gets tossed

S

SPECIFICATIONS Puma 1000 Street $1,300 Pros Incredible flexibility; huge power; precise tone

Virtue Cabinet Off the bat, let’s get this out of the way: The Virtue cabinet is complicated. Usually a speaker cabinet is the pleasantly simple part of a bass rig, but the Virtue rivals some bass heads for head-scratchery. There’s a good reason for the complexity, though. Designed in tandem with L.A. session ace Sekou Bunch, the Virtue is unique in its design, and realizing its special mission requires more than the typical plug-and-play format. The Virtue can operate as a single 2x12 + 2x10 cabinet, or as either a 2x12 or 2x10 on its own. It couples each configuration with three (!) tweeters of separate design, each with its own 3-way rocker switch to govern its output. TecAmp did what it could to mitigate the design’s switching complexity, but it still takes a think, especially in the tweeter department. Fortunately, the ceramic-driver-equipped cab sounds fantastic: huge in the all setting, slightly scooped and quick in the 2x10 format, and a hair louder and more midrange-y with the 2x12’s soloed. As one would expect, the all setting presents a 4Ω load to an amp, while either of the half-cab settings operate at 8Ω. I wish there were a way to use the splitcab option with the Puma’s stereo output. Instead, the rear-mounted jack-plate features two Speakon jacks wired in parallel.



Each tweeter adds a particular quality to the cab’s overall presentation that’s difficult to convey, especially given that the full-up labels on each switch are soft (4" paper-cone tweeter), hard (neodymium), and bright (ferroelectrical). Overall, the tweeters combine to offer different flavors of high-frequency response, from bright and sizzling, to more focused and subdued. There are a multitude of great tones in this cabinet, and it’s capable of ridiculous volumes. In fact, I’m not aware of another bass cabinet that offers quite so much in one package. On top of the extravagant speaker complement, there’s a nifty plate that mates with the base of the Puma to prevent slippage, and a stress-relief post built into one of the side-mounted handles. The Virtue is heavy and relatively expensive, sure, but it’s also genuinely unique. Like its cousin the Puma 1000, it’s a precise tool that puts the onus on the player to exploit its best qualities to achieve great tone. It could be argued that when either the 2x10 or 2x12 is used alone, the format doesn’t make much sense—why lug a cabinet that’s twice as big as you need? But then again, the flexibility to accommodate different stages, rooms, and situations may be worth the extra effort. BP

Virtue Street $1,300 Pros Perhaps the most flexible bass cab in the world; excellent tone Cons Flexibility in a bass cab comes at the cost of complexity Contact tecamp.de PUMA 1000 HEAD Power rating Stereo, 500 watts

rms

into minimum 2Ω; bridged, 1,000 watts rms

into 4Ω

Input impedance 1MΩ Tone controls mid:

lo:

±12dB @ 70Hz; lo-

±12dB @ 250Hz; hi-mid: ±12dB @

800Hz;

hi:

±15dB @ 5kHz

Boost buttons

bass:

+12dB @ 30Hz; hi:

+12dB @ 10kHz XLR DI output pre/post switch and capacitor coupling for phantom-power protection Power amp topology Class D

SPECS

around a lot, but it immediately sprung to mind when I spent time with the Puma. It has seemingly limitless power on tap, excellent design, and thoughtfully voiced tone sculpting. The Puma delivers its power and feature set in a laughably lightweight package. (It’s always remarkable when I can slip a head this full-on into my gig bag.) If you’ve got the money, and you’re not religious about your distaste for Class D/SMPS amps, the TecAmp should be one of the first heads you check out.

T ec A m p

Cons None

Output jacks Two Neutrik Speakon Weight 4.4 lbs Made in Germany VIRTUE CABINET Configuration 2x12 + 4x10 Full-range speakers Custom ceramic 10" and 12" drivers Tweeters TecAmp NTW1 neodymium tweeter, TecAmp NTM2 4" driver, TecAmp NTF1 ferroelectrical tweeter Impedance 4Ω or 8Ω Frequency response 32Hz–19kHz Power rating 1,200 watts in

full

mode

Sensitivity 102dB SPL @ 1W/1M Weight 70.5 lbs Made in Germany

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In July, John will be teaching all

Sight-Reading In The Studio, Part 2

things bass at

Example 1 shows a typical Motown-style bass line. Note that the tempo is 96 quarter-notes per minute, and the key signature is F major. The line begins on a low F, and there are articulation markings over many of the notes. A dot under or over a note indicates that it is played short (also called staccato). A line under or over a note means that the note is played for its full value, or long (also called tenuto). Before you play the exercise, tap your foot and sing the rhythms. Note that the first eighth-note

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Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops and the Sligo Jazz Workshop. Visit him on the web for sound samples, videos, and answers to all of your bassrelated questions. johngoldsby.com

• Enjoy hours of Xtreme sightreading Xcitement with Gary Willis’ online random note generator. • Download pages, pages, and more pages of rhythmic sightreading exercises

CO NN ECT

BY JOHN GOLDSBY

JOHN GOLDSBY

both the Jamey

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO BE A BASSIST IN DEMAND? A KILLER groove? A large repertoire of tunes? A designer instrument? A Lexus SUV worthy of Santa Monica Boulevard? Those things help, but sight-reading pays bills. Not many players make sight-reading a top priority, but itಬs a skill necessary to do most of the best work: Broadway shows, dinner theater, studio work, top-name tours, cabaret, military bands, church bands, movie soundtracks, orchestras, and big bands. Decent sight-reading skills are also required to land any spot in a college music program. Sight-reading has an image problem. Itಬs not a sexy skill, like shredding, tapping, or soporific vamping with a loop pedal. It might be more tempting to spend hours online, dreaming about upgrading to a new Nimbus 5000 5-string with hyper-active electronics, rather than spending quality time in the practice room learning to read basic rhythms and notation. Learning to sight-read demands slow, concentrated effort over days, months, and years. Bassists who can look at fly footprints on a page and turn those little marks into scintillating bass goodness will always work. Being able to read music, and especially read music at first sight (that’s what sight-reading is), does not harm any other aspect of your playing. In fact, you can improve all areas of your musicianship and employability once youಬre comfortable turning written notes into beautiful bass-ness. Last month we looked at bass lines that I recently encountered on studio jobs. Those lines were fairly basic fare: repeated patterns, short fills, and rhythmic hits. Now letಬs tackle more complicated lines, which also come straight from parts that were plopped on my music stand at recording sessions. The same strategy applies for scoping out any bass part, whether complicated or simple: 1. Check the time signature. 2. Check the key signature. 3. Look for an indication of the groove or style. 4. Look for odd rhythms, dense passages, and big intervallic jumps. 5. Sing or mentally play through tricky parts before you play them on the bass.

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by Cliff Engel at the Institute of Bass. • Hear and play along with the exercises from this article on Johnಬs website. bassplayer.com/ june2014

Example 2 is a 16th-note rock line. Some of the notes have accents, indicated by the symbol “>”. The accented notes should be played stronger than the non-accented notes. There are a couple of traps in this example. When I first see a part like this on my music stand, I gravitate to the full bar of rest in 4/4 and the two bars where the meter changes to 2/4. These are evil spots, begging for an unwitting bass player to mis-count, come in wrong, and embarrass himself in front of a studio full of other musicians (who are all ace sight-readers, and who actually count the rests correctly). There’s almost nothing worse than giving the impression that you can’t count to four. A few mistakes on parts like this, and your name and phone number are moved down a notch on the contractor’s “who to call” list. Or, you can try the old Studio Musician’s Trick No. 37: Whenever

is short and the second eighth-note is long. They are both eighthnotes, and they take up the same amount of rhythmic space, but they are articulated differently. The first three 16th-notes in bar 2 are full-value, while the fourth 16th-note is short. (Some would argue that the difference between the sound of a full 16th and a short 16th is minimal.) Sing the first bar with syllables that match the articulations, like: bap-bah, ba-da-do-bap. Don’t have a low C on your bass? Play the entire line in bar 3 up one octave. The slur markings indicate that the last two 16ths of bar 1 and the last four 16ths of bar 2 are played legato, possibly slurred together using lefthand hammer-ons. Those notes must stay in the rhythmic pocket, but they should lead smoothly into the downbeats in the following bars. The “sim.” (short for simile) in bar 3 indicates that you should continue to improvise a similar line.

Motown

Gm7/C

Fmaj9

C9

sim.

Ex. 1

= 96

1

1

3 3

3

3

3

0

3 3

1

1

3

3 3

3

3

0

1 2 3

1

1

3 3

1 3

Rock

Ex. 2

= 102

3

3 3

3 3

3

3 3

3

1

1

1 1

1

1

5

5 5

5 5

5 5

5

6

1

1

3

3 3

3 3

3 3

3

Pop, shuffled 16ths

Ex. 3

= 80

2

2

2

(Tune lowest string to A)



5 0

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5 0

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3 Bass Books To Improve Your Sight-Reading 1. Simplified Sight-Reading for Bass by Josquin Des Pres [Hal Leonard] A basic primer on reading notation. Josquin Des Pres takes the student from finding and recognizing notes and simple rhythms, to typical bass

LINK

lines in various styles. 2. Reading Contemporary Electric Bass: Guitar

WOODSHED

Technique by Ric Appleman [Berklee Press Publications] Tec T echni h que eb Rich hA Bass guru Rich Appleman presents a wealth of material that modern bassists are expected to read. This advanced book is a great resource to improve your sight-reading skills once you have the basics under your fingers. 3. Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson by Dr. Licks [Hal Leonard] While not strictly a sight-reading method, many bassists cite this book as a useful resource to read through classic Motown, R&B, pop, and funk lines. All the bass lines are transcribed from Jamerson’s original recordings, and are played on the accompanying CD by top studio bassists.

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you screw up, throw off your headphones and say, ಯThereಬs some kind of noise in my cans! Can we fix that?ರThat will send the studio into a panic, distract from your inability to count to four, and delay the session at least ten minutes while engineers run around checking your headphones, the cables, and the board. Of course, the trick only works once before everyone knows that the problem is not the headphonesಧitಬs your reading skills. Just be sure to count. When I first saw Ex. 3, I did a double-take. I asked the arranger if he really wanted a low A on my 5-string. Yes, he wanted me to tune the low B on my Sadowsky down to an A to get a deep, flabby, synth-like sound. This is a simple, trance-like bass line repeated throughout the whole track. Note that the three high notes and three low notes use the same articulation pattern: short, long, accented. Next time, weಬll look at really odd reading challenges. Odd-meter bass lines, that is. Until then, start slowly and keep practicing reading new material daily. Youಬll be surprised by the improvements in your playing and confidence. BP

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Duck’s Dynasty

get a detailed look

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BY READER REQUEST, THIS MONTH WE’RE taking a look at one of the founding fathers of electric bass, the late, great Donald “Duck” Dunn. If you’re under 50 years old, you most likely became aware of him as the pipe-smoking, red-haired bass player in the Blues Brothers movie. But long before that film became part of the collective consciousness, Duck was laying down iconic lines as a member of the famed Stax Records house band of the 1960s. This group of individuals (Booker T. Jones on organ, Steve Cropper on guitar, Al Jackson on drums, and Duck Dunn on bass), a.k.a. Booker T. & the MG’s, is responsible for some of the most significant grooves ever recorded. In addition to their own success, this well-oiled rhythm machine played on many of the biggest hits by artists like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas,

=

Shuffle

Carla Thomas, and many others. Duck’s simple melodic approach allowed the song to breathe, but his insistent pulse made sure it was breathing hard! This month’s example is taken from the classic 1967 Albert King recording Born Under a Bad Sign, featuring the MG’s as the backup band. In addition to the title track (one of the most covered tunes in the blues repertoire), the album has several songs that became signature numbers: “Oh, Pretty Woman,” “As the Years Go Passing By,” and the King classic, “Crosscut Saw.” The track we’ll look at, however, is “Down Don’t Bother Me,” a sprightly stroll through the 12-bar form with a cool mix of influences. Example 1 is a close match for Duck’s basic line on the track, a variation on the “Shortnin’ Bread” theme (1–6– 5–6) played with a rhythm that brings to mind Fats

F7

7

3

3

5

5

7

7

7

3

5

7

EX. 1

7

5

5

7

7

3

7

5

7

5

7

F7

other key players) in Ed Friedland’s book The Way They Play: The R&B Masters [Hal Leonard]. edfriedland.com

Albert King, Born Under a Bad Sign [Stax, 1967]

7

3

5

3

5

7

7

7

3

5

5

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7

9

7

9

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3

3

7

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3

9

3

5

7

3

7

3

7

5

5

7

7

C7

3

66

well as that of nine

3

7

3

G7

5

more closely (as

C7

3

9

5

F7

3

examine his style

C7

3

5

at his setup, and

3

C7

= 98

E D F R IE DL AN D

LINK

Duck Dunn’s history,

|

BY ED FRIEDLAND

INFO Read more about

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Domino’s “Blueberry Hill.” This melodic motif is present in several other classic Duck lines, “Knock on Wood” and “Crosscut Saw,” for example. At 98 beats per minute, this line doesn’t sit still for long, and Duck’s clean articulation goes a long way toward nailing this groove. Listening to the track’s rhythmic environment, the bass line is the most active part, and is solely responsible for stating the 12/8 pulse that seems to define the feel. But true to form, Al Jackson trims off the fat and plays mostly straight quarternotes with the occasional shuffle undertone, while Booker T. plays the “flat tire” upbeat for each beat. An important detail is the eighth-note rest on beat two of the line—it leaves a snaredrum-size hole in the groove that gets filled perfectly by Jackson. Listen to the relationship between the snare hit and Duck’s pickup note on the “and” of beat two—the gap is the breath that circulates the life force. Playing the pickup note short creates momentum toward beat three, which is the last gas before the ascending triplet figure on beat four. Duck moves the one-bar pattern through the changes of the 12-bar form, a time-honored approach that never fails. He plays this bouncy line through the vocal choruses, but for King’s guitar solo, Duck cuts back and simply lays down the root on every quarter-note, and it gets nasty real quick. BP

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Dunn (left) in a promo shot for the 1967 Booker T. & the M.G.’s single “Hip Hug-Her”

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“(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea” By Elvis Costello & The Attractions Bruce Thomas’ Complete Bass Line BY B R I A N F OX

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W I T H H I S B I T I N G LY R I C S , R E T R O I M A G E , A N D jittery deportment, Elvis Costello was somehow more punk than punk when he hit the mainstream back in 1977. For his solo debut, My Aim Is True, Costello relied on bassist Johnny Ciambotti and other players from Northern California’s Clover to back a batch of tunes that showed Costello’s true potential as a songwriter. [Note: That’s bassist Steve Goulding’s irie riddim on “Watching the Detectives.”] For the following year’s This Year’s Model, Costello put together the Attractions—drummer Pete Thomas, keyboardist Steve Nieve, and bassist Bruce Thomas—who would set a new standard for songwriting and creativity in a genre that often emphasized style over substance, pose over performance. For his part, Bruce Thomas took the groove sensibility of American R&B, the melodic sense of British pop, and the transatlantic energy of punk and new wave to create a signature style of bass playing that’s every bit as exciting now as it was more than 30 years ago. Though well matched musically, Costello and Thomas had personal differences that came to a head—as things do—after years on the road and in the studio, with Thomas coming and going as Costello branched out to work with other bass players. When it comes to Attractions-era Costello songs, it almost doesn’t matter who’s playing them; the wildly inventive, harmonically opulent, intensely propulsive, structurally crucial bass lines are pure Bruce. Fresh off some recent sessions with British pop singer Tasman Archer and American folk-rock outfit the Weepies, Thomas took a tick to talk about the heyday of the Attractions, and of its most auspicious debut, “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea.” I understand “Chelsea” came together the very first time the Attractions played together. How did that happen? It was actually the first track that we worked on when the band formed. We began playing through some of the songs we played at our separate auditions. Then Elvis played us a new song he’d only just written, a slow, chordy, riffy song a bit like the Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting for You.” When we got to the chorus, the words were something about going to Chelsea. Anyway, to me it seemed the tempo was way too slow for the song; it would go on for ages. So, after a pause, I began playing the sequence as an arpeggiated riff that was a bit spikier and more urgent. It was a bit like the bass line I’d heard John Entwistle do at the end of the live version of “My Generation,” after the key change at the end; while Pete Townshend was power chording away, and Keith Moon was doing his buffalo stampede, Entwistle played a part based around the main notes of the chords. Anyway, that’s what I started doing and everyone fell in with it. After a few more plays to work out a drum intro, an ending and a few variations on the riff idea for the chorus we had our first group arrangement.

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What do you recall about your rig for the This Year’s Model sessions? I was using a Traynor Monoblock amp, and I had a speaker cabinet made that had an 18" speaker at the bottom and two “long-throw” 12" speakers. We recorded with a mic on one of the 12" speakers, and direct, as well. There would have been an overdub or two, but we recorded everything live. We very rarely edited things together in the way that people comp things now. Usually the songs were rehearsed and played in by the time it was recorded. What bass did you play? That was my 1965 Fender Precision. That was my main bass— I got it from Ashley Hutchings of Steeleye Span and had it for five or six years at that point. I shaved the body down to make it more lightweight, I sanded the neck for a flatter profile, I reverse-wound the pickups, and I did a few other things. That guitar had quite a “whiney” sound because of the pickup winding. The action was a bit too low, so there was a lot of fret buzz and string rattling giving it a funny sound. Fortunately, we had a bass player as a producer in Nick Lowe, so they got the bass to sound pretty good. The body was unfinished at that point, but I later had it sprayed. I asked it to be sprayed Salmon Pink, thinking that was the original Fender color. Of course, the original color was Fiesta Red.

Get Lit Thomas knows how to spin a yarn with bass notes, but he’s equally sharp with a pen. His 1980 memoir The Big Wheel [Helter Skelter] got him into hot water with a certain singer, but that didn’t stop him. Bruce followed up with On the Road… Again in 2003, and is currently working on another memoir. He’s also written books on Bruce Lee and metaphysics. Because, Bruce Thomas.

Main Attractions (from left): Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas, Elvis Costello, Pete Thomas.

i

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L IS T E N

Elvis Costello & the Attractions, This Year’s Model [Radar, 1978]

When Fender started importing instruments into the U.K. in the early ’60s, everyone wanted a red finish like the ones Hank Marvin and Jet Harris played in the Shadows. The instruments would be shipped over, and Fender in Britain would spray red over whatever other colors they got. I think Fender U.K. didn’t have the same DuPont lacquer they had in the States, and the Fiesta Red came out looking pink. [Note: Learn more on the matter on Bruce’s website, brucethomas.co.uk.] What kind of setup did your basses have back in the day? I used to play with high action and heavy strings: .055, .075, .095, .110, or something like that. It was almost impossible to bend the strings, so when I’m bending strings on songs like “This Year’s Girl,” that is full-force string bending! It was very physical. The Attractions were able to shift between genres from one album to the next so well. How do you view those transitions? This Year’s Model was an R&B, British beat type of approach. On Armed Forces [1979], we got Beatlesque at some points. Then we went to soul and Motown on Get Happy [1980]. How much freedom did you feel in building



bass lines with the Attractions? We were all left to our own devices. I pretty much played what I heard, and nobody said, “Don’t play that.” Aside from “Pump It Up” and “Every Day I Write the Book,” which we’ve written about before, “Accidents Will Happen” [Armed Forces] is another great bass line we should revisit someday. I was having a lot of musical epiphanies at that time; because the quality of the songwriting was so good, the material was there to work with. On that one, I was trying to write a neo-classical, Bach-type bass line. I realized you could string notes together by taking, for example, the root of the first chord and linking it to the third of the next chord, and then the fifth of the next chord, etc., and string them together so they make coherent structures within themselves. You don’t just play the roots— there’s always the harmony there to make an interesting bass line. For example, take the bridge to “Party Girl” [Armed Forces]. I start the bridge on the highest note that fit in the first chord—root, third, fifth, it doesn’t matter. Then I slid down to the lowest note on the same string that fit in the next chord, then up to

the next highest note to fit in the next chord, and so on. The song is about a slightly drunk girl tottering around in high heels; the bass line becomes a kind of musical metaphor to match the lyric. In that period, I was really figuring out what my bass playing was all about. BP

Next Year’s Model Seeking a replacement after his prized “Salmon Pink” 1965 Precision Bass was stolen, Thomas teamed up with the London Bass Centre’s Barry Moorhouse to create the Bruce Thomas Profile Signature Model Bass in the Bass Centre’s British Bass Masters series. Bruce and Barry promise to send one in for review, so stay tuned for more!

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Last Year’s Model

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THOUGH IT’S A LITTLE HARD TO BELIEVE—GIVEN A BODY OF WORK STRETCHING BACK to the early ’70s—Bruce Thomas’ first interview with an American publication wasn’t until a feature in the March

TRANSCRIPTION

1987 issue of Guitar Player. Here are a few of the juicier excerpts from that story.

ON HIS 1977 ATTRACTIONS AUDITION

ON INFLUENCES

There was an ad in the music papers, and just by the wording of it, I

You’ve got to put down Carol Kaye and James Jamerson as big

had an intuition that it was about Elvis. It said, “Rocking pop combo

influences. Along with that really tight, syncopated, rhythmic play-

wants bass player, keyboard player, drummer.” I bought all the re-

ing, there were those little melodic turns that really appealed to

cords and [studied] them for four days. I used to do sessions, so I

me. You can hear both these aspects in my approach. Another guy

practiced a bit of psychology: I went to the audition and pretended

who comes to mind is Phil Lesh, who used to just wander off into

to be hearing [the songs] for the first time. “Can you show me those

these kind of melodic sorties, up on “the thin ones.” Some of which

chords? I think I’ve got that.”

worked, some of which didn’t. H’s one for winging it. You start creeping up the neck, and you don’t know where you are going to

ON THE FORMATION OF HIS STYLE

end up.

I learned to play off records. The Beatles had too many chords to follow, so I learned to play R&B. I used to put on Booker T. & the

ON THE PECULIARITIES OF P-BASSES

M.G.’s albums time after time and follow Duck Dunn until I got all his

There are dead spots all over the neck. Particularly the low string—

riffs down, and then go on to Chuck Berry or whatever. But mainly

on B, C, and C#, is dead as a dodo. There is not the uniform response

it was Booker T. and Stax soul, which is pretty obvious in the way I

from the pickup, either. You have to hit some strings, you know. But

play. It’s very good training, because it’s so rhythmically on. You play

you must learn to play the instrument itself. In fact, some notes sus-

tight first and worry about the notes later. Happily, my instinct led

tain much longer than others, so you actually end up kind of incor-

me in the right direction, as I learned to play the parts very punchy

porating that into the parts you play. You come up with parts around

and rhythmically first, and then I started finding all these little tricks

the qualities of the instrument.

about harmony notes and passing notes and melody and all that a bit later. It just built up gradually.

ON PAUL MCCARTNEY I played with McCartney on his Back to the Egg record, which was

ON BASS MELODICISM

quite nice. I told McCartney, “I should be paying you royalties—all

The lighting man told me the other day that he actually takes all the

the stuff I’ve stolen from you.” He said, “I’ve nicked a couple of

lighting cues from the bass part because he can’t really rely on any-

things from you, too,” and picked up his bass and started playing

body else to be playing at certain points in the song. The thing about

“Chelsea.”

melodic playing is that all R&B riffs are pretty much variations on a five-

72

note scale. But with the melodic playing and pop playing, the melody

ON TONE & TOUCH

of the song and the chord structure of it dictates what you’re going to

Basically I just take all the bottom end—150 and 100Hz—right out.

play, so you actually have to work out a melodic part for each song.

And that horrible sound around 400Hz. . . . If you boost that fre-

When I discovered all those inversions and bass counterpoint,

quency it makes things go honky and squawky, so I take that out

Steve [Neive, Attractions keyboardist], who studied all that when he

as well. And I whack up 200, 220Hz; that’s got to come through.

was at music college, started to teach me about Bach and figured bass.

Then you’ve got to use a lot of left-hand damping—play every note

I followed what Steve was saying, but when it got a bit more complex,

separately, so that each one comes out with a slight gab between

I thought, “Well, it’s like learning to read music; I might actually screw

them. I play with a lot of attack, as well. I physically hit the string

up what I am doing.” Of course, I figured out I was breaking al the rules.

very hard, and then fight and push the beat.

bassplayer.com / j u n e 2 0 1 4

“(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea” By Elvis Costello & The Attractions Transcription by Brian Fox

B

= 84

A

11

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11

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7 7

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Chelsea (I Don't Want To Go To) Words and Music by Declan Mac-Manus and Aloys Patrick. Copyright Secured. Universal Music Publishing MGB Limited ℅ Universal Music - MGB Songs. All Rights Reserved.



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BASS FITNESS – AN EXERCISING HANDBOOK by Josquin des Pres The purpose of this book is to provide the aspiring bass player with a wide variety of finger exercises for developing the techniques necessary to succeed in today’s music scene. The 200 exercises are designed to help increase your speed, dexterity, accuracy, and finger independence. 00660177 ..........................................................................$10.99

BLUES BASS by Ed Friedland The Hal Leonard Blues Bass Method is your complete guide to learning blues bass. This book and CD package uses classic blues songs and standards to teach you how to lay down your own solid blues bass lines. Learn actual riffs from blues classics including: Born Under a Bad Sign • Hideaway • Hoochie Coochie Man • Sweet Home Chicago • The Thrill Is Gone • and more. 00695870 Book/CD Pack ...............................................$14.95

EXTREME METAL BASS by Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse As the original bassist for the seminal death metal band Cannibal Corpse, author Alex Webster offers invaluable insight into the realm of metal bass guitar. This exclusive book/ CD pack provides detailed, hands-on training, featuring vital bass guitar techniques and concepts. 00696448 Book/CD Pack ...............................................$17.99

SCALES & MODES FOR BASS The At a Glance series pairs an instructional DVD lesson taught by a professional bassist with a supplemental book for a comprehensive learning experience. Scales & Modes for Bass features these song examples: California Girls • Carry On Wayward Son • Detroit Rock City • Smoke on the Water • Sultans of Swing • and more. 00696651 Book/DVD Pack ............................................... $9.99

JACO PASTORIUS BASS METHOD by Ray Peterson Now for the first time, one of Jaco’s private students imparts the wisdom gained from one-on-one lessons with the bass genius himself. Complete with songs, solos, techniques, theory, and personal experiences with Jaco, this one-of-a-kind book/CD gives the world what it craves – bass guitar lessons with Jaco Pastorius. 00695570 Book/CD Pack ...............................................$22.99

101 BASS TIPS by Gary Willis The text, photos, music, diagrams and accompanying 64-track CD provide a terrific, easy-to-use resource for a variety of topics, including: techniques, improvising and soloing, equipment, practicing, ear training, performance, theory, and much more. 00695542 Book/CD Pack ...............................................$16.95

1-800-637-2852

www.musicdispatch.com

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

La Bella's RX Series Electric Bass Strings Solstice Rocklin Available now

The Rocklin Performance Series introduces the mesmeric Solstice. A 34 inch, passive 4 string, 8.25 lb. balanced basswood body, contoured shaped bass with black hardware and a striking flat black finish. Two powerful Humbucker pickups allow straight forward adjusting of 2 volume and 1 tone control for fast tone dial in. The Rosewood fingerboard with 24 medium-jumbo frets on a fast maple/mahogany “neck through” is adorned with offset abalone position markers. Sealed precision tuners for smooth operation and a heavy duty adjustable bridge complete this unique design. MSRP: $1150.00, Street: $725.00 www.rocklinguitar.com [email protected]

La Bella Strings Available for order at your favorite online retailer now!

New from La Bella! These newly formulated hand made bass strings were exclusively designed by La Bella's family of professional players. The sets are available in the finest American drawn nickel & 430 stainless steel, with 4 different gauge combos to choose from. If your bass has been feeling a bit sluggish, try La Bella's new remedy to wake up that Bass! SRP: $55.60 www.labella.com 800-562-4400

GigBlade - World's first side-carry hybrid guitar bag. GRUV GEAR Preorder now, available July 2014

Grab your guitar and go with the amazing new GigBlade™ from Gruv Gear, the most revolutionary gig bag ever designed. Its unique side-carry approach offers the quickest, most practical and user-friendly way to carry your guitar or bass. Staying closer to the ground, it keeps a low center of gravity so it feels more stable and natural. The top never sticks out above your head so you won't have to duck under doorways, and having the bag against your side means it won't bounce on your legs, staying clear out of the way while you walk. Offers both quick load and full clamshell access for ultimate versatility. Simple, intuitive, genius! Street Price: $199 www.gruvgear.com [email protected] 714-253-GRUV (4788)

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Bass Boost Chorus Tech 21 Now Available

Finally, a chorus that actually works in harmony with bass. Detune control adjusts the pitch of the choral voices, adding sonic girth to create thick, lush, bass-perfect chorus. Made in U.S.A. SRP: $245.00 www.tech21nyc.com 973-777-6996

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Instruments Accessories Instruction Education & Tutorials Miscellaneous Buying or selling instruments through our Classified Ads offers you convenience, a big marketplace, and a wide range of instruments and prices. However, buying mail-order does have its drawbacks, too. Bass Player suggests the following guidelines to help the buyer and the seller in these transactions: 1) Get a written description of the instrument, which should include the serial number. 2) Get front and back photos of the instrument. 3) Get a written purchase agreement, with a 24-hour approval clause allowing the buyer to return the instrument for a full refund if it does not meet his/her reasonable expectations.

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www.RayRamirezBasses.com 20 Esmeralda Street West, Humacao, Puerto Rico 00791-3660

Tel. 787-613-0906 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

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Miscellaneous Instruction

EADG 4 EADG 4 “Theory Textbook for the Bass Guitar” By John Falstrom. 236 pages. $30.00

www.eadg4.com

Accessories

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JustStrings.com World’s Largest Selection of Guitar & Bass Strings! Sets, Singles & Bulk Strings www.juststrings.com

To advertise, CONTACT: Specialty Sales Advertising, West

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B o bb y ’ s B A SS m e n t Bobby Vega is a

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first order. The

Tom Ribbecke, Rob Turner & The Acoustic Bass Guitar

gear is real. The stories are true.

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The dates are foggy. And the names of the innocent have

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been changed to protect their identities… and save Bobby’s ass!

Rocco VeGa

Ribbecke Bobby Vega Halfling

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Now that I’ve come through the other side and I’m still alive, I see and hear things in different ways—especially music. Playing an acoustic instrument, for example, is like sailing a sailboat: If you don’t know how to make it go, it just sits there, but if you know what you’re doing, it’s a beautiful thing! My first acoustic bass guitar was an Ernie Ball Earthwood Bass I bought from Hideo Kamimoto in 1982. It’s a really cool short-scale bass with a maple neck, and the body is eight inches deep. Yep, from front to back, the bass is eight inches. Ouch! And yes, I still have it. The second acoustic bass I bought was from Michael Tobias at the 1995 Summer NAMM show in Nashville. He had made two basses for Dave Holland—one had a 34" scale, and the other was a 35. I played the 35 at the show, and I wanted it! I had to wait for Dave to pick the one he wanted, and he picked the 34. YES! So I got the 35" MTD 435, and boy, I was the lucky one. This bass is a motherfather. I like it so much that I played it in the delivery room when my son Rocco was being born. I bought acoustic bass No. 3 in 1999, when I was on tour in Canada with the band KVHW. I met John Larrivée Jr. at a KVHW gig, and he invited me to take a tour of the Larrivée Guitar Company. I played some of the new acoustic basses they had in stock, but although they were good, they didn’t knock my dick in the dirt. I asked John whether he had any older ones in stock. Sometimes, companies have older models in the warehouse or in the offices, but John said he was sorry to say they didn’t have any. As luck would have it, two days later I got a call, and he told me a local music store just sent an older bass back because the store couldn’t sell it. Shit, that bass was great, so guess what? Yep, I bought it. All this is leading up to today. Way back in 1995, when Rocco was in the womb, I ordered an archtop acoustic bass from luthier Tom Ribbecke. At the time, Tom was known for making some the best archtop guitars on the planet, period (he still is!). When I ordered the bass, I ordered it without a pickup. I wanted to get to know the instrument, to learn how to play it, and see what it could do before I put a pickup on it. Well, I got it seven years later—yes, in 2002—and boy, it was well worth the wait. I’m glad it took that long, because I got to know Tom and showed him my other instruments, including my Earthwood, my MTD 435, and my 1961 Fender Jazz Bass, a.k.a. the Shark Bass [see January ’14]. I got to sit and play those basses for him, give him solo CDs to listen to, and spend time together. After all is said and done, the quality and performance of my Ribbecke bass are on par with having an Aston Martin or a Bentley. The pickup is another story. Well, sheet . . . . We tried piezo bridge pickups and we tried magnetic pickups, and they all came up short; they colored the bass too much and did not reproduce the instrument’s sound. So we took them off the bass and I played it acoustically for seven years. Then, in 2009, I asked EMG Pickups founder Rob Turner if he would make me a pickup. He gave my Ribbecke bass a listen, and then he made a pickup, and man—that pickup perfectly reproduces the acoustic sound of that bass. I played the Ribbecke for amp builder Phil Jones at the 2014 Winter NAMM Show. Yes, I know you can’t hear shit at a NAMM Show, but at 8:30 in the morning you can! After hearing me play the Ribbecke with Rob’s pickup, Phil said that the pickup went all the way down, and the sound of that bass made him feel the way he did the first time he heard the Beatles. Thank you, Tom Ribbecke and Rob Turner, for the experience. Now that bass is alive MTD 435 Acoustic Bass and has a voice. May the groove be with us! —Bobby Vega