The Bass Guitar Blog

MiniGroves from Accugroove

Benjamin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:48:05 +0000

Hot off the press! Mark and the Accugroove crew have brought a new range of cabs into the bass world

“Eight years in the making, our new MiniGrooves are the first and only tiny, lightweight cabinets that are built for the serious professional.”

So says Mark, Accugroove’s CEO, and he’s bigger than me, so I’m not going to argue .

The main act is the 3-Way (8” Woofer, 6.5” Midrange & 2 Tweeters), which weights in at 26 lbs. (just under 12kgs in new speak), and measures 19” High x 10” Wide x 15.5 Deep. It will swallow 300 watts @ 8 Ohms. Quite a beast!

The MiniGroove 3-Way will happily suit upright and electric bass, as well as keyboards, guitar or PA uses. But there’s more…

The MiniGroove Sub, which features two 8” Subwoofers. It is slightly lighter, at 22 lbs., but the same size – 19” H x 10” W x 15.5 D – and with the same power rating – 300 watts @ 8 Ohms. The frequency range is 34-220 Hz. That’s low folks!

The MiniGrooves can be stacked, so a MiniGroove 3-Way will sit on top of a MiniGrooe Sub to make a 600 Watt, 10 inch wide 4 Way system that covers 34 Hz up to dog whistles (18kHz i.e. full AccuGroove fidelity ).

The 3 Way system as a little flip out foot – perfect for those situations where you have to put the unit on the floor, but want to angle it for the best listening. The is also support for pole mounting.

There is some more information on AccuGroove’s Myspace page, and I am sure they will be on the Accugroove main site shortly.

Wal is Back

Benjamin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:56:54 +0000

Wal is Back – Thanks to no treble for the heads up. The UK Bass manufacturer, known for a very distinctive range of basses, had been working just on back log, but they are now taking new orders again for the first time in a few years. From Wal’s site:

After much activity we are thrilled to announce that Wal is now back in action, with the original specifications and fanatical attention to detail as before. Electric Wood, led by Paul Herman, who worked with Wal and Pete for over 18 years, brings you the quality, the playability, the exotic woods, and the sheer excitement of these beautiful instruments once again.

I’ve not owned a Wal myself, but have had the pleasure of playing quite a few of the models, both fretted and fretless. They are high class instruments with a sound all their own. The workshop is just a few miles down the road from the office here, so I hope to drop in for a visit and give you a fuller update.

Wal Basses from over the years on Flickr.

Michael Manring and Steve Lawson – Live at ‘Round Midnight

Benjamin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:47:57 +0000

On Wednesday, in London, England, Manring and Lawson brought together Solo Bass from Both Sides of the Ocean. Starting with a workshop by Michael Manring at Chappell music.

I have to say, to Markbass‘ credit, the sound and tone of Michael’s playing was absolutely amazing. I first heard Michael play live almost a decade ago when I was over in California. I drove up to Oakland to catch an evening gig – quite an interesting adventure for a British Tourist! I remember the sound, and the Markbass set up seems to have taken it to a new level. One of the privileges of living in London is that I get to go to Steve Lawson gigs reasonably often – and take friends along too! But both players, in one place? That last happened 5 years ago, and thousands of miles away, so this time…

(click though and watch it in HD)

This time I was there. The workshop was excellent – and packed (thank you Chappell Music and Markbass). The key take away, for me at least, was thinking about playing in a more modular way. Little units of things – Michael talked about the various percussive noises he extracts from his basses – can be built up into rhythmic units. As Steve Lawson reminded me in conversation afterwards, improvisation isn’t ‘making things up’, it is rearranging the things that we know, in real time.

The evening gig, at the recently opened “Round Midnight Bar” featured sets by both artists, and two sets of them playing together – how often do you get to see a bass duo? Some really sensational playing (see the clip above), creating fantastic music. Here are some photos I took during the evening:

Check out Steve’s blog for more (including more video), see Michael’s home page and checkout “Manring and Lawson – Solo Bass from Both Sides of the Ocean” for audio from their last get together.

Manring and Lawson – Solo Bass from Both Sides of the Ocean

Benjamin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:57:10 +0000

It hasn’t happend for 5 years, but on Wednesday evening, solo bassists Steve Lawson and Michael Manring will be playing. Last time they got together was in Santa Cruz, California, this time Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar is the venue, in London England. This is what it sounded like when they played together last:

Steve Lawson and Michael Manring live at Don Quixotes by solobasssteve

Michael and Steve have been regularly mentioned here (click on those links), most recently when Michael Manring explained the Hyperbass. Here’s Michael on his own on Youtube:

And the second half of the second tune in the Don Quixote’s set embedded above:

Via Steve’s Blog. It’s going to be amazing! Two solo bass greats, one stage

I’ll post pictures, and hopefully a video interview with them both as soon as I get back!

TC Electronic Staccato’51 Bass Amp

Benjamin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:16:01 +0000

TC Electronic have been busy busy again. The latest twist on the TC Electronic Classic450 Bass Amp – it’s called the Staccato’51, developed in conjunction with Rocco Prestia. Rocco is best known for holding down the bass in Tower of Power – a band he joined at 14 – and is a much renowned bassist. Checkout Rocco’s web page or the Rocco Prestia Live At Bass Day DVD). His style probably accounts for the name, if you are not familiar with Rocco’s very percussive style, you should be! He’s using the amp with TC Eletronic’s RS410’s and two RS212’s.

It’s very red! That’s ok by me, I like read. The sound has been taylored to Rocco’s requirements, so will suit anyone who is a finger style funk player. It is much like the RH450 in features, but with a very different tone and tweaked tone controls. The compress and tone shaping has also been tweaked.

Here is a video of Rocco Prestia and his new TC Electronic Staccato’51 bass amp:

There’s more detail about how the amp came about in this video from the TC folks:

Updating…

Benjamin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:51:29 +0000

Hope you are holding the low end down!

Just wanted to share a couple of things that are going off…

The site has moved on to a bigger faster server.It’s a process that’s kept me busy for a bit! We’re in the hands of Redcatco for WordPress hosting – I think they are great, but I would, I run the place .
It’s been an amazing two years since the blog started. Over 12,000 people a month visit the bass guitar blog, and that number is growing every week, we’d outgrown the server where we started and I hope we out grow this one too – thank you for creating a great community, I enjoy hanging out here and reading the comments. It’s my bass dojo!
A site redesign is in the works – for those that read via the web, I’m keen to make the site a bit easier on the eye! There’s over 150 posts on the site, which leads me on to…
Guest bloggers. It’s something that’s worked really well. We’re looking for a few more guest bloggers and guest posts – you don’t want to hear my voice all the time . In the new site design every guest blogger will have a profile page, so you can find out a bit more about them, with links to their music and what they do.

Interesting bass stuff up next! Keep the comments, links and news coming! And thank you again!

Pedulla Basses Announce The Nuance

Benjamin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:32:49 +0000

September 2009 and Michael Pedulla introduces a new bass, the Nuance, the latest in a long line of basses from the US-based going back to the late 70’s, when Pedulla started making the fretless Buzz Bass . The Nuance was designed as an acounstic instrument, focussing on tonal subtleties. Says Pedulla:

It has been fully field tested with a number of Pedulla Artists, including Tim Landers, Mark Egan, and David Buda. Tim Landers used the Nuance live and in the studio and sums up the sound as:

“It exudes a boutique quality but with a much more useful array of tones.A bass that not only sounds fantastic on it’s own but remains punchy and distinct even through a dense mix, a winning combination for me!”

The bass is handmade in the U.S.A. It’s stunning good looks come from the Maple Burl, Arbutis Burl, and Red Heart Quilted Maple tops. The back is soft maple, and it has a bolt-on-neck design, with a hard maple two-piece quartersawn neck – the material of choice for a neck on a high end bass these days. The fretboard (where it has them) has 22 frets and is a very nice ebony. From the wood combinations, you can probably taste the sound already. Clear and glassy with plenty of punch from two custom-voiced Bartolini humbuckers, and 9 volt active electronics featuring volume, pickup pan, bass boost and cut, treble boost and cut, and a midrange boost and cut switch.

Options:

4-string or 5-string.
5-string with either 17.5mm or 19mm string spacing.
Maple Burl, Arbutis Burl, or Red Heart Quilted Maple top
Black, chrome, or gold color hardware.
Fretted or fretless.

The bass comes with the usual Pedulla oil/urethane finish. More on the Pedulla site, including a gallery of images.

Interview: John Patitucci Trio – Remembrance

Benjamin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:53:53 +0000

This week I had the immense pleasure of talking with John Patitucci, from his New York home. The main topic of conversation was the new Album from the John Patitucci Trio album - “Remembrance” – on Concord Jazz, his sixth album for the label. This is a series of posts, covering the album itself, and discussions with John around the art of playing bass.

The album, released on the 4th August, is a stunning piece of work, featuring John on upright and electric bass, with Joe Lovano on tenor and alto clarinet and Brian Blade on drums. There are eleven tracks that pay tribute to jazz icons including Ray Brown, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Sony Rollins, and a host of others.

In some ways, the album was an ‘accident’ – it was the result of a rehersal at Joe Lovano’s house, during the recording of “Communion”, where the three ended up playing as a trio. John was taken with the openness of the set up, and the rapport between the players. The rest, as they say, is history.

John Patitucci first came to my attention in an interview written after he moved over to New York, after many years on the West Coast. That was significantly more than a decade ago, but by then he had already been voted Best Jazz Bassist in Guitar Player Magazine and Best Jazz Bassist in Bass Player Magazine, and had album credits that included B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Was Not Was, Dave Grusin, Natalie Cole, Bon Jovi, Queen Latifah, Sting, and Carly Simon. It doesn’t need me to tell you that he is a seriously accomplished bassist.

Photo by Lisa Stein

In this, his 13th album as a band leader, John Patitucci uses the stripped-down, piano-less jazz trio format to great effect. This is may be on the outer end of the jazz spectrum for some readers here, so a word to you non-jazz folks: on first listen, this album might not be to your taste, but let me say, it will definitely grow on you, and you’ll want to consider it for your album collection to stretch your perspective on playing!

Have a listen to Messaien’s Gumbo (Mac users can listen to the track on John’s MySpace page). It is one of my personal favourites from the album – although there is another track that really caught me, which I’ll talk about in the next post. Back to Messaien’s Gumbo. Listen to that playing. That’s all I’m going to say, for now!…

To Be Continued in Part II…

Seth Horan Clang and Chime – Produced By You

Benjamin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:59:53 +0000

Last summer singer/bassist Seth Horan gave the opportunity to produce this new album to everyone on his mailing list. A group of people took him up on the offer and became co-producers. A year later and the album is pretty much mixed and mastered. Seth recorded and sent out a song-a-week for twenty weeks over that year. The songs evolved based on feedback from the group of Producers, who voted on the final track list at the start of this year, cutting the list down in half. Adding even more of an international vibe, the final mastering is by Jyri Sariola, in Finland.

It is an interesting way to make and album, giving a number of Seth’s fans the opportunity to be much more closely involved in the process than normal. From this video teaser it sounds like it is going to be a corker:

You can go order it from Seth’s Blog right here.

Michael Manring explains the Hyperbass

Benjamin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:56:50 +0000

There was a pointer to this great video of Michael Manring explaining his Zon Bass lurking in the comments to “What I Hate Bass Licks” (a must read post if you haven’t read it already – masterfully written by Steve Uccello. In the video Michael explains how the Zon Hyperbass came about.

I first saw Michael live at an intimate gig in California. It was at a studio, as I recall, it was a recording for a webcast, in the days when live stuff on the web was a shiny new idea beyond human contemplation. I was blown away, I’d never seen a bass played quite like it. I’ve written a few post that mention Michael Manring. He approaches the bass in a very unique way, and speaks to how he got there in the video:

“I felt like it could do all this crazy stuff, and all my friends kept telling me to play [traditional corny bass lines]“

Well, if you’ve met Michael, you’d know that wasn’t going to happen.

“One of the things I started to do a lot was changing the tuning. Which is not something you normally do on a bass, but… It seemed to me the bass was really receptive to altered tunings, so I couldn’t think of any reason not to do it… Except for the degree to which it made me a social outcast [laughter]“

The most adventurous that most of us bassists get is to drop the E down to a D. Michael took things several times further than that:

“I just kept doing it [playing with altered tunings] and having so much fun that I didn’t really worry that much about what other people thought about it… …Then eventually I got to the point where people actually asked me to play solo shows”

That opened new doors, but also created some challenges with his bass, and a desire for something even more unique:

“In the solo shows I was playing I was using lots and lots of different tunings. For a lot of the shows I played every piece would be in a different tuning… …I decided the next step beyond that would be to try to get a bass that allowed me to change the tunings while I was playing, and not to have to stop to change.”

“I had some ideas for that and talked to a number of guitar builders about this idea for a bass that would allow me to change tuning while I was playing… …most of them advised me to seek therapy [lots of laughter]. But I met this guy, Joe Zon, and he thought it was a really good idea and he had some ideas of his ow.n”

So the two of them set to work to design what became the Zon Michael Manring Hyperbass. As Michael in the video, ”you can by one of these if you don’t mind selling your car.”

There are a number of things that make the bass unique. The first is the tuning system, which has two parts. The head stock has drop tuners on each machine head – basically a lever that tilts the machine head and drops the pitch down. It can drop it anything from a half-step (a semi-tone to us Europeans) to a fifth. The second part of the tuning system is built in to the bridge and allows the tuning to be changed for all 4 strings at the same time, or just 2 or 3 of the strings.

The neck covers three octaves (yes, 3), with a 34 inch scale length. There is a deep cut away to allow access to the higher parts of the (fretless) fingerboard, right up to the bass’s single custom Bartolini pick up.

A very unique instrument for a very unique player!

Fret Dressing – a Proper Polishing

Benjamin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:13:41 +0000

One of the things that often comes up in talking about getting the set up right on a bass is fret dressing, or polishing. There are two times this should happen to a bass:

Before it leaves the factory.
If the frets become overly worn from use (usually years of use).

Many of the low cost basses I have seen over recent years have been let down on the fret dressing front – sharp edges to the side of the fretboard and uneven frets turn a bass from a joy to a torment. It is an important finishing touch, but more on that in a moment. If you followed the comments on setting string height and adjusting your action, you’ll have seen that fellow reader Sekou’s fret buzz problem was cured by a good fret dressing. It is generally the last resort in sorting out a bass, but it can become necessary after a number of years of playing. Obviously a job best left to a professional, getting it wrong will ruin your bass, but it shouldn’t be too expensive.

One manufacture that really gets it right on the set up front is Lakland. Gear wire recently toured their factory and got a great little video of their fret polishing routine…

“Part of our tour of the Lakland Bass factory included an engaging little spot on fret polishing. Julia Child would be proud of Matt the Polisher, as he makes this skilled task look so easy anyone could do it at home… given the proper tools, skills, and a nice bass neck to work on.”

Update: A follow up post on Gearwire shows the Plek machine in action. The Plek machine is a very cool computerise fret dresser used by Lakland and others: Plek Process.

Amplug – AC100 Amp in a Jack

Benjamin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:25:37 +0000

Hat tip to this Bassnews.de post for bringing this Vox product to my attention!

The amPlug has been around a while, but Vox has added two new models, one of which might be of interest to us Bass folks. Described as a “palm-sized headphone guitar amp” this little gadget is modeled on VOX’s classic AC100 bass amp. No digital bits or bytes involved here, this pure good old fashioned analogue. A FET circuit provides a compressor/boost effect and even overdrive. Plug it in to the jack socket on your bass, plug in headphones (or in my case the Future Sonics In-ear monitors from the trusty Ampless Bass Set Up) and away you go. If you want some backing, there is a mini-jack input socket, so you can plug in an MP3 player, CD player or whatever else fits. Nice touch.

With the right batteries, it will last up to 15 hours on two AAA batteries – that should cover a reasonable bit of practice! I’ve not heard one for myself, but let me know if you have (hello Vox?). The are around the $50 mark (same in Euros and not far of in pounds). At 40g or 1.4oz you won’t need a roady to carry it for you .

Stunning String Vibrations – Slow Motion

Benjamin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:43:31 +0000

Haven’t done a fun end of week post for a while, so here we go! When @JimAnning sent me this I just had to share it straight away on the Twitter feed, and here it is in its full glory, just ‘wow’:

stunning bass-string shot from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

You can click through to Vimeo to see it in full HD glory. It is shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, which is what I use for most of the photography I do, and the effect is caused by strobing from the interaction between the camera’s shutter speed and the frequency of the string. Wonderful. It’s like the ‘private life’ of a bass string exposed. Did you know they did that much jumping around?

Even Bassists Are Going Green

Benjamin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:37:55 +0000

I have to confess that I’m a sucker for anything green – either eco-green or just plain green-green. I had a green bass (of the green-green sort) for a while – a 5 string Status Graphite Bass – but have been at the more traditional end of the spectrum for a while, so Musicman’s latest little limited edition bass grabbed my attention. The Dargie Delight Limited Edition package includes a very green (as in green-green) Stingray.

I say green, but it is actually a two tone iridescent green finish called “Caramel Apple Delight” – the picture gives a feel, but you’ll have to see it in the flesh to capture the full glory of it! Definitely an eye catching paint job – rare on basses, but I’m sure you can point me to some other examples! The bass also has striking custom inlays on the neck which mark it out. Orders are only open for a few more days – August 13th 2009 – I’ve spotted that The Perfect Bass are shipping them out. The limited edition stretches to most of the other models in the Musicman range, so if you aren’t a Stingray kind of a person, there are other options available, but you’ve got to like it green!

TC Electronic Classic450 Bass Amp

Benjamin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:07:15 +0000

There was a post about the original RebelHead450 in the NAMM 2009 – Bass News, but since then The folks at TC Electronic have been busy dreaming up new things, the latest being the TC Electronic Classic450. Bass amp technology has been bounding along over the last few years – You no longer need a team of roadies to just lug your bass gear around, at least as far as the power amp is concerned. Mind you, even speakers have got lighter with new magnet technology – TC Electronic have also introduced the RS410, a 4×10 cabinet that complements their amp range.

The Classic450 puts out 450 Watts – hence the name – and in line with the name some of the bells and whistles from the RH450 have been trimmed off for this ‘classic’ model. Gone is the tuner and preset-memories, and the headphone socket too. That still leaves a no-nonsense amp that has a few tricks up its sleeve and weighs spot on 4kg, that’s 8.8 pounds in imperial speak, lighter than many basses!

The amp’s EQ section still features bass, low mid, high mid and treble controls, and there is TC’s TUBETONE valve simulation and Spectracomp compression, so you don’t need a pre-amp or extra stomp boxes to get a polished sound. TC have even got their own TC Electronic YouTube Channel with more videos on the Classic450.

Pasadena Bass Day – Los Angeles – Bass Happening

Benjamin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:39:36 +0000

Oh yes! 25th July 2009. Mark it in your diary, or more importantly, click your browser on over to the bassquake site and sign up, if you can get there. If previous events are anything to go by, it will be amazing. The list of players includes:

Andrew Gouche (Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, The Jazz Crusaders, The Winans, Madonna, Destiny’s Child, Whitney Houston, George Duke)
Byran Beller (Solo Artist, Bassist, Clinician, Composer, Freelance Writer)
Sekou Bunch (Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Ray Charles, Tom Brown, The Tonight Show Band, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart)
Brian Bromberg (Solo Artist, Bob James, Bobby Lyle, Jeff Lorber, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Joe Sample, Dianna Krall)

Registration costs $40 and gets you in to the clinics, exhibition and lunch. It’s on Facebook and everything .Those of use too far away from LA will just have to be jealous and content ourselves with this YouTube clip from 2008:

I Hate Bass Licks

Benjamin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:14:12 +0000

While I’m on the road, here is a guest post by fellow bassist Steve Uccello. Steve is an Upright Bassist/Multi-Instrumentalist/Composer/Singer-Song-Writer and you can here his latest work Uccello Project, Symmetria on Last.FM. Add you thoughts to Steve’s post in the comments section… Over to Steve…

All right bass people! I’ve got a question for you: When you started playing music, did you decide to play bass first or did you arrive there though a ‘winding’ path? I wonder this because lately, as I’ve heard more and more bassists’ stories, I am beginning to notice a trend in how they began. It’s usually something like, “we started a band when we were younger and no one else wanted to play the bass so I…” or “I knew I could get more gigs if I also played bass and now it’s all I do…”

Maybe it’s our present day culture that perpetuates the desire to be the center of attention, but for whatever reason most people seem to want to be the singer or the lead guitarist in a group. One friend of mine who is an excellent guitarist said when he was choosing which instrument to play he was just watching a rock band play and he thought that it looked like the lead guitarist was the one having the most fun in the band and that’s what informed his decision to play guitar. Pretty honest statement! However it happened, it seems there are actually very few bassists who start out saying, “I would love to play the bass and support everybody else while they solo, or sing, I just want to hold it down.” Of course there are bassists out there like that, and I tip my hat to them, I think that is so cool!

When I was a youngster I started on drums, then guitar, and I bought a drum set and a bass for my friends to play on when they came to my house-so I could play guitar over them. I loved playing drums and bass too, of course (Jaco Pastorius, Les Claypool, & Roger Waters were my top three favs-not exactly your ‘bread & butter’ types of bass players!), but I always enjoyed playing guitar and singing more. A few years later I was in a situation where some friends were starting a band and they needed a bassist, since I was the only one who owned a bass, and could play it, I became the bassist in the group. I really fell in love with the bass, and indeed with the ‘role’ of the bassist, after I got an upright bass and heard the great Ray Brown play live. Even though I had gotten into the role, I still had habits that had formed from first being a guitarist/writer.

I should also mention that I had a desire to compose music for multiple basses, yet I hadn’t created an outlet for myself at that point, I was too busy learning how to survive as a musician and acquire the necessary skills to be a functioning bassist. One thing that helped my bass playing immensely was finally getting around to creating a project where I could experiment with putting the bass in more of a lead role. I found I was much more content to hold it down when I wasn’t constantly plagued with pent up ideas during gigs with bands where I needed to ‘play the role’. Early in my career I actually had one bandleader say, “I hate bass licks!!”-That was hard to deal with, but I really wanted the gig and needed the money, plus I had and earnest yearning to be able to enter any musical situation and play appropriately, so I took it as a lesson. It’s funny but another thing that helped my bass playing a lot was playing guitar in bands where bassists had the same problems I had had, I realized that when you’re playing on top of a band, you really do want the bass to blend in and lay a foundation, and how awkward it is when that doesn’t happen. I’ve now been a professional bassist/musician for about 15 years and I’ve played in many of different situations: singer/songwriters, jazz big bands, jazz combos, bluegrass bands (talk about holding down a simple line!), various world music bands (including a steel pan band where the electric bass doubled the pan bass), gospel choirs, etc…and I’m thankful for all the ‘real life’ lessons I’ve learned! Now, I take such pleasure in holding down a groove, a pleasure I never knew was there during my ‘transitional’ period, but it was a bit intense ‘unintentionally’ becoming a bass player. I had no idea of how big a job it really was until I was immersed in it, I felt like an actor who never learned to shield his emotions from the feelings of his characters.

A lot of bandleaders conceive of the bass as being solid and correct if they don’t notice it, kind of like the axle to a car: supportive, essential, but out of sight. When I studied with the great Ray Drummond he pointed out an interesting fact: he said most of the time bass players are being told what to play by people who aren’t bassists. Basically, in a round about way, I’m saying that, on the surface, for most people who wish to play music, the bass is simply not as fun as the other instruments in a band. Playing bass is a meditative, Zen kind of thing that carries a different, heavier, type of responsibility than the other roles do. If you’re a bassist you know that the role of the bassist in a band is like that of a pillar to a structure. It is simple, but NOT easy. You are generally executing something that is simpler than the other parts of the band but you are required to execute that part very solidly. That’s where the difficulty of being ‘down in the engine room’ lies. Its sort of a sacrifice, like saying, “I really want music to happen so I’ll provide this platform, or foundation, for it to unfold upon.”

My theory is that this is why fewer people are drawn to the bass than they are to, say, the guitar, singing, saxophone, or violin. In my experience there seems to be generally fewer bass players than players of other instruments. It’s good for me, as a working bassist, because I seem to stay busy with plenty of gigs and I get to enjoy playing in a lot of different styled bands, but it wasn’t easy in those first few years while I struggled with the role. I believe a lot of bassists who struggle with this as well, do so because they never really chose to be bass players, some of them are natural bassists who assume the role pretty easily, but others seem to constantly continue trying to make it work.

So, be honest, have any of you bassists out there ever been told, ‘just keep it low and simple, leave the soloing to me’? Have you struggled to hold back, or been frustrated while others solo endlessly, but give sideways glances if you even throw a lick here or there? And you bassists out there that have never had this problem, you, who unwaveringly chose to be musical pillars, facilitators of groove, can you give a word of advice to bassists who might truly love playing bass, but still struggle with this syndrome?

Fruity Box Bass

Benjamin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:37:06 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve had a fun post, so in the great tradition of the 2 string bass and the Bogdon box bass, I present for your delight this from Bass Guitar Blog reader Elmar!

The Klangbox is made of fruit boxes and was originally meant to be a gig case for one of the owner’s cigar box guitars. Well it still is -the neck is removable. The strings are made of clutch and brake cables from old motorcycles, I’m not sure of the origin of the pickups or the scale length (probably long!). The bridge is also a unique piece of engineering, providing a ‘headless’ design.

It’s the first Spanish bass that I’ve come across – are they all like this there? It has to be said that the sound is not at all bad, so it would simply be wrong of me not to let you see the bass in action for yourself, here you go:

Setting String Height – Adjusting Your Action

Benjamin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:46:39 +0000

So, to the business of setting up a Bass Guitar. Tuning aside – do start with that first! – string height is the number one adjustment on a bass. There are all sorts of reasons that string height adjustment is needed, from changing string type and fret wear to changing weather conditions and playing style.

Before we start, there’s no point adjusting the string height if the neck relief (the bow in the neck adjusted by the truss rod) is out. For now we’ll assume it is good, check out the upcoming post on neck relief for more on that. The neck pitch also needs to be right too, but I’ve yet to come across a bass where the neck pitch (angle of the neck to the body) is adjustable, so we don’t need to go there.

The two signs of incorrect string height are:

Fret buzz when playing – deeply unpleasant rattling that generally doesn’t go along with more playing styles!
Having to press the strings ‘too far’ – the strings end up a long way from the neck and the bass becomes harder to play.

The string height, or action, is set by the bridge saddles that hold the strings. Older basses have flat head (slot) screws that enable you to adjust the setting, newer basses tend to use allen (hex) keys. Turning the screws further in raises the action, unscrewing them (anti-clockwise) lowers the action, letting the strings get closer to the frets and the pickup(s) – something to watch, you don’t want the strings too close to them!

The shape of the bass fretboard has a slight curve to it, drawn along and imaginary radius. The bridge saddles will generally follow the same arc. Severe changes to the bridge height can affect the intonation (the internal tuning if you like), but little tweaks shouldn’t be a problem. You can check the intonation later.

The super bright out there will have realised that the string height is also affected by the nut at the other end of the string. Generally the setting at the nut is fine out of the factory. Over the years the nut can wear down, which usually means time for a new one. In a few decades of bass playing I’ve never needed one, but I’ve never owned a bass older than me, so it isn’t out of the questions. The nut is not generally a do-it-yourself change. Likewise if the nut does happen to be too high, it is time to call in an expert. Some basses dispense with nut and have a so called “zero fret” where it would have been. This is personally my preferred set up, but generally only seen on higher-end basses (although it doesn’t mean that a bass is higher end).

Fret a string at the highest fret. Obviously there’s never going to be any fret buzz here (there aren’t any more frets!), but it is the point on the neck where the action is highest. Slide down and play at the 12th fret. If there’s fret buzz here, you’ll want to raise the string, just a little. Try fretting at different frets until you are reasonably buzz free. For a lower action, there will be some buzz, so don’t fret (as it were). If you get buzz in one place but not others, this is a sign of uneven fret wear. Again, time to head to an expert to have the frets refinished.

Adjust the height of each string, and don’t forget to check the open strings too. That’s it. You’re done.

Setting up a Bass Guitar

Benjamin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:54:11 +0000

This will be a mini series of posts – although I may put everything under this one post too.

How do you set up your bass guitar?

Obviously the ideal is to have a professional do it for you – you can’t be a skilled hand and experience to get the perfect set up. However, sometimes just a minor tweak is required, or getting a full set up isn’t affordable or practical.

Adjustments on the Bass

So, what is adjustable? Apart from the obvious one (tuning), there are four main things that are checked and adjusted during a set up:

String height
Intonation
Trust rod (neck/fret board relief)
Pick up height

The first two are made via adjustments to the bridge. Trust rod adjustment is more tricky, while pick up height is relatively straight forward. Additionally a good set up should also look at the condition of the frets and fretboard, and also check the nut for ware. If you are already someone who sets up your own bass, hopefully you’ll pick up some additional tips, but do share what you’ve learnt as well! If it is all new to you, don’t be intimidated. Think of it as a way to better understand your bass.

To be continued…

Todd Johnson in Music and Harmony

Benjamin — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:29:17 +0000

Todd Johnson and Jim Stinnett have been busily writing and filming ”Fishin’ For Grips” – a tutorial on Melodic Harmonization for Bass Guitar. The Book and DVD combination is due out on June 1st and priced at $40 for the set.

Fishin’ For Grips is designed to be the definitive approach to learning chord-melody on the bass guitar. I have seen Todd Johnson play many times, and his chordal and melody playing are striking, a true jazz master. 84 minutes of DVD footage and the book aim to clearly illustrate how Todd does what he does, and to provide a clear and concise methodology.

Pre-orders are being taken at www.toddjohnsonmusic.com and will ship as soon as the DVDs and books are released.

Todd is simultaneously releasing his new CD. With his usual brand of self-deprecating humour it is titled ”One Good Looking Guy?” It is a joyful collaboration between Todd Johnson and Jim Stinnett, featuring their own compositions (Todd Johnson on 6–string electric bass and Jim Stinnett on acoustic & electric bass), supported by Dino Govoni on saxes and Joe Hunt on drums.

The CD is priced at $15 and also available from www.toddjohnsonmusic.com. You can hear the tracks on Todd’s ReverbNation page and check out Todd’s tour dates on the site too. Well worth getting out to seem him!

Here is Todd in action with the Todd Johnson Trio last year, playing Bye, Bye, Blackbird:

Ean Evans – Lynyrd Skynyrd Bassist

Benjamin — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:39:54 +0000

Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist, Ean Evans passed away earlier this month. Ean was 48, and died after a battle with cancer. He was born in Atlanta, but moved to Columbus after marrying his wife, Eva. He joined Lynyrd Skynyrd after Lynyrd Skynyrd’s previous bassist, Leon Wilkeson, died in his sleep in a hotel room in 2001. Evans toured with the band until being diagnosed with cancer back in 2008.

His most recent album was “Last Time” by Evanscapps, a side project featuring Ean Evans with Bobby Capps (the keyboard player for .38 Special) was released on May 12th, via Rock Ridge Music.

Rock Ridge Music is donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the album in Evans’ name to Lyrics For Life (www.lyricsforlife.org), a charity benefits children with cancer and their families. You can hear tracks on the Evanscapps myspace page or WMA files: ”Hell If I Know” and ”Follow The Morning Sun” and can purchase Last Time on-line.

Beyond Bass Camp

Benjamin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:44:40 +0000

If you can get to London, this sounds very interesting! The acclaimed teacher and solo artist, Steve Lawson is putting on Beyond Bass Camp, a one day event looking at the bass as a vehicle for music, both within the tradition of the bass guitar, and beyond it as a tool for self-expression. Looking at technical, theoretical and mechanical aspects of making music with a bass. Knowing Steve, it will be blogged, tweeted and streamed around the Interwebs. However, being there will be the real deal:

“The idea for BBC came out of the masterclasses I teach in Northern California every January. For years I’ve been doing a day long workshop on bass, varying the focus slightly each time to cover different aspects of what we do as bassists and musicians, but all with the aim of helping musicians unlock their own musical voice, whether that be playing bass in a blues band, or writing their own solo compositions. The attendees reported back that they found it hugely useful, and a many became regulars coming back year after year to develop the themes and ideas of the classes.” Steve Lawson

The workshop will be run in London, initially once a month but with plans to expand. It will also be available as a ‘travel package’ – so get your requests in. There will be more information will be available soon. If you do the RSS thing, then you can subscribe to the RSS feed, I’ll post updates here too.

If you know of other bass events, do let us know – it’s good to spread the word!

Elixir Strings – Gore-Tex Coated

Benjamin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:55:17 +0000

Whenever I ask for recommendations on Bass Guitar strings, one of the most mentioned makes is Elixir Strings. They are quite different, and not to everyone’s taste, but they have attracted a passionate following. Via Guitarkadia I came across this CBS piece on Gore-Tex, the company behind Elixir Strings (excuse the pre-roll ad):

Traditional strings tend to oxidise as they age. This is natural corrosion of the metal due to the aim as well as sweat and grease from your fingers. This causes the sound of the strings to dull with age. The folks at Gore-Tex set out to cure this problem, using their synthetic coating technology. As they put it “We set out to develop the cure for the common string.” – the aim was to create a set of strings that deliver excellent, long-lasting tone for a long time. Of course it isn’t just the tone, old strings feel different too, and Elixir Strings aim to stay feeling clean and smooth, even after repeated playing.

There are two types of strings in the family: NANOWEB® and POLYWEB®. NANOWEB coated strings are design to sound and feel like uncoated strings, with a micro thin coating that is barely noticeable, they remain bright soundsing for a long while. POLYWEB® coated strings are designed to sound like they have been ‘played in’ – not as harsh, and with a coating that reduces finger noise.

I have played with both types, and they certainly do last a long time – not forever of course, as the coating does eventually give way. If you are a player that generates lots of grease and sweat, or you have a bass that goes a long-time between plays, they are definitely worth checking out.

Jeff Beck Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scott’s with Tal Wilkenfeld

Benjamin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:18:21 +0000

OK, he isn’t actually playing this week at Ronnie Scott’s, but Jeff Beck does have a new DVD coming out, and that’s its title: Jeff Beck Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scott’s. The DVD features bassist, Tal Wilkenfeld - a Sadowsky Basses and EBS amplifiers and cabinets user who’s tour credits include Chick Corea, Eric Clapton, Joss Stone and on…

Jeff Beck will be on tour and I’ve been told that there will a chance to meet him too. Check out “Led Boots” from the DVD, featuring Tal too, pretty cool stuff:

“Led Boots” video clip from Jeff Beck’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s DVD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yg0nGAzNHc

There’s also a bit of a thing going on with Panasonic. Concert attendees that have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 will have a chance to take photos of Jeff Beck performing and submit them to the “Best of the Tour” series for JeffBeck.com. The first 10 owners who show up at the venue will get a special Panasonic VIP pass, which allows them backstage access for a photo opportunity with Jeff Beck. Panasonic will be raffling off two TZ5 class Digital Still cameras at each of the North American concerts.

You can get Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott’s on Amazon and the full list of Jeff Beck Tour dates are on the site. They start on 10th April 09 in New York at The Fillimore, and go through to 23rd April in Oakland at the Fox Theater – loads of dates. No Panasonic prize, but tour dates in Europe too:

UK and Ireland: 24th June Brighton Brighton Dome, 25th June Birmingham Symphony Hall, 27th June Manchester Manchester Apollo, 28th June Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 30th June Belfast Ulster Hall, 1st July Dublin Vicar Street, 3rd July Southampton Guildhall, 4th July London Royal Albert Hall.
Holland: 12th July Weert, Holland Bospop Festival, Sportpark Boshoven.
France: 13th July Sete, France Festival Jazz a Sete @ Theatre de la Mer, 15th July Antibes, France Juan Les Pins Jazz Festival.
Switzerland: 17th July Montreux, Switzerland Montreux Festival.
Belgium: 19th July Limburg, Belgium Peer Festival.
Spain: 22nd July Barcelona, Spain Pueblo Espanol, 24th July Madrid, Spain Festival Veranos De La Villa, Casa De Campo, 25th July Cazorla, Spain Blues Festival , 27th July Alicante, Spain Festival de Musicas del Mundo.

Enjoy!

Meditating on Your Bass

Benjamin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:59:42 +0000

A long time ago in Getting Back into the Groove there was mention of “meditating on your bass” but a recent discussion with Kalin in the comments on the Road Worn Fender Jazz Bass post got me thinking about it again, especially this comment:

“I was never a fan of quick-fixes. It takes time to make things dear to one’s being, and guitars surely have that facet…” – Kalin

It was Peter Tambroni (on Twitter: peter_tambroni) who mentioned the meditation idea. There is some science behind what both Peter and Kalin have mentioned. Over time, our brains automate things, so as we get used to a particular bass, we don’t need to concentrate as much, something called Muscle Memory takes over. This isn’t actually memory in your muscles, but rather the part of the brain that controls the muscles getting used to doing something. With practice, it gets more accurate at carrying out a particular movement. You are probably already familiar with the concept. It’s the main reason we practice, after all.

So, how does this connect with ‘meditating on your bass’? It doesn’t have to be a ’spiritual’ thing, although it can be if you want it to. It is about paying absolute attention, and focussing down on some tiny things. Try this:

Get your bass, and assume the position you would to play normally.
Notice how the bass feels. Notice where the weight is. Notice where your arms are.
You might adjust slightly, but concentrate on noticing just those things.

As a side note, letting your brain let go of the mass of things swilling around it for a bit is good for you, so say the psychologists anyway. Hopefully you are feeling a bit calmer, and also a bit more aware of your bass. Try this next:

Play one note. Just one.
Pay careful attention to how it sounded. How was the tone? The sustain.
Wait a little bit. Let it ring out.
Now, play one more note – the same one.
Did it sound different? Did you like the sound more, or less?
Listen to the detail of the note.

So, if you aren’t slightly unnerved by the experience, let me explain what is going off. You are letting the bit of your brain that control your fingers, interact with the bits that listen to the note, and the bits that know what you want your notes to sound like. Try one more thing:

Play a simple scale. Very, very slowly. Notice how your hands feel and how the notes sound.
Don’t let any other thoughts come into your head, just concentrate absolutely on that scale and the sound.

Now, pause. Notice your bass again. How is it feeling? How does it feel under your finger tips and against your body. Relax.

Hopefully that was fun. Repeating that kind of exercise will actually result in you being less aware of your bass. With lots of practice, our instrument becomes ‘invisible’ – that’s when muscle memory is working its magic. It’s taken over from our conscious brain and it is playing the bass for us. It’s a good feeling – that one you get when you are playing a piece that you know inside-out.

There’s definitely an argument for focussing down on one (or perhaps two) basses, and sticking with the same one for a long while. To the point Kalin was making, it takes a long while to get to know an instrument well, with it all its tonal quirks and intricacies.

Music Messe 2009 – Frankfurt

Benjamin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:45:19 +0000

A week on the road, with almost no Internet access – Ah, how do we survive these things? Oh, I know… With bass goodness… A few highlights from musicmesse:

TC Electronic added the RS410 to their range of cabinets (the RS212 and RS210) for the RebelHead450, announced back at the NAMM show. As you can probably guess from the name, it is a 4×10 cab, it has a tweeter too, and is good for 600 Watts at 8 Ohms. Here’s a video from the TC Electronic stand:

Ritter Basses were on show. Such a beautiful collection. They hope to complete the Ritter history / owners album in a few weeks. It will be a complete listing of all the Basses they’ve ever made. If you are a Ritter Owner and want to be in, please email them your serial number and your name (details on the Ritter Basses site).

Rotosound had Billy Sheehan on their stand (more about that shortly). They also have a new look homepage, which should make it a bit easier to find your nearest stockist.

Roland were around too, but nothing new for bass [sniff]. I’ll scour around for anything else that was noteworthy that I might have missed.

Moving to Fretless from Fretted

Benjamin — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:29:05 +0000

Lots of the newer bassists who come to chat end up asking about fretless. I was interested in fretless bass from the earliest days of my playing. Partly because of the Jaco influence, but also because when I started playing there were a number of bands in vogue that featured fretless (Japan, Paul Simon, The Christians and tracks featuring Pino Palladino and Sting were in force too).

There are many reasons to play fretless, from the instrument’s unique tone, to the ability to slide gracefully between notes. Ultimately it is a matter of personal preference. Recently I asked Steve Lawson about going fretless. Steve is well known as a teacher of fretless bass, on top of his Solo Bass career.

“It’s probably not as hard as you think, particularly if your technique is decent, and assuming you’re going to get a lined fretless. There’s no law against getting an unlined one, but that just seems to be making life difficult! …Anything that is going to help me play in tune, I’m going to do!”

There are some differences in frethand technique and finger placement in moving from fretted to fretless too:

“On a fretted you play behind the fret, but on a lined fretless you are going to be about 2/3 of the way behind the line, so that the contact point of your finger onto the fretboard is on the line.”

Steve picked out one of my bad habits, which turns out to be quite a common one:

“The biggest mistake that people learning to play fretless make is learning to auto correct – sliding in to the notes [rather than getting them on pitch at the start]. The most important practice is learning to hit the notes without any vibrato, bang on. When you get it wrong, don’t correct, look at where your hand is. Try and feel how it was wrong.”

“You have to practice what you ultimately want to have happen – which is that you don’t want to have to correct, you want to be playing in tune from the start… …I spend a lot of time [practising] getting my fingers in exactly the right place. The trick is to start slow, work on accuracy from the beginning. If you play out of tune, it just isn’t going to work.”

Keying against something (like an open string) to make sure your intonation is correct is another neat tip.

“Intonation is the beginning, middle and end of getting fretless playing right.”

It is worth the patience needed to master it, as Steve says:

“If you do, you are opening yourself up to a whole load of expressive potential that fretted just doesn’t have.

Here is the full video of Steve Lawson speaking with me. Sorry if the sound is a little quiet! We also talk about fretless bass compared to upright, and there’s even a mention of my Elrick fretless. My favourite quote from Steve on moving from fretted to fretless bass:

“It’s like taking the training rails off”

Back Ups – Avoiding Gig-asters

Benjamin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:36:04 +0000

Well, South by South West (or should I say “South By…”) was even more full on that I had imagined, and I had imagined it being very full on. Oddly, the thing stuck in my mind isn’t a gig, it was looking across at a rig. It got me thinking about having back ups and avoiding bass disasters…

Two neatly stacked amps on the stage at the venue. Now, I’ve heard talk about Ashdowns (and other) amps failing, but no-one was taking any chances with this set up – one amp labelled “MAIN” and one labelled “SPARE”. Well, there were no failures at SXSW, but it got me thinking… What failures could I deal with during a gig? I usually have:

A ’spare’ bass – a little unusual, but because I play fretted and fretless, and have a double case, I always have both with me.
Spare strings – this is a bit of a no-brainer. That said, I’ve broken one string on stage in 25 years.
Spare lead – not much extra to pack, and it means I can bail out any clowns that don’t bring enough leads.
A Bass Guitar Tool - for light repair work.

So that covers most of the front end. My usual big-gig cab has multiple drivers, so if one speaker blows, it should carry on, all be it at lower volume – a nice advantage of something like a 2×12, 8 x10, and the like. Most bass cabinets are wired in parallel or parallel plus serial, so as long as the speaker coil doesn’t short when it fails, the cab should carry on. To be really sure you could stack two cabs (i.e. two 4×10’s to give an 8×10) I guess. I haven’t gone down that road, yet…

That leaves the amp / pre-amp as the single point of failure. At a bigger gig, you just loose your monitoring – you can still go through the main PA, and have some bass in a near by wedge. At a smaller gig, you might well be stuck. It seems pretty expensive and laborious to carry around a second amp, but if you want to be 100% backed up that seems the only option.

House Concerts Comments and Travelling

Benjamin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:24:57 +0000

Having posted recently about house concerts, I’ll also point you to this great post by Steve himself on the matter: House Concert Hosting: a Beginner’s Guide. A number of recent posts have some great discussions in the comments, which are worth checking out if you haven’t seen them:

If you want to follow the comments on the blog, this is an RSS feed. for them. If you just click on that link in your browser, it should add it to your RSS reader and you can keep up with the comments that way.

I’m enjoying the chat on twitter (as @BenjaminBass) and you can follow the blog there too, if that’s easier: @BassGuitarBlog.

I’m off to Austin for South by Southwest. I’ll blog on anything bass like that I find!

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