Ed Friedland Posted April 17, 2001 Share Posted April 17, 2001 Well, in the "Capo" thread the call was put out to encourage more discussion of un-orthodox techniques and approaches to the bass, so......go for it! Here's some: I recently saw Drew Gress playing a trio with Tim Berne and Tom Rainey. All totally improvised out there stuff. At one point Drew put little alligator clips on the strings of his upright bass. It was cool! It created some very unusual harmonics and rattling. Mike Rivard of Club D'Elf www.clubdelf.com shoves drumsticks under his G and D string to create a double stop. He plays a low E and the D and G strings pedal a D# and G#. While the strings are ringing he plays rhythms on the body of the bass. This is featured on "Bass Beat Box" on their new CD "As Above". ------------------ www.edfriedland.com www.edfriedland.com The Bass Whisperer Bass Whisperer TV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansouth Posted April 17, 2001 Share Posted April 17, 2001 Tony Levin's finger drumstick thingies are pretty weird (but sound great). Tony also likes to mute his strings with pampers (clean one, I imagine). They claim that Jamerson had an extra bass at his house. He would buy new strings, put them on that bass and leave the untouched for a year before he would play them. Liked 'em REALLY dead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricknbokker Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 Thanx, Ed! This is gonna be a trip! On the "first bass memories" thread, I mentioned a weird pickup configuration on my first bass, that involved stereo wiring and homemade pickups that split the stereo field by string instead of by pickup. The E and A strings on the left, D and G on the right. I'm wondering if anyone else has heard of this, or perhaps tried it. I had a lot of fun w/it, and when I told people about it, they would nod their heads and go "Right, right". Anyway, here's hoping we get lotso good stuff here!!! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Riehle Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 In the first band I was in I "inherited" a bass solo played with... ...an iron bar. It was an effect which could be approximated with a bow, but the iron bar did some weird things to the harmonics that were very cool. Unfortunately it required that the bass be *way* loud and my home-built amplifier bassed on a schematic for a commercial 100-watt amp just wouldn't cut it. It'd be fun to try it now...hmmm... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif ------------------ Michael Riehle Bass Player/Band Leader fivespeed Michael Riehle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Lawson Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 I'm constantly looking for new cool sounds on bass - atmospheric stuff and percussive sounds mainly, but also just new tones from 'normal' playing. I'm with Ed, anything is fair game - just try not to break the bass... ) my faves at the moment are fretting the notes against the pickups to get really high sounds and muting the strings whilst dragging my nails over them, then sampling that with a DL4, flipping it back to front and taking it up an octave to get mad bat type noises... ) Steve www.steve-lawson.co.uk StevieLand - go on, you know you want to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 Mad bats?! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif When I saw Bill Dickens, he had a short piece of rope he stuffed sideways under the strings at about the third fret, sort of like a capo from underneath. It damped the strings and increased the percussiveness of his machine-gun technique. He suggested it as a learning tool for anyone who wanted to learn that technique. (Unfortunately, he plays faster than I can think, and I still don't understand the combination of tap/pop/pull-off/slap/etc. that lets him play 64th notes... or were they 128th?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtituspacbell.net Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 I once played a totally improvisational concert in LA with guitarist-freak Reeves Gabrels. During the show Reeves took out a common woman's vibrator and, with it in his right hand, he played a cool solo! The vibrating simulates a mandolin picking sound, which you can use to play chords. It was wild, but it sounded good. Also, Reeves could adjust the vibrator's speed to match various tempos. A few weeks later I bought a vibrator and tried it and it really created some crazy sounds on my bass! Give it a try if you can survive the embarrassment of buying the vibrator... Dale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansouth Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 Well, this isn't weird, just unfamiliar to most of us in the States. I saw some really good mariachi bands in Mexico City. Their bass role is fulfilled by a guy - usually the smallest guy in the band for some reason - with this HUGE guitar with big, heavy gut strings and NO FRETS. It's almost as though he has a cello strapped under his arm. The sound is warm, fat, and punchy. The intonation is not always right on, but it doesn't matter, as the music is supposed to sound a little bit sad and drunk, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Lawson Posted April 18, 2001 Share Posted April 18, 2001 Mad Bats - it wasn't me who came up with that description, I'm sad to say, but a reviewer of one of my gigs, from Misfit City, which is a fantastic e-zine based here in the UK. If you go to the reviews page on my site you'll find the link to it. Steve www.steve-lawson.co.uk StevieLand - go on, you know you want to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricknbokker Posted April 19, 2001 Share Posted April 19, 2001 Gotta try that vibrator thang, as long as the wife hasn't used up the batteries. (note to self: buy rope) Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Friedland Posted April 20, 2001 Author Share Posted April 20, 2001 Just don't buy enough rope to hang yourself! I remember seeing Reeves Gabrels back in Boston in the old days when he worked as a salesman at E.U. Wurlitzer. He had this little toy wind-up bird that had a pecking motion. He'd wind it up and play the guitar with it, it was amazing to me how musical he was with it and it was hilarious! Vibrator huh? I'm not touching THAT one with my ten foot pole! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/redface.gif ------------------ www.edfriedland.com www.edfriedland.com The Bass Whisperer Bass Whisperer TV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lug Posted April 20, 2001 Share Posted April 20, 2001 Man, I have enough touble keeping good 9V batteries handy. Now I gotta keep fresh C size batteries too? Does anybody know what size batteries Jaco, Stanley, Chuck, Nathan, Victor, Les, Geddy, Chris, James, Will, and Jack used? Does brand name matter (Eveready, Duracell)? Does anybody use alternating vibrators or just "the hook" method? Which is better, active or passive mode? I gotta find out in a hurry, I gotta gig Friday. You can stop now -jeremyc STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilan Posted April 21, 2001 Share Posted April 21, 2001 I once met a guy who played fingerstyle with metal banjo picks. He got an amazing sound with them. Told me he wanted a pick sound but was more comfortable with fingerstyle technique. Tried it myself - it was too weird for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilan Posted April 21, 2001 Share Posted April 21, 2001 dansouth@yahoo.com wrote - "They claim that Jamerson had an extra bass at his house. He would buy new strings, put them on that bass and leave the untouched for a year before he would play them. Liked 'em REALLY dead!" The way I remember this story, Jamerson spread a coat of margerine on the strings before leaving them on his spare bass for a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Friedland Posted April 21, 2001 Author Share Posted April 21, 2001 Maybe that's how Jamerson got that buttery tone! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif I just hope he wiped it off before the gig! I myself just let all my teenage students play my P-Bass with flatwounds on it. The acid their hands secrete is enough to age a brand new set of LaBellas to perfection! ------------------ www.edfriedland.com www.edfriedland.com The Bass Whisperer Bass Whisperer TV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman1ovation.net Posted April 23, 2001 Share Posted April 23, 2001 Originally posted by Ed Friedland: I myself just let all my teenage students play my P-Bass with flatwounds on it. The acid their hands secrete is enough to age a brand new set of LaBellas to perfection! ... and that brings up the musical question: What is the best way to deal with extreme acid hands that can wreak havoc on strings so quickly? Is something like FingerEase any help? Oh... and as far as the weirdo topic goes, has anyone ever seen a bass player that plays the bass flat (playing it from the top of the fretboard sort of like a steel guitar, or more specifically like Jeff Healey plays the guitar)? I know there are a few guitarists that do that, but what about bass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lug Posted April 25, 2001 Share Posted April 25, 2001 Speaking of Finger Ease, does anyone know why oil from you fingers kills new strings but the oil in Finger Ease doesn't seem to? You can stop now -jeremyc STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gabrielk Posted April 25, 2001 Share Posted April 25, 2001 It's not too unusual, but you can get some fun tones by fretting the note, then somewhere between tap & slap the string into either one of the pick-ups, or the high-end frets with your thumb. Another, is with a pick: pick your strings, but do the picking motion from front to back (along the length of the string). Works best with a short, quick motion, of course, rather than dragging it out like you might be tempted to do. A variation is to pick like normal, but hold the pick sideways, so you're picking with the side-edge of the pick (much fun with some delay). --Gabriel! =D //Gabriel.k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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