Top 5 Session Players From London, NY, Nashville, LA, & Their Equipment Setups!

[Threshold]

All,

 

Top 5 Session Players From London, NY, Nashville, LA, & Their Equipment Setups!

[Mr. Bassist]

Bob Glaub

Jerry Scheff

Abe Laboriel

Tony Levin

Pino Palladino

 

Rigs? I dunno. Tony Levin tends to play Stingrays and Pino Palladino plays Jazz basses.

 

Chris

[_Sweet Willie_]

Threshold,

 

Is there something missing from your thread-opening post? Is it supposed to be a question -- as Mr. Bassist interpreted it?

 

Peace.

--sweets

[Ren.]

Originally posted by Mr. Bassist:

Bob Glaub

Jerry Scheff

Abe Laboriel

Tony Levin

Pino Palladino

I've heard a lot about Laboriel, Levin and Pino, but hardly know about the first two. Can you reference some of their work?

[jeremy c]

Where's Nathan East?

Where's Marcus Miller?

Where's Will Lee?

 

Just to mention a few.

[davebrownbass]

I think Pino is more associated with Musicman basses.

 

Nathan East is associated with Yamaha.

 

Lee Sklar is a pretty top guy too...in Nashville these days.

[DWBass]

Nathan East-Yamaha

Bob Glaub-Lakland

Anthony Jackson-Fodera

Randy Jackson-MusicMan?

Tony Levin-MusicMan, Chapman Stick

Pino Palladino-Fender, Moon, MusicMan, Warwick, Pedulla, Wal

Chuck Rainey-Warrior

Lee Sklar-Dingwall

David Hood-Lakland, Alembic, Kubicki, Fender

"Ready" Freddie Washington-Ken Smith

Willie Weeks-Lakland

[NickT]

Pino is best known for his mid-80s work with Paul Young. Most of which involved him playing a fretless Stingray 4. (He even slapped on it.) He also owned a Pedula 4, although he said he would never play it live because it would fall to bits. Currently alot of his work is done with P-basses I believe. There is a misconception amongst alot of people that if you book Pino he will turn up in a silver suit with a fretless Stingray, but he is an amazingly verstile player who mostly plays fretted now I believe.

 

On the London scene also check out:

 

Winston Blisset (Massive Attack, Kylie sessions [inc. "Spinning Around"] Spice Girls I think as well). From memory he like G-K heads although I heard that he blew one up not so long ago. With his fusion band Protect the Beat he plays a Ken Smith 5.

 

Freddie Thompson (Michelle Gayel, Louise Nurding, R'n'B type girl bands etc.) plays Warwick basses most of the time, a Streamer Stage 1 6 string I think, through Warwick rigs. For the disco medley in the Louise set he played a 70s J bass. He had an endoursement with Washburn for a little while I think as well, he played their acoustic basses.

 

Steve Lewinson (Spice Girls "Spice World" tour, Simply Red. MD/bass player in Eurythmics, Massive Attack, Kylie Minougue sessions, Sade, Tim Finn, he was also in "Spiceworld:The Movie") He's currently endoursing Sadowsky basses, alond with the mighty Will Lee. Marcus Miller is on there as well, but he is better known for playing modifidied Jazz basses. He also owns a Fodera.

 

I don't think anyone has mentioned Victor Wooten. (Fodera basses, Ampeg svt 4 and ampeg cabinets)

[_Sweet Willie_]

Neil Stubenhaus -- Tyler basses, I believe.

 

I know Randy Jackson has been appearing in Mike Lull advertisements recently.

 

Lee Sklar plays EA amps and cabs, a "Frankenbass" of some kind (I think), and has been seen with a Dingwall.

[DWBass]

Neil \'s Tyler Bass No pic of it though............

[DWBass]

http://www.mikelull.com/images/Lull_jackson.jpg

[humabass]

David Hungate

Mike Chapman

Glen Worf

Hutch Hutchinson

[davich]

Don't forget Dave Pomeroy the all bass man! Now you can associate him with a specific bass?

[Threshold]

Sweet Willie, & All,

 

Quote:"Is there something missing from your thread-opening post? Is it supposed to be a question -- as Mr. Bassist interpreted it?"

 

-Sweet Willie

 

What I was putting out there was a survey of sorts, of who everyone thinks is the best of session players, & what they play, & play through etc., & etc..

 

Threshold.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by humabass:

David Hungate

Mike Chapman

Glen Worf

Hutch Hutchinson

Is Hutch playing on anything besides Bonnie Raitt records?

 

In Nashville, though, you've forgotten

Michael Rhodes

Mike Brignardello

Allison Prestwood

Dennis Crouch

Spadey Brannan

Jackie Street

Dave Rowe

 

And a bunch of others (who I can't remember right now).

[NickT]

I've been thinking about this a little more, and whilst there are many session players who have endoursements, chances are that most of them will have a variety of basses to give the producer a number of options.

 

I think the only thing that I would say with any certainty is that most of them will own a Fender bass of some sort as part of their arsenal. Most will have fretted, frettless and five stringers as well maybe all from different builders despite any endoursment that they might have.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by NickT:

I think the only thing that I would say with any certainty is that most of them will own a Fender bass of some sort as part of their arsenal. Most will have fretted, frettless and five stringers as well maybe all from different builders despite any endoursment that they might have.

It depends, really - I've seen guys with their cartage racks with NO Fenders, and I've seen them with 3 or 4 Fenders and no fretless basses or 5 strings.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by davich:

Don't forget Dave Pomeroy the all bass man! Now you can associate him with a specific bass?

That weird-ass Fleishman upright is the one I associate with him, but he's got a lot more stuff. Check out: http://www.davepomeroy.com/gear.php

[Threshold]

All,

 

Well, we have a good listing of session bassists. How about other things in their set ups like the type of direct boxes they use, & amps(real, & virtual) in the situation where the producer might want that type of sound.

 

Threshold.

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Threshold:

All,

 

Well, we have a good listing of session bassists. How about other things in their set ups like the type of direct boxes they use, & amps(real, & virtual) in the situation where the producer might want that type of sound.

 

Threshold.

Threshold, don't you know that everything is variable? Sometimes you take an amp, sometimes you don't. And when you have an amp, sometimes you use it, and sometimes you don't. And the engineer may or may not use the amp in the mix; the bass player has no control over that (Well, there IS a way to have that control, but it's a bit of a pain). Some days you'll use 6 different basses in a day, some days, you'll play the same bass all week. Some engineers want you to use a specific DI, some don't care what you use. So if you have multiple choices, you use whichever one seems right at the time. In other words, what you seem to be asking cannot be answered except by looking at a specific project with a specific musician and a specific producer at a specific time.

 

You started the same thread in GM's forum (with engineers rather than bass), and it made even less sense there than here.

 

What exactly do you want to know?

[Threshold]

Dave Martin,

 

You asked me what exactly do I want to know? The answer is what basses, & gear do the individuals whom people feel are the top 5 session bassists from the 4 global music mecca's have, &/or take to, & use during recording sessions as a whole(whether they use every piece of equipment they have on every session is'nt the point, the point is what do they keep on hand in order to be ready for pretty much anything a producer/engineer might ask for).

 

Threshold.

[Mr. Bassist]

Originally posted by p r o t o o l e r:

Originally posted by Mr. Bassist:

Bob Glaub

Jerry Scheff

Abe Laboriel

Tony Levin

Pino Palladino

I've heard a lot about Laboriel, Levin and Pino, but hardly know about the first two. Can you reference some of their work?

Jerry Scheff (short-short list):

 

Doors- LA Woman

Elvis Presley- several albums

Elvis Costello- several albums

Richard Thompson- Mirror Blue & others

Sezanne Vega-99.9 Degrees

Sam Phillips

Roy Orbison

Bob Dylan

Etc.

 

See the longer list here: http://www.scheff.com/jerry/

 

He's been around for EVER and still going stron.

 

CV

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Threshold:

Dave Martin,

 

You asked me what exactly do I want to know? The answer is what basses, & gear do the individuals whom people feel are the top 5 session bassists from the 4 global music mecca's have, &/or take to, & use during recording sessions as a whole

 

Threshold.

Ah. The answer is that there IS no answer. It varies for each player from day to day.

 

I've seen Dave Pomeroy with 12-15 basses on a session, and I've seen him with three. Same with Michael Rhodes, Mike Brignardello, Glen Worf - pretty much everyone in Nashville (I assume that it's the same everywhere else).

 

Gary Tallent told me once that even though he has an upright bass, he never takes it to a session unless the producer specifically asks for it (or if he's doing a multi-day project, if he decides on the first day that he ought to have it - then he'll bring it with him the second day).

 

A lot depends of whether the project pays for cartage; most of the guys here have a small set-up at home, and a larger system in cartage. Some guys don't keep their stuff in cartage, but at home; when cartage is paid, they'll have someone come to their house and pick up all their gear. Others only carry a bass or two, with no effects, racks, amps or anything else.

 

So in many cases, it all depends on what the player is comfortable with. Oh, another thing; the gear changes over the years; I saw Mike Rhodes' set up a few years ago; he was using a Neve 1073 and an LA-2A. A year or so later, he was using an Avalon U-5. The next time I was at a session where he was playing, he had an amp (set up inside a road case for isolation). And the number of basses he had varied as well. I watched the Willie Nelson 70th anniversery show last night; it appeared that Micheal only played a couple of basses on that show; a white Jazz and some sort of acoustic/ electric thing. Why? Most likely he decided that those were the appropriate instruments to fly to New York with.

 

There is no answer that fits everybody; and more important for a forum like this, the specific instruments that the session players use is completely unimportant; they'll sound like themselves no matter what instrument they play.