Tonefiend Forum

I'm more of a bass player who plays the guitar. A lot of times in a 2-guitar situation I start playing bass lines - hey, at least they're supportive. I started playing bass with a pick, due to the blister phenomenon, but in the past many years I really prefer to use my fingers. There is less cramping of the right hand compared to grasping a pick, and the bass being the visceral instrument it is, digging into those strings with your fingers is simply more satisfying. I do not pop and slap or any of that.

First bass I ever tried was a Stingray. Then a guy lent me a Rickenbacker 4001 whose tuners were coming apart, so I replaced them with something completely inappropriate. My fingers started peeling from some skin problem so I replaced the round wounds with tape wounds. Gah sacrilege! Then the guy showed up and took it back.

After that I got a Peavey J-Bass type. I like the narrow neck and really have a hard time with P-bass neck width. I put some flatwounds on that and it is mellow! My most recent bass is an OLP Stingray body style. That has a way twangier sound than the Peavey and so comes out when that is appropriate.

Finally, I have an Ernie Ball Earthwood "Factory Prototype" that I got at Gelb Music in Redwood City er, 28 years ago? Guy who sold it to me said it was previously owned by Michael Hedges but there's no way to know for sure. MH was living in Palo Alto around that time as I'd often see him walking around downtown or in a record shop. I've always thought it could be true. Anyway this has a nice acoustic "tone" and beats the pants off any acoustic bass guitar I've played since (unplugged anyway) due I'm reasonably sure to the giant body size. It can hold its own in a small acoustic jam.

Pick for bass was always much harder for me than with guitar. Oddly enough, the only thing I've managed to get to work there has been a Jazz III -- I gather that this is exceedingly odd for bass.

No idea if I have a bass style. I have a Korean made Dearmond Pilot, roughly a copy of the older Guilds, that is much nicer than the clearance price I paid for it and that I futz around on every so often. If I were to start/join a band, I might choose to give bass a go because I'm more in tune with the instrument as a listener now than I ever was before. Problem is that attrocious bass technique sticks out like a sore thumb.

I've always played the bass like it was a guitar. But recently as I have been writing and recording a lot more, I have been frustrated by my lack of versatility on the bass. SO I bought a video series by Stu Hamm and have really been having fun playing with my fingers. It changes how I approach a bassline a lot.
And as I've been playing more, my slipped-disc-riddled back has not been happy. My old 80's Epiphone Powerbass feels like it ways about 20lbs.
I started looking at hollow and shortscale basses and ended up with an EastWood copy of the Hofner Club Bass. It's hollow and shortscale, and only weighs 5lbs! It's lighter then most of my guitars. But I love the tone. It can easily get that McCartney sound, plus much more. I haven't learned to slap and pop yet, so not sure how suited it is for that. But I do plan on getting another one, or something similar and making it fretless.

Quote from Oinkus on September 4, 2012, 03:45
I place my thumb at the first joint of my index finger and use it like a pick.Play way too many notes and generally follow the root or just assault the poor unfortunate bass.I have a 90s Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray of a friends and his old Trace Elliot series 6 combo which make the most wonderful sounds together. Got to love a solid state bass amp !

The Traces sound great but i have seen some very scary failure modes. I had one in for repair because it was smoking and had no output. There was a hole burned thru the board yet the fuse never blew. They also failed to use flameproof resistors so there was nasty residue all over the chassis. The heatsink had gotten so hot it actually welded some of the screws in place. I would always unplug it before i left home if owned one so it would not burn my house down. But as you say they sound great and I have heard bassists use them live with great tones.

I remember an interview from Tina Weymouth where she mentioned that while some of the other Talking Heads might play a bit of bass on the records here and there, there was no way that they were real bass players because they hadn't acquired the physical strength to be able to play it properly.

My own thought it that there have been some great bass playing guitarists - like Noel Redding always thought himself a guitarist and only picked up bass to be able to join Hendrix; and a particular favourite of mine - King Roeser of Urge Overkill - is a guitarist first and foremost, but as UO were a three-piece, had to become the bass player - but what a great bass player!