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07-20-2006, 11:05 AM
|  | Registered User | | | | | Billy Sheehan's action...
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anyone knows if he plays low action or high action?
He seem to pluck the strings pretty darn hard and his bass has infinite sustain. And he can tap the bass like a piano,.. |
07-20-2006, 11:44 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | | It looks quite low when he's doing some of those massive bends. |
07-20-2006, 12:06 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL | | | I saw him live once and I was sitting right in front of him. It seemed to me that he had a medium to low setup (but not super low), and regular or heavy gauge strings. He does play with a lot of force (not a light plucker.)
Although I don't doubt the Yamaha bass has good sustain, I think that most of the sustain you hear comes from the tube overdrive of the amps/preamps and compression. |
07-20-2006, 01:14 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Bowling Green, Ohio | | | Wel he has low action, since his bass buzzes a lot, I've seen an insturcitonal video of him, and he says tha t he lowers the action to the point that it buzzes, then raises the strings until it buzzes a bit. |
07-20-2006, 01:37 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by bassist 4 life Wel he has low action, since his bass buzzes a lot, I've seen an insturcitonal video of him, and he says tha t he lowers the action to the point that it buzzes, then raises the strings until it buzzes a bit. | I stand corrected, then. |
07-20-2006, 04:06 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by lefty007 I saw him live once and I was sitting right in front of him | Hey, me too! He was awesome! |
07-20-2006, 04:09 PM
| | | | It has to be low because he does the grab the neck deal and starts tapping like crazy and with my bass it has a medium high action and its hard to get that neck grab with it. |
07-21-2006, 08:03 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Bowling Green, Ohio | | | When he plays his bass clean you can hear is buzz, but its covered when he plays with overdrive... |
07-21-2006, 08:37 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Glasgow, Scotland | | | he also bends like that because he has those thingy frets up high (the ones malmsteen has - cant remember the name)
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07-21-2006, 09:06 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Camelon, Scotland | | | The frets are scalloped which I think he copied off one of these widdly guitarist guys.
Another thing he does is raise the P pickup right up almost against the strings and plays right on top of it - suppose a bit like the Gary Wilis ramp thing. This prevents him from digging in too much which helps him play faster and keeps the notes consistent |
07-21-2006, 11:38 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Germany | | | Yeah, I watched a bunch of his instructional videos on Youtube and his sound was indeed very "buzzy". Personally, I find it a bit disappointing that he seems to feel it's necessary to sacrifice sound quality only to be able to play high-speed lines. He's still amazing, though. |
07-21-2006, 01:30 PM
| | Registered User | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by phxlbrmpf Yeah, I watched a bunch of his instructional videos on Youtube and his sound was indeed very "buzzy". Personally, I find it a bit disappointing that he seems to feel it's necessary to sacrifice sound quality only to be able to play high-speed lines. He's still amazing, though. | well, buzz sounds nice to some ppl |
07-21-2006, 01:43 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Bowling Green, Ohio | | | Buzz isnt bad |
07-21-2006, 04:27 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by BrandonBass well, buzz sounds nice to some ppl | it wouldn't be Billy if it didn't buzz! |
07-22-2006, 11:11 AM
| | Finally a Roscoehead | | Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Taipei, Taiwan | |  I played his personal bass once
Well, I was the translator of Billy's clinic in Taiwan, 2004.
I got the chance to mess around with his green Yamaha (the one with those freaking LEDs) when he went to the restroom. 
The string action was so low that it buzzed in EVERY fret, but that's sort of "nice" buzz: no ringing metal echoed in the buzz, if you know what I mean.
He also raised the precision pickup to some extreme height, I had to borrow a screwdriver for him to lower the pickup a little bit before the clinic.
Nice guy and a monster player without a doubt, just still wondering how can me manage that aggressive playing style with so low string action. 
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Last edited by lpjiang : 07-22-2006 at 11:13 AM.
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07-22-2006, 10:22 PM
| | Registered User | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by lpjiang Well, I was the translator of Billy's clinic in Taiwan, 2004.
I got the chance to mess around with his green Yamaha (the one with those freaking LEDs) when he went to the restroom.
The string action was so low that it buzzed in EVERY fret, but that's sort of "nice" buzz: no ringing metal echoed in the buzz, if you know what I mean.
He also raised the precision pickup to some extreme height, I had to borrow a screwdriver for him to lower the pickup a little bit before the clinic.
Nice guy and a monster player without a doubt, just still wondering how can me manage that aggressive playing style with so low string action. | thanks for the input man, i think most shredders play with very low action. especially those who taps their bass...entwistle, myung etc. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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