Gary Tallent article in WSJ

hotrodjohn · #1 11-06-2012, 11:35 AM

Yup, that notable musician resource the Wall St. Journal for some reason today published an article on a bass player if you can believe it. Gary Tallent from the E Street Band. Never a big fan of the boss or his music, but I can always appreciate a musician/bassist who understands his role in the band and the music. A decent read...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...981463718.html

bassist4dalord · #2 11-06-2012, 11:42 AM

Huge fan of Bruce's work, and an even bigger fan of Garry's playing and many different tones. Thanks for the article!

TRichardsbass · #3 11-06-2012, 12:03 PM

That is my friend, the gentleman among giants. Wanna have some fun? Come to my house and try the Spector Tallent Sig set up his way. FUN!

edmidlifecrisis · #4 11-06-2012, 09:15 PM

Jim Fusilli of the WSJ is a very cool music critic. Always fun to read. Nice to see him cover a bassist.

Commreman · #5 11-07-2012, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRichardsbass

That is my friend, the gentleman among giants. Wanna have some fun? Come to my house and try the Spector Tallent Sig set up his way. FUN!

Agreed! It IS a fun bass - a short scale Spector. It sounds phenomenal! Oh, and about Gary - agreed as well!

soxhats · #6 11-21-2012, 07:20 AM

Wow, glad I found this thread. Been very curious about the Tallent Shorty. Would you guys mind expounding a bit, if you have a minute? What do you like about the bass? What's the neck like? Looks like Garry plays one with J pickups, but it also comes with humbuckers I think? Which do you have? Any details very much appreciated! Thanks.

Commreman · #7 11-21-2012, 07:51 AM

It is equipped with EMG J pickups with an Aguilar OBP-1 preamp. The bass has a satin finish as opposed to glossy - the bluish color that Gary uses live. Pao Ferro fretboard, IIRC. It is an exact copy of his live fretted bass. Tom's bass is strung with flats. It sounds monstrous and articulate, and is very comfortable to play.

soxhats · #8 11-21-2012, 07:53 AM

Cool, thanks. Tom, please weigh in if you see this. Hope you guys are doing ok in NJ.

soxhats · #9 11-21-2012, 07:59 AM

PS... This bass seems very hard to find, but Bass Central currently has one.

TRichardsbass · #10 11-21-2012, 08:52 AM

soxhats, just saw this and thanks for the message.

Most of the shorty basses being made now come with the humbuckers, but they are available with the J pickups. Garry I believe owns one with the humbucks, but prefers the J's, as do I.

Neck on our basses is finished in the same black satin as the body, highly figured. Commerman has seen and played it, so his insights are right on.

The neck is clearly right between a Spector and a Danelectro. Garry has played Danelectro and Jerry Jones basses for a long time, and its his preferred. I find the neck a touch "chunky", but then again, I am used to it from my Danelectro basses.

The bass is smooth to play, and really does capture that Danelectro Longhorn sound as you hear on "Born to Run", albeit with a little modern touch. Even with flats it cuts the mix nicely.

These are not regularly made by Stu and company, although maybe around NAMM each year they pump out a couple for dealers to buy. Mine is the 19th ever made, and Garry's are the first couple, so you can see over the past three or so years there have only been about 5 made a year. I saw one on eBay a couple of months back in red satin, and that's the first I've seen in a color other then the black satin.

There are a couple of pics on the Spector Club thread of my bass, on one of them. I'll try and take some better pictures and get them up soon.

As for Garry, he really is a gentleman. And when you realize that he does NOT appear at all on Wrecking Ball, its a bigger testament to him as one. After all, while the gig is good, wouldn't most of us get a little upset if we were the ONLY one who has been with Bruce from the beginning and he chooses not to use you at all on his latest album? Maybe I'm a little petty, but it sure would do that to me.

If I can drop a few audio samples I will, dry. Lots going on down here right now.

Oh, and part of what I like about it is that it is a Garry bass. He and I have traded basses and spoken about the Danos. He loves bass, and anything short scale, like me.

Funny thing is I have an old Guild Pilot that I've had for several years that is exactly like the one he played on the Born in the USA tour, but I didn't buy it because of that. One came up locally for $250 and I just had to have it. I didn't see any pictures, and when I went to pick it up it was one with the rosewood fingerboard and black with pickguard. Dumb luck. Also funny is that it too sounds similar to the Shorty, and also sort of like my Dan Armstrong Modified Danelectro, which is what Garry's Longhorn was.

They are worth the price, and if you are someone looking for a shortscale to become your nearly forever bass, the GT Shorty is, IMHO, the one.

soxhats · #11 11-21-2012, 09:04 AM

Tom, thank you so much for this. Wow. As for the bass, this is very informative. My gut was that if I go for this, I should hold out for the J configuration... and you confirm that.... As for Garry, this is the second time in recent weeks I've heard very nice things about him. I drove from Raleigh to NJ for the MetLife Stadium shows. I stopped along the way to do an unabashedly fanboy picture-taking tour of Freehold. After that, I stopped at New Jersey Guitar and Bass Center in Edison to play a '71 P Bass I'd seen online. I didn't expect the shop to be so cool, and for the wonderful owner to tell me stories about Garry and other NJ music stuff.... I would so love to meet Garry sometime. I had a thrill a few weeks ago when I got to cover for the official brucespringsteen.net the show in Charlottesville, VA, and an afternoon rally Bruce did for President Obama. But that didn't get me close to Bruce or the band... Well, I'm rambling. Thanks so much for this info... One last thing and I'm stating the obvious: Garry W. Tallent is one of the best and most underrated bass players on the planet. He's a huge influence on me. His playing is absolutely beautiful, and an incredibly important cog in the E Street engine.

jbiscuti · #12 11-21-2012, 09:12 AM

Thanks for posting! Garry is one of my favorite players.

totallywink · #13 11-21-2012, 09:17 AM

Yes, thanks for posting!

TRichardsbass · #14 11-21-2012, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soxhats

Tom, thank you so much for this. Wow. As for the bass, this is very informative. My gut was that if I go for this, I should hold out for the J configuration... and you confirm that.... As for Garry, this is the second time in recent weeks I've heard very nice things about him. I drove from Raleigh to NJ for the MetLife Stadium shows. I stopped along the way to do an unabashedly fanboy picture-taking tour of Freehold. After that, I stopped at New Jersey Guitar and Bass Center in Edison to play a '71 P Bass I'd seen online. I didn't expect the shop to be so cool, and for the wonderful owner to tell me stories about Garry and other NJ music stuff.... I would so love to meet Garry sometime. I had a thrill a few weeks ago when I got to cover for the official brucespringsteen.net the show in Charlottesville, VA, and an afternoon rally Bruce did for President Obama. But that didn't get me close to Bruce or the band... Well, I'm rambling. Thanks so much for this info... One last thing and I'm stating the obvious: Garry W. Tallent is one of the best and most underrated bass players on the planet. He's a huge influence on me. His playing is absolutely beautiful, and an incredibly important cog in the E Street engine.

Okay, so you drive from VA to NJ, stop and see Jay at NJ Guitar and Bass, but you don't hit me up? Hmmmm...

soxhats · #15 11-21-2012, 09:32 AM

Haha! Next time, for sure!