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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
- Start date
1000% agreed.
One of my favorites (ok, I have like 10 favorites of his) is Oh yeah, and Mingus PLAYS PIANO ON IT!!!!
(One of his best ones with Roland Kirk also!!!)
First heard Mingus Ah hum and Mingus Dynasty when I was about 14.
It freakin blew my mind.
Any of you ever read his auto biography?
Beneath the Underdog.
@emjazz
i have some basses that i mostly use for other people’s stuff. i pretty much concentrate on my headless basses these days.
i have two ebasses that i need to sell but the pita aspect is too much for me right now.
last, my upright was sitting in a corner for years. would brush it off every six months or so for a dose of humiliation. the pandemic came and it seemed like a good time to mess with it. now i’m on tune five of a digi release that uses it as the main voice.
and you know i come more from the braxton school: different instruments with different colors.
and i’m pretty john p uses different ebasses for different purposes.
i have some basses that i mostly use for other people’s stuff. i pretty much concentrate on my headless basses these days.
i have two ebasses that i need to sell but the pita aspect is too much for me right now.
last, my upright was sitting in a corner for years. would brush it off every six months or so for a dose of humiliation. the pandemic came and it seemed like a good time to mess with it. now i’m on tune five of a digi release that uses it as the main voice.
and you know i come more from the braxton school: different instruments with different colors.
and i’m pretty john p uses different ebasses for different purposes.
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I never figured out whether it was the strings or some other factor that contributed to this, but fwiw I used to own a 1983 Fender Elite Precision II that had much higher string tension than any other bass I'd owned previously or have owned since. That bass had a number of shortcomings which eventually prompted me to sell it >20 years ago, but the one thing it was exceedingly good for -- and which I attribute almost entirely to this high string tension (along with, admittedly, fairly wide string spacing) -- was slap'n'pop technique. Ya wouldn't know it to listen to 95% of the work I do nowadays, but circa 1985 when I was wielding that high-tension P I was a regular Louis MuthaTruckin' Johnson!
could have been neck angle to body, nut height or neck bow. so many variables.
and 1985, all the kids were doing it!
I can see why you concentrate on the headless basses. Brilliant instruments.
At this point I go between my semi hollow Martin Keith or my older Ristola...both 6's. The Ristola gets used more for playing with effects. I have a semi hollow 6 fretless coming from Martin as well (one that I had asked your advice on...thank you for the help!). I would love to have a 6 string dedicated for E to F tuning (toyed with the idea of a 7 string for years...I think the instrument would just get too big and heavy). I'm also beginning to want shorter scale basses for lighter string tension, but as we've discussed here, there are other ways of achieving that. Would be wonderful to have a shorter scale headless 6 string though, for both convenience and less tension. So many ideas and so little money....hahaha.
Anyway, I had my 5 string Yahama PJ bass up for sale for a while...someone actually asked about it so I pulled it out of the closet. It immediately inspired lots of musical ideas...all the way to thinking about different groups. Can't sell something that does that.
The 4 strings are work basses, and not expensive....so not a big deal there.
John P's main bass was the Smith and then the Yamaha for many years...with I think a 4 string Yamaha thrown in there for recording and "groove" playing. Seems he's using a few more these days...and of course he sounds great on them all.
Upright bass...we went different directions with that. Mine has been sitting here waiting for a buyer for almost two years. Can't seem to sell it. I took that as a sign before, but now I just see it as an annoyance as I don't want to haul it to wherever I move next...hahahaha.
the delineation between the keith and ristola makes sense to me.
seems like the ristola could also be good for the E-F thing?
i hear you on the 7-string. i thought about it, but just more stress . . . and then i'd want fretless, etc. better to have too many 6-string basses.
i think john also had something fretless in there. when i owned a leduc u-bass, christophe said that john told him the u-bass was easier to play in tune than his regular fretless (or something like this, it was a long time ago). john probably also had some sort of deal like nathan east, who allegedly got a lot of free stuff from yamaha for being an endorser, but made it harder for him to be seen with other basses in public.
my headless fits in a guitar bag . . . so smaller. i do need to find someone who will make me some custom bags, though.
On 7 and more strings: this is my interest in Touch guitar. 8 strings tuned in 5ths gets you an enormous range. In does get heavy—even my NS stick is 9 pounds, and the “lightweight” T8 I bough came in a hair under 10 pounds. I’m working with a local luthier and we may be getting somewhere though by adding hollow areas to the neck. He says it’s going to be about 2.5#, which with a lightweight body should get me where I need to be.
The string spacing is closer together — 10.5mm — which changes other things.
Also been thinking about a short scale 5 tuned E-C for extra low tension. Always loved the Rob Allen Mouse. And Serek basses.
The string spacing is closer together — 10.5mm — which changes other things.
Also been thinking about a short scale 5 tuned E-C for extra low tension. Always loved the Rob Allen Mouse. And Serek basses.
I never realized how big the frets are on your fretted headless. Jumbo? I prefer vintage/small frets.
Man those basses...
i'd have to look at the sheet . . .
you're right, their sheet says large. i thought we had done smaller . . . shows what i remember (not much).
imo, the real secret to these basses is the one-piece body and thin finish—lots of body resonance.
i'm pretty happy with them!
Mingus is the greatest! Mingus Ah Um plays a huge part in why or how I'm married. I convinced a lovely girl to buy the vinyl version of that album and our first date was us listening to it. She dug it. Now we are married and have a kid.
Speaking of extended techniques, have you guys listened to Linley Marthe's solos? He's a beast and has a ton of weird techniques at his disposal.
Wow. Didn't know Fodera did headless. Very nice, and I bet it makes a lot of sense for 6-string.
He got that beat up jazz bass at the club he played in his home country.
Definitely a bad dude.
Maybe too bad for me......
He should chill and maybe breath during a set.
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His playing with Zawinul was mind bending. He was the perfect bass player since Jaco for Zawinul.He got that beat up at the club he played in his home country.
Definitely a bad dude.
Maybe too bad for me......
He should chill and maybe breath during a set.
Maybe.
Not a huge listener of the solo Zawinul stuff.
Like I previously mentioned, he's a monster but it's almost too much pyrotechnics for me.
My 2 grumpy cents
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