Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
- Start date
Output module on my Erica is malfunctioning. Perfect Circuit was really easy to deal with, so I’ve got an RMA and they’ve got a replacement unit in stock.
Hooray for good customer service!!!!
Gives evil eye towards Red Panda.....
I think of the 10 of these I have, I had one of the TRS ones fail, but that was it.
I’m actually waiting with great curiosity for my first EBS failure. Just because they are enclosed in rubber doesn’t mean I’m not gonna tear into it to see what hides inside. I’m confident that I could resolder and heat shrink wrap one back into service.
Does anybody here spend time in the Helix environment? HX FX is my platform of choice and the Shuffle Looper from the recent update is truly remarkable. I have been fascinated, enthralled, and profoundly amused by this model. It’s been a long time since I’ve derived this much joy and inspiration from a new effect. Eventually I will support this hyperbole with some actual recordings, but I mention it now to encourage all who have access, to check out the Shuffle Looper now.
In keeping with my tradition of commenting on something from 3 pages ago, here's how I arrived at ERBs:
I'd been playing regular fretted 4-string bass for a dozen years already when I decided to get a Chapman Stick. (10-string, standard tuning; aka fourths for the upper half, and inverted/reciprocal fifths for the lower half.) Learned a lot about myself after a few years of struggling to produce anything musical -- or at least genuinely original -- on that instrument. One thing I learned about myself was that I suck at coaxing expressiveness from the tapping gesture. But the other thing I learned was that I love having a wider range, both lower and higher, than a traditional 4-string EADG bass.
So in 1988 I ordered my first 6-string bass (BEADGC). This immediately came in handy because I had re-established a working relationship with a band I had founded in 1986 but then taken a leave-of-absence from...and while I was gone they'd added a 'cellist and written a bunch of material for that instrument. Mr. 'Cello split shortly before I rejoined, and so I had to cop all these 'cello parts which required the extended upper register of the 6-string bass. But we also still played some of the older material that had been written for the Stick, so those lower-than-open-E notes were mandatory as well.
On the one hand then I feel like that first 6-string (which I still have and play regularly) is the instrument through which I best express my personal vision of bass playing. And I subsequently acquired another somewhat-identical fretted 6-string bass, mostly as a backup.
But there's also a very strong component of my musical personality that revolves around the idea of being a functional journeyman, a role-playing chameleon who can fit into any situation professionally and sensitively, and to that end I still often gravitate to playing 4-string or 5-string (BEADG) fretted bass. I don't feel limited by the narrower range of those instruments; I just feel like for projects that require that voice, those are the appropriate instruments.
Parallel with all that, I also added fretless basses and 8-string (octave-course) basses to my palette around 1989, and now I honestly don't think I could contribute musically to the fullest extent if I didn't have access to those sounds. But it has (almost) never occurred to me that to fully embrace those sounds while being true to my personal vision I would need to play the 6-string variants of those instruments; it's almost like those goals are at cross-purposes. ("Almost" is definitely the operative word in that sentence.) So I don't own a fretless 6-string nor an octave-course 6(x2)-string bass. My two fretless basses are both 5-string, though one is BEADG and the other is EADGC and they sound completely different from one another.
Wait, what was the question?
I'd been playing regular fretted 4-string bass for a dozen years already when I decided to get a Chapman Stick. (10-string, standard tuning; aka fourths for the upper half, and inverted/reciprocal fifths for the lower half.) Learned a lot about myself after a few years of struggling to produce anything musical -- or at least genuinely original -- on that instrument. One thing I learned about myself was that I suck at coaxing expressiveness from the tapping gesture. But the other thing I learned was that I love having a wider range, both lower and higher, than a traditional 4-string EADG bass.
So in 1988 I ordered my first 6-string bass (BEADGC). This immediately came in handy because I had re-established a working relationship with a band I had founded in 1986 but then taken a leave-of-absence from...and while I was gone they'd added a 'cellist and written a bunch of material for that instrument. Mr. 'Cello split shortly before I rejoined, and so I had to cop all these 'cello parts which required the extended upper register of the 6-string bass. But we also still played some of the older material that had been written for the Stick, so those lower-than-open-E notes were mandatory as well.
On the one hand then I feel like that first 6-string (which I still have and play regularly) is the instrument through which I best express my personal vision of bass playing. And I subsequently acquired another somewhat-identical fretted 6-string bass, mostly as a backup.
But there's also a very strong component of my musical personality that revolves around the idea of being a functional journeyman, a role-playing chameleon who can fit into any situation professionally and sensitively, and to that end I still often gravitate to playing 4-string or 5-string (BEADG) fretted bass. I don't feel limited by the narrower range of those instruments; I just feel like for projects that require that voice, those are the appropriate instruments.
Parallel with all that, I also added fretless basses and 8-string (octave-course) basses to my palette around 1989, and now I honestly don't think I could contribute musically to the fullest extent if I didn't have access to those sounds. But it has (almost) never occurred to me that to fully embrace those sounds while being true to my personal vision I would need to play the 6-string variants of those instruments; it's almost like those goals are at cross-purposes. ("Almost" is definitely the operative word in that sentence.) So I don't own a fretless 6-string nor an octave-course 6(x2)-string bass. My two fretless basses are both 5-string, though one is BEADG and the other is EADGC and they sound completely different from one another.
Wait, what was the question?
not sure of the question anymore but the answer is we each have different goals, different numbers of strings and different bass likes and it’s interesting to see what other people are doing...
I have to admit I feel very young only playing “properly” ie owning a bass since 2008 or so. Then you guys come in with the I have been using extended range basses since before they were popular in the 90’s
I’m always here for the shared knowledge and interested to see what happens in this corner of the effects thread 
Ok...finally getting to this, but I think that Steuart said what needed to be said. Very different sound and feel that will evoke very different ideas. Will bring about horizontal thinking and ideas, and in turn will allow you to see the "bass" in a different way. More chordal range (in this regard I have a good friend and great bass player who tunes the high string to a B, as he came from guitar first. He's able to get voicings that I can't...great idea...I think maybe Tim Bogert (RIP) did this many years ago as well...). My feeling, as I look at these instruments, is that when you add a string it's a bit of a different instrument. I really like that aspect. It allows me more room to experiment (in my mind), which excites me for sure.
Once again, I personally prefer a shorter scale for that higher string, but many, many players don't find that need.
I haven’t updated my helix in quite some time. Maybe I should. Thanks for the tip.
interesting.
for me, i feel like i can be a chameleon on the 6-string and cover everything i need to—though i do like the different strings and tunings for certain "personalities" . . .
i admit to having some confusion to seeing that you use two 5-strings, with one B-G and the other E-C, when it could all be covered by a 6-string at B-C. i do get that they sound different.
**caveat** is that my bias is to have all my basses feel ergonomically the same (or as close as possible) so i "know where everything is."
I realized today that I want a short scale 6 string bass tuned E to F. Going to find a set of strings to try on my Ristola 6 to try the tuning. Haven't tuned a bass like that in years....but am feeling that throughout this period of introspection I have simultaneously gotten both closer and further from jazz. Have been thinking differently about composition and about music in general. Very freeing. Time to experiment a bit more.
Admittedly some of that is simply due to the fact that, at least at the time I acquired them, a 6-string variant of that particular model wasn't even available.
And speaking of confusion, have I elucidated on the weird cognitive mindphuck that I've had to go through vis-a-vis BEADG versus EADGC? In short:
- I played BEADGC 6-string for ~8 years before I ever got my first 5-string. But adopting to that BEADG 5-string was no problem, because it felt exactly like my BEADGC 6-string only minus one string
- but it was only 6 or 7 years ago -- so ~25 years after getting my first BEADGC 6-string and ~18 year after getting my first BEADG 5-string -- that I got my first EADGC 5-string. And despite the fact that it's exactly like my BEADGC 6-string only minus one string, every time I play that bass there's a moment when my brain gets all farkakte and I forget where I am on the instrument! Something about that extra high C string feels like I'm playing an "augmented" 4-string rather than a "diminished" 6-string. Uncanny.
That is what I’m thinking too. Looking at strings now. Looks like LaBellas might be the best bet. Wish TI made a set.
i like their rounds. i also have some flats that will be on a some new basses.
i know that they can do some custom gauges.
The only sets I can find are 4 string. I can’t even find their web site.
EDIT: I Found their site and it looks like they make bass vi strings.
Last edited:
