Any love for Stu Hamm?

[perfektspace6]

Yes, I can share some Stu Hamm love and conjecture.

Radio Free Ablemuth was a classic. I regard Flow My Tears and his rendition of Moonlight Sonata are some of the best solo bass works of all time. Hamm was probably the biggest influence on me as a young bassist to learn how to tap. His playing was musical and he wrote compositions versus shred fest solo's. Loved his signature fender bass. I remember playing it at Chuck Levin's and being blown away.

After Ablemuth, I didn't think much of his solo work aside from a handful of instrumental tracks. It sounded like he thought he could transition to being a star or band leader with some pop tracks where he was singing on The Urge. It was pretty horrendous stuff and that seemed to really cool his career. If I had to guess, Stu may have left Satriani over money (what else?). Maybe Hamm thought he was bigger than he was and wanted more and Satriani figures he can pluck another bassist who will take less which of course he can. Hard to say.

I remember being very disappointed when I saw Satriani around 2001 and Hamm was no longer in the band. Must have just left and was replaced by some guy who looked like Will Ferrell.

 

[HelpImaRock]

If you put the Urge bass in between the other two, you get a Stu Hamm sandwich.

 

[SixtyCycleHum]

If you put the Urge bass in between the other two, you get a Stu Hamm sandwich.

Add this post and it's Stu Hamm and cheese

 

[Medicine Man]

Stu is awesome. Its just that being a guitar or bass techniquemeister is out of style, these days, probably due to all the 8 year olds wanking out on youtube at a collegiate level. If you look at the hot new acts, many of them have minimalistic style if they even have live string instruments. Seems like not many want to surf with aliens these days.

 

[India_Sierra]

When I listen to some of the dreadful music Satch has been making for the past sixteen or so years I'm almost glad that Stuart is playing on those records. The boring bass work that Satch seems to love these days could be done by anyone. This is an aside but Satch has seriously lost his mojo to my ears. He has been one of the people in the world of instrumental guitar who always has enough cash to put together an album whether he has the music for it or not, and for a long time he has been turning up in the studio and just cranking out the most generic of generic guitar rock music. His new album, 'Elephants of Mars' might be his worst yet.

I say this as someone who considers Satriani's best work to be some of the best instrumental music around, but that age seemed to end for him in the 90's.

Stuart has remained busy and working outside of the Satch gig. I think it has probably been more of a creative boon to get away from the Satch band. That gig obviously pays a wage but it seems to be like a black hole of inspiration right now.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

He was an interesting chops player for bass nerds back in the day. But these days his skill set is a dime a dozen.

Of course he is an elite player in terms of what he has done in his career. But with fame unfortunately comes criticism from no-name players in the peanut gallery.

Stu Hamm's skill set is a dime a dozen? Really? Got any vids are articles to back that statement up?
The guy's an innovator. Far as I know, not too many mainstream players can do what he does.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

I'm being a little facetious because of course switching basses wouldn't kill a career. But it's t all did seem to happen around that time.

Not having a website forever certainly didn't help him either.

I think it was more of the end of an era, the end of kings.
The only gigs all those virtuosos can get are those in Estonia, Moldova, Romania, etc. I think they all can blame Curt Cobain for putting an end to their careers…

But at least Stu has a Warwick Signature Bass, though…



I can't believe it's been 6 years already since the video came out…

 

[DuluthDank]

Stu Hamm's skill set is a dime a dozen? Really? Got any vids are articles to back that statement up?
The guy's an innovator. Far as I know, not too many mainstream players can do what he does.

Look for impressive displays of technical skill on the various media platforms available to us now. Its not difficult to find a number of players who match or exceed Stu's skills, and unfortunately, the market for this type of musicianship is fairly small. If you aren't aware of the general trends in this regard, I'm not likely to be able to convince you here, and I'm perfectly okay with disagreeing with somebody on the internet.

 

[Altitude]

My sense is that Hamm gained notoriety during a brief period where a broad(er) group of people were asking the question "who's the next bass chops god?" That period ended rather quickly, and then Hamm became a player on a list of players. Not a bad one by any means, but perhaps the rock star aspect of his earlier period wasn't right, or wasn't enough, to carry his brand ahead down the stretch.

I hesitate to specifically compare him to other players because that's not the point here. There were, however, a few great ones who came up at the same time and who have remained at the forefront of the culture of bass players. Hamm just isn't quite at that level.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Look for impressive displays of technical skill on the various media platforms available to us now. Its not difficult to find a number of players who match or exceed Stu's skills, and unfortunately, the market for this type of musicianship is fairly small. If you aren't aware of the general trends in this regard, I'm not likely to be able to convince you here, and I'm perfectly okay with disagreeing with somebody on the internet.

You're absolutely right about me not being aware of the general trends- I spend literally ZERO hours watchi ng videos of other bass players. I am, however, aware of who's playing on who's records, who's touring with who, who's the new bass player for such-and-such etc.

 

[smeet]

At a couple of those shows, he was an absolute jerk to his fans.

Interesting. I have to admit I've had an unfair bias against Stu for many years. I walked into a music store in Northern California and the guy behind the counter was Stu's brother. He was rude, elitist, and jerky in several different ways. I've tried to not let it affect my feelings about Stu, but maybe it runs in the family.

 

[mb94952]

That I can understand. His tone has definitely changed over the years. I think the early stuff with a factor was probably the deepest tone he had.

Black Ice off Kings of Sleep was super punchy.

Yup, that's what I immediately think of when I think Stu Hamm. That is a driving song and has his signature Kubicki tone.

Good topic OP ( @Rexylab ). Those are some good observations regarding your 3 hero basses. I am 53, so I can relate to it all.

@smeet - Was that Bananas At Large, by chance ?

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Nah, I've always found him extremely sloppy and has such a thin tone he might as well be playing acoustic guitar.

Okay, never thought much of his stuff... recently went down that rabbit hole on you tube watching a Bunch of bass videos IMHO liked his train of thought..., but never took it to a "cool" factor just kinda regurgitated EVH & billy sheehan tapping thing! he needed song writing prowess! his solos were boring! 10mins of slappy tapping then onto piano like tapping, endless chording ( YAWN!! ). Edward propeled himself with a well constructed/composed Pieces/solos with Eruption & Spanish fly! That wowed, Blew Minds when you 1st heard them! Like what is that!?! HOW?!? it captured our attention! we all had to find out what technique he used! some disregarded it & speculated it just effects pedals. My BFF, at the time, said Its all just "special effects (phaser, delay & synth!). Boy were we surprised when it was revealed it was a Brand new technique!
So I truly believe if Ham or Shehan had composed an Eruption like Solo Piece they would be propeled into Ultra stardom, but instead both floundered in, they're good But it s been done territory. I had highhopes for Wooten but as far as I Know hes in that area too, Jaco at least had Donna Lee, and some others That solidify his legacy!
SAD. Great technitians, but poor or unimaginative writing! Much like the Many 80s shredders,that were impressive but could match EVHs popularitty!Not even Randy Rhoads whom IMO was the closest to him,but sadly he never wrote a bombastic solo piece be fore his tragic untimely death! just think if he had recorded an electric guitar Solo piece like Eruption or star spangled banner! His legacy wouldve catapulted over everyone at the time! possibly EVH!

 

[jastacey]

I really haven't wandered into his recordings, of him playing in bands, and his choice of basses and the color of his tone, but he does have a nice set of video lessons, on "TrueFire.com", as an instructor, he's pretty good, the content is good, and if you teach, on the side, they make a good backup reference for students

 

[sotua]

For reasons I've never been able to establish, Stuart is no longer part of Joe Satriani's touring band. Satch has been stuck with boring bass lines since. I don't know if this is really a blessing in disguise as Satch's work since Stu left had been extremely bland, the sound of a once vibrant artist who really seems to have run out of ideas. Stuart seems to inspire those around him. Satch, Steve Vai, Frank Gambale - all these guys and more recorded their best work when Stuart was with them. It's a shame for us all that we don't get to hear more of him.

Satriani I can see, but Frank Gambale? Nah. Gambale has a lot more catalog than GHS.

On Stu in general, I idolized him in the 90s, spent wayyyy too many hours of practice slapping and tapping to get a passable version of Country Music, but it seems to me he never went beyond the same old licks, and the same excessive treble tone. I lost interest and I guess lots of people felt the same.

That said, "Lone Star" is still one of my favorite "it came on when I was driving and a couple minutes later I didn't realize I was speeding" driving song - but I think Steve Smith's awesome drums and Eric Johnson's guitar is what really make the song.

 

[BobDeRosa]

He's a talented guy, but too slap- and tap-happy for me.

 

[Beej]

Incredibly talented guy, but I know that to me as a teen (he's almost exactly a decade older than me), he was the antithesis of cool. Even in his mid 20's he looked like your average mid-30s dumpy lame uncle, and his choice of music for his solo forays was as far away from "cool" as you could get for an impressionable teenager. Linus and Lucy? Classical pieces with double hand tapping? Lame, lame, lame. Then he played with Vai and Satch and faded further in the background behind those guys and their showmanship. Couple that with his slightly holier-than-thou attitude and he was ignored.

None of this is really how I feel now, but as a young know-it-all teen, it's all I needed to know. He was lame to everyone I knew.

 

[micguy]

I was listening to an interview with Marcus Miller this morning, and he described the 4 phases of being a studio musician:

1) Who's Marcus Miller?
2) I want Marcus Miller on my session
3) I want that young Marcus Miller-ish guy on my session
4) Who's Marcus Miller?

Stu is at stage 4.

 

[smtp4me]

Last month I turned 52 and to celebrate I made a 3 part video series titled "My three biggest bass heroes all have signature Fender bass guitars". It featured the Steve Harris P-bass, Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, and the Stu Hamm Urge 2.

I was a bit shocked because the Iron Maiden bass did way better than the other two but the Urge just kind of laid there like a dead fish.

I find this perplexing for many reasons. Mostly because the Urge 2 was a totally original design while the other two were based in stock basses the other guys had just got somewhere.

Plus Stu was the first person ever to have a Fender signature bass. In addition he might be the first person to have a second Fender signature bass as the Urge 2 is a complete redesign and is very different from the Urge 1.

Man, I remember when Stu was the biggest of the big. Now it seems the poor guy couldn't get arrested at a bank robbery.

Any thoughts?

If your interested here is the link to the playlist (the Iron Maiden one is very personal).
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrFyjrwqOCJzd_pTIbmWACN-gmW5BCjEo

I've been playing for a long time, but only became aware of Stu in the early 2000's. Then I learned he has been active since the mid 80's.

There could be many reasons why we don't hear much of him. But I wonder if part of it is that, the idea of a bassist with his level of skill, who plays a lot of solo work (bass is the featured instrument), has become much more common?

If I think back to the 80's and even 90's, and attempt to build a list of similar players, it would pale in comparison to what we have today. There are SO many artists like Richard Bona, Felix Pastorius, Mike Bendy, Janek Gwizdala, Hadrien Feraud, .... the list goes on .... there are so many now that maybe someone like Stu has become obscure?

 

[India_Sierra]

Satriani I can see, but Frank Gambale? Nah. Gambale has a lot more catalog than GHS.

Frank is one of those amazingly gifted musicians who can play like a demon but, at least to my ear, was never that great at writing music. Many guitarists will cite his amazing technique and amazing fluidity when he's sweep picking but his name rarely shows up other than when technique is being discussed. I never found his solo albums hugely memorable but as a sideman he could really get going. His work with Jeff Berlin on 'Pump It!' is one of these scenarios. However, with GHS I really thought Frank had hit a groove with like-minded musicians playing really wild, uncompromising fusion. It was a tonic for Stu too, as it really pushed him forward in a harmonic sense. Those albums were just brilliant, a real shame that labels like Tone Center and Passport Jazz that used to fund those projects are no longer around.