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Any love for Stu Hamm?
- Thread starter Rexylab
- Start date
I find it funny that all the "experts" on talkbass put down pro bassists all the time....
Stu is an excellent bass player.
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You probably think I'm an a-hole with nothing good to say (write)…but really I'm not. I am actually a fan of Satriani and Vai - I have a bunch of their albums with Hamm on them. But I must confess, the last Satch album I bought was before he shaved his head; Time Machine, when he brought Hamm back into his group (after the Bissonnett brothers on The Extremist). Time Machine is my favorite of his. I played Living in a Blue Dream on my Disc player so much, I can't listen to it anymore…
I saw him at a bass show in London and his session was quite interesting and enjoyable. I met and spoke with him after and I found that we were on completely different wavelengths; not a criticism, but just the way it was. He was leaving at the same time as me and I patted him on the shoulder and thanked him for a great session.
I agree.
However, I was going to look for that clip; it's a shame that he bails on the bass solo bits.
I agree.
However, I was going to look for that clip; it's a shame that he bails on the bass solo bits.
I own all his albums, got a huge inspiration from him and worked over all his parts.
He was a true innovator and had a fresh, very creative hands-on approach of the instrument, much in the way Van Halen approached guitar.
He has a talent for holding a groove and getting behind a lead instrument without fading away.
Some parts that blew my mind back then and still do :
- His solo on Steve Vai's Blue Powder which to me remains the best bass solo ever.
- The tapped bass/rhythm guitar parts live on Joe Satriani's Always with Me, Always with You.
- Country Music. Once again such a creative, out of the box approach.
But yeah, he didn't expand his composition and playing much further than what made him famous. He just kinda stayed the same.
He was a true innovator and had a fresh, very creative hands-on approach of the instrument, much in the way Van Halen approached guitar.
He has a talent for holding a groove and getting behind a lead instrument without fading away.
Some parts that blew my mind back then and still do :
- His solo on Steve Vai's Blue Powder which to me remains the best bass solo ever.
- The tapped bass/rhythm guitar parts live on Joe Satriani's Always with Me, Always with You.
- Country Music. Once again such a creative, out of the box approach.
But yeah, he didn't expand his composition and playing much further than what made him famous. He just kinda stayed the same.
- Mar 15, 2022
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- Disclosures
- Rexylab, The Squishy Guitar Project, D’Addario Foundation
He sold a bunch of his basses when he went through a divorce.
Someone mentioned earlier that Stu didn't have a website or that he didn't have a website for a long time. Well, for a long time he had a very good website. I know as it was run by my friend and there was a surprisingly busy forum page there. This was in a time before Facebook. It was a great website, very well managed and with a lot of info and articles on it. Prior to Facebook, musicians had to have an independently run website of their own if they were to have any web presence at all. In the end though, I know that control of it was handed over to Stu (or maybe True Fire?). The site changed drastically and was never the same. But Wayback Machine can take you there, to www.stuarthamm.net.
I was sad to see the video below having been mentioned here. Sad really, that it didn't have more views. I didn't even know it existed until today. The pandemic was a hard time for musicians but especially bassists I think because we naturally find ourselves as sidemen. Not the sort of role where the writing credits you have will pay cheques!
Someone mentioned Stu getting a job elsewhere. Well, I hope he is doing better now along with everyone else who saw their income collapse during the pandemic. It's not like Stu is averse to an average job. I remember reading here (or maybe on the old forum website) that a player met him working in a gas station in California in the early 90's. This was at a time when he had two successful solo records, he'd toured 'Flying in a Blue Dream' with Joe Satriani and had his face on magazines sold all over the US. But you still gotta pay the bills in the off season even if you're one of the most talented bassists around.
I was sad to see the video below having been mentioned here. Sad really, that it didn't have more views. I didn't even know it existed until today. The pandemic was a hard time for musicians but especially bassists I think because we naturally find ourselves as sidemen. Not the sort of role where the writing credits you have will pay cheques!
Someone mentioned Stu getting a job elsewhere. Well, I hope he is doing better now along with everyone else who saw their income collapse during the pandemic. It's not like Stu is averse to an average job. I remember reading here (or maybe on the old forum website) that a player met him working in a gas station in California in the early 90's. This was at a time when he had two successful solo records, he'd toured 'Flying in a Blue Dream' with Joe Satriani and had his face on magazines sold all over the US. But you still gotta pay the bills in the off season even if you're one of the most talented bassists around.
inthevelvet, it was an honor for sure to play with Warren. He is such a cool guy, and a really great musician!
Which leads me to another aspect that no one may have picked up on through his years, I sense he's been through some big personal struggles and demons that he continues to right himself of even to this day. He occasionally hints at them on Facebook every now and then. This may have also led to him falling off the rock star map since the Satriani years. I'm just glad he's still around and making music honestly.
I've always been a Stu Hamm fan, but admittedly never purchased his solo stuff. Great player, and enjoyed the live Satch stuff with him, but wasn't motivated to purchase his own stuff.
He was in town like 5-6 years ago doing 30 minute lessons and a clinic after. I took one of those lessons and he was friendly, approachable, and even put me at ease when he noticed I was a little nervous playing in front of Stu Hamm - "Take a breath. I'm just a dude who plays bass." Enjoyed the 30 minutes, and took a couple things away from that (one left hand thing and one right hand thing) that I still use today.
Watched the clinic afterward and it was him telling stories and playing tunes. Maybe 30 people in the room, mostly students. I thought it was cool.
Saw him again on a solo tour maybe 2 years later. And it was the same list of tunes/stories/anecdotes. So that was a little disappointing - it was literally the same thing 2 years later. And again, maybe 30 people in the room, 25 of which had to be Bass Nerds like me.
He was in town like 5-6 years ago doing 30 minute lessons and a clinic after. I took one of those lessons and he was friendly, approachable, and even put me at ease when he noticed I was a little nervous playing in front of Stu Hamm - "Take a breath. I'm just a dude who plays bass." Enjoyed the 30 minutes, and took a couple things away from that (one left hand thing and one right hand thing) that I still use today.
Watched the clinic afterward and it was him telling stories and playing tunes. Maybe 30 people in the room, mostly students. I thought it was cool.
Saw him again on a solo tour maybe 2 years later. And it was the same list of tunes/stories/anecdotes. So that was a little disappointing - it was literally the same thing 2 years later. And again, maybe 30 people in the room, 25 of which had to be Bass Nerds like me.
I think Victor Wooten has also stated that being known for his thumb has cost him a lot of session work - people only associate him with the virtuoso things and that hurt his chances to get a straight session gigs.
- Feb 5, 2013
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- Endorsing Artist: Used Fender Lead Sleds and Hartke cabs with bent grills
Oddly enough, the same could be said of the Joe Bonamassa concert I went to last month.
- Feb 5, 2013
- 1,686
- 2,281
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Used Fender Lead Sleds and Hartke cabs with bent grills
I've been working thru his slap and pop lessons on TrueFire and thought they were pretty decent. Planning on his jazz bass course this Fall. I love Linus and Lucy and have tried it a couple times without success. And I love his version of Going to California. Unfortunately, I'm not big on instrumental music so I don't know much of the work you guys are talking about. No doubt it's good stuff. Hate to see him begging online.
I love Stu's playing and his musical output, certainly up to and including Outbound and the GHS stuff, is amazing. After that, his newer stuff doesn't work so well for me.
Stu's old Kubicki and Urge tone was supreme, live and on record. I saw him live with Satch and he was on fire, his Urge basses sounded fantastic and Stu stole the show, he was definitely the hero of the night. I don't like his Warwick tone so much, it just sounds flat and lifeless. I don't understand how he doesn't get a great tone these days, he uses Warwick, EMG pickups and Markbass - that should be a golden recipe for a nice tone but he doesn't seem to have it these days.
It is very sad to see him begging for work. I feel bad for the guy. A lot of full-time career musicians struggled during the pandemic and obviously Stu was trying to fall back on his back catalogue of music and instructional stuff, but it's still a shame.
I can only echo what India Sierra said, I too saw the thing on Facebook where Stu made a bass and drum track, posted it up and asked his musician friends to play a 30 second solo over it and share it. He tagged a load of "name" players and I don't think I saw even one of them reply. For someone like Steve Vai, who is always busy, pandemic or not, it would have been easy. Steve has a full video and recording setup at home and makes a lot of his own content for YouTube, he could have very easily hit "record" and laid out a cool solo. For Steve to do a ripping solo over a 4/4 groove is something he could do in his sleep. Same goes for other guys - you can't tell me a player like Alex Skolnick couldn't find something cool to do and I doubt Alex was run off his feet with work during the pandemic. Maybe he was painting his fence, who knows.
Sometimes I wonder how things could have been if Stu had kept working with Satch. I also wonder why Satch dropped him, or Stu declined to continue - as far as I know, neither party has ever clarified what happened. Perhaps Satch just wanted to "freshen things up", but if that is the case, I'm not sure trading out one of the world's best rock bass sidemen for players who were vastly less talented was a great idea.
As much as I love Stu's solo work, being a sideman was probably the most lucrative and least risky route to a steady income and he always did a great job with it. I feel like his pairing with Satch elevated every tune he was on and improved the music overall. The trajectory of Satch's career matches Stu's, in an artistic if not commercial sense, Satch still has a lot of fans but since he stopped working with Stu (close to two decades ago now!), he has stagnated and his adventurous and catchy music has given way to album after album of what sounds like Satch noodling over a jam track, rather than proper songs. I wonder if bringing Stu back into the rehearsal room and perhaps even the writing room could see Satch recapture some of the magic from the first half of his career.
Either way, I'd just like to see Stu get work and be happy. He seems kind of sad sometimes when I see him posting on social media. Perhaps he hasn't had the easiest or more stable life. He is a luminary of the electric bass and while there might be players now who've taken Stu's playbook and expanded on it, Stu is still a super tight and skilled player and deserves a huge amount of respect for what he has done in his career. There was a time when Stu was the high mark for technical skill on electric bass, he was pushing the envelope with tapping and slap.
Stu's old Kubicki and Urge tone was supreme, live and on record. I saw him live with Satch and he was on fire, his Urge basses sounded fantastic and Stu stole the show, he was definitely the hero of the night. I don't like his Warwick tone so much, it just sounds flat and lifeless. I don't understand how he doesn't get a great tone these days, he uses Warwick, EMG pickups and Markbass - that should be a golden recipe for a nice tone but he doesn't seem to have it these days.
It is very sad to see him begging for work. I feel bad for the guy. A lot of full-time career musicians struggled during the pandemic and obviously Stu was trying to fall back on his back catalogue of music and instructional stuff, but it's still a shame.
I can only echo what India Sierra said, I too saw the thing on Facebook where Stu made a bass and drum track, posted it up and asked his musician friends to play a 30 second solo over it and share it. He tagged a load of "name" players and I don't think I saw even one of them reply. For someone like Steve Vai, who is always busy, pandemic or not, it would have been easy. Steve has a full video and recording setup at home and makes a lot of his own content for YouTube, he could have very easily hit "record" and laid out a cool solo. For Steve to do a ripping solo over a 4/4 groove is something he could do in his sleep. Same goes for other guys - you can't tell me a player like Alex Skolnick couldn't find something cool to do and I doubt Alex was run off his feet with work during the pandemic. Maybe he was painting his fence, who knows.
Sometimes I wonder how things could have been if Stu had kept working with Satch. I also wonder why Satch dropped him, or Stu declined to continue - as far as I know, neither party has ever clarified what happened. Perhaps Satch just wanted to "freshen things up", but if that is the case, I'm not sure trading out one of the world's best rock bass sidemen for players who were vastly less talented was a great idea.
As much as I love Stu's solo work, being a sideman was probably the most lucrative and least risky route to a steady income and he always did a great job with it. I feel like his pairing with Satch elevated every tune he was on and improved the music overall. The trajectory of Satch's career matches Stu's, in an artistic if not commercial sense, Satch still has a lot of fans but since he stopped working with Stu (close to two decades ago now!), he has stagnated and his adventurous and catchy music has given way to album after album of what sounds like Satch noodling over a jam track, rather than proper songs. I wonder if bringing Stu back into the rehearsal room and perhaps even the writing room could see Satch recapture some of the magic from the first half of his career.
Either way, I'd just like to see Stu get work and be happy. He seems kind of sad sometimes when I see him posting on social media. Perhaps he hasn't had the easiest or more stable life. He is a luminary of the electric bass and while there might be players now who've taken Stu's playbook and expanded on it, Stu is still a super tight and skilled player and deserves a huge amount of respect for what he has done in his career. There was a time when Stu was the high mark for technical skill on electric bass, he was pushing the envelope with tapping and slap.
Perhaps that's what killed his career?
:::ducks:::
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Just kidding. Stu seems like a genuinely nice guy with outstanding chops and and very comprehensive grasp of how to construct musical basslines. He just doesn't seem to be out there hustling for every single gig he can find -- or at least, for the longest time he didn't have to -- so these days he's not as visible as some other bassists.
I gotta admit one of the most memorable gigs I saw him play was when he was still at Berklee and he was playing with a student ensemble doing semi-prog arena rock originals. This woulda been sometime around 1978 or 1980? If I'm remembering this correctly the keyboardist on that recital was David Rosenthal. Stu was playing a Fender Jazz bass. No tapping, probably very little slapping, but his energy and enthusiasm were so infectious that I made a mental note of his name...and sure enough, just a couple years later his star was on the rise.
Just watched this. Very sad in general. The pandemic hit a lot of people very hard, but it's eye-opening to realize that even players like Stu Hamm that have enjoyed higher profiles over the last 20 to 30 years had almost nothing to fall back on financially during 2020.
