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Bill Wyman explains why he changed his playing technique
- Thread starter A.K.
- Start date
Interesting perspective. While I can see the plausibility of the starting high, then working your way down technique, especially back in the days before upright amplification, I’m not sure I would say it was standard practice. I’ve listened to plenty old school jump blues and early R’n’B, and that sort of thing never stood out to me. Admittedly, having never studied upright, in a non-classical or classical context, I wouldn’t know if that’s something that’s employed.
I like his Donkey Donk bass playing with the Stones.
Here you go…
He’s been doing his ‘Rhythm Kings’ thing for a long time; it’s in the vicinity of what Rockpile used to do: 50’s R&B/boogie, swing, rockabilly, etc, with a lot of guest stars sitting in…
I recently listened to a number of recordings featuring Willie Dixon on DB and noticed he almost never used the E string, the D and G were where he spent most of his time, sometimes the A string.
I don’t play DB that way at all, I use the E string a lot because I like the deeper sound playing in a lower register but I seldom go beyond the B on the E or the E on the A.
I also notice that many bluegrass slappers avoid the E string, some of them even downtune it to slacken it to make it easier to get the click when slapping.
So what Bill says about working from the top down makes sense to me.
As far as emulating the sound, the thumb with palm muting is a common BG technique. The player who really nails it to my ears is Joey Spaminato, the original bassists for NRBQ. Keith Richards chose him to play in the backing band for the Chuck Berry movie "Hail Hail Rock and Roll”.
I don’t play DB that way at all, I use the E string a lot because I like the deeper sound playing in a lower register but I seldom go beyond the B on the E or the E on the A.
I also notice that many bluegrass slappers avoid the E string, some of them even downtune it to slacken it to make it easier to get the click when slapping.
So what Bill says about working from the top down makes sense to me.
As far as emulating the sound, the thumb with palm muting is a common BG technique. The player who really nails it to my ears is Joey Spaminato, the original bassists for NRBQ. Keith Richards chose him to play in the backing band for the Chuck Berry movie "Hail Hail Rock and Roll”.
Joey Spaminato of NRBQ always played Jerry Jones short scale basses strung with flats and did an excellent job muting the strings for an authentic string bass sound. Give a listen to him on Eric Clapton "24 Nights Live from Royal Albert Hall" where he plays bass on "Hoodoo Man". You would swear someone was thumping on the doghouse.
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I think he nails the upright technique the best on Chicken Shack Boogie. It's partially note choice too. Playing with your thumb and palm muting you can also make the higher notes sound big which he does in that song., making the notes decay quickly also adds to that upright technique by lifting the fretting fingers off but leaving them on the string. I've also noticed that most pf the older upright players stayed away from the E
He might have played the Jerry Jones reissues later in his career(I don’t know), but he was first and foremost a Danelectro user…
