that is strange... why wouldn't she just bring her own bass?
There's a lot of misinformation being spread in topics like this, not out of spite or ignorance but simply because the person posting hasn't researched enough and most importantly, hasn't gone to the source.
This is from the source, Carol Kaye. I asked her about this and this is her reply which I received a few minutes ago--
"I never "borrowed any bass" for any recording date, that's ridiculous....every top pro has their own gear they have cartage for to haul to every record date! You set your strings high because pickups weren't that great back then, neither were the strings, and I played hard because I loved to play hard, no problem. Everyone back then used Flatwound strings with a pick on about 90% of recordings coming out of Hollywood in the 1960s with muting on their strings.
I traded in my 1 Fender I recorded with (I had 1 spare only) every 2 years as I had no time to put on strings, and on some Fenders, you even had to put a shim in the neck for better action on them....coming from playing Gibson L-5s and Epiphone Emperors, you quickly noticed that the Fender Bass was not a "great instrument" like those fine top pro guitars, and so you had to do what you had to do to make them playable for studio work, which required the finest of sounds and technique.
As a first-call studio musician, I always found strings to be the critical factor in getting the right sounds as well as the muting I placed on the bass. You can get muting very cheaply. Use a doubled up piece of felt on taped on top of the strings when playing with a pick, or a 3/4" wide piece of foam underneath the strings, barely touching the strings if playing with the fingers.
Mutes work wonders in eliminating the over-tones and under-tones that destroy your sounds - mutes give you the finest in clarity of sounds, you don't need expensive outboard gear (that doesn't work anyway!), mutes work, are cheap and available and these makeshift mutes last at least 2 years before you have to fool with putting another one on.
Strings, the right ones, are crucial to a great sound, a highly responsive sensitive yet powerful sound when you hit the strings are important as well as durability.....they should require heavy hitting to get a strong big sound. I've always played hard but have lightened up a little bit these past years because the pickkups and strings are so great, there's no need to pound the bass to get the power you want out of it.
Basses are simply built better these days, and the great generic pickups on my Ibanez...what can I say? They're perfect. Always were but the Thomastiks just brought them out even that much better when I quickly put the Thom. Jazz Flats on. I don't care for the electronic sounds of Bartolini pickups, but love the generic warm and powerful sounds of the pickups on the Ibanez 690SWX bass (used to be the 700, they've changed numbers recently).
Most of the recordings of the 1960s were recorded on flatwound strings, whether it was me or whoever else playing bass...the flatwounds got the sound, were the dynamically-easy and great-sounds you needed for a powerful definitive bass sound and didn't wear out quickly. Most of the recording from Hollywood was with a pick too, flatwounds were necessary back then and were THE strings to use, everyone knew that.
I always used my own setup on my own basses in recording (used 1 and had 1 as a spare bass). Playing day and night in the studios of the 1960s, I traded in my basses every 2 years just to get the strings I had no time to change strings back then, recording day and night 12-14 hours a day -- I did clean them off tho' after every 3-hour record date....the Fender flatwounds lasted 2 years that way of day and night recording (you play 2-3x harder than playing live) - normally the Thomastik Jazz Flats last about 5-6 years or even more.
The heavily researched and quality-controlled Thomastik Jazz Flats will last you years of heavy playing....it costs a LOT more to manufacture these strings than any other strings on the market, and the quality shows. They're musical to the extent that you can hear the sound of the strings when putting them on without an amplifier, and you can record with them immediately tho' yes, a week later and they're even better, and they stay in tune from the gitgo....they're expensive strings, but cheaper in the long-run because they last so long."
Re the Streisand date specifically and why she altered Marvin Hamlich's written bass part, I'll find the proper quotes and post them in a bit.
62bass
