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Carol Kaye's string changing method !

#202
BazzTard said:
from the excellent "Fender Bass Manual" by Paul Balmer (Haynes Publishing)

Carol "I never changed strings-hated to do that and had no time to do that. I merely ran into a music store on a break, handed in my old bass, and quickly picked out a new Fender Precision, and so every two years I had new strings."

rotfl , of course the downside is that each string change costs $1800 lol

great informative book, covers 51 and 57 Ps and 60s Jazzes plus most other models. Goes in depth with how to set up, upgrade parts etc.
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I can now understand her hate after buying a bass over the summer that sounded great, but the strings were a bit rusty so I thought I'd replace. Bad idea. Although using a caliper I was able to determine the gauge and established they were nickel alloy I went through Balls, DR's, Labella, SIT's and I think a couple others and was unable to duplicate the sound. Ended up boiling to clean up a bit and am going to play them till they break and then buy a new bass. LOL
 
#204
BazzTard said:
from the excellent "Fender Bass Manual" by Paul Balmer (Haynes Publishing)

Carol "I never changed strings-hated to do that and had no time to do that. I merely ran into a music store on a break, handed in my old bass, and quickly picked out a new Fender Precision, and so every two years I had new strings."

rotfl , of course the downside is that each string change costs $1800 lol

great informative book, covers 51 and 57 Ps and 60s Jazzes plus most other models. Goes in depth with how to set up, upgrade parts etc.
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Yup, I have that book and it's a good one. Lots of cool pics. Thinking of trying that copper based shielding paint he recommends (Cupra-Cote)
 
#206
I think changing strings in this day and age is looked upon differently than it was in those days. I remember asking my double bass instructor how often he changed the strings and his answer was "when they break". He had played for the San Franscisco Symphony Orchestra as well as a few others.

Another interesting point about Carol Kaye's success in the studio is that for a while in the LA studio scene, playing electric bass with a pick was desireable. It offered a more distinct attack that would cut through the mix well. I've read that Ray Pohlman (lesser known Wrecking Crew bassists) used a pick also. When I played bass in the U of A jazz band in '73 the director required that all bass players use a pick. He had been active in the Los Angeles recording scene and felt that modern bass playing required a pick. That's back when many of the charts for bass specified "Fender Bass".

Someone earlier on in this thread questioned whether or not cartage services were used back then. According to Hal Blaine they were used. I think he ran into some sort of trouble with them when he recruited his own drum tech to set up his drums for his sessions. I don't remember the details.
 
#207
Fat Steve said:
The bolded part is hard for me to wrap my head around. Why should she be ridiculed about not wanting to change her bass strings? Do you ridicule people that take their bass to a tech to get a string change and tune up? Do you ridicule drivers that take their cars to the shop to get the oil changed? Do you ridicule people that eat at restaurants instead of making their own food? What about people that hire painters to paint their homes? Clearly anyone should be able to paint their own homes.

My point is this: convenience has value, as does time. Ridiculing people for maximizing that value comes off as petty, and really does nothing to elevate the level of discourse within the discussion.

I wonder if Les Claypool changes his own strings.
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Do I ridicule the drivers that take their cars to the shop to the oil changed? No, but a PROFESSIONAL drive darn well ought to be able to change their oil. Do I ridicule people that eat at restaurants instead of making their own food? No, but a PROFESSIONAL cook darn well ought to be able to make their own food.

The point is, Carol Kaye is a PROFESSIONAL bass player. A pro should be able to change her own strings.
 
#209
MultiScaleMale said:
I played a Cort headless and then a Steinberger for the first 15 years of my bass career. I should say, "career". Then I bought a Music Man SR5. Then the strings went dead, I had no idea how to change strings on it. This was pre-YouTube, so I ended up taking it to Guitar Center and had them show me how. Talk about embarrassing.
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You had noone to ask in pre youtube time? :)
 
#211
Seriously, get real with this string changing stuff. Of course she knows how to change a set of strings. That's utterly ridiculous to think she can't change a set of strings. She put TI's on her Ibanez bass, didn't she? They don't come stock with TI's. And she plays guitar and used the same Epiphone guitar for years and actually changed the strings on it.

Now what I find curious is how she calls setting the intonation a "myth." But come on...stop with the silliness...you don't play guitar and bass all your life and not know how to change a set of strings.
 
#213
two fingers said:
She's a hoot. Honestly, I think she was just in the right place at the right time. Sure, she was good, but not amazing. Her lines were fine. I like them. But most players could have sat in that chair and produced something equally as good. Her personality is one I would like to have beer with though. I think she's more bark than bite but I'm one of the few people on Earth who actually likes a good blowhard windbag as long as he/she doesn't get angry.
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With all due respect I must disagree. I have had the privilage of taking a few lessons with Carol Kaye, and see her perform jazz, and she was absolutely amazing. I seriously doubt the average play could produce equal work as you claim in the given time period. Granted she was in the right place at the right time. However, playing jazz is her true musical passion, and the rest was done to make a living.
 
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#214
Rocky said:
playing jazz is her true musical passion, and the rest was done to make a living.
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I think it shows. She is a guitarist playing bass, for a living. Jamerson was a bassist, laying down great basslines and rhythms. You can't compare the bass on "the Way We Were" and MASH theme to What's Going On for instance. I get such a buzz playing that song,and it probably only uses ten notes, but oh, what he does with those ten notes......apparently lying on his back coz he was too pissed iirc
 
#215
BazzTard said:
I think it shows. She is a guitarist playing bass, for a living. Jamerson was a bassist, laying down great basslines and rhythms. You can't compare the bass on "the Way We Were" and MASH theme to What's Going On for instance. I get such a buzz playing that song,and it probably only uses ten notes, but oh, what he does with those ten notes......apparently lying on his back coz he was too pissed iirc
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Yea, I prefer Jamerson's playing too, but Carol is not average IMHO
 
#217
MonkeyBass said:
Do I ridicule the drivers that take their cars to the shop to the oil changed? No, but a PROFESSIONAL drive darn well ought to be able to change their oil. Do I ridicule people that eat at restaurants instead of making their own food? No, but a PROFESSIONAL cook darn well ought to be able to make their own food.

The point is, Carol Kaye is a PROFESSIONAL bass player. A pro should be able to change her own strings.
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Yes, I agree. But hey, she might be "clean" but prolly not quite right in the head....anyone who would rather swap out an entire bass just because of the strings is either sickeningly weathly...and prolly won't stay that way for long, has an agreement with Fender that all her basses are free, or and most likely is pulling our chain or lost their marbles. Seriously....every guitar shop has a tech....go get them to fit em if it's such a ball breaker.
 
#219
two fingers said:
Fair enough. All good points. I simply think that any halfway decent bass player who had been there at the time, and willing to pick up a Fender bass, could have made the same mark on music. Her technique wasn't amazing. It was good enough. We analyse it to death now because those recordings made history, not because of how awesome it was to begin with. Same goes for Jamerson. I love his work. It taught me how to play bass. But lots of guys could have sat in that chair, at that time, with that band and cranked out some tasty bass lines. We don't revere him because of his legendary choice of notes and his ground-breaking technique. We revere him because he laid down the tracks to tons of smash hits. And, again, I got my start copping his stuff. I learned more from him than any bass teacher I ever had.
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I agree about Kaye- there is nothing that magical about her playing, no real stand-out moments- it is kind of a mix of boogie playing and more straight playing.

Jamerson is a bit different- I think many of us could have got close (say 90%) to some of the lines he put down if we were to be transported back in time and sitting in that shack with that band recording-
but there was something he had that was utterly unique that allowed his bass parts to become the most important part of MOST of those Mo-Town songs other than the vocals.
Its the same for Entwistle- I am very comfortable to say that I can play at 90% of the Entwistle level- but the last 10% is not there. But I could have recorded some things very similar to what he put down, had our places been switched.
 

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