Charlie Haden’s Gear

I don't know much about the gear of Charlie Haden, but I think, that a real big part of his superb tone comes from the bass, he used... and his abilities to form and shape this tone...
A friend of mine had the possibility some years ago to play the instrument of Charlie Haden.. and he was overwhelmed and stunned by the sound, which filled the room.... Unfortunately I couldn' make this experience in person

 

Well, for one he used the GK 200mb which sounded much better than the later GKs. He used the Barcus Berry pickup and then switched to the Schertler Stat B. But really, his sound mostly came from HIM.

 

Agreed, he came to St. Louis Preforming with Quartet West. He was using an original Schertler Stat B, with dual elements. The closest pickup to that design is the Leig from france, if he still builds them. I think he was playing the Valliume at the time. He came later with Song X and they put him in a plexi isolation booth with headphones. He suffered from Tinnitus and Hypercusius. He had a bass built for him by Jean Auray that he left in Europe when he toured.

 

I took the liberty of circling the secret piece of gear Haden had that made his tone what it was.

 

How true, below is a picture of the Lieg Pickup made in France by Hubert Legos


You can really hear what Charlie sounded like in those ECM duet recordings with Keith.
There is a recording of him playing with Quartet West at Webster University in St. Louis.
It's up on iTunes. I was there for that performance, and that evening he was using the
Schertler. It's tltled the Private Collection. A friend of his from Chicago drove down
and recorded the concert.

 

The friend was likely Ken Christiansen of Pro Musica in Chicago who did live to two track recordings for Naim Audio (which the Private Collection is from) and recorded Charlie many, many times.

 

Those amps, especially the older ones like the 200mb can give a big warm sound - I saw Mario Pavone pull a huge, warm sound with one. Most of us just don't push them hard enough in the low end. Haden (& Pavone for that matter) ALSO had very nice big bass - the bass puts a lot of sound in the room in small jazz groups, especially someone like that who learn how to project before amps. So, add in a very high end old bass as well decades of experience projecting before amps into any equation regarding his tone!

 

Wow,
I have a whole set of Naim recordings with Charlie and various pianists of note including Lawrence Hobgood, John Taylor, and Chris Andersen. Great sound. Just looked at the liner notes and Ken recorded all of them. Nice.

 

Darek Oles told me once that Haden’s Vuillaume sounded like a church bell. That bass didn’t have its upper bouts cut down later on in life, so maybe there’s something to that.

In the end though, it was all him. David Roitstein, who helped Haden in creating and running the jazz program at CalArts, always tells this story about how once during a class in the early days of the program, Haden played an electric bass for a moment to show a student an idea because none of the double bass students around that day and because Haden decided to not bring his bass. Apparently Haden got that electric bass to sound exactly like he did.

 

I worked for Charlie for a number of years and the sound of his pickup going thru that GK 150mb was pretty electric and middy. But that was just like a monitor so he could hear himself, it really had nothing to do with the sound the audience heard. On some albums you can hear his schertler going direct to the board and it is pretty identifiable but mostly his sound guy would send a mic to FOH and very little pickup. I had his Vuillaume in my house for a month once and played it everyday. Definitely in his hands, though it is a killing bass. Look at a video of the way he touches the strings, he thought alot about that sh it, but in a very unconscious way. He would express it like this, "Find the notes that YOU like to play,....and play THOSE notes." That Sh it was simple but all encompassing, like E=MC2, Jackson.

 

I always think of Haden when I read discussions about whether or not to get a ply or carved bass, and it's all in the hands blah blah blah. He had very very expensive instruments for a reason. One of my favorites BTW, and an indispensable genius.

 

Is the 300K + bass that Robertson is/was selling

 

With LMO -the only live Charlie Haden I saw - he was just using the GK combo (120 watts). That was a big band with a loud drummer and he cut through. I had that combo for a long time (sold it in 2008). I did not feel inadequacy when AI was coming out with their DB specific combos back then. GK always engineered their amps to cut through

 

Sound reproduction is important, but Charlie Hayden is the source.

 

Sure makes it easier but in terms of the sentiment regarding expensive instruments, I tend to think of Dave Holland. I’ve seen him play on both his main axe and a Czech-Ease. Sounded pretty much the same each time. I also think about my main teachers’ (CSO and Lyric Opera) abilities to coax a sound I’m still after on my, at the time, fairly inexpensive instrument. The player really makes the sound. An expensive instrument is icing on the cake. Especially amplified.

 

Got a good point with Holland and that travel bass, but though he sounds and plays great, you don't luxuriate in the beauty of one note the way you do with Haden. A great example is that Country Boy album where he pumps out roots and fifths. That ain't no Nashville ply sound.

 

Sorry, it's Rambling Boy

Charlie Haden Family & Friends - Rambling Boy: