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Close your eyes after you start this video- Paul Gilbert
- Thread starter bobyoung53
- Start date
Paul Gilbert has always seemed to be a great guy with a great sense of humor. I've never met him, but I'd wager he's super cool in person.
I posted it elsewhere but a few players expressed skepticism that it was real and he was miming because it sounds like round wound strings which I agree with but I think with gadgets you can get pretty much any sound, I have played upright in the past and was pretty good, if he is miming he's VERY good at it. A few magazines seemed to take it serious, what do you think? I'm going to post it on the double bass side and see what the common consensus is.
OK, just posted it on the double bass side with a poll:
Opinion: Paul Gilbert G4 Experience, real or not?
Opinion: Paul Gilbert G4 Experience, real or not?
Absolutely no way that is real. Period. If I had to guess I would say Billy Sheehan recorded it for him. Tapping like that on an upright? Come on, man.
Tapping could be done with very low action on an upright but common consensus seems to be it's not real.
I remember seeing a pic of Peter Steele with an upright strapped on like a regular bass. Paul Gilbert must also be 7' tall.
No line off the bass to anything I can see, no pick up.
Yeah, that's the thing, I had a magnetic pickup on mine which you couldn't miss. He's a damn good mime though.
I'm an "OK" upright player. But I'm pretty good at tapping on electric. Tapping on ELECTRIC with a high action would be almost impossible. Doing it on an upright (I maintain) simply IS impossible. Never mind that the lack of frets would make the sound different from what he was getting even if you physically could pull it off. I'm not aware of an effect that can make a fretless instrument sound fretted.
Oh I'm convinced, I did want it to be real though,
and I don't tap, never saw the point but I believe with low action and maybe light strings it could be done on an upright, why not?
Oh I'm convinced, I did want it to be real though,
I don't use it live these days. But I learned how in the late 80s and early 90s when Stu Hamm and Victor were becoming all the rage. Once you learn how, you never forget. My brother had me tap out "Linus and Lucy" (Charlie Brown theme song) the other day like Stu used to do it. I hadn't done it in years. But it came out OK..... not perfect.... but OK.
1) No mistaking what instrument is playing that.
2) It sounds like crap (compared to the same passage played on any good fretted bass).
Oh yeah, I didn't mean that it would sound anything like the Gilbert video but just that it could be done, he gets pretty fast on some passages too. My original thought with Gilbert's video was that with gadgets you can make anything sound like almost anything and I did find it in a few magazines and no one called it out so I thought well maybe.... but no one else thinks it's real and there is no sign of a pickup. I just wanted it to be real I think.
