Hi all.
I've been at bass guitar since 1991, upright bass since 1994, and have dabbled on keyboards, drums, guitar, ukulele, and brass instruments. Bass is my main thing. And I have been conservatory trained in the jazz department and have giggled most of the last 22+ years, with maybe 3000 gigs under my belt. Probably 60% of those were on upright, the rest on electric bass, with a short stint on acoustic guitar in church and a small handful of keyboard accompaniment things. My non-bass instrumental skills are limited to being functional but I would not pay to hear myself as a high level performer on anything but bass.
So, in my area a large majority of the jazz/upright players are purists that won't play other styles or pick up an electric bass. Only a small few of us that double regularly. And there is no shortage of electric guys that play everything non-jazz very well and can fake the Sinatra tunes ok when needed. There are exactly zero guys that double or triple on keyboard bass. One electric player did it years back for a short time, but abandoned it.
I have always kept an open mind, and while I consider myself primarily a jazz player, i like all styles and love playing electric bass. I like to be competent in a lot of different kinds of situations and have made a nice niche for myself as a great sub for all the other players. It has been working out very well.
Anyways, listening to the local pop radio (because my kids were in the car) during a trip last summer I paid more attention and realized ALL of the recent music is on synth bass on the recordings. I decided to look into broadening my horizons and dive in and be the only (or first) guy in my area that doubles on true bass synth. FWIW, I have tried all the Synth/octave/envelope etc. Pedals and they all seem to fall short. Not only that, there are several different "synth bass" tones I'd use.
I did a ton of research on what would be the best fit. I ended up getting the Korg Minilogue. It's more than I need, but the right features and the right price and the right size. I like it being analog as far as adjusting and voice engines but digital memory so I can store and recall patches easily. It's SO MUCH FUN!
On a cover band gig my rig is simple. A Diamond Compressor running into my Tecamp Puma into the Tecamp M212 cab. It is full range and clean and has always been the right tone. At home, the Synth sounds great. I use the amp EQ for the room and it is always minimal, if not flat. I run active basses and have specific EQ options for tone on the basses. With the amp set for playing bass, the sybth aounds excellent ans roughly volume matched with the Synth master volume around 3 (if full range is 0-10) depending on the patch. I also bought a more reliable A/B box for live switching into the same rig.
The way I justified the expense to the wife is the dozen or so gigs I have booked this year with a wedding band whose set list is 25%+ pop music with that in it. These are very high paying gigs, and 2 of them will more than pay for all this gear.
Does anyone here double on true synth for basslines only?
What gear do you all use?
Have you found success using your bass rig, or have you gone a separate route for the synth?
What should I expect that I haven't though about yet? My season of starting this will be in April.
The songs include old Whitney houston and Madonna, Maroon 5, Lady Gaga, Eurhythmics, Bruno mars, Imagine dragons, recent pop/dance music, etc.
I am tweaking my patches and naming them after the songs they match.
I'd love to hear from other bassists that have been using this setup. Thanks!
I've been at bass guitar since 1991, upright bass since 1994, and have dabbled on keyboards, drums, guitar, ukulele, and brass instruments. Bass is my main thing. And I have been conservatory trained in the jazz department and have giggled most of the last 22+ years, with maybe 3000 gigs under my belt. Probably 60% of those were on upright, the rest on electric bass, with a short stint on acoustic guitar in church and a small handful of keyboard accompaniment things. My non-bass instrumental skills are limited to being functional but I would not pay to hear myself as a high level performer on anything but bass.
So, in my area a large majority of the jazz/upright players are purists that won't play other styles or pick up an electric bass. Only a small few of us that double regularly. And there is no shortage of electric guys that play everything non-jazz very well and can fake the Sinatra tunes ok when needed. There are exactly zero guys that double or triple on keyboard bass. One electric player did it years back for a short time, but abandoned it.
I have always kept an open mind, and while I consider myself primarily a jazz player, i like all styles and love playing electric bass. I like to be competent in a lot of different kinds of situations and have made a nice niche for myself as a great sub for all the other players. It has been working out very well.
Anyways, listening to the local pop radio (because my kids were in the car) during a trip last summer I paid more attention and realized ALL of the recent music is on synth bass on the recordings. I decided to look into broadening my horizons and dive in and be the only (or first) guy in my area that doubles on true bass synth. FWIW, I have tried all the Synth/octave/envelope etc. Pedals and they all seem to fall short. Not only that, there are several different "synth bass" tones I'd use.
I did a ton of research on what would be the best fit. I ended up getting the Korg Minilogue. It's more than I need, but the right features and the right price and the right size. I like it being analog as far as adjusting and voice engines but digital memory so I can store and recall patches easily. It's SO MUCH FUN!
On a cover band gig my rig is simple. A Diamond Compressor running into my Tecamp Puma into the Tecamp M212 cab. It is full range and clean and has always been the right tone. At home, the Synth sounds great. I use the amp EQ for the room and it is always minimal, if not flat. I run active basses and have specific EQ options for tone on the basses. With the amp set for playing bass, the sybth aounds excellent ans roughly volume matched with the Synth master volume around 3 (if full range is 0-10) depending on the patch. I also bought a more reliable A/B box for live switching into the same rig.
The way I justified the expense to the wife is the dozen or so gigs I have booked this year with a wedding band whose set list is 25%+ pop music with that in it. These are very high paying gigs, and 2 of them will more than pay for all this gear.
Does anyone here double on true synth for basslines only?
What gear do you all use?
Have you found success using your bass rig, or have you gone a separate route for the synth?
What should I expect that I haven't though about yet? My season of starting this will be in April.
The songs include old Whitney houston and Madonna, Maroon 5, Lady Gaga, Eurhythmics, Bruno mars, Imagine dragons, recent pop/dance music, etc.
I am tweaking my patches and naming them after the songs they match.
I'd love to hear from other bassists that have been using this setup. Thanks!
