/ Register

  1. Please take 30 seconds to register your free account to remove most ads, post topics, make friends, earn reward points at our store, and more!  
     
    TalkBass.com has been uniting the low end since 1998.  Join us! :)

How do you visualise bass sounds?

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous [BG]' started by The Mock Turtle Regulator, Mar 10, 2003.


  1. Mar 10, 2003 #1
    The Mock Turtle Regulator

    The Mock Turtle Regulator

    Oct 22, 2000
    London, UK
    what visual image would a single note played on each model of bass conjure up in your mind?

    here's what I'd picture them as (played fingerstyle);

    Fender Precision
    w. flats; a medicine ball- fat, heavy, round
    (although Steve Harris' bright, clattery Rotosound flatwound sound conjures up the image of a bag of china plates)

    w. rounds; a large plywood box- hard, takes up a lot of space, square-edged

    Fender Jazz w.rounds
    both p/ups on full; a basketball- springy

    bridge p/up soloed; a golf ball- tight, snappy and articulate

    fretless, played legato w. lots of mwah; a spoonful of treacle

    Gibson EB2 w.flats
    ; a densely-packed pillow

    Musicman Stingray w.rounds
    ; a foam ball, soaked in water- spongy

    Rickenbacker w.rounds
    ; a rough-sawn pine board- raspy
     
  5. Mar 10, 2003 #2
    Blackbird

    Blackbird Moderator Supporting Member

    Mar 18, 2000
    California
    Interesting thread idea, but your instrument choices make answers restrictive.

    I don't know about the others, but I'll do better if I tell you how I visualize the sound I make with my instrument.

    I have a picture in my mind of what my bassline should sound like tonewise, regardless of the brand and model of instrument I'm playing.

    I don't really think of it visually, but more in a linear way, like a strand weaving through tapestry or commas, periods and other forms of punctuation in a sentence.
     
  10. Mar 10, 2003 #3
    The Mock Turtle Regulator

    The Mock Turtle Regulator

    Oct 22, 2000
    London, UK
    the ones I listed are just for example- I'd like to see what "boutique bass" owners imagine their basses' tones as too.
     
  14. Mar 10, 2003 #4
    rickbass

    rickbass Supporting Member

    Nov 9, 2000
    The land of chicken fried funk
    What I hear recalls/creates memories I perceive as colors and visions (hence, the little phrase under my Talkbass user name).

    Fr'instance, the colors "blue" and "red" each make me feel something different when used skillfully.


    That may seem very artsy-fartsy, but that's just how it happens for me...........and probably why almost every one of my romances have been with visual artists.....graphic artists, painters, and one sculptress. Or maybe, it's just the 'drama" these types of people force on you.
     
  18. Mar 10, 2003 #5
    Danham

    Danham Guest

    Feb 11, 2003
    Shreveport LA
    I hear a lot of people talking about seeing music as colors, but not me. I see vague shapes and fluctuating lines like on an oscilloscope. One time I actually "saw" music on a certain unnamed substance.;)
     
  22. Mar 10, 2003 #6
    moley

    moley

    Sep 5, 2002
    Hampshire, UK
    Great idea for a thread, MTR! :)

    I think some people tend to "see" sounds and others don't.

    I do - but I'm not sure how I could describe what I see. Not usually objects so much as colours and shapes. Rather difficult to describe.
     
  26. Mar 10, 2003 #7
    Petebass

    Petebass

    Dec 22, 2002
    QLD Australia
    I disagree with the stingray description. I think it's more like kicking a soccer ball - hard. You get the click/thump thing but it's tight, punchy and precise.
     
  31. Mar 10, 2003 #8
    The Mock Turtle Regulator

    The Mock Turtle Regulator

    Oct 22, 2000
    London, UK
    I had the stingray tone from RATM's "bullet in the head" I mind when I visualised the foam ball soaked with water.
    Bernard Edwards' stingray tone on Chic etc. records visualises to me a cross between the soaked foam ball and the medicine ball.


    there's some James Jamerson interview in which he said he drew inspiration for a bassline from the way an overweight woman's buttocks moved when she walked.;)

    to me, Motown basslines with the thick P bass-with-flats sound always conjured up the image of a medicine ball bouncing between the chords, in a strange impossible sort of way, like the floating spheres and large rocks in Magritte's paintings.