Originally posted by Max Power
Yoiks! I'm not the world's biggest John Entwistle fan, but "Eminence Front" just blows me away. Everything about the bass line - tone, timing, technique - strikes me as perfect. His tone is very sharp and bright on this tune, but without losing the bottom. I find the song mesmerizing, but the Moon/Entwistle combination gives massive punch as well.
Does anyone know what bass he used to record this song? Also, if I'm not mistaken, he commonly uses a technique of "slapping" the strings with his fingers, like playing fingerstyle, only harder. Does that sound right?
He had a few custom-made Alembic Series 2 basses at the time that "It's Hard" was released, and I believe he used them almost exclusively throughout the late '70's and early '80's.
His techniques are extremely diverse: He switches between so many to get a tremendously dynamic tone. Among his techniques are
-plucking with two fingers,
-four fingers,
-five fingers,
-picking with a Dunlop .1 mm (black),
-popping (pulling the string straight out from the fingerboard and letting it slap back),
-flamenco-style strumming with the back of his hand,
-a version of tapping where he strikes the strings at the base of the fingerboard with his fingers instead of his thumb, but to get a similar tone of slapping,
-and another version of tapping where he gets a lot of that harmonic thing going...
-Furthermore, according to his bass video (Hotlicks), he sometimes strikes the strings hard, other times very soft.
If you think this list is long and incredible, you should SEE this guy play!!!
I almost quit playing after seeing him!
By the way, every version of Eminence Front is different. Some radio stations in Chicago have an alternate studio version than the one on the album "It's Hard". The alternate is even better than the one on the album! You can also hear the bass even better!!!
