Double Bass Miroslav / AI / kolstein

[peterpalmieri]

I was fortunate to attend Miroslav's performance at the kolstein shop It was a wonderful performance and hopefully someone more knowledgable will start a separate thread about it. While it is fresh in my mind I wanted to share his set up.

I believe he had said it was slightly different then what he normally does.

He was using his new kolstein busetto bass and planet wing pick up. Which ran directly to a summit audio TD100, the direct out ran directly to a single channel AI combo.

Where it gets interesting is for his arco sound he ran to a second 2 channel focus with a ten2 extension cabinet set back 7 or 8 feet. The mic line ran to one channel and the balanced line (both rear outputs on the td100) ran to a crybaby wah and into the second channel. He used the wah as an expression pedal at the end of his longer notes and kept it on while playing arco only.

While the night was about the player not the gear I thought this may be of interest to some.

 

[MR PC]

Wow! It sounds like Miroslav is up to his old tricks from the Weather Report days. A mic combined with a fully cocked wah wah for the electric arco. Thinking about that, it sort of makes sense. Did he use any ambient effects, reverb, delay, or looping? He used to use an Echoplex way back when. I love all of that. Bottom line for me is that he is a phenomenal player with an instantly recognizable acoustic sound.

 

[peterpalmieri]

He didn't use a mic or external effects besides the wah but he may have been using the internal AI effects on the arco channel but I'm not sure.

 

[Les Fret]

Interesting. One of my favorite players! any YT videos of that wah sound?

 

[peterpalmieri]

This is one I found the other day.



Barry did video the night, so maybe that will get put on soon, not sure

 

[Ric Vice]

Wow! It sounds like Miroslav is up to his old tricks from the Weather Report days. A mic combined with a fully cocked wah wah for the electric arco. Thinking about that, it sort of makes sense. Did he use any ambient effects, reverb, delay, or looping? He used to use an Echoplex way back when. I love all of that. Bottom line for me is that he is a phenomenal player with an instantly recognizable acoustic sound.

+1 I had the good fortune to see that incarnation of Weather Report in Indianapolis when I was in college. Truly amazing, very different from the band with Jaco. Herbie Hancock's Headhunters were on the same bill, it was an amazing paring.
Miroslav was at the ISB convention this year, but I had to come back to St. Louis for a theater show. I love the Trio Live with Chick and Roy.

Ric

 

[peterpalmieri]

He spoke about wanting to continue down the same path as the early Weather Report stuff while Joe Z wanted a more commercially friendly, funk rock/fusion type sound. He said his book would detail this more. By the path I think he meant more free jazz, avant garde, Miles direction. Less composed pieces than you here in later WR or Mahavishnu Orchestra. I picked up a couple of his more recent CDs and they are all along the lines of more abstract themes, experimentational and improvised, great stuff, not sure how available it all is.

He also said he was I think 19 when he did the Chic and Roy recording, I believe he mentioned he just had a mic wedged in the bridge for the recording, he may have been talking about something else but I'm pretty certain.

Hopefully Barry will make the video public, I don't think some of the other guys in attendance that are more well read are active on TB. But likely Phil Palombi, Dave Segal and others that were there retained a lot more of the details than me. Their questions came from a much deeper understanding of the scene at the time and Miroslav's library.

 

[Les Fret]

Wow! It sounds like Miroslav is up to his old tricks from the Weather Report days. A mic combined with a fully cocked wah wah for the electric arco. .

What Weather Report songs exactly does he use that wah sound on his double bass?

 

[Don Kasper]

What Weather Report songs exactly does he use that wah sound on his double bass?

Starting @4:00 WahArcoVitous.

 

[Les Fret]

Thanks! really like that sound. Haven't heard that record in a while but playing it again today and love it!

If I understand correctly he is running two separate signals? one for his normal (miced) sound and one for his wah sound and then he mixes it together? is there a reason for doing that instead instead of running the wah on just one channel? So I guess he is using a mic and pickup together?

 

[Ric Vice]

He spoke about wanting to continue down the same path as the early Weather Report stuff while Joe Z wanted a more commercially friendly, funk rock/fusion type sound. He said his book would detail this more. By the path I think he meant more free jazz, avant garde, Miles direction. Less composed pieces than you here in later WR or Mahavishnu Orchestra. I picked up a couple of his more recent CDs and they are all along the lines of more abstract themes, experimentational and improvised, great stuff, not sure how available it all is.

He also said he was I think 19 when he did the Chic and Roy recording, I believe he mentioned he just had a mic wedged in the bridge for the recording, he may have been talking about something else but I'm pretty certain.

Hopefully Barry will make the video public, I don't think some of the other guys in attendance that are more well read are active on TB. But likely Phil Palombi, Dave Segal and others that were there retained a lot more of the details than me. Their questions came from a much deeper understanding of the scene at the time and Miroslav's library.

Peter,
Chick did two albums with Roy and Miroslav, both are on ECM. Trio Music and Trio Music Live. Great recordings.

Ric.

 

[peterpalmieri]

Thanks Ric, I will check it out. Been enjoying the CDs I picked up that night. I am not well versed in Miroslav's work so I'm really enjoying this.

Picking up the bass in '87 middle school, my first non rock and roll exposure was the Jaco era of WR. I eventually went back to more of the traditional big band, standard type stuff. This middle era of late 50s through the early 70s didn't really hit my radar until later on.

 

[Michael Karn]

Peter,
Chick did two albums with Roy and Miroslav, both are on ECM. Trio Music and Trio Music Live. Great recordings.

Ric.

True but those records were a reunion from 1968's "Now He Sings Now He Sobs", which is the record Miroslav is referencing when he says he was 19. And no ECM record was ever made with the bass player having a mic wedged in his bridge

 

[Ric Vice]

Thanks Ric, I will check it out. Been enjoying the CDs I picked up that night. I am not well versed in Miroslav's work so I'm really enjoying this.

Picking up the bass in '87 middle school, my first non rock and roll exposure was the Jaco era of WR. I eventually went back to more of the traditional big band, standard type stuff. This middle era of late 50s through the early 70s didn't really hit my radar until later on.

Peter,
That period was a time when many bands moved over to synths, with electric bass and guitar. But for a while there were DB players like Miroslav, Dave Holland, Stanley Clarke and others that anchored those bands, until they either switched over to EB or moved to
other groups. Miroslav and Dave Holland continued on playing Double Bass and composing original music. While Stanley, Jaco, and Marcus moved to EB and composed great tunes as well. I was fortunate enough to see several incarnations of Weather Report including
their first tour with Jaco. It's all good and interesting to revisit.

Ric

 

[okcrum]

Thanks! really like that sound. Haven't heard that record in a while but playing it again today and love it!

If I understand correctly he is running two separate signals? one for his normal (miced) sound and one for his wah sound and then he mixes it together? is there a reason for doing that instead instead of running the wah on just one channel? So I guess he is using a mic and pickup together?

Negative. He is using one pickup and splitting the signal three ways using the TD100. One channel is straight through to an AI setup. The other two (the DI outputs, I think) go to another AI amp & extension cabinet. For arco effects one of them goes through the wah on the way.

 

[peterpalmieri]

According to kolsteins Facebook page they'll be putting out all 8 parts of the night

 

[Les Fret]

Thanks for the video. Like the sound of his Kolstein bass. Although his intonation is a bit off on that video. Hate to say something negative about Miroslav because he is an all time hero and inspiration for me. Curious about the other videos.