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NBD - My First P Bass!
- Thread starter EMoneySC2
- Start date
Squier Classic Vibe 60s with frets freshly dressed by a local luthier, EMG Geezer pups, Fender High Mass Bridge, and TI Jazz Flats! It's a very different bass than my two Dingwall D-Birds
So now, TB, my question is what tunes should I start learning on this P with flats? I'm a death metal guy, looking forward to getting some variety in my playing. I'm starting from ground zero with jazz, funk, county, rock, blues, etc. - and I'm interested in learning as much as I can!
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One name
James Jameson. Nuff said.
stick with roundwounds..Squier Classic Vibe 60s with frets freshly dressed by a local luthier, EMG Geezer pups, Fender High Mass Bridge, and TI Jazz Flats! It's a very different bass than my two Dingwall D-Birds
So now, TB, my question is what tunes should I start learning on this P with flats? I'm a death metal guy, looking forward to getting some variety in my playing. I'm starting from ground zero with jazz, funk, county, rock, blues, etc. - and I'm interested in learning as much as I can!
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Nice looking P!
I'm intrigued by the high mass bridge and the flats.
Did you just randomly opt for that?
(BTW, I have a BA II on an MIJ P-bass. Helped to bring on the spunk.)
I'm intrigued by the high mass bridge and the flats.
Did you just randomly opt for that?
(BTW, I have a BA II on an MIJ P-bass. Helped to bring on the spunk.)
The style of the Fender High Mass Bridge and other badass style bridges are just a lot more comfortable for me. The simple bent metal plate bridge works fine - I just prefer something more substantial.
It's a timeless look! It's playing really nicely now that the frets have been dressed.BEAUTIFUL! Looks exactly like the bass I learned on in high school! I loved that instrument - VERY good choice on style
Great instrument I bet!
Those EMG Geezers offer a great sound and will allow you to play pretty much whatever you want! Also, that bridge looks very Badass! Which is exactly what you should do! You will receive many suggestions and I could provide you with many more, but you should play whatever you love and feel! However; I'm a +1 for the Graham Maby with Joe Jackson I played some of those tunes back in the day and he's a freakin' monster on that Precision and I considered it a personal triumph to get most of those sounds WITHOUT using a pick (except for "Got the Time") The two albums featuring his skills were "Look Sharp" and "I'm the Man"!Squier Classic Vibe 60s with frets freshly dressed by a local luthier, EMG Geezer pups, Fender High Mass Bridge, and TI Jazz Flats! It's a very different bass than my two Dingwall D-Birds
So now, TB, my question is what tunes should I start learning on this P with flats? I'm a death metal guy, looking forward to getting some variety in my playing. I'm starting from ground zero with jazz, funk, county, rock, blues, etc. - and I'm interested in learning as much as I can!
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I'm just not familiar with older music and musicians! Anything prior to the 80s is mostly a mystery or is unknown to me - that's why I'm looking for suggestions
To me, looking at that bass, it screams the blues. But knowing it has a set of EMG GZR P pups in it makes me wanna say 70s rock along the lines of, Aerosmith, Montrose, Heart, Foghat, Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, to name a few...Squier Classic Vibe 60s with frets freshly dressed by a local luthier, EMG Geezer pups, Fender High Mass Bridge, and TI Jazz Flats! It's a very different bass than my two Dingwall D-Birds
So now, TB, my question is what tunes should I start learning on this P with flats? I'm a death metal guy, looking forward to getting some variety in my playing. I'm starting from ground zero with jazz, funk, county, rock, blues, etc. - and I'm interested in learning as much as I can!
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"I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5, "I'm the Man" and "Baby Stick Around" by Joe Jackson and "Precious" "The Wait" and "Mystery Achievement" by The Pretenders. You may also dig the album "London Calling" by the Clash!I'm just not familiar with older music and musicians! Anything prior to the 80s is mostly a mystery or is unknown to me - that's why I'm looking for suggestions
My list would be a little obscure compared to most if I listed blues. But here it goes...
For now, my first and only recommendation for blues would be Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Then you would have to pick which decade of his music to listen to, he only had several to choose from since he made music from the 1940s up into the early 2000s. Though many called his music "Texas Blues", his playing and style varied so much during his life that listening to his music covers a multitude of blues, r&b, and honky tonk types of music with even a little country thrown in there. It would take a very long time to cover all of his music.
There are plenty of other blues artists that are more well known, but not many had a career that spanned as many decades or continents as Clarence Brown.
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Wikipedia
But...
If you're looking for more modern blues with a hint of rock, and Hendrix like guitar shredding, Stevie Ray Vaughn, hands down.
I just talked our new vocalist into trying "The Things I Used To Do" that SRV covered. It was originally done by Guitar Slim(Eddie Jones) in 1953 with Ray Charles producing the session. It became a best seller the next year reaching #1 on the R&B charts.
Then in 1964 James Brown did his cover version of it, taking it back into Billboard Top 100 territory.
Then in 1969 Jimi Hendrix did a version of it with an appearance by Johnny Winter and both playing guitar on it in a rare, and unheard of for Hendrix, guitar duet.
And of course, probably the most well known version of it was released in the 80s by SRV.
That song is considered to be one of the "standards" when it comes to blues, and rightfully so, look at all who have recorded it and the success it has had.
It was also considered very influential in the development of rock and roll due to the lead guitar work Guitar Slim was doing in 1953 that featured an an electric sound and distorted overtones a full decade before Hendrix.
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Hi EMoneySC2 
Happy NBD!!!
Rory Gallgher!
And sunglasses!
greetings
Wise(b)ass
Wise(b)ass
Happy NBD!!!
Rory Gallgher!
And sunglasses!
greetings
Wise(b)ass
Wise(b)ass
D
Congrats, that's a really cool way into the P-bass world you've got there! Really tasty choice of upgrades. The TI Jazz Flats may seem a bit shy on the lows compared to many other strings but they work exceptionally great in the mix and the mids are to die for! I'm a total P-bass nut. Be careful, they can be really addictive! Especially once you've tried it in a full band/mix. P-bass with TI Jazz Flats is an engineers dream! Sits so perfectly in the mix that it almost feels like cheating.
If you've never used a P-bass before: A very important part of the P-bass tone for me is rolling off the tone knob a bit. Of course it depends very much on what kind of sound you're looking for but the sweetspot where the tone starts to fatten up... THAT's what the P-bass is all about for me. Of course rolling the tone off completely is also a classic P-bass tone, for old school soul and such. That single tone knob can be insanely versatile.
As for classic P-bass songs to learn... Vintage soul is the obvious candidate. Basically anything Motown/Stax + lots of other stuff. Look for anything featuring James Jamerson or Duck Dunne on bass and you've got some classic P-bass action going. But you would ideally need some old school flatwound strings like LaBella Deep Talkin Flats to really nail THAT tone. The TI flats are a bit less thumpy and considerably brighter. But experiment with a sponge under the strings near the bridge to mute the strings a bit (classic P-bass trick), roll of the highs and you'll get close.
The other genre that springs to mind as a typical P-bass genre to me is classic British 70s rock.
For me personally the mid 70s Pink Floyd albums, like Dark Side of The Moon, pretty much define the P-bass sound. Plus the songs are easy to learn. Roger Waters is all about the groove, nothing fancy. The slightly earlier "Live at Pompeii" film has an insanely good (if somewhat more aggressive) P-bass tone too.
The Who - Live at Leeds. Classic P-bass from one of the greates bass players ever. VERY aggressive sound!
But there's TONS of classic rock P-bass recordings. Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy. And that's just the classic rock genre. It's probably the most recorded bass ever, in pretty much ANY genre, by quite some distance. Old school country? It's hard to beat a P-bass. Classic 70s punk? Hard to beat a P-bass. Etc. etc.
If you've never used a P-bass before: A very important part of the P-bass tone for me is rolling off the tone knob a bit. Of course it depends very much on what kind of sound you're looking for but the sweetspot where the tone starts to fatten up... THAT's what the P-bass is all about for me. Of course rolling the tone off completely is also a classic P-bass tone, for old school soul and such. That single tone knob can be insanely versatile.
As for classic P-bass songs to learn... Vintage soul is the obvious candidate. Basically anything Motown/Stax + lots of other stuff. Look for anything featuring James Jamerson or Duck Dunne on bass and you've got some classic P-bass action going. But you would ideally need some old school flatwound strings like LaBella Deep Talkin Flats to really nail THAT tone. The TI flats are a bit less thumpy and considerably brighter. But experiment with a sponge under the strings near the bridge to mute the strings a bit (classic P-bass trick), roll of the highs and you'll get close.
The other genre that springs to mind as a typical P-bass genre to me is classic British 70s rock.
For me personally the mid 70s Pink Floyd albums, like Dark Side of The Moon, pretty much define the P-bass sound. Plus the songs are easy to learn. Roger Waters is all about the groove, nothing fancy. The slightly earlier "Live at Pompeii" film has an insanely good (if somewhat more aggressive) P-bass tone too.
The Who - Live at Leeds. Classic P-bass from one of the greates bass players ever. VERY aggressive sound!
But there's TONS of classic rock P-bass recordings. Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy. And that's just the classic rock genre. It's probably the most recorded bass ever, in pretty much ANY genre, by quite some distance. Old school country? It's hard to beat a P-bass. Classic 70s punk? Hard to beat a P-bass. Etc. etc.
That’ll keep you busy for a long time. There’s a wealth of great bass lines in that lot.
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That’s just like the first decent bass I ever had, bought in 1973 and I still have it. It made me a living for many years playing a wide variety of music styles. You can’t go wrong with a good Precision bass.
