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Play it the way Leo intended

#61
richntiff said:
I live in the middle of the highest concentration of freshwater lakes in the world. Abundant state and natural forests, cute little knick knack shop filled towns, the whole 9 yards. Lots of tourists. Lots of people with 1 million dollar 'cottages'.
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Damn, next time I'm up that way I'll bring my fishing rod! Now I got a hankerin' to learn Primus' John the Fisherman...
 
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#63
dbsfgyd1 said:
I've been playing Stax, Motown and Muscle Shoals since the the late 60's. Having been alive when Leo designed his basses, during the early years of Leo's creation most recording bassists used a DB. The use of a PB in the studio in mass was a number of years after the fact. Most of the bassists ( like Jamerson) were DB players used to the dead thump of a DB hence the preference of dead muted PB.

Compression is not a recent development when is comes to recording studios, or radio stations for that matter. Records were mastered for play on AM radio until FM radio took hold almost 14 years after Leo's modern PB was developed. I'm sure there was other gear used and other recording techniques used that have gone the way of the dodo. I think one can get pretty close to that sound today, but AB it and I'm not so sure it's a dead ringer.

Frankly, like I said I've been employed to play this genre for over 50 year now and have been using new or relatively newer round wounds for 47 of them. Countless gigs rehearsals, and recording sessions. In this time I have never had anybody, band mates, band leaders, producers, or sound engineers suggest or insist I use flat wound strings.

I had one keyboard player once asked me why I didn't use flats. I turned on my amp, plugged in, and played one note. He responded " Oh I get it." Other comments I've receive come from sound men and sound engineers thanking me for not bringing in a PB with dead strings they can't do anything with.
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I don't disbelieve anything you say. I have played P-Basses with both rounds and flats with our Stax/Motown band for 25 years, but I prefer flats. I have gotten a couple of positive comments from the band about my flatwound tone. I think my American Original '60s with flats and foam under the bridge ashtray knocks it out of the park. YMMV.
 
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#64
Derek Kay said:
I find passive basses generally benefit from being plugged directly into the preamp of your head, with FXs used later in the chain via the effects loop. Pushing the gain up can give a better tone, and improves the response of FXs. Better sig/noise ratio too.

It's not so important with active basses, with their stronger output and onboard EQ.
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I am pretty sure, most of the classic recorded basses went straight into the board and their channel comps and EQs were used, nearly never into a bass amp. Sometimes bass amps, their cabinets, were miced. A lot of the times, classic 19“ comps were used like the 1176 or a La2a, often in a chain: fast FET followed by a slow Opto.
After owning different amps and lots of pedals, the first time, I was satisfied with my bass sound, was after buying a 1176 clone (couldn’t afford the original for way over 2.000,-). Now I sound like these recordings I love.
This was more than 10 years ago and hasn’t changed. I bought more comps and preamps, even an expensive Universal Audio LA610 - it’s great - but the awakening was the 1176 clone from Warm Audio.
 
#67
bigdaddybass12 said:
YES! Playing bass like it is supposed to sound!
I think it’s funny how people will spend $3000 for a bass for a particular sound and run it thru a $100 pedal to change the sound!
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Guilty as charged. This with Dogal jh172 flats thru a Fuzzrocious Dark driving v2 = Bass Nirvana.
IMG_3363.jpeg
 
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#68
Pet Sounds said:
I don't disbelieve anything you say. I have played P-Basses with both rounds and flats with our Stax/Motown band for 25 years, but I prefer flats. I have gotten a couple of positive comments from the band about my flatwound tone. I think my American Original '60s with flats and foam under the bridge ashtray knocks it out of the park. YMMV.
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Nice response. To each his own, eh? Have good one.
 
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#71
bigdaddybass12 said:
Love the bass! I have always wanted a MM. Every year the price goes up on used ones and new ones.
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There was a nice Black Ray on here for only $1'000. I was extremely tempted. I am in love with this Retro 70's Stingray. I do keep it Simple when I use my Oranger Terror Amp. Just bass > HPF > Amp. My Mesa TT-800 loves a tiny bit of Dirt in front of it. I don't think Leo would mind:)
 
#75
FunkHead said:
There was a nice Black Ray on here for only $1'000. I was extremely tempted. I am in love with this Retro 70's Stingray. I do keep it Simple when I use my Oranger Terror Amp. Just bass > HPF > Amp. My Mesa TT-800 loves a tiny bit of Dirt in front of it. I don't think Leo would mind:)
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black is my fav color! $1K sounds good! I have a Ray4 I am thinking about refinishing to black, not quite a MM but enough to make me want a real one!
 
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#78
Killing Floor said:
Leo intended you to play with your thumb resting on the bar under the strings with your hand backwards. Wasn’t until a few years later when he realized the thumb is normally on the top of the hand when the palm/finger tips face the strings.
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Actually, he intended you to play using only your thumb and then have your fingers tugging under the 'tug' bar to anchor your hand.

The limp wrist, light touch, dead fish hand shake, let the Amp do the talking mode of playing was not yet invented.
:laugh:
 
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