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Psychedelic rock
- Thread starter Maglic
- Start date
to me psychedelic rock needs passive burpy fatness..... so G&L like I said before, Ricks (I have been tempted), certain P's, Sterlings rather than SringRays..Gibbys if you can deal with the scale. I'm sure there are a number of asian made models that could work. A sort of mid emphasizing humbucker pup equiped bass is the key... to me...
Let's see now, I have a little trouble remembering the 60's 
but pretty sure I used the following at various times: Kent hollow body (looked like a 335), Gibson EB3, Fender Coronado II (very cool looking red wildwood) and Fender P-bass. All the basses used flat or tape wound strings. I played with a heavy Fender pick. I also used an Arbiter Fuzz face, some off brand phase shifter, Sunn, Vox and Ampeg amps with way too many heavy speaker cabs.
Actually IMHO the choice of bass wasn't all that important as long as it stayed in tune (something the Kent and Coronado had problems with). The fuzz face was the main tool for "the sound".
but pretty sure I used the following at various times: Kent hollow body (looked like a 335), Gibson EB3, Fender Coronado II (very cool looking red wildwood) and Fender P-bass. All the basses used flat or tape wound strings. I played with a heavy Fender pick. I also used an Arbiter Fuzz face, some off brand phase shifter, Sunn, Vox and Ampeg amps with way too many heavy speaker cabs.Actually IMHO the choice of bass wasn't all that important as long as it stayed in tune (something the Kent and Coronado had problems with). The fuzz face was the main tool for "the sound".
You do know that Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957, right?
And that they've been selling/creating Gibson copies ever since then, right along side their original designs.
But really, just pick yourself up a Fuzzbox and drop some acid. You'll be there in no time.
This is an easy question (considering my personal orientation):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=papi84CXQ5U
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3FeR6JlPg
There were lots of bands from the '60s that were considered to be "Psychedelic" bands but rock music was evolving very very fast then. Much faster than any genre now. Each year was a new revolution. Ideas seemed to come from nowhere (which was an illusion) but compared to todays slower more derivative pace it was like the blink of an eye. Think Elvis then Beatles and Stones (Beach Boys?) then Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane then Hendrix, Cream, then Zeppelin (etc) then Jaco, all in the space of 14 years. I haven't even mentioned the Motown sound that influenced all of them (James Jamerson rules!) and was there throughout. Somebody help me here...I'm in too deep!!!
Anyway the "Psychedelic" sound mostly came out of a bunch of early '60s folk musicians who "tuned in, turned on and dropped out" listening to Jazz plus R&B artists, coupled with the poetry scene, encourage by the "British Envasion" teaching them that white people have soul too....no parents around...buying electric instruments, driving them beyond what they were originally designed to do, creating new sounds and then demanding more... (wah-wah pedals, distortion boxes, flangers, choruses and delays...active bass electronics!!! (see photo of Jack Casady above circa '69) All analog!!!
It only lasted for 4 or 5 years maybe. The rest was commercial hype - sort of like what happened to the Punk scene...and maybe what should have happened to the hip-hop scene. (This will always be a mystery to me.)
It makes me wonder why Britney Spears still commands media attention.....another mystery.
You can use anything for anything.
Psychadelic is such a broad term anyhow. To me, I think of stuff like The Chocolate Watch Band, Os Mustantes, Love, Strawberry Alarm Clock, etc. Some people have a different idea of psychadelic.
That being said, just try out different basses that were available at the time (with flats). You'll find it.
Psychadelic is such a broad term anyhow. To me, I think of stuff like The Chocolate Watch Band, Os Mustantes, Love, Strawberry Alarm Clock, etc. Some people have a different idea of psychadelic.
That being said, just try out different basses that were available at the time (with flats). You'll find it.
I remember seeing Jefferson Airplane on the Ed Sullivan show as a kid. I thought my grandmother was going to have a heart attack! 
These guys were a band my older brother introduced me to.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=33k9pRTfo2I
These guys were a band my older brother introduced me to.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=33k9pRTfo2I
I remember seeing Jefferson Airplane on the Ed Sullivan show as a kid. I thought my grandmother was going to have a heart attack!
These guys were a band my older brother introduced me to.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=33k9pRTfo2I
I think my grandmother refused to even let it register is was so alien.
My grandparents used to refer to my (garage) band as "your orchestra".
Used to drive me fuggin' nuts.
I guess that was a form of "Greatest Generation" humor.
I always thought of Iron Butterfly as an early Metal band along with Blue Cheer.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-kJONgWKFi0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PlDPzlVSv8A
..but I always think of Cream as a "Progressive Blues Rock" band for some reason. (whatever that is...)
Anyway, as whitespike sez:
I have to agree in spite of my earlier diatribe.
BTW. I have to concede that while the Dead and Airplane etc. where doing their thing in San Francisco, I've been reminded more than a few times that the Chocolate Watch Band was doing something similar (but with an electric jug player) in Texas.
I guess they didn't like the Bay Area weather enough to make the commute, although Janis did...but I don't blame them a bit.
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"
Who said that?
I'll give a dollar to the first person to tell me.
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
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I agree with the post above (lived through the period myself) with the exception that I saw a LOT of Fender P's and J's during those years. Shortscale basses were popular, including the "Beatle Bass" and the 335-style hollows such as the Guild Starfire mentioned above. The comment about fuzz is right, too - there weren't many effects available except fuzz boxes. I have a 60's Univox Superfuzz and it's the wildest effect you've ever heard - in fact, too much for bass playing in the stuff I do now.
But flatwounds, always flatwounds, back in those days of "wAAAAooooooowwww, man, dig that..."
Played it and Lived it. Hollow bodies were there in numbers. Guild Starfire was my fave, wish I still had mine. However, I switched to a P and also a Jazz during that time. There was a recognition by a lot of players that Fuzz and Wah were pretty much only useful for Guitar and an occasional special effect.
Amps? Fender (Dual Showman), Sunn, Kustom, and later Ampeg SVT, Acoustic and Marshall were common--not to forget Peavy, Earth, Traynor, and others.
Honestly, I'd use a P-bass with a natural finish and tort guard, or a sunburst Jazz, like a Noel Redding sig or a 60's Classic.
If you're defining "psychedelic" as that mid '60s sound...
McCartney used his Rick
Entwistle used a P
Jack Casady used a P
Jack Bruce used a Danelectro, a Fender VI and an EB-3.
I think Lee Dorman of the Iron Butterfly used a Mosrite.
I think the dude from the Strawberry Alarm Clock used a Mosrite.
Noel Redding used a J
John Paul Jones used a J
McCartney used his Rick
Entwistle used a P
Jack Casady used a P
Jack Bruce used a Danelectro, a Fender VI and an EB-3.
I think Lee Dorman of the Iron Butterfly used a Mosrite.
I think the dude from the Strawberry Alarm Clock used a Mosrite.
Noel Redding used a J
John Paul Jones used a J
Furthermore, the hardware used on the Epiphone Embassy and the Gibson Thunderbird were pulled from the same parts bin. The old factory in Kalamazoo had the door for Gibson on one side of the building, and the door for Epiphone around the corner, in the same building.
My personal favorite description of acid rock was from Jerry Garcia (no, I'm not a Dead fan...) when he called it rock music you listened to while taking acid.
And Cream were definitely in the progressive camp with things like "Those Were The Days" and "Pressed Rat and Warthog"
Definitely off topic...............You can keep the dollar, but here is your answer according to The San Francisco Chronicle article "FOG HEAVEN" written by Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer, published Friday, August 19, 2005"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,'' a saying that is almost a San Francisco cliche, turns out to be an invention of unknown origin, the coolest thing Mark Twain never said.
For your stuff i would definitely get a versatile bass. particularly one that can dial in super clean and good growly tones nicely
Most of you guys - including the OP - are really missing the point: You're assuming that because bass guitars of a certain type were the ones that were available during the formative period of psychedelic rock during the mid 60s - and that the bassists for those bands therefore used those instruments - that short-scale, hollow-body, passive four-strings strung with flatwounds, for example, now somehow define the genre ever after...
It's not the case. Psychedelic rock was and is defined much more by its concept, compositional style and production values than by the limitations of the particular instruments that were in existence at its inception. I'll bet that if bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Blue Cheer or Pink Floyd were forming for the first time right now, some of those bassists would be using boutique bass guitars, complete with extended ranges, synthetic materials, active electronics, etc.
MM
It's not the case. Psychedelic rock was and is defined much more by its concept, compositional style and production values than by the limitations of the particular instruments that were in existence at its inception. I'll bet that if bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Blue Cheer or Pink Floyd were forming for the first time right now, some of those bassists would be using boutique bass guitars, complete with extended ranges, synthetic materials, active electronics, etc.
MM
